learning new things

[muskee]

Has anyone tried to learn something new in a LD that they don't know in real life? For example you don't know how to skateboard so you learn how to in a LD. Would it work in real life?

[splodeymissile]

You can learn things about yourself, though I believe any information we gleam from dreams is technically know already, we just haven't made the connection yet. As for physical tasks, such as your skateboarding example, we do use the same neuron pathways (think that's the right term?) when performing a task in real life and when in a dream, so, I believe yes. However, I'd imagine you'd need to have been on a skateboard before in real life, so that your mind has an accurate idea of the physics. Try it, see how it goes.

[Voldmer]

Here's an interesting thing to try ... Summon a language teacher, and request to learn some simple phrases or words in a language, which you emphatically know nothing about. Preferably one using the same family of letters as your own language. Then, upon waking up, you can verify the words and phrases against a dictionary. If there is any degree of success in this, then the universe will suddenly appear a whole lot more intricate!

[Irreo]

Here's an interesting thing to try ... You may have written that in a humorous way, but I already though about this a lot, and I'm pretty sure that if the language teacher you summon is about a language you already know a bit, even if you won't learn anything new, you will practice it. For instance, I can write in english without much problem, but when going to talk, it's a bit harder (I can't delete or stop to think too much). So if I talk english in my lucid dreams, probably I'll get more practice. It's just something I think, because I haven't been able to test it yet... hope to do it some day. Replying to the muskee, I also think that if you set real physic laws on your dreams, you could try to do some special jumps, similar to those on park-our for instance. The problem is that you may "practice" the movements to try to feel them on your body, but.... will your muscles be able to do the same in the real world? Stretching, strenght, etc. are very important. You can dream you swim perfectly, but real water will have real resistance. This is a good example, as professional swimmers often practice movements outside water, just so their brain "remembers" the movements to do on water (something that can be achieved in a dream if you ask me), the problem is that they also build up their strenght and, while on water, they have a trainer correcting wrong movements. So I think that yes, you can practice or even learn things you saw or know a bit about, but it's more a "test" than real learning. Like letting yourself fall on your front for a huge faceplant. You obviously won't try it in the real world, but you may learn how it feels if you do it on a dream (maybe it will also hurt!) Just my two cents.

[Voldmer]

You may have written that in a humorous way But in fact I didn't; I am leaning towards the idea that "thought space" is a meeting ground for all individual minds - with all that this entails. Haven't got any solid evidence for it yet, however. (But it's still early days for me; started lucidity practice in late 2012).

[ParadoxOwl]

I for one love the idea of "learning" in dreams as I (or others) cannot do the usual things that the usual folk can do IWL due to my condition, like skateboarding, skiing, dirt bike riding etc. Although I realize that dirt biking in a dream may seem very realistic but still doesn't follow on to waking life.

[muskee]

Well I'll just have to try it myself and tell you guys how it goes, but if this is possible then it's revolutionary