Lucid Dreaming Experience and Experiments
I thought this would be the best place to post this, but if it isn't, then obviously feel free to move it where it is better suited.
I have been practicing lucid dreaming for a while now, and yes, I do mean 'Practicing'. My first experience with lucid dreaming was an odd one, and since then I have had a very intense fascination with this. I have been studying certain aspects of this dream state, and would like to share not only my experiences, but also some of my findings, and I would also like to hear from you as well.
My first experience with lucid dreaming was so real, I thought I was actually awake at first. I didn't know I was in a dream at first, but the world I was in was so real to me, I thought I woke up into reality. I woke up, and looked out my window to see what the weather was like, and what not, and in doing so, I lifted up my blinds while still half laying in my bed. I looked up at the sky and saw the moon in the sky, which happens form time to time in the daytime hours, then let my blinds fall back into place. Then I did a double-take. I thought to myself; "Nine moons? Why would there be nine moons in the sky...?" At this moment in time I realized I was not actually awake, but rather dreaming. As soon as I realized this, I awoke. I got up, in sort of a daze, and walked out to my living room where I saw three girls, one was at my computer with her back to me, on the far right of what I could see, the other was sitting on he couch, and the other was to my left sitting on my living room chair. I was immediately drawn into a conversation with the one in the middle, and I told her about my just recent experience with a lucid dream, and how I saw more moons int he sky than I was supposed to, and how weird it was (I had never experienced this before hand). She began talking to me about Norse mythology, and when I told her how rare it was to meet someone who knew that much about Norse mythology, she stopped talking and just smiled. The girl/woman (the two I could see looked maybe early 20's) on the left sitting int he chair started talking about something completely off topic, and I asked her why the other girl wouldn't talk to me anymore. She never did answer though, but at that moment, I realized; "What were Three random women doing in my apartment?" At this moment, I awoke again, and got out of bed and walked out of my room. At that precise moment, my then-roommate got up and walked out of bed to go to the washroom, and we stopped and stared at each other for a second or so, both rather confused... I couldn't tell if the person standing in front of me was real or not, as I was still in that hazy sort of state of mind, and after the last two false awakenings, I couldn't tell if I was awake, or if this was yet another one.
So that's my first experience, although when I realized it was a dream, I woke up both times. I still don't know what that whole thing meant, but it sparked my interest in lucid dreaming.
Since then I have had a few, and have made it a point of trying to induce them consciously, rather than it being an accidental sort of realization. Its really, really hard, I find, to consciously induce lucid dreaming. It's even harder to enter into a lucid dream consciously, and remain in dream state; I find that in most cases I wake up when I realize I am in a dream.
I have been trying to experiment while in lucid dreams, as best as I can, and I have learned a few things.
First, I have come to the understanding that lucid dreaming seems to be a matter of consciousness and mind interacting with your dream state. Your consciousness, or rather, perspective, is never really visual, or audio, or anything like that.. in fact, the senses only seem to play a part in this when you are relying on your senses in the dream world, and it is only the - 'sense' of the senses - that actually seem to play a part, not the actual senses themselves. Otherwise, it is only the consciousness that is the integral part or the dream-state.
It seems that your mind is the think that induces conscious dreaming, and otherwise your consciousness is just floating about in the dream-world without any actual consciousness (if this makes sense). Your mind itself plays an integral role in conscious dreaming.
Second, the mind seems to induce the lucid dreaming most readily, and in this it seems the dream world takes on a more solid form, and less of an ethereal, hazy state. When this occurs, I notice that it is almost impossible to actually do things in the lucid dream you would otherwise be able to do in a non-lucid dream. For instance, flying in a non-lucid dream happens with ease, and you never actually 'try' to do it, so much as you 'happen' to do it. It seems natural, rather than forced. It actually seems as if your mind begins to put boundaries on the dream world; the moment to moment ethereal dream-world, where you drift along the dreamworld and nothing has any real coherent state or form, or if it does, it is only temporary, begins to have implemented restrictions on your capabilities within the dream-world. The only way I have found it possible to bypass this, is to draw from that well of consciousness rather than thought; it actually seems as if the source is in your central being, from deep within your core, rather than up near where your mind would be. Its a lot harder to do than you might think, but it is essential to your abilities in the dream-world.
Third, you can actually interact with the other people in your lucid dream, and in a coherent manner of a sorts. And each individual seems to have a personality that you couldn't even imagine or come up with on your own, let alone have randomly appear in your dream. Sometimes the individual in question is as hazy and fleeting as your non-lucid dream world, and other times they are as substantial as yourself and the world in which you are in during lucid dream.
Consider this:
The most recent lucid dream I had happened last night. I don't have that sort of surprise at finding myself within a lucid dream anymore, it just seems natural when I realize I am in a dream. In fact, int he middle of an in dream conversation, the realization will hit me, and I won;t even skip a beat in my interaction, in most cases.
In this dream, I was talking to a few individuals, and I entered into lucid state. I decided to try out a new interaction, and it had surprising results. I attempted to inform the other individuals that they were in fact dreaming, and not actually awake.
Now, I've done this once before, and the other individual just smiled at me knowingly, and said nothing. But this time, I was talking to more than one individual, and when I informed them, one person in particular looked as if he was going to try to deny it. I then pressed the issue, telling him he really was dreaming. He had this confused look on his face, and he didn't seem to be so unsubstantial anymore to me; it was as if his form took on a more definite shape, and not such a hazy one (I didn't really realize he was until his form actually solidified). His personality was unique, and his reaction was not that of a figment of my mind; he seemed to actually be another individual, and my telling him that he was actually dreaming, although it didn't seem to have a massive change in perception for him, seemed to bring his consciousness into a more lucid state. At this time I slowly and pleasantly awoke (for real :P).
In this, I have come to a sort of mutable conclusion (subject to change as i experiment): The Dream world is not a figment of your unconscious imagination to a full degree, although I believe it is to a partial degree. It seems that our consciousnesses are indeed connected, and when we go to sleep we temporarily forgo our physical shackles. The dream world is a form of interconnected consciousness. This might explain how it is possible for many ideas to show up all across the world at once, and how realizations do the same, even before the transmission of physical knowledge occurs.
The dream world is a combined single-consciousness of every human being, and when we sleep, we are more conscious of this unified consciousness world.
There are many other questions this poses, but I want to see hat all of your experiences and/or takes on this matter are. I am very convinced that I have reached this conclusion correctly through my experimentation and study.
There is one last thing I would like to say though. I am going to try another experiment and I am hoping it will bring good results.
I am going to try to interact with some individuals in this dream-world and provide real-life contact information, along with an in-dream 'code' of some sort; an expression, a word or sentence, or something, so that if I do receive any contact from someone, I know it is them and not some false contact meant to make it seem as if it actually happened in dream. In other words, something provided that could only be known through this in-dream interaction. It may or may not work, but I do not think my conclusion of unified consciousness is off, and won't be hugely effected by these results, but should be a considered aspect in my study.
I look forwards to your replies :)
