Lucid dreams anybody?

[treehugger]

Anybody have these? I try to have these but I'm not always successful. What a lucid dream is, it's where, in the dream, you realize you ARE dreaming and so you take conscious control of the dream.

It's sort of like becoming the DIRECTOR of your dream. I've only managed to do it twice.

Usually it's a dream that starts out being a nightmare and then I realize it's a dream. One particularly good one was, I dreamt that I was getting pulled over for driving under the influence. I knew I was in deep shit. Well then as the cop was writing out the ticket I realized, "hey, this is a dream". So I said to the cop..."You are just a figment of my imagination. I am dreaming you." And the cop said back to me, "Yes, I am being created by your subconscious."

Well, then I decided it didn't have to be a nightmare. I said to the cop, "So if I am creating you I can make you tear up that ticket." And the cop did. And then I said to him (he was cute too)...And since I am creating you I can make you drop your pants and come into my car and make love to me! And he dropped his pants and started climbing into my car.....

And then my alarm went off! :mad:

This seriously happened. I haven't been too successful at re-creating it.

[NeverNeverLand:)]

Some people always take charge of the dream they creating in the dream and some do learn this with a guru other learn other ways,but it´s possible I know some tantric buddists doing it.
There are many ways of learning this not only one.
Diffrent people diffrent ways
Same same but different as they say in asia:)

[Pedata]

That's amazing that you can take control of a dream. I can only realize I'm dreaming during a nightmare, then close my eyes (in the dream) and open them. That really opens my eyes and I'm awake. However if I go right back to sleep the dream continues. Usually there's a weird cracking sound just before the dream starts again. It's awful! Have to sit up and stay awake for a while to make it go away. But I've never been able to turn a bad dream into a good one. I'll have to remember this topic, who knows, I might get the hang of it. Usually in bad dreams I'm getting attacked by large men or fed into machinery. It would be nice to turn the tables on it.

Pedata

[treehugger]

Well, I think it's something that if you want to get good at it you have to work at it. I have an aunt (she is SO cool...a hippie before her time, she's 65 years old and AWESOME...but I digress.)

Anyway, my aunt is really into lucid dreaming and she says the way you get good at it is by writing down, every morning, on awakening, the ways your dream was CONSISTENTLY different from reality. Things stupid like people being on the ceiling, shoes being on the wrong feet, etc.

She says these things tend to be consistent and each individual person will have his/her own signals...cues that a dream is really a dream.

Once you write down these things often enough you see what is really repetitious and what is definitely your "cue".

Then...you think to yourself, as you are falling asleep..you sort of vow to yourself, to stay observant through the night. To watch for the cues. By then you'll be tuned in to them.

Then, the theory goes, you'll recognize the cues, when they happen in the dream. For example, if your cue is...shoes different colors...then you'll instantly KNOW, when you see THAT...that you are in a dream state. That's the first step.

I'm too lazy to write all that stuff down..and that's probably why I haven't been able to do this consistently. My aunt can do whatever she wants in a dream. She had sex with a monk in a dream once!

(I told you she was cool! And she's 65! How awesome!)

Kath

[NeverNeverLand:)]

Not only in reality:
The noteblock is always a good to bring into the dreams or in meditations so when u write down stuff into it.It makes occurences in dreams or meditations easier to remember.
An when u wake up u only make a copy of u´r dream noteblock:)

There are a tantric saying that goes a woman met a tantric monk at a rivercrossing and she wanted him to carry her over an he said if u want me to carry u over u got to give me a fu** for the work.

Not many understand this but in saving many u got a lot of payment to get.
It´s a lot of work in the world to do:)

[Pedata]

Once you write down these things often enough you see what is really repetitious and what is definitely your "cue".


Kath

Good idea. My handwriting is awful but I have a couple of cassette recorders (that I keep random thoughts on). I'll use one of them. That way I can relate all the details while they're fresh in my mind (or while I'm sitting up in bed thinking "thank god that was a dream!").
Your Aunt sounds so cool! I love older hippies :)

Peace,
Pedata

[moonjava]

Pedata-the eyes thing you mentioned--dude i thought i was the only one who did that!! that's one of my three ways of how to get out of a bad dream! woahhhh yeah and the thing where you think you get out of your dreams but you really just go into another one is called a "false awakening"
sorry i know WAY too much about lucid dreams right now because i just finished this paper on it for senior english.
your aunt was describing dreamsigns or dreamcharacters, your own personal recurring symbols. once you drill them into yourself it gets easier to recognize the fact that you are dreaming. after you get good at lucid dreaming, you can move onto controlling your dreams
unless...of course, it comes naturally to you.
peace!!

[Pedata]

Moonjava,
About the eye thing, I've been doing that since I was a kid. What are the other two ways to deal with a bad dream??? :)

Peace,
Pedata

[nattywraps]

I've done a decent ammount of lucid dreaming but what I find most enjoyable is astral projection. if anyone is interested I can reccomend a few good books

[moonjava]

yeah my other two ways are to commit suicide in the dream and to find the sandman.
okay when you commit suicide in your dream you can only barely think about it or else your mind will catch what you're doing and keep you in the dream, so that one's always hard. plus it's always a weird way to wake up (falling and such)
finding the sandman only worked once for me, i was hecka desperate to get out so i went across all these cities to the hills and he took me on every type of transportation you can imagine
and delivered me from the dream
the eyes can get tricky with me too sometimes i experience false awakenings
Peace!

[Sunshine_Girl]

I love it when I "awaken" in a dream, so to speak. It usually happens to me when I have a reoccuring dream. I go places and do things that I have never been able to do in real life......it's like traveling without leaving my comfy bed.
Also, I find it very useful in solving my real world problems. If I'm really angry with someone I will go visit them and discuss why I'm upset durring my dream. When I wake up I feel like I really did have a chat with them and all of my anger if gone so I can deal rationally with them in real life.