Thread: Is it all in our minds?

I've felt the same way for quite a while now. Usually, my lucids will be just the run of the mill type. Predicatable, but every once in a while....something happens.

I've always believed myself to be a sane, rational, and above all skeptical person, but sometimes, it just seems like more than a construct inside my head.

I don't know if this will help you but it deffinately disturbed me. My friend was very big onto Astral Projection, he hyped it up so much you'd have to believe it was real, he did it so much and he kept saying how it "wasn't right" it "didn't fit" like he was doing something he shouldn't be doing. None the less, he kept it up and kept it up and then one time while he was doing it, things went out of whack, he saw everyone close to him brutally murdered, and felt things he couldn't express. This kid cried his eyes out telling me this, kind of scared me--and being open minded I had to believe some of it. He added in "And when I came fully too, I could of sworn I heard wings flapping." Now in relation to your post, I just think that no matter how much control you have over something variables can be found in any situation, our brain is really powerful, more powerful than we believe it to be. Kinda like at a swimming pool, and you tempt the "No Diving" coz you think you're an awesome diver--I don't know..
Sorry for the pain! >_<

When we are lucid we are concious, right. Seemingly feeling how you do now. while your awake. (unless you are dreaming) Soo I think it would be perfectly reasonable for your concious interpretations to take hold of your dream scene from time to time.

I have a difficulty trying to communicate with my mother who has passed away in my LDs. I know I am in a dream & I tell myself that there are no boundaries. But Ironically speaking In the back of my head, (It should read in the front of your head if you are in a lucid dream ) that I know she is dead and therefore creating an insurmountable obstacle so it seems. But It is all in my head. It can be conditioned otherwise. In one sense you are brain washing your own mind.

I'm so undecided on what realm I think lucid dreaming is. That is why I have a strong moral stance and I have respect when in that realm. If it was all my own mind then I guess anything is sweet but because things are so unsure for me I choose not to fuck with shit I do not understand.

Most of my lucid dreams are absolutely sweet as apart from three I can think of off the top of my head. One involved a situation just like you explained which totally freaked me out even though I got away from the men and no physical harm was done. The second was when I tried to find my dead father and succeeded. The third was the most bizarre and so scary. Without going into too much detail it was an absolutely full on situation. I had the most intense instincts to get out of the situation I was in. Upon trying to leave a person in the dream realm spoke to me telepathically manipulating me to return and sit with her, she knew just what to say to get me back, i felt like easy prey. It was the first time a person in my dreams knew i was lucid with out me telling them. I don’t really want to go into details but it was so full on and it felt nothing like a normal lucid dream. For example in lucid dreams normally I can not read at all let alone recall anything. In this dream she gave me information in written format which not only I was I able to read but I could recall it upon waking. She also let me go when she saw how upset I was getting but when the dream faded to black her arm reached back towards me and she pulled me back in to the dream and told me something really full on. This time she had a flame in her eye.

What this means I do not know, what realm if any are involved I do not know. I guess now I’m just careful.

Peace Sensi.

Originally posted by Howetzer
It can be conditioned otherwise. In one sense you are brain washing your own mind.

You make it sound so negative

And my answer to this thread is that you misunderstand how the conscious/subconscious works. I believe that dream was completely internally produced.
Your subconscious is generally more influential in your decisions than your conscious, as much as the idea is horrifying.
And the subconscious is simply a field where thoughts grow and develop. Plant the right thing, the right thing happens.

So in other words - you were worried that something would happen, like that guy thrusting a knife at you.
The fear/danger either intrigued your subconscious, or you didn't entirely believe you could defend yourself sucessfully
Thus your subconscious acted on your negative thoughts - resulting in pain

This is why dream control takes practice. You need to learn how to control your subconscious

As for not being able to believe the complexity of your dreams as being internal - that's always awe inspiring for me too.
But think about it this way ... you've had decades of experience of people, emotions, imagination and situations
Every day of your life, you've seen how people work, and act.

When in a dream - you have no problem with too much sensory input to bog you down
Your subconscious can go into overdrive with imagination and visualisation... and this is where your experience and understanding of the world rears its head (ugly or pretty)

[EDIT]
I'm not saying I cannot believe that another dimension or another 'state' exists - I'm just saying that the majority of the time, a dream is special in the mundane way. They're all unique, just like the other And generally internally induced (imagination)

Originally posted by Howetzer+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Howetzer)</div>

It can be conditioned otherwise. In one sense you are brain washing your own mind.[/b]

Originally posted by Placebo+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Placebo)</div>

You make it sound so negative [/b]

Originally posted by Placebo
And my answer to this thread is that you misunderstand how the conscious/subconscious works. I believe that dream was completely internally produced.
Your subconscious is generally more influential in your decisions than your conscious, as much as the idea is horrifying.
And the subconscious is simply a field where thoughts grow and develop. Plant the right thing, the right thing happens.

I don't feel that is correct. I think your decisions are influenced based on your concious decisions. How else would your subconcious create any type of realm without the concious visual input of the outside world?
<!--QuoteBegin-Placebo@
Plant the right thing

- <!--QuoteBegin-Howetzer
brainwash

boardering on an oxymoron, no?

I have been in this diagreement before and brainwashed comes across as negetive while self hynosis or "plant the right thing", is OK. ?
There needs to be a word in our language to meet somewhere in the middle. I agree that brainwashed is a little strong, yet I think at times, self hynosis is not strong enough.

How big are the minds that our dreams take place in? What about collective subconscious or genetic memory?

(side note: even though I just found the site, I am glad it's back!)

I have had my share of negative experiences in my dreams as well, although so far I have always been able to turn them off when they get too intense. My personal take is that our dreams are full on interaction between our conscious minds and 'the rest' of our minds. Lucidity in dreams is just a measure of control, but the subconscious/superconscious part is still very much there (as my recent experiences reveal.)

I don't feel as though I control my subconscious as much as access it. Occasionally the subconscious presents an alternative to what I was planning to concentrate on (Hey, look at THIS, it might be important!) Here's a metaphor..

The conscious is the man in the theater, the subconscious is the man in the projector room. The Conscious can request a movie, but the image on the screen is the ultimate responsibility of the subconscious. The Superconscious is the theater manager, and dictates what is available in the projector room.

As far as brainwashing goes, the conscious mind doesn't always know what is best. It is important to be open to what the rest of the mind has to say just as it is important to have an open mind in waking reality. I wouldn't want to turn that off or rein it in too tightly.

What this means I do not know, what realm if any are involved I do not know. I guess now I’m just careful. [/b]

I'm not saying I cannot believe that another dimension or another 'state' exists - I'm just saying that the majority of the time, a dream is special in the mundane way. They're all unique, just like the other Tongue And generally internally induced (imagination)[/b]

Here's something interesting about the persistence of consciousness. We 'dream' everything that we experience. The same brain apparatus that we use to visualize dream information is used to interpret visual sensory input, and we can't turn it off. What we percieve as physical reality is an interpretation of that input, and everything that you 'know' is based on your personal model of reality.

When we look at, say, an Apple, our brain interprets the visual/olfactory/etc. input and triggers our section of memory that contains all of our 'Apple' experience. We don't need the entire chemical composition, physical structure, dna sequence to know what it is. If we have an 'Apple' experience that does not conform to our memory, we either need to alter our memory (change our minds) or map a new entry (Granny Smith.) If we didn't take this shortcut, we would need to figure out what an Apple was every time we experienced one. Our brains are powerful mapping tools. We contain the entire space from our front door to our workplace in the space of a few hundred neurons and have room for the kitchen sink.

When we dream, we merely need to access our map. We create a new space in our map for our dreams and fill it with various pieces of content from our memory. Instead of waiting for our sensory input, we take cues from our many levels of consciousness. The space exists in our mind, not in physical reality. If we dream of an Apple, it still has width and depth and weight (what we approximate that Apples should be.) The only congruent 'dimension' that exists between dream reality and waking reality is time.

(point) We create other dimensions in our dreamspace. (/point)

The questions remain: what consciousness exists in our dreamspace dimension? Are we alone in our minds, or can we communicate with a consciousness that is not inherently 'ours' (gods, angels, demons, other dreamers?) Is our dreamspace self-contained or does it overlap with other dimensions/realities?

I think I'll take a break and ponder, but I'll leave with this..

We are always dreaming, waking reality is just louder!