First lucid dream in a long time

Last night I had my first lucid dream in at least 6 months. It was a long one, not one of those where you become lucid, get over excited and then drift out of it and awaken.

The dream was very similar to one I've had previously where I became lucid looking at a huge black screen TV on a wall. When I say huge, I mean massive! No picture just black. This was inside a manufacturing facility with people working presses, robotics etc.

The fact that it was so similar this time round has me questioning what seems to be a message. I have no idea what the TV symbolises. Anyone have any similar experiences?

Congrats on the success! It must have felt awesome to have a lucid after such a long period. Savour it and ride that wave of enthusiasm to your next one!

I’m not sure what a large TV would symbolise, I think that depends on your own ideas and schemas but you should definitely try to get back to it and turn it on! Who knows what might happen! If nothing else, a large TV could be used as a great teleportation device. Turn it on, flick through channels until you find somewhere you’d like to go and then walk through it.

As someone who does like symbols, I'll say that the "problem" with them is that they can very easily mean anything; as Tiktaalik very rightly put it, it depends a lot on your own ideas and overall schemas for objects and their associations.

Lucid symbology feels even more complex than non-lucid symbology to me, mostly because in lucid dreams I have some factor of decision-making that, while not absent in non-lucid dreams, is certainly diminished in non-lucids. Although the content of a lucid dream may be just like any non-lucid dream, that is to say, spontaneous and coming from an origin that has not yet crossed a certain threshold which normal conscious thought has crossed, the aspects of decision-making and "higher" awareness during lucidity mean that there can be a direct conscious "tampering" if you will, with the symbolic content.

At any point during that lucidity we are effectively taking a part in the process of determining the symbolic significance of any dream symbol. Do something with the object, it could mean one thing, don't do anything, it could mean another. It's just like any waking choice, except the consequence is abstract and internal.

In this particular case, if you want to find out what the TV may symbolise, then I suggest you think back and place yourself as vividly as possible in the lucid dream again and try to remember what your first impressions and thoughts were during the dream; otherwise, Tiktaalik's suggestion for finding it again in another lucid dream would be good too, though I wonder if in some sense you might find yourself in the same position again later.

Symbols are a bit like questions; the more we delve into them, the more confused we can become. Sometimes there is no clear answer, only more questions. While answers can be definitive and helpful, they are like an ending, they tend to be final until when or if they become challenged by something else. On the other hand, more questions can lead you to new thoughts, and that may be of value in itself just in the same way that a journey can be more important than a destination; so if you were to return to it, ask the questions you feel the need to ask of your symbols, I think that would be my suggestion.