Huh... so THAT'S what lucid dreams are...

I had my first fully-lucid dreams last night. I realized that the concept of lucid dreaming is like migraines in the sense that most people think they know what they are and even think they have them... until they really do and then realize that they've never really understood what it was before. This is like that for me.

First let me describe experiences that I now know aren't related to lucid dreaming:

- I've had prophetic visions. So real and so detailed. These have followed a sequential order and is often narrated to me.
- I now know that these were not lucid dreams.

- I have a place I can visit while awake. It is a place with a name and unique features. This place is very realistic and I have most of my senses when I go there.
- I now know that these travels are not lucid dreams.

- When in deep ritual for my craft works, I am visited, and am able to visit, beings from the other sides. I am shown things and told things that I know are real.
- I now know this is not lucid dreaming.



"So, oh wise one, why do you think you finally did it?"

I outlined what I did above so you better understand how remarkable this was for me last night and that, if you relate to any of those things I listed, you might be more willing to believe that those aren't what others call "lucid dreaming".

First, let me explain that I did not do this intentionally. In fact, I have enough going on in that area that I figured "lucid dreaming" couldn't possibly all that different (it seems common enough on ATS) so I've only paid attention to it like I would any other cool subject that I'm not totally focused on. So I don't spend hours on a mountain top trying to achieve this, in other words.

- First Dream -
I slept on the couch last night because our daughter wanted to have a sleep over in our room with mommy. I figured, "Cool, I'll just bachelor it up in the living room." At some point, I was walking through some school. It was just as real as any day I've ever experienced. I first became suspicious when I started wondering why I was there and that I thought I was supposed to be at work. When I realized I didn't have my day planner on me (that's right, I carry one of those archaic things with actual paper in it), I started looking for clocks.

I read somewhere (probably on ATS) that a surefire way to know if you are dreaming is to read something. I found a row of computers and started watching them as they were displaying an information read-out. I was only able to decipher some of it but the rest looked like that language used in document templates as text filler. So then I started to really doubt reality. I ran to the stairs and decided to just bolt down them as fast as I could. It felt like thick mud and I was unable to get to the bottom before slowing to a stop and waking up.

I shot up to a sitting position, panting and sweating. I looked around and figured I was awake. And I think I was. I laid back down after a while and didn't realize I had fallen asleep again.


- Second Dream -
I heard a noise outside the window and I sat up. At this point, I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep so I suspected nothing but reality. I reminded myself that my wife was home and upstairs with my daughter so I was free to wander outside and investigate. I did. It was nice and cool outside, slight breeze. Good time for a little walk to think about my dream, which I was able to think about clearly. Again, at this point, this was indistinguishable from reality.

I walked around a corner and there was a large grassy hill leading downward. This isn't really in my yard so I instantly started questioning my state. I walked to the bottom, examining my breathing, hearing, clothing… everything. Nothing seemed strange aside from the hill being there. At the bottom, I looked up and thought “Well racing down the stairs in the last dream made me wake up so I’m going to race up this hill to see if I get all sluggish”. Then I said out loud “Worth a try” and my voice came out clear and without struggle.

I raced up the hill on all fours, trying to get as much sensation as possible. I dug my fingers into the grass and dirt beneath, intentionally making a mess and trying to be as flailing as possible to see if I would be restricted somehow. I was not. I got to the top and looked back to realize that my pajamas had came off on my way up. Then I “woke up”.


- Third Dream -
I woke up because my wife was making noise. She had come downstairs and was reading on the chair. It was still dark outside. When she saw me, she said “Ooohhh… hey sexy… you look so good in that beanie, Cutie” and then came over to me. We started getting frisky and she got on top of me. I’ll skip some of this since it’s a family site. While we were “spending time together” on the couch, I thought “Where is our daughter? What if she comes downstairs?” and then I realized that I didn't have to take off my pants. I then connected it. I thought “I had my pants on in reality but I lost them in my dream!” Then I woke up again.

- Subsequent Dreams -
I had a couple more after this that was a bit hard to remember but I do remember trying to get myself to try to fly but I was seriously afraid that somebody might see me and that it might be real. I did some tests, some were, once again, not suitable for this site but, every time, the tests seemed to indicate that everything was real until I woke up.

When I finally woke up for real this morning, my family was downstairs and it was light outside. The sunshine was what convinced me for some reason and then I tried reading various things and all of that worked out just fine. It wasn't until I got online and started looking up possible explanations that I was fully convinced I was awake.

So… adventurous ATS lucid dreamer folks, what do you think? Am I part of your club now or was this something entirely different? I can tell you that something like this could really screw a person up if it became chronic.

I admit that I am posting this partly because I want a record of it but I also want some insight from those of you who do this frequently. While I'm not entirely sure I want to do this again, I won't turn down any advice on how to, if you want to throw down some of your knowledge.

Definitely the start to lucid dreaming. You have had dreams where you realize you are dreaming, and made conscious decisions within that dream. The next step is to take it a step further. Once you realize you are dreaming, you then need to convince yourself that you can do anything. Once you are able to accept that during a lucid dreaming experience, you will be able to take a leap in lucid dreaming where you literally can do anything you want to in your dream. You can control your environment in the dream, what you do in it, where you go, etc.

Once I started getting proficient at lucid dreaming, I was able to hone certain abilities like levitation and flight, shooting lightning from my fingers, psychokinetic abilities, etc. For me, I would be able to do some of these things at first, but I would be unable to sustain them. For instance I could levitate or fly for a bit, but then I would sort of lose my grip on that ability in the dream and have to try all over again. Eventually you identify certain feelings within the experience with certain actions in your dream, and you can trigger them at will with practice. For me, with flight it was a feeling like a ball of energy in my stomach/solar plexus region, and once I learned to identify flight with that feeling, I could control it at will and sustain it.

Once you practice these things lucid dreaming can become extremely fun. Good luck! I think it's a worthwhile experience for anyone to have.

Stop dreaming of me!

Anyway!


It seems you did kinda luciddream(atleast the "knowing" part that your are dreaming).. you just didn't take control of it.

Ever try to be like Flash(super hero?) i can do that in my Lucid dream. Its pretty awesome.

Or lift something heavy?


It seems you need more experience!

reply to post by Cuervo


Is it a lucid dream when you go to sleep and dream of a ordinary event, then lay down for a nap in the dream, and have another dream on top of the one you are currently having, then wake up still in a dream state and continue with the original dream?

Did that make sense?

In the dream (the original one) I even talked to people I knew about the other dream I had. Weird.

TDawgRex
reply to post by Cuervo

 

Is it a lucid dream when you go to sleep and dream of a ordinary event, then lay down for a nap in the dream, and have another dream on top of the one you are currently having, then wake up still in a dream state and continue with the original dream?

Did that make sense?

In the dream (the original one) I even talked to people I knew about the other dream I had. Weird.

Waking up inside a dream is called a "false wakening". You can do that in a lucid dream but the two aren't always connected (you can have one in a normal dream).

That aspect alone would have been weird enough but it was everything else that actually qualified it for what they were.

Ive had them where I can identify the place Im at...over and over again many different occasions over long periods of time...even years, that I could get in the car and drive to...except...they arent real.

But in my wakeful state...Im sure they are real places. Ive also gotten up from them, stepped away (bathroom etc)...and gone back to return where I was and had left off...and it works.

Once I realize I am dreaming lucid, I get all excited and always have to fly.
Even if I am in a building, I will find a window or tear through a wall.

Problem is that in that state of excitment, I can't maintain sleep. I end up waking too fast to fly to where ever it is I am going..
Hard to say where I am going since the landscape is always foriegn and sometimes even alien..

I love my lucid dreams. Just wish I could control my self a tad better and not Wake myself all the time..

That said, I think you definitely had some lucid dreaming my freind...
Cool huh!

I remember when I first started having lucid dreams. I realized that I was dreaming, and I took full advantage of it. I could fly, levitate, or do whatever I wanted. I even tried talking to the people inside my dream to figure out who they were and why they were there. It was always an awesome experience, unless something went wrong and I found myself trying to wake up. I usually found that jumping off something and landing directly on my head would usually do the trick.

reply to post by Cuervo


Your experience sounds very similar to one I had many years ago. I suppose it would fall under the category of 'false awakening' and not 'lucid dreaming', but it involved a series of at least four, but maybe several more dreams.

Interestingly, mine came about in an arguably similar circumstance. To elaborate, I had been living with my girlfriend, My first real love, for about a year. We'd spent that year (and much of the time before) inseparable from each other. We hadn't even considered the notion of not being around each other in that time. It was intense.

Being rational people, we'd had nights away from each other, but they always coincided with a focus of activity; i.e. girls night out / band practice, etc. We always ended up crashing together.

The first time I stayed in and went to bed early (maybe I was sick, or had to get up really early for some reason) and waited for her to come home, I had no less than four dreams about "waking up" to her coming home and sliding in bed with me and telling me about her night. Complete with the taste of Cape Cods on her breath and cigarette smoke from the club in her hair (she didn't smoke tobacco herself) and also her drunken, slurred cooing and wet tongue in my ear.

And all but the very first one of these dreams involved me telling her (in COMPLETE detail) about the previous dreams(s).

None seemed anything but 100% real at the time, but when she finally did get home (and EXACTLY the same thing happened) it was somehow decipherable as the "real" reality, which I've been in ever since.

Or have I?