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  • I learned about lucid dreaming from an old book I found when I was 18, and I began practicing. Because flying has been my passion since I was 5, I focused on that.

    At first, I would run and take long leaps, like I was in low gravity. After a few weeks, one leap would keep me about 6 feet above the ground until I wanted to drop back down. Iโ€™d remain vertical with my arms relaxed at my sides, and just lean a bit for direction. About a year after I began flying every night, I could lay down and then close my eyes while making one push off the ground with my right foot and Iโ€™d be immediately at tree line. I loved flying through my neighborhood and the city, hovering over streets, visiting the houses of my friends, sometimes popping in to see them.

    My dreams were in real time, so it was late at night and they were almost always asleep. It felt like an out of body experience.

    Iโ€™d learned from the book how to make recurring dream threats your friend, and I befriended the wolves that had terrified my dream life at least once a week for over ten years. It was an incredibly empowering experience.

    After a few years, I was in a lost time in life, and my dream flying reflected how out of control I was. By then, every time I laid my head on my pillow, my right foot reflexively tapped and I was off. But now, I was shooting straight up faster than a rocket and zipping beyond the moon in just a few seconds. I started panicking that Iโ€™d โ€œlose my earth tetherโ€ and never be able to find my way back. I believed that I needed to return to my body in order to wake up. So now going to sleep was a threat in my mind. It took weeks to de-condition myself to stop flying.

    In retrospect, I should have taken control, but my day life had really gone off the deep end and I think this is how it manifested. I havenโ€™t practiced lucid dreaming or flying since I was 28, but I miss that exhilaration of zooming at tree line in a place I loved.

  • It's a skill like any other, so it's going to differ depending on you. But, B. It feels like being a wizard or demigod of some sort.

    It always reminded me of those stories (like, D&D/myth type stuff) where a godling of some sort is fairly vulnerable most of the time, until they get onto their own home plane, where they become fully omnipotent again. Kinda a "you don't want to fuck with me here" sort of thing.

    Probably colored by the fact I had my first one as a child, and used it to stop a nightmare in progress, which was very memorable.

    • I used to do it all the time as a kid accidentally to stop nightmares, but never knew I could do it on purpose, or really control things beyond "make the scary stop."

      Then when I learned about lucid dreaming, I started practicing and managed it several times, but stopped when a dream character noticed what I was doing, and tried to murder me for it in one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I'm aware there's nothing supernatural or anything about it, and I understand the science behind it... But I ain't gonna lie, that woman in the bog flying towards me with her feet off the ground, screeching "you don't belong here!" And slamming into my chest, waking me up with phantom sensations of her touch? It scared me straight, and I haven't had the balls to try again. Lol.

      • Yeah, you never can guarantee initiating a lucid moment, it happens to you. You can cultivate the tendency, but that's it.

        But once you start remembering it and consciously thinking about it, it starts to become a little more accessible to your sleeping mind. I think this is what makes dream journals so effective for developing the skill in the first place.

        But yeah, that happening and simply not remembering in the split second you have to do so would kinda suck. Though I would be slightly tempted, personally, to process the experience a little bit now that I'm awake, and then go like "fine. let's dance bitch." and go back to sleep. Because all I need is to become lucid at any point, and I can summon her to be dealt with.

        I had a lot of practice focusing on and thinking about dreams in general though.

        edit: Considering this a little further, when I said "dealt with" that struck an unfortunate tone that I didn't fully intend. It's useful imo to remember that she is a figment of your imagination, and she wouldn't be there if there wasn't a reason for it. So, my "dealt with" isn't like levitating her into the sky to slowly disintegrate her from the toes up or something. I would probably get started by simply asking that slice of my own mind, what does she want? Why is she here?

        Likely sentence would be banishment on pain of destruction, but it would depend on what she said.

  • I've never had full control, but there have been many times I've realized I'm dreaming, nudged the dream in a preferred direction and then swiftly let my consciousness over the dream fade so it could continue without interruption.

    The more control I exert on my dreams, the more likely I am to consciously blink and actually blink myself awake. Gentle nudges in the direction I want to dream is the only path for me.

  • Once, and only once, the dream ended with me deciding to enter the mystic portal and me subsequently finding myself standing alone in the hallway of a Hampton Inn in Salt Lake City at 3:00am.

    I was in my jammies. No socks, no room key, no phone. I contemplated many options to get myself out of the situation, but they were all objectively bad. The only high point of the experience is that the breakfast bar hadn't opened in the lobby, so this remains something shared between only me and the night clerk. Neither of us were happy, but she was wearing more clothing.

    My main takeaways for hotel stays and dreams:
    jammies must have pockets
    jammies must have full coverage
    spare key cards are in the pockets
    never enter the mystic portal that you summoned

    Mystic portals: never again

  • You have to go with the flow as too much distribution and excitement wakes you up. Seems the biggest focus is keeping awareness but not too much. Best thing that works for me is to expect what you want in the next location and travel there. You also figure out how to force yourself awake if you get an unpleasant dream.

  • Uhm if I do a lot I feel tired , wake up groggy. Is fun in general. My nightmares are super manageable but I still like to sit back and let my brain do its thing is less taxing for me and more fun and unexpected. I haven't manage not dreaming on purpose, I wonder if that's possible.

    Edit: just realised that you ask about tales and reading. I can't read very well in my dreams , when I read is all weird and even numbers look kind of off, so I haven't being able to do that not that I have tried very hard. Lmao uhm I guess I am able to consistently do magic in my dreams and dream different scenario in fantasy worlds like harry potter , lord of the ring or song of ice and fire. If I am reading something IRL I can go through it again in my head and watch it like a movie if I really want to. I don't like flying and wet dreams are extra fun too (๏พ‰ยดโˆ€๏ฝ€*)

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