Lost Lucidity

Moral restrictions concerning lucid dreaming

I write this, as I may have something to contribute to the concept of lucid dreaming itself.* I no longer have lucid dreams-- not by choice, but as a by-product of other choices I've made; I believe it is a consequence of my moral experience.
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I used to have Lucid dreams not infrequently.* They were often fun, but my waking imagination is equally vivid.* I have always been able to*venture into my mindscape at will, even awake, often entirely blocking my sensory stimuli for the duration of my adventure.* (This caused me no end of trouble in school until I learned some self-discipline.)* Among other things, I have had many enlightening conversations with various people.* I think of*it as a game, more-or-less, though I occasionally*took the*events seriously*beyond the psychological*context of*the experience itself.
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Later in my life, because of things I've done and seen and felt, I have developed a very strong conviction that interaction is well and good, but that manipulation is not, and I have a personal religious tenet against*such.**One thing I've learned through*my adventures within, is that 'waking' life is equally (though differently) a product of one's psychology, though you should not mistake me for a solipsist.* I believe that the same behavior patterns in which I refrain from manipulating others in waking life, have restrained me from manipulating my dream environment.* My*restriction seems to be limited to lucidity arising in sleep, though, because*my 'waking dreams' seem to have been unaffected.
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There was one exception, however, a*situation that I'd like to share, and it seems to put dreaming itself into further relief.* Sometime early on, when I had first formally*resolved my conviction against manipulation,*I had a moment of lucidity while I was dreaming, but not within the dream.* I had been playing with my dog on the floor, and fell asleep there with the TV on.* I must have been very tired, as this is not a habit for me, and because I slept with my eyes open, which is an experience I have never otherwise noted in myself.* I had thought myself awake, just ruminating over current events and such, when I found myself dreaming.* I have forgotten most of the dream, but what stuck such a chord in me was that I watched the psychological interplay between events in my dream and the suggestion of ideas on the TV.* I*vividly*remember*one moment in the dream where I was having an argument.* The TV played a Campbell's soup ad, and I recall noticing that the dream*defined my surroundings as a grocery store, and, before the commercial ended, I picked up a can of soup and threw it at my*antagonist. *It is the only time I can remember being consciously aware of sensory stimuli both in my waking world and in my dreamscape, simultaneously.* I regard it as an 'in-body' out-of-body experience, as I was not participating in myself, I was detached, yet I was still seeing through my own eyes and into my own mind.
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I do not know if any of this will be of any use to you, but I offer it in the hopes that it has value.* Thanks for reading.
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Will Cool
Portland, OR