I've had experience of such "lucid dreaming", too.
I've only ever had two lucid dreams in my life. In all other cases my dreams fall into several categories.
- Strange - recurring, then a one off. I've only ever had one of these. A recurring dream that had been persisting for weeks when I was only four years old. One night, I woke up in fright and ran to my parents bedroom - only to continue seeing the dream floating above their bed. I remember looking at it, trying to figure out what it was. It slowly faded, and was never seen again. Part of me thinks, it was the last dying seconds of my former life being replayed somehow, although I am not 100% convinced. Now that I'm older, I've had a fascination with researching aircraft accidents... It only occurred to me recently, that this form of death may match what I saw and heard in that dream as a child. The scream in my dream was terrifying! Since I never had time to research why I was dying or what was going wrong at the time of my previous death, I now feel that my soul needs questions answered.. and thus I feel the need to research aircraft accidents. I still have an open mind about this dream... I could be wrong.
- Lucid - only twice. Extremely rare for me (only had two in my life). This is when I am aware of myself, within the dream. Wish I could do this all the time.
- Flying Dream - a dozen times maybe more. A very rare dream, in which I stretch out my arms, and start flying with a totally excellent floating sensation. Wish I could have these every night!
- Real to ultra-real - very often. Usually a conversation with a person with action which includes a complete theme, and specific message. These dreams often wake me up with a fright, or with very strong emotions remembered long after. This is where communication with others living or dead takes place. It is not unusual for me to have the identical dream as another person within this kind. Sometimes I can also exchange bodies with other animals and see and hear things from their perspective. I once heard what a whale hears, when an aeroplane flies far overhead, but the whale is in deep water. Sometimes I attend musical recitals and listen to the most wonderfully composed music that has never been heard before. I have even seen and listened to music instruments that don't exists, play the most wonderful music I wish dearly I could purchase in real life. I can "almost" read newspapers in this kind of dream. These dreams usually awesome in some way.
- Dream within a Dream - often. These are strange to say the least. Often I have nested dreams. In which I wake up and tell my partner about the dream I just had... and then I wake up for real and tell her for real... again!! Sometimes these dreams are nested two levels deep. The nested dreams are usually daily rubbish. I think these dreams are part-way to lucid, but don't quite make it to a full lucid dream. They just confuse me.
- Recurring / Theme / Message Driven - very often. This is usually a group or series of dreams back to back, all in the one night. Often the people and action varies considerably, however this is always a common theme running through all of them. These dreams usually repeat themselves over successive nights or weeks until I understand the message contained. Sometimes the same dream will recurring over several years. It drives me nuts.
- Daily Rubbish - all the time. Quite often I simply dream of events that took place in the day or week.. or events or scenarios I would day dream about in waking state. Usually rubbish, usually there is no message, theme or pattern amongst them.
- Sexual - occasionally. Dreams in which I am intimate with others. I usually fulfil a sexual desire and feel it's full effects. I consider these dreams the selfish side of my personality... the dark under-current that is never shown to the outside world. As a side-note, the remarkable Edgar Cayce (the sleeping prophet) said whilst under a deep trance on his way to the "hall-of-records"; that he passed by a sexual-zone in which people of all grotesque body shapes and proportions were lustfully fulfilling ever type of sexual deviate behaviour. He noted that the pull into this "dark zone" was powerful and felt that he needed to stay clear of it, lest he get trapped (essentially dying whilst in trance... or at least that's how I read it). He had to stay on the steady narrow path to the hall of records.
Sorry for hi-jacking this thread about Dreams... I just like talking about them since I have so many of them. Cheers.