I had my first lucid dream at the age of 17 - I'm now 27, lucid dreaming most nights. I view my dreams as alternate timelines/universes of my self, because my dreams guide me, show me the future or different versions of my current reality. One of the main reasons for my resilience in life is because my dreams have shaped the person I am today ❤
"Clench your hand and make a fist, do you see it? It's clearly a fist ✊. Now open your hand.There is now clearly an open palm. Where did the fist go? Where was the palm before it appeared?". I don't remember the exact conversation, or koan, because it's been a while, but I was reminded of it by the video. Just as there is a hand that can change configurations, so does the elusive idea of the "self" arrange itself in various forms. I mean, my morning self and my evening self have never really met. So which one am I really? I really enjoy pondering this topic. It's so fascinating that the things we take for granted are the most mysterious of them all. Edit: Spelling errors
I will tell you my perspective as an experience lucid dreamer, it's very similar to being a theater/cinema actor or playing characters when we were kids and invented tons of different fantastic stories. If you let that stuff flow in a more flexible way, you can be a ton of super different things and people at the same time
This is easily my favorite clip on the topic - because what's meaningful about this practice is that it forces us to question 'what is reality' which leads to 'what/who am I'? That's also why I am such a big fan of your approach Daniel.
When I've always thought about who "I" am, it's always been hard to pin down who that exactly is. Around middle to high school and low self esteem, I started trying to absorb other's personalities, try and model myself using traits I liked. I think it's a somewhat common thing that people do, but it's always led to this feeling of acting, like I'm just putting on this persona until it becomes "me". Even after telling myself to stop doing that (due to how much it can impact my own mind in a negative way), it's still hard to establish an "I". I like how this video explains the difference between lucid and non-lucid dreams by saying how it's an altered state of consciousness. I don't know why but, with my past, it makes sense that this would be the case - there's sometimes clear differences from when I'm "acting" and when I'm just in my own head, when I'm social and when I'm at home not having to interact with anyone. I think I brought this topic up when the forum was still around, but I think this video really helps tell that difference and gets rid of the confusion (at least for me). There are times where, no matter what I do, I'm caught up in the moment, very much not lucid about anything. It's about finding those moments and working on adding lucidity to them, altering that state so that that version of "me" can achieve lucidity. Great video and while I would like to drop more of my thoughts in the comment, it will become a rambling mess of thoughts that have been swimming in my mind for years. Makes me wonder if dreamlings are just another version of an "I"?
Interesting topic and perspective to think about. Thanks. Sometimes I get burnt out from trying so hard to become lucid for weeks or months. Then when I relax my efforts, lucidity flows more freely. Practicing being lucid during waking life, in a relaxed way, over time seems to change my perception during dreams in a subtle way. Like a subconscious lucidity that isnt quite a fully lucid dream. Semi-lucid dreams, that feel more meaningful and engaging. Its like I have subconscious work to do first, before I can have up front lucidity on demand.
i also have been getting a Burn Out with dreaming. in particular i'm slacking a bit with the Dreamjournaling aspects. also feeling too sleepy all the time, waking up from youtube when i fell asleep and feel groggy. i dont even sketch any more. i have some crazy dreams that i now forgetting because i became lazy. i need more motivation to get back on track. one thing though, i havent stopped dreamjournaling since 2022 and therebouts, so even the times ,like now, were i totaly got lazy with journaling i never gave up. i know this is episodic. i know my own brain already more than ever since i noticed that i have some episodes of better dream recall and then theres the times i cant remember anything. now i'm at the Lack of Motivation lazyness or tiredness from bad sleep hygiene (sleeping on RU-vid and feeling weird) episode. i know there are possibilities to grow better again. i need more motivation and interest. this channel helps me with that.
This makes me think back to my phsyics classes at the moment, considering the quantum nature of electrons and light in comparison to the fluctuation of our dream selves, really gives weight to this thought that without observation and curiosity the wonders of disvobery will stay hidden. Thanks ! 🙏
Update on my journey: after my first one I had 2 new lucid dreams, the second one lasted about 10 seconds because there was a dream character annoying me, I couldn't concentrate and lost lucidity. The third lucid dream lasted longer than the first, this time I was able to fly more and higher, the more I believe in myself the more I'm able to fly, I even used power from avatar the last airbender hahah. What I do in my waking life is reality check a lot, I don't actually have a set number but I estimate at least 20 a day, recently I also started implementing math problems before the reality test just to activate more the prefrontal cortex. So, I'm able to fly, use powers, spawn characters but I still need to learn how to change scenery. Thank you as always for your videos! I'm happy to share more details if someone is interested, of course I would be describing my experience as someone who's still learning, have a good day!
Just had my first success last night I think. The nose pinch appeared in my dream and after being able to breathe despite a clearly blocked nose, that was it. It was pretty short and not much happened but I think that’s a little win.
Hello! As a "natural" lucid dreamer I still have to thank you a lot for your videos, they really helped me to both lucid dream much more often and "get my superpowers back" after a period of not being able to remember my dreams anymore. Tonight I have been able to fully live and remember 5 different dreams, 3 of them happened in the las 30 minutes by accidentally falling asleep with several wake up alarms sounding to remind me of stuff I have to prepare today for my apprentice. I have been educated in critical thinking from my very early childhood, that probably helped a lot too, and as far as I know, my brain has also less of the chemicals that make you "believe everything" (dopamine and norepinephrine) so that should help too. I hope this info helps someone. Keep up the good work, greetings from Madrid!
A couple nights ago, I finally had my first true lucid dream (not fake). It was really short and I woke up soon after but it was a really cool feeling of finally having done what I've been trying to do for quite some time now. In the dream, I was doing something that I thought kind of reminded me of one of my dream signs, so I did a reality check (almost just for fun) and it took me a second to realize it had failed, but when I did it was honestly really surprising and shocking. (what? I'm dreaming? it all felt so real!) I was also surprised how much effort I had to put in to fully "turn on" my ability to think clearly. I woke up soon after I became lucid but the short experience was really cool and I think I'm making good progress. Thanks for your videos, they've helped a lot!
You made me what I am today. I had 5 lucid dreams within a week. Tonight. Yesterday night. Day before it. And there was a one day gap. And two more consecutively before that. It started when I started doing the real reality checks. Where I first observe the environment and self before reality tests. But still. I don't know how the fuck I can't get over it. I have achieved regular lucidity but I still can't stay lucid for too long. Or control dreams . Please drop some wisdom ❤️ love you Love
I understand having multiple selves because we have D.I.D. and consciously I am multiple people. But I realized recently, we actually switch alters and dreamers in my dreams too, not just in waking. I switch Subconsciously and in dreams too. Elysium got mad at a theater director in a play we were practicing for on stage in the dream. We turned away from her and stopped dancing to look in the mirror and I said "Well none of this matters anyways because this is all just a stupid dream!" And then we realized. "Wait a moment, this IS just a stupid dream..." But we just went along with it and lost lucidity very very quickly after. Then Max went to a Maze, it felt just like a Maze I used to imagine and draw that represented consciousness. And there was green grass, gifts, exotic fruits, and deadly magical swords in the maze. I'm thankful for these dreams. I really hate how remembering my dreams means remembering my nightmares and feeling pain though. But maybe I have to fight through it instead of against them. When I draw and right about the nightmares it seems like we're able to let go of something a little. I love dreams like that Maze. But I hate dreams like the one I have where various people from my past are trying to attack me or hurt me or yelling at me or worse.
Strange, in my dream last night the world was so surreal in its colours that it prompted me to do a reality check (breathe-through-pinched-nose), and it failed (I couldn't breathe through my nose), despite that I still became lucid because I was sure it wasn't real regardless. Interesting how being critical of even the results of the reality check brings lucidity.
Hello! I am back (it's been some time xD) and catching up! This question really *does* change everything. It's trippy to get our head around - as someone with DID, that gets infinitely more complicated ^^' Thank you, though, it's a wonderful new way to look at this subject, and I can't wait to get back into it!
Daniel!! I think GPTs are free now, so anybody can chat with your The Lucid Dreaming Guide. I already had a chat, and I love it. Edit: You can only chat with gpt 4-o, so once you hit the limit, you'll have to wait, but I think it's still enough for an interesting conversation.
Last month i had 5 LUCID DREAMs I noticed one common thing ,that Each LUCID DREAMs has occurred in TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY my first LUCID DREAM was on TUESDAY MY Last LUCID DREAM was on WEDNESDAY
i noticed myself some occurences. either i get lucid in the beginning of the month or the very ending. the middlepart i have less chances of Lucid Dreaming. i have a Lucid Dream once a month or once in Two months. its mostly at the 20 day point or the first days of the month (1 to 10). so maybe our brains are just working like that, just like you have them mostly tuesdays and wednesdays.
It seems I'm offline for a while. burn out with lucid dreaming since I took new medicine, lucid dreaming just didn't work for almost 2 months. they are going to see if they can take a step back with medication because that is quite a lot.
Sorry to hear that Jim, hopefully they'll find something that isn't so disruptive for you. Hopefully burnout won't last long either, but don't worry about it, it's a natural part of the cycle with this subject! And thank you!
Hi, so i told you about this long lucid dream of mine in the latest short live, but i couldn't ask all my questions because of the text limit on the chat, so im just gonna post them here: (if you have some spare time, i would really appreciate some answers) - I tried to do some math in my head to engage prefrontal cortex, but in the exact moment i thought of an equasion, my mind just shut off. Like my vision went black, i lost my current thought and felt like i was in my bed with closed eyes. I could somehow recover the dream by thinking of the senario i was in beforehand, and i found this entire situation hilarious but i cant help but wonder, why could this have happen? - I tried to fly like iron man, and managed to get in the air for a brief moment but then my "hand thrusters have turned off" and i just fell to the ground lol. Then i remembered that you said i should try smaller things first so i tried to levitate but i just couldnt. What is the best way (in your opinion) to fly? (Or just generally achieve normally impossible things?) This is all for now, i hope you have some ideas i could try! Great video by the way!
Interesting point, ryzikx! I'd definitely say that splitting the corpus callosum raises fascinating questions about the nature of self, which depends greatly on how we define "self." While it's not exactly "two people," I'd compare a "person" to a country-comprised of many parts working together. However, one could make a strong argument that it demonstrates independently operating selves existing within the same person/country.
can you make a video about how to not blink or how to stay in a lucid dream if don't have anything to do yet beacuse i didn't summon anything or teleported anywhere
Is there a difference between lucid dream and dream control? I feel lucid on my dreams but i cant control what is happening on them… or at least not like a god as people say. For example, today there was a person with me in my dream and at one point this person wanted to come home with me but i didnt want that. So I was able to start an argument and make this person go away… i remember thinking with myself i needed to get into an argument and so i saw an opportunity and did it… but dream control would it be simply making this person disappear by a clap of fingers?
is there a reason why my Non Lucid Dreams are more vivid and hyperrealistic and intense and that my Lucid Dreams get hazey? a while back ago it was the oposite, i got lucid and the dream got real sharp and crystalclear. now its like when i go Lucid i go on autopilot, fly (also got to Mars wich was my Lucid Dream Goal) and wake up very fast. i got to Mars but when i tried to land i woke up and Before getting Lucid i remember nothing of that NOn Lucid Part. while it was different a year ago. is there something wrong with what i'm doing? should i be more mindfull and stop always flying? there's also the frustration of waking up after trying Portals (i never get portals to work properly). Am I Lucid? am i Dreaming? Who am i when i'm lucid? i changed as a person though, i get more Lucid Dreams than before. now though, i have been slacking the Dream Journal aspect. i get to wake up but feel too tired and cant write the dream down without falling back asleep and its hard to think about what i dreamed when i'm all so groggy. tips on that?
@@LucidDreamPortal Oh, yeah, bell! 😅 I don't know what kind of media you've been watching, but from my experience, every time that specific church bell sound effect goes off, somebody's dead in the next scene so I've just come to expect it
