Thread: Can your subconscious-self be the one in control in your lucid dreams?

Originally Posted by Sasso0o

Sometimes I am lucid and making conscious decisions in my dreams trying to control things, and sometimes I succeed and others fail.

But there are times when I am lucid and making decisions that surprise me when I wake up; decisions I would not normally make.
It feels like I was in control but with my subconscious-self, but I am not sure that's a thing.

I lucid dream from time to time, but I am not an expert, so I am sorry if that's a repeated question.

There is always this tug-a-war with the subconscious mind as it predominantly has occupied the domain of dreaming over our waking self. If I slip up my lucid focus it will take over changing the dream experience until I can assert my intent and focus back on the dream content. Also our levels of lucidity vary as we can think we are lucid but may only be at 80% lucid, or semi-lucid. It's an interesting shift in our psychology when in that focus state.

Originally Posted by Sasso0o

Sometimes I am lucid and making conscious decisions in my dreams trying to control things, and sometimes I succeed and others fail.

But there are times when I am lucid and making decisions that surprise me when I wake up; decisions I would not normally make.
It feels like I was in control but with my subconscious-self, but I am not sure that's a thing.

I lucid dream from time to time, but I am not an expert, so I am sorry if that's a repeated question.

Glad to see you are on Dream Views! You have veteran status! Feel free to start as many new threads as you want! This is a place where we want interaction. Post away.

Here is the bluntest breakdown I can express. Getting lucid is one skill. Controlling the virtual reality of the dream is another skill all together. You will need to practice. You learn by picking very simple changes to make in the dream. Pick something specific and simple then work on that one thing. Pick bigger changes to make after you have practiced.

Here is a simple training course I can offer you. You will think about these tasks throughout your lucid dream routine what ever yours is. Think about them before bed or if you wake in the middle of the night. Remember you are not there, you are learning to effect the virtual world. Start slow and build. Only focus on one at a time. 1) realize you are dreaming and state in your mind the fact that you are dreaming over and over at least 3 times. "this is a dream, I am dreaming, this is it, I am in a lucid dream" 2) Notice you are dreaming. There will be a visual field. Intentionally move your head from side to side slowly while trying to see what is around you, then say out loud, "this is a dream." 3) repeat all of 2 but now raise your hands up so that they are in your field of vision. Look at them and wiggle the fingers.

These may not seem like dream control, but randomly exploring is what dreams do, you need to stay in place and gain composure first. Get to where you can do this step 3 at the beginning of any task you set out to do. Make a simple list of things you will change in the dream. After you have completed a few simple ones move up the disbelief factor just short of magical. I will explain that in a moment. My first simple tasks were 1) find a sword somewhere in a dream. 2) say a simple mantra in a clear voice 3) make a couple specific gestures with my hands. 4) Try to go to or be at a chosen location like a certain park.

Start there because none of that stuff is unbelievable. It will be easier to get your brain to create images of things it knows can happen. When you can change believable things work on non magical feats that could only be in a dream. My first one was jumping. I would run and then jump. I would try to jump over cars. I would jump forward and try to go really far. Another example would be strength. Try picking up things that your brain thinks of as heavy. You can grab a car and try to tip it on its side. Use thoughts to influence things. Calmly say this is a dream, know the car is not real and expect to be able to tip it.

If you get that far it will start coming pretty quick. You do need practice for creating the illusion in the virtual reality. Pick a simple small magical power to work on. I started with making small items float. Then move up from there. Learn it as skill by committing to small logical steps and putting in the time.

During the times when you seem on auto pilot or like you are not fully in control of your action go through the beginning steps I listed out or any similar stabilizing routines. you can look up threads about stabilizing for ideas.

One last thing to remember, your funnest dreams are not always the ones you exert the most control over. Learn to control it, then only control it a bit for the excitement of dreaming.

I think this has already sort of been said, but it seems like clarifying just one more thing might help:

When you are lucid, it is important to remember that your dreaming mind/unconscious* is just another part of you. There really isn't some other force in your head working against you; instead it's just the regular dreaming machinery going about its regular dream-creation business -- which it normally does without any apparent conscious input. When you are lucid, your unconscious will continue to manufacture imagery as it always does, regardless of your presence (hence the frustration). However, once you can work those controls (and Sivason's instructions will be very helpful toward this, BTW) your unconscious will step right into line with its new instructions and the machinery will reflect your desires.

In my mind the first step in all of this self-awareness: if you are fully aware in the dream that everything in the dream is you, and not coming from somewhere else, you will find those controls fairly easy to access.

Of course, if you find yourself in a dream where everything and everyone is strange, and you can't change a thing no matter how lucid you are, that might be something else altogether, but that doesn't matter here, I think!


* I've pretty much given up this battle, but what the hell: the term you might want to use here is "unconscious," rather than "subconscious." The subconscious mind was a specific term that Freud used to, I think, describe the part of your mind that stores stuff you use every day (i.e. how to brush your teeth, habits, phone numbers, feelings, etc.). The unconscious mind, however, is that part of you that is essentially the foundation of that which is You -- your memories, your personality traits, your fears, your joys, and, of course, your dreams (lots of other things, too). Your unconscious is not easily accessible by your conscious mind, while your subconscious is basically an open file cabinet... and since lucid dreaming and dream control are acts of accessing your unconscious, you can see why many aspects of LD'ing can be annoyingly difficult. At any rate, pop culture seems to have long ago redefined subconscious to mean exactly what unconscious means, and I get that, but if you can come to understand the difference between the terms -- and also understand that the unconscious and subconscious minds are both part of your mind, and not separate entities, and that your subconscious really has nothing to do with dreaming, your LD'ing journey might pass a bit more easily.