From: laura@nospam.me   
      
   "Ulrich"  wrote in message   
   news:8049e79f.0409282356.120eba5d@posting.google.com...   
   > Hello everybody!   
   > I am a sort of beginner and until now had just a few pre-lucid dreams.   
   > Yesterday, while I was in bed during getting into sleep, I had a   
   > strange sensation. The sensation was, that somebody else would be in   
   > my beedroom and creeping towards me and then conducting some pressure   
   > at my back. I know that those kind of sensations happen, when one is   
   > let's say in a state somewhere between wakening and sleep. And I also   
   > heard, that from such an intermediate state it would be possible to   
   > pass directly into a lucid dream. But unfortunately I don't now how.   
   > So my question is, when I find myself in such a  intermediate state,   
   > how should I proceed in order to get forward to a lucid dream instead   
   > of awakening?   
      
   The state you are describing is probably what's known as sleep paralysis. To   
   call it an intermediate state isn't really accurate, as you are in fact   
   asleep. The notable difference from normal sleep is that your waking   
   consciousness hasn't shut down to the degree it normally should and usually   
   does. I suppose you could argue that it's not sleep, but apart from the   
   consciousness bit, it is REM sleep.   
   I know well the feeling of a malevolent presence nearby, and how terrifying   
   it can be. No matter what your intentions may originally be, you are   
   probably panicking and disregarding any plans you may have had to explore   
   the state in a frenzied effort to "snap out of it".   
   How should you proceed....   
   Well, it is very counter-intuitive. As you feel the threatening presence,   
   and any uncomfortable physical sensations that come along with it, you need   
   to realize that you have nothing to fear, and relax. Try shrugging it off as   
   unimportant, perhaps. Your mind can be tremendously persuasive in telling   
   you that you are in mortal danger, but it just is not true. That is what you   
   must realize. Once you stop fearing it, it will subside. You may still have   
   peculiar physical sensations, but they aren't really as uncomfortable as you   
   percieve them now.   
   Once you are able to be free of the fear/worry, you are very close to your   
   goal. The next hurdle is when you get excited about your success. Try not to   
   do that, as that will also tend to end the experience. Be detached from it,   
   as if you were observing someone else, not yourself.   
   The next obstacle is that you might not recognize that you are in fact   
   already within a lucid dream, as dreams that start in this way are extremely   
   vivid and realistic, as long as you believe yourself to not be dreaming. You   
   might just think that you simply woke up undramatically after having   
   conquered your fears.   
   At this point, try lifting a leg up off the bed slightly and keep it there a   
   bit. Do you feel any strain? If not, try lifting the other leg as well. If   
   you are not dreaming, this is pretty much impossible to do, but it is quite   
   possible in a dream. You can even lift both legs even higher, until the only   
   point of contact with the bed is your head.   
   Once you have established that you aren't awake - at least in the usual   
   sense of the word - try rolling over in bed, away from where you were. Then   
   try looking around and getting up.   
   Of course, these things are pretty much individual, so theres no guarantee   
   that the steps I described are the best ones for you, but it couldn't hurt   
   to try :-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)