Thread: Is this lucid

Unfortunately, it was not lucid. In order for a dream to a lucid dream, you have to know you're dreaming while you're in the dream.

While what dolphin said is of course correct: the definition of a lucid dream is that one knows one is dreaming, I have thought that this definitition is at times rather silly and limited though technically correct. The reson why I think the definition is silly and limited: some nonlucid dreams can be more like lucid dreams and all they lack is the awareness that it is a dream, while some lucid dreams are so low awareness and low control but they are lucid technically because one is just barely aware enough to realize it is a dream.

My most extreme example of a technically nonlucid dream which was lucid like: I realized that things were disappearing into thin air and other things were happening that should not happen in waking life, but my reality check failed, so I decided that I must be going completely crazy; however, throughout the rest of the dream I became aware that things were not as they should be, I was very present and feeling like I was actually there, and I continued to do reality checks which kept failing as I convinced myself more and more that I am crazy. It was a nightmare, and from the pure definition of lucid dreaming, it was nonlucid because no I did not know it was a dream, but this dream was in a weird way more like a lucid dream than like my nonlucids.

When you said you had full control, did you also have high awareness? Did you have a sense of presence, of living this dream in the present tense, rather than just remembering it in the past tense like as if you were dreaming that you had control, but actually you were just the dreamed and not the dreamer? Or were you actually there and doing the controlling? If you were the dreamer and you remember actually being there in control and being aware, then this dream while technically nonlucid, would be close to lucidity.

It is my humble opinion that, if you have provided all the necessary information in your original post, that you were not lucid. The only requirement that a dream must meet to be deemed a lucid dream is that you are aware it is a dream while you're in it.
Being lucid and being in control are two entirely separate things. For instance, I've had non-lucid dreams in which I was god and could alter the universe as I saw fit. Even though I could control seemingly every aspect of the dream, I was not lucid dreaming. On the other hand, some of my most lucid lucid-dreams have been dreams in which I had very little control.

I think there is a 'sliding scale' of awareness/consciousness in dreams, and you were at the more aware end, whilst not actually lucid, though likely lucid would be the next 'level'.