Lucid dreaming!

[Maou]

I wanted to start a thread on this, because I find it a fascinating subject. In case you don't know exactly what it is, allow me to break it down for you. You are simply aware you are dreaming. Generally, that is as far as people take it. Everyone has at least one or two of these in their life, and its a rather rare occurrence. I have been lucid dreaming for over 15 years, and I am kind of an expert on it. So I wish to share my experiences/knowledge about it as I know its not well studied or easy to study.

Why should you learn to Lucid dream?

Pros:

• Increased self awareness.
• Ability to alleviate mental health issues.
• Better than sex and drugs. (This is only half joking)
• Experience the impossible. (Ever wanted to fly, well now you can)
• Understand and manipulate the subconscious

Cons:

• Dreams affect you less, so they are sometimes less exciting/fascinating when you do not want to lucid dream.
• It does sometimes make you feel tired if you wake up, you are interfering with the sleep process after all.

So you can easily tell, it's worth learning how to do it. We spend a 3rd of our lives sleeping, might as well have fun with it right? Now, let me break down the structure of lucid dreams for you. As it isn't just one thing. I made this graph, so it is easier to understand. (Pardon my shoddy paint job)

As you might be thinking "Woah, Inception was right all along!". I am going to have to say, no it really wasn't. While Inception did mention a lot of things, they were not implemented or done incorrectly. There is no "Limbo" and there is no layers as they had introduced. The layers in a dream are directly to how far into your own mind you go. You can say its one "Whole" like the ocean, but depth is considered a layer because the environment is different. There is however, time dilation or contraction. The more lucid you are, the faster time is. So having a lucid dream can feel like a few minutes. But in a regular dream, it can feel like quite a while.

Now that you know what Lucid dreaming is, I'll make a 2nd post later in attempts to teaching you how to do it. If I had successfully taught an ENTJ to do it. I am sure I can teach anyone. In the meantime, I will answer any questions.

 

[prplchknz]

So....you say that it can cure mental illness, which ones? have they cured any for you?

 

[Maou]

So....you say that it can cure mental illness, which ones? have they cured any for you?

I had successfully learned to deal with depression. I would be hesitant to call it a cure, but it might be all someone needs to get their life back on track.

Using lucid dreaming, I was able to vent my frustrations by manifesting them in physical form and confronting them head on. In the dream, my depression took on the form of a giant storm ball, with lightning and black winds etc. I had simply yelled my frustrations at it, and that I was going to overcome it. The storm tried to knock me down/hurt me etc. But eventually the storm gradually weakened and died out. The next day I felt amazing and I no longer experienced the sensation of depression for many years to come.

I had also learned that the internalization process of learning to lucid dream, can also be used as a means to internalize other ideas. (This is very much like inception) Planting an idea into your subconscious is essentially what Cognitive behavior therapy is. If you can master inducing lucid dreaming, you can learn to use CBT on yourself and that can directly affect your mental health.

But I have no proof of this, and you will have to take my word for it. As it isn't studied etc.

 

[Nomendei]

What do you mean with “understand a manipulate your subconscious”? Is it something like looking in a mirror and seeing what you truly think of yourself? I think I had a few Lucid dreams, but I can’t remember them well.
Last night I was dreaming about being in a luxurious hotel with the possibility to have sex with a “High quality prostitute”. I broke in this hotel and had sex with an extremely attractive black woman. After a lot of bizarre events, I and the prostitute became sort of friends, and when we got back to the hotel I thought something like “I want more, it would be so fun with more.” And then, on the ‘menu’, they suddenly had the offer of 100 prostitute. The feeling that I had was really weird. Like a deep feeling of satisfaction, like I sort of knew I was dreaming but didn’t want to admit it.

 

[Maou]

What do you mean with “understand a manipulate your subconscious”? Is it something like looking in a mirror and seeing what you truly think of yourself? I think I had a few Lucid dreams, but I can’t remember them well.
Last night I was dreaming about being in a luxurious hotel with the possibility to have sex with a “High quality prostitute”. I broke in this hotel and had sex with an extremely attractive black woman. After a lot of bizarre events, I and the prostitute became sort of friends, and when we got back to the hotel I thought something like “I want more, it would be so fun with more.” And then, on the ‘menu’, they suddenly had the offer of 100 prostitute. The feeling that I had was really weird. Like a deep feeling of satisfaction, like I sort of knew I was dreaming but didn’t want to admit it.

The more you remember your dreams, the more you understand what each metaphor means specifically to you. You will begin to notice patterns frequently appearing in your dreams.

Dreams are really less about what you see, and more about how you feel. In a dream, what do you feel when you see something? Those are the keys to understanding your subconscious.

For example, Natural disasters/war/atomic bombs happen frequently in my dreams. When I see these things, I am struck with a feeling of anxiety, fear and loss of control. I then act to try and save myself in the nick of time. I began to notice, that these disasters represent the life altering events in my life that I had no control over. My saving myself, is my self preservation instincts. My dreams always have a "Safety bunker" a lot of the times to dive into during them. This represents how I protect myself from outside influences and control. By hiding away from it. It took years to really understand this surprisingly. Eventually, I stopped diving into the bunker and tried to gain control over natural disasters with lucid dreaming. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes I died in the dream, and it hurt. But the fighting is what helped me in waking life. I began to confront my anxieties and fears in real life much like I did in the dreams.

 

[Maou]

I totally didn't actually forget about this thread entirely! Okay, so I will teach you how to Lucid dream now. Feel free to use this thread as a dream journal.

Okay, so learning to lucid dream revolves around the idea of Internalization, and constant thought. So I will break it down into three easy steps.

1) Desire & Effort Desire is as it sounds like, you have to want to do this. Don't expect it to work if you don't put in any effort. You have to think about it all the time, at least until you start remembering your dreams. You gotta remind yourself that you WANT to remember your dreams. You have to feel like it is important to you. You cannot half ass this part.

2) Internalization & habits There are several ways to internalize things. With desire like mentioned above, it requires some effort. The preferred method of internalization is mantras. You can tell yourself several times a day "I want to remember my dreams", and a key mantra is to ask yourself "Am I dreaming?". This 2nd mantra is very important to develop into a habit. Because your subconscious mind will begin repeating that question in dreams. It will pretty much create a paradox inside your mind, as you ask yourself "Am I dreaming" inside of a dream, and your mind will suddenly realize it is. The shock, sometimes wakes you up. If you get to this stage, you are doing well! Keep trying. When you wake up, try not to move and keep your eyes closed. Recall everything as quickly as possible, jot it down on a journal if you cannot retain the memory. Most people forget 80% of their dream within the first minute of waking up. This recalling is very important, and it helps you retain memory of your dreams better even without writing it down.

3) Time & patience This will take some time, and its greatly affected by how much desire and effort you put into the internalization. I've seen some people immediately start remembering their dreams. Which means their desire and effort is strong. I've seen others not take it seriously, and it took months for them to start remembering their dreams. So stay vigilant. It is worth it. You will first start remembering small portions and scenes. Continue on, and you can start to remember entire dreams. You have many dreams a night, several times a night as you enter REM state. You are most likely to remember the dream you have right before you wake up.

Tips, tricks & notes: Okay, so I got some brain hacks for you to help you dream more vividly, control your dreams better, and manipulate the sleep cycle for intense dreams.

1) Take melatonin, it is a vitamin you can get pretty much anywhere. Your brain naturally produces it when it no longer senses the sun, and makes you sleepy. You can take the recommended dose and it will help, but when I first learned to really control my dreams. I took a LOT of it at once, and the effects were strong. I don't however, recommend doing it for very long. As it is a thing your body naturally produces, it can affect your body's ability to control the hormone.

2)Set two alarms. Your body naturally adjusts to your alarm clock and expects to wake up around that time. Set an alarm for 1 hour before you normally wake up. You can ignore this first one, as its simply designed to reset your sleep patterns and when you go back to sleep you will immediately go into REM. This increases your chance of remembering a dream by like 90%.

3) Maintaining lucid dreams, and stopping yourself from waking up. Realizing your in a dream and suddenly became lucid can be startling for anyone. The important thing, is to remain calm. If you feel like you are excited, just spin in a circle in place. Sounds silly, but it works. It can also work as a dream "reset" if you are in the middle of a nightmare. You can also do this, while picturing somewhere else you want to go and you can instantly teleport. Pretty nifty. The problem is, remembering you can do this trick.

4) Breaking through the veil. This sounds like something awesome, and it really is. You really know if you have done it, because of this intense feeling that washes over you like ice water. The first time I did it, it felt like I had suddenly become a god. Breaking through the veil is where you actively take control of the dream. As maintaining a lucid state is a lot like swimming on the surface of the ocean (your subconscious) Its very difficult, and tiring. You suddenly gain control of all your senses. You can taste, smell, feel temperature. Everything looks like reality, but a lot more intense. To maintain control, you have to choose a goal. If you do not, you will slowly drift back into the lower layer of pre-lucid (The layer above the normal dream state) Choosing a goal can be simple. You decide to fly, and you go and try to do it.

If you have any questions, im still here.

 

[LittleCat]

Thanks for all these nifty tips, Yamimaru! I tried dream journaling some time ago in hopes of reaching a lucid state of dreaming, but, as you said, memories of dreams vanish quickly. Mine are gone within seconds. I’m going to try your two mantras and see what happens.

 

[Maou]

I forgot to add a very interesting thing about the dream state.

You are not the "you" that is awake, or the you that is asleep. Even while you are fully lucid, you are not the "you", you are when you are awake. If that makes sense

Why is this? I believe its because you are not actually fully conscious and some parts of your brain are still off that would normally be on when you are awake. Such things include reasoning, logic, and recall. You are in very much a raw state. Id say your super ego is actually not currently functioning. You will feel more exposed emotionally, and you will feel far more extroverted. Its a strange phenomena you have to experience for yourself.

Another thing to note is, if you have certain fears in reality. You will have them in dreams, including lucid dreams. Your dream state actually fights back against your lucidity with your fears to drag you back into normal sleep.

So lets say you have anxiety, and you want to fly. Since flying is directly representative of freedom etc. If you have anxiety, you will have a hard time flying even while lucid. Power lines, etc will appear in the air and you get tangled up and or blocked, and you feel like you cannot escape them. You should actively combat these things, because your efforts will translate to real life in overcoming anxiety. If you learn to overcome them in the dream state, you will have an easier time in real life doing it.

I had this same problem when I first started to lucid dream. Id get caught in the power lines. Or if I flew, I went up to fast and felt like I couldn't come back down and I was in free fall and would die. This is my anxiety manifesting. I eventually learned to overcome it. When I did, flying became more like exhilarating and dangerous fun to me. My anxiety in real life stopped being so scary as well. Id wing things, and realize it is just a feeling and reality is always more boring than what you think is going to happen.

 

[LittleCat]

This is all really good to know beforehand. It would definitely be a shock to go into a dream not being aware of this!

 

[Maou]

This is all really good to know beforehand. It would definitely be a shock to go into a dream not being aware of this!

Best of luck!

 

[LucieCat]

Great tips! I've never consciously taught myself lucid dreaming, but I've noticed it happening anyway on occasion. Though it tends to happen with specific kinds of dreams. Every few weeks or so, I have a dream about working on a school assignment. Then I realize that reality doesn't correlate: "I'm not taking any of these courses this semester." "I already graduated high school." "It's summer. I'm off. I don't need to do this." Then it strikes me that I'm dreaming, I get up and go do something else like spend time with animals until I wake up or go to sleep in the dream. It's a bit strange, but my brain notices that the situation fundamentally makes no sense and dreaming is the explanation.

 

[Maou]

Great tips! I've never consciously taught myself lucid dreaming, but I've noticed it happening anyway on occasion. Though it tends to happen with specific kinds of dreams. Every few weeks or so, I have a dream about working on a school assignment. Then I realize that reality doesn't correlate: "I'm not taking any of these courses this semester." "I already graduated high school." "It's summer. I'm off. I don't need to do this." Then it strikes me that I'm dreaming, I get up and go do something else like spend time with animals until I wake up or go to sleep in the dream. It's a bit strange, but my brain notices that the situation fundamentally makes no sense and dreaming is the explanation.

I am a natural as well. I stuggled a lot with chronic night terrors for years, so it came to me naturally to prevent them. I wasn't aware it was a thing till I found out about it online.

Noticing inconsistancies in a dream is a natural trigger for lucid dreaming. I remember looking at clocks and noticing the time was wrong or moving incorrectly. Or I would notice I havent lived in this location in ten years! Lol

 

[Maou]

Okay, so I got this watch that tracks my sleep state. Last night I had an intense dream, and to my surprise. I had a much longer deep sleep state than normal. Im not sure at what time the dream took place, but I find that interesting.

So dream journal time:

The dream I had, was creepy even by my standards. I was traveling with my BF somewhere in the Midwest to a mountain (this journey has been in a few dreams before), and around sunset we decided to get an inn at this small town. Upon pulling up to a light behind several cars, we noticed something strange. While everything was still running (lights etc) it appeared nothing had moved for a very, very, long time. Everything seemed bone dry, dusty, and old. As the light turned green, we realized the cars in front of us were not moving. Disturbed, we got out of our car to go look. Inside of the handful of cars at the light, were mummified corpses of their drivers. We were about to GTFO, but we then noticed our car, and the road we came in on had vanished. It was then the dream did a time skip, I realized we were trapped in some sort of pocket dimension town.

My BF and I were camping out in a house, and we knew 3 things. Not to go out at night, keep the lights on, and never go off alone. We coukd find food in the day. We realized that the weather never changed from dry and dusty. Im not sure how long we were living like that (time dilation), but we also learned things went bump in the night. There was something out there, and we were terrified. In the dream, I remember thinking it was demons or interdimensional monsters. As time progressed, we noticed the world was beginning to decay. A blueish green mold began to grow everywhere. One day, I awoke to it growing on my BF who was now very sick. Panicked, I knew I had to get us out of there. Putting him in a wheel chair, I tried to leave the town at dusk.

Pushing my BF, and running through darkened streets, I finally saw what was living in the dark. These things appeared out of thin air, and where reddish black masses, that had multiple eyes. There were these faceless animals, and it was very silent hill esque and they all started chasing us. To my surprise though, upon reaching a certain street. A road appeared, like a green ivy tunnel that led to a normal looking suburb. I ran towards it, and like stepping through a portal. It was if that other town didn't exist. My BF was suddenly better, and I woke up.

Dream analysis: This entire dream is a metaphor for my relationship feelings with my BF. The different aspects represent challenges we have faced in the past, and working together. It also represents how much I take care of my BF

 

[Maou]

Everything happens differently for me. I am not always able to control and realize everything that happens in my dreams. But I am a great believer in omens and fate, as well as in divine dreams. I have heard that from Thursday night to Friday night, people have a dream of divination. Sometimes in my dreams, it is as if I am dreaming about déjà vu or flashbacks from the past. The Astral Projection of my dream is another story altogether. I went to a specialist because I wanted to know what my dreams meant. I want to know what the future holds for me. Maybe I need to change something in my life.

Take it with a grain of salt, as auspicious as some dreams are. They are neither divine nor prophetic. Dreams are your own mind, relaying information back to the "Ego" which is you. The language it speaks is only something you can decipher. As someone who has done "astral projection", I can tell you its just untapped potential to remember things, and manifest them in a dream state. It has nothing to do with your soul leaving your body.