My first experience with lucid dreaming (although at the time I had no idea that this is what it is called) occurred when I was about 19 years old. I vividly recall closing my eyes and seeing a marble head on a roman pedestal. It was rotating and sunlight was shining on it although all the area around it was completely dark. It positively was in color. It was then, for the first time, that I realized that I was in a semi sleep/awake state. As time went on I "practiced" obtaining this state by relaxing and rolling my eyes back and up (with eyelids shut) and trying to blank my mind. Using a mental picture of a blackboard with writing on it and then mentally erasing the board until all was black while forcing no other images I found that I could slip into a dream/awake state. At this point, at first I would fall asleep every time. Later, I could tell myself "OK go to sleep!" or "OK, stay right where you are and imagine something. On occasions I often imagined flying, running at terrific speed, swimming underwater without having to consume oxygen, etc. Also, if while having a dream, something occurred that I did not like I could wake myself up. Most often simply by stating to myself, in my dreams "head" to wake up. This was a big step for me --- especially when the occasional nightmare took place. Dreaming like this has been a lot of fun over the years (I've been doing this for almost 30 years now) and I've always referred to it as "trancing". Although I really can't say why. Still, it's always interesting.
