So now you know, or have at least been told, about the vast array of possibilities available the lucid dreamer. I must now warn of the potential danger associated with lucid dreaming. I have found no proof of physical medical problems derived from lucid dreaming. I do know from personal experience that lucid dreaming can cause some mental stress to say the least.

Nightmare. Most people have had one of these jewels to grace their crown of slumber. Webster defines a nightmare as a frightening dream that usually awakens the sleeper, but that is the second definition for the word, the first is slightly more relevant to my case - an evil spirit formerly thought to oppress people during sleep. Both do not correctly define the experiences I have gone through in my quest for lucid dreams.

My first bad experience happened when I was 14-years-old and I remember it like a movie in my mind. It was night outside the windows of a well-lit log cabin and I could hear the boards' creeking as I walked around the second level of the structure that over looked the living room area. The cabin was completely without furniture and no visible source for the light, but bright it was. I knew I was dreaming and only had enough time to gather where I was at before my spider senses began to tingle. I had a very uneasy feeling that something was coming and the biggest feeling I had was that I didn't want to be there when it arrived. So, not initially scared, I decided I would let this opportunity for some dream-fun to pass me by, to forgo any stress I might encounter.

Wake up, I told my self, wake up! WAKE UP! Still standing there I felt the sting of panic as I tried to think quickly. Once, twice, three times I slapped my self as hard as I could. Nothing. Now really getting worried I ran my head into the wall as hard as I could. I bounced off with no result; no pain and still I could feel something coming.

The only thing in the cabin other then open space was a staircase that led from the loft I was standing in to the open area making up the first floor. I immediately threw myself down the stairs in a last minute effort to snap back to reality.

I got up and noticed a window looking out into the darkness, and something moved past it. I could hear something making its way around the paremiter of the cabin, loud heavy footsteps but close to the ground at times with muffled snarling and intermittent scratching on the wood. I knew what it was, or did I manifest what I didn't want it to be the most? It didn't matter. It didn't matter who, how, when, why but only what and where. Werewolf. Outside the cabin.

I knew it was a dream. I knew nothing could really hurt me. Then it occurred to me, as unreal as knew the cabin was, as unreal as I knew my body was and as unreal as I knew the werewolf was, it still seemed just as tangible, real and vivid as if it were my actual reality.

With that realization it was at the window, looking me right in the eyes. At this point I am officially terrified. Whatever was fixing to happen, the results may not be real but the experience would be. I was helpless.

It busted through the window and stood over me, towering at least eight foot tall. It looked exactly like William from the movie "Underworld 2", I am talking identical and this was years before the movie was made. The absolute most frightening figure I had ever seen. There was nowhere to run. It rushed me, slicing my side open immediately with its claws as I tried to keep its huge teeth off of my face. I bled as its jaws made shreds of my hands and arms while I tried to block my face. It hurt, nothing ever hurts in my lucid dreams but this hurt. It tore me, limb from limb, and I was not waking up. I experienced this as real as my all to wild imagination could render, just like it had happened.

I now had a nemesis, the big bad wolf that waited for me in my dreams. After that I was scared to realize I was dreaming. The nightmares were easier when I thought they were real and I would wake up just before something would get me. Just like people normally do. The wolf found me several more times, each just like the first until finally I forced my self to stop lucid dreaming.

My mind would often play tricks on me while lucid dreaming, for instance I would want a gun to shoot something and I would get a bubble gun or something absurd, but becoming trapped in a dream was all I could handle.

I was able to combat the wolf in later years. When I was about 19 I once again found my self in the midst of the wolf and I decided I had had enough. If I couldn't get a gun I wanted or just wake up, maybe I could become a werewolf myself and fight. Have you ever seen Michael J. Fox in the movie Teen Wolf? Yeah... it was not good. I did though find the idea to be interesting and I began to experiment with it until finally I was able to defeat the werewolf.

The final battle was in the bottom half of a sheet metal sphere covered in wooden crates as chains hung every few feet from the darkness that was a ceiling. It was pretty cool. I was a wolf, not at big or mean, but I used brain over brawn. I grabbed the chains and used them to swing around the arena and kick the wolf. After that I was always able to win or control the beast, if he was to arrive.

Although I was able to conquer the evil spirit that plagued my lucid dreams, I still had the experiences, sights, smells, feelings and memories of being eaten alive. So be aware of the amazing possibilities that await you in dreamland but also be careful. It isn't all lollipops and gum drops.