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ambush · Apr 4, 2006, 06:15 PM

Any experiences worth sharing?

Do you do reality checks every day?

Are you dreaming right now

Wiki for Lucid Dreaming if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Dark Helmet · Apr 4, 2006, 06:16 PM

I get it perhaps once every 2 years. Pretty fun stuff.

BRussell · Apr 4, 2006, 06:22 PM

I think that most of my dreams are lucid to some extent. I'm rarely completely fooled by my dreams. If I don't know, it's usually a nightmare.

Nicko · Apr 4, 2006, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet

I get it perhaps once every 2 years. Pretty fun stuff.

That kinda sucks. I have atleast one a week, 2 or 3 if I'm lucky. They usually come early in the morning, just before I'm actually stupposed to wake up. It is kinda cool to realize you are dreaming and can do anything you want.

My dreams aren't really worth sharing. I've come to the conclusion they are just a jumbled mess of stuff from my memory. I read somewhere that lucid dreaming might be a byproduct of your brain deciding which memories to store and which to throw away (or forget). Suffice to say, some dreams are very weird, almost alien, while others are just like normal real life stuff. Still, very cool to experience.

ambush · Apr 4, 2006, 06:31 PM

You guys know that with some practice, you can control your dreams at 100%.

www.ld4all.com check out the fora too.

I'm reality checking maybe 20 times a day and trying WILD and MILD every night
since 4 days. no results so far, but I'm confident they will come

Nicko, dreams really are full of symbolic content and can really help you understand yourself and your motives. You are lucky to have lucid dreams. Use them to unlock symbol meaning, etc.

macaddict0001 · Apr 4, 2006, 06:42 PM

I did once.

FeLiZeCaT · Apr 4, 2006, 07:11 PM

Lucid in the
Skies with
Diamonds...

DanMacMan · Apr 5, 2006, 03:18 PM

I was expecting some stupid quote from Microsoft's Peter Moore...

Stradlater · Apr 5, 2006, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by FeLiZeCaT

Lucid in the
Skies with
Diamonds...

A throwaway comment? For some reason I'd expect you to have more interest in the dreaming phenomenon.

ambush: I kept a dream log a few years ago. Every morning, I wouldn't waste a woken beat before scribbling down all I could remember. The first few times I had a paragraph or two, but the writings quickly grew and my dream retention, too. Less than a month of this and I was having several lucid dreams a week just from being more familiar with dreamscapes, etc. I didn't spend much time with the reality checks (looking twice at clocks and writings), as they never worked that well for me—a lot of the time, they didn't change.

I stopped the dream log after a few months and slowly I've gotten back to normal. To be honest, I haven't cared to be a slugabed in awhile, and most dreaming occur when you're ready to be awake. Lucid dreaming and dreaming in general is fun and strange, but not worth losing life over.

FeLiZeCaT · Apr 5, 2006, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by Stradlater

A throwaway comment? For some reason I'd expect you to have more interest in the dreaming phenomenon.

ambush: I kept a dream log a few years ago. Every morning, I wouldn't waste a woken beat before scribbling down all I could remember. The first few times I had a paragraph or two, but the writings quickly grew and my dream retention, too. Less than a month of this and I was having several lucid dreams a week just from being more familiar with dreamscapes, etc. I didn't spend much time with the reality checks (looking twice at clocks and writings), as they never worked that well for me—a lot of the time, they didn't change.

I stopped the dream log after a few months and slowly I've gotten back to normal. To be honest, I haven't cared to be a slugabed in awhile, and most dreaming occur when you're ready to be awake. Lucid dreaming and dreaming in general is fun and strange, but not worth losing life over.

I was joking.

But my interest in dreams is limited to my personal experiences. Everyone dreams all the time, but we don't always remember them.

As for lucid dreaming, I agree with you. Was it Krishnamurti who suggested that form of meditation that let's the thinking process go "uncontrolled"? Anyway, that is not an interest of mine.

FeLiZeCaT · Apr 5, 2006, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by FeLiZeCaT

I was joking.

But my interest in dreams is limited to my personal experiences. Everyone dreams all the time, but we don't always remember them.

As for lucid dreaming, I agree with you. Was it Krishnamurti who suggested that form of meditation that let's the thinking process go "uncontrolled"? Anyway, that is not an interest of mine.

But let me add this:

Memory works by association. If i ask you to think about nothing, then show you an apple, and ask you to tell me words that come to mind, what you'll get are the ideas you assosicate with "apple", as well as other ideas associated with the words you just said. The memory is a complex thing, but also pretty disordered; not everyone uses his memory the same way others do, and it is usually built from experience.

The lucid dreaming si such an exploration of memory, where ideas coming at the surface of consciousness trigger the emergence of other ideas coming from that memory.

The concept of "memory palaces" or "memory theaters" is a technique that allows you to create order in your memory. The people who are actually very good at memorizing use similar techniques to improve speed of access as well as retention capacity.

Lucid dreaming will therefore vary from one individual to another, because of the way they use their memory.

Dreams are the mecanisms used by the brai to give structure to past experiences (the day before, or before that day) so that the content is stored in a way that makes sense for the individual.

People suffering from recent trauma, having flashbacks, are experiencing an overload of the information (associated with powerful emotions) and have trouble to make sense of it. The brain works double-time, considering that the victim often does not sleep well for some time, or fear the darkness of night, because it allows the resurgence of these images. Since those past experiences are traumatic, the recall of these images is very distressing (sometimes, there is a retraumatization) so there is "lucid dreaming" in the shape of visual/auditory intrusion from images coming out of nowhere in the consciousness, images from the past experiences, as the brain is attempting to make sense of the whole experience. Basically, store it in memory so it can be integrated with the rest.

Teronzhul · Apr 5, 2006, 05:33 PM

I often have dreams that I can identify as such while asleep, however, I have never been able to take control of them.

Albert Pujols · Apr 5, 2006, 05:43 PM

Wikibooks has a good book on the subject.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_Dreaming

Dark Helmet · Apr 5, 2006, 05:48 PM

Perhaps it isn't mentally healthy to mess around with dreams like that.

DayLateDon · Apr 5, 2006, 05:56 PM

Years ago, I had an LD and was able to control it more or less like a ST:TNG holodeck ... even to the point that, when I commanded "Computer, end program", I got the yellow grid and instantly woke up.

Dark Helmet · Apr 5, 2006, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by DayLateDon

Years ago, I had an LD and was able to control it more or less like a ST:TNG holodeck ... even to the point that, when I commanded "Computer, end program", I got the yellow grid and instantly woke up.

Nerd

Do you make sweet love to Data?

wolfen · Apr 6, 2006, 12:38 AM

I trained for lucid dreaming. Had a few successful encounters. Here's the funniest.

I'm peeing in a stall. The stall door keeps swinging into me. I'm starting to get angry as I keep batting it away. Finally, I grab the door and realize there's someone behind it pushing the door into me! I move the door so I can see the person, and it's....me. Yes, me.

I grab "me" and throw me up against the wall. "What are you doing!?" I demand. But the guy just looks at me blankly, and then walks out of the bathroom. I wake up, and realize I made a stupid mistake, and bust out laughing.

The point? It was ME, telling ME "Pssst! You're dreaming." Trying to get my attention and help me realize I could lucid dream, now. But instead I got all upset and tossed myself out of the dream entirely. Hysterical.

Stradlater · Apr 6, 2006, 01:45 AM

I'm not sure I'd call that successful...or even lucid. Had potential to be both, though. Next time knock yourself around and see what happens

moonmonkey · Apr 6, 2006, 07:25 AM

Been doing it for about 20 years, I can always do it when I try, usualy about 2 or 3 times a month,

Have done some crazy stuff, would be happy to answer any questions.

Super Mario · 04:26 PM

The other night I dreamed I was playing a Star Wars game and became part of it. I jumped in to a hover ship and speeded damn ****ing fast through a city and stopped the craft inside a luxury hotel. Sweet.

ShortcutToMoncton · Apr 6, 2006, 10:14 AM

Psychologists are crocks. That is the only thing I have to say about analysis from one's dreams.

In other news, the only totally-real dreams I ever have always involve sex. I always wake up before the best part, though. It's quite frustrating.

greg