Lucid Dreaming what is it and how do i do it?

[samlockart 0]

Hey, I am extremely interested in the phenomenon 'Lucid Dreaming', from what I have read, it's when your mind becomes aware that it is dreaming whilst in a dream. When you realize that you are dreaming, you can do whatever you wish in your dream, as long as your mind can think it. But a few things scare me about it, one of those things is Sleep Paralysis

 

During REM sleep the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain in order to prevent the movements, which occur in the dream, from causing the physical body to move. However, it is possible for this mechanism to be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens. This can lead to a state where a person is lying in his or her bed and he or she feels paralyzed. Hypnagogic hallucination may occur in this state, especially auditory ones. Effects of sleep paralysis include heaviness or inability to move the muscles, rushing or pulsating noises, and brief hypnogogic imagery. Experiencing sleep paralysis is a necessary part of WILD, in which the dreamer essentially detaches his "dream" body from the paralyzed one.

From Wikipedia

 

But I still want to learn how to do it, could someone teach me or point me in the right direction for Lucid Dreaming?

 

Sam.

[thorne 0]

I've been aware that I was dreaming at times; usually it happens when something really absurd or strange happens in a dream and I question whether it's really possible or not. Then I realize that I'm only dreaming. I haven't really learned how to control it yet, so I can't say if there are any real techniques for accomplishing it. I read somewhere that one thing you can do is concentrate on the fact that you want to be aware of your dream before you go to bed. If you keep doing this, eventually, during one of your dreams, you may realize that you're only dreaming.

[i_speel_good 0]

There are different methods of lucid dreaming. My favourites are FILD (Finger Induced Lucid Dream), DEILD (Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream) and DILD (I don't remember the acronym xD).

Here's a good tutorial to FILD found on DreamViews.com:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

DEILD:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

And a nice guide to most Lucid Induction methods:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

The world of dreaming is amazing, don't lose the chance to have fun with it.

[samlockart 0]

omg, my connection is screwing up, sorry mods, but what happens is that I press the button, it has the dotted line around it to show that i have selected it, then it does NOTHING, i press it again and two posts are born!!!

Edited June 25, 2008 by samlockart (see edit history)

[samlockart 0]

ahh, sweet, I tried doing the method in which you become tired and... well I forgot. But thanks for the links. I love the acronyms and their meaning. DILD and Finger Induced Lucid Dream... Lol.Thanks, Sam.

[minimcmonkey 0]

I can often do what i like when i wake up, but then drift back to sleep.or when i wake up, but dont open my eyes or move...Cool thread!

[tobyz 0]

Hey, I am extremely interested in the phenomenon 'Lucid Dreaming', from what I have read, it's when your mind becomes aware that it is dreaming whilst in a dream. When you realize that you are dreaming, you can do whatever you wish in your dream, as long as your mind can think it. But a few things scare me about it, one of those things is Sleep Paralysis

From Wikipedia

 

But I still want to learn how to do it, could someone teach me or point me in the right direction for Lucid Dreaming?

 

Sam.

"Sleep paralysis" occurs whenever we dream. It's only mentioned in connection with lucid dreaming because in non-lucid dreams, states wehre we do NOT know we're dreaming, we aren't aware of our body's state.

 

As for first steps toward lucid dreaming:

 

1. While falling asleep tell yourself "When I start to dream I'll become aware that I'm dreaming." Repeat this as you relax your muscles and slow your breathing.

 

2. When you become aware that you are dreaming, LOOK AT YOUR HANDS! At first they will "distort," probably appearing elongated as you move them up into your field of vision and out, away from yourself, so that you can see them. If that happens, look at anything else for a moment, then look back at your hands. Repeat this practice until you can move your hands around without their image distortring. At that point you can start to "do things" in your dream.

 

Much of the info above is a restatement of info given by Carlos Castenada (perhaps in Journey to Ixtlan, but I'm not sure of that.)

[andresf91 0]

I used to have often lucid dreams until a couple of years ago.
But one day, surfing the net looking for info about dreams, I came up with an ebook from wikibooks.org, you know, the wikimedia project for free books about topics. I read it, there's where I learnt that those dreams were name lucid ones, and gave me a few techniques on how to control myself when having a lucid dream or something like that.
Well, truth is that I can't remember of having any lucid dream since I read that book.
Maybe it was just during puberty that you have them, but it's still strange because I passed from having at least one lucid dream a week or something like that to none in two years...
I don't know, I think I'm gonna read the book again, right now I can't even remember what did it say.
If you're keen on the topic, I give you the link to wikibooks.

[gummybear 0]

I think i've experienced sleep paralysis before... only once in my life time though. It was really frightening... everything was really dark and I thought I was floating. The scariest part though, was that i absolutely could not control my bodily movements. My mind was alert but my body was fast asleep. It only lasted about a minute or two but I remember the experience pretty distinctly. Hasn't happened for like 3-4 years though..

 

They refer to lucid dreaming as 'astral travel' sometimes i think, which is a metaphysical term. I'd want to experience lucid dreaming, but it'd be a lot more helpful to be *aware* that you're going to be lucid dreaming instead of it happening randomly like in my experience.. you'll probably be able to handle it a lot better too.