Quote Originally Posted by Sageous View Post
Memory defines who we are; without it and its context we cease to exist. Our physical forms might still be here, but without memory we are little more than waking-life dream characters. And of course, without access to memory in dreams we are no more than dream characters, period.
This was one of my favorite points from the OP, because I experience a lot of false memories in dreams, to the point where sometimes "I" am a different person altogether, with a completely different self-identity from waking life. (I have to confess that I really enjoy this!) I've often wondered about the extent to which a similar kind of immersive roleplaying might be possible while actually lucid. To the extent that we define the quality of lucidity as measurable by the access to WL memory and identity, it would seem a logical impossibility.

However, even in waking life it is possible to partly experience an alternate identity and perspective, for instance through the techniques of method acting or a really long-term and immersive RPG. The characters we play are of course not truly "other," instead being subsets or reconstructions of elements that are already within us, but over time they can accumulate enough of their own memories and experiences to achieve an apparent solidity and independence... an identity. Perhaps that's what authors mean when they talk about how their characters start to "write themselves."

I'm also interested in the transitions, the process by which our memories shift from our ordinary sense of self in waking life, to the incomplete memory and awareness of the dream state, and back again when we wake up. I have the impression that this process doesn't always occur in the same way: sometimes the transition is sudden, and we are disoriented after waking up from a vivid dream and trying to remember our WL circumstances. Sometimes it occurs more gradually, with the WL identity reasserting itself gradually even within the dream state.

I recorded a distinct case of the latter process in my DJ this morning: Eating Earthworms (NLD). The dream began with a self-awareness that was completely dislocated in time, place, priorities, and might not even have been human. Over the course of just a few minutes, the waking-life model of my thoughts and memories reasserted itself in progressive stages just before I woke up. However, the whole dream was completely non-lucid from start to finish. It's intriguing that dreams where our sense of self is clearly modeled on our WL identity can be every bit as non-lucid as dreams where we believe are someone else entirely.