Topic awaiting preservation: My first lucid dream! (Page 1 of 1)

After I saw the movie "Waking Life" I read up on lucid dreaming and tried to do it for about a week. I finally had one last night but the lucid part didn't last long before I awoke. Has anyone else here had any lucid dreams? I'm hopin' I'll have more because it was definetly one of the coolest things I've experienced.

SB: I have never managed it - any online resources?

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Yesterday I dreamt I was being persued by a pure white and massive tiger with white eyes and paws as big as shovels... I awoke with a sweat and was very startled. Anyone have any theories as to what this might mean?


...xpi...

What is lucid dreaming? Sounds like it would be cool... Dreamviews (just one link of many I found through Google.)

Xpirex: Ah, dream interpretation. Well, let me approach this one from an Asian slant and see where it takes us. I'll start with symbolism. As you may be aware, white can symbolize death in Asia--it is the colour of death and mourning. It may also, however, symbolize purity, as it does in the West. Tigers are considered to be the rulers of the land, while dragons are rulers of the sea. They (tigers) are the epitome of yang, which is the positive, male, or warm force in the universe (as opposed to the negative, female, or cool force of yin).

Now, all cats have yellowish eyes, so I think the white eyes means that white is very important in your dream. The most obvious interpretation would be that you are running from death, but that sounds a bit trite to me. It may be a warning against an imbalance in your life, a surplus of yang. Have you been feeling ill lately? Maybe had a fever? It is possible that your dream is telling you that you may come to harm if you don't remedy this imbalance.

Of course, it is just as possible that I have no idea what I'm talking about. The symbolism stuff is all true, but the rest is just speculation. It's fun to do, though.

[Edit: After reading up on lucid dreaming, I can say that I have had lucid dreams before but not often, and none recently. I seem to remember fewer of my dreams these days, something I have found disappointing. I used to have some wacky dreams.]




www.liminality.org

Here is a link to more info on Lucid Dreaming-

http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html

I have to say that the majority of my dreams, at least the ones I can remember are lucid. I am very aware that I am dreaming, almost like observing my actions and interactions in sort of a third person mode. Frequently in a dream, I will lose track of the fact that it is a dream for a while, and then become aware of it again.

Anyone else have more lucid than non-lucid dreams?

Or does this mean I'm some kind of twisted freak of nature....?

Every once in a while, I'll be dreaming and realize I can fly. It sounds silly, but it actually involves flapping my arms. Not fast, but slow, as though I was moving my arms through water, and up I go. It really is an amazing feeling.



Evil in theory, not so much in practice...

Emps: This is the list of lucid dreaming links I used: http://www.erowid.org/spirit/dreaming/dreaming.shtml

Suho: Lucid dreaming is simply realizing that you're dreaming while you are dreaming. A lot of people can control their dreams once they become lucid. I just flew around alot

[This message has been edited by Schitzoboy (edited 06-27-2003).]

Yup, I got that part... I did some reading up on it.

It definitely sounds cool, though...

norm: I think everyone manages to achieve at least a certain level of lucidity at some point, even it might not be often or very much lucidity. For example, I will often realize I am dreaming, yet I will be unable to affect my surroundings.

Erowid is a really good resource! I love that site...

True lucid dreaming involves total control over your dream, not just awareness that you are dreaming. Ex: say you are running from that big white tiger, you could be aware that you are dreaming, but in a true lucid dream, you could say, turn around and tell the tiger to go away, and it would... Or you could tell yourself you were not running from a tiger, but simply running along the surf on a beach, and there you would be.

I always manage to wake myself up as soon as I realize I'm dreaming... never been able to stay asleep long enough to control it...


Cell 617

[This message has been edited by bodhi23 (edited 06-27-2003).]

From what I read, the only requirement for lucidity is being aware, and that there are levels of awareness. I would call what you're describing "full lucidity," rather than "true lucidity" (as it implies that any other level of lucidity is somehow "false").

I do remember having one dream where I realized I was dreaming and I stayed dreaming long enough to experiment. It was pretty cool, but I kept slipping back into the dream--in other words, I kept forgetting that I was dreaming. So I wasn't really able to do much.

I will experience lucidity (awareness) more often in nightmares, actually, but it never occurs to me to actually try to change my situation or remove myself from the situation. I usually just try to wake up as quickly as possible. I think most people have had experiences like that.

I've got to be honest with you, though--I'm not sure if I would really be willing to invest the time and energy it would take (at least for me) to achieve full lucid dreaming.

Ok - that makes sense... full lucidity then...

I imagine that it takes as much energy to be consciously active in one's dreams as it does to be consciously active in the waking world... Considering sleep is the time that your brain and body recharge, I would think that a great deal of lucid dreaming would impair your waking world function, simply due to the energy expended...



Cell 617

Wagenstine.

There is something said about persons who have dreams they are flying. I might be wrong, but I think it involves a characteristic you may have or maybe a sign of high intelligence. Is there anyone who has the gift of dream interpretations? I do believe persons are gifted in this.

I am interested in knowing, if anyone has heard of when a person hears bells ringing loudly when they are awake, if there is a meaning for it. This is not a ringing of the ears. I told my husband through my growing up, I have heard them and he never believed me. After we had been married a couple of years, I was hearing them in my bedroom one day and he heard them too. He went outside to see if there was a ice cream truck passing by outside and there wasn't. I wish it could be explained. I was told it could mean impending death but there were no deaths in the family or persons that I knew that died.

I've had quite a few of these lucid dreams. A lot of them all take place in the same location. It is like a giant world I often dream in. There is a village where I have a house with a bunch of other people living in houses also. There is lots of bright green grass and a river that runs through it. It is always really bright when I am here. In the distance there mountians, and I am always going into the mountains to explore and play. There is one particular set of caves in the mountains also. In these dreams, I am always aware of my every action and choice, and most of the time I just end up playing chase and running around with a bunch the other people who live here.

Xpirex

quote:

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Graywolf Swinney - One night Swinney fell asleep before his smoldering fire and had a dream in which animal predators emerged from the woods and devoured him. Awakening in terror, Swinney cast his gaze toward the coals of the fire. Just beyond he discerned two piercing eyes and the large gray form of a wolf, Swinney's first impulse was to run away but, transfixed by the animal's eyes, found himself unable to move. Surprisingly, a feeling of total surrender replaced Swinney's fear, just as if he were a wolf himself. In the few minmutes shared, Swinney experienced a deep union with the wolf. After the wolf disappeared through the trees, Swinney still sensed that he had become a wolf during their brief interaction. Swinney left the wilderness renewed and grateful to his inner wolf.

---

Perhaps the animal was trying to let you know that you have a lot of its characteristics within you, or perhaps it is an animal helper of some kind.

quote:

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Power Animals - The tiger represents passion and sensuality. The sense of touch is heightened with the tiger as a power animal. The tiger also brings forth silent, solitary, power.

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Additional Info
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Tiger Power
Totem Animals


.quotes.

Hey GN, thanks for that last totem link! I was never able to find a list before that had grasshoppers on it

I think I remember having one of these before. I remember enjoying it a lot .

Thankyou Soho1004 and Gilbert for your thoughts... Gilbert, I have had many real life experiences with animals where some very strange but deeply pleasant connection was made but I have never felt fear as I did with this monsterous beast. ....and Suho that's very interesting, but I have no fear of death at all. I have had more than a few near death experiences and they were all pleasant, serene and devoid of all fear, all I felt was an overwhelming feeling of peace...

Bohdi23: your right, this certainly was not a lucid dream... I had no control what so ever.

I read a couple of things on in a dream dictionary and gleaned these interpretations:

Tiger:

To see a tiger in your dream, symbolizes repressed feelings or emotions that frighten you. Alternatively, the tiger represents female sexuality, aggression, and seduction. If the tiger is in a cage, then it suggests that those repressed feelings/emotions are on the verge of surfacing.

White:

White represents purity, perfection, peace, innocence, dignity, cleanliness, awareness, and new beginnings. You may be experiencing a reawakening or have a fresh outlook on life. However, in Eastern cultures, white is associated with death and mourning.

Chase:

To dream that you are being chased, signifies that you are avoiding a situation that you do not think is conquerable. It is often a metaphor for some form of insecurity. In particular, to dream that you are chased by an animal, represents your own unexpressed and unacknowledged anger which is being projected onto that animal. Alternatively, you may be running away from a primal urge or fear.

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You see in the dream the white tiger did not actually catch me... it was comming in my direction and was only a matter of time before it stumbled right upom me and I would be in it's massive paws... I had no escape, capture was inevitable. Only waking saved me...


Well the only situation in my life that I can relate this to is that there is a female I know that I feel more than slightly threatened by. She seems to be stalking me... using her all her feminine arts to seduce me... I am afraid she will catch me and I will succumb and then I'll be devoured..

...xpi...

[This message has been edited by Xpirex (edited 06-29-2003).]

a while back i used to have lucid dreams all the time. like for 3-4 weeks i had one every night. then they stopped. i was so bummed. they were always very random, and always included something that recently happened. i could never make sense out of them. they were just a big jumble kinda, but not to the point where it was confusing. also they were always kinda funny.
now i only have them like every other month or so.

but this one day my youth pastor was joking around about the future and how we'll all have bionic arms and parts and stuff. so that night i had a lucid dream

me and a bunch of people (just random strangers) were climbing up the side of a mountain. we all had bionic parts. i started to struggle, it was getting hard to climb. but then i remembered i was half machine, then it started getting easy again. lol. then one of the people fell off the mountain. i tried to grab her, but in the process in threw myself off the mountain too. so we fell for a while, and then *gasp* started flying. then alluvasudden it skipped back to us falling, and we soon hit the cold ocean. suddenly we found ourselves in a dark, quiet shopping mall, with everyone else. i looked around, and saw rick wyatt, a professional yoyoer. he was trying to break the yoyo sleeping record with his signature yoyo. he then gave me his mega spin factor 2 and i woke up.

i thought that was kinda cool, since i had bionic parts and stuff, and my youth pastor had ust been talking about that a a few hourse before. also, i had just used a mega spin factor 2, and has just email rick wyatt. most everything in there was "based on actualy events" but it was cool. i love lucid dreams.

Here's a funny thing. In my last post I mention how I didn't think I would want to spend the time it would take to "cultivate" lucid dreaming. Well, I went to sleep that night and intended on waking up at 6:00 the next morning. When the alarm went off, though, I was quite tired, so I set the alarm for 7:00 and went straight back to sleep. I woke up at 7:00 feeling much more tired (because I woke up in the middle of a sleep cycle), but I also remembered two dreams I had had during that hour. I remembered reading about writing down your dreams, but I didn't have time to write them down. So, as I was getting ready to go out, I went over them in my mind, sort of replaying them in my conscious mind, if you will. The second dream was clearer, and so I started with that, and by the time I got to the first dream I could only remember snatches of it.

Anyway, the interesting thing is that I remember just as much now (over a day later) as I did when I first woke up. While writing dreams down may be a good way of remembering them, apparently it is enough to bring the dream out of the subconscious and into the conscious.

I have to say that I got quite a laugh out of all of this. Here I was, ready to dismiss this because I just didn't have the time to focus on something so silly, and then I get excited because I remember not one but two dreams. I don't know if I'm going to take this any further at this point, but it's kind of cool to be remembering dreams again. And if I wake up from a dream again, I'm going to use my "replay" technique to permanently salvage it. For me, at least, I think this is more effective than jotting down a few notes.

I just thought it was all quite ironic, and I wanted to share that.

Xpirex: Actually, some of the symbols in your dream struck a chord with me, having significance in Asia, but such an interpretation of your dream means nothing unless you were raised in and/or are very familiar with Asian culture (and by that I mean having lived in an Asian country). While the symbols may have a certain meaning here, they most likely do not have the same meaning for you. So I guess I was just really exploring symbolism, and maybe having a little fun with it. I can totally understand if the interpretation doesn't work for you, though--in fact, I would have been surprised if it did.

Suho, you might try something simpler than writing them down. If you type fast you could keep a word file with your dreams in it, or get a dictaphone. You're right that the only important thing is goin' over your dream, but recording them in some way makes you form a habbit of it.

Lucid dreams come to me easily.

I have a sleep disorder that, unmedicated, causes me to fall asleep directly to the REM state and remain there for the duration. It's not as much fun as it sounds because I miss out on the deep restorative stages of sleep. I awaken sore (because like most people, my muscles go rigid during REM) and mentally fatigued since REM is also characterized by beta and theta brainwaves and the other stages by restorative alpha waves.

The meds, an extremely low dose of amitriptylene (an ancient tri-cyclic antidepressant), don't put me to sleep like "sleeping pills", they alter the nature of my sleep by supressing REM. Towards morning as the meds wear off, I have extremely vivid and life-like dreams that engage all five (or more) senses. This is not lucid dreaming because they are so close to waking reality that I frequently can't tell the difference, (unless sometihg weird happens like water squirts out of an electrical outlet or something.)

Lucid dreams come when I'm unmedicated. They begin before I'm actually asleep. If I lie down for an afternoon nap, I know sleep is just a few minutes away by the sudden transformation of thought patterns to those that characterize REM. I can also feel my eyes moving. Generally at this point, I choose to pass into sleep. Other times I choose to stay on the edge and direct the flow. It's a conscious decision that I make nearly every afternoon.

If I've had an especially long and restful night's sleep, lucidity comes easily in the final cycle. Here I frequenlty experience precognitive dreams, dreams where I learn how to do something new, dreams that excercise creativity and dreams where I experience strong psychic connections.

Precognitive dreams are difficult to tell apart from the others until the event happens. This requires that I remember the dream long enough, sometimes for years.

After 25 years of driving automatics, I learned to drive a stick shift in lucid dreaming. The first time I took the wheel of a friend's car, she thought I'd been lying all these years when I'd said I couldn't drive it.

I recently dreamed an entire novel. I don't write fiction. Never been able to do it. Hell, I can't even lie convincingly. But a few weeks ago, the whole thing came to me in about an hour. When I got up I dumped two pages of character notes, a six-page outline and two scenes of dialog into Word before having my morning pee. Converting the dream and notes into a readable piece is just as tough and time consuming as any other writing is for me, but it's still all there and coming out.

The most rare are the psychically connected ones. My best friend and I are extremely psychically connected. It's how we met, by following the connection to its source. That's a whole 'nother story, but suffice it to say that it's not everything it's cracked up to be. As a species, I don't think we're equipped for losing our privacy on that level for weeks, months and years at a time.

Anyway, on the morning of Saturday July 10, 1999 at 7:32 EDT, I had such a powerful dream that it's memory will be with me forever. I was looking up from under water. Then I felt like I was being thrust upward, almost like being squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste. As I broke the surface, I awoke sitting up in bed, gasping for air. It was weird enough that I documented the whole thing, right down to the time.

I didn't have a phone at the time. When I got to work on Monday morning, there was a voice-mail from him saying his son had been born over the weekend. When I stopped by the hospital on the way home that evening, his girlfriend (now his wife) told me the baby was born at 7:31 Saturday morning. Close enough given that my alarm clock may be a bit out of sync with the one in the hospital's delivery room. This news stunned me so much I that nearly dropped the boy.

I do not underestimate the power of dreams, lucid or otherwise.

Sleep Paralysis is more fun