[sciborg2]

Can you do it?

I can barely remember my dreams, even after keeping a dream journal. Just curious to see how others manage.

[Alia]

Not very often, but sometimes I do. Especially when I wake up in the early morning hours, before the alarm clock and get to think about the dream, because it was so interesting.
I even wrote one short story based on one dream. As it is - it has no beginning, no ending and is really awful. But it's dream-based after all.

[Callan S.]

About twice. Once it was in this creepy garden that consisted of white and light pink pixels (literal squares) - I felt something was coming - a sound (a sound that was far more organic than the pixels) that I didn't want to see and woke myself up.

Can't recall the second one right at this moment.

Oh and a pseudo third one where I crashed a car in the dream, but so as to assure all witnesses in the dream, I told them 'it's all right, it's just a dream!'. So I breached the fourth wall there. No, I didn't grasp the implication of what I said being that I was dreaming at that moment. It only came as an excuse to give to imaginary witnesses.

Also one time on a train I sort of fell asleep, but it felt like I just had this massive barrier between me and being able to control my body - there was no dream, just black - I pushed and evetually pierced the barrier and regained control/woke up. Then regreted it because sleeping probably would have been better!

[Madness]

I've known people who claim to be able to lucid dream at will. I've only read a limited amount of sleep research as it was something I was never really interested in.

I actually find my relationship with sleep really strange. I rarely ever don't dream (even when I'm apparently not supposed to - drugs/alcohol). I almost always remember my dreams, even in those impaired states. There are a number that I've had in my life which seem to repeat themselves at different times; sometimes they are exactly the same unfolding, sometimes they are different events that take place in the same "dreamscapes," and I have "remembered" in my dream that I've dreamed dreams in those places before. Sometimes these same dreams (there are five or six I can remember explicitly even now) happen in quick succession, like days or weeks apart, sometimes years. They are all "nightmares," though I don't fear the content of sleep anymore and so don't label them as such.

I've lucid dreamed a number of times both as mentioned above, "remembering" that I'd dreamed a place or sequence of events before, and I've actually lucidly taken action three times. Two of those I will always remember because I took action to wake myself up. Both were before I was twelve. In one I was running from burglars in my house and I locked myself in my bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and starting banging on it like a door. In the other I screamed my own name and kept shouting at myself to wake up.

Sleep. A hell of a drug. I recently read an article that suggested getting a full nights sleep reduces the risk of Alzheimer's; it was discussing findings that during sleep the brain essentially gets a flushing of cerebral-spinal fluid, which works to clean away plaque.

[Royce]

I think this stuff is very fascinating, although I have never made an effort too learn techniques or anything. I have watched the movie "Waking life and that is about it"

My wife is totally into this, although she has never learned techniques either, she just has a natural gift for it. She can fly wherever she wants. Even to distant planets with a weird beings and even stranger ecosystems. She has total control(if she wants too) but sometimes she just rolls with it, since the unpredictability of it can be very intriguing.

I rarely remember anything from my dreams, which is kind of a bummer. So I have thought about learning some lucid techniques, because I think it would be amazing to be aware and in control of your dreams.

[mrganondorf]

I can rarely do this--usually early in the morning sort of in between sleep and waking.  I'm not sure that that is real lucid dreaming, but I have been able to steer bad dreams into good dreams.  Maybe that's just being somewhat awake.

I dreamed I was a dragon once.  IT WAS AMAZING.  I was red and gold, long and wingless, like an eastern dragon.  Nothing but sky anywhere and the pure joy of flying.  The ground was completely absent.  Happy memory, wrote that one down.

[Royce]

I had a weird dream the other night. Our world was in turmoil, wars and desperation everywhere. Suddenly I saw our planet from somewhere else(do not ask me from where and I reached out with my gigantic hand, held the planet between my forefinger and thumb, then gave it a little shake. Like you held an egg or something. Suddenly I returned and the world was at peace

Do I have the biggest ego ever, or is it only a little shake we need?   I laughed well and good when I woke up.

I thought I should mention one more thing, not really related to the thread, but still interesting I think.
My wife gets these orgasms in her sleep. There is nothing sexual that triggers them(at least that is what she says ). The orgasm is really a weird thing. You can achieve an orgasmic sensation with for example MDMA, but I have never heard of getting the orgasmic feeling without drugs or sex.  Is she lying to me?

[Callan S.]

I had a weird dream the other night. Our world was in turmoil, wars and desperation everywhere. Suddenly I saw our planet from somewhere else(do not ask me from where and I reached out with my gigantic hand, held the planet between my forefinger and thumb, then gave it a little shake. Like you held an egg or something. Suddenly I returned and the world was at peace

Do I have the biggest ego ever, or is it only a little shake we need?   I laughed well and good when I woke up.

Sometimes you have to start at an absurd solution in order to work towards a practical solution. Or just start from a belief it can be done.

I thought I should mention one more thing, not really related to the thread, but still interesting I think.
My wife gets these orgasms in her sleep. There is nothing sexual that triggers them(at least that is what she says ). The orgasm is really a weird thing. You can achieve an orgasmic sensation with for example MDMA, but I have never heard of getting the orgasmic feeling without drugs or sex.  Is she lying to me?

Pics or it didn't happen!

But seriously, how does she remember them - a non sexual dream with a big O during it?

[sciborg2]

@Royce:

I've had the dream where I was God, but my divinity manifested itself in limited form - I got superpowers and stopped some robbers. I was becoming aware of my status as dreaming creator of that universe, and began to draw followers but quickly realized I was about to wake up.

Guilt ridden at the coming annihilation I confessed to my creation that I wasn't truly a God, and that I hoped the true Lord would welcome them once my awakening destroyed their reality.

On the subject of orgasms without drugs or sex, the answer is yes.

[Royce]

Pics or it didn't happen!

But seriously, how does she remember them - a non sexual dream with a big O during it?

LOL

Good question. When she tries to explain it, it makes no sense at all to me. It can happen when she is flying, so it might have something to do with any sensation of ecstacy maybe.

I've had the dream where I was God, but my divinity manifested itself in limited form - I got superpowers and stopped some robbers. I was becoming aware of my status as dreaming creator of that universe, and began to draw followers but quickly realized I was about to wake up.

Guilt ridden at the coming annihilation I confessed to my creation that I wasn't truly a God, and that I hoped the true Lord would welcome them once my awakening destroyed their reality.

I am glad that I am not alone with my dreamy god complex

[Callan S.]

Flying in real life and asleep on the plane?

Hypothesis that comes to mind is erotic asphyxiation.

Plane companies are bastards - it costs fuel/money to properly treat the air in the passenger cabin - and they do as little of it as they can. So it gets to be very little oxygen in there - the next time you hear about an obnoxious celebrity getting roudy on a plane, it's because A: they are obnoxious and B: The lack of oxygen and drinking combined robs them of what little self control they had. It's partly the airline companies making them act like that.

ANYWAY, so if you fall asleep and maybe don't get enough air, it might very well simulate erotic asphyxiation.

And if you didn't mean asleep on a RL plane, then I've written quite the non-sequtuer!

[Royce]

And if you didn't mean asleep on a RL plane, then I've written quite the non-sequtuer!

Sorry Callan, I should have emphasized that she was flying in her dreams, in her bed on the ground

Plane companies are bastards - it costs fuel/money to properly treat the air in the passenger cabin - and they do as little of it as they can. So it gets to be very little oxygen in there - the next time you hear about an obnoxious celebrity getting roudy on a plane, it's because A: they are obnoxious and B: The lack of oxygen and drinking combined robs them of what little self control they had. It's partly the airline companies making them act like that

I agree. The serving of alcohol on planes in that environment is something I have never quite understood(a part from the obvious profit reasons). People get silly drunk up there!

[Madness]

I was flying back to Japan once and I started drinking on this Air Canada flight with free alcohol... about five hours and nine tallcans into it, I released that I might have an issue. At seven hours and twelve, I wasn't even remotely drunk and I don't enjoy the idea of the plane and physiological-responses interacting to begin with.

So I quit while I was ahead had a nap and started on my train/bus adventure.

[sciborg2]

On Reddit there's a new guide to lucid dreaming:

http://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1vp3ok/i_was_asked_to_write_an_in_depth_explanation_of/