Levels of Consciousness in Dreams

[lenscaper]

In an effort to better understand my personal lucidity in dreams I have been researching consciousness in general and applying what I am learning to my levels of lucidity. Minimal Consciousness - Being vaguely aware of things. Perhaps we are minimally conscious in every day non-lucid dreams. Perceptual Consciousness - Being actively aware of the environment and your body. I'm thinking that this is kind of like passive lucidity where we know we are dreaming but are not ready to start changing things radically. I spend a great deal of time like this in my dreams since I have begun my lucidity training. I think this can be enhanced through daytime awareness exercises and taking a lot of mindful moments during your day. Introspective Consciousness - Fully aware to the extent that you are making critical, methodically determined decisions. This would be full, active lucidity. At this point in my journey I have experienced this a number of times in response to pretty obvious dream signs. Any thoughts on all that? Does it sound right?

[ZenLD]

Yeah i think they sound right. There also might be a precognitive consciousness where you recognize events before they happen - just like memories rising during meditative practices, you recognize a event surfacing right before happens? There also might be that consciousness . Just pure awareness without thought or anything... Like the one in Robert Waggoner book regarding feeling tone sort of thing or dream yoga practices? Do these count? Are there more?

[lenscaper]

There also might be that consciousness . Just pure awareness without thought or anything... Like the one in Robert Waggoner book regarding feeling tone sort of thing or dream yoga practices? I'm glad you brought that up. I have actually experienced that dreamless consciousness twice in these past weeks. Both times it came after a period of very strong hypnagogic preparation at a time when I was nowhere near my optimal REM cycle and resulted in an hour or more of dreamless conscious awareness that left me feeling intensely fulfilled. One of those times was a brief but intense period of floating in a sea of soothing blackness with my senses open wide. That brief moment took close to two hours by the bedside clock. Those were very strong experiences. I'm thinking that I touched into a sleep yoga state rather than dream yoga. Not sure where that fits into the levels of consciousness.......it felt more like slipping into some sort of space that runs underneath all of that. Are there more? I bet there are.

[acillis]

lenscaper? dreamless conscious awareness? can you explain? which was dreamless? the scene? were you conscious of self? how far did that darkness expand? was it everywhere? are you talking of the void? i been in the darkness of a void aswell. but i haven't had a good time there.

[lenscaper]

Hey acillis.... I still remember that event vividly. It was at a time when I was very actively working on being in that "threshold" state between awake and a'dream. I had been spending a great deal of time there over a week or so trying to understand how WILD works and had experienced two OBE moments that had really motivated me to gain more understanding of the hypnagogic state. I was also coming to an understanding that when I was not in the right place in my REM cycle I was not going to really get into strong dreams. That night I knew I was not in REM but I went ahead anyway. My body went back to sleep fairly easily but I stayed very aware. There was a distinct lack of the colors and various cool stuff that I had been experiencing on other nights. Instead I drifted into a blackness that felt like light....that's the only way I can describe it. My awareness definitely diminished but I never fell asleep. It felt as if I was floating with no thought...no dream images....just kind of there. It was not an expansive darkness....it was just around me. Or perhaps it was limitless and I was filling it. Hmmmmm...pondering that..... It was a very comforting place for me. It seemed like moments....and yet almost two hours passed. When I awoke I felt as if I had slept for hours. I have since read about sleep yoga and a place that advanced practitioners learn to go that is somehow underneath the dream state. I may have stumbled into that place.