Lucid dreaming

To the most of you un-familiar, to lucid dream is to have a dream in which you are conscious that you are in a dream. These are also sometimes called "conscious dreams", I believe.

The concept on face seems un-spectacular, but it is an incredible thing. If, in a dream, you are aware that you are dreaming, you are then in complete control over everything in your dream, since it is in your head.

To quote a character from the movie "waking life" (one of the most significant movies ever, as far as I am concerned):

"The trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams."

We spend 1/3 of our life sleeping, so being conscious in your sleep would basically be like living longer. With practice, people can have these on will.

If not only for sheer, godlike fun, it allows you to explore your own head, and solve problems. It gives you an enlightened sense of reality being un-definite and dreamlike (back in waking state). After I accidentally had a lucid dream about a year ago, it was about all I could think about for weeks to come. It left, for a while, a combined sense of elation in reliving it, and a yearning to be back in that reality -In that alternate dimension- again.

As for me, I am no expert on this. I have had 2 or 3 real lucid dreams...and then a few less lucid naps in the morning, which don't count for much. About a year ago, as was mentioned, I accidentally had one. For a long time I didn't really succeed in having one again (except for small ones that didn't count) until this past summer, in which I had one again. Nothing can compare, however, to the first lucid dream I had.

Errm...Sorry, the youtube clip has horrible synchronization of sound and video.

If in my dream I see myself, would that be considered a lucid dream?

Because many times (nearly all), I either star or co-star in my own dreams.

At 10/20/2008 8:16:51 PM, funnybrad333 wrote:
If in my dream I see myself, would that be considered a lucid dream?

Because many times (nearly all), I either star or co-star in my own dreams.

Do you know it's a dream? Could you suddenly say "hey wait a minute, Im in control here...and I don't wanna ride this damn ferris wheel"?

Cause the only thing it needs to be a lucid dream is the awareness of the fact that it is a dream.

I dunno. Very often (maybe an hour before I wake up?), I am aware that I am dreaming. I don't think I can control what I do though. I can make mental thoughts that are aware of my being in a dream, but I can't really process those thoughts and do something about them.

It's hard to explain.

I usually become aware of it within 3-5 minutes of waking up... which sucks, because that's when it's getting fun :D.

so how do you train yourself to get them? i had one once, it was cool!

At 10/21/2008 1:42:00 AM, Wayne wrote:
so how do you train yourself to get them? i had one once, it was cool!

There's alot of stuff online about this. People have different methods, but one consistant thing seems to be every once and a while doing little tests to see if you are in reality.

gah, sounds like a lot of work

Lucid dreaming is pretty cool, but it's hard to do.

Lucid Dreaming: Conversations with your subconscious.

At 10/21/2008 1:42:00 AM, Wayne wrote:
so how do you train yourself to get them? i had one once, it was cool!

Sometimes one gets them automatically but...

Go without or roughly without sleep for two-three days, that is, until insanely fatigued
If you don't have a headache (if you do it won't happen), drink some caffeine right before you go to sleep.
Think pleasant thoughts.
When you notice funky stuff start to happen, act on pleasant thoughts.
The night is yours.

least that's how it happened (mostly by accident) the only time I managed to do anything along those lines without waking up within 5 minutes. Sleep deprivation is not healthy, so I haven't tried it too many other times :D

Go without or roughly without sleep for two-three days, that is, until insanely fatigued
If you don't have a headache (if you do it won't happen), drink some caffeine right before you go to sleep.

Jesus, thats hardcore. Why did you not sleep for 3 days?

I thought you were kidding, but if such a state exist, screw video games. I'll try and rely on lucid dreaming instead.

Any idea on whether or not this method works: http://www.wikihow.com...

Anybody who is interested in this should watch the movie "waking life".

http://video.google.com...

A pretty crappy medium for watching a movie, but whatever.

Actually, come to think of it, even if youre not interested in this topic, watch that movie. That movie has so much in it. I connect it to lucid dreaming, because that was what I got out of this movie. Dreaming in general is probably it's theme, but even that's not all. It is about humanity; it's about metaphysics; it's about the brain; its about society; etc...

At 10/22/2008 3:15:40 PM, Harlan wrote:

Go without or roughly without sleep for two-three days, that is, until insanely fatigued
If you don't have a headache (if you do it won't happen), drink some caffeine right before you go to sleep.

Jesus, thats hardcore. Why did you not sleep for 3 days?

Long distance forbidden relationship with most of the communication time coming at night, and since it was secret, I couldn't make up for that time during the day...

I want to learn how to lucid dream.