Is a waking life memory/experience required before having the same experience within a lucid dream?

I ask this because it seems when I try creating a 'would be' new experience within a dream, it starts to become unstable, and I lose all layers of lucidity rapidly until I eventually awaken.

Why is this? I've had about 12 lucid dreams over the past few years and I have the hardest time maintaining total stability and clarity within the dream. When the dream is that of something I've experienced before the dream is pretty stable, but whenever I try something new it just all goes downhill from there.

Almost universally, yes. There are a few stories floating around of people "creating" entirely new experiences, but no way to prove it. Never had it become outright unstable, though. Usually its just a numbness. For other things, such as flying, I imagine the brain takes bits and pieces from other sensations (such as, falling or having a strong wind blow through you), to simulate the idea.

I agree with splodey ... BUT :
You obviously don't need to have a tail in real life in order to grow one in a dream.
Your brain can "mix" sensations to create seemingly new ones, as well as increase the intensity of a feeling.

Alchera, you can do anything in a dream, even if you didn't ever do anything like it IRL.
Don't worry, your brain will find a way :)
The unstability probably comes from a lack of stabilization, but it can be fixed ;)

Alchera7

Thank you for the question.

splodeymissile

Your answer is very usful for me.

I never fly in dreams. If I try, it soon slows, stops, and i'm grabbing onto buildings pulling my self along.

In my rare lucid/obe I have travelled great distances but in one, my bum stayed on the ground and my back streached easily and forever.

and in my one and only totally fully-conscious obe I (spontaneously) walked through a door to instantly travel 12, 000 miles. And to come back my doplaganger danced into me.

I am going to imagine sensations that I am familiar with.

I know it will work.

As I review my best obe/lucid experiences I can see that they worked because I did what felt real for me. I failed when I tried to do what I read should work.

I'm a bit slow. It takes me three times longer then the average to pick things up (at school and work). This makes me different. ... being slow ...

For me, having simple, frequent, remote viewing targets, focuses my dreams in a light, happy, fun and friendly way causing pleasant, powerful and non lucid dreams. I like none lucids best.

I wish Dreamviews would do weekly remote viewing dream targets for me.

I don't think it's required
If it would be then i'd just crash lucid_dream.exe at sex in ld's :laughtillhurts:

Great observation Alch. The more stable, robust, and well defined something is to you personally, the more reliable it's influence will be.

For instance, very few of us can actually fly in real life. It stands to reason that our systems for flying are going to be pretty weak. Most of us have however spent time swimming, so the systems we use for swimming will be much stronger compared to our flying systems. Since swimming is generally the only time we move while in a horizontal position, those swimming systems, being stronger, are more likely to be expressed, which results in swimming physics.

The key to reliability in your dream control is learning to recognize how well defined the elements you use are, how strong. You can strengthen these systems through repetition, emotional reinforcement and novelty.

You can experience new things, but if you want something specific, you'll have to use stable components as focal points.