Welcome to Gaia! ::

Final notes:

good dream recall is essential for lucid dreaming. seriously, what good is a lucid dream if you can't remember it?
the best way to increase your dream recall is by keeping a dream journal. it will tell your subconscious "hey, I want to remember my dreams!" also, when you wake up in the middle of the night from a dream, take the couple minutes to write it down. it's worth it.

if you have more questions, beneficial resources may include:
me! (you'll probably reach me faster through PM than this forum)
LD4all
DreamViews
The Lucid Dreaming Wikibook
The Lucidity Institute
Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBerge

I know a little about astral projection, but not much. I basically just know what happens, and in theory, how to achieve one. it's almost the same as the WILD method, except you focus on all your physical sensations until you get to Sleep Paralysis. once you do, you float/sink/roll out of your body, and ta-da.
what separates a lucid dream from an astral projection, I do not know. the community of astral projectors can hardly define what exactly it is. all I know that it's basically an out of body experience, and then you go and mess with the astral plane.
I'd rather just lucid dream. it's more definite.

Make sure you are very tired before going to sleep. This isn't a guarantee, but it should help.
Or you could just enjoy your bad dreams. Obviously they are not very pleasant while you are having them, but I always enjoy remembering them lol.

I have to ask... Who told you this? NOT a member of the church I assume. Because, 1. many dreams are JUST the work of your brain. Chemical impulses and the way the brain works. Not the devil... Heavenly Father engineered us VERY well, and even things that are just natural and scientific may not mean anything DIVINE... but they sure aren't from the DEVIL. God made us.

AND some dreams ARE from God, obviously. Like Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life. And Pharaoh's dream that Joseph interpreted for him so they could prepare for famine. And many many dreams of pioneers.

And don't forget, Act 2:17
mrgreen

He's a baptist pastor so that is why anything he says may not always be true. I remember being told that dreams are just a way to view the past events of the day. Not really sure though, since my dreams cause me to go insane at night.

Well, in my slightly ignorant opinion (due to my lack of knowledge on the subject) I think dreams can be spiritual or random. Idk, I guess I'm rambling. Let me share with you one of my dreams that seems anything but random:

In my dream, I was walking down the stairs at school with my friend, Ashley. I was apologizing to her. Apperently, in my dream, I had started dating before I was 16 and she wasn't too happy about that. The dream ended. I woke up thinking "Like that's ever going to happen. I wont date until I'm sixteen."

The next day, in real life, one of my other friends, Adam, in his round-about sort of way asked me to go on a date with him. (I would type the whole conversation, but it would take far too long). Man did I want to say yes!! But I still had six months before I turned 16. Adam had forgot my birthday and thought I was already sixteen. "Okkkkkkkayyyy," I said real slow, wanting to convince myself to say yes. Then goodness won over. "But you'll have to wait six months until I turn sixteen."

It was only after this conversation ended did I remember the dream. Spiritual or random? In my opinion, I think spiritual. I don't know what might have happened if I hadn't made that consious decision to never date underage when I dreamt of a possible consequence. To any extent, I know it was a blessing and had a divine purpose.

Most of the dreams I have are either of running away/hiding from something, or of protecting someone else (usually a small child) from said reason to run or hide. I have had some wish fulfillment dreams as well, though, particularly of flying.

I think that people have pretty much summerized all the reasons for dreams already. Spiritual, random brain synapses, wishes/fears, display of personality, etc.

I have heard many different ways to translate dreams. One aspect is to note all the details (color, objects seen, events, etc) and look up a dream dictionary to see that a mountain means this, or a lake means that. Another way is through word association. You note the same objects, and write down a couple words down the line of what they make you think of. For example, Mountain...rock...firm...protection...etc.

What I find also interesting is all the myths about dreams. Some people claim that you can't feel when you dream, hense the pinching yourself to wake up. Or that you can't dream in color. I for one always dream in color, and I have had dreams where I definately felt pain, particularly in nightmares. One way that I have used to wake up that worked, though, was closing my eyes tight in my dream, and then trying to open them. I admit it sounds a bit weird, though.

In case you didn't notice, I love dreams. lol