When I was a child, I was able have "lucid dreams" quite freely. Quite a few years ago, I had a dream where I was trapped within the jaws of an alligator. During this dream, I literally felt the pain as the alligator's jaws were crushing me. This theme of "feeling" physical pain during dreaming recurred throughout the years (though the alligator was more or less a one time occurrence). Whenever this occurs (quite frequently), I enter a state of sleep paralysis in which I am aware (lucid) to the fact that I am in a dream and I know that the only way to stop the "pain" is to wake up. The paralysis keeps me from being able to "jerk" my body out of sleep. Inevitably, I awaken a few times "within the dream" before I can truly wake myself up. After years of trying to cope and understand these recurring nightmares, I made a remarkable discovery. I realized that everytime this "phenomenon" occurs, it is preceded by the same event (in the dream) each time which seemingly triggers this state. The event is that I become fully aware that I am in a dream and have control (full lucidity) of my surroundings. However, this control ends abruptly as the pain and "paralysis" immediately kick in. I wish to regain the control that I once had in my wonderful "lucid dreams" but this block prevents me. Interestingly, one might think that having realized this cause for this state I could simply keep it from happening, but it has not helped me. I tell myself "this is a dream, the pain is not real, I have control" but it does not help. I cannot regain control and (as I have said) even awakening is even difficult. Please help! Thanx.
David
