Lucid Dreaming

[C-Life]

Originally Posted by Day Tripper

It's fun when you suddenly become lucid, because then you can tell the people around you: "Guess what. I'm only dreaming! You guys don't even exist!"

On a slightly different note, does anyone experience sleep paralysis? It usually only happens to me if I've been sleeping for a very long time (>10 hours and I'm being lazy by staying in bed and escaping to dream worlds). When this happens each successive time I wake up I'll have a different hallucination. For example, just this last weekend there was a holographic owl that was sort of hanging out of the mirror in my room, and after that a strange black monster with sharp black teeth that was hovering overtop my dresser, then began to creep towards me and hung far over my bed snapping its teeth at me...and all the time unable to move, but somehow never afraid. I guess I'm lucky that I'm not one of those people who experience sleep paralysis in the middle of the night and are unable to move while they experience aliens jamming probes up their arses.

Yes other times when I would dream the "monster" would come into my room and I would be unable to move or scream. I've also had it so I would see my room with my eyes open and close my eyes and see the dream, open my eyes and see my room, close my eyes and see the dream. It only lasted about 30 seconds and only ever happened once. (Strangely the dream was a fight between a demon and an angel.)

But I've never had real hallucinations like you say. That is freaky!!

[flylock shox]

We know so little about sleep and dreaming. Interesting to read the different experiences people have had.

My dreams tend to be semi-lucid, in the sense that I am immersed in them but, if I don't like what's going on, can change them. Like a couple of other posters, my first (recalled) experiences with lucid dreaming was as a result of a nightmare. In the dream I was camping, and got out of the tent in the middle of the night. It was cold out, and when I turned back to the tent noticed the tent-fly had been closed behind me. I then looked around and discovered I was surrounded by a pack of wolves. They started moving slowly towards me. I remember thinking (not as my dream persona, but as my third-person lucid persona) "No." And then changed the dream to somewhere pleasant. Since that time I've always found nightmares to be entertaining, since I'm never really immersed in them. I wonder if lucid dreaming often starts as a defence mechanism in response to nightmare induced fear...

My theory on the cause of dreams (it may be someone else's theory actually) is that they are the mind's attempt to make sense of patterns of activation and stimulation during REM sleep. Things you've been thinking about, or things to be stored in memory, result in activation of various parts of the brain in sleep - hence the frequency of dreams related to things you've recently experienced or thought about. Activation also can be caused by stimulants flowing through your system. The mind, as it automatically does, tries to make sense of what are, often, unrelated patterns of activation, and attempts to make connections between them in order to make sense of things. Its attempts to do so result in the activation of further areas, which can stimulate new ideas in what is essentially a chain reaction. I think this may go some way to explaining why, when we are worried about some some situation or problem, we sometimes wake up better equipped to solve it: our minds have been doing so automatically in our sleep, making connections we might not ordinarily make while conscious.

If anyone wants to experience some very powerful dreams, try taking milk thistle (an herbal supplement you can get at Shopper's Drug Mart or any vitamin store). As I understand it, what milk thistle does (along with the other ingredients it contains) is assist in breaking down some of the fat that builds on your liver when your body has too many toxins in it for the liver to efficiently process. This releases those stored-up stimulants into your bloodstream. If you take it before you go to bed, those stimulants end up causing some very potent dreaming. And you get a better liver out of the deal.

Of course, this may not work if you're not a drinker.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by JFK

I've always been pretty good at lucid dreaming.

Coincidentally, I also wake up stuck to my bed sheets every once in a while.

[simmer2]

Originally Posted by C-Life

Crazy! You're the first person I've seen that has basically the same type of lucid dreams as me.

For me it started with terrifying re-occuring nightmares when I was a kid. They started happening so often that in my dreams I realized that I was dreaming and could wake myself up. To wake myself up I would close my eyes for a few seconds and then open them. Sometimes I would still be in the dream, so I would just try it again. It now works like a charm.

So now if I'm in a weird world it will just "click." And I'll be like "yup this a dream." And I will try to change things or do whatever but they NEVER last long enough! Which is frustrating. But sometimes I'll be dreaming and suddenly I can tell that something scary is going to happen (kind of like in the movie The Cell) and I will wake myself up before anything happens. I usually laugh to myself at that point like "haha nice try." Ya it's weird.

I've always thought it was a special to be a lucid dreamer cause your mind and sub-conscience are now connected somehow, and I feel like it gives you an edge in every day life. Like you can tap into your sub-conscience to help you if necessary. I don't know how exactly but I like to think it does.

I'm going to have to try that spinning around thing tho.

I literally just found out about the turning around and looking at your hand thing. I also really didn't know how common/uncommon lucid dreaming was until more recently. I've always thought I've been able to tap the subconscious more and I often wonder if you can apply the same thing to your conscious self making things happen(obviously within reason).

[Top Shelf]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

We know so little about sleep and dreaming. Interesting to read the different experiences people have had.

My dreams tend to be semi-lucid, in the sense that I am immersed in them but, if I don't like what's going on, can change them. Like a couple of other posters, my first (recalled) experiences with lucid dreaming was as a result of a nightmare. In the dream I was camping, and got out of the tent in the middle of the night. It was cold out, and when I turned back to the tent noticed the tent-fly had been closed behind me. I then looked around and discovered I was surrounded by a pack of wolves. They started moving slowly towards me. I remember thinking (not as my dream persona, but as my third-person lucid persona) "No." And then changed the dream to somewhere pleasant. Since that time I've always found nightmares to be entertaining, since I'm never really immersed in them. I wonder if lucid dreaming often starts as a defence mechanism in response to nightmare induced fear...

My theory on the cause of dreams (it may be someone else's theory actually) is that they are the mind's attempt to make sense of patterns of activation and stimulation during REM sleep. Things you've been thinking about, or things to be stored in memory, result in activation of various parts of the brain in sleep - hence the frequency of dreams related to things you've recently experienced or thought about. Activation also can be caused by stimulants flowing through your system. The mind, as it automatically does, tries to make sense of what are, often, unrelated patterns of activation, and attempts to make connections between them in order to make sense of things. Its attempts to do so result in the activation of further areas, which can stimulate new ideas in what is essentially a chain reaction. I think this may go some way to explaining why, when we are worried about some some situation or problem, we sometimes wake up better equipped to solve it: our minds have been doing so automatically in our sleep, making connections we might not ordinarily make while conscious.

If anyone wants to experience some very powerful dreams, try taking milk thistle (an herbal supplement you can get at Shopper's Drug Mart or any vitamin store). As I understand it, what milk thistle does (along with the other ingredients it contains) is assist in breaking down some of the fat that builds on your liver when your body has too many toxins in it for the liver to efficiently process. This releases those stored-up stimulants into your bloodstream. If you take it before you go to bed, those stimulants end up causing some very potent dreaming. And you get a better liver out of the deal.

Of course, this may not work if you're not a drinker.

I used to take Melatonin to help me sleep, and it had similar side effects. Incredibly realistic, immersive dreams. It was actually too much for me, freaked me out more often then not, so I don't take that anymore.

I've gotten lucid a few times, read a bit about it and how you are supposed to be able to trigger it. Interesting stuff, I would love to be able to lucid dream whenever I felt like it, I would have too much fun and not want to wake up!