Pain in Lucid Dreams?

[Elite Dreamer]

I've become interested in researching into a new side of LDing. That is, experienceing pain. I don't want to sound emo but it is an interesting concept. Say if you picked up a knife in the dream world and stabbed it into your leg. Does your mind produce the sensation of pain? If so, does lucidity make it realistic? If so, does your brain produce this pain in your physical leg? Surely like everything else in a true Lucid Dream, experiencing the sensation of pain would be as realistic as the real world. Or does this have to do with your amount of dream control? This brings me to another interesting point. If pain is acheivable, could death be a possibility? Although experiencing pain is something everyone has done in their waking life, could it be possible to die in a lucid dream? In 'The Matrix' movie, if you die there, you die in the real world. If you died in a lucid dream, would your brain still function in the real world? Without the mind, the body should cease to function. Just some things I'd like to bring up, maybe it can spark some theoretical conversation into the world of Lucid Dreaming.

[BraveryOnions]

I asked this on a different forum, and I was told that usually pain is just uncomfortable, not painful. And if you die, usually the dream ends and you appear somewhere else, or wake up.

[Halocuber]

I asked this on a different forum, and I was told that usually pain is just uncomfortable, not painful. And if you die, usually the dream ends and you appear somewhere else, or wake up. I have died before in a dream and I was in a ghostly form.

[Oros]

I have got pain in dreams. I don't remember why i got this pain in the dream, but it hurted so much in my stomach that i woke up. ok, it was in the morning so i guess i was going to wake up any second but it was felling pretty bad in the dream. And yeah, you can die in a dream. That can end up severals of ways, False Awakening, OOBE, becoming a ghost, beeing able to rewind the dream and so on. You don't die in real work if you die in a dream. even if matrix seem to be LD related eveything ain't like Lucid dream, but not a bad thought anyway. Quite logic.

[Dash]

Pain is different, unless if you're having a cramp and dreaming through it or something; in my experience.

[Shift]

For me it absolutely varies. I've felt the worst pain in non-lucids, and it felt just as real as it would in RL. In lucids it can hurt a lot or not at all. I had one dream where I was being shot, and getting hit by the bullets, but it sort of just felt like bouncy balls hitting me. That's what cued me in to lucidity. I've had others where I have felt pain. I think that, and death in LDs, are based on the same thing... what you expect of the dream. If you expect things to hurt, they will. And if you expect to be a ghost, or wake up, or have a false awakening, then you will. But I've never died in a lucid dream, I'm just stretching my experience from other aspects of LDing. For me there is no reason for your physical body to die just because you died in a dream. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense. What would cause your heart to stop beating and your organs to stop their various tasks? It seems more likely that if anything, you would end up a vegetable while your body continued to live than vice versa. And even then there is no reason for that to happen. Haven't you ever died in a non-lucid? I always just wake up. I'm going to try to kill myself and see what happens in my next lucid, though, because now I'm curious too. It'd be fun to be a ghost, I've phased through objects before and it was awesome

[JET73L]

It is possible to feel pain in dreams, or at least construct the feeling of being in pain, even if it;'s not the actual physical process. I've been stabbed before, in the chest, and it freaking hurt. Woke up as I died, though, but it would make sense that if, in a dream, you thought you were dead but knew you were still alive enough that your body didn;t bother waking up do a "mortalito check," you could probably spend some time in a dream similar to whatever you consider an afterlife. But yeah, it is possible to experience something indistinguishable from pain in dreams, even if you may not actually, physically feel it.

[seeker28]

I've experience a lot of kinds of pain in my LDs. Some of it was worse than any pain I've ever had in waking life. But a lot of it was dull and just uncomfortable. A while ago I was eaten to death by a pack of wolves / coyotes (I did it to face a fear) but the pain was pretty much nonexistant. When I died I just woke up.

[ray]

heh,heh, you people are pretty lucky then......i don't want to freak people out but i have woken up with wounds in the same place as i got hurt in my dream.although every time it is a lot less in the real world than it is in the dream.i have a couple scars from my dreams they weren't very deep but they scarred.there is one on my left arm from a dream where i was getting attacked from a tiger and it bit me.i woke up and i had blood on my arm...it freaked me out because for a second i thought there was a tiger in my room. but yeah one of my friends gets hurt from her dreams too so i know it's not just me.pain can be anything for me in dreams from barely knowing whats happening to excruciatingly real.

[The Cusp]

You only feel pain in dreams if you stop to focus on your wounds. If there is something else to distract you from the dream wounds, or your attention is focused elsewhere, you won't feel any pain.

[BraveryOnions]

I'm not sure if I believe you, ray. I don't think it's like The Matrix. Are you a sleep walker? Maybe you scratched yourself?

[Abra]

I've had stuff happen in sleep that translates into dreams. Bug bites that I've sleep-scratched, bruises appearing (probably from thrashing... Happens very rarely), temperature... But I've had some internal stuff happen, too. In a few dreams, I have been caught or grabbed, and when I wake up, the caught muscle is paralyzed or cramped for a minute. I dislike that. In a good lucid dream, you should feel no pain. If you are in a good lucid state, you know that since the experience isn't real, no pain should result. Even if we forget this, pain is usually omitted as a self-defense (this happens even in non-lucids). If you focus on pain, it will happen, though, unless your intuitive will to be safe is stronger than your curious will to cause harm.

[ray]

I'm not sure if I believe you, ray. I don't think it's like The Matrix. Are you a sleep walker? Maybe you scratched yourself? lol, i'm used to not being believed so i don't care if u don't-no offence.i used to sleepwalk but don't anymore , everyone asks me if i scratch myself and after it happened a few times i removed everything that could cut me...it still happens.idk what happens so i get cut, i have seriously tried to figure it out but i can't.

[EVIL JOE]

It might just come down to expectation. If you expect there to be pain, there will be pain. If I ever get rolling on lucid dreaming, one thing I want to try is to feel immense pain, something so horribly painfull that no one's ever felt it before. It will suck balls if it works (until I wake up of course). Not that I want to feel the pain, but it should be interesting knowing that although I'm being agonizingly tortured, I'm perfectly fine. In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Laberge states that while lucid dreaming, our minds act the same way they would if we were awake. Like if you are jumping or running in a dream, your mind does exactly what it would do if you were actually running or jumping in real life. I wonder what affect excrutiating pain would have on your mind if you were to lucid dream it. Hopefully it isn't horrible enough to traumatize someone.

[BraveryOnions]

lol, i'm used to not being believed so i don't care if u don't-no offence.i used to sleepwalk but don't anymore , everyone asks me if i scratch myself and after it happened a few times i removed everything that could cut me...it still happens.idk what happens so i get cut, i have seriously tried to figure it out but i can't. Maybe you should try recording video of your sleep?

[Shift]

It might just come down to expectation. If you expect there to be pain, there will be pain. If I ever get rolling on lucid dreaming, one thing I want to try is to feel immense pain, something so horribly painfull that no one's ever felt it before. It will suck balls if it works (until I wake up of course). Not that I want to feel the pain, but it should be interesting knowing that although I'm being agonizingly tortured, I'm perfectly fine. In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Laberge states that while lucid dreaming, our minds act the same way they would if we were awake. Like if you are jumping or running in a dream, your mind does exactly what it would do if you were actually running or jumping in real life. I wonder what affect excrutiating pain would have on your mind if you were to lucid dream it. Hopefully it isn't horrible enough to traumatize someone. Well, from my own personal experience I've never felt pain that I haven't actually felt in real life. In one dream I was getting shot, but the bullets felt like rubber balls because I've never been shot. But in other dreams, the pain was carried over from what I have felt before. Like, I had a dream I was being beaten by these military guys, and it felt very realistic. The only time that's ever happened was once when my brother beat me up, and it felt very similar to having the breath knocked out of me when I was 5... Also pain is more realistic in my non-lucids. I did waste a lucid trying to escape from pain I was sure would come if I got stabbed, though, and then I lost the lucidity

[Lunica]

in my dream last night I was about to get shot.. I put my hand up and felt the bullet go through my hand into my head.. but the pain in my hand was hot.. was the real sensation of what hot was.. I remember thinking about it. It is very uncomfortable .. its like the pain sensation without the pain .. if that makes sense :/ I dunno

[seeker28]

ray, I think it is possible for the mind to cause wounds on the body, if you belive strongly. Everyone has heard accounts of paralyzed people or people with cancer, etc "thinking" themselves well. If that can happen, why not the reverse? I've had bruises in the AM after a night of violent dreams, but I'm not sure if that comes from thrashing around (which I aparently do) or if it was a mind-over-matter sort of effect.

[ray]

yeah i have heard of that...so it could be the same thing with dreams?hmmm...so all i have to do is completely believe that my dream isn't real and nothing is really happening...yay,no more injuries here i come!

[onyxdreamer]

I have had pains in dreams, usually non-lucid dreams where I wake up and still feel the pain. I believe sometimes the dream translates into something physical. I remember when I was a teen and I was sharing a bed with a girlfriend.. I happened to be having an erotic dream. In my dream, I took my boyfriend's hand and put it on my breast. Even though we're supposed to be under sleep paralysis, I unconsciously reached out, took my girlfriend's hand and put it on my breast. Immediately, I woke up, apologized profusely, was embarrassed etc. I believe that sometimes, the brain can send stimuli to a nerve which can actually cause real life pain. Now to the topic of dying while asleep. I hate to consider this, but I think it can be possible. Have you ever woken up with your heart racing because of a dream? What if someone with a weak heart were to have some sort of arrhythmia based on a dream? I don't know.

[supreme]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I have never hurt myself in a LD. But now im going to try it and see what happens! And you cant die in a LD but what if you really tried to die?? For instance, laying down on a train tracks and letting a train run you over?? I myself would probably wake up a the last second being too afraid to find out. Anyway the next time im in a ld im going to pinch myself hard and see it it hurts or not. If it does then i dont think ill go any further with it. If it doesnt then ill try something worse, like stabbing my arm or something. Ill let you all know what happens.

[allensig3654]

Last night I had a dream I got shot three times in the stomach. I woke up feeling out of breath and had pain in my stomach. Ouch

[i make it rain]

I don't think that you can possible die in a lucid and make your real self die. With pain, your brain has a pain mechanism that maybe can be accidentally stimulated in real life while dreaming. Your brain doesn't have a die mechanism. There is no "damn, I had a good run" switch in the brain that can be triggered. It just runs until it doesn't get enough oxygen or something. I have never felt pain in a lucid. I have felt a lot of pain in non-lucids, though. Actually, I have developed the lucid habit of skydiving which is fun. I just belly flop from 100 ft to the ground and go again. No pain.

[Shift]

I don't think that you can possible die in a lucid and make your real self die. With pain, your brain has a pain mechanism that maybe can be accidentally stimulated in real life while dreaming. Your brain doesn't have a die mechanism. There is no "damn, I had a good run" switch in the brain that can be triggered. It just runs until it doesn't get enough oxygen or something. Well there is programmed cell death, but that's only individual cells, not a whole organ like the brain

[Hakura7]

that does sound interesting..hmm i dont know