moscampfire

I'm cool on Buddhism. Where Buddhism calls it "mindfulness", my generation called it "awareness", and, as an ageing hippie, I kept the faith and valued new awareness all my life. Lucid dreams are dreams like the waking world- physical awareness, smells, bodily sensitivity, choice of experience, Consciousness. It's not that regular dreams are not conscious, but that a lucid dream is MORE conscious, as if it were a physical event. I'm not sure how mindful I am in a normal dream. I assume that I am, within the laws of that experience. But in Lucid dreams, I am applying my mindfulness in the same way I apply it in waking consciousness. Because I am taking the waking self into the dream state, with all my beliefs and assumptions, I respond to events from my own beliefs and experiences.
I have had lucid dreams that did not include all the baggage I carry in physical life. I have experienced total consciousness without memory of my current life. But I still felt totally, physically aware, not afraid of the tendency of the environment to offer unexpected events, and without a sense of need to control my experience.
I've had Lucid dreams where I required control. But the ones where I let my control go seem to be the most interesting.