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    1. Redefining Dream Control as Unrelated to Lucidity 01

      by , 05-04-2018 at 05:43 PM
      Afternoon of May 4, 2018. Friday.



      Writing an entry such as this is very challenging in a world where almost everything believed and propagated about dreams by the public is fallacious (in respect to my own personal experience since earliest memory). This is mainly due to liminal space blindness, which is the inability of someone to understand the meaning of his or her own dream even in what would otherwise be the hypnopompic disclosure stage, especially when threads of the subliminal conscious self are responsible for much of a non-lucid dream’s content (though this excludes prescience and transpersonal mediation). In this entry, I will attempt to address the widespread misinformation about lucid dreaming at a simple enough level for the average person to grasp. Ultimately, I can only write about what I know to be true and of which I have directly experienced continuously for over fifty years. It is not, and never shall be, a target of debate by the unknowing.

      An unfortunate term I coined years ago has apparently confused a number of people even though I often describe it as clearly as I can each time. “Subliminal lucidity” is an ambiguous term, problematic for most people (especially those who have not had the experience), and needs rewording as “liminal dream control”. This will be a more consistent and technically correct term within the totality of my lifelong work. Realistically however, it is infeasible to describe the dynamics of a condition that people cannot even perceive foundationally, but it does provide a more logical term for the condition. “Subliminal lucidity” is a misnomer, as it was meant to mean control of the dream state in non-lucidity, where the dream self identity has non-lucid ties to the conscious self identify. Of course, dream control itself is not evidence of viable lucidity either, which requires extant current conscious self identity, not just vividness. Some people confuse “vivid” with “lucid”. “Vivid” means the dream seems very realistic, while in contrast, “lucid” means being concurrently aware that it is a dream.

      Ultimately, “subliminal” should not even be used as a descriptive factor of the dream self’s mode, as the subconscious self is already a subliminal persona. A perceived need to use the word to relate the dream self to the dream in contrast to the conscious self identity is probably also a factor of ambiguity that the average person would likely not grasp, as most people seem to misperceive the “I am“ of the dream self as being analogous to the conscious self’s “I am”. I have tried to come up with a better term, but all are taken, for example, supraliminal, as even though it can be used to contrast the conscious self in respect to the dream self, it is only valid while within the dream state, as it otherwise is a reference to being above the threshold of waking life conscious awareness. So far, there does not seem to be a feasible word to describe the synaptic gating of liminal dream control, by which the dream self is non-lucid but the conscious will (not conscious in-dream awareness) is extant.

      I will explain here why this change is forthcoming (with all references to “subliminal lucidity” to be removed and tagged with different keywords depending on the dream). Lucid dreaming does not inherently correlate with controlling a dream. Controlling a dream does not inherently correlate with being lucid. Therefore, the term “subliminal lucidity” is of no use to those who do not have a basic grasp of the difference between being lucid and being in control of the dream state. I have had as many dreams of which I have modulated by way of subliminal threads of my conscious self’s will (not necessarily current, for example in fully controlling a dream without even having any viable memory of the last twenty years of my life), by way of my subconscious self, as I have in various states of lucidity. Here I must still clarify the obvious according to current consensus.

      Being lucid, in consensus terminology, means that the subconscious self is aware that it is in the dream state to where many more viable threads of the current conscious self’s identity, desire, and will are extant than in non-lucidity, but in stark contrast, controlling a dream means influencing features and content, including by the summoning factor (both subliminally and non-subliminally). One does not depend on the other. I emphasize this because many people propagate the mistaken belief that dream control only occurs with being lucid. In fact, a person’s dream self can be lucid without having any control of the dream state at all (for example, lucid nightmares). A person’s dream self can modulate the dream features and content over that of the preconscious factor or RAS precursors without having any awareness of being in the dream state, and typically for me, without even having any memory of what a dream is. A full understanding of this is required for coherent thinking about dreams in general.

      The falsehood of lucidity equating control must be dissolved for one to develop a full understanding of the dream state. Dream control in non-lucidity has been continuous for me since early childhood and over time, has developed by way of the virtuous circle effect. Additionally, the conscious self identity’s expectation is a major part of a dream’s autosymbolism, of which I have understood the meanings of for over fifty years. This is important because there are a number of people, including a number of religious zealots, who believe that a dream can never be controlled or influenced at all even in lucidity. What they express provides proof that they have zero understanding of either lucidity, dream control, or even hold a basic understanding of dreams. Neither the truth nor even a thread of truth is even visible to them. All they could do is deny what they could not even comprehend (liminal space blindness).

      In part two, I will try to simplify the information in this entry with a more concise approach of certain concepts and a list of possible dream self modes, of which are otherwise inherently transient through the different stages of sleeping and dreaming.