From: siguy2@hotmail.com   
      
   On 16 Jan 2006 11:15:40 -0800, "Anima Rising"    
   wrote:   
      
   >I do remember clearly a dream I had when I was a preschooler.  We had a   
   >magnificent parade going on.  At the lead was my cousin "Big Cathy" on   
   >a pony followed by yours truly "Little Kathy" on a slightly smaller   
   >pony.  Then came cousin Ricky in a red wagon.  And then lots of other   
   >little children all in a line.  I really liked that dream and I've been   
   >blessed with the memory of having had it all these years later.   
   >   
   >I'm not sure I ever stopped lucid dreaming.  I remember dreaming   
   >"stories" I read that sounded interesting.  I remember a Reader's   
   >Digest story about a woman who was carried out in a rip tide and almost   
   >drowned.  I then experienced her story in my dream, and knew that's   
   >what I was doing.   
   >   
   >I think that's why I've been blessed with never having had a nightmare.   
   > If I don't like the way a dream is going, I either stop it and wake up   
   >or just "rewind" it and get it going a different way.   
   >   
   >When I was 17, I got seriously clinically depressed and stopped   
   >dreaming altogether and it was horrible.  It was as if there was   
   >nothing in my life - not even in the dream state.  For me, great   
   >dreaming is great fun.   
      
   Good answer, anima; and my experience very closely mirrors your own on   
   all points.   
   Children have a greater percentage of REM to begin with (starts at   
   about 80percent of sleep after birth and then slowly continues to fall   
   in direct relationship to age). So it's no surprise that research on   
   children and lucid dreams indicates that their dreams are nearly as   
   significant to them as "waking reality"..and until somebody says   
   sometime along the way that they "can't" dream lucidly or that   
   dreaming lucidly is evil or bad or weird or whatever (hey, there's   
   lots of negative, jealous, "normals" out there!) they don't realize   
   that maybe not -everyone- can do it as easily as they can, and so we   
   see a dropping off of number of reported lucid dreamers around   
   puberty....and yes, it might very well have something to do with the   
   chemical changes of same.   
   I don't know about you, anima, but i find that dreaming lucidly is NOT   
   like riding a bicycle....it's damned hard to regain that which is lost   
   from early success, and takes much energy and discipline to keep up   
   the practice and results we'd all like to achieve, eh? :)   
   happy dreams!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)