Thread: Controlling Light

I'm not sure, I always thought it was a concrete law that it was impossible to change light levels. Interesting that you can, wow.

so far in my lucid dreams i been able to control everything except changeing scenes

There aren't any laws in dreams... My guess is that light switches don't work for most people because they were tought that they don't. Technical devices like computers etc... Maybe they are to complex to simulate.

I think that the light levels in dreams are often based somewhat off the light levels in your actual surroundings. So, when you're having a lucid dream during the night, your dream may be fairly dark. I find that when I have my LDs in the early morning, they're usually a little dim.

Of course, it's quite possible to change light levels in your dreams if you want. It's definitely not impossible, and like Korittke said, there are no laws in dreams. Perhaps the reason light switches don't tend to work is simply because we've heard that they don't work, so when we try them, we don't expect them to work. I can't think of any other logical reason why they wouldn't.

I have changed the night into day and vice versa, but never tried changing light indoors. The light's always on anyway.

Originally posted by Razorback
I was just wondering why people can't control the lighting of a place

I'm pretty sure it has to do with the area of your brain that's involved in perceiving/anticipating ambient light levels not being fully active while you're asleep. Similar to why you often can't focus on small text in a dream- that part of your brain is not fully active during sleep.

I've been able to change ambiant and direct light-levels in lucid dreams. It's scarcely even conscious. I just think that I'd prefer a scene to be better lit - and it is.

Much of LD control is confidence level, IMHO.

I totally agree. Confindence. Einstien doesn't have any say in your dreams unless you believe he does..
When I began to LD I was told you could not say your name in a dream. I thought to myself, Why. I did not believe it to be so and the next LD I had I screamed my name as loud as I could.
Another time, one of my coolest dreams, is when I flew into space. I could see the earth fading. I thought I would go the speed of light. As I sped up I was cathcing up to light rays from earth. It was cool. It ended quickly though.
When you think about it I still put limits on myself. What's 186,000 miles a second? Why not go twice the speed? Or three or four?

ah but then you'd get where you wanted to go so quickly that you might as well just teleport.

I can't use light switches in dreams. I don't why that is, but they don't work. It could just be the power of suggestion.

However, if I think that I want it turned on, it will come on. [usually it is already on though, and like to keep it that way]

Originally posted by Dangeruss
ah but then you'd get where you wanted to go so quickly that you might as well just teleport.

Or stand still and move the universe around you to get where you want. (sorry that was a bad pop culture inside joke)

Hmm, it's been my experience that anything can be controlled in lucide dreams including scene changes and lighting conditions...
you need only make an assumption that something will happen and it usually will.
assume that the light will change or that you will suddenly be somewhere else and it will usually happen. If this doesn't work then invent tools to aid the changes, like assume that there is a potion in your right hand that will transport you to X, bring your right hand into vision and drink/pour it.

Originally posted by SiliconMatrix
If this doesn't work then invent tools to aid the changes, like assume that there is a potion in your right hand that will transport you to X, bring your right hand into vision and drink/pour it.

Very good advice, and good first post! Welcome to Dream Views.

If this doesn't work then invent tools to aid the changes, like assume that there is a potion in your right hand that will transport you to X, bring your right hand into vision and drink/pour it.[/b]

Yeah, you can do it you just need to find a medium how, if you want to change the lighting get alight switch.

For some reason, although not lucid, I somehow managed to create both night and day in my dream last night. It was night all around me, but just above one area in a almost perfect circle it was perfect day sky complete with clouds! There was even an line on the ground where the night met day!

I'm not entirely sure what happened, I've love to be able to actually will that happening again!

I've had difficulty with light control too. sometimes the lightbulb in the rdreamroom would be dim, or not on at all. But i've found that if you don't think too hard, and merely expect it to happen, you can turn on lights by shielding your eyes and saying something like "wow, that's bright". sounds cheesy, yeah, but it works

I did it last night. To tell you the truth I didn't even think about it.

I was looking for a friend, and it was dark in my house. So I just thought it should be lighter, and it did.

tihihi

Like someone said before, Confidence.

It is your mind, and your dream. You control it.

Originally posted by Rapscallion
The light's always on anyway.

wow when i was smaller i had night mares (they were preety much lucid dreams as i could tell i was dreaming and i could move at my own will) and the lights wher allways off, and when ever i switched the light switch the light never worked. It scared me alot (poor me). and I couldnt get out of those dreams even when i tried!!!

I have another kind of problem (even though I also had problems with getting more light), it's that sometimes, one of my eyes remains closed, no matter what I do to make it open, and if I try too hard, I just awaken, of course my eyes fully opened (and it's not a FA, I always verify). I tried to focus on details, but generally, it just makes my other eye close and I usually awaken after...

I think this relates.

In one of my recent lucids, just after I had read billybob's post about changing everything in a lucid dream. I found myself in my Grandparents house, and I morphed the house into a hotel(instead of teleporting), but the lights in the hotel were still the same color as they had been in my granparents house(yellowish for some odd reason) and I didnt like it, so I made the lights become white.

Not dealing with light intensity, but rather, color.

Oh Floatingchicken i knowhow you feel it freeks me a lot if a light switch dosn't work if its in the middle of the the night dream and theirs a monster chasing you.
Oh even though i havnm't changed the lighting in my dreams i have had none lucid dreams where lighting changes in fact it was when the sun was crashing into earth and everything went white.
But i have had a lucid dream when i shoot out a ball of pure light and it acturly glowed. When i shoot it i missed the monster and it went in to this table. It then sent out a shock wave of light and as it went passed me my eyes went bright then back to the normal lighting.
Its just a matter of believeing and simple logic plus it helps that if you do have an object to help you it does work.

I haven't tried to control light, but I think that electronics don't work since your brain doesn't understand them well enough, so when you hit the light switch it is useless. Also, I am pretty sure it isn't the lighting itself that is too difficult to control, but the switches themselves. Lighting in a dream is generally irrelevant to other factors, and is just there. So while you may see the light on above your head, it is like ceiling lights in a video game; fake. What happens is you see the lightbulb or whatever glowing, as you know it belongs there, it is in your perception of how everything looks, but it really isn't doint anything, and actually what is happening is that the scene is lit with invisible lights that you can control as they are not physical, technical things, but are just...there, just like anything else that is non-tangible in your dream.

I've controlled light in my dreams before. I remember entering my room and thinking to myself, "the lights are way to low for me to find a pair of boxers." (Yes, i was naked.) So, i turned to the light switch and flicked it a couple times. Of coarse, nothing happened. Then i went over to the light and pointed my finger in its direction and shot some electricity. It made that sound that electricity makes at high voltage... vzzzt... and nothing. Then, one more try, and it worked. The light turned on, but it was still dim. I didn't even pay attention to the lighting levels, i just was happy i put some light on the situation.
Let there be light!

Getting the reply notice of a reply to this post just reminded me of an unrecalled LD I had a few days ago. I have no idea what actually happened, but i now remember trying to raise light levels, and succeeding a bit, but then trying to raise them even higher, and make the lighting more interesting, and failing, and then I guess waking up momentarily only to fall back asleep.

The Quality of a Light in a Dream is indicative of the Spiritual Altitude. The Condition of the Light -- the Luminous Ambiance -- is a barometer of a dreams position between the Moral and Spiritual Poles. You have Darkness and Evil on one end, and you have All Goodness and the Pure White Light on the other.

A morally neutral Dreamer cannot substantially screw with this system.

If you could screw with this Essential Element of Dream Coding, then your dreams would become effectively meaningless.

You would become like the Apostle Paul's Evil Angels who are able to Counterfeit the Glory of God Himself. And you know how full of Shit I think Paul was.