Thread: First post, bizarre dream experience

I don't frequent this site, and I don't practice dreaming techniques, but of the thousands of dreams and handful of lucid dreams I've had in my life, last night was the most REAL dream I've ever had to date. I would like to share the experience and maybe someone can explain what was going on. I will first share the dream, and then describe how unusual it was for me.

I was walking down the halls of a school during the day. There were other students walking around and talking. At one point as I was walking, I stopped, turned my head to the right and noticed some friends of mine that I went to school with in real life. They were sitting on a table against the wall and talking. As I was watching them, the dream rapidly became lucid. Becoming aware and pleasantly surprised at what was happening, I walked over and greeted them, and they were happy to see me. Then a few of us went to class. The classroom turned out to be like a small church setting, with long seats for students to sit, and the pulpit at the front for the professor who was teaching from the Bible. As we were seated and listening to him, I leaned towards a friend of mine and whispered, "Do you want to know a secret?" He said, "What?" And I said something to the effect, "None of this is real." And I knew the professor was going to give us homework, but I knew I wasn't going to do it because I knew it wasn't real, or at the very least I didn't "belong" there. I noticed that I was carrying the Bible in my hand, but I didn't know why. At that point I felt the professor was becoming very preachy and telling us things that didn't resonate with me, so my friends and I got up and left to go to another classroom. This classroom was a similar church setting, except the people in here were members of a church I used to attend in real life. As I walked in, the wife of the pastor greeted me, and gave me a big hug and said, "You did so well!" And in that embrace, for the first time in a long time I felt accepted for who I am, and as I was beginning to cry at the realization, I woke up from the dream.

Now there were a few bizarre things about this dream. The first is that in most of my dreams, I only witness what's right in front of my eyes with no peripheral awareness. But I was so "aware" in this particular dream that I could sense the three-dimensional reality of it. I could sense people and sounds around all around me, and I could feel the coolness of the temperature in the air. And there was none of that hazy, misty atmosphere usually associated with dreams. It was perfectly clear and colorful like normal reality. And because it was lucid, I knew I could I could turn my head and look anywhere I wanted, or walk around if I wanted. I suppose the best way to understand the realness of what I mean is to have you consider what you're doing right now. You're reading about my dream from your computer. At any moment, you know you can look around, see the walls, the door, other people, hear certain sounds, and overall sense the three-dimensional reality of things. But to you it's perfectly normal. Nothing unusual happening to question your belief that it's real. THAT is how my dream felt. It was fully three-dimensional, perfectly normal and real in its appearance, but I knew it wasn't real.

The second bizarre thing is that when I became lucid, I didn't immediately wake up. The few lucid dreams I've had I could easily wake out of them either willingly or unwilling. Here, I was so enveloped in this dream, that even if I wanted to wake up, I don't think I could have.

The third thing is that even though I knew it was a dream, I could not recall where I came from. I couldn't realize that I was sleeping on a bed dreaming it. For all intent and purposes where I was in the dream was in fact reality, but at the same time I knew that it wasn't. It was a feeling like, "I know I'm dreaming. I know I don't belong here, but I don't remember where I came from either."

The fourth thing is even though I was aware it was a dream, I didn't do what I would normally do in a lucid dream. I didn't attempt to fly or explore the environment. For a second I did attempt to stop time and see if everyone would freeze where they were, but it didn't work, and ultimately I felt led to allow the dream to continue in its course. I don't know why I didn't just "do my own thing." I think it may be because it felt so real, that for a moment I actually began to question if it was a dream at all.

In short, this is the first time I had a dream that was this real. I would like to add that I'm a spiritual person, and that I've considered the possibility I may be heading into "vision" territory. But I would like to know your thoughts on what type of dream I was experiencing. Thanks for reading.