Killing yourself

[TheBlueWhale]

I have a friend who is relatively new to lucid dreaming and he has made a goal to gain lucidity and to kill himself in a dream to see what happens. I told him I'd do some research on different results people have had. I was wondering if anyone here has ever killed themselves in a dream and what happened when you did?

[pj]

Never deliberately killed myself, but have died many times in dreams.

No ill effects I am aware of.  Interesting experiences though.

[arliatis]

I've killed myself quite a few times, but have made it taboo now, because it has the potential to end horribly.
Forget exactly what happened, but usually it goes black (wake up, transported somewhere else in the dream, have FA).
Often when i do things that would kill me in RL it just feels really painful/uncomfortable (like falling several hundred meters just really hurts when you hit the ground!)

[Kar]

I've sacrificed my dream self to protect DCs before, yeah. I don't do it much, but I can't remember any ill effects the times I have done it. The reason for that is probably because, when I'm lucid, I'm usually not very attached to any dream body of my own. The last time I did it, I just got the feeling that the DC would be alright and moved on to the next dream.

[DC]

I've cut off my own head, stabbed myself in the neck, and shot myself in the face with a shotgun in dreams. I didn't feel anything.

[mediabat]

I was a little worried for a second when I saw the name of this post.

[Emerald Wolf]

Once I died in an airplane crash (not lucid but there was a decent amount of clarity in the dream). I have a bit of a fear of dying this way so it had a fairly strong effect on me emotionally when it became clear what was going to happen. On impact everything went black and I was filled with a strange sensation of release so for a few seconds I was ready to believe that I was dead, until I came to the realization that I was in bed with my eyes closed.

Otherwise the idea of becoming lucid to commit seppuku has occured to me as something I'd like to try. I figure that it might be spiritualy cleansing as a way of addmiting everything you feel guilty of being / having done and then symbolicaly atoning for.

[wild_dedication]

I've never tried it (I would have to have about 100 LD under my belt before ending one on purpose.. if it would actually end one... but I wouldn't want to risk it)... But I used to watch the Steven Berlin videos (which I love BTW) and he said he had a LD where he was skydiving and decided not to pull his shoot. He hit the ground and was propeled further into the ground to (basically) hell/the devil. He advocates taking risks like that.

[iadr]

Iadr's done many things in lucids that IRL would have killed him, but in lucids have caused him no harm whatsoever.

Some of the things he's done is dive into a pool of boiling hot water, dive off of very high cliffs and free fall backwards to the ground, in which times he always stopped about 2 feet above the ground and was then propelled right back up to the top of the cliff to freefall again, stood out in the middle of a street and let a semi run through him, and grab onto a bare power line, which shocked the crap out of him in the lucid.

Although the last two events of letting a semi run though him and grabbing onto a bare power line caused him to be still shaking when he woke up, lol, he suffered no harm whatsoever from any of these experiences. Instead he felt really pumped up knowing that nothing will ever be able to hurt him in his dreams.

[Sunshine]

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[DrTechnical]

I've cut off my own head, stabbed myself in the neck, and shot myself in the face with a shotgun in dreams. I didn't feel anything.

OK, that is the single funniest thing I have ever read on any forum.

But to the serious question. It would seem disrespectful to ones self to do this. It is likely have negative consequences. For example, if you were to kill yourself and it was a frightening experience, you would produce a karmic thread that could be reactivated in a non-lucid. You would potentially create the seeds for a recuring nightmare. That is a big price to pay for such an experiment.

This scenario is very different than dying in a lucid in a manner outside your control, for several reasons.

[Rebel Seven]

I had a terrifying nightmare where I fell into blackness and became lucid and my very soul was attacked by a white phantom.

I would not suggest killing oneself as an activity for the faint of heart... but I do advocate adventure for the sake of the experience. Dr. T was right, your setting yourself up for psychological damage because you never know how your individual mind will react, I still would do it though, because I understand that risk and still would want to know how my mind would react.

[Sunshine]

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[iadr]

I've cut off my own head, stabbed myself in the neck, and shot myself in the face with a shotgun in dreams. I didn't feel anything.

OK, that is the single funniest thing I have ever read on any forum.

Have to admit. That is pretty funny. Never thought of trying anything like that, but really see no harm in those things if a person is doing them for the right reason, to prove to them self that they are indestructible in their dreams, which they are. Couldn't be much worst than the grabbing a bare power line...we hope. Stay tuned while iadr tries cutting off his head in his next lucid.

[Polar Wolf]

i killed myself many times in my dreams with many weird effects... it really depends if you are scared of death or not... or if you actually want to end your life even if it's in real life...
traditional ways, self torture, getting myself killed by another copy of myself, growing wings and ripping them out to fall in lava (i woke up with a back pain)...i tested most of these things in a city i had made (i should post my journal eventually)...
effects:
nothing
pain
SP
a weird effect where i just saw black?
paralysis in a limb
hmm i can't think of much more at the moment...I'll comment back if i remember some more.