marc . cram

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:17 PM

Lucid Dreaming, the ability to know that you are dreaming and control your dreams, an ability which i have been bestowed with, and also the reason for my blog's URL, haha.. Fortunate arent I? (:

This was what i found on Yahoo! Answers:

WHAT IS LUCID DREAMING?
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity. Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as flying or meeting the deceased. Sometimes people become lucid without noticing any particular clue in the dream; they just suddenly realize they are in a dream. A minority of lucid dreams (according to the research of LaBerge and colleagues, about 10 percent) are the result of returning to REM (dreaming) sleep directly from an awakening with unbroken reflective consciousness.The basic definition of lucid dreaming requires nothing more than becoming aware that you are dreaming. However, the quality of lucidity can vary greatly. When lucidity is at a high level, you are aware that everything experienced in the dream is occurring in your mind, that there is no real danger, and that you are asleep in bed and will awaken shortly. With low-level lucidity you may be aware to a certain extent that you are dreaming, perhaps enough to fly or alter what you are doing, but not enough to realize that the people are dream representations, or that you can suffer no physical damage, or that you are actually in bed.

Overcoming Nightmares
Unfortunately for many people, instead of providing an outlet for unlimited fantasy and delight, dreams can be dreaded episodes of limitless terror. As is discussed in the books Lucid Dreaming (LaBerge, 1985) and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (EWLD) (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990), lucid dreaming may well be the basis of the most effective therapy for nightmares. If you know you are dreaming, it is a simple logical step to realizing that nothing in your current experience, however unpleasant, can cause you physical harm. There is no need to run from or fight with dream monsters. In fact, it is often pointless to try, because the horror pursuing you was conceived in your own mind, and as long as you continue to fear it, it can pursue you wherever you dream yourself to be. The only way to really "escape" is to end your fear. (For a discussion of reasons for recurrent nightmares, see Overcoming Nightmares from EWLD.) The fear you feel in a nightmare is completely real; it is the danger that is not.Unreasonable fear can be defused by facing up to the source, or going through with the frightening activity, so that you observe that no harm comes to you. In a nightmare, this act of courage can take any form that involves facing the "threat" rather than avoiding it. For example, one young man dreamt of being pursued by a lion. When he had no place left to run, he realized he was dreaming and called to the lion to "come and get him." The challenge turned into a playful wrestling match, and the lion became a sexy woman (NightLight 1.4, 1989, p. 13). Monsters often transform into benign creatures, friends, or empty shells when courageously confronted in lucid dreams. This is an extremely empowering experience. It teaches you in a very visceral manner that you can conquer fear and thereby become stronger.

Rehearsal
Lucid dreaming is an extraordinarily vivid form of mental imagery, so realistic that the trick is to realize it is a mental construct. It is no surprise, therefore, that many people use lucid dreaming to rehearse for success in waking life. Examples of such applications include public speaking, difficult confrontations, artistic performance and athletic prowess. Because the activity of the brain during a dreamed activity is the same as during the real event, neuronal patterns of activation required for a skill (like a ski jump or pirouette) can be established in the dream state in preparation for performance in the waking world.

Lucid dreams are the most amazing ones, they are the dreams you can control. I always did those and I did not even know that not everybody did them. Those dreams are better than anything, they’re better than real life because you can do anything, as far as your imagination can go! The best (and worse) part is that you can feel everything and those feelings usually last into your awaken state. So you could suddenly awake, in the middle of an orgasm because you were doing it with your favorite actor/actress, or you could awake in pain because it was a little too rough. But usually, they’re just amazing…like when I was flying but I was underwater and it was so beautiful, I was repeating “this is so beautiful” and crying and getting vertigo, and knowing it was a dream and the colors were the most…colorful. That memory of that dream is the best thing I ever lived.

***

Powerful aint it? those information are so true. I rmb of nightmare-ing about my whole family abandoning me, as a kid, that was my greatest nightmare. hmm. Now, i can even wake myself up from a nightmare by for eg, cutting myself, jumping off somewhere high, or even knocking into the wall to wake myself up. yepp, i do that. haha. But seriously, flying is such pleasure, try it someday my friends, keep thinking of flying before u sleep. (:

Maths tutorial time~ ^^