Lucid Dreaming

[Lone Wolf]

I'll have to try the nose-pinch thing, but then again in my dreams I usually don't have any awareness of my body.  I don't think I've ever seen any of my body parts during a dream (hands, arms, feet, legs, reflection).  It's more like a movie shot with a POV camera.

Yeah I generally have a first-person perspective as well.  When I go for the nose pinch, I don't see my nose any more than I do in waking life.  It's just an object that I believe exists.  In dreams, if you believe that something is there, it will be.

Having said that, some folks have dreams where they exist in a disembodied perspective.  I've had a few myself, even breaking briefly into this mode occasionally in a lucid.  If this is a common scenario for you, a good reality check to lead off with might be to ask yourself, "Hold on a sec... have I got a body?" 

BTW, if you do get a chance to look at your hands and study them in detail in a dream, I highly recommend it.  I generally get a very high level of detail (and sometimes extra fingers.)  That was one of the early things that I tried.  And since you've never seen your hands in a dream, could be an interesting thing to experience.

Good luck if you end up trying any of this stuff!  I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

These are the worst!  Although I'm sorry for your misery, I'm glad I'm not alone with these.  For me, it's always the day of the final, I've never attended a day of class, and forgot to drop the course in time. 

I actually have this one too.

Believe me when I say that you have my sympathy.  I had that one about a week ago.  It seems very silly considering that I've been out of school for years and years now!

[rocketdog]

I've had a dream where I was naked in high school and had to contort my body to cover my privates with everyone else staring or laughing at me.   Thankfully that one isn't too common.

[notsheigetz]

I've had a dream where I was naked in high school and had to contort my body to cover my privates with everyone else staring or laughing at me.   Thankfully that one isn't too common.

Probably more common than you think.

Lately I have been finding myself stuck in dreams, knowing for sure that if I go back to sleep it will continue where it left off. This is very unusual as I used to have dreams that I wished I could continue but could not.

I see these kind of things as being the same as the body's self-healing mechanisms so I mostly just go with it and let it go where it wants to go and do what it wants to do (what is the reason for that kind of trust, waxing philosophically?).

[Lone Wolf]

Lately I have been finding myself stuck in dreams, knowing for sure that if I go back to sleep it will continue where it left off. This is very unusual as I used to have dreams that I wished I could continue but could not.

I see these kind of things as being the same as the body's self-healing mechanisms so I mostly just go with it and let it go where it wants to go and do what it wants to do (what is the reason for that kind of trust, waxing philosophically?).

Interesting.  Is the dream content pleasant or unpleasant?

If you know precisely the sort of dream you'll end up in, you have a good opportunity to become lucid in the dream if you wish.  As you drift back to sleep, you can imagine yourself in the same dream scene and becoming aware that it's all a dream.  Visual everything.

With enough intent and determination (and practice) it's very likely that you'll become aware that you're dreaming.  You can still go with the flow of the dream, but you'll experience it in a very different way.  If any of the dream content intrigues you, you're free to take any action you want or talk to any dream figure.  Asking a particularly striking figure what they represent can be interesting (and is often very amusing.)

[rocketdog]

I've had a dream where I was naked in high school and had to contort my body to cover my privates with everyone else staring or laughing at me.   Thankfully that one isn't too common.

Probably more common than you think.

Sorry, I meant it's not too common for me.

[notsheigetz]

Lately I have been finding myself stuck in dreams, knowing for sure that if I go back to sleep it will continue where it left off. This is very unusual as I used to have dreams that I wished I could continue but could not.

I see these kind of things as being the same as the body's self-healing mechanisms so I mostly just go with it and let it go where it wants to go and do what it wants to do (what is the reason for that kind of trust, waxing philosophically?).

Interesting.  Is the dream content pleasant or unpleasant?

If you know precisely the sort of dream you'll end up in, you have a good opportunity to become lucid in the dream if you wish.  As you drift back to sleep, you can imagine yourself in the same dream scene and becoming aware that it's all a dream.  Visual everything.

With enough intent and determination (and practice) it's very likely that you'll become aware that you're dreaming.  You can still go with the flow of the dream, but you'll experience it in a very different way.  If any of the dream content intrigues you, you're free to take any action you want or talk to any dream figure.  Asking a particularly striking figure what they represent can be interesting (and is often very amusing.)

Mostly unpleasant but not so much as to be intolerable.

[MachineGhost]

People frequently have hallucinations in these states where they think there are other people in the room.  This is where myths about things like nighttime alien abductions, the night hag, the incubus, and the succubus all stem from.

How do you know they're myths as opposed to interdimensional entities?  It's a little hard to use science to objectively investigate that kind of phenomena!