Thread: "Try to stay calm, but this is my dream" - A discussion about Dream Characters

Originally Posted by littledreamer

I don't believe DCs are "real" because:

1.) You can will them into saying and doing whatever you, the dreamer, wish. In the real world, you cannot simply think something is going to happen to make it happen.

2.) If you see a DC while dreaming, look away, then look back, theres a good chance the mind could "forget" some of the features it was projecting onto the DC and you may see a slightly different character. Same deal with looking at text while dreaming. Your mind can't keep up with it all since it is not a solid, physical world. Your mind is creating it all. In the physical world, your senses feed off extremely stable external stimuli. In the dream world, your senses feed off of internal stimuli, something that is solely reliant on the limits of your brain.

3.) In dreams, with experience (which I have yet to acquire), you can create or summon any variety of person or persons you wish. On top of that, you could edit the features of a DC. In the waking world, you cannot think up a person you wish to hang with, then create them. You also cannot change the way a person looks at will (unless you have their consent, a good surgeon, and lots of cash).

EDIT: Not to mention the personalities of DCs are also completely controllable. This is also not possible in "reality."

LD

I’m not a big believer that DC’s are real in any sentient, independent way but, just for yuks, can I counter your points with stuff based on DC encounters I’ve had?

1. Over the long term, I would bet that I failed to will DC’s into doing what I wanted them to do more often than I succeeded… probably by a 3:1 margin. They can be a fairly independent lot! That said, it could also be argued that my will on occasion simply wasn’t strong enough to make changes; or perhaps my dreaming mind was toying with me. But what if it was something else?

2. Logically sound, and I agree. However, if I had a nickel for every DC I turned away from (usually because they were annoying, or interrupting my plans), only to find them standing there, often with arms folded and a bit of a smirk on their faces, after I turned back, I would have several dollars indeed!. My favorite version of this are the characters who grab at my ankles when I’m trying to fly out of a dream scene…I even had a character once (a young woman/stranger) who stayed exactly the same in three separate dreams and was even flying next top me once some ten minutes after I thought I had finally shaken her. Oh, and she answered my questions consistently and always with words I would not have come up with on my own. But that I suppose, all belongs somewhere else.

3. I’ve found that this is a lot harder than it sounds. I’ve found that DC’s, even after summoned or assembled straight out of dream clay (that was fun) tend to develop their own features and (albeit limited) personalities pretty quickly, and they are hard to change after that. The power to choose and define your friends might be stronger in dreaming life (is it really not there at all in waking life? I wonder), but it seems to me that it is more a power of suggestion, not ultimate creation.

All anecdotal, I know, and might only reflect certain deficiencies in my own LD scene management, but I thought I’d toss it in anyway!

Both of your arguments have great points and are filled with examples to support your data. That in itself is testament to the fact that none of us know. The main goal of this thread was not to persuade any of you to believe my theory, granted that was the secondary objective, it was more for getting the point across that NONE of us know & to say a belief, an educated guess that is based upon OUR OWN experiences, is a fact is just plain ignorance. I'm saying that there is a great number of people who would argue that DC's do have a some form of consciousness & free will & that the "Dream World" does have many similar properties to that of the "Real World." Some of them would be the Yogi's that created Dream Yoga & some Tibetan Monks; among many others. Because these people would challenge your belief is reason enough for the possibility that they are right.