Thread: Scary stuff...

Hi dreamviews, I am reasonably new to the forums... I remember creating this account back when I had a few lucid dreams myself, even know they were quite short.

The first lucid dream I had was perhaps months ago. I had just woken up, when the night before I had been reading about this strange phenomena, and had not yet opened my eyes... I fell straight back to sleep. When I re-opened them I appeared to be in my dining room, I thought "Wait a minute, how did I get here?" and became lucid. At first I was exited but fear started to creep in as I realised I was in full control. This aspect scares me, since I get the feeling that my mind would acknowledge this fear and manifest itself into what I think COULD happen- for example; I might think of a bear running into the house and clawing my face off (silly, I know...).

I tried to leave the dream before anything could be manifested into god knows what.
When I tried closing my eyes I re-opened them to find nothing happened, I was still in a dream... I panicked and tried to find something that would undoubtably wake me up. I saw my sister cooking something so after a quick consideration I jumped on top of the boiling hot cooker hoping it would wake me up. lol.

And it worked! When I opened my eyes I was covered in sweat and my heart was beating erratically- so, to be frank, I was scared ****less.

Now every time I think I am dreaming (even when I am really not) I get really and I mean REALLY scared... this might all sound stupid, but I panic when I realise ANYTHING can happen in a dream.

Is there anyway to overcome this fear? Who remembers the part in Inception where the woman runs up to the girl with a knife inside the dream... if that happened to me I... I don't know... that for me just pushes the panic button- even if I know it isn't real.

Sorry for all the writing... I ramble

Hello Harsongi. I was wondering, are you much of a negative thinker while you are awake?

Haha rambling is good, better more info than less

What you will find with dreams is that if you expect something to happen, it most likely will. So your fear of things happening may make something your panicking about really manifest, The best thing you can do, is just have a frightening experience and change it into a positive one, after this has happened you will realise nothing has to happen if you don't want it to, you are the boss here.

Another thing you could try is to begin associating Lucid Dreaming with being pretty cool - lets face it, it is bloody marvellous! Instead of focusing on what may go wrong, focus on what you WANT to do! Write out a list of short term goals for yourself, for example:

• Fly
• meet up with a celebrity
• fight with a lightsaber

Just stuff like that, stuff you really want to give a go. Then before bed when your wanting to LD just read over the list and memorize it, that way when you become lucid, your not thinking "HOLY SHIT A BEAR!" your thinking, "YES - now lets go fly around!" or whatever .
I hope this helped.

Originally Posted by Ahsaka

Hello Harsongi. I was wondering, are you much of a negative thinker while you are awake?

Well, yes and no. I can be a negative thinker being that if I do something wrong I might punish myself mentally, or when doing things-- I expect myself to get it wrong when I am attempting a difficult task such as lucid dreaming.
While awake I have the motivation to do something but it usually ever ends up with me giving up or trying something else -like- it.

Originally Posted by nito89

Haha rambling is good, better more info than less

What you will find with dreams is that if you expect something to happen, it most likely will. So your fear of things happening may make something your panicking about really manifest, The best thing you can do, is just have a frightening experience and change it into a positive one, after this has happened you will realise nothing has to happen if you don't want it to, you are the boss here.

Another thing you could try is to begin associating Lucid Dreaming with being pretty cool - lets face it, it is bloody marvellous! Instead of focusing on what may go wrong, focus on what you WANT to do! Write out a list of short term goals for yourself, for example:

• Fly
• meet up with a celebrity
• fight with a lightsaber

Just stuff like that, stuff you really want to give a go. Then before bed when your wanting to LD just read over the list and memorize it, that way when you become lucid, your not thinking "HOLY SHIT A BEAR!" your thinking, "YES - now lets go fly around!" or whatever .
I hope this helped.

When I first heard about lucid dreaming, I was amazed in the fact that you could do anything. The fact that you can control your own dream, make anything possible- to the extent of your creativity is brilliant. The fact is I have poor dream control, but I also have a very active imagination. If something random in my mind pops up during a lucid dream it will happen, but with varying results- it might benefit me or shock/suprise me. I'm not sure if that makes total sense, I hope it does :/
I am still a newbie and I hope to confront this fear soon- to make more time for doing something fun

Yesterday I got into a really relaxed state, so relaxed that I started to forget about everything around me... I started seeing patterns. The problem is that when I open my eyes I have no idea if I am in reality... I get a "sense" that the world around me is not real (my dreams are VERY vivid- practically lifelike). I'm not sure if I am slowly losing my sanity or just extremely paranoid but this awareness was quite frightening.

Thank you for responding! I will take on your advice and make a list... I guess a clear goal will clear distraction, to focus on the job at hand.
Cheers!

Hmmm.. if you have this kind of anxiety, I wonder what your normal (non-lucid) dreams are like? Are they mostly nightmares?

If not then I'd say you have nothing to worry about. And if they are, then I'd think you'd want to get lucid so you can change that! If you accidentally create a bear, then pull a big Milk Bone out of your pocket and teach it to do tricks.

The thing is - as long as you KNOW you're dreaming, anything can happen and it can't hurt you. A bear in a non-lucid can frighten you half to death because you believe it's real - but if you know it's only a dream character you can reach up and scratch it behind the ear or play fetch with it, or for that matter see what it's like to let it rip you to shreds. You'll either experience something pretty amazing or just wake up, right?

I see now. Mental punishment would be something to worry about. I think you should try to focus on the fact that nothing can 'really' hurt you in dreams. When lucid I find that when something does try to hurt me there is no pain or barely any pain at all. The fear of punishment is actually more intense than the 'punishment' itself when dreaming. Nito87's list idea is a good one too. Hope you do use it and it brings you success.

In regards to losing your sanity, I'd say find a few safe ways to reality check and do those whenever the unreal feeling settles over you. Performing a few checks should verify if you are in a dream or not. If it turns out you can fly or have suddenly developed telekinetic abilities you're probably dreaming.

Hmm, having trouble posting. Hope this one makes its way through.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Hmmm.. if you have this kind of anxiety, I wonder what your normal (non-lucid) dreams are like? Are they mostly nightmares?

If not then I'd say you have nothing to worry about. And if they are, then I'd think you'd want to get lucid so you can change that! If you accidentally create a bear, then pull a big Milk Bone out of your pocket and teach it to do tricks.

The thing is - as long as you KNOW you're dreaming, anything can happen and it can't hurt you. A bear in a non-lucid can frighten you half to death because you believe it's real - but if you know it's only a dream character you can reach up and scratch it behind the ear or play fetch with it, or for that matter see what it's like to let it rip you to shreds. You'll either experience something pretty amazing or just wake up, right?

Well you see sometimes I can't wake up, I get stuck inside the dream... I am not sure if I am expecting the dream not to end-- or I am curious as to what will happen if I stayed there.
Sometimes the dream is so real, so lifelike that I just expect any feeling inside the dream to be just like it is in reality. This scares me. But when I think to myself "It's just a dream... I cannot be harmed." it does nothing to help my fear.
I know fear is natural and the only way to overcome fear is to face it... but I am not sure, I'm stuck in a place of being afraid to be afraid... kind of.
This elevates when I can't escape, for example; say if your stuck in a box, that's my dream. It's slowly sinking, that's my fear. It's locked, and I have no idea where I left the key. As the dream deepens I panic... expecting my fear to manifest.
I'm not sure why I can't just open my eyes but sometimes I get lost in the dream world making me extremely confused and paranoid.

Thank you for your post and sorry if I am being stubborn on this topic... I know I can't get hurt but my body says "Get the hell out of there!" and turns automatic... looking for an exit.

Originally Posted by Ahsaka

I see now. Mental punishment would be something to worry about. I think you should try to focus on the fact that nothing can 'really' hurt you in dreams. When lucid I find that when something does try to hurt me there is no pain or barely any pain at all. The fear of punishment is actually more intense than the 'punishment' itself when dreaming. Nito87's list idea is a good one too. Hope you do use it and it brings you success.

In regards to losing your sanity, I'd say find a few safe ways to reality check and do those whenever the unreal feeling settles over you. Performing a few checks should verify if you are in a dream or not. If it turns out you can fly or have suddenly developed telekinetic abilities you're probably dreaming.

Hmm, having trouble posting. Hope this one makes its way through.

Thanks, I think that I should be more confident in my actions during the dream state but if I can't control it then I am subject to whatever the dream plot has in store for me, and what's worse is I am aware of it, unlike in a normal dream

Now then, back to my list

Oh I was also wondering, is there any chance that a reality check like the nose plug wouldn't work? I mean, if you expect it is impossible then will it happen anyway in the dream state? Thanks

Originally Posted by Harsongi

Oh I was also wondering, is there any chance that a reality check like the nose plug wouldn't work? I mean, if you expect it is impossible then will it happen anyway in the dream state? Thanks

This quote thingy is pretty cool.

The nose plug check is pretty reliable for me but I've always expected that it would work. If I expected it to fail then it would probably be useless to me. You have to change your mindset to believe that things in dream WILL work out. Don't worry so much about dream control. Just focus on getting lucid and getting comfortable in the environment. Best of luck to you. I know you can overcome. I eventually did.

LOL well you're a tough nut to crack!!

I leave it to those more knowledgeable and experienced than me to try to help you.