O.k. So Wat's The Deal

[strifer]

How many ppl on the forum exagerate about their dreaming endeavors, or just lie? How lucid can someone actually be, can it get to the point where you are essentially yourself like in the real world, but in an imaginary universe, like a very intense hallucination where you can act, think and rationalize like you would normally in everyday life? Can your lucid dream be as real to you as reality? In a sense, can the lucid dream be the equivalent of escaping into an imaginary reality, can it be that powerful???? I had something very similar to a full lucid dream. I was walking in a warehouse with my friends, and all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming. Now, I talk to ppl about lucid dreams, and they tell me so casually, "oh yea, I have that all the time, like I'm in a nightmare and I know I'm dreaming so I make it dissapear" I'm always thinking no, I don't think you get it, that doesn't sound like a lucid dream, it just sounds like a regular dream in which ur dream self just said he/she was dreaming, your mind wasn't concious of it, it was just a part of your normal dream. My lucid dream experience was totally different than that. It comfirmed to me that most ppl I know who think they have lucid dreams actually don't, because if they experienced what I did, they wouldn't describe it so casually, they wouldn't describe it like that, I know, trust me (lol, ) What happened to me was at the moment of awareness, at the moment of lucidity, I felt such a strange sensation, like my body was asleep, but my mind was awake. I can't describe how exciting it felt, and beautiful, because I had been trying to have the mysterious lucid dream for a while. It was that feeling of being half awake half asleep that clued me in that this was something different, something new, that this was in fact a lucid dream. I'm pretty sure now that the only real time I was in control in that lucid dream was when I tried to stay calm, when I did my RC (how crazy that I didn't need to breath&#33 and when I looked at my hand (it was incredibly disfigured) When I looked up, I was in my house, and now, I was still in that, body asleep-mind awake lucid sensation, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have full control, or else I would have done as much crazy stuff as possible. It felt more like I was in for the ride of my dream, but I was cociously aware of it, and able to think and reflect on what was happening, and every now and then I would feel a little bit of control slip in, honestly, it's hard to really remember the details of it now. Back to my first question. I love this site, I can't stress that enough, sometimes though, I kind of lose faith in LDing when I read posts that sounds a little ridiculous, fabricated, or explanations where ppl say they had an LD, but they describe something that sounds like the fake LDs my friends would describe to me. I dunno, mybe it's just bcuz I'm in a dry period, and since I haven't had any LDs lately, I have lost a little faith. But I did have a really cool experience with WILD and self inducing sleep paralysis, but I wrote that in another post. That definitely got my faith up in WILD, and that it is actually something that could really work

[Shadow Dreamer]

keep practising and you will have full control i dont think the people on this forum lie i've had some very real lucids and thats what makes them fun, the freedom to do whatever you want i can control most of what happens in my dreams but i still need to practise good luck!

[Wolffe]

Hmm, people seem to think that when in a regular dream, its just some magical movie of some non-existant avatar of themselves, but I think this is wrong. It's still you, in every way, in the same way that when drunk, or on drugs, its still you. There's no real difference in the effects between them. You end up doing things you normally wouldn't do, etc. and most people assume that because of this, "you" aren't in control. However, as anyone who as tried any of these should realise is that you are in control, it's just your brain functions which are flawed, resulting in laying poor memories, warped delusions etc. which make it seem like another person. I think this is important when looking at 'real' lucid dreams. Depending on how awake your conscious mind is seems to simply affect how rational your thoughts are, in context. I've had many 'fake lucid dreams' where I've still used super powers or whatever, but for odd reasons. I guess I'm trying to say, think of normal dreaming as completely drunk outta your mind, and full lucidity as sober! You're still you when in a normal dream, you just lose all rational abilities and efficient memory skills. If you're half way between the two, you're still in control, you're just too outta it to realise what you wanted to do, or recall it, or whatever etc. etc.! Just my thoughts anyway... (Btw hope this doesnt sound aggressive! Didn't mean it to! )

[JaphyR]

I think you're right on with your description of how other people react. I agree, there's a certain casualness that some people have when they say they've had lucid dreams, that doesn't match up with the feeling of a truly lucid dream. People who have had a truly lucid dream usually have some specifics they share that tell you it was real, or there's an excitement in their voice that tells you it's real. I think most people on this site are pretty honest with themselves about the degrees of lucidity they are finding. Some of the nOObs, well, it's just like talking to someone for the first time about LD'ing. It takes you a few conversations to find out what they really know, and what they've really experienced.

[strifer]

yea, very true. I wasn't thinking to much about it when I wrote this, that there is a strong community here, and a lot of ppl on this board really have no reason to exagerate, because they are full fledged explorers of the dream world, and if they lie about this kind of thing, they are going against what it is they want to achieve, that is a better understanding of the dream world. And, Wolffe, you make an interesting point. I actually didn't realize how much of a misconception I had about the nature of dreams until I started reading more about them. They are, (or can be) as real a thing as waking life. Waking life: we experience our world in waking life through our 5 senses, and we interpret and percieve this experience in our own manner; drawing on our memories to formulate our own thoughts, interpretations, and feelings towards these experiences that are exculvise to our own body and mind. The dream world is much the same, I have learned, except that instead of drawing on external stimuli, we draw on internal stimuli. We percieve, interpret, make decisions, formulate thoughts like we would in waking life, excpet the stimuli we draw upon to do so comes from our mind. We experience this stimuli just like in the waking world with our 5 senses. The only thing making it seem like a "movie" that we are forced to watch is that we are not aware of this world, we go through it "drunk" like you say, not remembering, not in a state of awarness, esentially, we sleep through this different world, until we wake up again in reality and remember sensations we had from the dream world. So becoming lucid is really a gradient, not an on and off switch like I previously thought. There are many different degrees of awareness, like degrees of drunkeness; someone can be slightly aware, or fully aware, someone can be completley trashed, or just slightly tipsy, to give a crude analogy. cool, thanks for the replies btw.

[Identity X]

I don't know if there's any upper limit to how much control one can wield in a lucid dream; if there is, I myself am nowhere near it. What I do not doubt though is that there are some people on this forum who have excellent LDing abilities.

[DreamAllure]

Its hard to say if anyone has exaggerated or not based on how someone's post reads. Its difficult alot of times to relay in words the emotions and experiences we have in real life, much less dreams. Keep in mind, too, that some people have a difficult time expressing themselves in words, so sometimes it might not come across the way it happened, or may not sound "right". Don't forget, too.....One man's "WHOAH!!!" could be another man's "hmph"....(or woman's )