Thread: Lucid Nightmares

One of the first reasons I ever came to Dream Views is because I had an incredibly bad series of nightmares. It culminated to a point that my nightmares even overlapped into my lucid dreams.

I found that lucid nightmares were worse than regular ones.

In a lucid dream, it feels as though nothing can touch you. It is as though you are the creator and dictator of the entire realm.

However, if something comes into it and takes control away from you (ie. controls your lucidity) then it feels as though your very mind is violated.

In mine, I had gotten used to controlling my nightmares via lucidity. However, in one dream, the nightmares actually felt like a beckoning voice from my unconscious and it tore the very fabric of my lucidity to pieces. I fought it hard but it was so vigorous that I even woke up with a nose bleed and deep scratches on my arm (self induced).

Have any of you ever experienced a nightmare that included lucidity at all?

~

Yes. One. And it was the worst nightmare I had ever experienced. I had experienced a total of 5 false awakenings (each of which I had become lucid in upon realizing I was still stuck in the dream) and at one point went into the neighboring room in the dream (mirrored my apartment) to try to wake them up on the real world end, so that they could in turn wake me up.

The worst part occurred during the 3rd or 4th false awakening. I ran into the living room, where the very darkness seemed to breathe with some deathly, thick quality. I closed my eyes as usual in order to bring about a change in the environment, and upon opening them I saw sunlight spilling through the windows. It looked like a diseased kind of a light, but it eased the mood until I felt like control of my dream was being taken, almost certainly this time, by another conscious entity. I felt something work against me as my eyelids were forced down. The moment they were fully shut I was let free, and found myself looking back upon the same black living room that had invisible eyes looking at me from everywhere. There was always a sickening feeling that you were being watched by something that could always remain behind you, and if it approached you ever, you felt that too.

At some point I had found a dagger under my pillow that had been made of some foreign metal I'd not before seen, adorned with small silver skulls that made a spiral up the handle with emeralds that glowed deep green for eyes, and a leather strap that ran as a second spiral in between the skulls. The handle was curved, but the blade of the dagger pointed straight and to a vicious point. I thought before that good and evil were only made up words that we used to describe the actions of others, but whatever emanated from this artifact was malevolent, terrifying and, in every way I can imagine, "evil". It was more than an object with a shape and colors. There was a life to it I cannot put into words.

The first and second false awakenings were outdoors. There was sunlight in the beginning as well, but it was pale and lacked the vitality of real sunlight. These two FAs were the precursors to the rest of the nightmare. It was the feeling of the other mind though that drove me insane.

I woke up at four o'clock that morning, this time for real. I immediately woke everyone else up in the house an asked them if they went through what I did, or if they had at least been contacted by me in their dreams to wake me up. None had. I retired to my room again to play music to calm my nerves. My lights were on now. One song played. I attempted to play another song and found that my speaker's volume dial was physically turned to the 'off' position. I thought I was losing it. What further added to this incredible experience was the sound of people talking coming from the hallway in direct line of sight of me outside of my bathroom door, and then seeing a shadow cut off what light spilled out of my room onto the hallway walls. The talking continued in whispers too faint for me to make out. I didn't go back to sleep that morning.

^The above occurred little more than a year ago. I have never written this down.. Maybe I touched upon it lightly here before though, I can't say.

I used to think lucid nightmares were impossible until I had one for myself. What made me so excited about lucid dreams in the very beginning was that I too had nightmares that occurred on a regular basis, which ended on the first night of my discovering that lucid dreaming was a reality. I had since then pursued LDing for reasons I gave in your other thread, but it's role as the end-of-nightmares (for the most part, anyways) in my life has been nothing short of monumental. It's the rare, extreme nightmares that sometimes make their way through now, the ones that (like my lucid nightmare) have the feeling of some other indomitable conscious mind occupying the same space.

Ah that's deep O'nus.

Well I don't have nightmares that often, but once in a while I'll have a dream that I'm being invaded by zombies. One time I said "if there are any zombies, I know I'll be dreaming". By this, I was hoping that the zombies will come and I can be lucid and just get the f_ck out of there by flying somewhere else. Well the zombies never did show up... which I guess is win-win for me.

Sometimes I get a little startled when I find out that I'm dreaming. Like I'll read the clock and I'll be like "9:84!? That's impossible... I've been dreaming this whole time?" which the little burst of excitement is short-lived and I continue on with the lucid dream happily.

I don't think I've ever had an actual lucid nightmare though.

Originally Posted by Invader

Yes.

Ahh!!! You're experience is just pure insanity! I don't blame you for not going back to sleep. I only have one lucid nightmare, and actually well, I didn't go back to sleep either I was so happy when that sun rose

What further added to this incredible experience was the sound of people talking coming from the hallway in direct line of sight of me outside of my bathroom door, and then seeing a shadow cut off what light spilled out of my room onto the hallway walls. The talking continued in whispers too faint for me to make out. I didn't go back to sleep that morning.

Was this in the waking or dreaming? Either way it's creepy.

I shared my lucid nightmare in the deep dreaming section, I'll paraphrase the important parts here. In this lucid dream I try to accomplish my goal of going to the moon to dream share with WakingNomad. I've never been able to go to the moon before in my dreams, it was always beyond reach.


"I command a portal to open in the sky. At first my voice falls me. So I have to really scream it. To the moon!!!

Just then, I see a white ball of light fly down. I think it's the portal, so I come closer. I remember that just as I reached the white orb, I saw what looked like a much larger portal behind it. But I enter the first and tinier white orb instead (ahem. . it looked just like Carlos Castanedas description of a scout).

Everything seems to be fading, I think I'm losing my dream. I doubted that my portal worked, its never worked before. . . I think to myself, that I'm probably just about to wake up.

Everything goes black and when I open my eyes I gasp. I'M ON THE MOON!!! And as I scream that, I thought I would feel happy and victorious!!!

Instead fear takes over me so much I lose my breath and fall on my knees. I'm in shock! For several reasons. One. I'M ON THE MOON. I've never ever managed to go to the moon in a dream before! Two. The reality of the place. Stark crisp reality. The reality of it took me back. My lucid dream in comparison was fuzzy nonsense. But also, my own emotions were shocking me. This dread. I don't understand why I'm filled with dread.

Haven't I been trying to get here night after night? Shouldn't I be happy?

I'm confused by my immediate surroundings. The moon is so fucking dark. I can see where I'm going, but not much ahead of me. I can see the white moon rocks, but they're not shining the way they should as if reflecting sunlight. The sky was a massive black void. Where are the stars??.....And where is the earth??

I was upset, what's the point of coming all the way up here if I can't even see earth!

I get moving. And I notice my vision is in black and white. Why the hell is my vision in black and white? I should have some color at least on my skin right? And I try to think of reasons why my vision is in black and white. I decide maybe it's because of old tv footage of the moon.

I cross some rocky hills and craters, but I don't like this fear that won't leave me, or the lonliness. Damn. I just want to see someone's face soon. I didn't care who. I just want to see someone's face. And I tell myself as I quickly hop over a hill that I'll find WakingNomad's tower soon (I thought the tower was supposed to be white).

Oh I did see a tower. I squint my eyes. It was so dark I could barely make it out. But as my eyes adjusted I can make out this tower like building. "Is that the tower?". It didn't look that attractive. And why doesn't it look white??

I tell myself "because a cloud is casting a shadow over it". But then I shake my head. "stupid, there aren't any clouds on the moon". And I look up and confirm that there was no heavenly bodies around to cast such a dark shadow...I get a little closer. Hoping I will see someone soon!

I start to shout "HELLOOO!??" And make my presence known. "IS ANYONE THERE??" ............................"ANYONE FROM DREAM VIEWS?"

I trip. The texture of the ground radically changed from rocky to pure sand. The sand created dunes. And my foot unearthed a small plant growing in the sand. I shake my head thinking, theres no sand dunes on the moon. And theres no plant life either...Right?

"Oh damn!" I'm upset because I think that I'm in a desert. My moon teleportation failed. This is just some random dream desert. And that's what I honestly reasoned. This is a random dream desert.

I get closer to the tower. I'm still several hills away. It's a large building. Made of a dark metal. No wonder it was so dark. I don't like it. So artificial. My heart is starting to pound. I ignore my anxiety and my desire to just see any human face. My eyes again adjust to the darkness. And I see.......more buildings.

There's an entire complex here. "What is this place?" It's so cold. So sterile. So industrialized. I figure, it's a military complex. I take one step closer. And this time I can't ignore my feelings anymore. This time my head is screaming. I SHOULDN'T BE HERE.

I have to go back. I have to go back. I have to go back. I have to go back up the hill.

When I turn around where two beings on top of the hill.

They were about twenty yards away. And they came at me so fast, by the time I registered that two beings were coming at me, they were two feet away. They moved too quick to be human. And although they did run on two feet, they didn't run like humans. More like beasts. And that's all I understand in that split second, was that they wanted to rip me apart.

They were my height. Lanky. Large oval heads. No hair. Dark glossy skin.

I couldn't see their faces, unless their eyes are just as dark as their skin. I only saw the glistening of their sharp teeth.

I didn't have the time to be some lucid dreaming godly hero. I only had the time to close my eyes. When I shut my eyes close I focused on the black void. The black void. And then I thought "home!"

When I opened my eyes I was safe and sound on my bed."

Well, actually I woke up to a false awakening. But at least the scariest part was over. When I woke up for real, there were tears streaming down my face. I felt weak and ill the next day.

You talk about the intense feeling of being watched. There is another experience people feel in the real world, and that is the feeling of immenent danger. What made this dream the most terrifying was that I was lucid, but I still felt in danger. Theres much more to this dream experience. For one, before I reached the moon, my subconscious seemed to be giving me all sorts of hints to not go, to stay here on earth

Lucid nightmares really do seem to screw with people more than the standard nightmare. Mine was quite similar to the first paragraph of yours, Invader. Countless FA's, each time glad I'd woken up, then an indescribable feeling of dread when I realised I was still stuck inside. It also had some of the loneliness qualities Juroara described. I think I might have been too lucid, where I felt like I was totally alone in a different universe with no escape. If you fancy reading the whole entry, it's here for your viewing pleasure.

Spoiler for mindfuck:

22.11.2009

Held Prisoner in my Own Mind (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

So far in my lucidity-chasing, all my dreams have been quite light-hearted affairs, and I haven't had a nightmare in about four years. This one was different. I was actually trapped in a scary situation, with the full knowledge that I was dreaming, wanting to wake up.

A bit of background. I'm hungover to the max today. Last night's binge would account for the tiredness and massive REM rebound I got as soon as I went to sleep in the evening. I was also maybe not in the most positive frame of mind, which could have been a factor in all this.

I was sitting on a farm talking to my brothers. I saw smoke rising in the distance. After a while I could see flames. The fire was getting very high, and soon after, fire engines pulled up near me. I noticed one of the firefighters was my friend's dad, who I haven't seen for years. My mum pulled up, driving a minivan, packed with people I knew. She said everybody was going to visit somebody who lived near where the inferno was, to make sure she was ok. I got in too, and we drove off. The car was packed out with people, and it was a bit of a tight squeeze, but there were enough seats.

Instead of driving towards the fire, which was up the hill a bit, we drove downhill, and ended up at a beach. My mum tried to drive up a sand dune unsuccessfully. Next thing I knew, I was out of the car, standing in the middle of the beach. The sun was setting, and the waves were quite high, but very far away. There was a vast expanse of flat beach between me and the water. I turned round to walk up the beach, but out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. A single wave, about 2 feet high was sweeping silently (and very quickly) up the beach towards me. I tried to outrun it, but it got me. It soaked my phone in my pocket. I recognised the dream sign, and became lucid. I marvelled at how real my cold and wet clothes felt now that the water had receeded. I then had the desire to get off the beach. There was something eerie about standing alone in the middle of such an enormous wide open space in semi-darkness. I'm not agoraphobic in real life, but something wasn't quite right here. I tried to run up to the top of the beach, but I realised I was running but not actually getting anywhere. This was a bit scary, and I just wanted to wake up.

Then I had a false awakening. I was in my bed, and actually thought I had woken up. I was like, "Thank god that's over!" I looked down at my left hand and saw that it was glowing a purply-pink colour. "Shit," I thought. I got out of bed and wandered around to see where I was. I was in what looked like a big hotel room. Except there were no doors or windows, and the walls and floor were made of wood. There wasn't much light, but I could see black square panels around the room. I got a bit closer, and saw that they were holographic pictures. As in, if you moved, the picture changed. What was on them was pictures of my friends' heads. Their heads weren't quite solid, they were grey on a black background. As I moved across the room, they appeared to be shouting something at me quite desperately. I really didn't like this scenario at all. I went to look in a mirror out of curiosity. I was wearing my dressing gown in the mirror, and my hair was a lot shorter than it is now.

I then had another false awakening. I looked at my hand, which had an indeterminate number of fingers. I was getting a bit worried now. I got out of bed and walked out into the room. There was some sort of gameshow going on in the middle. I didn't want to take part, but the host forced me to.

Then I had ANOTHER false awakening. I was really relieved because I thought it was for real this time. I looked at my hand, and it didn't even look like a hand. This time, when I realised I was still dreaming, the music from The Twilight Zone played.

Listen to this shit...

This freaked me right out, and I started shouting things like "Wake up!" and just screaming in general. No such luck.

Yet another FA. This time I was in my own room, trapped in my bed and unable to move. I could hear my mum outside the door. I yelled, "Wake me up! Get in here and wake me up!" She never did come in, and the Twilight Zone music played again.

Another one. I was back in the windowless hotel room. There were two guys doing some measuring. I said, "Fuck this, I'm not playing the game any more," and decided to kill myself. Handily enough, a noose was hanging from the celing. I stood on a desk and put it round my neck. Yep, it's getting a bit heavy! As soon as I jumped off, the scene went into reverse. Everything literally rewound around me, and there was even a "rewinding" indicator at the bottom of my view.

I had, maybe 15 false awakenings, and each time my hand was different. The Twilight Zone music played every time I looked at it. One time it was fat, then the hand of an old man, flashing psychadelically, missing altogether... the list goes on. One time it looked normal until I realised I was actually missing a finger. There was a stump. I nearly shat myself at the music that time. I became increasingly desperate, and even tried holding my breath, in case that meant I was actually holding my breath in real life, and I might wake myself up by nearly suffocating. It didn't work.

Eventually, of course, I did wake up, only 2 or 3 hours after I went to bed. I very reluctantly checked my hand and it was fine. I ran straight out of my room and downstairs. I'm totally exhausted now, and maybe a bit afraid to go back to sleep! Also, still enormously hung over and it's killing me. I really hope I never have a repeat of that episode. Like being stuck in the matrix and not being able to find a fucking phone!

EDIT: Had about 5 DILDs after that last night but each one of them caused a knee-jerk reaction of waking up instantly!

In general, those all sound crazy. My last nightmare that I recall happened over 6 years ago, probably more like 7 or 8 years ago and when it occurred, I just got out of bed and stayed up, just couldn't sleep afterwards. I can only imagine how horrible a lucid nightmare would be especially with the intensified emotions. What I am wondering is if fear didn't play a big factor in all of these nightmares.

@O'nus That's crazy in terms of the nose bleed and the scratching
@Invader That sword sounds interesting and spooky. The speaker changing to "off" and the talking outside your hallway with the shadow also are pretty odd. I have my suspicions what they could be but I'll rather not mention them here. hmm, I am working if being isolated and in the darkness caused you to become more scared thus adding to the atmosphere. Maybe you were thinking of defending yourself at some point, thus the thought of a knife which you found under your pillow, but, only further aggravated you.
@juroara Pretty scary dream. I would have probably turned back or tried to wake up as soon as I saw that my vision was black and white along with the fact that there were no stars, planets, etc.... it was just a black void which is just plain creepy. I am curious if you remember anything from the tower, sounds pretty interesting. Curious, what's a scout? Also, you mention that the place had a stark crisp reality which made your lucid dream fuzzy in comparison. Do you mean that it was too vivid? As for your dread, maybe the shock of the situation? I mean you did think that there will be some light and the sky will be filled, etc.... so you were really shocked.
@J.D. 15 FA, ouch! That isn't exactly something I would want to deal with, not with a scary experience 15x That picture one is interesting though, too bad you didn't get what they said. The music is also pretty creepy with that hotel setting

Personally, I hope that I never have these types of experiences, but, I am wondering if fear is what played the big role here in making the experiences more terrifying or if in some cases like juroara, you actually meet two beings for real in some other dimension, place(astral travel, etc.....), but, that's beyond dreaming stuff so I won't get into that

Intensified fear, no doubt. I don't think it'll ever happen to me again (and I certainly hope I'm right). I was pretty inexperienced when that happened and I'm much more at ease with my emotions in dreams now.

Originally Posted by BigFan

@juroara Pretty scary dream. I would have probably turned back or tried to wake up as soon as I saw that my vision was black and white along with the fact that there were no stars, planets, etc.... it was just a black void which is just plain creepy. I am curious if you remember anything from the tower, sounds pretty interesting. Curious, what's a scout? Also, you mention that the place had a stark crisp reality which made your lucid dream fuzzy in comparison. Do you mean that it was too vivid? As for your dread, maybe the shock of the situation? I mean you did think that there will be some light and the sky will be filled, etc.... so you were really shock

The scout I am talking about is an inorganic being talked about in Carlos Castaneda's books. When I read CC's book, they creeped me out, but I also took them more or less as nonsense. The idea that these beings invade our dreams and try to take us to another place, it all seemed too far fetched for me. This dream happened about a year after reading the book, but it happened just like the book says it happens!

According to CC, these scouts can look like a ball of energy. And if you walk into them, they will teleport you away into another dimension of reality. And that's what happened in my dream. I saw this ball of light, I walk into it, I teleport away. Of course you can argue the book I read fueled this Carlos Castaneda inspired dream, but it still didn't stop my lucid dream from being terrifying

And yes, it was very vivid to the point where it felt like reality. The difference between a vivid dream and a dream that feels like reality is me, my body I mean. When I was on the moon I had a 'body'. I had these solid feet. Which was why I could trip over a rock. This gave the moon dream a more tangible tactile feeling.

The dream still confuses me. Maybe I should try going back? Is that insane?

Originally Posted by O'nus

In a lucid dream, it feels as though nothing can touch you. It is as though you are the creator and dictator of the entire realm.

However, if something comes into it and takes control away from you (ie. controls your lucidity) then it feels as though your very mind is violated.

In mine, I had gotten used to controlling my nightmares via lucidity. However, in one dream, the nightmares actually felt like a beckoning voice from my unconscious and it tore the very fabric of my lucidity to pieces. I fought it hard but it was so vigorous that I even woke up with a nose bleed and deep scratches on my arm (self induced).

~

Intense. How does this even happen? Theories?

There was always a sickening feeling that you were being watched by something that could always remain behind you, and if it approached you ever, you felt that too.

That might give me nightmares.

I don't really consider this a "nightmare" ...just a creepy thing that happened while I was lucid.

Anyways, quickly after this tugging/painful sensation I found myself zooming back into my own dream (?) possibly, or zooming back into my own body (?)...as I was flying back through the darkness another hand reached out and tried to grab me. I knew right away that something wasn't right.

This was a man's hand, it was strong, and yet it had sharp fingernails...which right away seemed wrong...and it just felt wrong. Plus I still had that tugging in my stomach and was flying back inside myself and I remember thinking that I wanted this "man" to let me go, I honestly thought it was a demon trying to keep me from getting back inside myself and I was terrified that I might bring it back to my bed with me. All this time, again I could not see, there was only touch sensations and sound. It was again as if my eyes were closed or everything was darkness. Eventually I made it back to my own bed, and this "demon" was still trying to get a better hold of me. One hand become two, and two of his strong arms were reaching out to me. I was able to throw them off and tried as hard and as quickly as I could to wake myself up. I kept telling myself that it was probably just hallucinations, or something weird SP related, and I was able to calm myself down and finally wake up. It really freaked me out though and made me nervous to go back to sleep for awhile.

I've had several lucid nightmares. But they all seem to be variations on a theme - darkness. In one I was wandering around my house in a false awakening and was grabbed by some people all dressed in black, like exocutioners from medieval days. I was taken to a room, my wrists and ankles were tied to a chair and then the door was shut and I was in darkness. I was aware, but couldn't move. It felt like I was there for hours.

In another LD nightmare, I was flying over a sea in a helicopter when someone pushed me out. As I was falling I realised I had weights chained to my ankles and realised I was falling really fast. Against I must have spent hours just sinking deeper and deeper into the water, which was pitch black.

The wierd thing for me was that the darkness had some strange quality to it. It was almost like it was alive. I've said in other posts that I can get a kind of "history" about things in LDs by looking at them and thinking "what is that?" but I got nothing from the darkness, just that it was darkness.

Eh? I like lucid nightmares, and didn't find it more terrying than normal ones since I used to have them before knowing what lucidity meant, or that I could control everything within a dream, pretty much just learned to like them because I would get lucid. Tend to induce lucid nightmares now and then because of that, generally ends in talking in sleep, heavy breathing and sometimes wanting to cry, but its always good.

I found that lucid nightmares were worse than regular ones.

Yes.

However, if something comes into it and takes control away from you then it feels as though your very mind is violated.

Yes.

In most of my dreams, I'm at least semi-aware that I'm dreaming, and I act accordingly, usually playing along with the story. All of my nightmares are at least semi-lucid. And they all seem to be about just that: control being taken away. I'm rooted in the spot, unable to continue with the dream. If I could fight, if I could run, even, then it wouldn't be a nightmare anymore, because I'd just be playing along with the story. You're right: it feels like your mind is being hijacked.

There must be something about lucid dreams: their vividness, your awareness of them, your ability to recall them, that makes the nightmares that come out of them even more fucking creepy.

I was actually starting to get into a cycle of nightmares, which is why I came back to the forums. I'd looked through them a few years ago, but I don't think I got an account.

The Moon is home to many of the parasitic inorganic beings that feed off of our emotional energy.

Well now you're just trying to freak us out.