Re "So for me, what "worked" to enable me to "want to" was lifting my own hands in front of my eyes and then focusing on them as I began to first touch items in the dream, and then gesture at them . . . change the entire dreamscape.":
Thanks - I'll try that next time I happen to go lucid. Interesting that my experience follows the same pattern as your "many, many experiences". Like you, although I have often had unpleasant dreams I've been glad to awaken from, I don't think I've ever had a full-on nightmare (not like the ones you see in movies in which the character awakens in a cold sweat). One aspect of lucid dreaming that alarmed me was the revelation of one chap who had spent time learning how to be a regular lucid voyager. He mentioned that he occasionally had "night terrors" - that scary state in which you are simultaneously awake but your body is paralyzed (the paralysis a natural defense mechanism to protect us during dreams so that we don't thrash around) and sufferers can often feel a demon or alien crouching on their chest. It sounded to me, from his narration, that he'd never experienced night terrors until he started trying to induce lucid dreams. A warning that we shouldn't mess with our natural routines . . ? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Back when I was practicing Tibetan dream yoga (their version of lucid dreaming), I would have many, many experiences similar to the one you mention in the first paragraph. The "tell" was that upon waking (for real), I'd 1) remember the dreams and waking up in them with some clarity (as opposed to haziness that faded in a few minutes) and 2) then go back to sleep and go back into the *same* dream. My favorite such dream was once when I ran into some gnarly things trying to kill me in my dream. That *rarely* happened with me -- I think I can count the number of "nightmares" or "bad dreams" I've had in my life on the fingers of both hands -- but this one was pretty gnarly. Man-beasts of some kind were definitely trying to kill me, and it was *personal* (trying to assassinate *me*, as opposed to just killing everything in sight). I was running from them in the dream, just in survival mode because I didn't have any weapons to defend myself, and then decided that the best way to survive was to wake up. So I did. I found myself covered with sweat and still shaking a bit from the experience, but it was still the middle of the night and I knew what tended to happen when I'd go back to sleep after one of these lucid dreams, so I looked around my room and found the fake samurai sword (real Japanese, but lacking an edge because I used it in my Kendo classes and we tried not to kill each other there). I grabbed it, pulled it into bed with me, went back to sleep, and voila...found myself back in the same dream, with the same astral badasses still trying to get me. But now I had the sword. And in the dream it was a real sword, with a real edge. To quote W. C. Fields, "I hacked my way through mounds of flesh" and awoke refreshed. :-) I am far from the world's leading expert in lucid dreaming, and in fact don't try to practice it any more. If it happens, it happens; if it doesn't, I don't try to make it happen. But I do remember that the "key" to taking control in my lucid dreams always started by following Carlos Castaneda's advice of "finding my hands." I'd be awake in the dream, meaning that there was a "me" witnessing everything, and then have a secondary wakening and realize that I could change things if I wanted to. So for me, what "worked" to enable me to "want to" was lifting my own hands in front of my eyes and then focusing on them as I began to first touch items in the dream, and then gesture at them. The gestures over time allowed me to change their color or nature or -- as you say -- change the entire dreamscape and "go somewhere else." From: "s3raphita@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2014 12:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Lucid-dreaming query So last night I had a lucid experience while dreaming (it's happened a few times before - always involuntary as I've never bothered to follow the "techniques" recommended by devotees of this perception). At least I assume it was a lucid-dream experience - I suppose one could have a normal dream which included the false thought that one was lucid when in fact one wasn't (if you can follow that explanation). What's more, I woke up (for real), mused about the dream for a minute, then fell asleep again and immediately went back into the same dream landscape in the same self-conscious, lucid state. Now I'd heard that when in a lucid dream you can alter the "dreamscape" to suit yourself. So you might find it amusing to flip over into being a Zero pilot on a kamikaze mission and diving into the Golden Dome in Fairfield. Whatever floats your boat. Anyway, though I was lucidly self-aware that I was indeed dreaming I couldn't change the story narration unfolding before me so just left the dream to run its course while absorbing the novel experience. My question is: is there some trick to getting the dream to change to suit your whim or is it a case of practice makes perfect? Or maybe most lucid dreams are like mine? Or maybe my will power is feeble compared with my imaginative power and others have a more dominant will? Anyone had a similar experience? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Back when I was practicing Tibetan dream yoga (their version of lucid dreaming), I would have many, many experiences similar to the one you mention in the first paragraph. The "tell" was that upon waking (for real), I'd 1) remember the dreams and waking up in them with some clarity (as opposed to haziness that faded in a few minutes) and 2) then go back to sleep and go back into the *same* dream. My favorite such dream was once when I ran into some gnarly things trying to kill me in my dream. That *rarely* happened with me -- I think I can count the number of "nightmares" or "bad dreams" I've had in my life on the fingers of both hands -- but this one was pretty gnarly. Man-beasts of some kind were definitely trying to kill me, and it was *personal* (trying to assassinate *me*, as opposed to just killing everything in sight). I was running from them in the dream, just in survival mode because I didn't have any weapons to defend myself, and then decided that the best way to survive was to wake up. So I did. I found myself covered with sweat and still shaking a bit from the experience, but it was still the middle of the night and I knew what tended to happen when I'd go back to sleep after one of these lucid dreams, so I looked around my room and found the fake samurai sword (real Japanese, but lacking an edge because I used it in my Kendo classes and we tried not to kill each other there). I grabbed it, pulled it into bed with me, went back to sleep, and voila...found myself back in the same dream, with the same astral badasses still trying to get me. But now I had the sword. And in the dream it was a real sword, with a real edge. To quote W. C. Fields, "I hacked my way through mounds of flesh" and awoke refreshed. :-) I am far from the world's leading expert in lucid dreaming, and in fact don't try to practice it any more. If it happens, it happens; if it doesn't, I don't try to make it happen. But I do remember that the "key" to taking control in my lucid dreams always started by following Carlos Castaneda's advice of "finding my hands." I'd be awake in the dream, meaning that there was a "me" witnessing everything, and then have a secondary wakening and realize that I could change things if I wanted to. So for me, what "worked" to enable me to "want to" was lifting my own hands in front of my eyes and then focusing on them as I began to first touch items in the dream, and then gesture at them. The gestures over time allowed me to change their color or nature or -- as you say -- change the entire dreamscape and "go somewhere else." From: "s3raphita@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2014 12:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Lucid-dreaming query So last night I had a lucid experience while dreaming (it's happened a few times before - always involuntary as I've never bothered to follow the "techniques" recommended by devotees of this perception). At least I assume it was a lucid-dream experience - I suppose one could have a normal dream which included the false thought that one was lucid when in fact one wasn't (if you can follow that explanation). What's more, I woke up (for real), mused about the dream for a minute, then fell asleep again and immediately went back into the same dream landscape in the same self-conscious, lucid state. Now I'd heard that when in a lucid dream you can alter the "dreamscape" to suit yourself. So you might find it amusing to flip over into being a Zero pilot on a kamikaze mission and diving into the Golden Dome in Fairfield. Whatever floats your boat. Anyway, though I was lucidly self-aware that I was indeed dreaming I couldn't change the story narration unfolding before me so just left the dream to run its course while absorbing the novel experience. My question is: is there some trick to getting the dream to change to suit your whim or is it a case of practice makes perfect? Or maybe most lucid dreams are like mine? Or maybe my will power is feeble compared with my imaginative power and others have a more dominant will? Anyone had a similar experience?
