Hi dreamers,


hello to everone out there and thank you for the wealth of information that you and others put online so far and which helped me to get as far as I am now in my pursuit fro lucidity.

:yumdumdoodledum:

INTRODUCTION:
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I am 31, male, from Germany - a musician, writer, painter and programmer (last item the learned and still necessary dayjob, in case it isn't painfully obvious... )

I have come across the topic of Lucid Dreaming in another forum a few weeks ago (not dealing with LDs) and was really fascinated.

I started reading up on everything on the web only and began writing dreams down. I must say that I had no problems recalling most of my dreams before, but it was indeed interesting to look for recurring dreamthemes, e.g.



LUCIDITY CHRONOLOGY
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I did reality checks (checking watches and counting fingers), but I actually had some days in between where I only did it once and I never did it more than ten to fifteen times a day.

MILD I tried, but it did not seem to work on me, as well as some halfhearted WILD attempts.

What did happen, though, was that I had false awakenings where I reflected what I had dreamed and when I fully woke up I took this as one of the signs of approaching lucidity.

Now, yesterday night, when my wife pulled away the blanket, I woke up and when I felt I would drop off to sleep again in no time I (though being only half awake in the first place) decided to try a round of WILD. I was pretty relaxed already, so no need to relax. As I could not remember the appropriate affirmation to induce a lucid dream, I just told myself that I am going to enter my dream and to take myself with me...

I had a strong falling sensation as if I would sink through the bed backwards. I remembered that I read somewhere that this also was a sign of approaching lucidity and just went with it and well...

I opened my eyes and were fully conscious in my dream.

I was totally shocked at the reality of it all. I don't know what I was expecting, but I would have never thought that it really feels so real.

I had my arm stretched out in front of me and was holding a photo which I did not clearly see, but it was there like a bait from my subconsciousness to start my dream by exploring what's on the photo.

But I was conscious and I did not want to watch that photo. I was lying in bed (both in the dream and in real life) and to be honest: I was completely terrified. I wanted to wake up.
But I could not.
I closed my eyes shortly, but it did not work.
Before I panicked I tried to remember that I was lying in bed. And when I had a clear remembrance of the real life I woke up, made my dream diary entry and stayed awake for some time.



PROBLEMS & QUESTIONS:
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- I need solid tips and techniques for waking up reliably, but could not find any. Searching did not work, because the search terms needed to be longer than 3 letters and I could not paraphrase it appropriately

- Were you afraid in your first Lucid? I was, and I wonder if I am sort of chicken shit or if it is normal...

- Is the adoption program in this forum only for those who have not yet achieved a lucid dream? I am really interested to pursue this seriously and would like to say more about my goals over there when the two week period has passed. After all, I am very much a newb to the whole thing and would definitely benefit from some guidance. Or at least I think so...