Hi, I'm new...

Hello everyone,

I’m new to the forum, but I’ve been checking this site for around a year now. My first “lucid” experience with dreaming was one I had on accident. It wasn’t too clear at all, but amazing none-the-less. I was standing in a desert, and I started to create a building with my mind. It was rectangular and made from black marble. The entrance into the building was from ladders placed underneath the first level of the building. Inside, there were plants growing. Then I woke up, it was a very brief dream that lasted probably 10-15 seconds in waking time. I don’t really know the significance of this building, or why I created it, but it definately sparked my interest in LDing.

I never kept a dream journal, but tried various LD inducing techniques, none of which got me too far. One night, I had a dream that felt real, but it wasn’t a lucid dream because I wasn’t in control of it. I was sitting in a theatre of some sort, watching a space themed movie. All of a sudden, I rose from my seat and flew into the screen. I started spinning around rapidly while floating through space until I woke up. I literally lost my breath. I was amazed at how clear and how real everything was. That dream convinced me that lucid dreaming was very much possible, I just had to “wake up”.

Now, the weird part. A little over a week later, my friend invited me to go with him and 2 other friends to go to the Pink Floyd laser show playing at the planetarium in the Carnegie Science Center(I live in Pittsburgh). Now, this was totally spontaneous, I only found out I was going to the laser show the night of the show. So, anyways, during “Wish You Were Here”, they had space themed visuals on the screen and everything was spinning… then I felt like I had major Deja vu. I felt like I was floating through space, exactly like in my dream a week earlier. It was almost like a religious experience for me, an out of body experience, it made me feel like I was detached from my body and I was floating. But was even more amazing to me was that my dream foretold my experience…

Now, I’m trying to get back into the swing of things after stopping my excercises for a couple months. I’m trying to get a dream journal started, as well as getting another book or 2 on lucid dreaming(I already have “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming”, and it is great book that I reccommend to anyone interested in LDing). Does anyone have any suggestions for excercises or anything else I should try to help me become lucid during my dreams? I would appreciate any help you are willing to give.

Good to have you here. I have had similar experiences with dreaming, though I am a little skeptical if these experiences of mine were valid.

Wonderful to see that you are on your way getting back into lucid dreaming. Things that helped me when I first started were napping during the daytime. Whenever I nap during the daytime it feels as though I enter the REM cycle almost immediately, which makes remembering your dreams a lot easier since you dont have all that other time spent in deep sleep with no dreams.

I suggest doing this, as you get LD’s much more often, and you start to develop a feel for dreams, like you can tell when they are happening and what is reality / what is not. This helps greatly for when you try to have LD’s during the night, which I find to be much more difficult.

Also, DILD was the first way I became lucid, and is still very helpful in attaining lucidity. I only got WILD to work once before, and although I was impressed by the results you have to be under perfect conditions (just woken from sleep after a good 3-5 hours, aware enough to start the wild, concious enough to not fall asleep, and not waking yourself up when you start feeling the vibrations).

Also, a proper mindset is very important! Know that you can become lucid!

Good luck, and welcome to the community!