Lately, I've gotten back in to journaling my dreams, but usually once a week, I will have a dream, know I'm dreaming and be unable to control it, and then repeat the same dream immediately and be able to control it with minor changes.

Has anyone had this happen?

Yes.

In fact, I've had dreams were I basically became aware that I'm in the dream at that very instant and began to influence them that way.

I don't try to "control" them too much. There's a fine line between trying to "control" them versus merely being consciously aware of how I react within them. My reactions do indeed have an influence on the dreams.

I've especially found that it's best not to try to control any other characters that might be in my dreams. The reason being that as soon I try to control their behavior they tend to become lifeless and mere puppets to my own imagination. Whereas if I allow them to do their own thing they seem to retain a life and character of their own.

I'm horrible about writing them down afterward though. I really should do that.

Dreams come and go. Or to be more precise, my ability to have vivid dreams fluctuates. And right now I have been having some truly vivid dreams so my dreaming is 'peaking out' here, but I'm not really active in the shamanic journey aspect of it. I kind of fell away from that because of a dry spell where I wasn't able to dream much. So now that you've reminded, I think this is a good time to become active again with my dream work as well as with shamanic journeying which is, of course, different from just dreaming.

Thanks for posting this thread, you've reminded me of something I needed to be reminded of.

Some dreams I can't control, some I can, some are more like taking a different path within the dream. I've found that if I REALLY need to know something important, then I'll get a sound, either a horse nickering, or a raven cawing, and I can't be active in the dream.

It's been about 2 years since I'd write my dreams down, and other then the sabbats/esbats, I didn't recall any dreams. Once I started writing everything down again, my recall has become much better. I'm amused at how bizarre some of my dreams are, but now I'm remembering them again. LOL! I'm seriously considering a little recorder, since my dreams are so detailed.

I've been far more active with shamanic dreaming as well. The Japanese earthquake triggered that again.

The recorder idea is good. I have a little hand-held pocket recorder too that would be perfect for this. I never really thought about that. I'll just stick that next to my bed.

Yeah, that's a really great idea.

Some of my dreams have been pretty bizarre too. In one dream I was driving this truck around and it was literally falling apart around me. And it just falling apart more and more. It was really crazy because this dream was so vivid it was like I was actually driving this truck down these roads. It actually fell apart so bad that half of the bed fell off including the tired and wheel on that side of the truck. Yet I was still able to drive this thing around like this. It was truly crazy.

I was also going around visiting old swimming pools that I used to go to when I was very young. These pools were all empty and cracked and weeds were growing up from the cracks in the concrete. The fences around them were broken down and rusty. I would actually get out of the truck and walk around these places and I could touch the various things like diving boards and the walk through the concession stands where they served food, and all the food making machines were still there etc.

In one place I finally found a pool of water. It was just a small pool next to the empty large one, and I immersed myself in the warm water. It felt really good.

Then I heard a cat screaming and I ran over to help it. This cat was wailing because another cat had died apparently run over by a car. And the wailing cat was actually clinging to the dead cat and hugging it and wailing because it's friend or mate had died. I wanted desperately to help it but there was nothing I could do. All I could do was stoop down and pet it and try to soothe it.

I remember that dream pretty well without having to record it because it was so vivid it stuck in my mind like as if I had actually lived through that experience in day-to-day life.

I still have no clue what any of that dream means, of even if it has any meaning at all.

Although having said that, I think the part about the empty broken down swimming pools is my subconscious mind trying to tell me that I can't go back to my childhood and re-live those days. Because that is something that I confess I would really like to do. This dream might have simply been trying to tell me that there's nothing to go back to.

But how those cats fit into the picture I have no clue.

i am of the opinion that lucid dreaming varies greatly, but it can be cultivated until one has complete control over almost every dream.