Thread: Thoughts On Spending a Lifetime in the Dreamworld?

Personally, I'd never want this. The dream realm is too inconsistent and the chance of it "backfiring" is too great.. meaning the possibility of engulfing yourself in a 80 year to forever long nightmare seems very possible. Many of the times I go lucid I end of letting my mind wander a little to far and, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, "the Fear" gets to me. Once I've maydayed my dream like that, I find it almost impossible to recover from unless, of course, I wake myself up. No thank you. I'm more comfortable with my boring, predictable 30 minute - 1 hour lucids.

To address your other question, no, I don't think anyone should have any moral hang ups about wanting to lucid dream. Maybe if it's forever, that'd be like throwing oneself into a permanent coma.. suicide, as far as anyone besides the dreamer is concerned. Intentional lucid dreaming can definitely be considered a form of escapism in the way any drug can (alcohol, weed, etc.), but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In small doses escapism is a perfectly natural desire, but it's my opinion that when it starts it detriment other aspects of your life that you have some cause for concern. You shouldn't be trying to escape life's troubles with lucid dreaming, you should be trying to turn the tables on them. Trapping yourself in a lucid dream for the rest of your life is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most cowardly (and foolish) things a person can do.

There is such a beauty to reality that lucid dreams could never hold a finger to. Interpersonal relationships, real human emotions, accomplishment. Why would you want to trade that for a lonely room with no doors and no windows?

Anyways, I hope this doesn't seem like too harsh of a response to your first post. It's a great question that should spark some good discussion, so for that I commend you. Welcome to DreamViews, HeSpeaks7! I hope you find this place to be as warm and friendly as I do.

Originally Posted by HeSpeaks7

I was wondering what the active dreaming community thought about spending lifetimes in a dream. As in, you consciously decide to stay in a dream for, say, 80 dreamtime years. Living out each day, no blank spots.

That's exactly what we all already do..

Originally Posted by HeSpeaks7

Have you done it? What 's it like? Does it get boring or is it infinity entertaining? Could you forget your dreaming and live in it forever? Is it morally right to escape life this way? Or can spending a lifetime in-dream not be escapism? Just any ideas on it are cool too.

Life is what you make it.. Most people spend it entirely bored, others find it infinitely entertaining.

I know that's probably not the answer you were expecting

If this were possible (it might be, I don't really know), I might not spend an entire life time in it. I might spend a year, or several years. I also wouldn't do it before an exam, or a test or something, because I would totally forget what I had been studying when I awaken.
Personally I am fine with 30 min - 1 hour dreams.

Out of all the time you're alive, less than half is spent sleeping, and of that about 20% (in adults) is spent in REM. In the REM stage the longest you get at one time is about an hour or two, this can't be stretched too far without "blank spots". So it's near impossible to be in a dream for a lifetime, also it's being awake that makes dreams special, being in one all the time would suck. The discussion of long dreams has been had in a different thread, if your still curious look up dream time or something like that, the longest dream anyone has claimed to have has been one year (I think) and that was said over the internet, so it might not be true. Also if I could offer some personal advice, life is what you make it, you don't have to be the victim if you don't chose to be, so try and make the best of it. If you have a question or want to talk feel free to PM me.

Also

Iv only had one dream that felt like a freaking life-time...started off at same age..met a girl...spent time with her*felt like alot* got married....some wierd crap happened then ended up seeing her again and she was pregnant....cool thing about that dream was that even though it focused on that...i did alot of other things like hang out with my brother and other family memebers and visit new and old places...

But like other poster said-it was lapses,big jumps around the dream...but shit it felt REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woke up almost crying lmao i was like WTH!? was just a dream what about all the shit that happened,ect....

and another thing....Life truly is what you make it to be and agree massively!! with what the other poster said...some ppl find life boring while others find it infinitely entertaining...and it is!!!!! your living now so enjoy life,live life,experience and go for whatever it is you want-might sound cheesy and cliche but im telling you man thats the simple truth!

Impossible, your REM ends sometime. Time Dilation is possible, it could probably make the dream to at most a day or two, maybe more. A whole life time though is impossible. If it were possible though, I wouldn't take it. Your waking life makes dream so much more special because your always excited to do something in your dream.

Also for those people saying they had a super long dream like that, it kind of goes through a time skip and your subconscious makes up some memories to fill in those gaps to make sense.

Thanks for the insight and advice everyone.

fhgshfdg: Ya that was pretty harsh but you stand on good ground sayin it. But ya that would suck if you did forget you were dreaming. Thanks for the insight. Oh ya fhgshfdg I know I don't know you, but keep in mind people could have way worse and deprived lives than you. No asshole, just sayin.

ooflendoodle: Dude I heard some guy on here claimed to have had a 110 year long dream.

wasanga: I can understand were your coming from. I think dreams are more or less real experiences.

And, no asshole, but I dont want help or advice from people. My life is my problem. Im not trying to bring you guys down with me. Thanks tho.

Oh wow. I don't know about a lifetime. I do have a dream in my journal where I was in a dream for about six months, but it skipped a lot. I mean, it was one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had and I know, once I woke up, that the dream really wasn't a six month period. The subconscious just filled in the holes during the dream to make it seem longer, but when I woke up I realized the dream actually wasn't that long.

The dream was great though, and I was actually lucid... sorta. Hard to explain. This dream was years ago before I knew about lucid dreaming. I was lucid in the sense I knew I was dreaming, but I didn't know I could control my dream. I was basically in an alternate reality where my family was trying to wake me up. Most emotional dream I've ever had.

Thats not the point though. But I just know its not possible to stay in a single dream for a lifetime. Maybe you continue a dream every night when you fall asleep, but you won't have a dream like that in one night. There may not be a limit to what you can do in a lucid dream, but this is a pretty good exception in my opinion.

And would I want to? No. I would start to worry I may never wake up. Just a fear response when you haven't been awake for years. You could be in a coma for all you know. I almost cringe thinking about it. Dreams are good to escape reality, but not in the sense of completely erasing it from your lifestyle.