Mistaking Dream For Reality

[gregash]

Given that this is a lucid dreaming site most, if not all of you, have had a dream that was so outrageous, so absurd that upon wakening you wondered how you could ever mistake that dream world for reality? Why is this? For instance, last night I had a dream in which I flew like superman, tore a branch off a tree in mid-flight, turned it into a wizard's staff, thought nothing of it and continued to fly around like this was a completely normal occurence. Why does this happen? I have a thought, and I should caution you that I recently had a mental breakdown so as of late I tend to think without any anchor in reality whatsoever, that our subconcious mind is by nature extremely secretive. It gets irritated if the conscious mind sheds light on it's habits and it actively works at returning it's manners and very presence to the unknown darkness of the basement of our minds. Don't misunderstand, I am not trying to say that our modes of thought are at war, merely that they are rarely on the same page for much longer than a moment or two, longer for most of you lucky bastards. Damn you all with your sane minds! Actually, I rather enjoy my insanity , it gives me an ever changing view on reality. Anyway, to kind of get back to the point, lately I have experienced all of my dreams in what I call 4th person. It's like experiencing a story told in 3rd person that no one is telling and I am not reading. No body, no thought that I should have a body, basically, no identity whatsoever . It's hard to explain and I wager much harder to believe much less understand , but I was beginning to take my tendency to disassociate with my body into account in my quest for lucidity. In fact I've still been able to gain lucidity multiple times since this has started to occur. However, last night while flying I was aware of my identity, my thoughts, and most importantly, I was aware that I was experiencing whatever was happening to me. (I know, it was a dream so I thought I was experiencing it but I trust you see what I mean) What's more, I distinctly remember flexing my leg muscles while flying, soaring with my arms at my side, and grabbing the tree branch with my hand. Long story short, I had a tentative understanding of my dreaming habits when my subconcious mind throws me for a loop when I have a dream with what has always been my most obvious dream sign. Fuck! If I come right to it, it's just that I haven't yet mastered lucid dreaming and my understanding on a subject is usually ever-changing; I have hundreds of thoughts on a subject before I even have an understanding I am happy with and this is just my current thought. Just wanted to hear some of your thoughts on the subject of mistaking the dream for reality. It's back to the drawing board for me. Thanks for giving me a moment of your time.

[JaphyR]

How long have you been ld'ing? Most of us spend 10, 20, 30 years or more never aware of our dreams until we wake up. Then we hear about lucid dreaming, and expect to start "achieving" lucidity consistently. It's like trying to change a lifelong habit like smoking or drinking coffee, or how we tie our shoes. For me, lucidity is about awareness more than anything else. Not control, but awareness. It takes time to develop that awareness, and I think you're right that the interaction of the subconscious and conscious play a part in how we develop our awareness. I am very respectful of my subconscious, and have no desire to walk all over it with my conscious self. I am just fascinated to interact consciously with my subconscious. Instead of walking up to a door in a lucid dream and picturing what I want to be on the other side, I like to walk up with an empty mind, knock, and find out what is on the other side.