Thread: What Does It Feel Like?

I've recently gotten into Lucid Dreaming, and I've been wondering:

Does it just feel like a regular dream? Or does it actually feel like you've woken up into a totally new environment?

Yeah, it looks and feels just like a regular dream- which, in turn, feels just like real life. Except, of course, for all the pink elephants and monsters and stuff.

People make it seem like some glorious thing, but its just because they fully understand the potential they have in their dreams, so they get excited and whatnot.

I disagree. For me, it's like the difference between standard def and high-def.

well my first lucid it felt sort of like going from watching a movie to being in the movie. It was like i saw myself then i was rushing into my brain then i was myself. lol im confusing myself so ill stop now

Thanks for the replies. guys!

Now I can't wait to start LDing...

DO NOT QUIT if you dont get it right away... try to not want it too much or else you WILL fail...Just nudge the idea of lucid dreaming into your head here and there and you'll get it

LD's feel more real.. than real life itself sometimes

Welcome to Dreamviews, yo. 8)

Kimpossible wrote:

I disagree. For me, it's like the difference between standard def and high-def. [/b]

Same for me. The moment I find out I'm dreaming, Everything gets clearer. It is like high-def for all of my senses. I become aware of all of my dream senses, and so they all reach a higher level than if I was just "passively dreaming."

Konefku and Oneironaut -

Exactly. Agreed completely.

Because the brain can concentrate upon the generation of a hyper-sense and it's imaginary, I think it can be "more real than real". If the brain wants to believe that your little toe being poked with a needle feels like being run over with a very slow steamroller, well, that's what it gets. Although pain rarely enters my dreaming, it is an example of how hypersensate dreaming can be.

I just recently had my first lucid dream two nights ago. I had a hard time describing the feeling to myself. But, I read a description given by another member that hit the nail right on the head.

"It's like being asleep and awake at the same time."

It was like that for me. I felt lke I was inside of my own head. I knew I was sleeping (being in the subconscious world) and being able to think with my conscious mind. While dreaming of being in a hospital hallway, I knew that I was actually asleep on my couch in the real world. It's unlike anything I have every felt so it is very hard to describe. But, once it happens you will want it to happen again. It's more addictive than anything in my opion.

For me it's a very special feeling. I feel smart and happy because I have tricked my own mind. I feel like I've won. It definitely is a special feeling when you think to yourself "Hey, this is a dream!"

I think that it feels more clear or "high-def" because you're aware that it isn't real. In normal dreams, you don't pay much attention, because you simply accept everything as "real." In a lucid dream, however, you know it isn't real, so you recognize it as "realistic." This makes you really appreciate exactly how "realistic" everything is, in ways that you simply don't care about in a normal dream. In normal dreams, you just kind of go with the flow, and you don't normally pay a whole lot of attention to your environment unless there is some reason to. However, in a lucid dream, you probably take time to really observe and analyze your surroundings.

I find that I can recall the details of my non-lucid dreams just as vividly as my lucid dreams, although it usually takes a bit more thought and effort to do so, because the experience doesn't seem as significant as a lucid dream does.

Some of you are describing the way that YOU feel when you become lucid. This will vary from person to person. The fact is, a lucid dream is still just a dream. To quote Dreamviews.com's own definition of lucid dreams:

Lucid dreaming is simply dreaming while being aware you are dreaming... If, by chance, during a dream it suddenly dawns on you that you are dreaming, then you have experienced a lucid dream.[/b]

I'm sorry - I was under the impression that he was looking for us to describe our experience, not us to describe his experience

I don't mean to antagonize any of you, I'm just trying to answer his question. Please don't be offended.

When I said "the way YOU feel", I meant it as in "the way YOU feel as opposed to the way THE DREAM feels." Not as in the "way YOU feel as opposed to the way HE feels." If that makes sense. After all, the original question was:

Originally posted by megarock
Does it just feel like a regular dream? Or does it actually feel like you've woken up into a totally new environment?

Like I said, please don't take offense to anything I've said, I'm just trying to answer his question.

None taken here!

I agree that it's going to vary, not just from dreamer to dreamer, but from dream to dream

For me personally, LDs tend to be far more vivid than the non-lucid dreams I document nightly.

My experience is of being almost exactly like waking life. My last LD i had, i could feel the wind through my hair, hear the birds chirping, water splashing (I was beside a pool) and feel all normal senses that i do in real life. This is quite unlike my normal dreams, which are more like watching tv or playing a 3D computer game.

Originally posted by megarock
I've recently gotten into Lucid Dreaming, and I've been wondering:

Does it just feel like a regular dream? Or does it actually feel like you've woken up into a totally new environment?

It's ordinary to have a sense of wonder that everything in this Dream World is so solid and so real. Most people ruin the experience by insisting out loud that none of it is 'real', but I feel that they are quite missing the point of it all. The Wonder of it is that one's Subjective Reality has indeed become real.

But there is another slightly different dimension to Lucidity and this is INTENSITY. After awhile with some experience of Lucidity, one can grade one's dreams on a scale of intensity. And then, even during the progress of some Lucid Dreams, one can feel whether the Energy or Intensity of the dream is ebbing or waning.

For me, with the couple of LD's that I've had, it feels much more intense than a non-LD. My non-LD's seem like a blur of images, sounds and events where I wake up and either think "wow, what a weird dream" or "hmm, I wonder what the meant" or whatever. Nothing really comes of it though. With my first LD, when I woke up I wanted to run around the house screaming because I was so excited. A lucid dream is just so much more clear, in a weird way it's like I'm awake all of a sudden. And if you can learn to control the dream after you've become lucid, that just makes it a whole new ballgame. It's like I'm the only person in the world who can control anything and everything, and nobody's going to question it AND I wouldn't care if they did anyways. Think of all the stuff you're dying to do in real life and then actually being able to do it and have no consequences as a result. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO DO. It's awesome.

For me it just feels like im awake, but yet im know im dreaming (you follow). Its like the difference between riding shotgun (being a passenger) and actually driving.

deadaim, that is actually a very good analogy of the difference. Well done for summing it up so succinctly