Author Topic: Any lucid dreamers here? (Read 2630 times)

Sindawe · « **on:** June 09, 2007, 07:05:09 AM »

About four or five years ago, something finally "clicked" in my head and I was able to consistently engage in lucid dreaming pretty much at will while asleep. While usually great fun, I have noted an odd side effect. When I'm NOT lucid dreaming, often times things mechanical do not work as they should. Guns misfire or jam at inopportune moments; the brakes, accelerator and steering on vehicles function poorly; PCs and phones do not accept input/commands reliably. It can be quite distressing.

Any others who lucid dream, have you noted such side effects? No necessarily mechanical failures, but non-lucid dreams changing in nature?

Brad Johnson · « **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2007, 08:08:55 AM »

Sometimes - maybe 10 or 20 percent of the time. Pretty fun when it happens!

Brad

brimic · « **Reply #2 on:** June 09, 2007, 08:09:20 AM »

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Guns misfire or jam at inopportune moments

I don't think that I have experienced lucid dreaming, but in the dreams that I can remember, guns usually don't work, or I don't have ammo for them:(

meinbruder · « **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2007, 08:44:36 AM »

Oh my, Yes. Ever since I was a kid, Ive been able to steer dreams and control the outcomes. It started with bad dreams and nightmares, anything that upset me or caused me to wake up. I would then return to sleep and replay the dream steering it to a better conclusion, sometimes multiple conclusions just to test my imagination. Our family moved around quite a bit so it was difficult to make, or keep, friends so between reading and dreaming I feel into the pattern of reclusive loner which is something I started forcing myself to change. I dreamed many a high adventure in a Walter Mitty fashion.

The mechanical failures are supposed to represent ones fears; loss of control, loss of abilities, loss of technology one takes for granted. My biggie was loss of mobility; I couldnt run away from threats or lift weapons for defense. Once I could steer the dreams I became Rambo. :)
}:)>

brimic · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2007, 11:08:42 AM »

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mechanical failures are supposed to represent ones fears; loss of control, loss of abilities, loss of technology one takes for granted. My biggie was loss of mobility; I couldnt run away from threats or lift weapons for defense. Once I could steer the dreams I became Rambo.

The creepiest dream I ever had may or may not have been lucid, it was the same nightmare theme- dark faceless figures trying to hunt me down. I remember that I couldn't get a gun or get one to work, as usual, and this time instead of running, I made a conscious decision to take them on with a large hunting knife. The actual stabbing the human-like figures in the chest and pulling the knife out and stabbign again really gave me the willies.

Nick1911 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2007, 12:24:41 PM »

I use to try very hard in high school to achieve good lucid dreaming. I only ever got to the point where I could get one in maybe 2-3 months. I use to keep a dream journal and all that. I let go of it since I went to college, and now I don't often remember my dreams, let alone achieve lucidity.

I remember there use to be some researchers studying it... Have there been any significant advances in the last 5 years?

Mabs2 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 09, 2007, 12:46:49 PM »

Always been interested in Lucid Dreaming, only managed to do it once when I was very little. Not much came of it.
I don't have many dreams nowadays. The few I have are either downright silly, or incredibly long, detailed, and interesting. Like watching a novel in my head. I've had a few dreams that made me wake up in the morning and just go "wow" for about ten minutes.
Unfortunately, the dreams were mostly feelings and emotions and other more tangible things that I can't seem to recall now.

Moondoggie · « **Reply #7 on:** June 09, 2007, 02:24:30 PM »

I've had extremely lucid dreams since I was about 6....I was sure I was going to see those Zombiesque "Moonmen" wandering the landscape when I woke up. They were gonna "Get" me!

I've never been able to "steer" any dreams, as far as I know. Interesting concept.

Some of my dreams are fairly easy to interpret....closely related to significant events in my life.

Strangely, I've never had a dream that was in any way akin to an...uhm, well, "adult fantasy". There have been dreams that included some normal-type intimacy, but no "fantasy" stuff.

I only have one recurring nightmare. A sister that I haven't spoken to for 25 yrs (and have no plans to speak to) gets a court order requiring me to donate a kidney to save her life. In some of them I put a round of .45 acp into one of my kidneys to put the kabosh on that plan. Yeah, we have "issues".

MattC · « **Reply #8 on:** June 09, 2007, 05:32:51 PM »

Interesting article. I qualify as a lucid dreamer. Freaks the hell out of me when I suddenly lose control in the middle of a dream, and it will scare me awake--things always turn bad when I lose control of a dream. I am one of those wake-initiated lucid dreamers every night--it's the only sure way I can get myself to fall asleep, usually. Then I typically have dream-initiated lucid dreams. Vivid things.

When I was a kid, I told my parents about some dream or another, and they were both surprised by the detail. Apparently neither of them dream in color, touch, taste, or smell.

I've begun wondering if the reason I always feel tired when I wake up is that I don't fully reach REM sleep, and this is why I remember my dreams so vividly. I also wake up just about every morning, alarm or no, while still dreaming. The exceptions occur when I am completely exhausted from a lack of previous sleep before I fall asleep.

Mabs2 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 09, 2007, 06:40:04 PM »

I often dream the six senses as well. But only when they're really necessary...or something...
Like every dream I have, I don't go around smelling just air like normal, or feeling normal room temperatures. But when it's cold or smelly in the room/place I do notice and remember it.
My dreams are usually so realistic that I'll actually believe they took place before I put everything together (can take a few minutes in bed or a few hours of the morning).

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I only have one recurring nightmare. A sister that I haven't spoken to for 25 yrs (and have no plans to speak to) gets a court order requiring me to donate a kidney to save her life. In some of them I put a round of .45 acp into one of my kidneys to put the kabosh on that plan. Yeah, we have "issues".

I think that's a pretty hardcore dream.

roo_ster · « **Reply #10 on:** June 09, 2007, 06:51:33 PM »

When I was a kid & on up into adulthood, I could usually go to bed thinking, "I want to dream about X," and I would do so. X was mostly some good book I read or the like. If something big or stressful happened in my life, I would not be able to set the course of my own dreams, but I would dream about the big thing.

Also, if I was super-exhausted, I would not dream of diddly or at least not remember diddly.

Ever since I got married & had kids, I have not had near as much/many such dreams. I am not exactly sure why: diet, stress, just so much more happening per unit of time. Another possibility is that I have taken the command to "discipline my mind*" to heart...and bed. Such discipline the subject of many Christian sermons & studies. There are some things that tell what you truly value. On what do you spend money? How is your time doled out? What do you think about?

Dreaming about myself in a singular role, in some Walter Mitty-esque scenario or in a more-real scenario where I am in danger defend myself with deadly force is not something a man married with kids ought to be doing.

Then again, it might be lack of some B-vitamin or exercise or sleep.

meinbruder · « **Reply #11 on:** June 09, 2007, 07:59:38 PM »

Quote from: Nick1911 on June 09, 2007, 11:24:41 AM

I remember there use to be some researchers studying it... Have there been any significant advances in the last 5 years?

Here is a website that some members might find of interest. http://www.dreamviews.com/ As I learned to control dreams as a child I never gave it much thought that it would be of any research significance. Mostly my reaction was of the gee, you cant do that? variety. My Dad talks about laying awake at night and contemplating life and conflicts with family or acquaintances, I think he is lucid dreaming and doesnt know it. Oddly, he never wakes up tired or groggy but very content for no apparent reason. Im beginning to do the same thing and I know its the dreams at work in my sub-conscious.

Moondoggie mentioned adult dreams, I remember once romancing a mermaid, at her place and one cant do that in real life, only in a dream.
}:)>

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 09, 2007, 09:00:53 PM »

I hadn't for almost 10 years.

Now that I'm having REM sleep again, sometimes they're just plain scary - full color, Smell-O-Vision, and I'm always friggin' barefoot when I'm maneuvering in the dreams.

The week after I got my new Darth Vader Device (CPAP) I had a doozy, my two stepsons had talked me into full-sleeve tattoos on each arm, and they were 3-D dragon scales, metallic silver-blue and real as all get-out. We were joking about how they would tear you up if you rubbed against the scales the wrong direction. I don't take anything stronger than Vitamin M (Motrin), so even I was amazed.

I've never had dreams that loud and clear. Now they're happening almost every night. I would imagine the brainwaves would settle down once "REM rebound" tapered off...

S. Williamson · « **Reply #13 on:** June 09, 2007, 09:21:45 PM »

I lucid dream about 90% of the time.

What worries me is when, in the dream, I lose control/lucidity/whatever and I don't realize it. I've woken up questioning my sanity on a couple of occasions... undecided

zahc · « **Reply #14 on:** June 09, 2007, 10:35:13 PM »

I used to do it a lot in undergrad, I stopped because it was affecting my waking life. I was basically, well, like a stoner, kind of spaced out all the time, and sometimes had panic attacks and thought I was dreaming when I wasn't. I also experimented with self-hypnosise, sleep deprivation to the point of hallucinating, and sleep-studying, which can be a stunningly efficient way to gather and retain information.

Iain · « **Reply #15 on:** June 10, 2007, 01:06:32 AM »

I tend to wake up early in summer because of the light. Got to be around 1am last night and woke up at 6. Because it is a Sunday and I'm a heathen I slept on until 10am.

In recent years those second sleep dreams have been really vivid and actually upsetting. The dreams I had in the immediate aftermath of a relationship break-up a few years back messed with head. I've begun to learn to control them, and I remember them for a while.

This morning was awesome, it involved myself and some old friends recapturing a talking human-sized tyrannosaur with human feet. Someone (a mere extra) got their head bit off in glorious technicolour.

vernal45 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 10, 2007, 02:10:36 AM »

I have had lucid dreams. Wish I could do it more often. Does anyone have any information on how someone can become a lucid dreamer?

S. Williamson · « **Reply #17 on:** June 10, 2007, 11:46:20 AM »

First thing is to realize that it's a dream before you wake up. Really hard to do at first, but gets easier.

From that point on, (literally) use your imagination. It's your subconscious mind creating a situation and environment--your imagination can "tweak" it in any possible way (and since it isn't reality, all the impossible ways, too).

I've kayaked away from charging T-Rexes in upstate Sasketchewan, visited Pluto, made myself impervious to bullets, flown at will, even reversed a "falling dream" to where I was rushing upward.

It's a lot of fun if you want it to be.

Wierdest thing for me, though, is that I cannot read books. I've had lucid dreams where I've got a huge book sitting right in front of me, but I can't read a single letter on the pages. sad

Signs and everything else come out fine, but not books.

Modifiedbrowning · « **Reply #18 on:** June 10, 2007, 05:11:09 PM »

I haven't had any lucid dreams, but I have had many cases of Deja Vu that I realized were from dreams that I had had.

Mabs2 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 10, 2007, 06:03:35 PM »

Wow, I have the same thing. Every other day or so I'll experience something that I can swear I've dreamed before...but I don't remember the dream until the event is happening. Little silly crap, like my dad talking to someone across the room and unknowingly setting a can directly on top of a coin. I was sitting at the table, and as soon as he started talking I started going "this is familiar..." then he set the can down and bam...weird stuff.

Nick1911 · « **Reply #20 on:** June 10, 2007, 06:30:35 PM »

Quote

Wow, I have the same thing. Every other day or so I'll experience something that I can swear I've dreamed before...but I don't remember the dream until the event is happening. Little silly crap, like my dad talking to someone across the room and unknowingly setting a can directly on top of a coin. I was sitting at the table, and as soon as he started talking I started going "this is familiar..." then he set the can down and bam...weird stuff.

I do this as well. I don't it's some kind of Deja Vu, but I recall seeing the same sequence in my dream at some point.

wmenorr67 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 10, 2007, 06:50:27 PM »

I have the same thing happen to me every once and awhile. The "bad" thing is that none of the "good" dreams seem to come true.

S. Williamson · « **Reply #22 on:** June 10, 2007, 10:34:01 PM »

OMGLOL pr0phetz!!! shocked

Same's happened here, but always, always with benign stuff. I "remember" scenery from dreams when I see it in waking life. The flow of a conversation, and so on.

I wonder if anyone with a photographic memory can try lucidly dreaming, and see if they can accurately predict something.

LadySmith · « **Reply #23 on:** June 11, 2007, 02:59:21 AM »

I tend to go from dreaming to wake-initiated lucid dreaming. Ill be in the midst of a nice little nightmare running away and hiding from The Bad Thing, get scared awake when its just about to get me and think to myself, Oh hell no! This is not me! Jump right back into the dream without ever being aware of going back to sleep and go about eliminating The Bad Thing. Most recently, I pointed a gun at The Bad Thing but the barrel was bent upwards. When I jumped back into that dream, the damaged gun worked fine as a bludgeon.
I had my first lucid dream a couple of weeks ago. All I did was change a TV channel by thinking about it.

client32 · « **Reply #24 on:** June 11, 2007, 04:40:21 AM »

Count me as a lucid dreamer. I started as a result of a reoccuring nightmare as a kid. It took 2-3 weeks to get there once I realized I was having a reoccuring nightmare. I was able to start to predict what would happen, since it was the same thing that would always happen. Eventually, I was able to stop certain things from happening by moving in or out of the way. Finally I would just stop everything. That was cool. Walking around with everything frozen.

As far as side effects in the real life, I don't know that I've experienced anything like you have described. I guess I have been able to tell the difference between a lucid dream and real life. Now the realistic dreams I have had that weren't lucid are a different story.

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Author Topic: Any lucid dreamers here? (Read 2630 times)