 Originally Posted by Sensei
I am an extremely conservative to what the Bible says (literal translation of the Bible), and I am studying to be a pastor, I don't see anything in the Bible about it, and the bible says that if something isn't directly against it (stealing, sexual immorality, lying), than it is for the person to decide between themselves and God. I am married so I ran it by my wife of course.
Is that you Brandon?!
Fascinating - maybe we will actually have the opportunity to make something of this topic - not only do we have a declared Christian chiming in - but a biblical literalist, who is about to dedicate his life to Christianity - no less!
What a marvellous opportunity - at least you are not a wishi-washi coffehouse Christian, who doesn't quite know, what she believes.
Is Lucid Dreaming Satanic?
This question is open to numerous interpretations besides possession - but first I'd like to take your arguments on faith level:
 Originally Posted by Sensei
1) if you are a christian, it is impossible to be possessed. So no problem there.
That's where you leave your literal ground - the bible does not explicitly state whether a Christian can be possessed by a daemon or not. This even from sources, which then go on to argue, why related biblical truths would point that way:
 Originally Posted by christianitytoday und gotquestions/Christian-demon-possessed
While the Bible does not explicitly state whether a Christian can be possessed by a demon..
Can a Christian be demon-possessed? That question produces lots of disagreement among theologians.
Most would say that a believer probably won't be totally possessed, but might experience some form of oppression (or very strong influence) by demons. The Bible does describe followers of God coming under the influence of evil spirits—King Saul disobeyed God's instruction, and the Bible says, "The Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit … tormented him" (1 Samuel 16:14, NIV). Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was possessed by Satan (Luke 22:3). And an evil spirit influenced Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife, to lie to their fellow Christians and to God (Acts 5), leading to their deaths.
So - I challenge you as a biblical literalist to show me the passage, where the bible says, what you seem to claim as being general Christian dogma - go ahead! Maybe you are the first to find such a thing..
Daemonic possessions have supposedly happened again and again in Christian communities. The victims were - at least nominally - Christians too. Was their faith too weak? If a man accepts the Christ, does this grant him immunity until the end of his life? What if he wavers in his belief, even for 5 minutes? Even in his dreams?
I get it you are no Catholic - so I can spare myself the argumentation from that side - but also in Protestantism - this is a much debated question, and Christianity as a whole is far from agreeing with you there.
I could even postulate, that weak and wavering Christians are a much worthier prize to possess, since they count for more in the devil's war/game with God.
 Originally Posted by Sensei
2) if lucid dreams are evil, than so are dreams.
No. That is complete non sequitur.
If doing magic in real life is evil - then so is real life.
Do you get my point?
But lets take a viewpoint besides pure logic:
It is questionable if "in dreams begin responsibilities". Most people would deny this, since we see the (non-lucid) dreamer more as a helpless puppet, driven by unconscious desires and fears, or by the fading impressions of his recent experiences. Such a dreamer does not control the content of his dreams, nor his own actions with which he responds to it. He clearly has severely diminished or no moral agency, so neither we nor - I would presume - God will attach blame to him, no matter what depraved images will confront the sleeper. But everything changes as soon as the dreamer becomes conscious.
An analogy would be the difference between innocent children and responsible adults, between instinct driven animals and deliberating humans.
Ethical responsibility or sin starts with consciousness. Even more, in lucid dreams our ability to sin is augmented by the temptation of power, the power to transgress our usual limitation and boundaries, unobserved and unpunished.
Sure, it's not reality, so it's not really murder, not really adultery - but are you sure it's completely without consequences? Doesn't it change us, don't we talk about it with others in this forum, does our life stay the same?
For many people here it's clearly about gaining godlike powers, consciously, and about revelling in the experience.
 Originally Posted by Sensei
3) everyone (mostly when they were kids) has had a lucid dream, and not everyone is possessed. 
Well - that doesn't prove anything.
Could be this is, because the devil doesn't much care for children, could be that the more you LD - the higher the risk.
Maybe only really high level lucids open the boundary, the complete conscious realization, and what most children do is not quite the same.
What is more interesting - you seem to believe, that a non Christian can be possessed by the devil.
I find this absolutely ludicrous - same as the belief in Satan in the first place.
 Originally Posted by Sensei
Lucid dreaming was started by mostly people doing drugs (LSD), AP, and Buddhist monks, so people associate that with lucid dreaming, especially people like Robert Waggoner or Carlos Castaneda that associate it with something spiritual.
Now this is nice - you mention Castaneda spontaneously - perfect example of how LDing is explicitly categorized as Witchcraft/Sorcery.
So there you go - that doesn't help your argument, I don't think.
You mentioned heresy above - and anything "spiritual" other than the trinity plus for Catholics Mary and the Saints - is occult practice and black magic - we don't need Castaneda to spell it out.
It is widely held, esp. by our beyond dreamers - that there is a potential to contact dead people.
Just one example, of how that certainly counts - same with shared dreaming and same with contacting spiritual entities.
Both of which are supposedly practised by Tibetan monks and Waggoner as well.
 Originally Posted by Wikipedia
There are several references to witchcraft in the Bible that strongly condemn such practices. For example, Deuteronomy 18:11-12 condemns anyone who "..casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you", and Exodus 22:18 states "Do not allow a sorceress to live".
Some adherents of near-east religions acted as mediums, channeling messages from the dead or from a familiar spirit. The Bible sometimes is translated as referring to "necromancer" and "necromancy" (Deuteronomy 18:11)
 Originally Posted by Sensei
Que? No... not really... Taking the Bible as an example, trying to find your own way to God other than Jesus is heresy. :/
What this implies, is that even a person living a saint-like life without committing anything, which is seen as sinning in Christianity - will end up in hell anyway, at least till the second coming.
Especially, if they heard of Christianity in some way.
What about the people, who never came in contact with it in the first place - all damned?
Why did not god almighty make sure, that the happy message of the messiah reaches all and every human, to make sure, they have a fair chance?
Answer me - do they really burn in hell right now?
What a humanity-loving god - I am flabbergasted, got to say.
 Originally Posted by Tygar
I’m going to play devil’s advocate with this one (pardon the play on words).
Lucid dream are very much like the above mentioned places: Lots of fun, but potentially full of temptation. A lucid dream is a place where you do anything you want, and it is seemingly consequence free. A lucid dream looks and feel as realistic as real life. One issue I have had in my past lucid dreams is that I often lose control and go after sexual contact with dream characters, which is something I would never do in real life. I am married. These DCs are rarely images of my wife. They are often just random female DCs. Am I sinning if I have sexual contact with a DC? Or is it not sinning because the DC isn’t anything more than a figment of my imagination? Am I “lusting” after the DC?
The same could go for killing DCs. While you are not murdering a real human being, what is your attitude at the time? How much do you enjoy the carnage?
Exactly - great and honest post - which I hadn't seen yet while drafting this one - thanks!
Should a devout Christian not keep herself out of any situation, which represents heightened temptation to sin?
And do not forget, people - in Christianity - god supposedly watches and punishes even thought crimes - even lusting after something other than your wife/husband.
Sensei - you keep reporting of how you had sex with your wife in your LDs - you are aware, that that wasn't your real wife whatsoever, aren't you??
At the very least you are indulging in masturbation, wouldn't you say?
Or is it only masturbation, if you "waste" your actual semen?
What has to be seriously considered is the hubris bound to rear it's head and make you feel an equal of god .
Think of your former user name, Sensei, and how you now denominate god as Boss - or of dutchraptor's guide as to how to become an LDing god - isn't that what we all indulge in in LDs?
And isn't that the ultimate sin in Christianity?
The first several commandments being about how you should worship and fear and obey your tyrant, and only him.
Who will get you anyway, if you don't, and then has the cheek to command, that you have to love him on top of that!
To sum up the acute in-dream Satan and sin business:
Possession:
It is not clear, if that could happen - but there are very many theologians, who propose it is possible - at least in some weaker form called "demonism" - they even got a word for it.
Temptation:
Conscious moral agency in the face of overwhelming temptation through power and autonomous LDing-associated hypersexuality.
Remember - your thoughts are not your private business - your god-tyranny registers everything.
Now to the most satanic of all - say you manage not to be possessed - say you behave like a saint in your LDs - there is this deciding point:
Witchcraft/Necromancy:
See above.
But for the more realistic Christians - for whom the whole satanic business looks alien anyway - consider the following:
What you do in your lucid dreams influences the kind of person you are in real life.
This starts by the above mentioned - being here on the forum - but why not look at it from a less harmless angle:
What if you habitually do blasphemy in dreams by feeling like a god, or lusting after DCs and having lots of sex with something other than your wife/husband, and fight and kill for fun - wouldn't after a while your brain be reprogrammed?
Neuroscience tells us, that the more often we use certain neural pathways - the more ingrained they become - habits form, which are hard to break, if and when the individual would consciously want to.
LDing with the above moral agency plus huge and abundant temptations must in the Christian worldview be seen as very dangerous.
At least, because it could make you a more sinful and worse person irl. And this down to the physical properties of the brain - what gets used, gets more fibres through which to fire - more power and hold.
So - even as a mild Protestant - it is nigh impossible to deny spill-over from LDing into waking life - even while you don't believe in the above fairy-tale Christianity.
Conclusion:
Yes - if you happen to try to be a devout Christian - you better leave your fingers off LDing!!
So don't try to be one - it makes no sense - happy lucid dreams instead and to find a dogma free spirituality! 
I look forward to arguments against my points everybody - and esp. Sensei as an almost professional.
Besides in this thread - please elucidate your views in the religion subforum for some change - seems as if there were mainly atheists over there.
And this is a good starting point:
http://www.dreamviews.com/religion-s...believers.html
Looking forward to your contribution - I really do!
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