Was I lucid dreaming?

[Vividos]

Last night I felt when I started to rise from my body. Like some force was pulling me out. It has happened to me couple of times earlier but I was so scared about it that I ended up back in my body. This time I decided to go along and see where I end up and I saw beautiful lights while I was flying somewhere. I ended up exploring different places in my dream, fully aware that I'm dreaming. I could fly and change the place if I didn't want to be in it. But I didn't have any control over the place where I wanted to go. I just decided where I wanted to fly and when I arrived, the place seemed totally random to me. I also wanted to go see one person and all I could do is talk to couple of his friends.

So could anyone explain what I experienced? Do you always have full control in the lucid dream or is it something that increases when you get more experienced?

[wstein]

Originally Posted by Vividos

Last night I felt when I started to rise from my body. Like some force was pulling me out. It has happened to me couple of times earlier but I was so scared about it that I ended up back in my body. This time I decided to go along and see where I end up and I saw beautiful lights while I was flying somewhere. I ended up exploring different places in my dream, fully aware that I'm dreaming. I could fly and change the place if I didn't want to be in it. But I didn't have any control over the place where I wanted to go. I just decided where I wanted to fly and when I arrived, the place seemed totally random to me. I also wanted to go see one person and all I could do is talk to couple of his friends.
So could anyone explain what I experienced?

This IS lucid dreaming. All it takes is an awareness that you are dreaming while you are still dreaming. Its possible that the first part about rising out of the body was a failed OBE (astral travel) that you got scared of and decided to dream instead. IMO most likely all dreaming.

Originally Posted by Vividos

Do you always have full control in the lucid dream or is it something that increases when you get more experienced?

Full control is an advanced skill that does get better with practice. Only a minority of lucid dreamers have this extra skill. It has to be specifically consciously invoked during the dream episode otherwise the dream carries on according to its own flow (whether or not you are lucid).

FYI there are several other advanced skills that can be developed, look for them in other threads on the forums.

[Vividos]

Thanks wstein :) Somehow I thought that you can control your lucid dream right from the beginning but good to know that it's not that simple.