Can You Control Your Dreams?

I am trying hard to keep my dreams in my permanent memory, it's pretty simple and yet still challenging.

i... am going to ignore all the ppl who posted before me. 'too tired to read any of the posts.

anyways, i recall being half awake on the couch about a year ago, and i started dreaming about myself stuck in a SAW (the movie) looking area, with random traps and SAW # you see in the movies, in this underground parking-lot shaped area. it was dark, and all i remember is walking with a group of people, specifically amanda, to my right (SAW character).
i woke up after what seemed like a minute or two of dreaming, and tried to fall back asleep. surprisingly, i actually did, although i was half asleep throughout the entire dream and had full control over everything i did.. it felt so.. real.. though, i couldn't think straight.

i "teleported" myself out of that underground area, to a castle, made Shrek appear, and then jumped off the castle... then i woke up and literally said "...what the #". it felt so real though, the detail on the castle, the feeling, everything. i was pretty bummed out that it only lasted for what seemed like a few minutes.

lolz no, im not a druggy, haven't ever done drugs, and im not... "stupid", or anything of the sort. i was just having one of those "LOLWTF" dreams.

i'm gonna ignore everything and answer the topic title.

of all the dreams that i can remember, i've been able to control about 60% of them.

it gets really cool if you can restart your dream. i once had a dream in which i was able to "reset" everything to the beginning of the dream 6 times. and each time, the person i met in my dream would behave and respond differently. it was so fun until my alarm woke me up.

I have been able to control my dreams ever since overcoming a reuccuring nightmare I had as a child.

I have never met anyone else who has complete control over their dreams like I do and and most people I talk to about it think I'm on something.

When dreaming I spend most of my time doing things that I can't do in my waking life, be it physically impossible (eg. flying) or morally wrong (eg. sleeping with my wife's sister).

I find the best way to encourage my lucid dreaming is to play video games before bed, games where I have a lot of freedom like Grand Theft Auto 4 are best. I don't play to complete levels I just wander around exploring the environment. I think this works because GTA 4 is probably the closest to being in one of my dreams while still awake.

I always fly first in my dreams so that I know for sure I am dreaming. This helps to give me complete freedom by reinforcing the fact that there are no concequences to any of my following actions.

I also encourage people to watch Inception, not only is it a great film but I think it is bang on with how it portrays controlling dreams, although I have never dreamed within a dream of folded a city in half.

-adamxix

Originally posted by keepureye2thesky

I recently saw Inception and the movie blew my mind (NO SPOILERS - You can keep
reading). What was great about the movie is that it creates a great discussion
afterward and dream sharing. It opened up a conversation about 2 dreams I had in
which I never shared with anyone. One was a dream in which I felt that I had
complete control over my decision making. My conscious thoughts in my dream
were aware that this was all "a dream". So needless to say I did some pretty crazy
things. Some of the things I did were unspeakable and really not moral, I will admit.
It seemed so real too in relation to the spacial aspects, such as buildings, trees,
gravity etc. and touch, smell and sound as well. Also, I was not viewing myself as a
separate person, it was all through my eyes.

I told my wife of the things I did and she chuckled and was able to understand that it
was just a dream. It was almost as if I was testing everything out. I smashed
windows, walked down the street and carelessly hit people, jumped in a car and
drove it through a building among many other acts that I would NEVER do in this
world. And every time I did one of these things I felt like I made the decision and
followed through, while telling myself it's just a dream, you may never get this
chance again.

Except for 1 other dream like this, most of my dreams are vivid and the WTF
moment happens as I lay in bed and am waking. This dream had the WTF part during.

Has anyone experienced this before?

And more importantly, is it possible that I was dreaming that I had free will?
What I mean is was that feeling of control just part of the dream itself or was
my other consciousnesses aware of my dream happening?

Thoughts?

Thanks.

[edit on 9-8-2010 by keepureye2thesky]

[edit on 9-8-2010 by keepureye2thesky]

For Spelling


[edit on 9-8-2010 by keepureye2thesky]

I have not seen Inception but it looks like a fun movie.

I have different types of dreams, mostly adventurous escapades, searching for something, and terrifying nightmares. I have learned to control the outcome, especially when the dream takes a turn for the worse and I'm in trouble.

I also wonder if being a daydreamer all my life gave me an advantage as to controlling my subcnscious thoughts and waking myself up within a short timeframe (daytime at school) so as to avoid the wrath of some my teachers? One teacher was nice, she would always say "XXXX, time to wake up".

Now, not only can I end the dream in a split second by waking myself up, after saying "buh bye" to the baddies, but I can also control the outcome and continue the dream sequence as I would like it to play out, all the time totally aware it is a dream.

I have taught my children that they are in control of their thoughts, conscious and subconscious and my son (another nightmare creator) now can manipulate his dreams as well, whereas my daughter still has work to do.

Actually, it's an interesting topic and my husband and I were just talking about it a few days ago. He told me in a recent dream he was in a plane that crashed in the Ocean, he could not get out of the plane, and as the water engulfed him, he woke himself up with a start and was in a bothered state all day. I asked him why he didn't take a deep breath and make it so that he could breath under water, or jump out of the plane and fly to safety? That's what I do in those situations. I suppose he never tried.