Dreams where you know youre dreaming.
 

i haven't had one of those in a while but i remember several of those ive had and i also remembered people telling me i could do whatever i wanted in my dreams, like i tried imagining i had a car or somethign and it wasnt there i was still just walking around doing whatever in the dream but i could walk and basically do and talk to whoever i wanted

These are called lucid dreams, there's nothing to be paranoid about. I myself have had many of these dreams and I use them to great effect ie having my way with women :)

Lucid dreams? Interesting. I do have them with quite some regularity. Actually everytime I remember my dream afterwards it seems that I am able to "tweak" my dream a bit. Makes things kinda interesting.

There are a lot of lucid dreaming threads here on TFP.
Do a search.

I've never had dreams where I can conrtol what I'm doing like driving a car or making sweet sweet love, but I have been able to wake myself up. My dreams are usually like me watching a movie of myself. So during scary dreams I turn to myself and say, "This is a dream Emily! Wake up!" and then I listen to myself and I do. It's been a while since I've had one of those, but it is just an indescribable experience... as most dreams are.

Since we're on the subject of dreams, is there a name for dreams within dreams? Like, you wake up from a dream, only to still be dreaming? I once had a dream where I'm certain I "woke up" at least five times before I finally truly woke up.

Oi, I remember it ever so vividly, I was like in total control of a dream once, I was only about 10 at the time but I still remember it well. It kinda felt like I was looking down on myself sleeping from down on my dream cloud eventhough I felt as if I had just awoken. I held out my hand to see what was really my physical me, I remember realizing that I was in control and I decided to see if I could wake up and I just sat up and was awake. It was really wierd...but soooo cool.

I've had those aswell! One time I was so freaked out when i finally did wake up I was shaking really badly and didnt sleep the rest of the night I was so scared.

Those are called "false awakenings" they often occur after pre-lucid, lucid dreams and "out of body experiences" I've had a couple of false awakenings and they're rather interesting when you look back on them. I for example sat down in my false awakening and documented the lucid dream that I had just had in great detail, something I later did when I woke up for real. Gave me all sorts of weird deja vu feelings :P

"Waking Life" (movie) has a lot of fun with these phenomenons.

As for lucid dreaming, I've long had experiences where I realized I was dreaming but couldn't control anything. So one time I realized I was dreaming and was very determined to exort some sort of influence, and ended up jedi pushing/pulling on people just walking by. Knocked a lotta people down... with my mind! That was funny.

Ahhh, thanks for the responce. It is very weird. In the dream where I had several false awakenings it was very strange to think I was awake and then realize that what was happening could in no way happen in real life. Then I had another false awakening. I didn't find it scary like Slim did, but it was just a very bizarre feeling.

Ha ha, I've had maybe two dreams in my life that I've realized and understood completely that I was dreaming. The first was when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. I was sitting inside the cabin of a tractor-trailer in a junkyard. Oddly enough, the inside of the tractor-trailer was huge, enough for about 10 people to sit inside comfortably. After talking to the people in the cabin, I all of a sudden had an "epiphany" in my dream. I realized that I was dreaming, and that none of these people were real.

I looked at the person I was talking to, and I said, "You're not going to believe this, but you're not real. I'm dreaming, and nothing you say means anything." The man I was talking to looked at me really weirdly, and gave the person beside him a concerned look. I told everyone in the cabin that they weren't real, and that in a few minutes I was going to wake up and they would all disappear. They got really angry at me, and told me I was being mean. Hey, it wasn't my fault! Ha ha. I tried to explain to them why they didn't exist, but of course it didn't make any sense to them.

When I decided to wake up, I reminded them again: "Ok, I'm going to wake up now." They just stared at me really, really creepily the last time I told them that. That instant, I woke up and remembered the entire ordeal.

No one really believes me when I tell them of this dream, but I know it happened. It was pretty interesting, if not a bit on the creepy side.

-Lasereth

Well one time when i was having one i wanted to wake up, i tried and tried to wake up but i couldn't wake up. I actually became very scared but forgot i was dreaming again and finally woke up

mm. interesting. I've had false awakenings and lucid dreams before, as well as visions-dreams that have come true. though indeed, there are a bunch of threads already on lucid dreaming on TFP, and I'm sure that in at least one of them, there's help-instructions for the induction of lucid dreaming, if anyone's interested.

i had a dream last nignt and i had to save all these people and fineally i got nocked down and ass i wuz on the ground this girl got her ars wipped and i wuz to tired to save her then another girl startes gettin beatup and she asked me for help and i just said to my self i dont want to save any moor people im to tired i wanna wake up now and i did

These are my favorite, and I wish I could have more of them. Of course, my favorites are the flying dreams, but any dream with control is just so wonderful.

yeah those lucid dreams are awesome...you can do anything!

It's the only way to fly, my friends...

Catapults too, can't forget about catapults, let alone trebuchets or modified ballistas.

I've recently been working on ataining this skill. In doing this I reopened a memory of a few lucid dreams I unknowingly had when I was very young. All of them had to do with my flying. They were so realistic I was convinced they were real; that I could fly. Eventually I forgot about them until very recently. Weird, huh?

Actually i saw on TLC or the discovery channel they had this headset you wore and when it saw you having rapid eye movements it would flashlights so you would realize that you were dreaming

How can I teach myself to have lucid dreams?

You really just have to learn to tell the difference between reality and dreaming, this site has a lot of info on it http://www.lucidity.com

I lucid dream almost every night;although I don't have many "false awakenings", which is good. Often, I can control what I am doing in the dream, like turning a bad dream into a good one. Another cool thing I can do is wake up, pee and/or get a drink, and then go back to sleep and continue the same dream--especially if I really want to.
Lately, I am really tired, as it seems I am only in r.e.m. sleep and not going deeper, so that I have many, many dreams during the night and not deep sleep, which really sux.
Anyway, lucid dream can be quite cool and you can see/experience really neet stuff.

lucid dreams are the shit but for me, they're not a given. I have to train myself to be able to have them. I have 2 or 3 most weeks.

I've never actually heard of lucid dreaming, this is so interesting.

For 1 night I would have a continuous dream that I was in a nazi camp. I knew I was dreaming! I would wake up and then will myself to go back into the dream. If that makes sense, I can't really explain it.

I made it so that Hitler liked me and let me pick out my own outfit which was this really cute renaissancy dress. lol It was just bizarre. I knew I was dreaming and I wanted to continue the dream so I just kind of did.

Is this the same thing as lucid dreaming or is this me just being a little crazy?

Used to be able to do it. Lost the ability. Getting old sucks.

I wish I could do that lucid dreaming stuff. Most of the time i do not remember my dreams.

I always wake up as soon as I realise I'm dreaming. :(

it seems with me in some dreams, i already know whats going to happen, or just because i think it, it happens that instant... but its nothing i want to happen.... i hate my dreams lately.... gone ages without dreams that i can remember, and then the last two nights, ive had two really bad nightmares... i dont want to go to sleep, or even into my room coz of the one last night... damn corpses.... :|

I can't say I've ever had a lucid dream...just not my thing I guess. I don't think it'd be beneficial for me to even know I was dreaming at the time - my dreams are fuckin weird, and I prolly couyldn't do half the shit i wanted to do :P

A thought: How can you be sure that you aren't just DREAMING that you realize it's a dream??? another words...your realization, is part of the dream...

I lucid dream, I suppose, about once a week. It's not something I've had to train myself for, it just sort of happens naturally.

most of the time if I take a nap in the afternoon, I sleep and I realize I'm dreaming. If the plot of the dream makes me too mad, I'll force myself awake.

Although I hear such interesting music in my head...

tho this has nothing to do now with lucid dreams... just thought id let everyone one know... its now four nightmares in a row... four nights.... im sick of this... i really dont want to go to sleep anymore...

YES!
I had one last night.... for a few seconds...
It was night and I was outside on a road, one direction had a very steep hill.
Then randomly I was like "Dude this is a dream... try and make something happen!"
I made a car almost drive into me, then tried to make something happen to some person, but failed and woke up.

I seem to have lucid dreams quite often - at least every couple of weeks or so. That's the moment I decide to try something I could/would never do in real life. Sometimes something cool, something new, or sometimes something violent.

My favorite is jumping off of something a few hundred feet in the air - like a really tall building or a cliff. Because I'm semi-aware of what's going on, it really feels like I'm flying, and I get a similar sense of euphoria that I do when skydiving.

I experience dreams lsimilar to that. Where Im dreaming, but if I dont like the way its going, I change it or do dream of choosing a diff path and basically manipulating it. Its awsome, though I dont necessarily know Im dreaming.

Those lucid dreams are the best i get them quite a lot of the time. Its great when you can actually control what happens in them. I dont like the ones where you have no control because they always end up like nightmares lol