In my 20s, I used to have lucid dreams fairly often…so much so that I did a bit of research on what to look for, how to “stay in the dream”, etc.
Although they happen much less often - maybe 3 or 4 times a year - I still remember the tricks. The other night, in the middle of a dream, I saw a (rather short) friend of mine appear in a hallway, at about half her normal height, “walking” but without legs while saying hello to me…there was nothing from the waist down. Recognizing the absurdity, I willed myself in the dream to walk outside and proceeded to attempt to fly. I managed to climb to about 25 feet in the air or so before floating back down. Then, of course, I woke up.
This seems to be the default progression of my lucid dreaming - attempt to fly, don’t get very far, wake up. Anyone else have similar experiences, or have any advice?
You do better than me. I can only hover a foot or so off the ground. It is great fun especially when ‘surfing’ the hover down hills but I really want to go higher and can’t for some reason. I have tried to get around that by jumping up really high. I can jump 20 feet or so straight up but I can’t stay there. I always just float straight back down and land in hover mode again.
You would think that if your mind allows you to hover, it wouldn’t have a problem with true flying either but it doesn’t work that way. There are some natural laws it refuses to violate at least for very long.
The other night, I dreamed was living on a blimp, and that got me up to 11000 feet (that exact figure ppopped into my head during the dream).
I have ‘hovering’ dreams, where I seem to be able to speed along just above the ground, fairly often as well. I can sometimes get up to treetop level, but it’s a struggle.
I’ve only had one lucid dream (that I remember, anyway). I too failed miserably. I was in some desert western town, and I got into an old 70s car akin to a Dodge charger. I was driving along and realized I was in the middle of a dream. I got really excited and began to telepathically hover things in the car. When that worked, I went for broke and tried to make the car fly. It didn’t, and I immediately woke up. Mad.
You guys are all better than me, with your talk of flying and whatnot. The first I thing I do when I realize I’m dreaming is try to find someone to have sex with.
I can fly very well in my dreams (sort of halfway between swimming and superman-flight), except when I try to demonstrate my flying skills to an audience, then I can run and skim off the ground a little, but struggle to get truly airborne.
I don’t think any of my flying dreams are actually lucid ones, and they’re pretty rare these days, anyway, but I can usually get 30 or 40 feet up and land on top of buildings and such.
But my big obstacle is power lines. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always managed to be heading right for them. I’ve learned to tell myself that there’s plenty of room between the lines to get through but another part of me is trying to put on the brakes at the same time. That’s where the dream usually ends or maybe gets switched to something else.
I’ve had a few dreams in recent years where there are no power lines and I realize that while in the dream, which is pretty cool. Maybe that’s a little step toward being able to dream lucidly?
I can fly and use energy based weapons, even self-produced wizard style beams. But I can never get firearms to work properly. Bullets always bloop out of the firearms. I have no problem flying or demonstrating this to people in my dream. Sometimes I do it just to prove to them we are in a dream if they don’t believe me. Ironically, I often have trouble running and sometimes even balancing on my own two feet at all. I am move things at will with my mind, but often have trouble making aggressive motions like throwing punches and such with any kind of force behind them.
Reading is hit or miss. Mostly miss. I’ve heard that we are not supposed to be able to read in our dreams. Sometimes I can, though. Or at least I convince myself in the dream that I am reading.
I can read in dreams or at least I have done so. Some of the stories are really complex and very good even though they doesn’t exist in the real world. I have tried to make a mental note to remember the story I am reading and transcribe it when I wake up but it always disappears from memory (except for the fact that it was once there and very good) shortly after I wake up.
They say you can’t get killed in dreams but I have many times - usually by falls or explosions. One typical scenario is that someone throws me something, I catch it and then realize it is a grenade. I try to throw it away from me but can’t for some reason. Then there is bright flash. THE END.
Based on my experience as it’s not like I’ve got a sleep lab with EEGs:
First, lucid dreaming and dreams where you have control are not necessarily the same thing. I find it’s common to be aware I’m dreaming, but not be in control of the dream. It’s also common for the opposite to be true – I’m in control of the dream but not aware I’m dreaming. (One of the most surreal dreams I’ve ever had I was dreaming I was asleep dreaming. And in the dream I was in the exact same spot and position as I actually was. And I knew I was asleep dreaming I was asleep dreaming. Even had a split screen image of the dreaming-me on one side with the dreaming-I’m-dreaming-me on the other side. Managed to be simultaneously prosaic and surreal.)
So what you’re talking about is a dream where you’re both aware and in control. And, in my experience, those kinds of dreams are at the very thin edge of sleep. It’s almost closer to day dreaming, but with more vivid sensory experience. (When I day dream I don’t get the full 3-D, all senses input that dreaming gives.)
So I’ve noticed that as long as I make small, incremental changes I can change the path of the dream and still stay asleep. If I grab hold of the dream and twist it violently to my will by altering the setting or the plot, I propel myself into wakefulness. So, for me, it’s tiny, gradual changes. Even limiting myself only to those I can often feel myself starting to wake-up. At that moment, imagining myself sinking deeper and deeper can sometimes keep me asleep.
Only sometimes. In my experience, a dream where you’ve got both awareness and control are very fragile things and easily shattered.
I know this “hovering” of which you speak…need to try that again instead next time. I remember being able to attain some amazing speed.
As a part-time musician who has struggled to write original music, I have had many a frustrating morning waking up after playing beautiful, original pieces in my dream, or listening to entire albums of original music (with printed lyrics!), only to have it similarly fade.
I suppose I should reach out to a hypnotist to see if they can be drawn out somehow.
I have had these too (not necessarily “split screen”, but dreaming that I was asleep. Also, dreams within dreams within…multiple awakes needed to come completely out of it.
Lalaith, I agree with you to some extent. Once the awareness happens, the step(s) to take control are a slippery slope. Still, for me anyway, at the moment that awareness happens I can also gauge how deep a sleep I am in, and decide then whether to attempt to control it, and to what degree. In the episode the other night, I felt that I was pretty deep, despite it being almost time to get up.
One trick that I read about that works upon the awareness moment to keep yourself in the dream is to imagine in the dream that you are standing, extending your arms outward parallel to the ground, and spinning (clockwise works for me).
My erotic dreams, sadly, have accepted an uncomfortable truth that I won’t sully your eyes with - which means I don’t get to have sex in my dreams any more, either.
ETA: I can fly in my dreams, sometimes - the usual rule is that after touchdown I can’t take off again. I sometimes try to teleport in lucid dreams but that turns out to be a no-no.
Hm, my flying dreams are actually swimming in air, and I have a fear of going higher than the electric wires or treetops. But then again I have a fear of heights when I am awake.
My favorite dreams are what I guess you could call playing with inertia? I danced for exercise when I was younger [it was offered as an option where I went to school] and I loved to spin, so in my dreams I am occasionally able to pirouette en pointe again and can hit that half sleep point where I still get the kinesthetic memory of spinning. [Beats the fuck out of the sense memory of having jawblocks in for getting an emergency flush of my lungs after being gassed. Not fond of that one, honestly.]
I have to admit, waking from a dance or even walking/running dream makes me sad, I would love to just be able to walk unassisted, dancing would be amazing.
I haven’t had lucid dreams since I was a kid, but I used to regularly fly in my dreams - but only about five feet off the ground, and by flapping my arms. I would regularly buzz the playground at school but I couldn’t even get to the roof of a single-story building.
Same for me! In my case, though, it’s not exactly fear. It’s an effort to gain altitude, and treetop-height is usually the best I can manage.
I used to have frequent flying dreams (but not necessarily lucid, in the sense that I didn’t realize I was dreaming) when I was young, but hardly ever anymore. Sometimes I wonder… I used to go swimming a lot in my youth, but since I grew up I go in the water maybe once every two or three years, if that often. The physical sensation of flying in my dreams felt a lot like swimming through the air. Maybe it was that feeling that my sleeping brain recreated at night, and the fact that I don’t swim anymore is why I rarely fly in my dreams.
Same here, along with manipulating objects à la Travolta in Phenomenon.
I’ve found that the trick to doing things which I can’t do in real life is to look away from what I’m trying to accomplish. If I want to play a guitar, I have to look away from the guitar; sometimes not looking at my hands works. If I want to use a firearm, I have to look away from the gun and the target.