Would you count this as a False Lucid Dream?

[Laurelindo]

A few nights ago I had a dream where I was in a deep forest, and I was standing to the right of a tree and there was a vertical ladder in front of me, and when I climbed down that ladder I got to a small ledge, and there was a large dark pool of water about 40 feet below me. For some reason I got the idea that I should jump into it, and I started thinking for myself that there was no danger, and that I wanted to practice this thing for future lucid dreams - and I thought for myself that it felt really scary to jump like that, despite somehow knowing that I was completely safe. Then I jumped, and I started to feel that I was levitating in some new space, and I was satisfied that I had "passed the test". It was almost like I was "practicing", but I couldn't have been completely certain that I was awake, because I was much more venturous and took more risks than normal. So there was some weird combination of "knowing" that I was "awake", but still knowing that I was "somewhere else" and that I didn't need to actually fear anything. I guess you could compare my attitude to practicing things in a very realistic simulator. Is this something that could count as a False Lucid Dream?

[NyxCC]

Only you can judge the amount of awareness you had there, but it seems to me it may be some sort of low level ld.

[acillis]

Only you can judge the amount of awareness you had there, but it seems to me it may be some sort of low level ld. yes thats exactly right! only the dreamer can tell how conscious and aware they are, its surprising how many people dont know that you have to be conscious to be lucid....

[DreamRealEyes]

I don't know what it means to have a "false lucid dream", but for me I have a category of dreams I call Power Dreams. These are dreams where I have some of the powers of a lucid dreamer, which often is in the form of not being afraid because of some innate knowing I can't be hurt, and then acting from that and overcoming situations. There seems to be some level of awareness I'm dreaming but it doesn't rise to the level of conscious thought. I believe there are definitely levels of lucidity and the lowest I refer to as Power Dreams. Your description reminds me of that.

[OpheliaBlue]

^^ I get dreams like that too. Like I'm drowning but can suddenly breathe underwater, but not once in the dream do I ever go "oh shit I'm dreaming!" Years ago, members on DV told me it was a "semi lucid," whatever the fuck that means. Basically I say I was NOT lucid, but I was getting close. Because I nearly always have a full on lucid after a dream like that.

[Sivason]

^^ I get dreams like that too. Like I'm drowning but can suddenly breathe underwater, but not once in the dream do I ever go "oh shit I'm dreaming!" Years ago, members on DV told me it was a "semi lucid," whatever the fuck that means. Basically I say I was NOT lucid, but I was getting close. Because I nearly always have a full on lucid after a dream like that. In semi lucid a deep part of you knows it is a dream but you do not start influencing anything and the awareness is passive. Here is an example "what the heck is up with all the paratroopers?" No sense of fear. "That has to be a dream so don't freak out " then the story goes on and you interact, but some part of you does take it more like a movie, as a sense of dreamness is there.

[Sensei]

Hmmm... Lucid dreaming is knowing that you are dreaming when you are dreaming... If you know that, then it doesn't matter how much you use that knowledge. So a "false lucid" isn't false, it is true, just needs a good dose of general dream awareness (recall).

[DreamRealEyes]

Of course labels for dream states and levels of lucidity really matters to nobody but ourselves, but it is and interesting discussion to explore types of lucidity. For instance I've had many lucid dreams where I know I'm dreaming, I say as much to myself, and I have the power of a lucid dreamer, but I believe in the dream that my waking life to be me in a previous dream, not my "real" waking life. So it's interesting because I have a fairly high degree of waking consciousness but I mistake my waking life for another part of the same dream. Perhaps that's what people call a false lucid dream.

[Sivason]

I could be wrong but I think it goes sort of like this: Semi-lucid: a background awareness that this is not real, that fails to reach lucidity on any kind of fun level. Technically a lucid, but useually dreamers like me and Sageous are not going to bother counting them as "lucid dreaming" when it comes to tracking how many "lucid dreams." I can not speak for him of course. I will not count this type towards a competition for instance. "False Lucid" I think is suppossed to mean that in the dream the DC of you is going through a story line in which they are saying "this is a dream" maybe in the dream that DC of you even flies. However, it is a dream about being lucid and you are as unaware as in any normal dream. I have not seen the term used much, but I think that is the idea. Of course labels for dream states and levels of lucidity really matters to nobody but ourselves, but it is and interesting discussion to explore types of lucidity. For instance I've had many lucid dreams where I know I'm dreaming, I say as much to myself, and I have the power of a lucid dreamer, but I believe in the dream that my waking life to be me in a previous dream, not my "real" waking life. So it's interesting because I have a fairly high degree of waking consciousness but I mistake my waking life for another part of the same dream. Perhaps that's what people call a false lucid dream. I think around here we have been calling that "false memory."

[FryingMan]

I used to be really into this sort of categorizing dreams (as a species we're obsessed with putting labels on things), I think it really actually doen't matter, unless you're really trying to get lucid and you keep only getting dreams about lucidity or with control but no awareness. But I think Sageous is the primary promoter of this notion of "false lucids," and I believe his definition is that the dreamer, upon *awakening*, thinks he had a lucid dream, but if you ask for the details not once was their any indication that they were aware *in the dream* that they were dreaming. Heck, I had two semi/false lucids a few days ago, one where I was "practicing dream yoga" by simultaneously being aware of "my dream body" and keeping attention "on the dream around me" but I'm 100% sure I had no actual idea that I was dreaming -- it was like dreaming of the memory of a lucid dream, where you do and think the things you do while lucid, but missing the critical element of awareness that you're actually in a dream. Maybe that's a good definition of false lucid . Having a dream-in-dream where you're fully lucid is just a lucid dream, nothing false about it. In another one I was telling my friends not to be afraid if the dream started collapsing around them, because "after all, I started it." Again with no actual aware recognition of the dream state.

[DreamRealEyes]

If I may ask here, could someone please tell me how I can put a quotation box with specific excerpt of text in my Reply? Yes I'm not so concerned with labels, except that I like to learn the terms people are using on the forum, but it is interesting to examine dreaming attention. I agree and I don't count as a lucid dream any dream unless within the dream I had the expressed verbal or mental thought that "this is a dream!" or "I am dreaming!" and then I go on to act accordingly. I find there are two things that automatically come with that, one that I then gain a level of awareness very similar to my waking consciousness awareness. I guess I would say my discernment is pretty much the same. The second is I that have a continuity of memory with my waking life. Although I don't try to think much about my waking life as that tends to wake me up. But for myself, both of these awareness-es must be present for me to label it a fully lucid dream. I know we might be beating this subject to death, but I appreciate you're responses.

[Sivason]

DreamRealEyes, select reply with quote on a post you wish to quote. Delete all un needed portions of the text. You then write your comment below all of that. You can copy and paste it all to use it in a different thread if you want.