do we have free will in our dreams?

[Giulio]

[disclaimer: freewill=voluntary choice or decision] hi! I am a beginner oneironaut. I have had half a lucid dream (lasted few seconds and ended up in SP) few weeks ago and my first lucid dream last night (yay). In normal dreams we do not have freewill. It is like watching a movie. On the other hand we experience freewill in our everyday life when awake. the question: how much freewill do we have while lucid dreaming? my experience: Last night i felt i make pretty much all the decisions but I am not sure how much of it was really me who was deciding. For example I decided to take off my shoes and to try to fly. Or to rub my hands from time to time to gain more lucidity. It is just a feeling. What do you think?

[cooleymd]

Well you should have freewill, but you won't have omnipotence (at least not most of the time) but it will depend on your level of lucidity, for instance suppose you dream you have been drafted and find yourself running an obstacle course, but become lucid when you notice obstacles that fly or hover etc. You become aware and think you can do anything you want, then you feel a huge hand grab your shoulder and yank you and turn to see a very large angry DC Drill Sargent, you begin to say 'hey this is my dream' the DC Drill Sargent yells back "your in the army now, your dreams belong to me, get back into formation". You might lose your freewill and lucidity. I once had the Dream Police show up during a bit of Lucid fun, telling me "your going to have to come with us", I ripped one of their heads off with my bare hands, the other one said "I'm very sorry Sir, but I'm afraid your still going to have to come with me!" (at least he changed the pronoun) After the gun battle I tossed his partners gun away indicating to the dream, I wasn't looking for a fight, after surviving the void I continued to do what I wanted. Also when you are awake you can do what you want but there will be consequences, and also your conscience is there with you. While in a Lucid Dream there are no consequences, your subconscious is there with you. If you try to do something it doesn't like it may act to distort the dream in some way (like sending in dream police or distract you with an air raid, earthquake, flood etc).

[Giulio]

thank you, these stories are funny as well as informative. lol, dream police, is it common to people to dream it? Afterall it was my first lucid dream so, maybe I am not yet comfortable with lucidity and dream world around me. so when you are completely lucid, you make decision exacly the same way you make decision in real life?

[Sageous]

So when you are completely lucid, you make decision exacly the same way you make decision in real life? Yes. In a sense, lucidity is by definition the ability to exercise free will in a dream... when lucid, you are indeed able to make decisions in exactly the same way you make decision in real life. Lucidity is nothing more, or less, than the presence of your waking-life consciousness in a dream; so any mental activity you can do in waking life can potentially be done when lucid -- including functioning with free will. Notice I emphasized "potential" above: lucidity also comes in varying degrees, so it might take a little practice and experience to fully exercise that free will. You might occasionally know you are dreaming, but are not quite lucid enough confidently make your own decisions...come to think of it, actively making decisions might be an excellent lucid task to help improve your level of lucidity. ... of course, this begs the question: do we actually have free will in waking life? But I guess that's for another forum!

[Giulio]

cooleymd, sounds like police has a strong influence on your dreams. In a sense, lucidity is by definition the ability to exercise free will in a dream I really like that definition! thank you to clearing things up, I will proceed better on my journey of course, this begs the question: do we actually have free will in waking life? But I guess that's for another forum! of course, that is the intent of the disclaimer on top (I mean the intent is to clarify that we are talking about feeling free will in LD the same as in RL)

[Giulio]

ok, I did a bit of research on the forum and i found many entries with "dream police". wow! that is intresting!! going to check them

[cooleymd]

Hopefully they aren't all me retelling that story at least half a dozen of them could be I use the police in real life as a reality check sign, I see them at random a few times per day mostly while traveling on bus or walking, and since I ride buses in dreams at least a few times per week, when I see them I RC by counting fingers and ticking off dream goals. So I often notice them in dreams, or remember them being in dreams but failed to reality check. There was one in the dream I woke up from just a few hours ago, there had been an accident and she was asking an off duty med tech to help a victim, total fingers counted ZERO. Oh well maybe next time

[Sensei]

A lot of non LDers feel like we must just be deceiving ourselves, but I generally have free will in non lucids, just without the knowledge that it is a dream, keep in mind that most of my dreams are high awareness states that most would get confused with lucids. I am making the decisions, I am sitting down, second things, wondering why things aren't normal, but it is when the idea of dream comes along that I actually can make a choice that I would in waking. I become "my waking self" when I realize that I am dreaming, because before I realized this was a dream, I was a sea captain on the great isles, trying to keep my shipping boat safe from nazi zombie aliens, and with the immediate danger, I made a lot of decisions that I would make if I was in that situation, but when I realize that it is a dream, then I make decisions based on waking reality, not the dream reality. Feel like I am rambling, listen to Sageous. bye!