Poll: Lucid Dreaming: Have you done it?

[Saulkar]

My bed time is in a couple of hours and last night was one of the most messed up nights of my life. I was dreaming about orbiting weightlessly around the church right next to my grandparents house when for no reason I remembered I was dreaming. I regained full consciousness in my fucking dream!!! It was not the first time as it happened once 12 years ago and again 10 years ago but both times I woke up shortly afterwards. This time I stayed asleep got the brilliant idea to start messing around.

Something I read recently states there are officially 4 states of consciousness while lucid dreaming that may or may not all be present at once. While I was aware that I was dreaming, that there was a world beyond it, and that I had specific goals that I would like to attempt while lucid dreaming, I was still under the influence of of the dream itself so whatever control I attempted to influence was like trying to read Shakespeare while drunk. I tried to gain artistic inspiration while in this state but my ability to judge and reason was gone out the window so I ended up fabricating one of the worst nightmares I have ever experienced. Any and all of my attempts were for some reason Disney themed. I ended up with a dimensionally impossible Mickey Mouse vivisecting my head next to my head without physical contact using his lower body which twisted through him and out of his mouth, which I promptly forgot in favour of clouds floating in the field of my grade 4 1/2 classroom. o_o

Each consecutive attempt to control my dream only caused me to lose more of my awareness that I was dreaming and replace it with multidimensional Disney figures that I did not realise were possible for the human brain to visualise. When I woke up, my head was still floating next my head over Latin that way up out not over there. 0_0

So how have your lucid dreams been?

 

[CulixCupric]

All my dreams are lucid, and my nightmares end up with slasher film villains running from me in full daedric armor and morgul blades. not a pretty sight... luckily i only dream once a week, last time though, I was chasing Freddy Kruger in a denim skirt, so they've been getting weirder. I still have full control, and I fill them with movie tropes, for example "what's the worst that could happen", as a phase through the walls, smirking...

 

[TehCookie]

I don't dream that often but I don't know how to not lucid dream. When I see something weird my first thought is "I must be dreaming" and tadah I can now control my dream. Most of the time I just roll with my subconscious and only control my actions since that part of my brain is way more creative. If I'm having a nightmare then I usually try to change the setting but nightmares are the hardest to control.

 

[WolfThomas]

I think I did a while back when I was regularly trying a couple of years ago, regardless I now never have any bad dreams or nightmares.

 

[P1112Aigaion]

Yea last time I had one some...thing talked to me how it was all a dream and everything turned green and floaty damn was that freaky

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I used to lucid dream because of recurring nightmares, but not anymore once I learned to deal with them.

That Scream movie and it's stupid scary masked knife man can be shockingly tramatising to an 8 year old.

 

[Zen Toombs]

I refuse to teach myself to lucid dream, because lucid dreaming greatly increases the chances of being conscious & awake during sleep paralysis. Seeing as the one time that happened to me[footnote]shudder[/footnote] was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced, methinks I'll pass.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

But my brain is really smart and tricky, once I realized I was in a dream, and I woke up and though I was awake, when in reality I was still asleep, it was the famous dream inside a dream :O

Aw man, those can be the worst dreams, that happens to me all the time, the most recent one was the other week, woke up from a nightmare, but the night before I had hung a suit up on my uncurtained window, and my half-awake self must have noticed that it wasn't normally there, and interpreted the long, thin shape as Christopher Lee as Dracula standing at the bottom of my bed. He jumped at me and bit my neck, then I woke up for real.

I can have some really odd dreams.

 

[DoPo]

I was dreaming about orbiting weightlessly around the church right next to my grandparents house when for no reason I remembered I was dreaming. I regained full consciousness in my fucking dream!!!

Several years back, I dreamt that I was flying (sort of just floating around, I suppose) outside my home. I saw a friend of mine under me - he was walking towards his home (lives near anyway). Then he saw me - he was quite shocked and asked me how the heck did I learn to fly. I explained to him calmly that this was just a dream and that's why I could fly. I also added that it wasn't my first time I flew.

I don't think I was really in control but it was really close - I was aware that I was dreaming and it was like watching myself act and talk but I was too lazy to change what me in the dream was doing. Also, yes, that wasn't the first dream I had about flying. In fact I've had a few over the years and they were generally "connected". Each time I knew it wasn't my first time flying but they weren't "sequels", so to say, perhaps these dreams could be described as "of the same franchise". That last dream was the first one I was really aware of what was happening, though.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I almost did once. It lasted for a very short period where I became aware of it being a dream and where I was able to grant myself the ability to fly. However my subconscious and whatnot took over again immediately and the rest of the dream was me fleeing giant mutant wasps.

[sub]In my dream group [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/The-Escapist-Dreamer-Society] here some of my members know how to lucid dream much better than I do.[/sub]

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

It happens to me every once in a while completely without my own interference. I'll just realize in the middle of a dream that I'm clearly dreaming and I'm then able to control it. It doesn't happen nearly as much as I'd like because it can be extremely fun, though sometimes things get out of hand and I lose control in very bizarre ways, which can be a bit disturbing.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I've only ever done it once, as a child, on accident I realized I was dreaming. I didn't control anything, but I was very aware of the surreal nature of everything.

They say dreams are just the synapses firing off random information, that they don't mean anything... I'm not sure how much of that is true. I don't believe in a "sub-concious", but I do believe the dreams are a way we express dealing with stressors. When I was a young less confident teen, I would dream of being assaulted and chased by would be dispatchers, and I would try to fight them only to be frustrated when my strikes did nothing- like they didn't even register, and my assailants laughed at me.

Now when I have those dreams, as a more confident adult, I do damage

I refuse to teach myself to lucid dream, because lucid dreaming greatly increases the chances of being conscious & awake during sleep paralysis. Seeing as the one time that happened to me[footnote]shudder[/footnote] was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced, methinks I'll pass.

Good God, I've had that happen to me a handful of times and it was so fucking horrible. So bad that occasionally I feel myself falling asleep I shoot right out of beg out of fear of it.

Oddly enough my sleep paralysis/old hag syndrome always accompanies a terrible... it's to vivid to be a dream, really more like a dream-hallucination. I knew I was asleep and couldn't wake up forced to crawl through a graveyard, begging and pleading to whatever being causing this horrible situation to free me of it, and I got one last good look at the moon in the dream before I was freed.

 

[spartan231490]

I have done it twice that I remember clearly. I feel like I might have done it a couple other times as well, but I don't remember clearly. Each time that I remember, I was able to freely influence the dream, but I was aware of the outside world. It was really cool.

 

[Rasputin1]

Becoming concious in a dream? I've done it twice. Well I had the same dream twice, more a nightmare where some woman was chasing me with a giant hammer intending to kill me. I just at one point realized I was dreaming and forced myself to open my eyes, which woke me up.

I haven't been able to do it since then :\

 

[TheNaut131]

I've been trying for awhile, but could never get the hold on it. I never noticed anything was off in my dreams, I was just along for the ride. Though a few months back, I realized I was dreaming and even though I woke up right after it, I was still excited. But after a bit of thinking, I realized it was a bitter sweet victory. Why? Because out of all the few and yet strange dreams I've had in the last couple of years, the first one to make my brain go "oh shit, this isn't real in the slightest," was one where I shared a meaningful relationship with an actual girlfriend.

...

Spoiler

 

[Sarah Frazier]

I've only very recently had anything close to a lucid dream. The most I can really do that isn't simply dream-reflex is talk, though. Rather than staying silent through the entire dream, I actually say something which may or may not have any affect on whatever else happens. The only thing I can really tell people is that the dreams where I can talk for myself seem much more peaceful than my usual dreams.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I've had vivid dreams, but nothing I could personally control. The worst being one that gave me complete memories of a relationship with a woman that never existed.

 

[Zen Toombs]

They say dreams are just the synapses firing off random information[sup]1[/sup]
-snip-
I don't believe in a "sub-concious"[sup]2[/sup]

[sup]1[/sup]: Actually, despite decades of study we have no idea why we dream.

Spoiler: You can trust me, I've written like three essays about it.

[sup]2[/sup]: Just for your reference, there are things in your mind that affect your behavior that are not in our conscious mind, which is all the subconscious is. It doesn't have to get all Freudian[footnote]And let's be honest, the dude loved penises and cocaine.[/footnote] and stuff.

I refuse to teach myself to lucid dream, because lucid dreaming greatly increases the chances of being conscious & awake during sleep paralysis. Seeing as the one time that happened to me was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced, methinks I'll pass.

Good God, I've had that happen to me a handful of times and it was so fucking horrible. So bad that occasionally I feel myself falling asleep I shoot right out of beg out of fear of it.

Oddly enough my sleep paralysis/old hag syndrome always accompanies a terrible... it's to vivid to be a dream, really more like a dream-hallucination.

Why I hate sleep paralysis is twofold - one, I have a primal fear of complete loss of control over my body/being unable to interact with the world/etc etc. Two, when I had my experience with sleep paralysis I hallucinated that I had woken up, but was unable to move[footnote]Well, that part wasn't a hallucination. The next part was.

OR WAS IT?!?!?!?[/footnote]. After a minute or so of being immobilized I hallucinated there was an evil presence watching me, at which point I started levitating.

And then I started spinning.

And then I was being pulled off the bed...

At which point I bolted upright, screaming.[footnote]And reentered reality.

OR DID I?!?!?!?[/footnote]

 

[tobi the good boy]

Not often but I want it to, someone give me pointer and I'll love you forever