Half Lucid?

[Naiad780]

Hey Aura,

There are different levels of lucidity.  Sometimes you can be completely awake in your dreams, and sometimes it's hardly lucid at all, maybe just enough that you can change one thing before you fall back into regular dreaming again.

In one dream manual I'm reading, the author suggests that you shout, "Increase Lucidity!" when you're in a dream and want to be more lucid.  I haven't had the opportunity to try this, but I do know that a few lucid dreams ago I though my surroundings were boring, so I yelled, "Get more interesting!" and *poof*  Lots of cool things appeared

Was this one of your first lucid dreams?  Sometimes things like making the spoon move towards you can take a little practice.

[AuraOfLight]

Yes, this was my second lucid dream, although my first was only for a few seconds a number of months ago. I'll try the increase lucidity thing next time. At some point I did slip back into normal dreaming, how can I avoid this? I didn't even notice the transition at the time for some reason.

[seraphis]

hi Aura!

quote:At some point I did slip back into normal dreaming, how can I avoid this? I didn't even notice the transition at the time for some reason.

well, the "not-noticing-bit" is usually just the thing that "allows" you to slip back into an ordinary dream. there are three ways (that i'm aware of) to loose lucidity:

1) you simply forget that you are lucid and the dream continues like any other dream would. that can happen quite easily, especially to beginners. it was and still is to a certain degree a problem for me, and i'm a semi-beginner - something between 10 and 20 LDs up to date. but don't worry, you can fight that quite easily. when you are lucid the next time, simply concentrate on being lucid, and tell yourself not to forget it. it worked for me on the first try [] it even worked so well that after doing it once or twice i stopped, and now i'm not quite sure whether i'm still lucid at the end of my dreams, because i get so absorbed in doing something that lucidity somehow looses it's importance - gotta work on that [|)]

2) you "wake up" inside your dream: you know that you are lucid, but that you "wake up" and go doing something else - while in fact you're still dreaming and only dreamed that you woke up [] a cure for that might be adopting the habit of asking yourself whether you are still dreaming after waking up.

3) you decide to stop being lucid it's actually a pretty stupid solution for what i used it for: when a dream gets out of hand, which it does when something scares me and i know that my fear would only keep what i'm afraid of around or bring it about, i simply decide to continue dreaming without lucidity, because for some reason i have nearly no nightmares at all and if something unpleasant occurs my dreamself deals with it perfectly. anyway, i said that that's not the best approach and decided that i will face whatever appears in my dream. up to now only one such thing decided to show up, and that was the repetiton of one of my worst nightmares: absolute nothing(ness?). i knew it was coming and was lucid and went straight into it, but somehow i wasn't concentrated enough and just found myself screaming and slipping into the next normal dream. [:I] but let it come again, maybe i'll make it then [8D]

quote:it still doesn't feel as vivid as real life

i usually have the same problem. apart from what Naiad suggested, i thought about two things:

1) try to be more conscious throughout waking life, it might help. if you're sleepwalking aroung during the day, you can't really expect it to get better during the night - one of my problems, anyway. [B)]

2) don't sit around there thinking "this is so unreal" but concentrate on any sensations you feel. when i wake up my (lucid) dreams often seem ...um... dreamlike [].... sort of unclear and hazy and what not. but in some of my lucid dreams i decided to concentrate on what i see/feel etc, and i remember realizing how clear and strong those sensations were, although usually only one sensation is clear and the rest hazy (feeling the texture often means not seeing it properly etc.) and guess what? upon awakening i could no longer recall those sensations, but i could remember thinking about how strong they were! so maybe it's not always dream-sensations, but rather dream-recall. this sould not be the case with your dream because you thought during the dream that it was all unclear, but it might help anyway in the future to consciously realize what the sensations are like and then remember that. []

sorry for the length, i hope it helps [|)]

[funinfloating111]

yes, there is definantly more than one level of lucidity. sometimes i cant get it more lucid no matter how hard i try, other times i can. sometimes when i become aware i am dreaming, i still stumble around in a fuzzy haze, exept when something wierd happens i say well im dreaming so anything is possible. things like that. other times i can feel everthing as it is in waking reality. i can go and pick a single piece of grass, and feel it, smell it, its unbelievable. i think it all has to do with how much of your consiousness is with you in the dream. congradulations though on becoming lucid! even semi-lucid dreams are a great accomplishment, and if you havent had a fully lucid dream yet, i dont think its that far off... have fun

[AuraOfLight]

Okay, I just had a "lucid" dream about a half an hour ago. I had been riding my bike in a real-life country setting about 10 miles away from my real house and then suddenly the road turned into one that neighbors my own house which is in the city. I stop in front of my house to ponder what is going on and come to the conclusion that I am dreaming. I can suddenly control my movements but I cannot change anything else and it still doesn't feel as vivid as real life. I try to make a spoon fly to me but that doesn't work. I then do my reality checks to try to give me control and make things clearer but they don't work!? I have RC written on my hand and I keep looking at it but ot never changes. I also try closing my eye and looking at my nose but I can still see it. I don't remember if I tried pinching my nose and trying to breathe. A kid from work then came to me in the dream and starting asking me all about LD's and I was explaining them to him in the dream. So, how come I didn't have control, and how come it wasn't extremely vivid? Are my reality checks faulty? Thanks........