My friend told me there is no point of lucid dreaming

[lillyalmond]

She said that she tried it awhile ago and had fun with it but there's no point because you can daydream. I really love lucid dreaming but I don't know if I should believe her or not. She even asked me ''what happens to reality once you lucid dream?''

[Zoth]

Day dreaming is never as vivid as dreaming, much less lucid dreaming. Quoting from Waking Life movie: You know, they say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life? See, there's a lot of us that are out there that are mapping the mind-body relationship, of dreams. We're called the oneironauts. We're the explorers of the dream-world. Really, it's just about the two opposing states of consciousness which don't really oppose, at all. See, in the waking world, the neural system inhibits the activation of the vividness of memories. And this makes evolutionary sense. See you'd be maladapted for the perceptual image of a predator to be mistaken for the memory of one, and vice-versa. If the memory of a predator conjured up a perceptual image, we would be running off to the bathroom every time we had a scary thought. So you have these serotonic neurons that inhibit hallucinations that they themselves are inhibited during REM sleep. See this allows dreams to appear real, while preventing competition from other perceptual processes. This is why dreams are mistaken for reality. To the functional system of neural activity that creates our world, there is no difference between dreaming a perception and an action, and actually the waking perception and action. So, your friend couldn't be more wrong. Besides, lucid dreaming is so helpful that it's generating a lot of attention due it's benefits in sports, mental health, physical enhacement, creativity, problem solving, you name it. There's dozen of studies that confirm all this. Besides, when you lucid dream your just taking advantage of more life time, and above that, you're having fun! The idea is that there's infinite reasons to lucid dream

[lillyalmond]

Thank you zoth00

[PlanesWalker]

Don't take this the wrong way, but don't listen to your friend. DayDreaming is not the same as Lucid Dreaming and is in no way "better". DayDreaming is for slackers and those who wish to escape their humdrum lives. DayDreams don't provide anywhere near the experience a Lucid Dream can, you can't interact the same way and it just doesn't stack up. DayDreams are more of a distraction than anything else, while a Lucid Dream can reveal things about your inner psyche you never knew. Won't go into the whole reality thing because i have to get going soon, but just remember that Lucid Dreaming is perfectly natural, helpful in a multitude of ways, and is something you could potentially do every night. Your friend must be young. I hope you find this semi useful.

[Blackfox]

Everyone has their own opinion, path. I really love lucid dreaming but I don't know if I should believe her or not. You're willing to give up love, for some other persons belief? ''what happens to reality once you lucid dream?'' Nothing

[gab]

Your friend obviously didn't do any flying in her lucids, or she didn't have lucids at all, perhaps she had vivid dreams. If she had, she would not be comparing lucids to daydreams. When you fly in a daydream, you just thinking about doing it. When you fly in a Lucid, you are doing it. If you already had LD, why would you even consider believing her. What does it matter, what she believes? If you like it, go for it. Happy dreams

[Original Poster]

Don't take this the wrong way, but don't listen to your friend. DayDreaming is not the same as Lucid Dreaming and is in no way "better". DayDreaming is for slackers and those who wish to escape their humdrum lives. DayDreams don't provide anywhere near the experience a Lucid Dream can, you can't interact the same way and it just doesn't stack up. DayDreams are more of a distraction than anything else, while a Lucid Dream can reveal things about your inner psyche you never knew. Won't go into the whole reality thing because i have to get going soon, but just remember that Lucid Dreaming is perfectly natural, helpful in a multitude of ways, and is something you could potentially do every night. Your friend must be young. I hope you find this semi useful. Hey now no need to knock day-dreaming. Day dreaming is awesome. Not the same as LDs though.

[Darkmatters]

^^ wow, kinda weird to think somebody on this forum has that attitude toward daydreams!! That sounds like something one of those practical, hardworking blue-collar types would say, you know, that imagination is useless and pointless, and that there's no reason to think about stuff when you should be rolling your sleeves up and getting work done - always more work to be done! People like that wouldn't take an interest in their dreams or especially in something as esoteric as lucid dreaming! So what gives Planeswalker - maybe you just weren't really thinking when you said that? Or you didn't mean daydreaming as directed fantasy of the kind necessary to be an artist or even a thoughtful or sensitive person? Maybe you were thinking of it as "just sitting there with your eyes glazed over, thinking about nothing at all"? As an animator and filmmaker daydreaming is vital and essential to what I do - if I can't imagine it first then I could never create a movie about it!

[PlanesWalker]

I meant daydreaming more as in the way a child or young teen participates. Actively imagining something in order to progress a story or piece of art is another thing. There is not one type of daydreaming and I guess I should've been more clear. I understand the benefits of taking the time to imagine things that aren't there, when its appropriate. If these activities distract and detach you from your surroundings then you can easily become lost in them and lose touch. This is more fantasy based than Lucid Dreaming. I'm always thinking friend

[Original Poster]

While I agree it can be unhealthy to hide in your head, I don't see the purpose in only pursuing things for a purpose. Then again, I'm an existentialist.

[dutchraptor]

Well daydreaming is awesome, and is known to be important in sorting memories and organizing your mind but I get what planeswalker meant, daydreams aren't even close lucids.

[Darkmatters]

Haha alright then, you're ok Planeswalker! I'll stop looking at you like this: Though I do agree with OP - there's really no difference between focused visualization for a good purpose and idle daydreaming, except maybe if you're doing it when you should be doing something else. Plus recently I've been hearing about people who's daydreams become very vivid and become almost like lucid dreams. Valiant has a thread about this he made a couple days ago, and after talking to him about it I had an amazingly powerful visualization session night before last myself - essentially lucid daydreaming that could easily have turned into an actual lucid dream, but I was awake the whole time. I actually had to open my eyes a couple of times and do RCs to make sure, but I was awake. Kind of an embarrassing entry, but check it if you want: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/dark...rl-gaga-43197/ Tried again last night, and couldn't get the same kind of vividness at all. I envisioned riding a motorcycle, feeling the handgrips and my legs wrapped around the frame, the wind onmy skin and hair, the velocity, leaning into the turns etc, but it took a lot more effort than the night before, and I kept losing it, it would degenerate easily into just imagining it rather than experiencing it. Weirdly, I think it works better when your body is sore, or you have a headache or fever or something. I also seem to experience lucidity a lot better at those times.

[qacermacer]

Gotta agree with gab there, sounds like she didn't even have a lucid dream, especially as she compared it to day-dreaming, they are on totally different levels.

[ZeraCook]

So instead of using time that you would be sleeping in the "real" world to get lucid and fantasise there your friend would rather waste time in the "real" world daydreaming. Basically your friend has it backwards since getting lucid allows you to be consciously aware when you should be unconscious, its gained time really, while daydreaming is wasting time.

[Sensei]

I must say that daydreaming is sooooooooooo much different than LDing. I have been a day dreamer all my life, but no matter how good you are at visualizing, you won't feel like you are really there. It is traveling to a different dimension that may only exist while you are there, but it does exist. According to your friend there is no reason to live either because quite literally everything here is short. There would be no reason to have fun or play a video game because it would end and not really make a difference. Lucid dreaming is fun, and can be used for learning if you wish. This picnic will soon depart Real life, I'm sad to see you go I'll miss you with all my heart But I'd rather be alone 'Cause I couldn't live without Sunsets that dazzle in the dusk So I'll drag the anchor up And rest assured, 'cause dreams don't turn to dust

[Darkmatters]

Usually that's true, and I'd believe the same thing if I hadn't experienced it myself. But I did. This isn't something I can normally do, and the circumstances were pretty unusual - I was really super sleepy (possibly sleep-deprived) - sore muscles & a headache. So it's possible I was already primed to go directly into REM without passing Go and collecting $200. Cause it kinda felt like when you wake up in the morning and your head is still bubbling over with dream imagery and you can close your eyes and instantly be back in the dream - except that I had deliberately created the imagery and could control it exactly how I wanted. I was literally dreaming while still awake - could open my eyes and do RCs, look at the clock - my room was exacly as it should be (which it never is in dreams), but as soon as I closed them I was back in the dream. I could either control it or let it take it's own course, whichever I chose. A really amazing experience like I've never had before. So I'd agree that normally daydraming has nowhere near the vividness or immersiveness of an actual dream, but in this case it did. But I don't know if it's possible to do this very often or if it's more of a rarity depending on various factors. And maybe I can't technically classify it as a daydream because it was when I went to bed and was nearly asleep. But at least I now know this is possible, and it expands my understanding of what can be done in the right frame of mind.

[lillyalmond]

Thank you all!

[jarrhead]

Lucid dreaming allows: • total control • the living of fantasies • heightened sensory awareness (both asleep AND awake) • heightened concentration and general awareness in your day to day life • tons of motivation for everything • incredible stress relief • training for real-world events • the most amazing experiences ever had in my life, ever • extened life (you get a few extra hours each day when you SHOULD be unconscious!) --- to add to this, some lucid dreams, though they don't ACTUALLY happen this way, you remember them this way.... (and who cares what actually happened so long as how you remember it is nice? That's what ACTUALLY matters because, well, that's what you remember).... i've had lucids last for years. As far as I'm concerned and as far as I can tell, I spent three years in medieval France with 100% control over my universe. It was the greatest thing ever. Ever. (It doesn't actually happen like this. Your brain does not speed up to interpret time slower. What happens is I had a lucid that skipped around a bit maybe, but my brain filled in all the gaps with fake memories. Who cares, it was an amazing three years) It's a SERIOUS depression lifter, and I could probably continue that list above for days. Nothing happens to reality. Actually, reality gets MORE real, if anything. Best thing you can do, honestly. WHy do you think I HAD to come back after a year off?