Thread: I'm losing my dream "powers" - help!

Of the dozen lucid dreams I've had naturally over the past few months, I've found myself unable to use the powers I once had. No teleportation, no flying, no spellcasting, nothing. I can't even break open locks if a door is shut.

The only thing I can really do now is change the dream location by opening a door or other pathway like it that is already present in the world.

There are two reasons that may explain the problem:

• I haven't been trying to induce lucidity. I've been keeping a dream journal and sometimes repeat a mantra, but that's about it. Stephen LaBerge's book is currently next on my reading list - I'll get to it eventually.
• I've been struggling with my mental health lately. Not going into details, but it's made it hard to function in everyday life especially with feelings of control and I haven't gone outside much or talked to anyone in the past couple years. COVID is not helping the situation at all. (Luckily it's getting better, but this purgatory state has been really messing with me!)

I would like to hear feedback from people who have experienced this before. This is pretty scary - lucid dreaming used to be incredibly fun, and still is, but it's just not the same when I'm identical to myself in reality.

Welcome to Dream Views! I think it is normal to go through phases. I have many lucids that follow a pattern. Perhaps I have great control and the dreams are almost boring because I control so much. Other times I have weeks where I do not even think to control the dreams and might just sit around talking with DCs. Also I think mastery level control comes with literally thousands of dreams, so falling short of mastery is not a big deal. I bet you will get many dreams like the old ones again.

Agree with Sivason, but if you want to work on this, one thing you can do is try to overcome limiting beliefs in waking life. You said that your mental health is not so great - I would start there. Maybe your self-esteem is not so great? Maybe you don't believe in yourself right now, or feel like you have little power in your waking life situation? Work on things like that, and I suspect the dreamworld will adapt as you do.

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with the others, though I'm curious, have the patterns of your non-lucid dreams changed in a significant way that coincides with the changes to your lucid dreams? Like more dreams about worries or concerns, or perhaps some other change.

I can relate and had a similar rough patch recently. Not so much with control but with lucidity in general. Before I was enjoying regular lucidity on a weekly basis but as soon as things got tough in my waking life I lost my ability almost entirely for nearly 2 months. Not just lucid dreams but general recall as well. It was frustrating but after some time had passed and I had worked through some of my issues my ability to lucid dream came back. It sounds like you’ve lost your confidence. I think you may need to resolve or at least improve your waking issues first but maybe you could also re-read your old journal entries and remind yourself how skilled you used to be. It may bring back some confidence. Anyway, you’re not alone and I’m sure your abilities will come back in time.

hello there! great advice from the all the oneironaut crew..I've been there before, many times...my advice to you: TRUST the process, KEEP mantra for sure! and LET GO... Lucidity would come knocking on your door as you know it..."when least expected!"

Dreams are, above all, reflections or confirmations of our time in waking-life, Dreamdenizn. So it doesn't surprise me that, given your waking-life "pause" from empowerment, your dreaming mind might feel obliged to render you powerless.

Try to make a point of setting an intention at bedtime that next time you're lucid you will not suffer the same powerlessness, but take advantage of your moment in a world that is all your own and in it You are perfectly powerful; perfectly free. I have a feeling that, when you remember during the dream that you are not only in full power of your dream, your moment, but you are free to explore in ways that just don't currently exist in that purgatory that is your waking life, you will find that control is quick to return. If you can manage this mindset, I think you will find your lucid powers returning, regardless of how you got lucid in the first place.

That said, reading LaBerge is still a good idea...

Oh, and welcome to Dreamviews; good luck!

Thank you all for the advice and experiences (and extra thanks for the welcome posts)! It's good to know that my powers aren't going away forever.

I suspected it had something to do with my mental state, so fingers crossed that my control will quickly return as soon as I start regaining confidence.