Yeah, It Really Happens..

The nightmares sound awful. I am so glad that you were able to find your ability to guide your dreams. It's reassuring to have control in situations where naturally you would not. Taking the reins (pun) in your dreams is an experience that is difficult to describe.

You can influence the subject matter of your dreams? Damn, I wish I could do that.. I've got a lot of good ideas :)

Unfortunately I am unable to create the scenario; my brain does that for me. I just play the hand that I am dealt. Happy dreaming to you !

After I retired I started having nightmares about the place where I worked for 40 years, the last 8 or 10 years were awful , I was so stressed out that I had to carry Rolaids with me all the time. The nightmares were just as bad until one night I realized it was just a dream and I could ***** slap those bosses that had taken such delight in making my life miserable and they could do nothing about it. Just a few of those and the nightmares were gone but I was still aware of my dreams and able to guide them, with practice I found that it was possible to determine before I went to sleep what I was going to dream about. It's not to hard just keep going over and over it in your mind before and as you drift off. One of my favorites is riding bareback on my horse , it is as if we are one and the horse knows without a word where I want to go. She is waiting fore me there , beautiful flowing golden hair , sparkling blue eyes - - well that's a different comment.

Yeah, it was freaky! Like a bombing raid.. very scary.

The drowning dream would be more than a little unsettling.. although finding that you could breathe water and explore would be neat. Waaay too many bad things that could happen in the ocean, though :P I have touched 3 oceans! I also love the sea, but I am landlocked at the moment. At least I've got Lake Superior.

I started reading this story because I am fascinated with all things in the realm of dreams, the subconscious, unconscious.. etcc... I've heard many stories of people who know how to lucid dream and understand the concept of how it works. Problem is, I very, very rarely remember even a glimpse of any dream. I believe that I must dream because everybody does... I just never have any memory or feeling scared, happy, anything.. so, I dont guess that this is something I would ever be able to do... Although, I did dream when I was a kid... so long ago and I still can remember some of those.. not reallty sure when I stopped remembering them, but it has been many, many years...



Anyway, when I got to the end of your story... it was horrifying! Experiencing Death in a dream and especially the fact that it was so painful! In those long ago childhood dreams I had that I remember... the main thing I remember is that I woud be somehow trapped underwater... but then as soon as I couldn't hold my breath any longer, found that I was able to breath just fine underwater..... although in wakeness, I learned to swim before I learned to walk. have always been fvery comfortable in the water.. expecially the ocean... weird....

More often than not, I am responding to what's happening to me. As I mentioned earlier, I mostly am unable to change the scenario that is presented to me, but I can still make choices. There are always things that are out of my control. I can direct the dream to a certain extent. For the bad scenarios, I am sometimes able to fly out of and move on to something else. Sometimes they end up like horror movies. I usually wake up when they get really, really bad.



I would be skeptical as well, if I heard of something absurd that I have not experienced firsthand. I would spit upon anyone who watched those idiotic 'ghost-hunter' shows. There are like.. 3 or more of them. Anyone who believes in that **** is a ******* idiot.



As strangely as it sounds I can often control how my dreams play out, winning tons of money, and ******* all the (intelligent and interesting) models I want.

It may seem unlikely, but it happens to me. At least my experiences are not based in any superstitions (or religion, which is basically the same). If I'm not just partly insane (might be), it's just another unknown function of the mystery that is the brain.

Guess I misunderstood what you meant by having control. I meant that within my dream I have control over my actions, I'm responding to things happening in my dream. I've never had control of an entire dream, I don't even know that I believe that is possible. Hence I can have bad dreams, because even if I can control my actions, there are things that are out of my control and that are happening to me, and I'm just reacting to them. You make it sound like you are directing your dream and dictating everything. If that is what you're saying you can do, then no, I don't believe that's possible. As someone that has never experienced something like that, my duty is to be skeptical of incredible claims.

So if you have a bad dream, and have control of it, the outcome is always going to be negative?

Why would it be negative if you have control, unless you want it to be negative?

I think that you need to explain your position on such matters and your experiences more fully before we can have a meaningful conversation about this.



For some further clarification, I often have no memory of dreams. It's just black, and then I wake up. Sometimes I remember them when I have no control at all. Almost always, I remember the ones where I have a say in what's happening.

I have had the most horrible nightmares where I am in control of what is happening, and am cognizant of that. The lucid thing can come in handy, because I can wake up, as I am aware of what is happening. I would think of it all as idiocy, had I not experienced it myself (many, many times over, covering several years).

It's just a fun thing that I can do with my brain while I am seemingly unconscious.

lucid dreams means you have control? I guess I've never had an ordinary dream then. Like I said, I only remember nightmares, where it doesn't matter if I have control, bad things are happening or going to happen, so having control is a problematic description.

I wish that a dark skinned man in a purple robe would explain the universe to me :) Sounds like an awesome dream. It's weird how dreams can make us think about things that we normally would not.

I need to have a meeting with Mace Windu :)



Ven - you cannot distinguish regular dreams from the lucid type? Or do you only have lucid dreams? I wish I had control all the time..



If you can't relate at all to that kind of experience, maybe you have not yet had something like it.

Remember, I'm the ultimate stoic/cynic/realist etc. I'm not bullshitting.

Your description of lucid dreaming sounds like dreams to me, I don't see the difference.



And I never remember my dreams, unless they're nightmares, which are rare. So I admit I don't have the highest opinion of dreaming. If they weren't necessary for my survival, I would just assume to not dream at all.

I dream just about every night, but when I have the more vivid dreams where I am "in there" not just "watching" I definately remember them longer and can journal them. They stay with me for days and I do ponder what they could mean. I am in the medical field and agree with FallaciesAppease with one side of my brain, but there is also a spiritual side that lets me take lessons and learn from my vivid dreams.

Like the time where the dark skinned man in a purple robe explained to me how the entire universe was within me and actually showed it to me within my cheat and abdomen. It was an awesome dream that really made me think. Everything that we need is within us.....

Yeah, I remember 'em.. They're very vivid. I remember all of it right after I wake, but it gradually slips away as I go on with my day.

How was your one dream?

Do you find that you remember lucid dreams more than the average dream?



I've only had one, once long ago. All I can remember is the sensation. It was all sharp around the edges.

I give very little credit to dream interpretation in general, because the phenomenon of dreaming is not understood by science very clearly, and people generally read into things WAY too much. It's easy to say, I think this, because that must mean that, etc. Without producing a shred of evidence.

I think that when we are dreaming we are accessing areas of our brain that we do not during waking life (good movie). The subconscious seems to play a role. I think that we can certainly learn from these experiences. Maybe we would not face such thoughts while awake and just block them. I don't know for sure.

From my psychology class, I recall a few theories on dreaming. The one that seems to make the most sense is that dreaming is a way for the brain to reflect on the day's events and file away the important bits that may help us out later on. Dreaming is a way of storing memory. It makes sense to me, because often my lucid dreams incorporate themes that are relevant to my daily/weekly experiences.

People are always amazed when I share stories of my dreams because, like yours mine are almost always extremely vivid and realistic, well, realistic in the sense that I am aware that I am dreaming and participating in the dream even as I am sound asleep.

Throughout my life I have "sufferred" with a series of unpleasant recurring nightmares but I find that as I work through life problems they taper off and eventually disappear.

In this way I think we can use our dreams to overcome fears and to move forward on our lives, if we make an effort to understand why we are having them. It is our subconscious trying to communicate with us I believe. Do you?

Even though they are sometimes terrifying I don't think they're a curse because we can learn from them. What do you think?