Thread: Is it always just a dream?

Many of the occurrences that we happen to find ourselves in every time we dream, whether lucid or not, are often quickly dismissed every morning when we wake up. No matter how fearful or odd the situation may get we classify the experience the moment it all ends as being "just a dream." It's true that the dream is being generated continuously by the brain; it's our minds that receive a vast a amount of random signals as we sleep, signals which our brain interprets and connects the dots by creating a story out of which the dream arises. So, whether a dream character might act suspiciously intelligent while in a dream, or we find ourselves in front of a somewhat unexplained situation that many times leaves us nervous about it, we quickly assume it's not actually real and only a projection or a product of our own mind, which is true. Still, that can't be only it, isn't it?

I remember the first time I got lucid, I was just outside a big old Victorian-type house with some friends. We were sitting on some benches, and I could see two guys just in front of me in a nearby bench just seated there and staring at me with a calm and serious expression. Not only that, but I could see some type of black purple smoke emanating from one of them and circling around him, as if wrapped around his body. I don't know why, but this particular guy caught my attention for the rest of the dream, and even after it. Just the sole presence of this mysterious, almost dangerous individual in my dream made me uneasy and a little cautious of the whole situation. I remember then, once lucid, asking this man two questions, the first of which being who was he? Upon checking my dream log for that day I noted that he had said something but I could not remember what it was. The second question I asked regarded whether he was conscious about the situation we were in, or was he aware that this was a dream? I remember clearly he was about to mention something, but, as if not wanting to give out more information, just looked at me and answered with a resounding yes. Moments later both men disappeared and I haven't since that night ever seen them again in my dreams.

It's usually experiences like this that are commonly relegated to a matter not worthy of attention. Now, I don't know about you dreamers but, it's these type of dreams that further raises my curiosity and interest of the dream world and what happens in it. We are just starting to take our first steps inside a vast and uncharted land, much of which we are just beginning to understand. Usually I would've ignored the incident and dispose of it as being "just a dream." However, as to this day such experience still bugs me and makes me wonder whether such an event withhold some type of veracity to it, instead of rationalizing it as being just a product of my own imagination. I'm sure many of you have met these type of suspicious, very intelligent characters who appear to have some mind of their own and holding even more knowledge than one could possibly have.

Situations like these intrigue me, and have always been one of the reasons I became interested in the art of lucid dreaming. Also, we have to include other unique aspects of the dreaming world, like precognitive dreams, shared dreaming, and many other "out of the ordinary" experiences we might rarely encounter in a dream if we're not initially looking for them. Such instances makes one ultimately wonder, is it always just a dream, or is there something really going on in there, something we're not aware of?

Have any of you (I'm sure you have) encountered similar experiences like this that you would like to share about? Like always, I'm eager to find out what you dreamers think about this.