Philosophical zombie dreamer

**SilverLockpick** · 12-31-2015 11:37 PM

Between Feynman, MSPAdventures, and Lovecraft, I've been interested in lucid dreaming for a while now, and thought it'd make a more interesting use of my sleeping hours. My main difficulty, though, is that my dreams aren't very vivid, and seem to lack qualia. While I'm aware of the events that take place, I tend to only get a vague image of the proceedings, without the feelings of experiencing it such as pain or warmth. A dream car might be red, but I wouldn't experience any "redness" while looking at it in the dream. Has anyone had similar issues? It may be I simply need more practice - I'm planning on starting a journal for the purpose of improving both this and my lucidity. Once I've overcome these issues, I'm hoping to explore the possibilities of lucid dreaming in a rational, skeptical manner.

**spellbee2** · 01-01-2016 12:42 AM

Welcome to DreamViews!

A dream journal is definitely the best way to improve the quality and vividness of your dreams. It may be hard to put a ton of detail down at first, but as you continue to track your dreams, you'll notice that you start remembering more dreams and in more detail.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and come check us out in the chat!

**sparkley** · 01-01-2016 02:41 AM

Yes make sure to always keep dream journals by your side

You can also try stabilizing your dreams and there are many ways of doing so, it makes the dreams much more vivid and you more aware and welcome to DV!

**ParanoidLlama** · 01-01-2016 05:28 AM

Welcome, rookie dreamer.

Listen, this forum is a jungle I tell you, and to survive, here are some pretty basic tips.

Make sure you always have a dream journal. Don't be posting shit in the forums.
Don't friend anyone, because they're all psychos who are out for your personal information.
Stay away from the shady corners of the forums. Don't piss off or insult the Llama.
The Llama is everything in these forums. Worship Llama.

(Pretty much, in other words, have fun here!)

**Linkzelda** · 01-01-2016 10:16 AM

Not sure if this would help, but:

- If a philosophical zombie can be generalized as a hypothetical being that is able to exhibit certain mannerisms and behaviors as sentient beings such as us, albeit without consciously experiencing things…

- In context of the presumed p-zombie dreamer, there is no hope for them to have any reconciliation with being lucid in a dream, i.e., aware of the events going on (a conscious accompaniment). Now, one could presume that they could act as if they’re lucid while not being entirely lucid of living in false pretenses, but that would imply there’s just some kind of cognitive difficulty going on there.

- And if you feel you can’t experience the “redness” of a dream car, or whatever is the case, this means you acknowledge the probability that you are not a conscious accompaniment in the dream, and thus, you cannot infer that you’re aware of the events going on. Best case scenario, a false awakening may make you feel at ease, but this seems non-sequential to the dread you’re going through.

- Just because the “redness” or whatever “what-is-it-like”-ness seems infantile, vague, and blurry doesn’t mean there’s no hope for you. It’s just a matter of augmenting how much you put into context of those experiences in your dreams, i.e., dream journal, and how much you want to tap into predispositions for emotive reactions (and much more than I could bother theorizing), which could create a schemata of what it is like to dream. It may not be akin to this spatio-temporal reality, but the predispositions would be applied into a different context.

- Of course, one could say it’s merely psychosomatic, and bring up the p-zombie argument once again, but if this is the case that you’re still willing to linger on, and let your experience be hinged upon—then you are ultimately reacting in a way to where you could never develop rapport with the inner turmoil you could experience on a nightly basis. It’s an existential dread that may change you for better, or for worse.

So, maybe the p-zombie concept is non-sequential, and not as flourishing towards your yearning to explore the inner depths of your everyday cognition; the concept is just a thought experiment that exercises our minds, but it’s not something that should limit us, and be this end-all be-all source to refer to, I think. As for non-lucid dreams...oh boy.

Also, welcome!