Lucid Dreaming: A Warning

“It was the best dream I’ve ever had. I was flying. I see whoever I want to see. It was heaven, kind of. But then I found demons grinning at me as I spiraled into eternal condemnation.”

If you are active or are planning to become active in the practice of lucid dreaming, please heed my warning. It is a very dangerous practice. Your mind, your subconscious, it doesn’t want you to find something out.

My friend learned the hard way. I found out about lucid dreaming after a school program trip to a sleep clinic. I figured out how to do it, me and my friend both. He and I talked about it later, and we decided we want to try it, together.

The first night was difficult, I ended up controlling myself for a little bit, but lost control. Come to find out, my friend had the same problem.

He and I struggled for about a week and a half, but we finally got the hang of it. We were able to control our dreams until the next morning. It was pretty awesome, being able to interact with our minds. The best part was that we could remember our dreams — the whole dream. It was cool trying to place events and how you got there, kinda like Inception. I cracked a joke that “We need to go deeper” to my friend, and my friend told me we should. What he said puzzled me.

He saw this and explained. “A couple nights ago I found a door in my dream. It was labeled ‘Innermost thoughts’, and it had ‘STAY OUT’, printed in yellow and black striped letters. I didn’t pay attention to it, but I’m pretty sure it leads deeper into our dreams.” He asked if I’d seen this door.

I hadn’t seen it yet, at least from what I could remember. He said that once I see it, to tell him. The bell rang and we went to class. In math, I pondered a question in my head. Why would there be a door like that in a dream? What does your mind not want you to know? It started to scare me, but I thought maybe he imagined it. Pushing it to the back of my mind, I continued my day.

It was two nights before I noticed the door, the one my friend had mentioned. I asked one of the people in my dream what it led to. The girl looked at me and said only one word, “No,” and turned and ran away. I was shocked at her response, slightly worried by it. Taking note of it, I ran with her. The next day, I told my friend about my experience. He then shared his experience.

My friend told me how he reached for the handle and a guy slapped his hand and told him “No.” This was strange, I thought. He said, “Let’s go in tonight,” I wearily agreed. He told me not to worry about it, but I was still slightly uneasy. That night in my dream I opened the door and slipped in there. It wasn’t too bad when I entered, just some old memories, even stuff I didn’t know I encountered.

I got a little deeper and felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning around, the girl was there again. Except, she was different, kind of twisted. Her skin was paler, she was skinnier, and she was wounded. She had a bruise on her face and a couple cuts. Her clothing was also ripped. The girl looked scared even. She looked at me, waved her finger and said, “No.” I then woke up.

The next day, I talked to my friend. He looked slightly disturbed. He told me about his experience, which was similar to mine. Just instead of a girl, it was a guy. We decided to try to head farther into the door. I hesitantly agreed. That night, I struggled to get into a dream and kept thinking of what I might find. Finally, I was able to do it. Wandering through the dream, I tried to find the door. After finding it, I entered. I made it past where I was stopped last time. Looking at the screens the memories were playing on I noticed something strange. These memories seemed to be from before I was born. I don’t think I ever met Lewis and Clark. It got to the point where I reached three more doors.

They were labeled “Fears”, “Memories-Continued”, and “Subconscious Thoughts”. I wanted to see more memories, but as I reached for the door I woke up. “Damn!”

I talked to my friend over the phone. He sounded scared, saying that he was attacked in his dream. “I got to the doors, and they were waiting for me. They had clubs and brass knuckles. I couldn’t run, they just beat me. I woke up with bruises and a fat lip.” I asked if we should continue, hoping he’d stop. “Yes, we need to find out what our minds are trying to hide.” I sat there, comprehending why he might be doing this.

After a couple minutes of silence, I snapped back when he asked if I was still there. We talked for another four or five minutes and went on with our Saturdays. That night I couldn’t get to dreaming, the fear kicked in, and I thought.

“What if I get attacked? What if they try to kill me?” Finally, after about an hour, was able to go into the dream. I got in there, and I was on a cliff, my hands and feet were tied. I turned around to see the girl, she had a huge grin on her face. She looked even skinnier this time and had blood specks, her face had the life sucked out of it. She said in a raspy voice, “I told you no, and you didn’t listen, now you must pay.” She pulled out a knife and started walking towards me.

Chuckling with every step, every step she took towards me, I took back. Towards the edge. I stopped right on the edge, and by the time she reached me, she was laughing as hard as she could. Then she just pushed me, just nudged me with her shoulder, and down I fell. Screaming the whole time. Just before I reached the ground I was shaken awake. It was my mom, wondering why the hell I was screaming. I gave her a huge hug and said it was a nightmare and decided to go back to sleep, to get my mind off of it.

Come Sunday morning, I gave my friend a call. No answer. “Maybe he didn’t hear me.” Another try, no answer. I decided to walk to his house. Upon my arrival, I saw his mother crying on the porch and an ambulance. I ran to the porch. I asked what happened, “H-h-he killed himself,” she said through her tears. She thought he killed himself, I know what really happened. She handed me an envelope, “He wanted you to have this,” It had my name on it and it said “Lucid Dreaming” on it.

I quickly ran home to see what was inside. I went into my room and opened the envelope, it was a letter. “I’m probably not going to make it after tonight, I don’t want you to get hurt, so I’m going to hope you stop, but I can’t make you. But I want you to know, I knew they were going to kill me. After beating me, the boy told me, that if I did it again, he will kill me.” He knew what was going to happen, yet he went after it, why? He didn’t write anymore. I needed answers, so where better to find them, then the people who came up with the question. I went into my mind that night, fairly early, I was eager to go in.

Too eager that I couldn’t do it for quite some time. When I finally did, it was different. It was dark, and it was snowing ash. There was blood, guts, and bones everywhere. I heard a distant noise, it sounded like someone eating very loudly. I followed the noise to a group of people, the kids from the previous dreams. They were eating something. I stepped closer and snapped a branch, or a bone and they stopped and turned. They were horrifying.

They had rotten toothy smiles, they gouged out their eyes and they couldn’t stop smiling. They said, in perfect dark unison, “Your friend didn’t listen, and he paid the price, now it’s your turn.” They started walking towards me. The front one, the girl, drew a knife. I tripped and fell, she got closer, she whispered when she got to me, “You’ll be one of us now.” I was then awakened. My dad tackled me with a knife in my hand.

My parents admitted me to a psychological hospital. I was never able to sleep, I always had dreams of them chasing me, trying to get me. How am I telling you this? This is only a note that the doctor found. I’m finally giving in, I don’t know how it’ll end, but it’ll probably be messy. Please heed my warning, don’t let them catch you, don’t mess with your own mind.

Story Source: Creepypasta

The In-Between

Well obviously, the story at the beginning of this little article holds little integrity. But whether it’s real or not (and knowing how Creepypasta is just a bunch of stories circulating around the internet, it’s probably not accurate), here’s what you really need to know.

If you aren’t aware already, a lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. And because of this heightened awareness, the dreamer gains the ability to have control over the dream itself.

Many people avidly speak about the experiences they have had as they lucid dreamt. Everybody’s favorite activity in a lucid dream is flying or meeting their favorite celebrities. This peculiar place between waking and sleeping paves the road for every kind of human pleasure imaginable.

The impossible becomes possible in a lucid dream. The boundary lies in the limits of your imagination itself. You can do anything; feel everything. It easily morphs into an alternate universe where you are in complete control of everything around you.

And when I say control, I mean both conscious and subconscious.

But first, you need to understand that dreams serve as the doorway to your subconscious mind. The slight problem lies in the fact that your subconscious is alien territory to your conscious mind.

How does it work?

Your subconscious mind grows and develops with you, and throughout your years of existence, it has been influenced by a lot of factors (environment, experiences, beliefs etc.) For this reason, it contains thoughts that may confuse, terrify, or shock you. It contains things your conscious mind probably hasn’t considered before.

So when the dreamer’s subconscious suddenly grasps the reins of your vivid dream, the results may or may not be pretty. And more often than not, this leads to lucid nightmares.

Because everything in a lucid dream is an alternate reality, the term living nightmare is given an all new meaning.

Every gruesome and horrid thought is summoned to the surface. Reports of being slowly murdered in lucid dreams are common. Harassment performed by dark supernatural creatures aren’t impossible. Suffering eternally in your own idea of hell is a torture.

You can escape one nightmare only to land in another. That’s the worst part; when it starts to morph into a cycle. It goes on and on until eventually a physical stimulus from the real world will force you back into reality.

(This is of course, not true for everybody. Practiced and skilled lucid dreamers easily break out of nightmares and return to reality effortlessly. This kind of thing usually happens to first timers.)

But just like any other phenomena existent in the known universe, lucid nightmares have reasons. And you might not know it, but maybe your dreams are trying to tell you something.

Lucid Dreams and Science

Such terrifying imagery emerging from your subconscious can be heralds of future catastrophes. And by that, I mean your lucid nightmares might be telling you something is wrong. You might be suffering from depression. Or even worse, you’re on the road to mental illness.

Ominous claims such as this could only be right when viewed subjectively. Lucid nightmares equal poor physical well-being, doesn’t it?

Wrong!

Does it entail mental illness?

Ryan Hurd in his article, Is Lucid Dreaming Dangerous? makes several valid points.

“There is a link between lucid hypnagogia and sleep disorders, such as insomnia, narcolepsy and sleep apnea. Lucid dreams also tend to come when fighting serious illnesses like influenza and malaria. Anxiety disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which come with hyper-arousal and increased nightmares, may also indirectly bring on some disturbing lucid dreams.

“But, there’s no evidence that lucid dreaming can bring on mental illness. In fact, lucid dreaming has recently been linked to resilience, the ability to maintain stability during and after traumatic events. Lucid dreaming is used clinically to help cope with nightmares, and is considered by many psychologists to promote psychological growth and encourage problem-solving.”

The truth of the matter is, lucid dreaming and lucid nightmares are powerful medicine.

Here’s your truth

It is true that the practice of lucid dreaming can, over time, bring nightmares and summon disturbing imagery that will confuse the dreamer. But the dreamer has the ability to turn the negative situation around. Use it to identify and admit to your human weaknesses.

Because, like it or not, your subconscious is an innate part of you. And if your subconscious manifests in your lucid dreams and nightmares, then it might be time to do some self-reevaluation.

That being said, allow me to once again, quote Ryan Hurd in his article about lucid dreaming and mental illness:

“Establishing a secure container is essential to a healthy lucid dreaming practice: by this, I mean having a social support network, a healthy home life, and the time to go deeper into the process. These are just a few of the prerequisites to success, and can also prevent the occurrence of nightmares and scary “false awakening” type dreams along the way.

These dreams won’t make you schizophrenic, but without proper support, they can agitate your mental state and possibly re-strengthen the fears that came up in the dreams. Find ways to relax and ground yourself, and seek professional help if it’s disrupting your life.”

The Brighter Side

By all means, these types of dreams aren’t good nor are they bad. You can’t shove it into metaphorical black and white shelves. It’s just a natural product of sleep, and a skill any interested dreamer can learn.

It should be noted though, that lucid dreaming and its visual manifestations during sleep is up to you.

“I was more interested in lucid dreams for the sake of my own psychological growth and spiritual transformation. Also, over the years I had worked through most of my anxiety disorders and fears. I was no longer a fearful person, and so my lucid dreams as an adult turned out to provide me with some of the spiritual learning that I sought from them. I now have quite a few lucid dreaming stories that are amazing, mystical, and awe-inspiring.”

~Justin Aptaker

You either open yourself up to a world of wonder and spiritual exhilaration, or you plunge yourself into a dimension of unimaginable horror.

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