Lucid dreaming and dream-within-a-dream: anyone else ever do this?

[AlienGirl]

I just woke up from a really great dream that had some surprising features, and wonder if anyone's heard of or done this before.

The dream started with me going to bed, falling asleep, and beginning a secondary dream within the first. In the secondary dream, I was on the set of a documentary in Africa, watching lions. I was thinking how interesting it would be to pet one of the lions, and then suddenly I realized that since I was only dreaming this, I could! I called the lions over to me and had them head-bump and rub against me like domestic cats. Their fur was more dense and wiry than a domestic cat, and felt "dusty." As I was dreaming this, I was aware that I was asleep and dreaming. Eventually I woke from the secondary dream into the primary dream, of just being in bed, and I tried to say something, but was unable to talk because I couldn't move my mouth. This made me aware that I was still asleep in the real world, so I woke up for real.

Now, I've had lucid dreams before, and I've had dreams-within-dreams before, but I haven't ever heard of a dream-within-a-dream becoming lucid! Has anyone else here ever had anything like this happen, or know of a case where it happened?

Tucker

[hippywife]

1. All the time.

Sometimes I do it so often, it freaks me out and I really don't sleep well. :scared:

[lunamagica]

2. I used to be able to Lucid Dream

It didn't come naturally to me, but I read about them and trained myself to have one (relity checks, etc). When I finally had one, it was wonderful! The thing that amazed me the most was the feeling of touch. Like touching a tree and feeling its roughness, touching glass and feeling it smooth and cool.

Sadly I could never control the dream for more then a few minutes, and after a while I stopped trying. Then I whad one which lasted for a long time. It felt so good that I tried to get to have another one, without success(so far)

What you describe sounds really cool! The closest I came was having a false awakening. I'd love to have that experience!

[AlienGirl]

4. False awakenings bother me, especially because the first thing I have to do in the morning is pee!

[hippywife]

16. THAT is another problem.

If my bladder is trying to wake me up, I start dreaming that I'm either looking for a bathroom or going many times in a short period through the dream and feeling the relief of going. Luckily, I've awakened in time when that happens.

[raccoon]

13. Can you tell me what books/articles you read? nt

[Skip Intro]

3. Can you really be sure you're not still dreaming?

merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...

[AlienGirl]

5. Pretty sure! All my reality checks say I'm not

Of course, I could be wrong.... :scared:

Tucker

[Courtesy Flush]

6. I've been trying in the last couple of nights

I've read that you can teach yourself to do it. I recently lost someone dear to me, and I also learned that my wife is terminally ill. From time to time my deceased friend appears in my dreams, and I wanted to have some control over this. Just last night I decided, as I was nodding off, to dream about my friend. Sure enough, she appeared in my dream, but it wasn't a lucid dream. I'm hoping I can develop this so that I can spend time with her again, even if it only feels real.

Someday I'll lose my wife, and I want to hang on to our time together if I possibly can. I know it sounds silly, but reality is just a matter of perception, and if a dream is all you have, it will do.

[denbot]

7. I often have lucid or directed dreams.

I was nearly killed by a gunshot as a teen. For years afterwords I would have terrible nightmares as soon as I fell asleep. In my dreams I would try to get myself to wake up. Finally, during one recurring dream as I was falling to my death I made myself fly..

After that little by little I was able to direct the direction of the dream, or at least my actions in a kind of "do over". This is especially true in my serial dreams, which have reoccurring story lines, and locations.

Now sometimes I would wake and remember thinking during my dreams that it would be "better" for the story line to go a certain way, and it does.

I don't do this all the time, but it is frequent.

[av8rdave]

8. A couple of times

I've been having some really strange, vivid dreams lately. I can't figure out if I've always been having them and am just remembering them lately, or if this is something new.

[MicaelS]

9. I lucid dream a lot, but never what you describe.

BTW, the old saw about if you die in your dream, you die for real is not true.
In the bad old days of the Cold War, I used to dream quite a bit about being on a battlefield in the midst of nuclear war. Every time I got killed, my POV would shift miles away. What do you think about that? :nuke:

[AlienGirl]

10. I've not only had dreams where I die, I've had ones about being dead and trying to remember my life!

I've also hit the ground in falling dreams and had plenty of "end of the world" dreams.

It sounds like your POV shift was a good mechanism for your mind to keep the dream going after the "death."

Tucker

[Iggo]

11. Only when I have a really bad fever.

But it's something else, huh.

[raccoon]

12. I've had lucid dreams before but not a dream-within-a-dream.

Thanks for your post! I think in our society we devalue dreams.

Dreams can tell us a lot.

[alarimer]

14. I once dreamed I couldn't sleep.

I woke up exhausted.

This sounds like something Steven Wright would say but it's true.

[AsahinaKimi]

15. I once had a lucid dream...

But I had to wake up,.. I was being chased by Art Bell's bumper music, right down Mel's hole. Thank goodness for Richard C. Hoagland, he saved me from tripping over the face on Mars.

[Baclava]

17. Yes, and Yes

I too taught myself to have waking experiences in my dreams.


Or maybe that's just how I perceived it.


I go back to familiar places, roads, buildings, cities...that exist only in my dreams, and yet are so real.

And yes, I and have flying dreams too - real ones too, where I say, "I want to fly" and off I go ...fully aware of the absurdity of it.


Sometimes I morph into a batlike creature and attack the innocents - oh what fun that is.


And the mall scenes - oh yes - "Make all the girls kekkid"

Yeah baby - been there, done that.



Dying in dreams is kinda spooky, but after you've driven off as many cliffs and bridges as I have, you get used to it.


{edit} Ask me anything.