Thread: First Controlled Ld By A Newbie...please Critique!

Hey everyone, I'm still fairly new to this and consider myself a "newbie", so I thought I'd post here. I had this incredible first controlled LD, and even though it was one of the most amazing things I've experienced, I know there's so much more to look forward to, and so many ways to improve. So if anyone had the time, please read through this dream and give me your feedback and advice. I'd really, really appreciate it!



4/4/2007

(Finally, a controlled lucid dream! Not as amazing as it could be, but it was still impressive and a wonderful experience.)


I was in a Wal-Mart-type building with my mom. We were shopping for groceries and stuff, when I suddenly became aware that there were zombies around. As usual in zombie dreams, I reacted fairly calmly, taking my mom and a few other customers back to the gun section. The employee working there asked what we wanted, and I told him that zombies were trying to get into the store and he had to open up the display cases for us. At first, the employee acted dumb, so I got in his face and told him that we needed guns to kill the zombies, otherwise they would get us. Finally, he seemed to understand, and said “Oh, you should have said so earlier, I’ve already opened up a case over there,” he said, indicating an open display case filled with racks of handguns.

I walked over to the case, and began looking for a certain type of gun. At first, I couldn’t find any, and I was pretty mad. Finally, I decided just to use whatever, and started to pull pistols off the shelf. Then I noticed something strange: no matter how many guns I took, the display case always looked full. It reminded me of certain video games, where the player can take an unlimited supply of something from a supply box, etc. It occurred to me that I was dreaming.

Immediately, I was sure that I was in a dream. Despite the fact that we were trying to avoid detection by the zombies, I turned away from the gun case and yelled out as loud as I could “Increase Lucidity!” I remembered to do this from my reading. Instantly, the world around me brightened, and I was no longer in the store. The zombies, my mom and the other customers were gone, too.

It was night, and I was outside what appeared to be my old middle school. As I tried to figure out where I was, I felt the dream beginning to fade a bit, so I yelled out “Increase Lucidity!” again, and the world brightened. This brightening was accompanied by a rush of happiness and elation, as I realized that I was aware in my dreamstate.

I began to run, feeling the wind in my face. Before I knew it, gravity seemed to stop applying, and I took off flying. It was amazing. The wind, the cold, the sound of the wind was just so real. I flew over my middle school, and saw that the land dropped behind it into the most beautiful snow-covered valley, surrounded by mountains. I rolled over to the side as I was flying, and looked up at the night sky. The stars were amazing, so clear and beautiful; it was one of the most awe-inspiring sights I have ever “seen”. I continued to fly over this valley, and eventually over a mountain.
It was now light, and behind the mountain was an even more incredible mountain/valley vista, with the sun shining and reflecting off the snow below. The scenery was amazing. I decided to land and try and find a dream character to talk to. I landed awkwardly, kind of dropping with all my momentum, so I ended up running and stumbling through the snow. The snow felt incredibly realistic; I could feel the powdery texture of the deep snow, and hear the crunch of the crust on top. It wasn’t cold, however.

I finally managed to stop near two young ladies walking along. The land was more flat now, and I may have no longer been in the valley. As I approached these two girls, who had stopped walking and had turned to look at me, I began to feel my lucidity waver, and I apologized to them, and told them that what I was about to do might seem weird, but I’d explain.
“Increase lucidity now!” I yelled out as the two girls looked on in a confused way. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the same effect as before. The girls looked at me strangely, and the lucidity began to waver. I tried talking to them, but I was losing the dream. Then, I began to worry about my appellate brief (which I had completed and turned in the night before). I worried that, while I was spending all of this time lucid dreaming, my brief was not yet done, and that if I didn’t wake up soon, I wouldn’t have time to finish it before it was due.

Suddenly, instead of dreaming, I began to think that I was at my computer typing, and I was writing this dream down instead of finishing my brief. I began to panic, and looked at the line-count of the document, and saw that I was way over the limit. I kept thinking that my brief was due at 9:30, and I had spent all of my time dreaming instead of working on it. I looked at the clock, and saw that it was 3:00 AM. I panicked and woke up.

What's to critique? You did great and had fun!

Look for BillyBob101's tutorial on maximizing the LD experience. It is superb.

Awesome! That is much better than my first time. I have yet to try something like shouting, "Lucidity on!"... I too am definitely a n00b at LD's thus far but that sounds like a great first one sammyba! I don't really have any advice but maybe somebody who is more experienced will come along soon...