Amazing childhood dream ability.

I'll start of by acknowledging that children seem to show a heightened capability for dreaming in general. Also adding the fact that I was, and still am slightly gifted when it comes to dreaming.

Imagine being able to induce dreams, usually nightmares, at will. Having a tried and true technique with just a few easy and reliable steps. This is what I could do when I was young. I'm not sure when it started or ended, but I did it hundreds of times.

This is what would happen. I would anticipate the affect when laying in bed. Flat on my back in a dark room looking up towards the ceiling. Closing my eyes and focusing on the blackness. While looking deep into nothingness, a small pinhead sized white dot would appear. The dot would increase in size as it rushed towards me. If I let the dot grow, consuming the blackness while rushing over my face. I would instantly be jolted into a dream, usually a nightmare. If I opened my eyes right before the dot got to me. Then there would be no dream, it was simple as that. If I canceled the dream out by opening my eyes, I would get no second chance to induce a dream on that same night. Strange!! lol

When I did let the dreams happen, there was heightened awareness that I was dreaming, but I was never lucid. There is in fact a big difference in lucid dreaming and knowing you are dreaming. Just cause you know you are dreaming does not mean that you are lucid. Its hard to explain but its true. I'm great at lucid dreaming and have them at least once a month and sometimes once a week. But I still have dreams where I know i was dreaming but wasn't even close to being lucid.

When I was young I thought it was a curse. Now I realize it was a gift. I have tried to duplicate the results hundreds of times since then with zero results. Just a bunch of hypnagogic imagery nowadays.

Has anybody had a similar experience when they where younger, or even nowadays? This forum is the first chance I've had to talk to some real dreamers. What I'm describing might not be uncommon as first thought?

reply to post by JimboSliceLV


you seem to have stumbled upon a proper dreaming technique

what you describe is very similar to a technique from Tibetan Dream Yoga, specifically The White-dot Technique

keep up the good work

reply to post by JimboSliceLV


The white dot thing and the fact that it was nightmares sounds very strange.

All through my childhood and into the teens, I was able to control all of my dreams. I could replay the ones I liked and and go back a ways and improve them replay the next night at will. I loved going to sleep, I loved the dream worlds I created. I could taste the food (often hungry as a child) I could feel the wind and the sun, my dreams were life in every way.

Don't know why it stopped but assume it was around the time I had my first child.

reply to post by TheMagus

I guess it's basically a wake induced dream using hypnagogic imagery? Wish I could still do it! Oh well, I can still lucid dream pretty good towards the end of my sleep cycle.

Edit: Please bare with me, I'm new. Not to sure how I managed it, but I've put this thread in the incorrect forum. I was aiming for the dream forum hehe.

Originally posted by JimboSliceLV
reply to post by TheMagus

 

I guess it's basically a wake induced dream using hypnagogic imagery? Wish I could still do it! Oh well, I can still lucid dream pretty good towards the end of my sleep cycle.

Edit: Please bare with me, I'm new. Not to sure how I managed it, but I've put this thread in the incorrect forum. I was aiming for the dream forum hehe.

edit on 20-5-2013 by JimboSliceLV because: Wrong forum

don't put yourself down, you discovered this on your own, no doubt the 1st practitioners did the same
note that the white dot is visualized at dawn not upon lying down at night, unless you're using the black dot technique, of course.

why not give the instructions a try? just don't expect instant results.

from the wiki-link previously posted:

Buddha Shakyamuni often told his disciples to regard all phenomena as dreams. He used many examples, like an echo, a city in the clouds or a rainbow to illustrate the illusory nature of the phenomenal world. Dreams represent just one type of illusion. The whole universe arises and dissolves like a mirage. Everything about us, even the most enlightened qualities, are also dreamlike phenomena. There's nothing that is not encompassed within the dream of illusory being; so in going to sleep, you're just passing from one dream state to another.

I play around with this sometimes but mines different though, it would appear as a
big black blop[or blob or blacknesss] swirling, I try to focus on it for the fun of it,
but when I blink or a itch starts, poofs. But I have my eyes open in darkness with
a pillow over my head. I found it interesting, I was thinking it would be a technique
for dreaming, I thought I could use it for dreaming.

Sometimes swirls of colors as well.

Interesting anyway, reminded me.

Ever since I can remember I have had dreams basically every night. (Hi, btw! ) "Pass-out"-nights (Nights where I fall asleep to "wake up" again seemingly right away with no sense of sleep whatsoever...) are the only exception but those are fortunately rare. It was by accident that I learned not everyone dreams lucid, and I suppose I always took it for granted. Nowadays (im 27 now) my lucidity depends on how tired I am before I go to bed. If Im too tired Im simply aware of my stupid behavior in wonderland.

The reason I couldnt resist finally registering and replying wasnt so much for sharing my own story. What I would like to know is if anyone here has a proper idea of the point of it all. I remember people telling me how lucky I was when I "found out" about my lucid dreaming. Trust me, it has brought me very little so far. Mostly questions and a glass ceiling. I have never succesfully projected for example, Hel, I probably wouldnt be able to tell the difference. So to all you dreamers, any suggestions?!

I have seen the dot and it has grown bigger but only during meditation and the I would get a spinning sensations and when I open my eyes I would feel great. My dot was a green dot that pulses and gets bigger with each pulse.