My name is Melanie Zarth and I am very excited to be a part of the growing lucid dreaming community, and especially this website! Lucidipedia is pretty much where it all started for me two years ago, where I found myself reading every post, every tutorial, and was so thankful to all of the experienced oneironauts who shared their advice with me and inspired me to be the successful lucid dreamer I am today. That is why when I was recently asked if I wanted to share my progress, setbacks, and training tips with all of you, I didn’t hesitate.

I don’t consider myself a “natural” lucid dreamer by any means, but I am living proof that by using the techniques outlined at this site, reading subject standards like LaBerge’s “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming”, and above all, having some strong motivation will get you very far!

I picked up a book on lucid dreaming somewhere around ten years ago. To this day I don’t even remember how that came about, but I believe I was simply killing some time in a bookstore. When I read the phrase, “Learn to control your dreams” on the book’s binder, I was intrigued. Being an artist by trade, stimulating creativity is one of my life’s driving forces. Couple that with an active daydreaming mind, with wishes that yearn to be fulfilled that you’d swear came out of the mind of an adolescent…I thought that I’d found the perfect hobby! Unfortunately, I felt it wasn’t the right time in my life to integrate the learning curve for a new skill.

Fast forward to 2010…At the age of 40, I had a little more maturity in the “reading and learning department”, but still thankfully possessed the part of my psyche that begs to explore impossible fantasies as if the child and/or teenager that lives in there wants to take over.

I have now had over 180 lucid dreaming experiences, and each one is something special to me as if they are part of a cherished collection. If I had to say one thing in my first post about how I feel about lucid dreaming, is that I feel an urge to pinch myself (lol, not the most reliable reality check and yes, pun intended) that a phenomenon such as this even exists. Knowing that we have the power and complete freedom within us to experience ANYTHING is an indescribable feeling. No matter what boundaries the physical world or other people may put on us in our waking reality, it is not up to those entities as to how much fun we are going to have when the sleep comes. For those of you who have already had LDs, that is not news…but do you ever just sit and contemplate your skill with sincere appreciation? I am as excited today about this skill as I was the day of my first lucid dream. Sometimes it is the excitement of reliving my finer LDs, but more often it is the optimist in me that looks forward to the ones I have yet to experience. Occasionally when I am at the local gym, I look around at the people, assuming they have never even heard of the concept of dream control or even being conscious while asleep. I then almost giggle as I say to myself, “I know how to experience magic…and you probably just sleep.” Merely sleeping is no good for me anymore because the magic is just far superior, and worth every bit of training. My empathy for those who don’t even know what they’re missing (and even worse that the power lies useless in their brains) is what drives me to at the very least, introduce lucid dreaming to anyone I possibly can. I hope my blogs will be a source of inspiration, and to keep you motivated to keep training so you really get everything you want out of your lucid dreams.