"watching" dreams

[Theotherguy]

I have recentley been having a problem with my dreams where I do not have a physical body at all, but I seem to be just some kind of floating observer, or I'm watching the action unfold on a TV screen. I am not aware of any touch, taste or smell, and I can't interact with anything in my dream...I can only watch. People do not adress me, they adress each other, and I just watch as they do things. In these dreams I cannot identify any charachter as myself. Naturally, this makes reality chekcs and the realization that I am dreaming very difficult. Because if you're watching something on TV...anything is possible, so you don't question it. It's very frustrating because many of my past dreams have been this way...and its not fun just to watch something and not be able to participate in it. Usually these dreams take on the form of something like a documentary or a movie. For instance, my last dream was very simliar to that movie Top Gun, except it was set in the future. I was never able to move around or control anything or even have a realization of self at all, it was as if I was just a floating camera with fixed angles on the action. Any ideas on how I shoudl fix this? Should I try to take control of one of the charachters? Place myself in the scene?

[odds]

Ah, I've been having these as well. All I did was, before falling asleep, tell myself to dream with a mind and body. "I will dream, and I will dream with a mind and body." Worked for me, atleast. I dunno, though, I enjoy those observatory dreams sometimes. I think what I'd recommend is to just dream the dreams and appreciate them for what they are- this stage in your dream life will pass with time. Good luck.

[mongreloctopus]

if every dream is like this, maybe you can use it to your advantage to become lucid. it seems like a pretty good dreamsign.

[djaio]

man, i know exactly what you mean. that's what i tried to describe in my topic "why i can't lucid dream."