Controling Dreams

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Nick Stenson

Registered Member
Hey Everyone...

I was wondering fi you guys think you can control your dreams, or do you think that our earthly exhistance is one big dream that we havent woekn up from yet, and that death signifies being woken up...id just like your thoughts on this... thanks
 
1. Dreams can't be controlled, unless you 100% control over your mind, even when unconscious.
edit: although I guess you could consider having 100% lucid dreams to mean having control over your dreams. One has total control over their dreams when lucid in a dreaming state, right?

2. I don't believe earthly existence is a dream.

3. I don't believe that dying is waking up from that "dream."
 
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I can control my dreams when, during a dream, I realize that it's a dream. Unfortunately, that happens just about every time I dream. I had to train myself to not control dreams because I believe they provide valuable insights into our subconscious minds. But when I'm having a nightmare, once I figure out what it's all about and get things interpreted and squared away, then things get really cool because I find out what it's like to be a god.
 
oxygen, please help, how did you learn to realise that you were dreaming?
 
Wow, how did I learn to recognize dreams? Eek, that's a tough one. I think it started when I was introduced to a meditation technique. Instead of trying to fill your mind with nothingness, you actually let thoughts, ideas, and images flow through your mind like a stream. The tricky part is not to hold on to any image, just to let it go. If a fiery red Corvette goes streaking across your mind's eye, you don't go "Whoa! That was a neat car!" You just accept the Corvette and move on, literally not giving it another moment's thought. You have to learn that the images existed only in that moment, and recalling them is essentially forcing them on yourself. Sure, later on you can recall seeing particualr images, but for the moment you have to learn how to forget them. It's very hard to do at first. I practiced for months at it before I started to get the hang of it. My biggest roadblock was my tendency to analyze images. ("A circus tent? Why did I see a circus tent, and why was there a large circle hovering over it? What does the circle represent?")

Once I learned to stop analyzing everything, then I had to overcome my own internal censors. Images that I found disgusting or disturbing I made the mistake of trying to block. All that did was to create a mental logjam. I became agitated and couldn't continue. Finally, I just learned to accept all the images and move on. I can always go over them later.

I think this is where the dream recognition thing kicked in. Certain images would repeat themselves during different sessions, although not necessarily all of them and not always in the same order. I learned how to recognize them without holding onto them. There was no "Wow! There's the beheaded guy underneath the carpet! This must mean I'm in a deep state!" Recognizing subconcious signposts without disturbing the meditative state is, I feel, the key to dream recognition.

I'm still not sure what I see or sense in a dream that tips me off. But something somewhere in the dream causes me to go "Wait a minute. This isn't real. It's just a dream." At first I thought it was when things stopped making sense. ("Hmmm, I live in California. What am I doing in a small church in Tennessee?") That isn't always the case. I was dreaming of a normal workday once. It was boring. At some point I realized it was a dream so I took off flying like a superhero just because I thought it would be neat. It was.

Practice the meditation thing first. I'll try to find my original source material, where I learned what, etcetera. Don't expect to catch on at first. Like I said, it took me months just to get the hang of it, and I was living in a pretty quiet, meditation-friendly environment at the time. Post me if you have any questions, because this can be pretty tricky stuff.
 
That a little much don't you think? Here's my way of recognizing if I'm dreaming. Take 4 fingers of my hand and pull them back as far as possible. If you touch the back of your hand, your dreaming. If not then you aren't dreaming. It will not cause you to wake up either.
 
It could also mean you're double-jointed. (Growling with envy) Ever since my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome I consider myself lucky to get a 90 degree angle from bending my wrist backwards. :D

I don't find it to be too much. While I was learning all that stuff I didn't have much to do anyway. We were living in motels at the time, not quite homeless but pretty close to it, and for a chronic loner like I was back then, it was sheer hell being around everybody all the time. All of that practicing paid off for me by giving me sort of a pocket to drop into to get away from everything, as well as having the ability to not only recognize, but to control my dream state.

I still don't have absolute control. I can't lay down and say "I'm going to dream about riding horses" and then do it. What I can do, once I'm in the dream and aware of it, is say "Screw this. I'm going horseback riding." The setting will then change appropriately.
 
thx oxygen, and thx vortox, but i dunno how that really helps, when im awake,i have a few ways to make sure im awake, but i dont think to apply them when i am dreaming
 
Hi there, im kinda new to sci forums, I am very interested in all your ideas and conceptions, it is great. Anyhow I was ill for 4-6 years of my preteen and teen life I didn't move from bed due to my illness, As you might imagine i watched a lot of TV, Being a bright individual supposidy I just let infomaiton pour into my head from the tv and other sources and I say that having nothing else working apart from your head lets you think a hell of a lot. I have a few conclusions from this but they are not relevent the point is that i never used to dream, in fact i see sleep as a conduate to the next day,you could say that im afraid of sleep,(and im not afriad of a lot of things), I goto bed close my eyes, and wake up the next morning feeling no different to the ngiht before. Then after I came out of the illness i had to deal with post viral syndrome, which is where the illness i had leaves your body for dust, It was a tiresome effort to get me back to semi-normal, Then came the depression after which i started taking more medication for this, Then the the semi-translucid dreaming began, What i mean by that is that I remeber the period of taking anti-depressants like it was a dream. And now I Still don't dream for the most part only if im ill, and when im not i picture my self in darkness, perhaps I am seeing what is real and not a fabrication of time and space.
Anyhow, Im still going thorugh stuff to do with my illness, but It can besaid that i have expanded mentally then most people. After all With suffering comes wiseness!
Iron Legion.
 
I don't know about "wiseness" (I believe the word you're looking for is "wisdom") coming from suffering. I personally know someone who is in a world of emotional hurt right now, but no matter how many times the way out is shown to her, she refuses it without reason given.

What sort of illness did you have? What was it called? Usually when I'm really sick, my dreams become these weird, bug-infested things. In one, if I was laying on my left side I dreamt I was looking through a microscope at a sampling of bacteria labelled "G". If I laid on my right, it was the same thing only labelled "C". I would wake up to change positions, fevered, aching, wheezing, etc., roll over, and the dream would change accordingly. I determined (somehow) that if I could get all of the bacteria from G to C that my fever would break and I would start to feel better. Where this thinking came from I don't know, but it took me all night sleeping for maybe five minutes at a shot, then waking up and rolling over, before I got the bacteria all sorted. In the morning, I felt much better.
 
Its called Lucid dreaming, many people can do it, some have had the ability since they were little kids, others have taught themselves how to do it.
Its another world...
Some may think feh...its just some stupid "new age" crap... Lucid dreaming has been around for a VERY long time... The australian aboriginal beleifs are strongly rooted in dream time and lucidity.

Reality is what you make it, I can learn, experience and grow in the dreaming, so why then is it not real? Because I am the only one that experienced it? Of course I am the only one that experienced it, each and every one of you are the only ones experienceing your particuar reality, sure the people surrounding you may experience something similar, but its never exactly what you experienced.

Here is a little of my experience, in the dream world.

There are different levels of control,

Non-lucid, these are regular mish mashed image dreams that make no sense I just kind of watch myself on autopilot, recall of the dream when I awaken is sketchy at best. I get these every once in a while.

Low lucididity; These take up the majority of my dreams, its like I wake up but I am somewhere else. Its pretty much like here, there are physical laws in place, BUT... :cool: They can be bent if you learn how, it does however cause exertion, you cant do something for an indefinate amount of time. Say for instance hurling around fire or doing the superman (flying). When I wake up, everything is fresh in my mind, if I think about it for a little bit the memories crystalize and can be recalled later like any other memory.

High lucidity; I get these rarely, this is where you are in total control, your a god, you can manipulate EVERYTHING without any exertion to yourself its just a matter of beleiving in yourself. Most of the Lucid dreamers I know experience this kind of lucid dream more thant he low level lucidity.

There really is too much for me to go on about, I could rant all night about this :D but I wont, I will just point you in the right direction.

Stephen labergs book "Exploring the world of Lucid dreaming."

And www.dreamviews.com its got some good info there and also the forum is populated by many experienced dreamers, you can PM me there or here if you have any other questins ;)
 
From personal experience, it IS entirely possible to 100% control any of your dreams. Unfortunately, I cannot really explain how except if you can figure out how to master mentally switching from left-brain to right-brain instantaneously and any time you want and you can "feel" this switch within your brain. Also master communication between your subconscious and your conscious. Actually, both are "awake" at the same time, but you probably only notice your conscious. If you learn to notice your subconscious, then they can both think together/exchange information. Actually, I can only consciously access a portion of my subconscious while awake and I can only access a portion of my conscious while asleep, but it is enough so I can fully control any dream if I so desire.
 
Hello, I myself have never experienced high lucidity dreaming, i have only ever experienced low lucidity dreaming. Most of my dreams are the type of dreams that you watch, like your watching a movie. I sometimes would like to be able to control my dreams, but most of the time I don't. I use my dreams to figure out things, they seem to help a lot when i can figure them out. My dreams are really weird though, especially lately I'm having a hard time figuring them out. As to communicating to your subconscious with your conscious mind I can do that pretty well, especailly when i did weed, but I still can barely communicate to my conscious while dreaming. I really dont know what to believe anymore if this world is a dream and death is our awakening or if dreams are just dreams, hell I barely believe what I think sometimes. I am really confused about this world/life.
 
I often have lucid dreams. The trigger that causes me to realize that I am dreaming is varied. I think the strangest was when I was blown up by a hand grenade. I felt my body being ripped apart and spreading out, when I thought, wait a minute, this has got to be a dream. I promptly pulled myself together and proceeded to kick ass. Unfortunately, when I attempt to take control of the dream, I almost always end up waking myself up. It's like being in control plugs me back into my body and pulls me out of sleep. I've never been able to get past this block.

I have also had a pecular species of lucid dream since I was young. Similar to an out-of-body experience. I know that it's not actually out-of-body because I have seen people doing things that I afterwards concluded they weren't doing. I remember very clearly the first time this happened. I dreamt that I woke up. So, I sat up in bed. The strange thing was that it took an extreme amount of effort to pull myself into a sitting position. When I finally was sitting up, I thought "That was weird." Then I turned around and looked behind me and saw myself still laying in bed. This freaked me out and I immediately woke up. Every time I experience this particular dream, it is always difficult to move. A struggle with every step. And the slightest lapse of concentration will dump me back to the original sequence of the dream. Sometimes I make it a couple of steps, sometimes farther. Weird.

I have also had variants of this dream, when I would touch my body and it felt completely dead and numb. These dreams usually ended with me waking up and realizing that I was sleeping on my arm and it was completely numb and senseless.

I used to fly a lot in dreams, but lately not so much. I miss flying. The weird thing about the flying dreams is there are a lot of power lines in the sky that I must take care to avoid. Who the hell would string power lines miles above the ground? I've never seen how they're strung, no telephone poles or the like.

Edit: One of the oddest dreams I have ever had is clearly etched in my mind. It was a normal dream, semi-lucid. I was in a white room. I was talking to someone. There was a spiral staircase leading up. Someone was coming down the stairs. I turned to look at the man. When I looked in his eyes, I experienced the most raw terror I have ever felt in my life. My only instinct was to run. And run I did. I woke up and immediately wished that I had had the courage to wait and find out more. I have never had this dream again. Pity.
 
I'm just an armchair dream interpreter, but do you mind if I give it a try?

Hmm, flying and powerlines. Sounds like you have a lot you want to take a breather from the daily grind (fly around and have a lot of fun), but duties and responsibilities keep crossing your path. Who doesn't want a nice, carefree vacation? How long has it been since you disconnected yourself from the world? On those rare occassions when 666 and I get away from it all, we really get away from it all. Computers, laptops, PDAs, pagers, it all stays at home. We don't even talk about our jobs or the people there. Cell phones are fully charged, but are only turned on if we're going to be in separate places (he's in Harrah's, I'm at the El Dorado, etc.). If anything goes wrong at home, we figure "How would they have taken care of it before the days of cell phones?"

Regarding the man on the spiral staircase, what did he look like? The terror you felt, was it from the idea that he could hurt or kill you, or that he was coming for the express purpose of hurting or killing you? Was it physical damage he was going to cause, or was it a soul-sucking type of harm? You specified spiral staircase. What did it look like? What were the sounds involved? Sorry if I come off as nosy. This is sort of a hobby of mine. Dreams featuring abject terror are some of the most fascinating ones to work with.

Do you want to hear something freaky? One night I found a really, really comfortable position and started to fall asleep immediately. I was actually aware of the process. The near-complete relaxing of the muscles, the slowing of the breathing and heart rate, it was quite a trip. When my dream-state kicked in, I was in that same position lying in a field of tall grass surrounded by wildflowers. I was aware of the dream and was enjoying how peaceful and calm it all was, even though I was only about 100 feet from a highway. A calm, cool breeze was blowing and I was in a sort of out-of-body view. I noticed I was covered not in my own blankets but in a tattered, dirty blanket. As I pondered over what it meant, I heard a calm, deep voice from behind and just above me say "This is the position you will be in when they find your body." :eek: FUCK! :eek: You can bet I woke up in a hell of a hurry from THAT dream! Sweet criminy that dream still scares me! To this day I avoid sleeping in that position even if it costs me a good night's sleep! I've only had that dream once...thankfully!
 
His face had no specific features. It was sort of an anyman type of face. His eyes also were not distinct in any particular way. The terror was just terror. There was no feeling of immenent harm or loss of soul. It was just terror. That's what's always baffled me about this dream. It's the only time in my life that I've ever experienced this feeling.

I've often wondered myself what he represented. What was I in terror of. My thought upon awakening was that I had passed up an opportunity. Perhaps it was terror of a revelation. Of learning something I wasn't prepared to learn.

On your method of meditation with letting images flow. I have tried that. My problem is that my method of thought is centered more around words than visualization. I have tried to let the words (and occasional images) flow without forcing them. With the images I do pretty good, but I always end up going off on tangents with the words. The reason I have tried this is because I have trouble going to sleep. I can't shut down the brain. The words just keep coming. It takes hours before I am able to nod off. And even then the words continue. I have found myself drifting farther and farther into sleep, even losing the conscious flow of the words, when some line of thought drags me with a start back to consciousness. It's usually something stupid, too. I wouldn't mind so much if it was a kind of "whoah, that could change the world" type of thing.

I agree with your flying and powerline interpretation. Pretty much what I had come up with for an explanation.
 
Great minds think alike, eh?

About things you weren't meant to know just yet. Maybe that's why the man's features were not noticeable. It was information you weren't ready for. Your subconcious knew you weren't ready and got you the hell out of there. I hate dreams where I don't do something daring, where I take the easy (read:chicken) way out. I also wonder what would have happened if I had just stuck it out. I often dream of doors that I'm told never to open. They're usually old, rickety things with peeling paint, often set at the top of a long staircase without a bannister, but I have yet to open one. I wonder what happens if I do?
 
I used to be able to lucid dream.. but it took a hell of alot of practice.

What worked best for me was the beep and test method. Basically, every hour I had my PDA play a unique little ring. Everytime I heard that ring I'd perform two or three reality checks. The problem is that it is fairly invasive, and I just got tired of having to explain why my pocket was beeping every hour and I was looking at my watch repeatedly after it went off.

I have to say that lucid dreaming was probably one of the few times I've actually WOW! It's one of the most amazing things to explore, but doesn't come easy to most people.
 
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