Thread: What's your motivation for lucid dreaming?

It has been quoted "every man wish himself god, good thing it will never happen" it's like becoming god in your own little world. What you say is law. And the really good part is, no matter what you do your not hurting anyone by your decisions, you could blow up planets, rape a million girls a minute, rob 10 billion banks, none of it will do anything to real people.

For me, wanting to dream lucidly is sort of secondary to wanting to experience (or rather, remember) dreaming in the first place. A bit under a year ago I was really depressed and wanted to.... escape this stupid world. I'd wake up every day and be disappointed that I woke up again. Dreams became more important to me than waking life because I hated my waking life, and dreams were a way to get away from it, for a time.

I ended up remembering dreaming most days, just because I'd decided dreams were important, I guess. I normally keep a journal of my waking life, and one day after I'd had a really interesting dream, it just seemed natural to write it in my journal. Then I started keeping a regular dream journal, so I wouldn't forget my important dream experiences. Interestingly, my motivation for keeping a waking journal turned into the same one I have for keeping a dream journal: so I won't forget.

I remembered having read somewhere, after my first, frightening experience with sleep paralysis, that good dream recall was an important first step in learning to dream lucidly, so I decided to try lucid dreaming as well. I'm not depressed anymore, but my dreams are still as, or more, important to me than my waking life. I want to dream lucidly to explore and experiment and have fun with dreams. I want to be lucid to have a more profound and interesting experience of dreams. I wonder if there is a waking equivalent to lucidity, and, if so, how to attain that, as well...

Originally Posted by Dthoughts

No it's not.. -,- it's empowering!

Oh yeah it definitely is.. but imo it shouldn't be a way out of real-world problems. Not judging either way

Originally Posted by Puffin

Action, adrenaline, adventure. Exploration and being able to discover new aspects of dreams is also a big motivator for me.

Can dreams really trigger release of adrenaline? I always thought that feeling was a false impression from the brain. that's cool

Originally Posted by Midori

my dreams are still as, or more, important to me than my waking life.

Well I hope your waking life becomes better.. not that dreams aren't important. lol

Originally Posted by Electronegative

Well I hope your waking life becomes better.. not that dreams aren't important. lol

Oh, it has. It's pretty good actually. It's just that, well, I don't want to get too off-topic into philosophy, but how do we really know it's waking that's "real" and dreaming that isn't? If, in fact, one is "real" and the other isn't? Could they not both be "real" or both be illusion? Why shouldn't dreaming be just as important as waking, then? Just because everyone in waking reality says dreams aren't "real"? They both seem quite real to me while I'm experiencing them, and that's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by Midori

Oh, it has. It's pretty good actually. It's just that, well, I don't want to get too off-topic into philosophy, but how do we really know it's waking that's "real" and dreaming that isn't? If, in fact, one is "real" and the other isn't? Could they not both be "real" or both be illusion? Why shouldn't dreaming be just as important as waking, then? Just because everyone in waking reality says dreams aren't "real"? They both seem quite real to me while I'm experiencing them, and that's good enough for me.

I know your questions are more rhetorical than anything, but I feel like answering them anyway . I've heard the "how do we know what our true reality is" statement a lot before. And i'm no one to tell you what's real to YOU, but there IS a difference between the 2.

During your waking life, or reality as we've come to define it, you are limited by physical laws (quantum mechanics in essence). In the dream world you can fly, die, and even create worlds without limits. These worlds however, are just temporary neurological thoughts produced from the brain that end when your physical (and 'real') body awakes. It's not like you can equally compare a developed physical world with proof of evolution, physical and chemical laws, etc, with a 'world' that science has proved to be a mere activity in the brain.

I hope this doesn't sound close-minded or harsh, but sometimes I feel like people believe what they wish to believe. But as someone that believes in a higher power, I bet people say the same about me...

Sorry for the rant. I'm glad your life's getting pretty good!

Originally Posted by Electronegative

I know your questions are more rhetorical than anything, but I feel like answering them anyway . I've heard the "how do we know what our true reality is" statement a lot before. And i'm no one to tell you what's real to YOU, but there IS a difference between the 2.

I absolutely agree there's a difference. One is way more consistent than the other.

It's not like you can equally compare a developed physical world with proof of evolution, physical and chemical laws, etc, with a 'world' that science has proved to be a mere activity in the brain.

Ah, but your argument uses as a premise the idea that one's experience of waking reality is based on some physical, objective world. If you start with the assumption that everything you experience might be mere illusion (e.g. you might be in the Matrix), then science doesn't really prove anything, because it's based on observation and experimentation and such. In other words, we're both starting from different assumptions, so it's not surprising we've come to different conclusions.

I hope this doesn't sound close-minded or harsh, but sometimes I feel like people believe what they wish to believe.

I totally agree with you there.

Sorry for the rant. I'm glad your life's getting pretty good!

Thanks! And don't feel sorry for the rant. I really enjoy discussing stuff like this. Although maybe starting a new thread would be a good idea, before we derail this one too much. I would have started a new thread already, but I had an attack of lazy.

Originally Posted by Electronegative

Can dreams really trigger release of adrenaline? I always thought that feeling was a false impression from the brain. that's cool

I'm assuming they can do something along those levels, since many people sometimes wake up from nightmares or exciting dreams with a rapid heartbeat. But even if dreams don't physically cause adrenaline to be released, I can definitely feel intense adrenaline in a lucid dream if I'm flying at high speeds.

I want to just see how my friends are in dreams, chill with them, do drugs, just basic everyday activities in my own world. Exploring is fun too.

Why would you want to do things that you already do in real life?