I had a strange experience last night. I was in the middle of a dream which was becoming a nightmare, towards the end of it I was fully aware that it was a dream, and I even said to myself that this dream was getting annoying. Immediately after I said that I woke up.

Is it common or possible to be concious that you're dreaming? It has only happened to me a handful of times, and shortly after I realized I was dreaming I snapped out of it.

What I'd like to be able to do us ultimately realize I'm dreaming from the get go, so I can go crazy and do all kinds of wild stuff in my dreams, knowing that I will be fine as soon as I wake up.

Any pointers?

I control my dreams all the time. It's rare that I have complete control but many times I have a large degree of control over what happens.

I remember one time I dreamed that I was at the ocean and I realized that I was dreaming. Since I knew that I was dreaming I decided to do something that could not be done in real life. I walked out into the water until I was submereged and then opened my eyes and started breathing. I was fine

Another time I realized I was dreaming when I was trying to get away from someone and I walked right through a wall.

dream edit
[This message was edited Tue Apr 29 11:43:48 PDT 2003 by SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy]

Tom said:

I have very extraordinary dreams and have many times realised that I was dreaming... My favorite is when I am flying in a dream and show all of my friends that I really can fly...It's the landing part I can't get a grip on though. Once while in flight I knew this is ridiculous how are you flying Pej you know damn well your dreaming so I said well why not run right into the mountains and the next thing you know I woke up...

This is called Lucid Dreaming, and there is an art to this. I have praticed for some time now and the journey is incredible. You control every aspect when in this state. A good starting point is to tell yourself, before you go to sleep each night, to look at your hands. Try not to become fustrated and give up. There will come a moment when you find this awareness while sleeping. When you finally focus on your hands your vision will crystalize. Now you may manifest anything you desire...


if you would like to do some reading there are a lot of teachers out there. Look up Carlos Castaneda. I found his work to be a very strong influence...

Peace

muszewell said:

... interesting. How are you Muszewell? Dreams... they use to play a significant part of my many nights, usually they were far from pleasant. I find now that I can fly from most issues. Now... what does that mean? I even had several dreams where I would be in that very state of what you just mentioned, realizing that I was infact asleep (but had no control)... but it was so realistic. Several times I felt a presence, a controlling one (unseen)... I couldn't move, although I could see my actual surroundings as it was right before I fell asleep. In that state I couldn't make a sound, although I wanted to yell for help, I wanted to reach over for the phone... all the while I could feel a controlling presence preventing me from any form of communication whatsoever. I have had four dreams similar to this over the past 10 years, haven't had one for many years... I have made many changes in how I influence my mind and now I can honestly say... I sleep in peace.

Tom said:

Tell yourself you are having the time of your life with your dream, and you are not annoyed in the slightest. Dreams exhausted me. I deal with enough excitement/chaos in the day... I just want some peace for at least 5 hours every night.

I've been able to do this for years as well. As soon as I realize I'm dreaming, I'm able to start. The first time I realized how to do this, I was having a nightmare. I tried everything, in my dream, to wake myself up. I tried, running, thrashing around, screaming, nothing worked, so I just allowed myself to calm down and continue on in the dream. I woke up shortly after that. Now I can do it all the time. First, I could only control my actions in dreams, not what I was dreaming about. Now I'm sometimes able to mold the dreams around what I want to happen. I can wake up, fall back asleep and continue on where I left off.

All I can say, is practice, practice, practice. Concentrate as you fall asleep on what you'd like to, umm, accomplish, for lack of a better term.

pejman said:

I know my humor may be off..., but I can see this and I can see you as a rooster doing just that. I know, I sometimes crack myself up.

CarrieMpls said:

CarrieMpls, I find this amazing... I still cannot control exactly what occurs within my dreams, although I can control my awareness of such vividness and how often they occur. For me, I feel, I was subconsciously fearful of violence, especially while I was asleep (a very realistic reality). In the past five years, I stopped watching the News/T.V., limiting the horrible images that I am already aware of in my concious mind. I realize reality, and I also believe... that everything we see, we hear does inevitably become a part of our being, whether we are consciously/subconsciously aware. As I have mentioned... I see enough in my awakening days and they all play a part of who I am and become... although I feel I do not need anymore unneccesary influence that the media brings. I just went off on a tangent... , although I would love to learn how to have more control over my dreams.

This all is so interesting you know...I am at work and as I read about it I want to go sleep and dream and see if I can realise that it's just a dream.

muszewell said:

Unfortunately, 'Carlos Casteneda' never existed. Good reads tho - 'Art of Dreaming' I enjoyed, but never got the 'egg' thing.

Interesting tho - just a shame it wasnt all it was cracked up 2 be...

*bad egg pun - hope no-one notices edit*

Nice to know that there are people out there with the same experiences. So many times I've asked people about there dreams and most don't remember there dreams, but on the other hand over the years my dreams have been like experiences from another life, I've been many different things, I've seen, heard, felt and smelt things it's kind of weird sometimes I'll have a dream wakeup in the middle of it and fall back to sleep continuing where I left off. I'm usually always in control and aware that I'm dreaming alot of times I'd wakeup feeling exausted like I'v just worked out or something. Or I'll be dreaming of someone and were really into each other and just when something good is about to happen, the phone rings or something wakes me up. Dag!!!

I do this all of the time too. I'm not talking about the Lucid Dreaming. I'm talking about just saying "this is a dream and I've got to go" and then I wake up.

People always ask me "do you dream in color?" because I guess some people dream in B/W. That's strange to me. My dreams are full on movies with soundtracks and camera positions in a room.

me too.

Me too

Sometimes I have dreams where I'm scared or in danger and I'm aware it's a dream, but my heart is racing and my temperature is elevated. I have a recurring dream where I can't open my eye lids and I can only look down. I wonder what that means

it's really odd, cuz i don't really dream much at all. i have a super-active imagination but i rarely dream. guess it's cuz i always have little scenarios goin on in my head all the time while i'm awake.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I do that too

everybody dreams - the cincher is whether or not u remember them. Some of us do, some of us rarely do. Just the way we're built I guess

Tom said:

look for "lucid dreaming"...

for the last few monthes i've been having the same nightmare where i'm swimming from the bottom fo the sea to the surface.
i can see vague shapes floating at the surface and hear distant voices calling me, but whenever i think i've reached the top it seems to get furthur and further way from my hand.
the scary part that i wake up beacuse i stop breathing in my sleep, or at least i think i do becasue i always wake up with my heart beating extremly fast and needing air..

is it possible to die in your sleep beacuse you stop breathing or something like that?

Slave2daGroove said:

I think it's strange that people dream in color. I dream only in black and white. And people in my dreams don't talk, we all communicate via telepathy.

Natsume said:

thats lovely

Christopher said:

At least I don't dream about !!

!!

Natsume said:

and... everyone dreams about michael jackson what is thee big deal it is very normal :Evil:!!!#@!#$@#$@$%$^^%^&(*&(*

Christopher said:

Hurry up and write my paper! It's due in 10 hours!!

I had a dream that I backed some chops ahoy and an evil wolf came and ate them!

True story!

Natsume said:

little peckersnot!,

now see if i bring you anything back from the chevron :Evil:!

Christopher said:

Your mother is illegal!