Thread: My first post.

Hi, my name is Riki, and I'm 22, and I've been interested in lucid dreaming since I was 16 or 17. I've always been interested in my dreams since I was little and I've always had the ability to remember my dreams pretty well. What really got me interested in lucid dreaming was a book talking about astral projection I got at my grandmas after she had passed away. In a part of the book it talked briefly about lucid dreaming and that's when I started googling things about lucid dreaming. My memory is good enough to where I remember dreams I had when I was in kindergarten, only a few really stick out about 5-7.

But I have some problems.

First is I simply have a hard time falling asleep. My brain thinks about a million things and it can't shut off, and although I've always wanted to try sleeping pills, I've never actually gotten around to trying them.

But here is a problem I have with my dreams, they are always so random that I think I simply just got too used to the crazyness and it has always prevented me from ever becoming lucid, and when I started doing a dream journal and trying to see dream signs I'd simply DREAM that I was lucid, which some times would even lead me to dreaming I messed up the lucidity and woke up. Then I'd dream I fell back asleep and the dream would go normal.

Another thing that I think may add to my problem is the fact that I play lots of video games, so my perception of real and un-real is hard to see in a dream. Things may seem normal to me because I've become accustomed to seeing them in my games.

Also no matter how clear the dream signs are, I never think "Hmm this is odd." For example I'm reading a piece of paper, and I re-read the first 2 sentences and every time I look at it it says something different or is harder to read. But I think nothing of it. To open the doors of the strangeness of my dreams I'll tell you about my dream from last night.

Oh one more strange thing that I should add, is it seems a lot of times my dreams are in 3rd person or I simply don't recall things being in first person or it could just be that when I remember my dreams it's in 3rd person.

The first thing I remember is getting into a helicopter in a gunners seat and being flown over what must of been Vietnam era jungle. And I start shooting down at these bad guys down there (this of course makes the video game thing I said early obvious =P ) and the pilot swoops the helicopter down close to them so I can get a better shot. What's weird is that we are getting close enough to where it looks like they are only 5 feet away. So I'm shooting down and some of the people I'm shooting at pull out guns and they start shooting the helicopter. I assume the pilot died because the helicopter goes down slowly enough to where I'm not harmed at all. And I then run to this log cabin type of building. There are all these Vietnamese or what have you kids there and now it's like a movie, where I have to band these kids together to fight off whatever bad guys are going to be coming. And as I'm talking to them and I walk over through some trees I look down this hill and there are these big swimming pools with some really tall diving boards and there are all these people around it. So I go down there and it turned into some kind of class reunion thing, I'm seeing all these people I know and talking and mingling. Then there is some weird thing going on where I have to get into the water to get a check, but the check is old and I can't cash it. And I'm looking at all these checks but they are too old, and when I look up I'm in this muddy pig sty looking thing. And I say forget the checks and I'm talking to these people in there and we are talking about making a movie. I can't remember this part too clearly, but the conversation was something about making a movie. When I'm done talking to them I am walking through the mud and I leave the barn thing I'm in and go into this little shack. In the shack is my girlfriend and I want to say Reese and Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. I can't remember the faces that well, but I think it was them. Anyways on the wall is this bear looking thing tied up. It was like a giant bear and beaver put together, probably 4-5 feet long and it's growling and moving around because it's tied up. It's tied up by it's back legs up high and is hanging down. And they tell me that they found out that if they flip it around that it's voice changes it the sounds it makes sound like it's speaking english. So they flip it around and it somehow goes from this big 4 foot thing into this little thing about the size of a large guinea pig. And it starts talking and it has Jack Blacks voice and it tells us how it's Jack Black and I can't really remember what else it says, but I woke up shortly after that.

See weird.

Hello there RikiRude, to answer your questions:


1) Just try to clear your mind with meditation, or just focus on something simple like breathing, or counting from 1 to 100.

2) Try to recall your dreams by writing them down, so you will develop a sense of logic in your dreams. Random ones that don't make sense are based on the fact that there is no stability or consistency in your subconscious when you think about dreams.

3) You can solve the real/un-real issue in your dreams by doing reality checks (checking to see if this is reality or a dream or video game) by testing certain things in your environment and see if your memory connects and tells you where you are. This also works with dream signs. Just make a habit of doing reality checks.

4) Try to visualize memories in your mind as first-person rather than 3rd-person, so you won't imagine your dreams as being movies, but rather you going through an experience personally.

Anyway, good luck to you, and if you have anymore questions, just post them here, read up the FAQ and tutorials, or look up other threads.

Welcome to the biggest open-minded internet community!
You'll find that plenty of people have problems going to sleep (and generally getting what they want from dreams, as it's the major aspects of dreams: being able to do anything you can think of, but you realize your mind isn't always on your side). It's all about building confidence and trust in yourself...anyway I don't want to sound like the old wise guy (which i certainly am not), just to say all problems have a solution (ie yoga for going to sleep) and any dream is by defnition strange ! So don't worry ! See you around

I would defiently consider practicing reality checks. That will help you with false awakenings and a more lucid dreams.

Thanks guys! Been busy so haven't had a chance to respond. I do need to get into the habit of reality checks, and I think I'm going to come up with a way to do virtual reality checks of sorts, maybe when I'm playing games I'll tell myself that it's a game so it can't be real.

I think visualizing my memories in 1st person will help a lot, I had never considered it.

Also is there a site that you guys recommend for learning how to meditate? I don't just want to google some random site hehe.