Thread: Longest LD yet -- but control problems

Well, this morning I had quite a long LD -- I'd say 20-30 minutes. I didn't notice any dream sign that induced lucidity, but somehow I "felt" like perhaps I was dreaming, so I decided to try flying, and was able to quite easily. I was also able to summon a person that I wanted to see with no problem.

But then my control seemed to go awry. When I tried spinning to change my location, I kept finding myself in completely unfamiliar places -- not at all where I wanted to be. I also had a major problem removing my clothes. At first, I couldn't even get my t-shirt over my head. When I finally managed that, I found that I suddenly had another shirt on. This happened repeatedly. Then I tried taking off my shoes -- bam, had new shoes on. Finally I tried removing my shirt while looking down at my body. This sort of worked, but was a little disturbing because I found that I had several extra nipples! But the pretty quickly, I was wearing another shirt.

I also remembered that I wanted to try the Lucid Task of the Month ™ -- get picked up hitch-hiking -- but I couldn't manage to get myself near a road with traffic.

Bottom line, I seem to be getting better at inducing LDs -- I've had more of them in the last month now than I probably had in the last 5 years or more -- but I obviously need to improve my dream control. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

That's really great! It is a little shocking to see parts of your dream body sometimes... My hands (an a lot of other people's hands) look old and have extra fingers.

I've been having trouble with dream control. My dreams are always dark or dimly lit. Last night I had my first LD that was properly lit. But it didn't last long. The dream went dim again, like someone turned out the lights and the scene was lit by moonlight.

I've been trying to learn how to lighten my scenes, but shouting commands does no good. I will say loudly "Increase lucidity" and "Increase lighting" or "Increase brightness", but nothing seems to work. Also, my voice sounds muffled when I try to speak in my LDs.

Does anyone have any tips for other methods that could work?

It sounds to me like all you guys need is practice. Youre on the right track... One thing you can do if it starts to get dark is open your eyes. This may sound kinda weird, but when it starts to go dark, even if your eyes are already open, open them, as if they were closed before. This sometimes works

You may find that as LDs get longer, you will fall into the realism and enter a sub-LD state in which you are aware, but lose touch with the fact it is not real. This has happened to me on a few LDs that lasted weeks in a dream. Basically, it becomes so real, you have friends, do things just like in normal life, and when you wake up, you will most likely feel sad because you just left your "friends".

Sounds a little weird, but thats the best I can explain long-term control problems. Your problems however are short-term, and will improve with practice (or LDs during deeper sleep).

Originally posted by nsquared
That's really great! It is a little shocking to see parts of your dream body sometimes... My hands (an a lot of other people's hands) look old and have extra fingers.

I counted my fingers the other night, and although they looked like 5, the result of my counting was 7
I did that twice with the same result each time

You may find that as LDs get longer, you will fall into the realism and enter a sub-LD state in which you are aware, but lose touch with the fact it is not real. This has happened to me on a few LDs that lasted weeks in a dream. Basically, it becomes so real, you have friends, do things just like in normal life, and when you wake up, you will most likely feel sad because you just left your \"friends\".

Sounds a little weird, but thats the best I can explain long-term control problems. Your problems however are short-term, and will improve with practice (or LDs during deeper sleep). [/b]

Awesome! Were you aware you could still do anything you wanted? Like did you go flying with your friends or not care what you said because you knew it was a dream?

That's really great! It is a little shocking to see parts of your dream body sometimes... My hands (an a lot of other people's hands) look old and have extra fingers.
[/b]

I don't know why but my hands are perfectly normal. The only difference I've noticed is that there seems to be too many lines on my palm.

my hands are normal.. and i can read sometimes.. but phones.. are MAD crazy to use.. the numbers are all wrong.. i tried to get them normal.. and just succeeded in getting people's names on the keys.. plus when you call someone.. you can choose to teleport there which is mad fun.

Eating is fun in LDs too.. you never know what something will taste like (best food yet is cardboard boxes, worst is ice cream).

I've actually never tried a phone, but I've read things and the language is usually different and the characters are always either shifting or foreign. I had one LD where I could move water around and the realism was not to be questioned, however, I had no hands and couldnt manifest any in the dream. Needless to say, the LD was very short, but superior in water realism. Wow, that's been about 2 months ago, havent had an LD since. Need help.

hmm.. i've had a pool in my dream and glasses of water before.. a bit more on reading though.. i found that if i shift concentration.. even a "little".. by glancing or blinking.. the letters may distort and the page may go blank. I found though.. that because while i'm awake I usually visualize works when I talk.. its easy for me to do it in dreams. Some people may find it harder though.

Food is awesome though in dreams.. you gotta try it, I even had a dream where I took bites out of random people (and no, i'm not fat.. eating in dreams is just awesome.. just like flying)

I find I fall into that sub lucid state quite often, and long dreams ensue for me too.
Before I knew about lucid dreaming taht how all my dreams were experienced aware but unaware that it was the dream world. How are you guys with Tv's? I had a dream just last night that I was able to get a picture on the TV but it was some static, I messed with the box and decided that it was just crappy cable reception and wished that it was a digital box and voila no more static =D