Thread: Lucid Nightmare?

I am attempting a WILD after WBTB early this morning and I see a man running away from someone or something. I watch as the man climbs over a wall and jumps on the other side. At this moment , I become the man in first person and notice my DREAM HANDS. I realise I am Dreaming and confirm it with a reality check. I'm in a train yard and notice a lot of abandoned trains, trees and shrubs. It is night and the only light is a bright headlight coming from one of the parked trains. I keep moving, but then suddenly realise and feel something is behind me. I turn around and see a dark, wispy, shadowy figure and I frantically wave my hands to keep it away. Unfortunately, this fear loses lucidity in the dream and I wake up. My body shivers in fear.

I usually have beautiful dreamscapes, today was different. A part of me said I should have stayed calm. I wish I hadn't waved off the spirit figure.
What happened ? Was it a lucid Nightmare? What could I do differently next time if this happens?

The dream was an unpleasant dream in which you knew you were dreaming so it was a lucid nightmare.

You could have engaged in friendly conversation with the figure, extracting information from it such as what it's up to, what it's representing, what it wants, or any other things to help you gain understanding and peace of mind.

Thank you Dolphin, that's great advice. I shall do this when it occurs again

Think back to a city you you are used to, then think of a road, dreaming requires focus and a familiar base;

In my LDs I tend to purposefully summon things that I know I would be afraid of, and it helps me feel more in control. Dolphin was right on the money with his answer. Just confront whatever nightmarish element that's bothering you and you'll probably find that it's not all that bad. And by confront, I don't mean fight/attack. The one time I did that it didn't end well!

Basically, if you're not responding with fear or anger towards whatever it is that's antagonizing you, you'll be all right.

Good luck if it happens again!

Originally Posted by NateDogg

In my LDs I tend to purposefully summon things that I know I would be afraid of, and it helps me feel more in control.

I love this. It is exactly correct.

There are an infinite number of degrees of lucidity. I have had dreams in which I told myself "I'm dreaming!" but then was afraid of consequences of my actions. I have had many many non-lucid dreams in which I knew that I was in that familiar place where I could do anything. I have FORGOTTEN that I was dreaming. I've had lucid dreams where I knew that I was dreaming but wasn't aware that I knew I was dreaming. I know, that sounds nonsensical, but I promise it's a real thing.

After twenty years I still have semi-lucid dreams sometimes.

Waving away the scary figure is not what one would do if they know for sure that they are lucid dreaming. I'm not saying you weren't lucid. I'm saying that by taking this action you were not presenting faith in your own conviction. You were caving into the fear by making the figure go away, rather than acting on the knowledge that you are truly dreaming and that there was no reason to be scared. By not acting as someone who is merely dreaming you are sending the wrong message to your subconscious.
In other words: Why would you make the figure go away if you were just dreaming? By making the figure go away your subconscious may have thought "OH, maybe this is real then." Lucidity does not necessarily include the knowledge that dreams aren't real. As I've said I have had dreams in which I knew I was dreaming, but didn't realize that the dreams weren't real.

I hope that makes some amount of sense and isn't too confusing.

I agree with yosa and dolphin. One must have full conviction if one is to hold onto full lucidity. The easiest way for me to change something about my dream is to transform something that is already present. (I can't conjure anything because I've convinced myself that I can't. It's really lame. lol)

Last night, in a lucid dream, I got attacked by a mugger in a bathroom. He wanted to stab me with a knife and I hesitated. For a second I WAS afraid of the knife puncturing my flesh. I even said "I don't know if I can allow that, honestly." but I was really curious, and I knew that I couldn't allow myself to act on any amount of fear, so I told him to go for it. The knife couldn't penetrate my flesh, and the mugger ... didn't make it out of the bathroom. Had I said "Oh no! I need to change that knife into a soap bar", or "Oh no, I'd better run." or "I'd better defend myself." or any other action based on fear I would not have been acting on full conviction. It can weaken your lucidity.