Lucid Dreams

[Big Boss]

For those of you who don't know what lucid dreaming is, check this out first.

Ok, so a good friend of mine told me last night that he is interested in the idea of lucid dreaming (where you are aware that you are dreaming and you can control you actions and the actions of others.) And I told my good friend that I had been able to have such dreams since I was 12 or so. My friend was amazed at how I can have a lucid dream with ease and he cant. I was just wondering if anybody else can or has had lucid dreams?

[Allia22]

Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. I rarely dream in the first place, but if I can recognize the fact that I am dreaming, then I can do whatever I want. Unless it's one of those nightmares where you're trying so hard to do something but fail

[SafeSearchOff]

wow, didnt know this had its own cool term >.<

i've been doing this for ages. its really cool actually, when you think about it.

[Johnny_D]

Your all freaks!

I've never had a lucid dream in my life.

But this one time, at hookah camp, .... anyways.

I'm lucky if i dream at all. And when i do - damn they are some straight up weird stuff!

JD

[waffle]

Watch the Film; Waking Life...and smoke your favorite flavor. Life changing.

[SafeSearchOff]

i actually had a really weird lucid dream just a few days ago. i dreamt that i was back in high school, and i was being hit with detention after detention, test after test, work work work. then i remembered, consciously, in my dream, that im not in highschool. so i went around wreaking havoc, fucking with shit, it was really fun, and it confused all of my old high school friends/dream friends. lucid dreams can be really cool, but that was just weird.

[racemyghost]

I have had lucid dreams as far as i can remember. At first (when i was young), I would realize i am dreaming during dreaming and wouldnt dare to come out of my normal everyday character. For example, dont steal a candy bar, you'll get in trouble. It took some time to mature and come to reality that its only a dream and no real punishment can occur. Now, strange, sill having lucid dreams at age 21, i have been taking advantages of my dreams...doing things i would never do in real life. Its a very cool experience. You can say it almost feels like the matrix. About 60% of the time, i talk out loud during my lucid dreams and catch myself speaking. Its strange....

[SafeSearchOff]

sorry to break off from the topic, but doesnt anyone involuntarily move or twitch when dreaming, especially during lucid dreams?

i find that ill be doing something in my dream, and i sort of twitch. ill wake up to feel my arm jerk upwards then lie still.

happen to anyone?

[blacklabelqlewis]

usually when i become aware that i can control what im doing in a dream is when it starts to get out of hand. and when i say out of hand i mean prolly worse than what was going on in the heads of a lot of people in the 60's. sometimes ill explain a dream that seems normal to me just to get puzzled blank looks from whoever. its fun to control what you do if you can. and waking life is a kickass movie!!!

[Allia22]

Bleh, I wake up to myself yelling at somebody that was pissing me off in my dream >.< Edited August 8, 2007 by Allia22

[racemyghost]

Bleh, I wake up to myself yelling at somebody that was pissing me off in my dream >.<

x2.

[Scoop]

i always have lucid dreams when i need to piss. when i was a younger lad, i had a lucid dream where i had to pee, so i went to the bathroom (in the dream and real life...).

so now whenever i have a dream where i need to pee i recognize it and i can control it however it usually means i gotta wake up soon to pee in real life

[Big Boss]

Its pretty funny because the night my friend told me his desires to have a lucid dream I said to him, "I've had them before. I'll see if I can have one again tonight." And sure enough I did. I dreamed that my brother and I were driving around in some city, and in my dream I said to him, "I'm thirsty, lets stop somewhere so I can get something to drink." And in the dream we drove to a gas station and as soon as I pulled on the door handle I woke up, and I actually was pretty thirsty. I almost feel sorry for my friend, he's trying so hard. Edited August 8, 2007 by Big Boss

[EvansLight]

Ahh another thread about dreaming If ya think i know alot about hookah, i don't know nearly as much as i do about dreaming I used to be an insomniac, and i spent years learning about sleep and mostly dreaming. So to help answer a few things

Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. I rarely dream in the first place, but if I can recognize the fact that I am dreaming, then I can do whatever I want. Unless it's one of those nightmares where you're trying so hard to do something but fail

Actually you dream every night all night long, its just you don't remember your dreaming. You don't actually sleep all night long, you have cycles of sleep. You start out awake, then drift off to sleep and enter Non-Rapid Eye Movment stage, which lasts the longest, then you enter the stage of Rapid Eye Movment, then you wake up. And yes this goes on all night long. Ever had one of those nights were you seem to wake up every hour or so? Cause you do just about every night, but your body doesn't become fully aware of whats going on. Dreaming occurs during all parts of the sleep cycle, for instance, ever been slowly drifting to sleep and started doing something almost like day dreaming?

And also, heres the reason you don't remember having woken up inbetween cycles or all of your dreams, your brain doesn't convert those memories from short term to long term. For example, every fallen asleep in one spot, say on a friends couch, and woken up somewhere else, like your own home, or just another room in the friends house and didn't remeber ever even being woken up? That an example of you partially waking up, moving, and going right back to sleep without your brain converting those memories into long term.

Your all freaks!

I've never had a lucid dream in my life.

But this one time, at hookah camp, .... anyways.

I'm lucky if i dream at all. And when i do - damn they are some straight up weird stuff!

JD

Oh you actually probably have had a lucid dream. As i said above everyone dreams all night long, and most of your dreams you don't remember. Its actually thought that just about everyone has had a moment in which they realised they were dreaming and took control over the dream. Thats why most people have to train there bodies to start lucid dreaming.

sorry to break off from the topic, but doesnt anyone involuntarily move or twitch when dreaming, especially during lucid dreams?

i find that ill be doing something in my dream, and i sort of twitch. ill wake up to feel my arm jerk upwards then lie still.

happen to anyone?

Thankfully our body keeps us from doing anything along those lines. Ever heard of sleep paralysis? See when we enter REM state of sleep, our bodies shut down certain parts of our brain to keep us from moving. See if not for this we would start moving and flailing about. But since REM is the shortest part of the sleep cycle, its why you still see someone alseep tossing and turning, there not in rem just yet.

And more on sleep paralysis. This little bad boy occurs when you wake up, for lack of a better way of saying it, too fast. See if your brain wakes and your body is still set more or less to off, then you won't be able to move. Alot of scientists think this is where the whole alien thing comes from, thinking we can't move, that we are tied down somehow. And dreaming, as well as just plain hallucination's can occur during this time as well.

Also, as i said above, anyone can lucid dream, but some have to train themselves to do it. Others just naturally start being able to recognize they are dreaming, and start taking control of those dreams. So mind altering drugs can produce a certain state of lucid dreaming, but thats not true lucid dreaming in my book. There are tons of sites and resources out there to help you learn how to start lucid dreaming, i suggest looking around.

But the method i most teach people is quite simple and i found most effective. You need to start learning to fully wake up after each sleep cycle. See if your going to lucid dream, its pointless to do so unless you remember that you did it XD. What i learned to do, was i left my light on next to where i slept, and a journal and pen. I then went to sleep and every time i woke up i wrote downt he time in my journal. After a few days, or weeks, you should see a pattern of how long your average sleep cycle is. Its different for everyone. Then start setting an alarm for the average length of your cycles. When it goes off, write down in your journal what you dreamed. You have to concentrate, the first thought when you wake up needs to be remembering what you just dreamed. I promise it can fade and disapear faster then you think.

After you get to where you remember most of your dreams through the night, you need to start learning how to realize your dreaming. I like two different methods, the first is looking for a key item. Lets say a bright purple poodle. You start training your brain to look for a pink poodle. As you walk around doing your normally daily routine, just look aroiund and try to see a bright purple poodle, and if you see none think "im not dreaming" The idea is that your training your brain that if theres no bright purple poodles around, your not dreaming. See its been found that things that we do or associate with constantly tend to show up in our dreams. If your walking around all the time looking for a bright purple poodle, imagining in your head what one looks like while trying to find it, then eventually it will show up in your dreams. Hopefully your brain will put two and two together, and you will realize your in a dream.

Those are called dream signs. Its a common method for lucid dreaming. The other one i like, that helped me start lucid dreaming, is using real world items. See in dreams things like watches, tvs, and even light switches dont work they way they should. What i did, was just pick something, i used my watch, and start looking at it every hour or so. For the watch, i would just look at it, check the time, look away and wait a few seconds, look again and if the time has changed properly, say "im not dreaming". The idea is in a dream the time would either not change, or change to something completly random. Once again training your brain.

Now this takes time, i never said it was fast, just fairly easy.

Well there ya go Anymore questions on sleep?

[Allia22]

TRUMP

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[ZenSilk]

I actually got reallyinto this a little while back.. I bought a couple books with different studies and such, and i still keep a dream log. Dreams are the path to your mind, the path to an altered reality, and by practicing lucis dreaming, you can control it.... i think that's amazing. That's just a fraction of what the human mind is capable of...

Also, i recently came upon two herbs named Wormwood and Calea Zacatechichi, both considered "Dream Herbs".
(Not illegal, just incase you were wondering)
They are suppose to aid in Lucid Dreaming, so i bought a little of both. I got one from MazatecGarden.com, and the other i think from Bouncingbear... anyway.. i made a tea out of the Calea and drank it right before i went to sleep (i also mixed it with Blue Lotus, a mild sedative herb), and fell asleep quickly and soundlessly. What happened from that point on... Only in my dreams. ANd i had almost complete control over it. Until i awoke.

Exploring the mind always leaves me with unique experiences. Try it.

[Foos]

I'm cant ever remember having a lucid dream but usual when I dream they tend to be nightmares. A few weeks back my girl friend woke up with my hands around her throat, not really chocking her but squeezing the side of her neck really hard and when she realized what was going on she pushed me away and I started yelling out profainities. I woke up right after that I didnt remember having a dream or "attacking" her at all. I didnt even believe her until the following morning and needless to say it scared the hell out of me. I didnt sleep in the same bed as her for a couple nights after that and I considered talking to a profesional about it, but decided to wait and see if something similar happened again. It hasnt happened since but I still worry about it and she sleeps with a sock of change next to the bed incase it does happen again. Kinda scary that stuff like that can actually happen when your sleeping.

[NonstickRon]

Only times I have lucid dreams are when either its a nightmare and I realize it can't be real, or when I've been asleep a long time and I come partially awake but the dream hasn't faded yet. I kinda hold onto it, not letting myself wake up fully, and guide it.

[Braavos]

So mind altering drugs can produce a certain state of lucid dreaming, but thats not true lucid dreaming in my book.

Why not? Mugwart tea, etc. can really help induce ludid dreams, and they're no different than LD's without it

[EvansLight]

hahaha i didn't even remember saying that had to check my post XD

hmm.... why did i say that....

... i dont remember XD ...

i think it was...

ok yea no clue XD

[Bryantos]

wow, didnt know this had its own cool term >.<

i've been doing this for ages. its really cool actually, when you think about it.

Yeah, I didn't know this had its own term, either. I just assumed from my own experiences that others could do it. I have dreams where Im flying and I can control where Im going. Its pretty sweet, but it wasn't so sweet when I turned around and weird kids in halloween costumes are chasing me and hanging off my feet.

I don't know what I would do without dreams. I love dreaming, and I have one, it seems, almost everytime I go to sleep.

sorry to break off from the topic, but doesnt anyone involuntarily move or twitch when dreaming, especially during lucid dreams?

i find that ill be doing something in my dream, and i sort of twitch. ill wake up to feel my arm jerk upwards then lie still.

happen to anyone?

Yea, I twitch when I sleep, sometimes. When I say twitch, I mean my whole body has like a mini seizure. I jolt, persay. Sometimes I jump so much I wake myself from the movement, and still be jolting for 1/2 a second after I wake up. Its pretty funny, because I was sleeping in class once, and I jumped so much my whole desk moved and everyone around me was looking at me.

Another time I was dreaming that a butterfly was flying next to me when I was walking in a meadow (sounds pretty gay, I know, and Im still trying to figure out why I would dream that), so I tried to punch it in my dream, but my real arm decided it wanted to move, too. My bed is up against my wall, and that punch hurt pretty bad for a second.

"Why would you punch a butterfuly?"

I don't know. Edited September 16, 2007 by Bryantos