Controlling a dream, is it possible? and how?

reply to post by jrmcleod


Sounds pretty amazing, ill keep trying.

Ill give it another go tonight and see what happens

reply to post by METACOMET


so you are like a veteran in lucid dreams? Interesting, would you please answer these questions?
-are you limitless in a lucid dream?
-can you slow or stop time and have an endless dream (but not much time will pass in the real world)?
-can you dream about stuff you never saw/heard/imagined?
-and of course, can you influence the real world from your dream?

www.youtube.com...

There are a lot of series of videos on youtube that can help some people. I have watched them all before and I already sort of had my own method of doing it. Some of these methods may help you. You need to find your own way of doing it I think. Whatever is most relaxing and comfortable for you.

For me it is just relaxing and waiting for the random thoughts and colors. I allow my random thoughts to occur and I am aware of the colors and sounds, and I just sort of allow it to happen while being aware that it is happening. When I start to feel spinny then I know I am about to go into a dream. It feels relaxing and it is easy to just go into the dream without keeping concoiusness.

But my dreams are pretty random so something strange usually happens to alert me that it isn't normal what I am seeing so I have to be dreaming.

I dream I am at school and I know the school doesn't even exist any more. It was torn down and I am out of school anyway. Sometimes I dream I am at my old work. Sometimes I do some of my old duties but usually I just figure it is a dream and I am happy to walk out of the place. My childhood home burned down so when I dream about it, sometimes I figure out that I can't be there because it doesn't exist any more. So then I know I am dreaming.

I dream about old pets that I have had, that are dead and gone. They seem so real. Usually I just pet them and I am so glad to see them. I can feel their fur and they feel warm and feel real in the dream.

I've even eaten in my dreams. Sometimes that lets me know that I am dreaming because I can't taste anything. Or I get this weird feeling. It is like I can sort of taste something, but it isn't really tasting it. It is like when you really concentrate on the thought of how something tastes. Like if you imagine how a lemon tastes you can almost taste it, but not really. You just know how it would taste. It is like that in my dreams.

reply to post by jessieg


Thansk for the link.

it is weird because for me i can dream something really out of ordinary but idont question it. Off to be now though and hopefully can do it tonight.

Peace

Tried again last night several times but had no luck. Tried to meditate before and found it so difficult (never really done that before).

I had ver odd dream though. Dreamt for some reason I was meeting someone at a place called Grimsby on coast in the UK. On the way there I was walking along the seafront and There was someone I went to school with singing on the beach. As I got closed to the place I was going me and another fellow nearly got robbed by a couple of 10 year old chancers (just kids messing about). Anyway after we told them off there were 3 police vans so we walked over to them to tell them, in the hope they would tell them off and sterr them on the right track. Instead they started shouting at us about how they could not do anything as thats how police officers end up getting hurt or something.

Anyway i carry on walking to this place and notice alot of building are boarded up and for sale. Anyway I get to the place and meet the people. One of them is Alex Polizzi (from a tv show called hotel inspecter) and the other person was a stranger to me. They basically started talking about how Grimsby is losing favor and people are not coming there anymore. I said something about I was glad my grandparents sold up before that etc.

Am I having these odd dreams because I am trying to get control of them? or is it just I am remembering them. Trying to figure out the meaning but dont know if its just nonsense.

Getting control is proofing a very difficult task lol

Peace

reply to post by tempest501


I have a suggestion for you if you're still interested in pursuing this, but I should explain first that this has no.. magical or any kind of attachment to it. All it is, is a shortcut. Tricking your subconscious into giving you power over your dreams.

The idea is to take something with you to bed every night. A key for example. Something with symbolic representations of control. Tie it to a cord on your wrist so you mentally are confirming to yourself that even when you sleep it will be difficult to lose this item of control. Do this every time you sleep and reinforce it with a trigger that will appear in the dream world. Think to yourself before you sleep.. "When I find the lock that fits this key and I pass through the door, I'll pass into a place where lucid dreaming is open to me."

Over time you can add components to the fetish, as it were. Charms, another device to use in your dreams. After a while you won't need them but they're good training wheels.

This isn't a process that takes days or even weeks. It's different for everyone. The key is repetition and giving yourself a way to get a foot in the door.

reply to post by Pastamancer


Thankyou, I will give a try and see if it helps. i am def going to pursue it as the one time it happened for me by accident was one of the best things ever.

Do you think that because I am trying to do this is why the dreams I am having are a bit odd? That last one i had got me so confused lol no idea what any of it meant.

Ive had something like that, but i can't tell it to you guys, it's kinda embarrasing.

but i liked it.

guess

Originally posted by Silend
Ive had something like that, but i can't tell it to you guys, it's kinda embarrasing.

but i liked it.

guess

edit on 1-5-2011 by Silend because: (no reason given)

LOL cant leave us in the lurch like that ;D

reply to post by tempest501


It's most likely that because you're interfering in the natural way your mind rests, that you're getting less sleep or more confusing dreams due to it. I'm not saying lay off. It's just important from time to time NOT to lucid dream. The human mind is a nation unto itself and sometimes it just needs to settle down after a hard day and go over the gameplay footage to figure out where it went wrong or how it can improve its next game. Lucid Dreaming is a very valuable tool and one I wouldn't give up if I had the choice.

It's nice to have the ability to alter reality to give you the tools to work out a difficult problem you're facing in your real life. When dreaming you don't have the bandwidth consumption of your senses. Simply filtering and managing vision is extremely taxing to the mind.. hence why meditation is best done with the least amount of sensory influences possible.

My lucid dreams are part workshop, part action adventure movie, part psychotherapy with me both on the couch and in the chair..It's.. it's something different when you master the skill. You don't take your sleeptime for granted anymore, it becomes just as valuable as your waking hours as far as productivity. Sometimes more.

Over time you'll be able to relegate tasks to your subconscious to solve while you're asleep, leaving you to pursue whatever you like in your dreams. Many more things than that.. only limited by your imagination and pursuit of the skill.

Originally posted by Pastamancer
reply to post by tempest501

 

It's most likely that because you're interfering in the natural way your mind rests, that you're getting less sleep or more confusing dreams due to it. I'm not saying lay off. It's just important from time to time NOT to lucid dream. The human mind is a nation unto itself and sometimes it just needs to settle down after a hard day and go over the gameplay footage to figure out where it went wrong or how it can improve its next game. Lucid Dreaming is a very valuable tool and one I wouldn't give up if I had the choice.

It's nice to have the ability to alter reality to give you the tools to work out a difficult problem you're facing in your real life. When dreaming you don't have the bandwidth consumption of your senses. Simply filtering and managing vision is extremely taxing to the mind.. hence why meditation is best done with the least amount of sensory influences possible.

My lucid dreams are part workshop, part action adventure movie, part psychotherapy with me both on the couch and in the chair..It's.. it's something different when you master the skill. You don't take your sleeptime for granted anymore, it becomes just as valuable as your waking hours as far as productivity. Sometimes more.

Over time you'll be able to relegate tasks to your subconscious to solve while you're asleep, leaving you to pursue whatever you like in your dreams. Many more things than that.. only limited by your imagination and pursuit of the skill.

It sounds so good I hope i can get the hang of it, only achieved it once so far and that was a complete accident. Thats what got me wanting to do it. Plus I am not a great sleeper and hope this will allow me to look forward to sleeping so I can get quality sleep etc and also maybe go on some adventures and see old friends.

Peace

Originally posted by arbiture

Originally posted by nonnez
Yes, it is possible. I do it all the time and it gets quite interesting at times. I really don't remember any dreams in which I cannot control the direction or even content of the dream to be honest, at least not since I was a kid.

OK, now you have my TOTAL attention. Are you saying if you are not having a lucid dream with at least some control over it's eddies and currents, you have NO memory of them? Don't freak, it may be very useful to explore this> Forgive me, tonight I am a broken record (for those who don't know the reference do a search for "Records, Music, LP's, Vinyl Records"), etc. When I say things like "I need more", I do... And I am quite fascinated.

Thanks

Yes, that is what I am saying. Every dream I remember . . . I have a certain measure of control of what I do or the direction the dream takes. I am, more often than not, aware that I am dreaming. When I was younger I used to have nightmares often. Back then, I had made a concerted effort to combat the manifestations "there" to the point that I was finally able to take control, to become powerful, and to directly counter/attack the negative-aspect/entity of my dreams but I did not always win. Sometimes I had to wake myself up.

reply to post by nonnez


I had this too. I think I explained a bit about this in a previous post. I'm one of those people who feels all the sensations of my dreams whether they obey the laws of physics or not. I've been killed in so many agonizing ways during my sleep now that I've lost count and have developed a pretty impressive pain tolerance in the waking world due to it.

After a while, due to .. well.. sheer terror, out of pure unadulterated need, your mind develops escape systems, defensive countermeasures, temporary super powers, whatever needed to escape and .. well.. live to dream another day. Death after a while becomes less.. scary as it once was. It's still something I'd prefer to avoid.

Some defense mechanisms include "hopping" from body to body in the dream, ditching the last husk once the thing chasing you catches your "scent". You may escape to someone nearby only to watch the previous person you were riding in suffer a horrible death. You walk inconspicuously on, letting the mind you're riding take control while you hide in the background and blend in, watching through their eyes.

Some would consider these not to be dreams. For me.. they were the training grounds. You only die once in the real world. Forgive the reference but.. Welcome to the Danger Room. There is no off button. All safety protocols are disabled. Survive if you can.

Originally posted by Pastamancer
reply to post by nonnez

 

Some defense mechanisms include "hopping" from body to body in the dream, ditching the last husk once the thing chasing you catches your "scent". You may escape to someone nearby only to watch the previous person you were riding in suffer a horrible death. You walk inconspicuously on, letting the mind you're riding take control while you hide in the background and blend in, watching through their eyes.

Some would consider these not to be dreams. For me.. they were the training grounds. You only die once in the real world. Forgive the reference but.. Welcome to the Danger Room. There is no off button. All safety protocols are disabled. Survive if you can.

Wow, I thought I was very unusual. It is very nice to hear that another can describe what I experience so precisely. I have talked to so many others . . . family, friends, and the like that think I am weird based on my description of a "dream".

Speaking of dreams . . . I had a weird one the other night . . .

I was with a group of people out in a remote wooded location. We were all hiding in the brush under some large pine trees. Our mood was extremely tense as we watched skyward. There was a light in the sky that was moving ever closer to our position while all the while emitting a very loud ominous noise. As if it had recognized our position, the object made a sudden dive directly at us and I knew we had to move quickly.

There was a yell for cover! I ran to my left away from the blast to where an old wreck of a car sat.The object crashed to the ground with incredible force amid an intense fireball. I remember wondering if the others had made it to a safe position. I am not positive who these others were, but I know that I knew them. As I looked over at the blazing wreck I saw a large figure emerging from the fire. I instantly felt panic, terror, and knew this was something to avoid at all costs.

I deliberately (at this point I was aware that this was most likely dreaming) positioned myself where the car was between this object and myself and to where I was able to look under the car and see beyond. The object, I could now see, was robotic and apparently quite heavy (I could hear/feel its footsteps). The robot was coming straight at my position! Again, I consciously maneuvered to keep the car between myself and the object as it passed by on a nearby path through the forest. I knew it was looking for us. I knew we had to run....

The dream went on for a short while longer, but the point I am trying to make here is that I was aware and took direct action to avoid the dreams dangerous entity, in this case, the robotic thing.

reply to post by nonnez


You'll get better at it. Whether through practice or sheer terror or blind luck. I've run into a few others that have this phenomenon and the best they can attribute is that we're being hardened for something. Getting used to the idea of death, getting used to being thrown into insane situations that no one should be able to survive and somehow coming out to live another day... sometimes.

I'm not sure I buy it but there's no better explanation for now. The defense mechanisms aren't always the same. This one person I know that does it simply.. blends. Kind of like a chameleon, but more psychologically. They're still there, people still walk by, but nobody seems to pay any attention to them. That's an extreme reaction and one they usually employ out of abject terror. Heard of cases where in the dream everyone around her would be slaughtered but she would just stand stock still, motionless, terrified, not even daring to breathe until the thing passed.. but it didn't see her, smell her, sense her. I've got some scars from all this.. but watching that kind of carnage and just.. freezing. Not daring to move or you break your cover. That's gotta do some damage mentally.

reply to post by tempest501


Ive never awoken into a lucid dream, however I have WILDs, or wake induced lucid dreams, where I move from a waking state directly into a lucid dreaming state. Those are awesome, but only happen under special conditions, at least for me.

For me, the room needs to be cool, the light extremely low to non-existent, and usually I have to have been up for about an hour give or take, and then return to bed. Valerian root helps a lot too by lowering anxiety if you have any, like I do.

In fact this morning I was just WILDing for about 45 minutes... in fact it was the best series of lucid dreams Ive ever had, in that I remembered all four of them and knew the whole time I was dreaming. However Ive been practicing it for a while, so I dont over react with excitement any more when I know Im dreaming. Its more of a relieving feeling now.

Actually I think two of the "dreams" were low level APs, and the other two actual dreams. Sometimes its quite difficult to tell which it actually is (if theres a difference at all).

But to answer your question, theres no sure fire way to get lucid; its different for everyone, unfortunately.

The way I have used, is to focus on the swirling purple that I see when I close my eyes. This swirling purple, if I focus on it churning and spinning, it will begin to self-organize itself into complex images, and if I get that far without falling asleep, I know Ive gotten it, and I soon enter into directly into a lucid dream. However if you dont see this swirling purple, as not all do, youll have to find another way.

Also, never go to sleep exhausted if you are trying to lucid dream, WILD, or AP.

reply to post by CaticusMaximus


Ye last night I kinda noticed some swirling I think and tried to focus on it but I fell asleep like normal, when I woke up later i tred again and same thing, thats when I had that super weird dream i said about earlier in the thread.

I think its quite hard cos no matter how bazar things seem i still dont realise its a dream at the moment. I have been doing that reality check thing during the last cpl of days where u push against ur hand/wall. Hoepfully tonight will be the night =D.

I think it has allready helped with my sleeping problem a little as I look forward to trying again.

reply to post by tempest501


Ive heard that these swirling colors are the ambient space of the astral, of which you perceive with your minds eye rather than the physical eyes, so it makes sense to me that if you focus on it, if you can see, youll at least get somewhere into a dream.

But like you, Ive never woke up into a dream either. No matter how outrageous the dream is relative to "normal" reality, it all seems perfectly normal while actually in the dream. I suspect that has something to do with "being grounded" in this reality. If you are highly grounded, youll have mundane dreams and definitely recognize when something is amiss. If you are not, like I suspect that I am not, just about any reconfiguration of reality can seem perfectly normal, so recognizing theres something "wrong" will never really happen.

Those question/affirmations have never worked a lick for me. "Am I dreaming?", "Am I dreaming?"... of course Im dreaming!, I think to myself, so theyre not really to useful if the answer is always yes! Come to think of it, maybe I should keep trying those affirmations and when I finally think "no, Im not dreaming!", Ill know something is amiss and Ill finally "wake up" into a dream

If you take naps, those are a great time to try a WILD, because the nap is usually short, and youre not tired enough to conk out for 10 hours straight.

If you dont take naps... now might be a good and fun time to start!

reply to post by tempest501


This may help too.. it's helped me in the past, though you have to fall asleep very slowly a couple times and be very still of mind and focused. The idea is to follow your consciousness actively in the direction it goes when you drift off to sleep. Some percieve it as.. like a blanket of darkness and silence that receeds off into a single point in your mind and then leaves you asleep. The idea is to figure out for you, what is the progression towards sleep. Where does fully awake begin and just before asleep end.. and what path leads between the two points.

Once you get ahold of that general theory it should be easier to coast smoothly into a sleep which will help your sleep deprevation.. also, it will give you time to lay out triggers and methods to help you enter lucid dreaming. The more controlled your entry into sleep, the easier it is to maintain focus on what you want to happen.

i have changed my dreams many times..if they are going in a direction i dont like, well..i change the direction. cant tell you how..its like being consious within your subconsious..i dont know