Well, every time I try to go lucid in a dream, yeah..
I don't always have nightmares, but they happen quite a lot. Also, I suffer from sleep paralysis and sleep paralysis-induced hallucinations as well.
In fact, I got a tattoo of one of the recurring hallucinations I have when have an episode of sleep paralysis happens. I might post a pic here some day.

[TheTerror]

Cool that'd be aswome.

A trick I tend to use if I really want to make sure I have a lucid dream from the beginning, regardless of the dream being good or bad, is to read about it.  I no longer have my book as I gave it away to someone I felt needed it more (but now that bridge is burned so I won't ask her for the title), but at night right before I would go to bed I would read the section about lucid dreams and have that fresh on my brain.  I'm sure there are many different approaches to lucid dreaming, but that is something that helps me.

That's a good idea, I may try that tonight before I go to bed. I did manage to have a lucid dream once, but since then I haven't been able to achieve it.

[Regina Terra]

I have had two lucid dreams recently, but both times it was nightmares, and only in the second dream was I able to accomplish anything by being aware that it was just a dream.

[7VII7]

Eh, I'm not a fan of lucid dreaming, I prefer to just get my dreams done and over with, though I have several times been able to tell that it was a dream, but everytime that happens I wake up, sigh. . .

Try looking at it like this 7VII7 

your dreaming self isn't a fan of your dreamt waking reality.
For now it just prefers to get it over and done with, though several times you have woken up from your waking sleep.
Everytime that has happened so far though, you just ignore it and go back to your waking sleep, sigh..


See if you can actually grab this perspective rather than seeing it as a quirky intellectual twist.

[7VII7]

So from what I understand from your post your one of those people that think life is the dreams and your dreams are what is really happening? Because other then that your post makes no sense. . .

Yep your on the right track with that line of thought.

Personally I view them both as real and valid experiences of your total self.
As such I see them as interdependent.
You ignore one because the other one is ignoring you.
Up until now that was.

But this is just the quirky intellectual twist I mentioned earlier.

Can you imagine what your life would be like if you really embodied this view?

[Regina Terra]

It would be beyond description...

[Daemonin]

I'm not sure if this would be considered a lucid dream, but I really didn't want to make a new thread for this:

I had a dream a little while back where I was helping this girl with some things, I don't really remember what, but she needed help.  Halfway through, I'm not sure if it was praying or what, but I asked God or whatever deity there was, IF there was a deity, to find help the girl after I woke up. 

Is that weird or what?

Dreams ARE as real as what we see/feel/do in what most think of as reality.

I, myself while Dreaming, am not only am completely aware
(able to use all my collective senses)
but able to do basically what I desire ie... see what I want,
who I would like to, talk to friends....

(the trick to always have complete recall later is elusive at times for me )

I do look forward to to the day I can move on
to the point my Dream life will have more influence
on "daily" life,
than the usual memory/psychological processing from life
Effecting Dream...

and then  merge.

Bridigid

Sounds like a wonderful goal that .

any hints or tricks to get there, ob1,
that you care to share with the class? 

Bridigid 

What if your dreaming only affects your perception, and not the perceptions of others? what then? when you can see things nobody else sees, and feel what no body else feels?

What if you were labled insane? (i'm already labled insane, by my peers..... just not enough to be admitted to a mental institution/ward thingy, just wondering what you would do)

I think what you are talking about here Raz is dreaming at a a level that is akin to imagination and memory.

If i remember some event who else can see it. Chances are no one.

Same with imagination. I can imagine some hot chick all i want but all you might see is a far away look and a smile.

Of course if you took these mental images and feelings as real events you would rightly be labelled nuts. That is classical delusional thinking thats all.

However if some hot chick decided to sit on my lap and start kissing my neck, thats different; Thats an actual event that is percievable by others.

Similarly if i have a dream and interactions with someone and they too have identical experiences then this is a mutually experiencable reality.