Thread: Third Person Point of View

I find that more often than not I am on the outside looking in on my dreams. As though I am playing a video game. I have the same levels of control, or lack of control in my dreams as when I am in the first person. I may even go in and out of third person as the dream continues. I find that even when I am in the third person I know exactly what i am thinking and doing, but I also see what everyone else who is there is doing.

Is this a common experience amongst many of you? Is there any reason that you know of for this? Just curious.

I kind of flicker in and out of 1st and 3rd person. But like you, I know what I'm thinking and doing It's pretty awesome I think

Almost aways first person. I don't really, right now, remember any time I have dreamt in the third person perspective, it's always first.

Hi there milhouse! Nice to meet you. I find myself dreaming in the third-person a lot, but also in the first-person. It seems to vary.

I wrote this as a response in the lucid dreaming subreddit, but I wanted to cross-post it here with just a little editing. My response was answering why it was harder to visualize in the third-person, but I think the idea partially applies here:

Yes, first-person always seems harder to visualize. I think the reason lies with the "picture" you view while visualizing.

In third-person (e.g. a movie), the "picture" is very smooth. It continues with its rectangular view, and pans and zooms the world, and you see the world and everything in it with smooth transitions, different views, and, most importantly in my position, stillness.

In first-person and living day, our eyes naturally jerk from point A to B to C, and we have one view (e.g. through our eyes at exactly 5'2" height) with shakiness caused by our moving head.

Because first-person is more rigid and strict, whereas third-person has more possibilities, I feel that a lot of the time visualization happens in third-person.

Thinking back on that, I thought of an extension to that reason, but I'm unsure of the validity. Our minds might adjust to third-person to keep us in a sort of dreamy suspension of disbelief, in the same way we can watch a performance on a stage and feel absolutely dismayed at the terribly sad fate of a character, although we know (but have completely forgotten during the scenes) the actors personally. If our dreams seem oddly far-fetched, our dreams might shift to a "dream-like state" of belief in third-person so that we may watch them and not interrupt. In addition, this could even partially account for lack of awareness or our dreamself's acceptance with following the dream plot. If that's confusingly worded, I apologize!

I guess to help answer the above question, I would need to find a correlation between far-fetched & third-person dreams, and then more normal & first-person dreams. Perhaps vividness plays a role in this as well; are the more vivid dreams in first person or third person? This could really be a good topic of interest!

I usually g oto third-person as well. It doesn't happen as mch as First-person but it does in about half my dreams just for a little bit. Just a few nights ago I remember going into third-person on Kratos of God Of War 3. I wasn't even in the dream at that point.

I'm almost always in first person. But sometimes it's like I'm seeing through two sets of eyes at the same time, both first-person and third-person. It's strange because it's not like I'm looking at two television screens, but more like I have two heads that see things at the same time from different angles.

wow. Puffin your last post really hits home with me. Thats how I feel sometimes in dreams, but I have never really been able to explain it too well. I like the two heads and tv analogy. That feeling of being first and third as the same time very odd. Looking back that describes exactly what I was getting at. In my dreams I see everything from my perspective and from everyone elses

I usually start LD's in first person but changes to third imediatly.If some action is involved i switch from fp to 3rd and so on. it actually starts too look like a movie.Another thing that happenes sometimes is seeing what another person is doing through their eyes.Idk why but my brain tries to distract me with this( points to metal skeletons in bathroom).Same goes for my non-LDs but there is less killing in them.

My dreams have always been 1st person. That would be weird for it to be 3rd person for me.

My dreams are always third person, probably because I play too many video games. But recently, since I've started getting more frequent lucids, I've noticed i lucid dream in first person.

This is so interesting to me... cause I always dream in first person, but when my friend shares a dream with me, her's are all in 3rd person.

All of mine are in 1st, but in one non-lucid dream I had a "flashback" in which I watched myself float in the sky (therefore I was not a witch...)

I always dream from my own perspective

My first and only lucid dream so far started with me seeing myself in 3rd person view performing nose-pinch RC, after becoming lucid it was 1st person :p

Originally Posted by silver2k

My first and only lucid dream so far started with me seeing myself in 3rd person view performing nose-pinch RC, after becoming lucid it was 1st person :p

I'm never in third person when I'm about to become lucid or already am lucid.

I dream totally in 1st person.
However, my weird 10 year old friend dreams alternately in 3rd person and 1st person, and he says that he can't control himself in "third-person mode;" he just watches himself and can't even control the perspective That's queer. It's almost like a video game cutscene. But he doesn't play videogames...