Lucid Dream or Weird Visualization?

I had a really weird experience last night.

I was visualizing a dream that I wanted to have, and things started happening out of my control (DCs talking to me, events happening, etc). I was still awake- I could hear my fan, feel my body on the pillow, but it felt a little like a lucid. What's even weirder is that I did RCs in the dream, talked with a few DCs about the fact it was a dream, and had dream control and influence like I would in a lucid. But I knew I wasn't asleep.

Later that night I had a non lucid that didn't match my incubated dream at all, except in the fictional world the DCs were from.

So what do you think? Was it a lucid dream? A spiraling visualization? I'm really kind of freaked out by it- one of the DCs /knew/ I was dreaming and asked about that and my mental illness, which made me really really nervous. And just...it was really weird and im actually quite shaken.

Remember remember remember that it is all just experience.

I've felt this kind of thing happen before. I think it is some odd transitory state where you are visualizing something and start to fall asleep and it becomes the dream. You begin to lose control, the characters begin acting on their own and the visualization begins to go in its own direction. In a sense, it is both a lucid dream and a visualization.

The problem is, I don't remember many specific examples of when. I know that this has happened to me a lot, but for some reason, it seems as though I am wired to forget them. I do remember; albeit vaugely a time when I was heavily involved in writing a comic strip. I had woken up in the early morning (6:00ish) and began fantasizing about how the comic's story was going to proceed. I began to doze back off and the characters (just like you described) began acting on their own and taking the story in their own direction. I slipped off into a non-lucid dream.

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Originally Posted by companionwolf

I had a really weird experience last night.

I was visualizing a dream that I wanted to have, and things started happening out of my control (DCs talking to me, events happening, etc). I was still awake- I could hear my fan, feel my body on the pillow, but it felt a little like a lucid. What's even weirder is that I did RCs in the dream, talked with a few DCs about the fact it was a dream, and had dream control and influence like I would in a lucid. But I knew I wasn't asleep.

Later that night I had a non lucid that didn't match my incubated dream at all, except in the fictional world the DCs were from.

So what do you think? Was it a lucid dream? A spiraling visualization? I'm really kind of freaked out by it- one of the DCs /knew/ I was dreaming and asked about that and my mental illness, which made me really really nervous. And just...it was really weird and im actually quite shaken.

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Hi companionwolf!

It sounds to me like you were in a transitional stage, where the dream was beginning to form. Was this at the start of the night, or after a WBTB? Also, did you wake up or fall into a non lucid dream?

You were most likely not fully lucid. I wouldn't worry too much about what the DC said, as the DC is just a projection of your thoughts. The DC likely brought up the fact that you were dreaming because you were actively thinking about it before bed. Also, the mentioning of your mental illness was probably due to the discomfort you were feeling from the situation. Perhaps that spurred your mind to think about your mental illness and projected in the form of the DC talking about it. Next time you find yourself in a dream like that, try performing some RC's :D

Always keep in mind that your dreams are your own creation. Dreams can take a sharp turn to nightmare town out of no where, but as long as you remember you are the one that is truly in control, you will be fine :) I've been shaken by a good few of my dreams before as well, so you are not alone! Practice makes perfect!

This sounds like it could have been an inadvertent WILD.