How do you know you are here right now?

Okay, recently I have had a project if you will. I have been looking into something called lucid dreaming. Basicly, what I am looking for is controll over my own dreams. May sound crazy, but really. I might aswell spend eight hours a night doing something productive! Anywho, have you ever known you were dreaming and had controll over what happened? And if so, what did you do? Oh, and what gave it away? Happy dreaming!

 

/inb4makaze

I have had all types of dreams, even lucid ones, but all of the times that I've known I was dreaming, it was like I was the audience, unable to control what was happening on stage. If I wasn't the audience, then I was in the first-person point of view, but still had lack of control over the things that happened.​

 

I wish I can control my dreams. Many things would go down my way doing things that couldn't happen in the real world. When ever I dream I keep forgetting to control it because I dont think about it. :/
I am exactly like Saxima here, its like Im watching some movie at a movie theater -__-

 

It happened to me when I was a kid. I had a series of recursing nightmares. I had them so often I ended up seeing them for what they were, just dreams, and since I didn' t want to die or suffer (their usual conclusion) I learned how to wake up willingly. It' s only years later that I read an article on the matter and learned I could have trained myself to do so much more than waking up, but whatever, my dreams don' t have recursing elements to give them away anymore.

I read however that you can create recursing elements yourself : someone designed special glasses that send a blipping light towards your eyes once they detect you' re dreaming. This makes a freaking blipping red light appear in your dreams too, which you should recognize as proof you' re dreaming after a few nights.

 

I usually don't have dreams anymore, but I used to. I remember I had this one dream in which was walking down this street, then I was walking down in the sewers, and then there was this room that I went into, down in the sewers.... and for some reason it was filled with christmas decorations (No idea why)... And in the room there was some sort of evil presence. Like a monster of some kind. And in the room I had walked into the back corner of it. And I could see the monsters red eye's glaring at me. However, almost like a narrator, I literally heard my voice say: "It's not going to happen this way" and I literally rewound myself until I was outside of the room and in the sewers again with the monster growling within the enclosed room. That's the only time I know of where I had control of my dream. (This was years ago, by the way.)

 

There are others who can do this? And in wide ranges too?

Hm.



Yes, I have lucid dreams. Very often. Mostly when I'm tired, and I have no more energy to stay awake. It seems that since I have no energy when I am awake, I have the energy to control what goes on in my dreams. That is the way I see it. Or, it is just a very realistic subconcious that we have.



If that makes any sense to you.

 

I think this is contextually right:

You want to really go on a mindbending, reality altering experience read the Dao De Jing, by Laozi. It's superb in bringing up topics of persception and reality in a simple context.

 

Ohh I love lucid dreaming, I lucid dream a lot. :3

I normally control them so I'm flying, or I'm some epic character from an anime. XD I do attempt to wake myself up sometimes too, though, but it barely ever works, and when it does, I get sleep paralysis. :\ Which is actually quite frightening. So now I just try to stay asleep. XD

As for what gives it away... it's kind of hard to explain. Sometimes I'm dreaming, and then I just suddenly think of an issue that I'm currently facing in real life, then I just come to see senses that what's currently happening is surreal until it's like watching a boring movie; I see what's happening but I'm not drawn into it any more. But then I change it into something fun that involves rainbows. 8D

 

I used to be able to control them. I could creat worlds, trees, buildings, people. Turing somethign out of nothing.

It started with the dream in which I'm in complete darkeness falling fast. I controled myself to stop falling and land on my feet. Then I wondered, If this could be controled, what elese could I do in my dreams? And that is how my lucid dreaming went for quite some time.

But now, due to my depression and issues, my power to dream is gone, and when I do, I can't remeber what they were.

 

She knows me well.

I love this. It was referenced in Kuroshitsuji more than once.

If one stays in one dream longer than the other, one begins to see the other as the dream. It switches again if the balance shifts to another side. In the end, there is no way to tell whether or not you are dreaming, which is real or if either of them is.

I have spoken of this a few times. I have had lucid dreams a few times in my life. Gaining the ability to lucid dream freely is one of my major goals in life. Check out the link in my signature for progress on that front.

When I was around six years old, I watched a film called "Volcano" with my father. I had one of the most vivid dreams I have had that night. In the dream, a volcano erupted in my hometown. The lava crept very slowly towards my house. I quickly woke my family up to try and run away. We came out of the front side of the house and tried to run to the back where the car was parked. I was ahead of everyone and tried to hurry them along, but someone was too slow. I think it was one of my brothers. The lava caught up with him and melted his legs off, and we were forced to leave him to die. I freaked out as I realized that the rest of us were going to die, too. I imagined us getting in the van together and going far away. I couldn't accept what had happened. I had to be dreaming.

In fact, I convinced myself that I was dreaming. I could do whatever I wanted.

I increased my confidence and made a waving motion with my arms as if I could push back the lava with my mind. It worked. I laughed and pushed it back some more. I was giddy with how much power I had. I was a god here. A minute later, I ran over to my trampoline, my family forgotten, and began to jump up and down while laughing and keeping the lava from getting close enough to harm me. I thought it would be cool to be able to throw fireballs from my hands, so I did that, too. It somehow helped in keeping the lava away from me. Fighting fire with fire works in dreams.

I woke up later feeling very good about myself. That my first and best lucid dream.

If anything gave it away, it was a certain feeling that I get while I am dreaming. I can almost always tell that what is happening is not really happening at the back of my mind because the atmosphere feels too much like dream logic. Does that make sense? It's kind of an intuitive thing for me, though I sometimes get this feeling while seemingly awake. It leads me into solipsism. I will never forget the time I started laughing maniacally while dancing and making myself a sandwich, and then looking over to the sofa where my brother was staring at me like I was crazy. It is an awesome feeling, but I'm not sure how to control it... It comes with time, I suppose.

If you want to learn to lucid dream, the first step is dream recording. Keep a dream journal and sharpen your ability to remember your dreams and identify what is happening. Eventually you will get the feel of it and be able to tell when you are dreaming just by the atmosphere. It helps to think of things like The Matrix and Inception before going to bed. The more you question whether or not you are dreaming, the more you will question it in dreams. Good luck.

 

I always know when I'm dreaming because everything in my dreams are either blurry or everything is on its side. Sometimes every thing is dark or blank, and other times I can see things, but for some odd reason I'm crawling along the ground and can't get up.
I wish I could control my dreams though. That sounds like it would be a lot of fun. At least then I could turn my nightmares into sweet dreams. Can you teach yourself to control you dreams or something like that. I've never had a lucid dream.

 

For a while I tried very hard to lucid dream, but it wouldn't work out for me. I got to the point where I would reality check in my dreams and realize I was dreaming (I could do this every night) but I could not do anything I wanted to do. As in, I knew I was dreaming and had control of myself, but when I tried to earthbend or fly or change the scenery, nothing happened. This would go on for a few frustrating minutes, and then I'd wake up or lose my "Lucidity" and go back to regular non-controllable dreaming. It's a shame, really. Maybe I should try again, it's been a while...

 

Yes, you can. Read the posts above yours.

I have the opposite. I don't always realize that I am dreaming, but I can do whatever I try to do in my dreams. Perhaps it parallels how limited you think you are in waking? I have thought of that many times, though I have no way to tell of its veracity. Having a god complex could change things.

 

Every night, I hope for a lucid dream, but it's rare that I ever get one.

When I was younger, I would usually have control over the situation, and it would be something absurd like my being a Power Ranger. Still, I suppose that the innocence of a child could have something to do with it. Nowadays, it just feels like I'm being forced to let things play out; I don't have any real control over what happens, but there are times where it will be utterly absurd.

 

I can do whatever I want when I don't know I'm dreaming. Just last night I had a Harry Potter/Portal dream, I was flinging spells around everywhere and it was awesome. But once I realize I'm dreaming, I can't do anything. It's incredibly frustrating.

 

It sounds like there is definitely a correlation between what your conscious mind believes it can do and your lucidity while dreaming. Realize that there is no spoon. What you are bending is only yourself.

 

You like that? Maybe I should take a reference to something else dear Zhuangzi said before that might interest you.

So Makaze, maybe an interesting man you'd want to get to know more of?
I know I was continuously interested in the man's thoughts.

 

Quite so. Daoists and Buddhists alike are the original anarchists of the world. Thank you for revealing him.

 

I used to be able to lucid dream. When I was little I kept having this nightmare. It seems like I had it every night. One night I realised I was dreaming and basicly stoped the dream before it started. Eventually I guess I got good enogh that the night mare stoped all together. Along with all others. The last time I lucid dreamed and attempted to wake up, I brought myself to a spifal staircase and there were doors everywere. And I haven't had that level of lucid for awhile. I havent had a single bad dream for the past.... almost eight years. Now without any nightmares, I have to start from scratch with lucid dreaming.

But with your thoughts on spending more time in one than another, I think it would be fun. To see life as a dream, and to have your dreams be reality. Thats what most people want but never get. I probably wont get this feeling though. I normally get about 5 hours sleep a night. There is still another 19 hours to deal with, I don't think I will slip that far into it.

I have been keeping a journal for about 5 days now. I have started seeing a pattern that could tell me I am asleep, so its just a matter of realising them further.

I see no reason you can't. It is fun. And useful too. A blank sleight I would imagine is perfect. If you know when you are dreaming, then the next thing to do is to try and change things. Start off simple and work your way up to complex.

Thanks, I will check it out later :) I think i will really enjoy it.

Yea, you are making sence :). From my research alot of people can.

Sleep peralisis? Whats that? Obviously not being able to move, but explain a bit if posible. Whats it like, how long does it last, yaknow. stuff like that.
My only experence with waking myself up is when I open my eyes I would see nothing but bright white. I would blink and I would see my room and actually be awake. I guess the white is some transition beetween sleep and being awake. It was wierd but cool lol.

 

I have not had a nightmare since I was a child, either. Not because I am lucid, though. I have a lot of dreams that others would call scary, but I am not scared of them. I have lost almost all of my fears. The only things that bother me in dreams are things that I have done. I do not fear death and I feel no pain, but regret hits me very hard. A trend I am noticing.

Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to REM atonia, the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Sleep paralysis occurs either when falling asleep, or when awakening. When it occurs upon falling asleep, the person remains aware while the body shuts down for REM sleep, and it is called hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis. When it occurs upon awakening, the person becomes aware before the REM cycle is complete, and it is called hypnopompic or postdormital. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes, with some rare cases being hours, "by which the individual may experience panic symptoms" (described below). As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, the paralysis is not entirely complete; use of EOG traces shows that eye movement is still possible during such episodes. When there is an absence of narcolepsy, sleep paralysis is referred to as isolated sleep paralysis (ISP).

In addition, the paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic), perceived deafening loud noise and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual because of the vividness of such hallucinations. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful or dream-like objects may appear in the room alongside one's normal vision.

~ Wikipedia​

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I have experienced these hallucinations many times. I nearly always see spider webs scattered in every direction across my room. I have had one notably special hallucination (one that interacted with me) which can be found here.