Morality in Lucid Dreaming: The D&D Alignment Perspective

The game, Dungeons and Dragons describes people's morals in a simple clear way like no other description I have found. Just with two words, a person's basic morality can be understood regardless of religion or lack thereof.

D&D Alignments CLICK

How does morality change when we are dreaming? What about when we become lucid? How does morality of the waking mind contrast with that of the dreaming mind?

What do you think about the results of the survey?

Do you notice any patterns?

How many people do you think will have to take the survey before we see a consistent pattern?

Do you think other cultures would have similar results?

What culture do you come from?

How does the society in which you live view dreams?

Do you think we should behave morally in lucid dreams?

Please answer the last question.

You don't have to answer all these questions. This is just to get the conversation started.

I think that based on your moral standings, your subconscious shows you the true facts, albeit will probably be unclear to you at the moment, for example if you like to lie and cheat, you may find yourself in a poker game, or getting mugged.

As for the question, however, it really depends of your definition of "morality", do these people mean morality in a sense that is... I'm being watched, I have to do good, or is it in a sense of... Yes! I would love to help you! I'm sure that most people strive to be good, or neutral good, but I'm not sure what effect it would have on your dream worlds if you went around for a week and decided just to apply the douche bag component to every situation. I think, in a sense, not to say the word "should" but we might simply strive to act like our better counter part in the dream. This is difficult unless your lucid, because in a regular dream, you just follow the plot, and make decisions along the way. If we act evil in our dreams, I don't think that it will have any adverse effects on our waking bodies, perhaps it may implant a certain way of thinking into our rational minds, but nothing "Inception" like. Now, if we are lucid while dreaming, I don't think we should give a damn about morality, because we know fully what we are doing, and therefore there cannot be any unexpected results. Unless, however, your mind decides to 'betray' you and sends a group of mercenaries to kill you and wake you up from the dream. That would be... Bad.

I think that this is something very interesting and thought provoking. I'd like to see the inputs of others on this as well.

In real life I'm a law abiding citizen. I love to tease people for a laugh but as soon as I get the feeling a person's hurt or close to it, I say sorry and tell him/her why I did it. I want to be liked by most, and even though I have myself as priority number one, I care alot about others around me.

Now in games and dreams I'm a different person. I know it's only a game, not reality. No one is hurt by my actions, so therefore I can be a real egoistical jerk. From lack of control over my life at the moment, I've begun to really like having it in dreams.

I haven't killed DC's that I've had longer conversations with, I would never rape for example. But being evil for my own gain is something I don't have trouble with at the moment. I want to change that though, and one of my long term goals is to become "good" in my dreams.

To answer your question: To an extent. Enough to make sure we stay sane and isn't filled with hate.

I do things in LDs that are fun for me with no thought towards Morals. I don't care about morals in dreams and I don't want to change that. I would never "rape" a DC as seeing a person in pain over my actions would qualify as a nightmare for me, so I wouldn't enjoy it in a dream nor would I enjoy it when I look back upon it and wake up. However, killing people, stealing, etc etc is fine because my DCs never care, so I don't feel bad, so I still have fun.

There are video games designed to make killing fun, so why shouldn't I do this in a dream. In fact, killing other people's characters in online games in unhealthy for their stress levels, whereas killing DCs my own dream affects no one outside of myself.