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Lucid Dreaming


Skep B

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I'm a relative newcomer on here, so if this is already a topic, you know, so be it.

But I've been able to enjoy lucid dreaming fairly regularly for some years.

That's not important, but it lays foundation of the question.

What are your thoughts on the experience of lucid dreaming?

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I have only one experience in my 52 years and it was when I was about 3 or 4. I barely remember it. I was being chased by a bear - a little black bear but I was terrified and I remember in my dream that I understood that I WAS dreaming. I told myself to wake up and I did... Never had one since then :-(

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My most recent one was just a few days ago and made me think of this.

In it i was back in college, and was going about my day, suddenly over some public loudspeakers (that aren't there..but you know, dreams). There's an announcement of a nuclear weapon being fired directly at the school. People loose their ****, all these people i recognize are scrambling to their vehicles and theres this ridiculous traffic jam going on the road nearbye, so I kinda set down on a bench and come to terms with dying. And i find a cellphone that someone running past dropped, so I pick it up to send a text to my family all at once saying goodbye, and when i open the phone all the numbers are scrambled and some are just random doodles. After looking at the thing I come to realize that I'm in a dream, and that all of it was in my head, so I really decided how things worked, testing it I rand and jumped to the top of a 5 story building, and I see the missile coming, and put my hand out to it, and make a fist, the sky flashes white, and the thing blows up in the distance.

Yes, i get all consuming power, and I become a comic book superhero, I'm that lame

:w00t:

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A few years ago I went through a long stretch of insomnia. To get through the night I would just lay in my bed and day dream, after a while I started to sleep again but I did not realized that I was sleeping and that I was lucid dreaming, I still thought that I was day dreaming. Now more nights then not my dreams are lucid. And while it can be cool to control my dreams they tend to be boring, they are limited by my imagination. One good thing about lucid dreaming is that I find it easier to remember my non-lucid dreams, and those are the ones that are crazy weird and fun, and I like them more. So I’m the opposite of most people, while they want to have lucid dreams, I want to have non-lucid dreams.

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Two words: ******* xenomorphs.

The Death Metal Band or the alien? lol

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The Death Metal Band or the alien? lol

Damn aliens. No lucid fever dream is complete without space penises.

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I think there is a lot to dreams that we are just too inadequate to really figure out but that sometimes they can really be true and meaningful and supply something to your overall knowledge about life. I think dreams are special and I think lucid dreaming is a special thing to have, not everybody is a lucid dreamer. At least not on a frequent basis or at least I dont think so.

Anyway I think you should record your dreams and also take note if any of your dreams are related to future events or other peoples dreams. You say your corny with the superhero stuff, well I can be corny when it comes to dreams. I think they are of the spirit and psychic and an exploration of both our consciousness and the spiritual life that effects and surrounds us. I think in sleep we are in a state of utmost rest so we are free to partially experience the other realms.

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I think there is a lot to dreams that we are just too inadequate to really figure out but that sometimes they can really be true and meaningful and supply something to your overall knowledge about life.

I don´t think so at all. Dreams are just random firing of synapses while the brain sorts out the recent memories and allocates them more permanent locations. Kind of like compacting your hard disk.

It is cute, but pure wishful thinking to imagine some deeper meaning in dreams.

I do grant that lucid dreaming would be great. If I could, I would do all things I love but don´t get enough of.... power skiiing, sex, that sort of thing.

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can a person teach themselves to lucid dream? I wouldn't think so

Edited by R4z3rsPar4d0x
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Just in passing interest I've seen a bunch of different theories on it, non from professionals, just internet ramblings, but that's part of what I wanted to see in this.

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Maybe one could learn somehow to have lucid dreams, but I've always just had them, usually the ones in the morning when it's beginning to turn into daytime. Last night I dreamed I was caught in a kinda spider web except it was unbreakable rope and was in serious danger. I remember thinking that I need help and along came spider man who broke open a path for me to escape. I know his appearance was from my lucidity at the time.

Now how does an example like that help you develop a theory of what they are? I can only suggest accumulating enough examples to see if a pattern appears.

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When I was young I had lucid dreams every now and then. Nowadays rarely, I don't remember most dreams to be honest.

I remember the first time I had one. I think it's stuck in my mind so vividly is because how silly it was.

I was having a nightmare and was running from someone, can't really remember the person, it was more like I was just running from something. But for some reason in the dream I sort of became conscious and questioned if I was dreaming. And the funniest part, I pinched my arm and felt no pain, that's when reality kicked in and I knew I was dreaming.

I couldn't fully control the dream or anything, the dream sort of continued except the thing chasing me had stopped while I was thinking about it all. The only thing I controlled was the pinch on the arm and then the realisation that I was dreaming.

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Now how does an example like that help you develop a theory of what they are? I can only suggest accumulating enough examples to see if a pattern appears.

I figured anyways that they were just dream you have towards the end of sleeping, so your conscious mind is waking up a bit, and you have some rationality at that point. I read alot of comics when im awake so i tend to wind up a superhero/villain in them.

I don't really have a scientific interest as much as wanting to see what others think or what theyve had in them.

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I don´t think so at all. Dreams are just random firing of synapses while the brain sorts out the recent memories and allocates them more permanent locations. Kind of like compacting your hard disk.

It is cute, but pure wishful thinking to imagine some deeper meaning in dreams

I don't believe all dreams are like this though. Precognition dreams and shared dreams for example make me believe that there is more to dreams than just sorting out recent memories.

Anyway I'm not really sure what exactly the OP is asking.

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just peoples thoughts experiences or opinions on lucid dreaming as a concept.

...it was 1 am and I shouldve been asleep, it just happens

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Had about 2-3 lucid dreams back to back this morning. Absolutely fascinating experiences and visuals.

Just a quick summary of core interesting experiences.

Looking up at the sky seeing clouds on fast forward. Also 3 layers of clouds that were also glistening.

Danced. Felt like I was actually dancing.

Heard different languages (middle eastern in origin) and music of the same likes that I had never heard before.

Saw a creature that was the body of a snake, head of a praying mantis and tail of a scorpion.

Got mugged in my dream. The mugging didn't turn out too well for me at first so redid that part of the dream without the big strong guy in it and came out of it on top.

It felt like I was under the influence of some retardant in some parts. Like the cloud part and later on, was falling out of a chair I was sitting on.

Made transition from being in my work to a totally different place after walking into another room.

The thing about lucid dreams is that the psychology behind it is rather mind blowing. Your brain can assume some reactions towards things happening and your senses are almost lifelike in imitation. All I know it is like another world you can control, and you can loosen control.

Edited by Orcseeker
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I don't believe all dreams are like this though. Precognition dreams and shared dreams for example make me believe that there is more to dreams than just sorting out recent memories.

Anyway I'm not really sure what exactly the OP is asking.

"Precognition" and "shared dreams" are simply you interpreting more into dreams than there actually is. They "prove" nothing, except the very human impulse to want to see order in chaos.

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A few years ago I went through a long stretch of insomnia. To get through the night I would just lay in my bed and day dream, after a while I started to sleep again but I did not realized that I was sleeping and that I was lucid dreaming, I still thought that I was day dreaming. Now more nights then not my dreams are lucid. And while it can be cool to control my dreams they tend to be boring, they are limited by my imagination. One good thing about lucid dreaming is that I find it easier to remember my non-lucid dreams, and those are the ones that are crazy weird and fun, and I like them more. So I’m the opposite of most people, while they want to have lucid dreams, I want to have non-lucid dreams.

I am not sure i understand this. Lucid dreaming and particularly controlled or cereated lucid dreaming Is "limited" by your imagination?

Lucid dreaming is where you become consciously aware of your mind 's subconscious processing of your thoughts and experiences. Unless you are a totally unimaginative person who never watches any tv or reads any books, lucid dreaming should allow you to experience ANYTHING.

As a young child i created lucid landscapes of sapient animal characters with specialist clothing, tools, weapons and housing etc,dwarves goblins flying horses etc.

As a young teenager i moved on to flying dragons, planes, carpets, jousting, flying saucers, haunted houses and a whole universe of interconnected places i called, "The realms"

Then in later teenage years i moved into women of all sorts and forms, from aliens through to any human form that took my fancy LAter, as an adult, i didnt spend so much time lucid dreaming, as I had a lot of real life to live, but in my retirement I am re-working my lucid dreaming for a number of purposes, including seeing the world, exploring history, talking to dead relatives, as well as a mix of sexual and other fantasy, which keeps me entertained.

My point is this. How can you be limited or bored when you can construct any landscape you like, populate it with any creatures. you want and then become any character you desire, male female or alien?

You can even consciously begin to design the climate, topography, ecology, and sociology of the places you create.

I loved playing wow online for several years inmy late fifties, because it was the closest thing to inhabiting the worlds i created during lucid dreaming as a teenager, and almost as realistic and interactive, but without the senses of smell, taste, touch and emotion, you can have in dreams.

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I don´t think so at all. Dreams are just random firing of synapses while the brain sorts out the recent memories and allocates them more permanent locations. Kind of like compacting your hard disk.

It is cute, but pure wishful thinking to imagine some deeper meaning in dreams.

I do grant that lucid dreaming would be great. If I could, I would do all things I love but don´t get enough of.... power skiiing, sex, that sort of thing.

Dreams ARE the subconscious sorting out, not just experiences but thoughts. The subconscious makes unusual connections which our conscious mind does not do, and expresses itself in specialised symbolic forms.

Hence our dreams come out in they way they do. They are alos connect to language and linguistic thought processing.

As you study your own dreams and connect them to your conscious thinking, you an connect the two (conscious and subconscious awarenesses) Thus you can identify all conscious thoughts in your dream symbologies and you can control your subcconscious and construct your own dreams. I almost always not only remember every non lucid dream i have, but know why I have it, and how the symbology connects to my waking life. But also since i can remember i have had 95% lucid dreams where i am not only fully consious I am dreaming, but can take total control of the dream And more often than not I can create a dream consciously while awake then enter it as I fall asleep it just takes some knowledge and practice.

I experiment with things like what happens when you fall asleep within a dream and have a dream within a dream, and how to do thing s like teach others advance or basic flying techniques in a dream.

I can end any dream i want with a simple command , return home from anywhere with another command, or enter into another stage of dreaming altogether. I can wake up, get up, go outside then go back to sleep and re-enter the dream I had when i woke up (although this is one of the hardest skills to master. It means you are both awake and asleep at the same time and sort of consciously sleep walking. You remain in your dream state, yet see the real world and can operate in it simultaneously.)

I learned this as a kid because we had an outside toilet about 20 yards from the house, and I got sick of having to stop my dreams while i went out to the loo and back. So i "held the dream at bay" with one part of my mind, and spent 10 or 15 minutes "awake" then allowed/directed the dream to re-emerge and take over my consciousness.

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can a person teach themselves to lucid dream? I wouldn't think so

Absolutely. I taught myself to do it as a very young child. it requires a certian amount of self awareness, introspectiion and discipline /interest/motivation That was in the early 1950s, when no one knew much about lucid dreaming. Today you can learn many techniques online.
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The best descrition of a true controlled lucid dream i can think of is this. Imagine a really advanced virtuality world, which you can preprogramme before entering it.

Once in it, it is as real in every respect as the mundane world You can smell taste touch feel etc but you KNOW you are in a virtual reality scenario, and that while you can do anything you can imagine, you cannot be hurt nor can your actions hurt anyone else in any way.

Not only can you control everything with the power of thought or gesture alone, you can do things like walk through walls, fly at will, be invulnerable etc. But you can also (if you chose) control all the other characters You can also chose not to control them and let them run on their standard programming I used to do this a lot as a teenager by (as one example)enterng a star trek robin hood biggles ivanhoe etc reality with all the normal props and characters seen in the novel or on tv, and letting the story just run, but being an extra crew member knight or whatever. In that way i never knew how the story would play out until it did.

And finally you can alter the scenery at will so that a jousting arena on earth can become something similar in outer space with no gravity. I created a dozen special realms which I entered through portals or gates. I could transit from a haunted house into a half submerged flying saucer the size of a football field, then enter a pocket universe only a few acres in size, go into the mind of an AI running a space ship pop over to pern and ride a dragon, then go back to arabia and do immelman rolls (which i learned form flying with biggles ) on a flying carpet etc etc.

A lot of reading, from the faraway tree and the wishing chair at the age of two or so, through to jack vance and other SF authors as a pre teen helped me with ideas.

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"Precognition" and "shared dreams" are simply you interpreting more into dreams than there actually is. They "prove" nothing, except the very human impulse to want to see order in chaos.

I am not sure about shared dreams. I have only had one confirmed shared dream in 60 years despites spending a decade studying this and trying to create one) but precog dreams are absolutely real. I have had many, from some which saved my life by showing me dangers to come, to others which present dvd quality dreams of real life events which only ahppend days or weeks later.

The only difficulty is knowing WHICH dreams may be real precognition of events The best way to know is to keep a comprehensive dream journal dated and signed with details of every dream.

Then, when you see a news report on tv and it is exactly what you saw in a dream a few days earlier, or you read an account of an airliner crash and you can match it exactly to the notes from your dream of a month before (eg name of airline, weather conditions, place and time of crash, number of passengers killed /surving)etc., you can be pretty sure it was true precog.

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"Precognition" and "shared dreams" are simply you interpreting more into dreams than there actually is. They "prove" nothing, except the very human impulse to want to see order in chaos.

Maybe to some and maybe in some cases but sometimes there is really no other way to look at them. Take for example this shared dream I had with my son. I wont ever forget this dream either and it's the one that made me believe shared dreaming is possible.

I've told this before I think but I had a dream maybe a year or so ago where I was walking around my house in the early morning and it had been spray painted(like vandalized)with red spray paint. It was painted all over the walls and the doors and just everywhere and I was in shock because I didnt know I was dreaming and I was just thinking who would do that to my house. Anyway I was walking through the house just looking and I stopped in a certain room and was thinking how the red paint was done how a child would do. Like the drawings and the words were written by like a 4yr and I was just in shock kinda and was trying to work it out. Anyway then my son ran into me which made me go lucider and I asked him about the paint and he said that he had done it and that we were dreaming or something and he was just running around having fun painting everything. I dont remember much more after that but just feeling relieved that my house wasnt trashed and it all just went white and the dream ended.

Anyway in the morning I asked my son first(without speaking of my dream)what he had dreamt(which I always do).. and he told me about how he dreamt that he was running around the house painting everything with red spray paint. I asked what else happened and he said that I leant down(which I think is when he bumped into me)and that he kissed me on the nose and a fairy came out. And that was pretty much his dream.

So I told him I was glad we were dreaming.

Taken from here. http://www.unexplain...7

So after this experience and after the ambulance experience I cant help but believe they are possible.

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I like my dreams; they are always either fun (like riding the back of a cobra) or restful (like riding a horse through tall grass).

I don't think they are just random firings of neurons as they do have pattern, and I can stop them when things I don't like happen. At the same time I am sceptical of claims that they tell us anything about the future and so on.

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