lucid dreaming

This is a major interest for me. It's when you become aware that you are dreaming. I've had a few where I realize it's a dream (because of something very unusual or not of normal reality experience. These are called dream signs and they alert you that you're dreaming. When the degree of lucidity is high enough you are absolutely sure you are dreaming but you look around and everything is just as real and solid as normal life. You say holy cow it's a whole other reality. If that don't freak you out! Has anyone else experienced this? You can attain the ability to get lucid in your dreams with practice. When in this state you are able to pose any question and get answers from your subconscious. In the lucid state your subconscious gives you perfect knowledge and skills. Say you wanted to improve your golf swing. In the lucid dream you'd say 'show me how to hit the ball'. You'd then experience the perfect golf swing and then in the waking state this would stay with you. And then out on the course you'd find your golf swing greatly improved. It's unlimited in what you can do. Learning stuff, painting, music skills, martial arts, whatever. Lucid dreaming is in some ways like astral travel or the out of body experience.

I first became aware of lucid dreaming, when I realized that I could wake myself from childhood nightmares. Since then, I've usually had some level of recognition of being in a dream state in the dreams that I can remember upon waking. Sometimes, I've been able to consciously interact with the dream & do stuff that I knew to be impossible in real life.

If I get freaked out now, it's those ultra-realistic dreams where I don't realize that I'm dreaming, or the rarer dream-within-a-dreams.

BTW, there's already evidence that non-lucid dreaming functions to help you develop skills. Nova did a broadcast a few years back, where they took a group of people who had never skied before, trained them on a video game simulator, measuring their abilities both after the simulations & after sleeping - they got measurable improvement in both situations.

Yes, I've had quite a few lucid dreams. You're right, it's an absolutely amazing experience. A whole other world, literally, another reality or dimension to reality. I was always amazed by the sheer detail of my surroundings and how my brain could possibly be responsible for the experience [because my brain sucks in waking life], but now I understand it to be more related to consciousness than the brain - two very separate things. But, yes, I must look into it deeper, thank you.