Thread: Lucid dreaming is dangerous

Well, I don't really see that claim. The point is if your brain wants to convey a message to you it will. I'm regularly lucid and I had a series of dreams where I was lucid but had no control, simply because my dreams wanted to convey a message to me which I shouldn't toy with.

One may also have failed reality checks, and more, if truly the brain does not want you in control.

Lucid dreaming may be dangerous in other ways, but certainly not in that way.

In addition there are quite a few people, including myself, who have lucids naturally and effortlessly. It's not as if it's an abnormal trait.

Originally posted by invadergarf
[That's an interesting thought, I don't think that we'd have two or more dream processes taking place, mainly because it seems too complicated for the brain to be working on so much while it's trying to relax and have a break at night. Then again, i'm sure it's possible. Why would we need more than one dream process taking place? Would it just be there ready for if the brain suddenly decides to change the dream?

Anyway, great post Oneironaut! It got me thinking, lol.

Thankya.

As for how I came into the idea, think about it like this:
As LaBerge recognizes, there are tiny conceptual “frames” in our mind called schemas. Which might take a little background for those that aren’t familiar with them:
The shorthand explanation of a schema is something that is used to make relationships between a number of objects or concepts. They sit in our unconscious mind, without constant use, are brought into our subconscious mind when they have the possibility of being used in the near future, and are brought to our conscious mind when we want to actually use the schema as a conscious thought.
For instance: In the back of your mind, there are (probably) hundreds of thousands of words/concepts that are somehow related to the word “Car.” They could be “seat,” “speed,” “road,” “door,” “handle,” “highway,” “sunroof,” “drive,” even “vacation.” Each of those words/concepts is a schema.
If I hadn’t have said “Car,” or another word that you could relate to any of the schemas above, they would be “disarmed,” and float around aimlessly in your unconscious. But, since I said “Car” your mind beings to race through and gather all of the related concepts to the word “Car” that you’re subconsciously aware of, even if you’re not consciously aware that this is happening.
The initial relevance is that I tend to think that this is how dreams are formed, and how they progress through what, at first, seems like a random series of meaningless, unrelated images and scenarios that are constantly changing, usually without notice.
Anyway, every time a schema is activated, on some less-conscious level they activate other schemas that may have a relationship with the first activated schema, but absolutely no known relationship with the initial thought that activated the schema before it. Like say…If I said “Airplane,” in the back of your mind the word “wings” might be activated so you can quickly throw it into the context of our conversation. As that word waits to be used, schemas also related to the word “Wings” such as “Feathers” are also being activated at the same time, which has a lot less to do with “Airplane,” but is still somewhat related. I believe that this is how dreams progress and relationships between dream content can be made upon further analysis.

Now, when it comes to how complicated this may or may not be, consider this. If someone says two completely unrelated words, within seconds of each other, (Like Radio and Hair Brush) I’m thinking your mind is simultaneously developing schemas for both words to be used in the context of the conversation. (Cables, bristles, comb, CD, music, fashion, etc.) If this is true, then I think it’s reasonable to assume that while we are aware of one dream or “area of schematic relationships,” that there may be others going on “somewhere else” (for lack of better terms) in the brain at the same time.

I agree with chainsaw kitten, just because her signature is adorable.

Also, Oneironaut, What does my brain do when you say the word 'the'? It's been associated with a lot of things over the years.


-sloth

i don't think it's dangerous...

and if it is: prove it...










i don't think he's going to answer us anymore...

we've won

Originally posted by sloth
Also, Oneironaut, What does my brain do when you say the word 'the'? It's been associated with a lot of things over the years.

My guess would be that it probably runs through the words that most commonly surround that word. As universal as that word is, it's hard to say, but the mind is good with making associations through context, and without using the word "the" in any sort of context, it probably begins shifting through the context that is most often, in your mind, surrounding the word "the."

Remember that all the associations that the mind makes, as far as we know, are never truely "lost" throughout life. This is why we can dream about things we've consciously forgotten decades ago. The brain stores stuff on a level that even scientists haven't been able to fathom, as of yet. So, even though we may not consciously be able to perceive what all word associations we can make with "the," the brain has most likely kept a pretty good record.

Oh, and on a somewhat related note, check this guy out.
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/77993-0/

Hrm.
Perhaps that is why the F!@# word is considered the worst.
When you hear it, you are hearing everything you've ever heard about it. F@!#ing, as an action, is sometimes an emotional thing, whereas sh@!ing is not. (At least for most people.) That is why sh@! is not considered as strong of a word... because no emotions are involved.

That is interesting.

Ooh! Ooh! If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody is around to hear it, and it lands on President Bush, does anybody care?

-sloth

How could you ask such a question?!! OF COURSE I CARE!!!!

....... that poor tree.

LMAO!

yes, but its sacrifice would be remember forever in gladness!

anyway, i just got 30/30 in a not-so-easy exam in the middle of a week in which i'm messing with dreams more then ever, and i'm well and happy and so on...
dangerous?
naah!
not until you believe they are at least.

(well, once i had my ass badly kicked by a F+ing DC, and actually wake up sick, but the simple reason is that i was a little naif child that believed in bullshit. even if my pride still hurts )

Ok acturaly some scientists belive that dreams are there to store your thoughts and memeries. Without dreams we wouldn't be able to stroe them in thr right places and so we could go mental. So Oneironaut is right about the scheme because it puts the words we remeber into those schemes to keep it stored and will forever keep building on those words.
If we don't have dreams then we wouldn't be able to remeber anything and then so we would go mental because our brain wouldn't know on what to do.
Even if we control are dreams, the things we change will, or might, make new connections and give us more thought and space into remebering them. So controling your dreams is more good then not because then your mind will advanse in logic( as we connect things) and creativity(the ways we creat the connections) and we can remeber more. We can even train our dreams to make us remeber like haveing a test in a dream(i don't think anyone would want that but its good as it helps).
So thats what i think anyway.
POP

Dreams feel so real when you are lucid they feel like your own little virtual reality with enhanced graphics! 8)

I think that dreams happen because there are little televisions in our heads that we can only see when we are asleep. The angels put them there. Also, there's lots of porn stations.

-sloth

I don't think it's dangerous at all. If you think about it, plenty of people are natural Lucid Dreamers, and some of them even have control, yet I doubt they're all phycological damaged. I understand where you're coming from Kevyboy, i was worried for a bit, but I realized if you feel like it is hurting you, if it can, then you can just take a break, and choose not to control your dreams, if you are good enough to take over every dream in the first place, which is hard.

Originally posted by Kevyboy
Ok well this has probably been said but hey i'll make sure.
A dream is a way for your Sub-conscious to work through problems, emotions ect. If you obtain lucidity too often and change the way the dream would naturally shape itself then you can (im not saying you always will) you can pull away from what your mind is working on, this would cause emotions to run alot higher, quite often the more negative emotions - anger, depression. Also in this you can lose sense of reason and then you become a danger to yourself and others around you.

Its just a warning and im not saying stop doing it, im just saying make sure that if a dream feels like it needs to play out then let it and just follow what the dream wants.

Happy dreaming

I once had a lucid dream where I tried to manipulate the world around me, or try to manipulate the people. but nothing happened. it was frustrating that I had no 'powers' in my lucid dream. and then I tried to fly away from the dream, but I couldn't either. the dream sorta 'forced' me to go along with its silly story

so I think, if there IS an issue or something that needs to be done in a dream, your subconscious mind will still make sure that it is done - even if you are lucid.

If your your sub-con dosn't allow you to control it o get out of it then thats the back up system of some kind and we get the massage knowing that your mind won't be affected. So all in all our sub-con has a back up system and it isn't dangours(unless our sub-con dosn't allow us to leave and we are trapped in our mind forever and never wake up then yes it is dangours but i don't think your sub-con will allow it to do it to us)(wait i mean the sub-con, no i mean us, no i mean the mind because the sub-con is apart of us. Would we stop making it out that the sub-con is a real life being, its only apart of us)(i have had anoth with my similies and personifacation in my english already. Heres a good example of pesonification: the sword gave out a metalic cry as it was being forged.)(that was weird how i got to sub-con to a sword oh well )

Originally posted by Mr.caramel
Ok acturaly some scientists belive that dreams are there to store your thoughts and memeries. Without dreams we wouldn't be able to stroe them in thr right places and so we could go mental. So Oneironaut is right...

Hold on, chief. Is there actually evidence, or just the belief of several people? I am sure that research has been done on what happens when people "black out". That might give a better explanation of the process of storing short term memory.

Originally posted by Mr.caramel
Would we stop making it out that the sub-con is a real life being, its only apart of us

How do you know this? I don't think I agree, but you may have to define "real life being" more carefully. I think that our subconscious is actually us, but from a different point in our life. Of course, I don't think time exists either, making it all possible. What if we cannot actually think at all, we can only decide, you know, free will? That is, every thought of ours is received telepathically from ourselves from different points in life, that we cannot actually think. Unless we actually do telepathy with another individual, and at that point we are receiving from one of their higher selves. Perhaps feelings are just empathy too, we cannot actually feel.

Originally posted by sloth
Also, Oneironaut, What does my brain do when you say the word 'the'? It's been associated with a lot of things over the years.

That leaves my thought process hanging, I think "the ... ... ... what???". Besides I feel that association is more of an symbolic experience. When we associate things, we think "something *adjective*". It's like whatever creates our dream has the ability to place emotions within the dreamscape that control it.

For example, I had a repeated dream. At one point in the first dream, I saw a dumb blonde girl sitting on the hill. After watching an episode of Jimmy Kimmel, with Kellie Pickler. I had the dream again, and this time in the dream, it was Kellie sitting on a bouncy pad instead of a dumb blonde girl on a hill. In the first dream I was angry, the second one I was calm.

Sometimes I will have similar dreams in the same night, and may be able to contrast them in order to figure out what they mean. It's like hearing the same story from two perspectives, it makes it easier to understand. The common idea seems to be the feeling more than just the symbols.

That's cool.