Back around the fourth grade, I started on a long and painful process of gradual social ostricization (sp?) that was partly due to my own nerdy personality and partly due to the evil, evil public school system. So, to compensate, I began to experiment with lucid dreaming, starting with simple levitation experiments and eventually spanning some pretty interesting adventures.
When I was going through a period of depression (or at least a serious case of The Blahs), the dreams became much less controllable from my end and increasingly morbid. I won’t bore you with the lurid details, and it probably suffices to say that I didn’t like myself much at the time.
Now, some of the dreams have gone back to being relatively harmless and occasionally entertaining, but I keep getting into these really annoying recurring sequences of Really Bad S*** Happening that I’d rather avoid. Trying to will away the situation doesn’t seem to help, and forcing myself to wake up only results in a similar variation of the dream when I’m asleep again because it’s still relatively fresh in my memory.
I’m getting to the point where I’d just rather forgo this whole lucid dreaming business entirely. I’ve noticed that it does help to not go back to sleep after I’ve completed one full cycle (I wake naturally at around 7~8 am), but my body isn’t always that cooperative. Is there anything I can do to have more control over my lucid dreaming, or am I stuck with the indiscretions of my youth for the rest of my life?
That’s some wild stuff. Would changing your sleeping patterns help you avoid them?
Try to notice you’re doing things that you wouldn’t normally be able to do or are physically impossible. Being able to breathe underwater is a big one for me. Once you realize you’re doing something impossible, you should be able to exert more control.
Breathing underwater I have no problems with. That was exactly how I conquered my nightmares of drowning.
My current problem is that I’m not always able to either conquer the nightmare situation or stop the dream by waking up.
For example: I’ve become aware that I’m dreaming of driving on the highway. (Usually, I’m about clued once a few odd things start happening.) Suddenly, the car ahead of me stops. I stomp on the breaks. The car doesn’t stop. I stomp harder. It still doesn’t stop.
Usually I “solve” this problem by levitating the car, but I’m wondering if there’s a way to avoid these types of dreams altogether.
I don’t know if it would work for you but you could try altering your perspective. Alternatively, make an offramp for yourself once you realize your on the highway.
In case I wasn’t clear, by “altering your perspective” I meant taking leave of the driver’s body. Let someone else worry about stopping.
I was going to say: try rerunning portions that don’t come out right, with modifications. But if the example you gave of levitating the car shows that you have enough control to solve the problems that come up.
The trick is to relax. Your dreams are dealing with subjects they need to deal with and there is no wrong outcome. Let the crash happen. It won’t hurt you.
Or you could ask your dreams to explain to you either why subjects are brought up or how to avoid problems. Make the dreams give you the answer. It could happen.