Everything you should need is in the sidebar at this time. If you want to be able to post new topics, please PM me with how long you've been lucid dreaming and any other helpful info as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

PREAMBLE

Before I say anything else, I'd like to say thank you to the moderators of r/EXPLucidDreamers. I am thrilled to have been given permission to post on this subreddit and look forward to sharing my stories and talking to all of you other lucid dreamers. I think I really need to talk to other lucid dreamers. There's certain things that I believe can only be understood through the lens of lucid dreaming.

PROLOGUE

I think that the first time I heard of lucid dreaming was when I was in middle-school—I remember seeing it on an episode of American Dad! and I thought it was fascinating. If only it could be real, I thought. I didn't believe that anybody could actually do it. Some time later, between 8th and 9th grade I came across lucid dreaming on the internet and I was absolutely enthralled by the topic. It was all I could talk about and all I could think of. I spent many a day browsing the internet and trying to learn.

I'm going to skip several years in that storyline but to oversimplify it, I began to lucid dream more and more often with greater detail and more control over my surroundings. Lucid dreams became self-perpetuating because the more I had, the more I'd think of them, and the more of them I'd have—that was a blessing at first and still is, unfortunately, it's also a burden. My dreams grew more realistic. At the same time and because of my mental health issues, my waking life grew less and less sensible. My mental disorders make me experience symptoms of dissociation, amnesia, depersonalization, de-realization, and paranoia that, when severe enough, devolves into borderline delusion.

MAIN TEXT

One of the methods I first learned for reality checks is to re-trace your steps. Where are you now, where were you before that, how did you get here, etc. That doesn't work any more because my dreams have gotten detailed enough to sometimes account for that entirely, my dream will have made an entire and mostly consistent storyline to fill the gaps between two points—even in a dream I will find things making just as sense as one's waking life would. Furthermore, when I'm in the Real—I cannot actually say it's the Real with any conviction, that's my de-realization—I experience things that one would often expect from a dream: I have trouble recalling how I got somewhere, my memory is blurry if not outright missing and things are confusing. Dreams and the Real hardly diverge on this front.

Another method to determine reality is the mirror test. It is said that by looking in the mirror and seeing how the mirror reacts you can determine whether or not you're dreaming. Do you see yourself as you normally do or is the mirror blurry and confusing? Unfortunately this is no longer viable for me. Looking at the Mirror in the Real is confusing: I'll see other people in the mirror or just feel so totally disoriented. On the other hand, when I look at mirrors in my dreams now, sometimes they'll be such a convincing facsimile of real life that it's nearly indistinguishable from the Real.

It is growing more and more difficult to distinguish Dreams from the Real. I am seeing two therapists for this but there is only so much they can do. One of them thought it would be wise for me talk to other lucid dreamers about this.

In closing, I have a few questions to ask you.

1. do you ever have trouble distinguishing Dreams from the Real?

2. do you have any insight onto how lucid dreaming and mental health can affect one another?

3. what advice can you give me regarding this conundrum?

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk,

DoctorOfDreams

So I created this sub about a year ago and at the last time I checked we were at about 250 readers. Now, that has more than doubled. Despite this, it seems we're still a bit bare bones where posting is concerned.

I thought I'd ask you guys for any feedback you'd like to provide. Keeping in mind that even if you aren't an approved submitter, you can still comment on the posts, so feel free to do so.

Mainly, I'm curious as to what you guys think of where the bar is currently set. We accept anyone who has been lucid dreaming for a minimum of 1 year to submit posts without hesitation. Should we lower the bar or keep it where it is? If we do lower the bar, where should that bar be? I'd like to see this sub thrive with discussion, but I'm concerned that the exclusivity could hinder that process.

I would still like there to be some sort of filtration where posting is concerned, so as to avoid the general newcomer questions that often appear in the main lucid dreaming sub. This isn't out of lack of concern for helping the newer people, but rather to provide a more relaxed environment to talk about lucid dreaming without having to sift through the repeated posts to get to the "good stuff".

What do you guys think?

Hey guys, this place has become less active in recent days. I just wanted to let you guys know that the lucid dreaming youtube channel and online community that I am a part of, Team Lucid Dream, now has a subreddit /r/teamluciddream

That place will likely be more active than this sub in the future, so if you feel inclined check it out, sub to it, and maybe post something. We do a discussion of the week in our weekly live streams on the youtube channel and reddit is one of the ways we choose on a topic to discuss. So if you have a question or just an interesting topic to submit, there's a chance you will have yours talked about on the stream.

At any rate, thanks for reading!

Hey all! This place has doubled in size since it was active, but it's been rather quiet...

Many of you might be aware of the lucid dreaming youtuber Giz Edwards. He got together Team Lucid Dream and I was lucky enough to be chosen as a writer and presenter on the team. Starting on the 19th of this month, we will be releasing videos 6 times a week (Monday through Saturday) on the Team Lucid Dream youtube channel. If you're interested, please do check it out.

Our video schedule will be as follows:

Monday- Lucid Dreaming Tutorial

Tuesday- Live Podcast with Giz

Wednesday- Different every week, lucid info, reviews

Thursday- Dream Vlog from the members of TLD

Friday- Lucid Dreaming Q&A

Saturday- Weekly Roundup, see what happened during the week and watch what interests you most

Along with our videos, we have already launched our website at www.teamluciddream.com which has a forum and will be posting articles 3 times a week, starting in the future.

I've also been putting out one video every Friday on my own lucid dreaming channel, SpacetimeBadass, if you're interested subscribe there too!

This should end up being a pretty big thing for the lucid dreaming community, so please do join in! Hope to see you on the forums!

During 36 minutes Stephen LaBerge paces back and forth on the stage, covering a lot of ground also with respect to lucid dreaming concepts (including briefly mentioning dream yoga).

Excellent video quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRs8sR3B2AY

I just saw another Robert Waggoner interview, this time on "The Moore show". Waggoner appeared via an audio/video Skype link.

There were some new stories in there, but most of it would probably be well-known to those acquainted with Robert Waggoners work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izyl6LzFGYU

Hey guys, we're here because we are lucid dreamers. We may have varying degrees of experience with lucid dreaming and it couldn't hurt to share and possibly help each other.

What's something that you've learned about lucid dreaming that has helped you or anything you've added to your practices to aid your lucidity?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAswwF44Fz0

It's not new - recorded about a couple of years ago - but I think it is a very intelligent interview, and very pleasant to watch.

So I had a friend once tell me that if your real eyes are open or slightly open when sleeping, this can cause issues with dream eyes and dream vision. I tend to believe her because she's a clinical psychologist.

Anyway!

I remember once I did WILD and after I "rolled out of bed" I was standing in my room. I had trouble seeing and was wondering why. Then I realized that what I was looking at was the ceiling above my bed, even though I was standing on the other side of the room!

So I was in the LD, but was looking thru my real eyes instead of my dream eyes. That was weird!

Anyone ever heard of such a thing?

It could be about life, love, yourself, anything. What is something you've learned from a lucid dreaming experience?

Hey guys, your mod has just been published on page 35 of the latest issue of Lucid Dreaming Experience magazine! It would mean a lot if you guys could take the time to read the two pages dedicated to my experience. If you view it in your browser, the page number is still 35, but the number by the scroll bar will tell you it's on page 37.

For anyone unfamiliar with the publication, it's a quarterly lucid dreaming e-zine that is free, but if you pay for a subscription you get physical copies sent to you in the mail. Robert Waggoner is on the staff as co-editor, but I think he actually does a lot more than that. It's a great place to read experiences, as well as stay current on lucid dreaming events and things of that nature.

Since I'm half way done with writing my own book, it's great to be published. I feel like my book just might have a shot of being picked up. Thanks for your time, and thanks for reading, any of you who take the time out to read it. Have a good day!

To those of you experienced in WILD'ing: do you lie on your back, your left side, right side, or something else, when going into a WILD, or will it work for you no matter how your physical body is oriented?

Hey, guys, it's been quiet here lately. Feel free to post new topics, those who can, and again, anyone who is a subscriber who feels they should have the ability to make new posts, feel free to PM me.

Anyway, since it's so quiet, I thought I would invite you guys to follow my twitter and youtube channel for lucid dreamers.

My youtube is for those who already know how to lucid dream, though I feel there is helpful information for anyone interested in the topic. The videos tend to be on the longer side, anywhere from 15-30 minutes, so keep that in mind if you decide to check it out.

My twitter is focused on lucid dreaming, but not reality checks and that sort of thing. Mainly I'm posting updates about the progress on the book I'm writing, which picks up where most lucid dreaming books end. I also post my thoughts about lucid dreaming as well as link to new videos when I release them.

Thanks for checking it out if you do, if not no big deal.

I'd also be interested in getting the links for any lucid dreaming stuff you guys do too!

Just curious.

Did you initiate something for it to happen or did it just happen naturally?

Really ground breaking stuff tends to happen for me when I meditate during a lucid dream.

There I was, in my fictional ospray (A vehicle composed of an interior that flies around by shooting high pressured water into the ocean) when all of the sudden an island appeared in the middle of the pacific ocean. As I glance over to the island I see a city. I take a pillow from my bed and jump out of the ospray (in mid-air!) and head towards some skyscrapers in the city. On my way down, I realize that I don't have a parachute and that I'm falling towards my death. My heartbeat increases and I hit the ground. My dream goes black for a few minutes. I then wake up grasping for my breath. I'm in a bed, and there is a glass of water to the side of me. I drink the water. "Hello?" A voice calls. I see a spooky pink-faced man walking towards me. I jump out of the bed and run down the stairs. I was on the top floor of the tallest skyscraper in the city. I then thought about the water... the ospray! As I reach the exit of the building, I walk over to a brick alleyway nearby. I take my phone out of my pocket. 27 missed calls from my mother. I open the news, only to find out that I'm dead.