Have better control of my lucid dreams

Amazing how just stating your goal sometimes has an immediate effect on your subconscious! I had a lovely lucid last night where a woman came to my childhood home. We jumped into the sky and flew over the earth, seeing all the continents. I remembered to look at my hands (via Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan), and they solidified easily. The night before, I had a lucid where my mother, who had been nightmarish, gave me very good advice once I advised her that I was dreaming. Good stuff!

Lucid dreaming is one of the most delightful things I’ve had the luck to experience, and even more luckily, I used to have LDs once a week or so, with varying degrees of control. I find that going with the flow is the best, although there are still ways to experience things you want to within the environment your dream sets up. For instance, if you become lucid on an endless stairwell (this is frequent for me), and you want to get off, you can choose to “melt” through the wall, or step into the well and float down, or shoot up through the ceiling!

As I’ve been less focused on my dreaming (not doing regular RCs, not writing down my dreams every morning, not reading about LDs all the time in my waking life), I’ve had fewer and fewer (down to once a month now), and the ones I have are muddy and I’m usually obsessed with changing EVERYTHING—like, I want to go from the city to the country, or I only want to talk to a guide, or I’m asking everyone a question no one can answer, instead of looking around and just letting things come and appreciating them. That’s my goal: having lucid dreams where I evaluate the environment I’m in, and attempt to make the most of that particular environment.

Image is “Lucid Dream” by Robert ParkeHarrison

Hmm, I’m not sure at this point that control is so important. It might take away from the environment of the dream. I’ve had more enjoyment just going with the flow. It’s hard to override your sunconscious (corny typo) and it’s sort of a pathetic attempt when you do.

I think from now on I’ll try exploring and see where I end up.

It’s certainly not an easy thing to do and requires a lot of practice. But as you said, it’s not something that happens often enough for you to practice. However, there are ways to induce visuals that are akin to those we experience in the dream world. And that’s where meditation comes in.

Through meditation you can clear your mind of all the stimuli from the outside world leaving your mind to wander inside itself, much like when you are asleep. Since you are awake, it is much easier to be aware of what is actually happening, so when you do start seeing things you can manipulate the “dream” anyway you like.

Once you get comfortable wandering around in your own mind it should be just as easy to do in dreamland. The hardest part is realizing that you have just as much control over yourself and your surroundings in your dreams as you do in the real world and vice versa.

I am really interested in learning to better control my lucid dreams. I average one lucid dream every couple of weeks. However, if I’m really stressed I can have them up to three nights in a row. An usually when I’m stressed they are nightmarish. I can control some aspects of the dreams, and some nights I do this better than others. But I have yet to master changing the tone or setting of a dream. Not all of my lucid dreams are bad, many are good. But even with those I would like more control over. Something I’ll definitely have to research further.