Instead of really introducting myself I’m crosspositing my current interest/question from FB group on LD. I’ve only recently started reading Holecek, and used to dismiss most LD books/ journals as unscientific and only superficially rooted in yogic traditions. Only after seeing the new Workbook in New Harbinger publications I got back to the whole idea. Anyway, here’s the FB post:
Do any of you who have not experienced LD yet, or tried to have one for extended period of time remember having nightmares? And how about those of you who do LD? Do you have nightmares at all?
I don’t have nightmares. Used to have a lot of bad ones as a kid. Sometimes remembered them in the morning; sometimes just my parents would tell me how I sceamed or whimpered in the night. Then (around 25 years ago) I read some articles on LD and OBE and really wished I could do this but only half-heartedly practised and then gave it up after several weeks. Thing is - I’ve never had a single nightmare since then. All my typical nightmare stuff either stopped happening (zero recall but also no screaming etc and my wife is a light sleeper so she would notice) or - when it did, less then ten times - I was getting completely detached from the tream and felt completely safe (watching a horror movie can scare me harder than these dreams).
Anyone having similar experience? Opposite? Is that a rule or an anomaly?
Good to read your post. It’s hard to make comparisons when people’s life experiences are so different. For me, my life has unfolded in such ways that I have faced some of my fears during the waking state and seem to have integrated the lessons learned into nighttime experiences. How do I know this? I try to examine my thinking in the dream state and look for changes from my “waking” thoughts and reactions. No nightmakes, just a few recurring situations where my thoughts and reactions often amaze me and give me smiles when I recall them.
I have never had many true nightmares (that I can recall). The only comment that I can make that may be germane to this discussion is that in the last year of my intensive LD/DY training the nature of my dreams has changed quite noticeably.
Where my dreams (both lucid and non-lucid) had generally been typically populated with somewhat fantastical types of occurrences…such as having to step out of a car as it was flying off a cliff or facing some odd looking creature, you know, typical dream fantasy stuff…they are now only filled with normal people doing mostly normal things.
One theory I have about that is that perhaps my subconscious was giving me all kinds of reasons early on to get lucid in a dream but, now that I am achieving lucidity easier, it is making it more difficult by not giving me obvious dream signs…like nightmares?
This is actually quite similar for me (very realistic physics etc) for 9 out of 10 dreams, and only once in a while something out of this world (but nothing upsetting). The realistic ones are very vivid (sensory-wise and emotionally) and while they’re not lucid I get a feeling of being true to myself in how I behave in these dreams (even more than during waking hours). So following that logic it would seem that I’m not that willing to take control for fear of following day-time patterns of behaviour (avoidance etc). Thanks for that idea.
Good question, Barry. Lucidity comes in different ways for me. When the car flies off the cliff lucidity flashes in, like…“Whoa! I can fly and I will right now!” That’s how things used to be a lot when I was just figuring all this out.
But these days lucidity blooms gradually more often as I take part in a more mundane dream plot. It’s like waking up from a nap. There is no rush of lucid realization. Instead I begin to realize that I know where I am, I know who I am…and I know exactly what I am doing. There is generally a take-away moment in these kinds of dreams that stays with me strongly when I…wake up again for the day.
I’m convinced that my dreams evolved into this form because I am relying almost completely on the more foundational chakra management system of induction rather than classic LD induction methodology.
Consider the possibility that even if you are not taking control of these dreams you may still be achieving a measure of lucidity in them. I don’t think lucidity is a black/white, hot/cold thing.