Thread: That "dream feeling"?

Good you have just realized that the only reality check you need is your own awareness

Some year ago when I noticed that most of my lucid dreams started out without me doing a reality check, I realized the same thing.
Since then, instead of trying to remember as many dreams as I can in order to increase awareness, I have instead tried to remember how it felt to be dreaming. The feeling you ask for now is feel-able and remember-able after waking up from a dream.

One thing you can try right now though, is to read some dreams from your dream journal and see if you remember how it felt

Good luck!

I was going to try this but, I wanted to know what to look out for, how does it feel?

For me the 'dream feeling' that tends to either wake me up or send me into a lucid dream is a feeling of not knowing where I am.

Hmm since dreams are in random places most of the time, it's like faceonmars said. You are not sure where you are and what you are doing and why.

Although what you are asking for is something that can't be explained only experienced, just like lucid dreams. - Matrix inspired answer.

But if you don't catch my drift:

"I can only show you the door, you're the one who has to walk through it." - Morpheus

The feeling of dreaming is very hard to explain. The dreaming consciousness just has a different texture to it.

I'm not condoning the use of it, but if you HAVE ever done acid, dreaming feels a little bit like being on a small dose of acid. There's sort of...pleasant feeling almost to the body. Things seem a bit more abstract. (But i guess i should be saying that acid feels like dreaming, not the other way around. )

I know I need to experience it myself, but can you give me any clues, or what I should be looking for?

I know its incredibly frustrating to hear it over and over again, but it is incredibly hard to describe. Its not like a physical sensation (Warm, hot, cold, etc) it is a mental one. But, again, not a usual sensation (frustrationg, calm, or anger). It is the mental sensation of your mind actually being in an altered state of consciousness.

It's like trying to explain with being drunk exactly feels like to someone who has never been. Or the feelings of smoking marijuana to someone who has never been high. And, again, its like trying to explain the feelings of psychedelic drugs to someone who has never experienced it.

It's something that is very subjective. Again, I can only describe it as a difference in textures of consciousness. Its like trying to explain the color red, or blue, etc.

it might be accompanied by a sort of tingling sensation (usually only once I've become lucid do I notice this feeling, though. I assume its just a dopamine/serotonin rush from the excitement of realizing I'm dreaming.) But other than that, things just seem different.

Just be aware all throughout the day of your state of consciousness. There are distinctly different states throughout the day. In the morning you are fresh and calm (or groggy for some people ). Throughout the day you will get excited, thoughts will race, expectations arise, etc. That, too is a slightly different state of consciousness.

I think, in theory, simply being aware of your state of consciousness during the day will train you to be aware even in your dream-state. And eventually, you will be dreaming, and then out of habit you will begin to observe what state of consciousness you are in...and BAM!!! You'll feel that strangeness! And you'll know that you are dreaming. =]

Just practice awareness in general! External awareness, Internal awareness. Mindfulness.

Could this thing have connections with that weird feeling where "you know some things are going to happen, and they do... and it's just normal". It's the mild mindset of it... everything goes in that way and there's no surprises in a dream?

Ok serriously man I am going to explain the feeling of lucidity as I once described it to my friend, she looked kind of weird of me after that xD

Lucidity have different levels you can either watch Reece Jones on youtube describing it or you can read my summary in my Dream Journal description. But I recommend that you watch his video.
So it can vary a bit, but the FEELING of lucidity is just a realization that your whole world is a lie! It's like you are crazy, yet you know that you aren't which makes it even more crazier.

Next time you talk to a friend imagine that you somehow realized that you were dreaming, by looking at your hand or that he/she said something strange. And try to really imagine that everything you just did for the last moment is not real! It's kind of like that talk Cob have with Ariadne (Ellen Page) at the coffe shop, the whole world just explodes well not literally but figuratively.

Inception Caffeteria scene slow motion explosion - YouTube

The real inception in the movie that most people doesn't know about is that the world movie is just in Cob's head check out the name of the characters. Ariadne a name of a Greek mythological figure that helped Theseus finding the way out of a labyrinth, I mean how many girls do you know that is named Ariadne? That's the real inception of the movie.

What's a oneironaut's most dangerous enemy? An idea! An idea that their world is real.

MasterMind, I was talking more about the feeling of dreams lucid or not. I know the lucid feeling quite well and it's invigorating.

I thank you all for your help. I feel like I have the general idea so far, but if anyone else thinks they can explain it better than anyone else here has, be my guest.

PS I would probably explain it as 'internal' or 'empty' like there is no substance. Tell me what you think.

Hehe oh sorry I always tend to misunderstand people's post. However a normal dream feeling? You need to have awareness to even be aware that the dream feeling is there.
Sorry for writing another post but this might help you =) Sometimes when I DEILD I can literally see the dream form as I look at the back of my eyelids. Last night I had a non-rem dream and I pointed with my fingers to the stars when I woke up I see that I do it with my real arm as well o. O But what I thought might help you are the stages of a dream in a WILD/DEILD anyway.

Thoughts -> Daydream -> Random thoughts and impressions -> Schizophrenic feeling that you are another person -> Daydream slowly zooms in and BAM your there.

If you ask me; i'd say that the general feeling between lucids and non-lucids differ by alertness in consiousness. I believe that if you're trying to build a method for LD:ing, go for the lucid dream feeling. I don't mean the excitement or anything emotional, but the feeling of awareness that is there. The same feeling is present in non-lucids but it's severely clouded.

How I would try to describe pure awareness: You are not your thoughts. Imagine that there is a space between you and those thoughts. Do the same for feelings. The issue is that you can't have pure awareness while thinking or feeling, while on the other hand if you have access to feeling or thinking... awareness wouldn't be pure.

Now to the answer: If what you are looking for is the feeling of awareness without all the "background noise" (and I believe you are) ; i recommend meditation with how i described pure awareness, adding a tiny bit of feeling and thought into your awareness after creating that space. If you don't want to meditate, just read the words below.

It is getting input from your senses without adding anything to it.

Hope that makes sense, Tucane

Btw, If you happen to find yourself in a lucid dream, try only to remember how it is... without thinking or feeling.

Yes it's tricky to describe the feeling of a dream, it's a lot different from real life, yet somehow very similiar. I know the feeling from DEILD though because you go right from real life into a dream. In a dream the details don't stick out as much, it's like you tend to see everything at once. Instead of every sensation you only experience the pieces of it that your consciously focused on, there is no background sensation so to speak.

I've known the person who wrote this tutorial for about 7 years, in fact I talked with him yesterday. Many of his claims I don't believe, he hasn't talked about lucid dreaming in years though, what a shame how some people change.