Thread: Geography and Navigation in Dreams

Originally Posted by Extremador

I've had a couple of dreams in the past few months that involved me driving.

In one of them I was driving my moms Volvo that I'm always driving, and nothing looked out of place in the car (and I'm a person that notices every detail whilst driving), and the other I was driving a Lexus LFA.

The only thing off with the second one is that the car seemed to only have only Park, Neutral, and Drive. Maybe it had reverse too but still, LFA doesn't even have an automatic transmission. It's god a paddle-shift system and doesn't use a shift knob.

Hi. Thanks for submitting this. Since yours in the third post pertaining to my comment on "driving when dreaming," I suppose I should include a disclaimer here. Cars - like watches - and virtually anything mechanical are indeed "notoriously" - not ALWAYS - faulty and unreliable in dreams. I simply chose to use a vehicle as a good example for this topic. I have driven successfully in dreams, and in some instances the car did "appear" to function "normally," but even in those cases, if I had chosen a specific destination (let's say a distant building) I rarely ever reached it. My explanation for this is that dreams move forward by association, pattern recognition and homologous variation. I've discovered (for myself only) that "flying and willing" are more effective in actually "getting somewhere specifically."

For a more in-depth presentation pertaining to what I've just said, you may want to watch my Lucid Dream Discourse videos #9 and #10 on YouTube (The Dynamics of Dream Emergence and Navigation in Dreams - each about 9 minutes in length).

*******

And, while I'm here, I want to add this note for the previous posters. Yes, our "expectations" and "confidence" certainly do obviously play a key role in lucid dreaming. That being said - even with all of my years of flying and walking through walls in lucid dreams - and fully realizing "I can do it" - I occasionally have lucid dreams where I can't get off the ground or can't pass through a barrier. Every dream comes with its own potential and limitations for whatever inexplicable reason.

I never expect anyone to take anything I ever say as lucid dreaming gospel. We each have different experience, wide-ranging degrees of lucidity, variations in our brain chemistry, and even perhaps the influence of any of a multitude of prescribed medications. A huge number of factors are involved. Whereas we can learn from one another, we are each unique in this field. I place no limit whatsoever on your dreams.

Originally Posted by StephenBerlin

And, while I'm here, I want to add this note for the previous posters. Yes, our "expectations" and "confidence" certainly do obviously play a key role in lucid dreaming. That being said - even with all of my years of flying and walking through walls in lucid dreams - and fully realizing "I can do it" - I occasionally have lucid dreams where I can't get off the ground or can't pass through a barrier. Every dream comes with its own potential and limitations for whatever inexplicable reason.

Exactly. I experience the same thing, and not only with flying. Sometimes confidence and expectation just aren't enough. There is that "something" that prevents me sometimes from carrying out certain tasks.

I never expect anyone to take anything I ever say as lucid dreaming gospel. We each have different experience, wide-ranging degrees of lucidity, variations in our brain chemistry, and even perhaps the influence of any of a multitude of prescribed medications. A huge number of factors are involved. Whereas we can learn from one another, we are each unique in this field. I place no limit whatsoever on your dreams.

We place no limits on our dreams, but I believe that dreams do place limits on us. It isn't just a "virtual world" in which you can literally do anything. At least for me it isn't. And I arrived at this conclusion not because I tried to do something, "expecting" to fail, but rather the other way around. I was confident I could do it, but failed. Some things I was able to learn (flying, walking through walls, etc.) but other things I am not able to accomplish to this day. I could also do much better with flying. It also varies from dream to dream.

As you said, a huge number of factors are involved.

Also, to Stephen (Berlin):

Originally Posted by StephenBerlin

Hi. Thanks for submitting this. Since yours in the third post pertaining to my comment on "driving when dreaming," I suppose I should include a disclaimer here. Cars - like watches - and virtually anything mechanical are indeed "notoriously" - not ALWAYS - faulty and unreliable in dreams. I simply chose to use a vehicle as a good example for this topic. I have driven successfully in dreams, and in some instances the car did "appear" to function "normally," but even in those cases, if I had chosen a specific destination (let's say a distant building) I rarely ever reached it. My explanation for this is that dreams move forward by association, pattern recognition and homologous variation. I've discovered (for myself only) that "flying and willing" are more effective in actually "getting somewhere specifically."

For a more in-depth presentation pertaining to what I've just said, you may want to watch my Lucid Dream Discourse videos #9 and #10 on YouTube (The Dynamics of Dream Emergence and Navigation in Dreams - each about 9 minutes in length).

*******

And, while I'm here, I want to add this note for the previous posters. Yes, our "expectations" and "confidence" certainly do obviously play a key role in lucid dreaming. That being said - even with all of my years of flying and walking through walls in lucid dreams - and fully realizing "I can do it" - I occasionally have lucid dreams where I can't get off the ground or can't pass through a barrier. Every dream comes with its own potential and limitations for whatever inexplicable reason.

I never expect anyone to take anything I ever say as lucid dreaming gospel. We each have different experience, wide-ranging degrees of lucidity, variations in our brain chemistry, and even perhaps the influence of any of a multitude of prescribed medications. A huge number of factors are involved. Whereas we can learn from one another, we are each unique in this field. I place no limit whatsoever on your dreams.

You get it.

<3

Sorry we nitpicked at what was merely an example. =(

I'm glad you understand our concerns, though. ^.^