Thread: Recognizing dream scenes from previous dreams, that aren't in my dream journal?

I get this a lot too. Actually got me my last lucid as I was chasing a DC that I believed I had dreamt about the previous night but actually had never seen before. I also get sometimes where in the dream I feel like I have dreamed of what is going to happen. So a precognitive inside a dream.

I too don't know whether it has been dreamt before or if its just an illusion, but it is very interesting that it happens.

This type of thing happens to me a lot, recognizing dream scenes, DC's, objects, etc. I always get cocky in my dream if I'm being chased and I stumble upon a place that I remember from another dream because I think to myself that I know the layout of the place better then the people chasing me, and also know which people to avoid from my last visit to this dream scene (for instance the hotel workers who called the authorities on me last dream). It's super weird how I can remember things from past dreams yet never become lucid from it lol. I 'm assuming it is a normal thing for you to experience

Yeah, I have recurring dream signs that should make me lucid, but I still havent become lucid yet. However, this kind of recurrence has never happened to me before. The only way I could describe the feeling of discovering a place I dreamed about before, is deja vu. It confuses me that I have no waking life proof of this place, but still having my mind set that I had been there before.

Possibly a false memory? Like when you're in a dream with your "friend" who is someone you've never met before in your life.

I haven't thought about that. It could be a false memory. The idea that I knew the place so well, like the colors of the walls and the interior designs, may just be false. Definitely an option, but since I haven't had this before, I am still unsure.

It is definitely a false memory. I get these all the time; they are quite annoying! They are the brain's way of explaining "misplaced" events that would ultimately lead to lucidity. But we have other ways to outsmart the brain and get lucid!

Very interesting. If I have any more false memories, I would really like to discuss them. If this phenomenon can help me become lucid, then it is very important to me. But how would I realize if the memory is false? Maybe after the dream I can easily proove it, but what about when its currently happening?

I sometimes have "false memories" during my dreams, which I define as situations in which I "remember" something happening earlier in the same dream that upon awakening I suspect never "really" happened. (Sorry about the scare quotes, but these words are just stand-ins since we don't have any terms that are more accurate for the phenomena in question.) Often this takes the form of deja vu, that is, during the dream I have the impression that something that has just happened has already happened once or twice before during the same dream sequence.

However, I also have recurring memories of dream scenes that happened years ago... decades even... long before I ever started journaling or even dreaming as a deliberate practice... that I'm convinced are from actual dreams. The difference is that these flashes tend to come to me during the waking state. It's more visual than anything else, little flashes of scenery. The strangest thing is how similar it is to flashes of digital imagery I get from MMOs I played for many years. Perhaps these are closer to "acid flashbacks" than anything else, though I never did enough acid to say for sure if it's the same kind of phenomenon!

You really have to be aware of everything that is going on in the dream to realize the memory is false (That's what I think, anyway.) That's what makes them so hard to beat. Normally in dreams, we just go with the flow and usually get convinced that the memory is, in fact, real. Only upon awakening do we ever realize that the event never happened. I personally have never questioned a false memory and then gone lucid as a result (I have been practicing lucid dreaming for about a year.) I'm sure some people react to false memories and go lucid, but they are most likely highly experienced lucid dreamers. I'm not saying that the average person can't do this; I'm just speculating. False memories are just too difficult to challenge from what I've experienced. Don't be discouraged; there are still many ways to have lucid dreams; false memories are just among the most difficult ways. And who knows, with practice, you may well be able to get lucid using false memories. Everyone is different!
P.S. I find that confidence is a sure-fire way to become lucid. If you think to yourself throughout the day, "I will have lucid dreams. I am capable," you will be having them in no time! Do this in addition to whatever method(s) works for you.

Originally Posted by OUTC0ME

Upon first seeing this scene while I was dreaming, I remembered being here before and the story behind it, which contained a lot of details that I thought were written down.

Upon waking up after the end of the dream, I write down everything I could, and skim through my past month of recollection. To my bewilderment, no such dream was recalled in the detail that I remembered it during my dream. it appears that I dreamed about this place before, but never wrote about it. The only thing I can assume is that I had a hard time recalling this dream and its details when I woke up, which means it happened on a gray-day (my symbol for no recollection after waking up).

I think it may be a mix of both a real and a false memory. Perhaps you already dreamed that and it corresponds to those days of not good recall, and as you use to write your dreams, you remember writing it down too.

Also, maybe people we think we know and seem to have a strong connection with, could be people we knew in past lives if there is such a thing. We access memories of this life during dreams, why couldn't we access memories of previous lives?