Thread: How did you discover Lucid Dreaming?

Idk..though after having sleep paralysis for the first time I became interested in dreaming and other things that I never thought I would as before then dreams meant nothing to me and I would have thought of controlling dreams as impossible like it never existed.

I've had lucid dreams since I was a child. I had my first one when I was in elementary school. I dreamed that a spider cut my fingers in half, so I had ten fingers on each hand. But somehow I realized that it was a dream and that there was nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, I woke up then and looked at my fingers, only to discover that my fingers were still cut in half - eerie false awakening!

I've had spontaneous lucids ever since, most of them starting as nightmares. Later I got really interested in dream interpretation and started to keep a dream journal. I had lucids pretty regular then. When I began reading about dream interpretation, I finally came across a book that explained these strange, conscious dreams and I learned about lucid dreaming.

Well, I'm still into dream interpretation and lucid dreaming, though it's more like a hobby that comes and goes, depending on how much time I have. I stumbled on this forum when I was looking for some info on WILD and how to do it. I finally managed to have one, thanks to your neat tutorials

I was playing through a song in StepMania called "Lucid Rhythms," and didn't know what the word lucid meant. So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and one of the search results was 'Lucid Dreaming.' I read the page, was absolutely fascinated, did a quick web search on lucid dreaming, and now I'm here. Sometimes having a crappy vocabulary can be a good thing...

I am a cybernaut. I travel the Internet looking for phenomena (videos, memes, threads, etc) that contain win, fail, lulz, or other notable qualities. I tend to go off on extremely random expeditions into the depths of the Web just to see what I can learn about whatever I happen to be thinking about at the time, and whatever else happens to catch my eye along the way.

About a year ago, I was on one of my random Googling sprees and, well, one link led to another, and somehow I ended up on Dreamviews. I read through the homepage and found some basic information on lucid dreaming. Intrigued, I delved deeper into the site and found the forum (which, by the way, contains large quantities of win ). After a bit of reading, I went from "Fascinating, Captain" to "HOLY SHIT I must learn to do this!!"

I must say that of all the phenomena I've found in the wonderful world of the Internets, lucid dreaming has been one of the most influential. I finally had my first LD a few weeks ago, and after that experience there's no way I'm giving up on it. I have cerebral palsy which limits the strength and range of motion in my legs, and the opportunity to use LDing to do everything my disability prevents me from doing in real life (and more!) is just too good to pass up. Also, I'm designing a PC game, and dreams (especially lucid ones) are great ways to come up with ideas!



TL;DR version: LUCID DREAMING FTW!!!

I was a kid when I started lucid dreaming and didn't know there was even a word for it. Thought everyone did it! I found a book as a teen, and began to learn all about it, how to work it etc. Oddly, after a lifetime of dreaming and remembering them every night, I stopped dreaming once I was several months pregnant. Totally stopped! My son is now 3 and until recently I wouldn't remember much; no flying, which was really disappointing more than anything. I recently started using some lavender oil to help me sleep and found I was able to remember my dreams AND do some lucid dreaming once again.

A few months ago I was randomly browsing on Google and thought I would type in 'psychology' and see what came up. One of the results was about dream psychology, which I thought sounded interesting. I looked up 'dream psychology' in Google and of course lucid dreaming was one of the topics. I read the basic description of it and thought it sounded really cool. I researched further into it, taking in more and more information about it until it became important to me. I started my own dream journal and eventually found this site.

A guy told me about it on MSN.

Google suggests weird things and it suggested lucid dreaming to me so i clicked it because i had nothing better to do.

i had an accidental LD and looked up how to control your dreams on Google.

I was first given a taste of it because of a female witch DC. I was hunting her in a normal dream but she killed my friend and was throwing lightning at me. And when I was pinned down by it I wondered how come she can throw lightning like that(I just thought it in my head)and then she called out to me "It's all in your mind"..

And after she told me that I just knew what she meant and so I stood up and threw heaps of these little gold darts at her with both my hands, like gold needles which she somersaulted over and then she disappeared into thin air with a laugh.

So after that dream I knew dreams had more potential because I had knowingly done my first impossible action during one. But I wasnt lucid so much it was more like I just knew I could do anything with will power alone.

And then soon after I came across an add in the paper from a guy who was teaching 'lucid dreaming' which sounded just like what I was after. So I learned from him over an 8 week course I think it was. Which got me started around 1991/92.

If you've ever read the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (If you havn't, I HIGHLY recommend. My favorite book series of all time) he has something in it called the dream world.

In his series, the dream world is something that certain people who were able to learn how could enter whenever they wanted. When they entered, they were in a reflection of the real world. There were no people there but other dreamers, but everything was real. You couldn't make your own areas to explore, but you could go to any known corner of the world to look around.
Anything that happened to you in the dream happened to in real life as well.

Anyways, this was a really intriguing concept to me and I was surfing around and found out about lucid dreaming, than I found Dreamviews. And here I am

I saw some people on various websites (not forums) talking about it, so I decided to Google it.

I discovered the term 'Lucid Dreaming' in the book Dreamrider by Barry Jonsberg.

The concept I've known of for a long time now.

Originally Posted by jareemon

I first learned about LDs when an old friend was telling me years ago about it. (edgewizz7) I really wanted to try it, but didn't know how. for a couple years I forgot about the whole thing, then one day I was stoned and up late at night watching tv and a movie came on called "Waking Life" (many of you are familiar with this movie) And it was an awesome experience, just watching it alone, stoned, late at night. After that I eventually had a couple LDs, but they were short and certainly not vivid. I found it very difficult to see, to move, and simple things like that. I'm sure that was because of the cannabis. Anyway, here I am, having found DV on google, having given up cannabis 4 years ago, and having regular LDs. The last was the other night - I was on the run from the FBI after robbing a bank and i fell off a train and they found me and I used 'the force' to push them away

So how did you guys first hear/learn about Lucid dreaming? Were you interested in dreams before you did? How has it affected your life?

I heard about Lucid Dreams from Waking Life. After watching that movie with a very close and open minded friend of mine. Personally for me the realization of Lucid Dreams are very overwhelming because to me it is a completely separate reality in which i can escape and live in. It still has not sunk in i watched the movie last night and i am still mind boggled about it.

Originally Posted by Vashen

I heard about Lucid Dreams from Waking Life. After watching that movie with a very close and open minded friend of mine. Personally for me the realization of Lucid Dreams are very overwhelming because to me it is a completely separate reality in which i can escape and live in. It still has not sunk in i watched the movie last night and i am still mind boggled about it.

I don't know if escaping and living in the dream world is the right way to think about it. The dream world to me is an extension of the real world, where everything is possible. I don't look at it as a second life and I don't think you should. Not that that makes Lding less amazing. But also when you don't see it as a second life but an extension where you can also solve problems from your everyday life. It can enhance your everyday life so you don't even want to escape from it.

It was at least 5 years a go (maybe more) when I had a fase awakening and I realized I was asleep.
I was telling my mother about it and she was saying how you can have dreams where you are aware you are asleep and you can do things in them like change them for your benefit.
I then found out they were lucid dreams. I spent many years hoping each night I'd have one, and when I did have a lucid dream it was so amazing.
Only recently I found the forum. I wanted to find a lucid community for at least 2 years now, and failed my search twice. Finally DV popped up. Its great. Now I can LD when I want.

Already being intrested in dreams I was on Dreammoods a dream interprutation site and i was reading stuff and i stumbled upon Flying dreams and it said that they were associated with Lucid Dreams and i found another link on the site that said lucid dreams and i clicked on it. I read what the thing said and being pretty intrested in it i typed it up on youtube. I found some videos and watched them and then i went to bed. The next day i typed it again and found reecejoness' channel who you guys have probably seen. I became an LDer for awhile and then quit. I then became intrested again and typed up Lucid Dreaming Forums and found dreamviews. SO HERE I AM!

I found it out myself, but I thought I went crazy or something, lol. Then I asked my friends and they had the same experience but we never knew what it was, until now. :]

It's the same as depersonalization and derealization, you think your crazy but get a relief when you hear about it.

I could do it before I knew what it was. Since I was young actually... but it was hit and miss... and I never knew what caused it. When the matrix came out I started calling it sleep matrix... but after I got internet access and got used to using google I searched and found out all about it. So... I kinda discovered it on my own... but didn't know much about it till google.

I found out about lucid dreaming from the game "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey."

Damn, i cant remember how i found out about it.

I had a few LDs years ago when I was about five or six. I heard the term "lucid dreaming" used in various places but I didn't really look into it. Then I saw a thing about it on the "Why do we dream?" episode of Horizon, which got me interested. I was like, "Wow, I want to do that!" A year or so later it occured to me I should do some Internet research...

A combination of Google and a romp through various Wikipedia pages.

I searched "how to control your dreams" on Google. I found this whole site dedicated to this thing called "lucid dreaming". I was excited