So last night I had a dream in which I think I became lucid. In a nutshell, I was having a nightmare where some scary lady grabbed hold of me. Immediately after this, I am 100% sure I thought: “Wait a minute, this is a dream, I am dreaming!” Knowing that I was dreaming, I tried breaking free and explore the dream world. However, I couldn’t move one tiny bit. To my surprise I kept playing the nightmare’s script, even though I clearly intended not to and knew I was dreaming. I even decided to turn and face this lady, then thought of asking her what she represented. But still, SP had kicked in and prevented any movement whatsoever. A few seconds later I woke up.
All in all, is this considered a lucid dream, or does it fall inside a semi-lucid, or false lucid dream? If it’s indeed a lucid dream, why couldn’t I move when I wanted to? If not, then how can I get past this invisible barrier? It’s now the 2nd time this happens to me in a dream. Although the first time I never intended to do anything, I could understand my following the dream’s script. But, seeing how in this particular situation I decided upon conscious action within the dream, now SP decides to appear again and mess things up, just when I’m closest to achieving lucidity.
Anyway, if any of you dreamers out there can offer some guidance, thoughts, ideas, know it’ll be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Yeah i would count this as a lucid dream. I think you became lucid and then right away started losing lucidity, down to a low, semi-lucid state. This is most likely because you are new to it. Now the SP thing, i dont have much experience with! Maybe you were about to wake up…maybe a coincidence…? It will all sort itself out once you get more experience! You are well on your way, good job
*Nods
Yep thats a lucid. Congrats and welcome back.
For the SP within the dream, I have yet to read up on it. I may have had it happen and it appears to occur spontaneously.
Thanks both for your answers! Glad to hear this experience falls right into a lucid dream, which now accounts to my 2nd one!
Btw I went over my dream journal and noticed I was indeed, at the time I was lucid, just slowly waking up from the dream. I would say I stayed about 7-8 seconds lucid, and then the dream ended. So, this could most probably be the reason I couldn’t move consciously, and may have misinterpreted the situation as SP occurring while dreaming. Which is also a possibility but, maybe, during such transition from sleeping to waking SP somehow got linked between both states, meaning that as I tried moving inside the dream world I also tried doing so in waking life, and thus, triggered SP.
Also I always get confused with the meaning behind a lucid dream. Does the term lucidity (in a dream) refers only to the ability to know that you’re dreaming inside a dream? Or does consciousness also amount to not only knowing, but also being able to decide upon conscious action, and ultimately doing such action freely and aware?
Once again, thanks both for your thoughts on this.
Once you consciously decide, YES i am dreaming, then it is a lucid dream. Now you may have a low lucid level, like you just did, and go along with the dream kinda half knowing that you are dreaming. Your level of lucidity depends on your awareness…if that makes sense. At a high lucid level…all clouds will be gone from your mind and you will stare into your dream as focused and aware as you are when awake…When you have a full blown very lucid dream, you will understand what i am saying
Thanks for the clarification! Guess there’s nothing left for me to do but to keep practicing. Hopefully, as the days go by, my level of awareness increases high enough for me to start experiencing such fully conscious lucid dreams.
A quick update, two nights ago on the 23rd of this month I achieved my 3rd lucid dream, and yet again the same outcome manifested as in my previous two LDs. Once again, once lucid I started experiencing a strong numbness/vibrational feel around my body, and after a few short seconds I woke up. However, I noticed that if I kept fighting the numbness, I would come closer to waking up myself, but, when I let go, the opposite occurred and I sensed being pulled slowly back into the dream again. Unfortunately, the emotion was too much for me to handle (either that or I got desperate), so I will have to test this on my next lucid dream if the issue continues.
Might I suggest something? Just as an experiment, next time you feel that you’re slipping out of dreaming, and that moving will wake you up, try fidgeting with your fingers rather than moving completely. See if that stabilizes you to a comfortable connection with the dream, before putting too much effort into moving.
I finally had the opportunity to test your advice of fidgeting my fingers once lucid and it worked! I managed to successfully stabilize inside the dream, though I also had to include as many other senses as I could. But, surprisingly, I could move my hand, and subsequently my arms and the rest of my body. Thus, I was able to move willingly around the dream world! Thanks for the advice!
A few seconds later I woke up.
Glad to hear this experience falls right into a lucid dream, which now accounts to my 2nd one! 