Lucid Dreaming

[surgeon62]

Anyone here tried or become proficient at lucid dreaming??? If you haven't heard of it, it's basically like you become conscious while you are still dreaming and...

IT'S THE FUCKING MATRIX!!!

Well, it's a lot closer than I would've thought. After learning how, I've had over 10 of them. Here's some things...

The realism can vary, but when it's high, it's like your brain creates all of the stimulus to your senses you would get if you were awake.

Food can taste real
Surroundings can be very clear, unlike normal dreaming
YOU CAN FUCKING FLY! and when you do you can feel the wind passing you
You can do weird things... one of the ways to become lucid is to push your finger through your palm... it's trippy when it actually goes through and pops out of the back of your hand.. In one, I pulled several of my fingertips clean off (no pain)
Rain and bodies of water behave and feel the way you would expect
People look real
Textures can feel the same as if you were awake... I tested this once in a dream where there was a brick wall with a window with a stone sill like the image below... I could feel the air bubble holes in the bricks and the granularity in the stone
[lvlshot]http://1caewi1ojdu23g3gpsvwj45u-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Windows1.png[/lvlshot]

There's a lot more to it. I'm still learning, but it's worth the effort. I can't emphasize how much more realistic it is than what I expected. If you want to know more, the reddit for lucid dreaming is fairly active
https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/

[SoM]

i took the blue pill

[Whiskey 7]

i took the blue pill

I was going to ask about medication but in fairness I have had some dreams that appeared so realistic it scares me today to recall them. Particularly the ones where for some reason you freeze and can't move while the world (or the dream) continues and you become an observer..... Googles ...

A read for some http://www.edreaminterpretation.org/

[Transient]

I've done it twice. As soon as I realized I was dreaming, I woke up.

[Ryoki]

About two years ago after reading an article about it i mentioned the concept of lucid dreaming to my girlfriend and said something like 'Imagine that, seems awesome, would like to experience that once'. She reacted very confused, turns out she's been dreaming lucidly most of her life, goddamnit. She had no idea 99,9% of us don't actually dream like that and couldn't even imagine having no control over your dreams at all.

As far as i could trace it back it seems to (i theorize) be a decision in her childhood after a nightmare; she resolved to return to the dream and either run away of make friends with the monster that was chasing her. I'm thinking it might also be linked to her synesthesia, which manifests in the usuals ways (emotions are multi colored, some words are, most figures are) and in a slightly more unusual way (cooking, she's able to combine tastes in her mind and manages to cook delicious things without tasting during cooking even once).

It's fucking infuriating.

[MKJ]

interesting, my wife actually did the same thing following constant nightmares. She knows it's not the norm though and rarely does it now.

[Ryoki]

Cool

I totally plan on teaching my kid the same thing after nightmares, seems to be key towards influencing dreams.

[Mat Linnett]

I lucid dream quite frequently, but I can't go to sleep determined to do it. It just happens when it happens.
Mind you, I do also frequently have dreams that are hard to differentiate from reality, but once I realise I'm dreaming, those ones quite often become lucid dreams.

Last night for example, I had a dream I was in some sort of reality TV show with Robin Williams and a friend from work. Once I knew I was dreaming (Robin Williams? Really?), I was able to direct my way through the imagined London the dream was taking place in.

I couldn't imagine going through life not remembering my dreams, but lots of people I know claim they've never dreamed, or at least if they have, they never remember them

[Κracus]

I'll randomly dream of this house I've never seen in real life and then realize I'm dreaming. Once I know I'm in the dream I can fly around and am otherwise invincible.

I have friends that tried to quit smoking by using a drug called Champex that they call the dream drug. I guess if you're on it and go to sleep you get extremely vivid dreams from what they both said.

[surgeon62]

Cool

I totally plan on teaching my kid the same thing after nightmares, seems to be key towards influencing dreams.

Yeah, I still have nightmares now, but it's almost like in the back of my mind I know they aren't real, so they don't get as intense anymore. I've heard of some people almost always turning their nightmares into lucid dreams and then going on to do whatever they want, like in "normal" lucid dreams.

[Eraser]

It's fucking infuriating.

Who knows, you might be lucid dreaming right now

/plato

[Ryoki]

[MKJ]

If I had any control over my dreams, granting me unlimited power in time and space, you'd think I would dream about talking to nerds on a 18yo forum?


'Cause you'd probably be right

[Captain]

rof

[Κracus]

If I had any control over my dreams, granting me unlimited power in time and space, you'd think I would dream about talking to nerds on a 18yo forum?


'Cause you'd probably be right

The funny thing is that it's not unlimited power. Even when I'm lucid dreaming and flying around my ability to fly has limitations. They're different in each dream but there's always something, usually I can only fly when it's somewhat windy and I don't have very good control in the air which can result in me flying somewhere I didn't intend to, kinda like sending a kite up without a string attached to it. Other times I can only fly in straight lines parallel to the ground.

Doesn't matter though, still flying.

[Eraser]

But what happens when you flick a spinning top?

[surgeon62]

But what happens when you flick a spinning top?

I've never had one so realistic that I wasn't sure I was dreaming. Rather than tricks/tests to know whether I'm dreaming, I use tricks to help the dream last longer, like rubbing hands together or looking at them (they are often distorted or have extra fingers) or carrying something around through the dream and staying conscious of it in your hand. You can also do stuff like multiple looks at clocks or things that have text. The time/text will keep changing each time you look.

[tnf]

Any of you lucid dreamers ever run into sleep paralysis issues, or did you before you started lucid dreaming?

[surgeon62]

I've never experienced sleep paralysis personally, but I've read a lot of posts about other people going through it. Even though they say it can be scary, it sounds like once they learned that it can't hurt them, they just allowed it to run it's course and it often leads to a lucid.

[Mat Linnett]

Any of you lucid dreamers ever run into sleep paralysis issues, or did you before you started lucid dreaming?

Nope, but I'll occasionally physically react to things that happen in dreams, sometimes enough to wake me up. Most of the time, it's slipping off a ledge or something similar.

[Don Carlos]

Any of you lucid dreamers ever run into sleep paralysis issues, or did you before you started lucid dreaming?

Nope, but I'll occasionally physically react to things that happen in dreams, sometimes enough to wake me up. Most of the time, it's slipping off a ledge or something similar.

This

[Κracus]

Any of you lucid dreamers ever run into sleep paralysis issues, or did you before you started lucid dreaming?

Nope, but I'll occasionally physically react to things that happen in dreams, sometimes enough to wake me up. Most of the time, it's slipping off a ledge or something similar.

Heh... my original flying dreams come from this scenario. I still remember being in a high rise with no walls, just pillars and floors and slipping off the side of an extremely high one. As I fell I got that butterfly in the stomach feeling and landed perfectly safe. I thought it was so much fun I went up and did it again. I would have been like 6 years old at the time and for some reason I've never forgotten that dream.

[Transient]

Any of you lucid dreamers ever run into sleep paralysis issues, or did you before you started lucid dreaming?

Nope, but I'll occasionally physically react to things that happen in dreams, sometimes enough to wake me up. Most of the time, it's slipping off a ledge or something similar.

This happens to me all the time.

I think it's the monkey part of our brain, keeping us from falling out of trees while we sleep.