Non-lucid conscious control?

I'm sorry if someone's already asked this, I just thought it was interesting. Is it possible to gain complete conscious control of your dream but still accept it as if it was really happening? As in, not realizing it's a dream? Like, if you were, say, dreaming you were a cat, you'd really believe you were a cat, but you would be able to move and stuff. Is that what "low-level lucidity" is?

Or is it just called a dream?

I'm still working on recalling a single dream (patience, patience), so I have hardly any idea of what to expect or what the experience is. Maybe I just asked a completely stupid question. Something to laugh about, in that case ^_^

~Tamias

Not a stupid question at all!

Yes, it is possible to have complete control over a dream yet have no idea its a dream. To me its a pretty odd feeling.

Usually people classify it as low level lucidity, because there seems to be something there that people just don't recognize, that they tend to be questioning the environment, but not enough to know its a dream.

That's actually a very good question. Dream control and lucid dreaming are not the same thing. It is true that they usually go hand-in-hand but, that's not always the case. So it's completely possible to have very good dream control with no lucidity. It's also possible to be very lucid and have no control.

One well-known (among dream research/literature) civilization that has made dream control an integral part of their culture is the Senoi tribe (I forget their location at the moment). They teach their children dream control from a very young age. In fact, dreams are very highly regarded in their culture for a number of reasons. But, contrary to what you might think, lucid dreaming is not a normal part of their dream world.

Wow... I never thought of the Senoi ^_^ I read about them once, I think they're from Malaysia. Thanks for replying!

~Tamias

never experianced this myself but it sounds interesting. ive had dreams where i was aware i was dreaming but still thought it was real (weird huh?) never had controll of it though

I once knew that what I was experiencing was not real, but my mind came up with another explanation. Somehow, I thought I was daydreaming in bed before I went to sleep. At least for a couple minutes until I decided that that was a completely idiotic idea and realized it was a dream.

I've had lucid dreams before where I was conscious of the dream, and actually tried to take active control over it, but was unable to! Like I couldn't move when I tried to control it, I was sort of frozen, almost like a glitch.

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Originally Posted by Jdog

never experianced this myself but it sounds interesting. ive had dreams where i was aware i was dreaming but still thought it was real (weird huh?) never had controll of it though

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That's considered "pre-lucid" or "semi-lucid".

I never have complete control even in lucids.

But there are some non-lucid dreams I have where things happen more or less as I expect them to happen, or I sneak/wish my way out of tough situations, and I really still have no idea I'm dreaming.

When speaking of dream control, what's being referred to is an element of conscious control, as opposed to being carried along with what your dream mind determines. For example, when you learn that you should always face your fears in dreams then face a demon that's trying to attack you, you are exercising dream control because you consciously decided to do that. Even though you may not realise that you're in a dream, you consciously remembered that you are to face monsters that try to harm you.

In other words, with dream control, you are consciously deciding to bring elements from waking memory into play. The distinction is that you aren't simply living in the moment and making a rash, reflexive reaction. You're making a reflective choice.

- Just a general comment and example.

This is exactly what happened to me last night, and i was trying to figure out what it was. This thread had perfect timing lol Thanks

I've been wondering about this myself... Lately when I dream everything becomes incredibly vivid, and I am "aware", but I don't realise I'm dreaming and assert control. I usually ask myself: "How in the crap did I get here? Where is here?"

I'm a very heavy sleeper. =p I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Yes, good question!

It used to happen to me all the time when i was a kid. I mean, not full control, but a great deal of control.

I used to get an intuition that it wasn't normal, but i enjoyed it anyway, and i impressed DCs.

Later i learned to recognize that as a sign that it was a dream, but still now, in non-lucids, i sometimes get the intuition that i have power over things, and that i can bend the reality a little.

This has been happening a lot to me lately.

I have those sometimes. And then I wake up and laugh (or sob, depending on the dream) at my acceptance of controlled luck.

"Fly, Abra, fly! Here I gooooo! ... Hey. Why am I flying? ... Oh! That's right! I'm an X-Man! Er, X-Woman."

I had my first lucid today and I had control of it, but I still beleived that certain people were actually real. But I was still lucid because I decided when to wake up.

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Originally Posted by devilkitty999

I had my first lucid today and I had control of it, but I still beleived that certain people were actually real. But I was still lucid because I decided when to wake up.

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Congratulations! Don't worry about the "thinking dream characters were real" part. Believe it or not, that happens to most lucid dreamers in most of their lucid dreams. The ones where you explicitly know that the world around you, the people around you, the sights, sounds, sensations and tastes are all constructs of your own mind are the minority of lucid dreams. Those are among the highest level.

Keep up the good work.

That's strange, I always assumed that everyone had complete control over their own actions. I have complete and utter control over my thought processes and physical actions in dreams. The only problem is that I accept it as reality.

It's sort of like how a natural Lucid Dreamer assumes that everyone can control their own dreams. :uhm:

I tried to make a classification system that encompasses this if you wanna see it =) The link is in my sig.