Aborting

Sorry, but I just found out that my parents have tried lucid dreaming and have had less than safe experiences with it.

I will discontinue persuing this venture.

If it wouldn’t be too much trouble could you please explain what you mean by

Do you mean physically or mentally?
Thanks. I just don’t know how there could be any ‘less than safe experiences’.

If you find something that is “less safe.” Don’t you think it is wise to share it with us?

I recently posted a message of how lucid dreams have benefited me personally. You can read it here:
“Nightmare Elimination”

It’s a long post, so I’ll quote from it what I would like you to read.

If lucid dreaming is dangerous, then don’t ever go to sleep. I have mine naturally, and dreams happen anyways. There are many misconceptions about lucid dreams, I have yet to hear of someone that have had LDs and found them unsafe. It’s usually from people that havn’t experienced it.

This is a little dissapointing, Russia, as you seemed to be progressing quite well. I certainly hope you intend to tell us what you consider to be ‘less than safe’, since obviously we are all unaware of any dangers such as this to Lucid Dreaming.

ehm maybe you can share what you discovered?

If she’s gone, she won’t be reading these posts… :eh:
Maybe someone should send her a PM, that will probably end up in her mailbox.

I’m also very curious what those unsafe things would be.

Was it Russ that posted that thread about the father coming across the site and saying “Don’t want to get into that…” ? Maybe the parents are those types that view anything seemingly metaphysical as dangerous and against god. Perhaps russ’s not giving up over her own free will but by parental mandate.

Cut with the insults, please.

Anyway, my parents have told me that they did indeed persue lucid dreaming and that they were surprised that I had found it on my own. They also said that they have had thousands of lucid dreams…and it’s messed up their sleep cycles. They can’t stop the lucid dreams, and its much more than just dreams…(I think theyre talking about astral projection, but thats a subject I know not much about) And now they cannot stop it at all. Nightmares every night, of twisted things, lucidity as well but they can’t banish it, they can’t wake up from it…

Now they could be lying, but I’ve heard enough things while sleeping with them (long story) that supports their claims.

Hmmm, that sounds like the complete opposite of Dreamaddicts nightmare experiences.

Anyway. Against all positive experiences I have only heard once before from a person who got nightmares while trying to get lucid. (Not while being lucid)
This intrigues me. After all those positive experiences, maybe it would be good (for a completer vision of LDing) to hear some negative experiences.

Do you think your parents would be willing to share some of their experiences here?

I highly doubt it, but I could ask. But again, the chances of it are incredibly low.

I sent u a personal message…
Maybe i can help…

You say “parents” as in plural. I find it interesting that two people have had “less-than-safe” experiences. Like Hypnodude, I’m very interested in hearing peoples negative experiences. We always here about the “pros” and never the “cons.” Everything has both.

I can agree with Rossi saying “it’s messed up their sleep cycles.” Some techniques ask you to interupt your sleep cycle like the WBTB method and others. This is voluntary though. By saying “messed up” it sounds like they have problems sleeping. I never have problems going to sleep or staying asleep. I do have an erratic sleep schedule, but only because I’m unemployeed at the moment and I preoccupy myself with things. If I lay down to go to sleep it only takes minutes before I’m asleep soundly. I have juggled full-time school and full-time work while practicing LDs. Any interuptions of my sleep cycle have been purely voluntary. I think it is the fear of dreams that may interupt their sleep cycle, or anxiety, or problems on mind.

I find Rossi’s parents situation sad. :sad: I can imagine the real horror this must cause them. :sad: “they can’t wake up from it” seems as if they think that every night is a risk of becoming trapped. It is truely deeply saddening to see how the potential of their dreams have been robbed by their fears. This can start a downward spiral of nightmares that may be difficult to escape from. To be afraid before you even go to sleep, to fear you may dream, plants the nightmare in your head. It is called “dream incubation.”

I don’t think they are lying. If they lie to you by telling you that you’ll have nightmares, then they will indeed cause you nightmares. I think they are aware of that. I hope they have not planted that seed.

I hope someone here has advice for your parents. Dreams are a gift for all of us humans and should be cherished, not feared. They have much potential!

Take-care and sweet-dreams!!

I certainly meant no insults. I used the general her as people would use a general masculine form… instead of saying he/she or they. It wasn’t a declaration of gender rather it was brought on by seeing it in common use.

I also meant nothing by saying your parents may be religious. I have a few friends whos parents would be very concerned if their child was engaging in something such as lucid dreaming. Some religions just don’t allow for such things as lucid dreaming… they lump it in with witchcraft and demonism. I only meant to suggest that perhaps they may have some sort of objection against LDing and therefore told you not to continue with it. No offense there guy.

I find your parents story strange and fascinating. Have they sought help for the situation they are in or do they feel there is nowhere to turn?

Rossi: If your parents are that concerned about Lucid dreaming, I definetely think they should inform other people about the dangers of it… Please ask them, I am sure many people over here are more than interested in hearing their experiences.
For me, I am not sure wheather it is because I remember my dreams better now, or because I have started working on getting lucid dreams, but some of the dreams I recall are damn odd and freaky. In fact, that was kind of the reason why I stopped trying to get lucid dreams for a while, and stopped writing my dream diary…

Lostboy: I understand what your saying, and they dont even have to be religious, they just might be unaware of lucid dreaming, I was telling my dad about novadreamer when I found out he didnt even know what a lucid dream was… I explained to him that once you are aware of dreaming you can do anything, and my dad was like ‘haha, but thats not possible’ :alien: I read in a book by David Fontana that also Christian holy men have tried to achieve lucid dreams, some weird methods like whipping themselves…Indians used peyote cactus, some others used cannabis. I suppose many people are unaware of lucid dreaming, and after all, we still have quite little knowledge about it…
This is why I encourage Rossi to ask his parents to tell us their experiences.

Lucid dreaming dangerous :neutral: ?

It certainly CAN mess up your sleep cycles but this is, like Dream Addict said, due to some techniques you can freely choose among a broad range of methods. In WBTB (a very succesful technique BTW) you stay up for an hour at night: of course this could cause some problems if you don’t go earlier to bed.

Another aspect of nightly experiments is the higher risk of experiencing sleep paralysis (SP) and the accompanying hypnagogic hallucinations . Especially if you experiment with stuff like astral projection (OBE’s) you can encounter this kind of creepy experiences. I’m almost sure this is the danger your parents are pointing to (please correct me if I’m wrong). However I think you should know there is no danger at all in sleep paralysis and the more you resist and fear it, the worse it gets. The hallucinations are completely illusionary and there is no need to fear an illusion. The more you consider it as a real and dangerous phenomenon, the more realistic and dangerous it gets. The more you resist the more it persists. The paralysis itself is a natural phenomenon, scary but without danger. To learn about sleep paralysis check out this link:
arts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html

Another way in which we can cause unnecessary fear in ourselves is by believing in all those strange christian or New Age theories about the “dangers of astral projection”. You can encounter all kinds of “demonic forces” and you should be very careful because those demons are REAL, they say. Of course, if you see those forces as real (and many of these people claim that dreams are much more real than waking reality) then you will have much more fear and the whole mental construction becomes even more scary and real (just like sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations). Of course you are free to believe what you want but the consequence of this kind of beliefs is that you have to take dreams very serious, you have to be scared all the time because of all those dangerous creatures around you that can “possess” you. I prefer to just see them as mental constructions, nothing to fear. So demons don’t bother me, they are no demons but my own constructions and this realization makes those creatures powerless.

So maybe you could find out what are the beliefs of your parents about this and then you will be more able to compare with other information and make a decision for yourself. The human mind can be very powerful and create the most horrible “realities”. This can cause a lot of fear. Fear puts our life in a bottleneck because it makes us less free to explore the amazing reality around us. So if we notice fear in ourselves we better find out if that fear is based on real dangers or on illusions, don’t we? If you stand before a real lion, run. If you encounter a dream lion, smile :smile: .

Just my 2 cents, and I hope they help.

Hah, yeah. And marijuana is highly addictive and will lead to harder drugs.

Huh? :confused: What does that have to do with the price of eggs in China?

Same here. but like I said in another post “the dreamscape is a powerful place where your ideas can take realistic form.” Any idea that you believe is true, can take form in your dreams.

I’ve also grown to see my dreams as “mental constructions,” though I’m actually trying to reverse that. :neutral: I think that belief influences your dreamscape, and can create bland dream characters. I always tell my DC’s “you’re not real. you’re in my dream. you’re only a dream … etc.” and they always seem to turn emotionless and vacant. When I have a non-ld, and mistaken my surroundings as reality, I can recall long meaningful conversations with DC’s. Like my recent dream with Dolly Parton. :grin: I think if I could make myself believe that the dreamscape is a real place, then I will start to have more lucid lucid dreams. This doesn’t mean I have to adopt the “danger” or “possession” ideas.

It’s a catch-22 though. I’ve yet to have a dream to make me think it is a “real” reality, but if I did believe it was a “real” reality than the dreams will become more realistic.

I’m afraid it it impossible to fool yourself on purpose, if you really know it’s an illusion then it is just what it is. Besides that, one of the features of “reality” is that you cannot have the good without the bad, so if you would manage to have such a “real” unreal dream you will definitely encounter scary stuff and, since it is “real” for you, be afraid of it.

Maybe you should go to the source of the problem, what is it that makes those DC’s so “vacant” when you realize the illusion? Why should they change? “Vacant” and “emotionless” DC’s are as illusionary as DC’s full of emotion, why pick only one of them?

My guess is that they only reflect your state of mind, and since you associate “seeing them as illusion” with “becoming vacant and emotionless” that’s just what happens. The pitfalls are endless! It’s like not being able to fly in a dream, it is perfectly possible for everyone to fly in a dream but something subconscious blocks the possibility. If so, only realizing and letting go of the blockade will open up other possibilities. I’m sure it is possible to create every illusion you want, even emotional DC’s can be created without having to see them as “real” :wink: .

Why should realizing the illusion hinder you from living the illusion with enthousiasm? Suppose you discover right now everything you perceive including yourself is a sort of illusion (though a very persistent one, like good old Albert Einstein once said), why should you stop living this “illusionary” reality? It’s still the only reality you got right now, illusion or not. The apple you eat is still an apple with a specific taste, the beautiful girl is still a beatiful girl,… probably the only thing that would change is that you know it’s all in the mind, that it is all “you” whether it smiles or not, whether you can control it or not. Hmmm, maybe the key is to realize that “real” and “unreal” are just two sides of the same coin?

I will try to explain the problem how my parents explained it…They have Sleep Paralysis literally EVERY night, whenever they go to slepe they do not feel rested…and they said their dreams are very dark and twisted.

I’ve heard them sometimes moaning at night as if something was coming after them or something…It isn’t pleasent. They usually grit their teeth and produce some VERY odd sound (like two plastic trays maybe rubbing against each other) yet there is no plastic. I think that they think that evil forces have followed them and are haunting them through their dreams (I once had many nightmares and some healer guy said that someone was trying to hurt them through me. He did something and ever since, it quit).

Thats all they really said…