Thread: Was this a lucid dream?

I have not lucid dreamed but I have been keeping a dream journal and I had a strange dream where I recognized I was dreaming.

I was visiting a child (who I don't know in real life) and when I walked into her room I had the thought "this dream is just like a dream I had years ago." However, I didn't seem to become lucid. The clarity and feeling of the dream didn't change. It just seemed and felt like any other dream. Weird eh?

Then while I was talking with this child I had this realization that I was dead and I was a ghost. This little girl suddenly seemed like the child from The Sixth Sense and I was one of the visiting ghosts in the house. Her mother walked in then and just talked to her and ignored me, confirming to me that I was dead. Then I was riding a train around, thinking "shouldn't I see my dead relatives or something?"

It's weird, it was a very vivid dream, but it didn't feel like real life at all. Aren't lucid dreams supposed to be so clear and vivid that it feels like reality? This felt like a normal dream. Or can lucid dreams feel more dream-like than life-like? Are there different levels of intensity? Honestly, if this was a lucid dream, it's kind of disappointing.

Last year I was doing lots of reality checks, but I gave up as I could never achieve a lucid dream. (the only thing I have continued is my dream journal) Then this strange dream out of nowhere.

It was a lucid dream because you identified the dream as a dream during the dream. You lost lucidity after talking to the child.

Lucid dreams are just like regular dreams except for the fact you know you're dreaming. They can feel dreamlike or lifelike; vivid or blurry.

Keep in mind, while this was a lucid dream, it wasn't a fully lucid dream. During a fully lucid dream, you realize that since you're dreaming, you can do whatever you want. This gives you a greater sense of freedom than the low lucidity dream you had. So, lucid dreaming does get much better than what you experienced.

Thanks for the reply. That's a nice thought it was a lucid dream, even if only a partial one. Also that's good to know that the full LDs can be more fun/vivid than what I experienced.

It's weird, I never had the "I'm dreaming!" realization. I just compared the dream I was in to another one, and it seemed normal.

But when I realized I was "dead" - that felt like the type of realization I should have had for a lucid dream. It just hit me... oh my god, I am dead, I am a ghost, and it was shocking.

I wonder if my brain confused being lucid with being dead? For instance, you mentioned dream control. When I realized I was a ghost, not only did I become very self-aware and introspective/thoughtful (which is unusual for me in dreams) but I developed some weird type of emotional control. I decided that I wanted to feel extremely happy at one point and I felt a huge surge of joy out of nowhere (which was totally effortless) and when this happened the objects around me momentarily lit up, and I realized my joy had made that happen. Does this sound like some kind of lucid dream control or just a normal dream? My dreaming brain perceived this ability as a byproduct of being "dead," not "lucid." lol

Too bad I did not become fully lucid, though I must admit this has kind of inspired me to start trying to LD again.

Dream control works the same way, whether you're lucid or not. Lucid dream control is to manually flying a plane as non-lucid dream control is to flying a plane on auto-pilot.