Hello again, DV.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm a natural lucid dreamer. I have been inactive from DV for quite a long while, but I have come to share my findings. I figured I should do my part in expanding the knowledge of lucid dreams, and share it.
1. Dreams are not random.
No matter how random dreams may be, there is always an underlying meaning to it. Our brains always, let me repeat, always try to communicate a message through dreams.
Sometimes this message is simple. Sometimes it's a very complex, subtle, underlying piece of thought. Mostly, our brains use, for a lack of a better word, a substitution cipher. Does that mean that there is a subconscious inside us trying to tell us something?
No. Dreams merely reflect our current emotional states. And encrypt the reflection. By trying to understand how it's encrypted, we can figure out what we really feel inside.
For example, consider an examination. Let's say you did well in it. Logically, you feel positive about it. You cross checked the answers with your friends and they matched, so you are expecting a high score. However, you dread results internally. You fear you will get a bad result.
The brain will not show you a dream of you getting high marks. Instead, you will see yourself failing. Keep in mind this is a very crude example, and real meanings of dreams are much more obscured. The more imaginative mind you have, the more complex the decryption tends to be.
If you do not agree with this, try to remember your last dream, figure out it's key elements, and try to make a connection with recent events. There is always a connection.
2. Dream Guides is a real phenomenon.
Yes, it's true. They aren't fantasies created by excited lucid dreamers. Or shall I say, they aren't fantasies ANYMORE.
You see, dreams are always based on expectation. By learning to control what you expect, what you believe, you can change the elements of a dream. This is known as dream control.
There are two types of control. Conscious and subconscious. Conscious control is what we apply during lucid dreaming, while subconscious control is what we apply in nightmares, non-lucids, etc.
Let's look at this way. Suppose I was a highly respected researcher at lucid dreaming. And I told you, that there is a counterpart to a Dream Guide, a Dream Demon.
If that idea picked up, and was shared by a sufficient amount of people who agree with it, you'll probably start to believe it. And thus, subconscious control will CREATE a Dream Demon to match YOUR expectation.
This is, I believe, what happened with the Dream Guide idea. However, another question pops up. Are Dream Guides really manifestations of your subconscious? Are they really a self-controlled reoccurring dream character that helps you around?
The answer is yes. Since you believed they are real, you also believed that definition. Hence, subconsciously, you created a physical manifestation of your subconscious. You created a character that had it's own mind, and made it help you around your way.
How do I know that? I experimented around an online site that was new to lucid dreaming (9gag.com) and told them that lucid dreams were dangerous. This idea was picked up by thousands of people across the world, and suddenly, people who tried it, reported negative experiences regarding lucid dreaming.
This leads one to think that expectation, in one way, is the science, of how to manipulate your dreams. You can call it the theory of everything of dreams.
3. Dreams do not have layers.
Sorry to burst anyone's dreams, but there is no such things as 'depths' in a dream, as suggested in Inception. The dream within a dream within a dream (times infinity) idea is fake. There will be many people who will disagree with me on accounts of personal experiences, but I have personally spent a good long time on it.
What I was able to conclude, is that what we think of as 'layers' are just different scenarios in the same dreams, with us losing dream consciousness while we think we 'fell asleep'.
Also, the time slowing down idea seems shaky, to say the least. Yes, our brain functions faster. Yes, dream time is different from real time. No, you can't be trapped for infinity inside a dream.
Why? Because there are LIMITATIONS. We are machines, our brains are computers. And just like a computer, there is a limit to it's performance. While the maximum specs are indeed, impressive, there is a limit to how fast our brains can perform. This is ALSO limited by other process the brain has to manage, like the digestion of food, breathing, and every other involuntary action your body has. A HUGE chunk of our brain capacity is used up in those.
I cannot say this for sure, because you cannot trust clocks in a dream, or your experience of time passing. As such, I may be totally wrong, but probability and a little logic tips the scale in my favor.
4. There are two types of natural lucid dreamers.
Namely, those who naturally lucid dream, and those who naturally control their lucid dreams.
What's the difference? Type 1, let's call them natural lucid dreamers, need to make little to no effort in inducing LUCIDITY. For them, almost all their dreams begin with them being lucid.
Type 2, let's call them natural control lords (lol.), have near to perfect control of their lucid dreams. They usually do not have as frequent lucid dreams as Type 1, but when they do lucid dream, they have an unnatural level of control over it, as you would have total control of, let's say, your own body in real life. I am Type 2. :)
I'm not saying you are either Type 1 or Type 2, I'm saying that there is two distinct categories. A dreamer may be anywhere between them, or only on one side. When you are at the either extreme, that is known as natural lucid dreaming.
5. Lucid dream induction is very close in the future.
Yes, you WILL be able to induce lucid dreams like in Inception soon in the future. It's a relatively simple process, and given enough time and money, we will eventually exploit ways to induce lucid dreams.
I would do it myself but there are complications. I am 16, and have no money or sponsors.
So it's unlikely I would invent anything. xD But I am fairly certain that someone with enough money and equipment will do it soon. Already we are starting to see breakthroughs in that area, so be optimistic. :)
If anyone has any questions that are not yet answered (i.e., questions on the cutting edges of lucid dreaming), I would be happy to look into it and try to answer it, either by research, or using my own dreams and seeing what results I get.
Regards,
Max.
