Dyze

I was not sure where to put this, neither could I think of a better name but here we go.
I am sure many of you had those awesome dreams, where you actually know that you are just dreaming. Most of the time, you are in your dreams and take it for real. But every ones in a while, you are aware of the virtual reality and therefore can do whatever you want. That's really cool and funny, because normally your dream follows a story and you cannot really do much about it.
I remember like ten times where this happened to me and I actually had a lot of fun in my dreams. I read something about people who say they often have "live" dreams. One of them, was a martial arts guy and he used to practice in his dreams.
Apparently, you can influence your brain in a way so that you will have one of those dreams. One way would be to say to yourself, before you go to bed, something like "Tonight, I will know that I am dreaming and I will remember it the next morning."
Do you know anything more about this? Because those nights gave me the best sleep ever and a world of unlimited opportunities.

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SiNai

There was a summer that I tried to do this: Every night I would tell myself that I would remember the dream, then remember and write it down right away in the morning, until I was really good at that, but never was able to lucid dream frequently. Theres guys up here at school who have nothing better to do with their lives, so they take naps every so often and stay awake all night because that helps them lucid dream (somehow..).

Another one of my good friends can control her dreams at will. Usually if a dream is going bad, she just changes it into something happier. I hate her

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Sp0rAdiC

For the past few years I've learned how to... not really control my dreams, but be more aware of them. I almost always remember my dreams, and a lot of the time my dreams are waaaaaaay out there, weird stuff. My friends always looked forward to me telling them my previous night's dreams. One thing that I'm not too sure how I do, and how it is even possible, is resuming a dream. This has happened to me a few times, it's not too common though. A lot of times I'll have the same dream, or something similar to it for a week or two. There have been times when my alarm clock goes off and I wake up from the middle of a dream that I have had before, so I kinda know the basis of what's happening and what's going to happen. But I wake up, and I go to my alarm clock(on the other side of the room,) so I actually get out of my bed, stumble over, hit snooze, and stumble back to bed, but then before my alarm clock goes off again (9 minutes later) I resume my dream where I left off and advance along the storyline. This has happened w/ a few different dreams I've had, but I think it's happened less than a dozen times that I can recall. The thing that I'm curious about is how can I resume having dreams so quickly? I thought it took hours to get into REM mode or cycle or w/e it is exactly. Anyone have any ideas? Sorry if this is hard to understand I just got home from work and I'm quite tired.

Edit: Oh, and a little more on topic, I've been able to have slight control over my dreams sometimes, but never full control. Most of the time it's like watching a movie, either through my eyes or third person view.

Dyze

Ah, so they are called lucid dreams...
Sporadic, I think what happens to you is that you do not really dream when you go to sleep a second time. I think it's more that your sub-consciousness works through the parts you remember and tries to put them together. Or you think about what could come next; hence the continuity. But brains are some seriously difficult shit and we are not even close to understanding them.

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drakers

I know I have had some very realistic dreams where I am unsure if what happened in my dream really happened or was just a "dream". The problem is I can barely remember the dreams a few hours later and even then most of the dream was gone the moment I woke up. So for me to remember those dreams, are rare.

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thalakos315

i normally don't remember dreaming at all. the few i do have are the very lucid type everybody has mentioned. when you know the dream, is in fact, a dream. those are always a bit odd for me

Hain

Just today I had this dream and even when I was awake I still couldn't tell that it was a dream. I took a cat-nap after my jog today and I "woke" up, still in the dream. I was working on some scholarship stuff when I turned the dehumidifier off with my mind. I rotated the knob with my mind and then I started testing it on other things as well. I practiced at it and was getting it. I woke up where I feel asleep... tried it and was angry. Mainly because I didn't finish my scholarship work .

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MSD

A quick search for "lucid dreaming" across the entire board, not just this forum, should provide you with several interesting discussions that quite a few people would probably like to see brought up and revived. You'll probably get more info if you pull up one of the old ones than by starting a new one.

Hain

"A-Ha the Masked Moderator!"

I am still waiting for the time when those elements of my dream follow me into my waking life. Read Illusions by Richard Bach if you think that is a nifty idea or want a book to read in a sitting to later have some fun lucid dreams.

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kramus

A couple of times I've had a flying dream that I knew was a dream. Those are cool. Most of the time I'm having a flying dream it's just part of the package. But when I know it's a dream I almost feel like I've won a special lottery or something. I can play instead of just doing stuff that also happens to involve flying.

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bookie05

I was told some time that you dream in a kind of a cycle sort of like ten minutes of dreaming and ten minutes of non dreams and if you were going to remember a dream you had to wake up in the dreaming phase, but one weird thing is I feel that sometimes I get lucky and dream something and then it actually happens later in the week or something. Deja vu is one very very interesting feeling. I also have some recurring dreams for example walking around my middle school coming to a step on the sidewalk and tripping. The worst part is I kick my legs really hard and I wake up pretty funny actually. And that ends my ramble about dreams.

squirrelyburt

By lucid dreams, do you mean that you are able to control your dreams? I work night shift and typically sleep ''harder'' for at least a few hours when I first knock out. I have had recurring dreams that I find I can ''concentrate'' on and somehow direct, or at least control where I wander rather than having the dream control me. I like it.

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paulskinback

I did some research itno lucid dreams a few years ago because I was looking for symbolism in my dreams...

Apparently with practice you can lucid dream every night, or everytime you are conscious of having a dream.

In every dream there will be a recurring symbol, or something that allows your subconscious to know it isn't reality, even though your conscious mind thinks it is very vivid and real.

It may even be as simple as as the fact that you know you were in your house in bed a while ago, and now you're walking in a foreign land, or in a car etc.

If you train your mind to be aware of this when you go to sleep, ie just being aware that you are ready for a dream, you can recognize this and take control, and do pretty much what you want - like the best video game you have ever played in your life

example - i was in a strange car with someone i didn't know - not something that normally happens to me, so i opened the door as we were going along and started to fly out of the door, above the road and into some weird landscape that changed without my control... absolutely amazing, excpet for the fact that i woke up at that point because i knew i was then dreaming. damnit

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hulk

Lucid dreaming is the single most awesome thing ever. Tricksy, takes training, but when it happens, it'll stay with you forever.

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v_Jaded_v

There is a book, called the Secret Language of Dreams: A Visual Key to Dreams and their Meaning by David Fontana. The book inclues case studies, dream phychology from both Jung and Freud, types of dreams and dream symbolism. Keep a dream journal....often the smallest details, abstractions and colors can often be the key to the real meaning or psychology behind the dream. It's an interesting book, and a very handy reference.

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