JesterKK: Dream Control

[JesterKK]

Part One: I've stopped recording my dreams for a little over a week after a bout of depression. While being depressed my dream recall has got significantly worse. However I can still remember a few dreams without writing them down. I have amassed very few trends from my dream experiences. But I want to talk about correlations. People: Friends who I see all the time in real life can appear in almost any situation. They are as mobile as I am. However, people I see less often tend to appear in the setting in which I see them most often. People who I rarely see and who do not have a frequent location tend to appear when I am somewhere new or unrecognisable(like a theatre) or on public transport. People who I know for their proffession appear in places of association e.g. teachers, tend only to appear in schools. (supporting schema idea). People who I do not recognise at all sometimes appear, but my interactions with them are very limited and unstable (they tend to transform into someone else) Places: I usually have an idea of where I am in dreams. However, my idea is rarely accurate to the place. Often my dream environment is completely different to how it is IRL, but I assume that the places are the same. I often have dreams where I am on days out in places which I do not recognise at all and do not assume to recognise. Less often, I have dreams where I am in places which are very unusual looking and almost fantastical. If I am in such a place, the plot tends to be more farfetched. Depending on how often I play an RPG, I can have dreams where I am half playing, half inside a game. Plots: Often relating to a recent or current concern or happening in my waking life. I expected schemata to have a great deal of influence on the plot, but looking through my journal I can't see many obvious connections. The connections could just be a lot more random or subtle than I would expect. Part Two: I have come across the schema theory of learning in a psychology book I read a while ago. I can't remember it too accurately but I think it said children learn some small simple set of rules, and then they apply them to objects or situations of similarity. I think the example given was using a CD player. If we learn to use one CD player, we are better able to learn to use others because they follow similar rules. We apply our schema for the first CD player to the next one, and even if the buttons are located in different places, and the devices look completely different, we can learn to use it faster than someone who has not used any CD players before. A schema is a set of rules created in association with a stimulus. So, when applied to dreams, we can use schemata to create dream worlds which function differently and have their own rules, and because this is a process we do naturally we don't have to consciously deliberate over the minute details of our world (which would compromise its stability). It sounds like a quite convincing hypothesis despite my lack of evidence in my own dreams to validate it. The example about watching fantasy films was interesting. we consciously construct a schema, but we subconsciously use it once it has been made. I think these will definitely be useful tools once I'm lucid, but inducing lucidity isn't easy for me. This actually reminds me of Wittgenstein's 'language games'. Some language is meaningless for those who don't play the game. What does 'check mate' mean to someone who has never played chess? But it makes perfect sense to a chess player. Learning a schema could just be like learning a new game.

[Serenity]

People who I do not recognise at all sometimes appear, but my interactions with them are very limited and unstable (they tend to transform into someone else) Over all, I'm like you when it comes to people, except for this... I hang out with random DC's all the time, like we're besties! It's really strange, actually. In one dream, I couldn't even think of this one girl's name, but I figured "Oh well, she acts like she knows me, so I'll go with it!"

[JesterKK]

Is that both in lucids and non-lucids? I had a dream where I was in some garden talking to someone who was meant to be my Dad. He transformed into a couple of characters from some show I watch and I didn't find it weird at all. I'm slightly struggling with getting lucid nowadays. I've noticed that I've started to handle situations in my dreams quite differently. I am more aware of my behaviour, and the dreams seem much more realistic. I act more grown up now whereas I used to be really immature and volatile in my dreams. This normalisation of dreams is making it hard for me to recognise dream signs. But back to the point about random DCs. I notice that I often interact with people I don't recognise. But they remind me of people and sometimes they sort of transform into that person, but it isn't always a complete transformation. It's like I half know who they are and I half don't. I had a dream last night where I was walking around my school with my friend. I wasn't sure where I was going because everything looked very different. I said, 'I've only been here 7 years and I still don't know my way round.' Still haven't restarted my DJ yet. I have lots of things on my mind atm. Bringing it back to dream control, I have had a few non-lucids the last few nights where I've fought people with ease. I started using the drunken fist style in one of them, and I pwned. Now I just need to recognise how weird it is that I can do it.

[Serenity]

I do get this lot. Mostly in non-lucids... where sometimes DC's will partially become people I know. Something WakingNomad told me once, a long time ago, was as we start becoming more aware during being awake, the less "dreamy quality" and more realistic our dreams become. My philosophy to that is to train myself to just RC when I think about dreaming. I've noticed that I can and have dreamed about entirely normal situations, and managed to become lucid once. I also tend to struggle a bit with lucidity these days. My DILDs aren't as frequent as they were when I first joined DV. So, I'm working on DEILDs, atm