Lucid dreaming and the paradox of knowing - Tree of Souls

Muiä · #1 06-22-2010, 06:28 PM

Hi all,

I love dreaming and have been trying to get back into lucid dreaming. I used to become lucid quite often but now I'm lucky if I get Pre-lucid.

This thread isn't just a general lucid dreaming thread though, more about how knowing something can make becoming lucid harder. I have been reading a book about lucid dreaming and now know a few tests to see if I'm dreaming. I used to be able to tell if I was dreaming by reading in my dream as the letters would be jumbled or make no sense. Last night this trick stopped working. I was reading signs in a theme park in my dream and every word made sense via it context and the fact it was an actual word too. I also tried looking away then looking back to see if the words looked different. This also failed, I was consciously checking as I had a feeling I was dreaming but the signs stayed the same like in real life.

What I want to know really is does anyone else lucid dream and find that your mind adopts to the tests that you have to tell if your dreaming or not?

I'm pretty frustrated as it's making it even harder for me to become lucid now. I wonder if my sub-conscious is actually stopping me from becoming lucid with the recent problems I have been having in real life bothering me too much. Lucid dreaming is such an intense feeling of joy and happiness so maybe my stresses are holding me back. I think I will have to start using the mirror test and see how long that works for.

Also, has anyone been on antidepressants and found that instances of lucid dreaming increases greatly?

Dreaming Of Pandora · #2 06-22-2010, 07:45 PM

The way I know Im lucid is weirdly enough, hearing. I know it's an unusual method and you don't actually hear when dreaming but it's worked for me usually. So far, my mind hasn't adapted to this method but it can be troublesome when you notice you're lucid and then you wake up.

Earthlover18 · #3 06-23-2010, 03:05 AM

I have been learning to LD and I use the nose pinch reality check. Never fails for me but I have only been practicing for two months. And yes, lucid dreaming is amazing, in my last one there was like super HD visuals. So awsome.

**Sight Unseen** · #4 06-23-2010, 06:05 AM

I can't even remember my dreams... sometimes I wake up randomly in the middle of the night and I'm like "Whaaa...*yawn*...f***!!!" because I can't remember what I was just dreaming about :/. You lucky swine.

I've probably dreamed of Neytiri ten times and I would never know it.

Spock · #5 06-23-2010, 06:14 AM

I had one the other night, well morning. First time ever.

Yeah, I woke up and had this wierd feeling. Anyhow I accidentally tried entering the "dreamworld" then came out of it unsuccessfully but I found it a really wierd experience. So I tried to enter it consciously by repeating the same variables in my head and it worked.

I realised I was in a lucid state and started crawling around (I know

) then I got up and was going to do that thing where you imagine another place behind a door then open it and it's there. But then I woke up because my cat woke me up scratching.

I don't think that there is any chance of me remembering to repeat this as soon as I wake up in the morning though.

I am not familiar with reality checks, I knew it was a dream when I was experiencing so I'm a bit bamboozled.

Dreaming Of Pandora · #6 06-23-2010, 04:24 PM

I had such an intense lucid dream the other week that I actually kicked the sheets in my sleep. Sadly that was enough to wake me up.

**Fosus** · #7 09-26-2010, 02:30 PM

Dreams are funny, they are like memories. This morning I first didn't remember any dreams I saw last night.. until one single "picture" came into my head out of the dream. Then it just slowly began to clear out. Damn what a long and fuzzy dream that was

It was also lucid for a short while.. I noticed it's a dream cause I could breathe underwater. However I didn't like it so I consciously forced myself up from the water. Then it gone uncontrollable again.

I have seen those dreams where I breathe underwater ever since I was a child, it has actually evolved from just holding breath and waking up when I can't do it anymore, to breathing and being fully aware of the fact that I'm dreaming. I probably see lucid dreams once in a while but just don't remember them.

Another thing I have "learned" to do is falling back to the same dream I saw when suddenly waking up at night. It doesn't work every time, but usually the dream stays the same, or only changes a little.

electrosphere11 · #8 09-27-2010, 02:26 AM

I wish I could say I even got as far as lucid dreaming, butits only happened once in the past few years and it wasn't by using any tests. I just said that Iwas dreaming in my dream and then it happened.

**Fighter-of-Wars** · #9 09-27-2010, 05:55 AM

I wish I could lucid dream. I have been trying ever since March and no luck. I can remember 2-3 dreams every night. I do reality checks throughout the day but still no go. Makes me frustrated.

Human No More · #10 09-27-2010, 02:57 PM

I tried for a while, I kind of got annoyed at a lack of any progress (or even any more ability to remember my dreams, despite writing down the ones I did have (which were all really weird ones, like when I was on a boat with Varg Vikernes)) and kind of gave up...

As for antidepressants, they ruined my ability to dream at all really, along with many other things

One of the side effects of excess serotonin reduces dreaming so I'm fairly sure they wouldn't do that... certainly didn't for me, which was one of the things that made me even worse, I think

electrosphere11 · #11 09-27-2010, 07:59 PM

I haven't really been trying at all since the beginning of summer. I 'kk have to start writing in my dream log again.

Tsyal Makto · #12 09-28-2010, 03:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by electrosphere11

I haven't really been trying at all since the beginning of summer. I 'kk have to start writing in my dream log again.

Same. I've been getting a bit lazy with it lately. I need to push myself to write in it again.

**Advent** · #13 09-28-2010, 11:23 AM

I find that, in the case of lucid dreaming, it's harder to maintain the state rather then reaching it.

Here's something that happened to me:

I looked up on various sources ways to lucid dream.

I came up with a plan.

I went to sleep at night, with my digital watch on.

I woke up, and looked at my watch.

It was 6.00 on my watch. I put it down.

I looked at it again. It now said 9.00.

I could tell I was lucid dreaming, as I knew that this was a dream, and not reality. Unfortunately, I became overexcited, and woke up a few seconds later.

Man, was I frustrated.

**Fosus** · #14 09-28-2010, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Advent

I find that, in the case of lucid dreaming, it's harder to maintain the state rather then reaching it.

Here's something that happened to me:

I looked up on various sources ways to lucid dream.

I came up with a plan.

I went to sleep at night, with my digital watch on.

I woke up, and looked at my watch.

It was 6.00 on my watch. I put it down.

I looked at it again. It now said 9.00.

I could tell I was lucid dreaming, as I knew that this was a dream, and not reality. Unfortunately, I became overexcited, and woke up a few seconds later.

Man, was I frustrated.

Haha cool, seems your plan worked

My dreams only go lucid randomly

**Advent** · #15 09-29-2010, 12:54 AM

Apparently, with Lucid Dreaming, to go Lucid you need to be able to distinguish that it's a dream, and that it's not real. All you need is some object or way of 'telling reality'.
Therefore, for me, it was rather easy to get into that state.

The hard thing was, staying in it.