I’m curious.
Has anyone here ever experienced lucid dreaming?
What’s it like?
Do you know that you are dreaming, when it happens?
Can you choose anything you want to happen in the dream?
Does what you experience in the dream seem as clear as if you were perceiving something similar while awake?
The Dreamer and the Dreamed.
Trippy.
Between alcohol, drugs, sleep deprivation, the lines between reality and dreaming can get hard to differentiate…
Then again don’t need chemicals either. In my full-time carpentering days, we’d get a half hour lunch, eat it in 10, 15 minutes,
then I myself (into 50s then) would lay down on a plank or sheet of ply for a power nap, while others were spending the rest of shooting the breeze.
The not s0 proverbial Power Nap.
Your brain really can cycle through a couple layers sleep in a hurry, specially if the short nap is a regular habit - add to that the chatter happening around you, and it makes for some crazy dreaming occasionally, but not exactly dreaming because parts of me was aware of being there and then. Very odd perspectives sometimes. But over all definitely refreshing. Not exactly what your talking about, but not unrelated.
Does what you experience in the dream seem as clear as if you were perceiving something similar while awake?In my early twenties I was impressed with Carlos Castaneda and what he wrote about the dreamer and the dreamed - Tales of Power (the fourth book and the finale to his story about Don Juan's teaching, though he kept writing more books, guess it made good business sense).
I mention that because I did take it sort of seriously, at least it fun to thinking about. I mean how cool would something like that be, so have paid attention to my dreaming. And as sweet as it sounds, I never experienced anything that couldn’t be put down to transient distortions in perception, sleep-deprivation being easily as powerful as drug induced distortions.
I rarely remember anything from dreams, except very fleetingly. I recall once as a young man, however, of being aware dreaming and (as I had heard of lucid dreaming) I tried to control something in the dream and it worked. It was also very fleeting. I never got into rigorously trying to do lucid dreaming. But I remain curious about it, especially now when I often wonder about the “behavior” of dreaming.
Sounds like we’ve had about the same experiences - although those short naps while people were having conversation that made for the weirdest semi-conscious dream stuff. Fleeting is right. I don’t worry about it much, though one interesting thing - I think it’s a good sign that I don’t have nightmares.
I am not worried about it. I don’t even worry about nightmares. (By nightmares, I mean dreams with somewhat disturbing content. They are not really scary to me.)
Tho I did have an episode many years ago, when I came awake, but seemed paralyzed while having the sensation that there was an evil presence that I did not dare to try to look at. (I hear that happens sometimes with some folks.) That was terrifying. (A true but gratuitous Halloween anecdote.)
But no, my interest in lucid dreaming, is that I would like to know how true it may be that some people can do it successfully. And I would like to know to what extent they have a sense of control in what happens. For one thing, I view it (if it is a real phenomenon) as a behavior, and I am always interested in trying to do an analysis of unusual; behaviors. And for another thing, it strikes me that if one can do lucid dreaming as it is described, it has occurred to me that this might be an avenue for a kind of virtual libertarian free will.
Only one time, maybe 8 years ago. I was still married. I was at some kind of fancy party, and there was a water fountain there (this kind).
Somehow I came to two realizations: the “water” flowing was actually champagne, and I was dreaming – which meant that I could drink all I wanted without worries of any consequences, like a DUI or a hangover.
I held a glass in and drank some. Sure enough, I got buzzed. I drank and drank and got roaring drunk – to a point where, in real life, I would have puked.
My ex didn’t actually “prohibit” me from drinking, but he really, really disliked it (because he was a recovering addict). So there was also this feeling that I could do what I wanted.
My housemate says she has a lot of lucid dreams, and didn’t find out until she was an adult that this is unusual.
People are learning how to lucid dream on purpose. There are thoughts that it can help process trauma.
Tee, thanks. That article starts out with “reality testing”. I assumed that I would know that I was dreaming, as the one time I think that I experienced lucid dreaming, I knew that I was dreaming. Perhaps people who are really good at it, would not automatically know, (like you did not know at 1st). It is, to use CC’s word “trippy”, that you were able to get drunk. Did you want to get rip-roaring drunk? Apparently you didn’t want to puke, cause you didn’t. You said you sensed you could do what you wanted. Did it occur to you to do anything else? (Though please don’t divulge anything you may have done, that you would rather keep private. I mean, people should have the privacy they want in their dreams, if anywhere.)
On a similar note, a few years ago, it occurred to me to ask if people could read in their dreams. At the time, I had no memory of ever having read in my dreams. But for awhile, I tried to pay attention and remember my dreams and particularly in regards to reading anything. I think it was within a couple of months that I had a couple of times that I recognized I could read while dreaming. Tho I eventually lost any memory of what it was that I read.
But back to lucid dreaming, I would love to ask questions of anyone else who thinks they have done it.
1/2
Timb
Did you want to get rip-roaring drunk? Apparently you didn’t want to puke, cause you didn’t. You said you sensed you could do what you wanted. Did it occur to you to do anything else?LOL -- Yes, I wanted to get plowed out of my mind! At the time, I just thought it was a hoot. However, looking back, the issue was much more complex. My ex was controlling at a level I can't explain here, and my denial was pretty extreme. But in the dream, I was aware he was asleep right next to me, and I could get outrageously blasted -- without provoking his anger.
That part was a split-second emotion, but I remember it well. I got just drunk enough to be really euphoric, and in the dream it was a legit feeling of a fantastic booze buzz.
It was also realistic – in that it was a realistic type of party, and nothing else “dreamlike” or “weird” happened. I didn’t fly, and nothing futuristic, mythical or sexual was in it. I didn’t recognize the people, but they seemed like regular people. It was more like “real life” than any other dream I’ve ever had. (I don’t know if that is a feature of lucid dreams or not.)
I have wished I could lucid dream again, since I’ve heard people with PTSD have done it for therapy, but I never have.
All this is reminding me of this. Do you know the reference?
2/2
Great question, about reading in dreams – no, I can’t recall that I have.
That reminds me that I’ve had a question, too, and never found an answer: Can you remember a real dream from inside a dream?
Occasionally, in a dream, something makes me think, “Oh, yeah, that reminds me of a dream I had recently,” and I recall a snippet of another dream. But I can’t tell if the dream was an actual dream I’d had on another night, or just part of this night’s dream. (Make sense?)
The top is from a movie about occupying dream space in other ppl’s dreams, I think, “Inception” or something like that. Thanks for answering my questions. I think lucid dreaming is supposed to seem very real. As far as remembering part of another dream while dreaming, I can’t remember.
I bet if you keep a lookout for it, you will find yourself reading part of something.
Of interest. I had wondered about this
A previous study also showed that "those who tried to initiate a lucid dream reported more sleep and stress problems, as well as feelings that they experienced themselves or the world in a detached or “dreamlike” way (dissociative experiences)."
Good input. I am not asking anyone to try to do lucid dreaming, just asking about the experiences of those who have.
Oh, I know. I just thought it was interesting
Re the top
You’re right, it’s from “Inception” 2010, a science fiction thriller. That last closeup of the spinning top is a mindfuck.
DiCaprio is Cobb, a thief who ‘hacks’ other people’s dreams to access valuable info. But he is also the hero. He carries the “token,” the top, to verify when he is in a dream vs reality. (In the real world, the top tips over. In dreams it keeps spinning.)
The story is told at 3 different levels – his real life, a dream and a dream-within-a-dream. At the very end, when he has ostensibly returned to real life, and it looks like he’s finally safe … he notes an odd detail and spins the top. The camera zooms in – and the screen goes blank before it falls (or not.) The credits come on. The audience has to decide if his reality was the dream the whole time.
First time I saw it was in the theater and the audience went “Nooooo!”
I love that kind of stuff.
Has anyone else found that sometimes it’s easy to walk through walls and doors in a lucid dream, and other times it’s impossible? You know you’re dreaming, but a part of you is refusing to play ball…
