Killing People in Your Dreams

How does this generally make you feel?

I hadn't had a problem with it until recently. I kept stabbing a small child through the chest repeatedly (non-lucid, just in case anyone was questioning morals) and he kept whispering, "Please stop."

I woke up and felt rather bad about myself. Maybe it was the fact that it was a kid, much younger than I, or because they begged for mercy. Most of the dream was centered around murder anyways...

So how does killing people affect you? Experiences? List them below.

I was defending myself from an ambush, and I flung scissors at one guy - went straight into his head! I didn't feel bad because of the context: I was the character in this action film sequence.

That's my only experience with killing someone. Can't say I've ever hunted down and murdered someone.

This thread should be moved to General Dream Discussion as it's irrelavant to General Lucid Discussion

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Originally Posted by Gr8God

This thread should be moved to General Dream Discussion as it's irrelavant to General Lucid Discussion

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It applies to both lucid and non-lucid. It's fine where it is.

Sure it can be seen that way but how you started this thread makes it lean more towards non lucid than lucid.

Anyways if I was to contribute anything to this thread other than bickering I'd say killing people in dreams don't
affect me in the slightest as I know it's only a dream I do remember at one point awhile back I did feel weird
about this but not anymore.

I think that context plays a big role as well as the character that you kill. For example, The night before last, I dreamed I was getting attacked by all of these roman soldiers. I was semi-lucid and using superpowers to fight them off. I killed over a hundred of them and felt no remorse. Probably because they were just an endless army of faceless antagonistic dream characters, and killing them was just part of the setup.

But I think that the more developed dream characters, say the ones that unfold over the course of a dream and that you get to know, or persistent DCs such as dream guides that carry over multiple dreams, you will feel remorse for. Finally this extends to DCs representative of people from waking life. (With persistent DCs you may also have to deal with the implications of them coming back and having to answer for why you killed them.) It can also depend on who the DC is. A random solider that's attacking you is going to make you feel less remorseful than say a small child.

I tend not to give a crap before and while I'm doing it. Afterwards, I may feel guilty though.
Then again, most DC's I kill are zombies, aliens, or other kinds of monsters.

But killing isn't the worst one can do. What about raping an attractive DC? I've done that on a few occasions, both in lucids and non-lucids. Made me feel like a monster afterwards in RL.

This is a big part of my nightmares. I have a big fear of killing or otherwise hurting someone accidentally. Then comes the police, the moral questions, the bad feelings and acceptance, and finally I awake and thank all that exists that it was just a dream. I don't know if this is really relevant to the thread since it is accidental. Other than this, I don't remember ever killing in my dreams in a different context.

I don't like to hurt.

Also, I think I agree with Gr8God, this thread fits the general dreaming forums better because while lucidity is a part of dreaming, non-lucidity is not a part of lucid dreaming. But that's just like, my opinion man.

I've killed people in my dreams before. To be honest, they're nightmares more than anything else. The entire time I feel extremely guilty, and scare that someone will find out. When I wake up it's a huge relief. This all happens in non-lucid dreams, I don't have any desire to kill anything in my lucid dreams.

This all depends on your view on DC's. Do you believe that they are separate entities, that can think and have feelings? Or are they part of your subconscious (aka you)? Or do you see them as just zombies walking around with no thoughts or purpose? I personally don't know what to believe. I have not killed anyone in a dream before except in self defense and even then it has been by accident. I wouldn't feel bad about killing while non-lucid because you didn't know what you were doing. It is arguable, however, about how to treat DC's in lucids. I agree with JadeGreen about how it depends on the character, but I think you shouldn't really feel bad unless you planned on killing and went out to find someone to murder. Some people feel very strongly about treating DC's as actual people while others think that they aren't real and it doesn't matter how you treat them.

Once in a lucid dream I spontaneously attacked a guy in the passenger seat of a car. I smashed my hand through the window and pulled his face into the broken glass. It scared me because right after I thought to myself "WHAT AM I DOING?!" It was almost a moment of non-lucidity like being trapped in side another DC's body. Anyways, that scared me a bit and I haven't had a lucid since, despite my efforts.

Wow, really great responses from everyone! Thanks for sharing.

My feelings regarding killing while lucid really depends on the flow of the whats going ect:
I have had what i can only call false memory non lucid killing dreams, these can leave you feelin messed up for hours upon awakening ex: when i was 30 i dreamt when i was ten a friend and i drowned some kid in a creek.. took a bit to realize it never reallu happened :(

Sometimes I kill people in non lucid dreams and I fell terrible afterwards, not for the killing itself, but because I know I'll get caught.

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I hadn't had a problem with it until recently. I kept stabbing a small child through the chest repeatedly (non-lucid, just in case anyone was questioning morals) and he kept whispering, "Please stop."

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What's your opinion on killing a Dream Character as opposed to imagining yourself (aka, thinking while awake) killing a person? Just curious, because I don't draw the line at all: assuming you don't believe that dream characters are actual people (correct me if you do), why would you feel guilty, even if you were doing it consciously?

I have thought about this a bit and have been thinking about posting.

My thoughts are along the lines of "If I do bad things in a dream, that will normalize it for me and make myself less sensitive about the issue". So for example, I avoid having sex (With people other than my girlfriend) in lucid dreams as I am in a committed relationship and I'm very happy with how it is IWL. It's not that I think there's anything real about the dream or the DCs themselves, but rather that the idea is. I guess it's the same reason I don't flirt/fantasize with/about others IWL too or even look at pornography. It feels to me like disloyalty.

I guess the situation is still a bit different with killing, but the normalization is still there, where by allowing oneself to deliberately be violent in a dream it becomes more "acceptable" to consider violence. You could say it's the same IWL when people around you are participating in a certain behavior (e.g racism, sexism, "Laddishness", malicious gossiping etc.) and that subconsciously makes it seem more OK for you yourself whether you consciously agree with the behavior or not. Dreaming seems like a particularly good opportunity for your subconscious to be susceptible to being influenced like this so I, when lucid, avoid doing things that I would not IWL.

Of course there is a line to be drawn, so if someone is attacking you it seems reasonable to defend yourself. Killing mindlessly for fun seems a little off the cards for me though.