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I've been an oneironaut for about 19 months now, and was under the impression (from personal experience) that one doesnt really experience pain in dreams. But last night some bad dude was cutting my hair but he really wanted a dna sample and cut my scalp with a razor sharp something (small cut) so he could get some blood. Ouch! Felt like a real cut to me. Has anyone similar (or contrary) experience?
My understanding is that while one can feel pain in dreams but one does not feel excruciating pain in dreams and usually things that would cause excruciating pain in real life are not as bad in dreams, but I am not sure whether that is a hard rule - I suspect not, I suspect that our dreaming mind is capable of reproducing any level of pain even excruciating one, it's just that most people's minds choose not to.
I have not experienced pain in lucids yet (my DCs are all nice:lol:)
But in a very vivid and detailed dream, someone cut in my arm. I felt the pain, but I think I only imagined the pain, since I knew, from a deep cut, you should feel something.
IWL it would have felt much worse.
But I have heard from some that they did experience strong pain.
I have experienced a bit of pain when swarm of wasps got into my mouth and were stinging me in one of my dreams, that was in non-lucid part of it but it remained in lucid part, though i quickly healed up shortly. :cheeky:
I experienced alot of pain in a Nightmare I once had haha luckily I became lucid and could diminish it. But that was an exception, though I still feel pain in lucid dreams but not on that level. So I guess if you wanted you could make pain feel very close to waking life in Luciddreams. Or maybe it wasn't that horrible and just my imagination + the panic that I had.
You can definitely feel pain! Almost any tactile sensation can be mimicked, if you have a memory of what it's like. The brain can even create unnatural ones that you've never felt before.
Generally for me its like 50:50. Either in a dream I can't feel anything, like I don't really pay attention to anything I touch. Or, I have a dream where I can feel everything including pain. I think its just random though. For example, I've felt things like a pulled muscle in dreams, or a dislocated shoulder but on the other hand, I have sat through giving birth to a creepy plastic doll with no pain.
There's also some dreams where I just imagine the pain. Say I'm recalling a dream, I might get the thought of 'Oh yeah that hurt', but I can't actually remember feeling pain, whereas others I can remember the pain so realistically that I can still almost feel it when I wake up.
I personally feel pain a lot in dreams, including lucids. I'm guessing it's because I want to. When I incubate dreams, I often try to imagine the sensations to be as realistic as possible (for experience), and usually they are. I guess it all depends on how you expect something will feel like. I used to have very painful dreams that would wake me up instantly. Then I decided to do something about it or it will always happen. I started by working on stabilizing my dreams, then I would try to hold small, hot objects and observe how the 'dream pain' worked. At first, they were just warm objects, and every attempt i would amp it up until i would be holding burning coals or something. Even though they really hurt, i would try to analyze the pain and eventually i learned how to lessen the intensity by imagining it.
For those who are having the same problems i had, i suggest doing what i did. I realized that you will be sooo much better at controlling the pain in your dreams (and anything, really) if you try to study it first and really understand how it works, rather than blindly dodging it or lashing out. :D And remember that your mind can simulate any senses, and that no matter how much it hurts, it isn't physically hurting you so dont be afraid to try things out!