Thread: Lucid Dreaming Overrated?

Oneironaut: My idea was this: When someone has a non lucid dream and then wakes up, he can examine what was he dreaming about and can LEARN from it. Also some non lucid dreams CAN work as a psychological help. You can learn about yourself very much from common dreams.

I've been having Lucid dreams for a long time and I DO like them better. BUT... Recently I've learned that I can learn from my common dreams so much more about myself. Even I can learn how to solve any problems. In Lucid (very) vivid dreams I can watch everything as I was awake and really it's more about "eye candy" and control than learning about myself. Thus this makes common dreams more important.

Originally Posted by CloudOne

Oneironaut: When someone has a non lucid dream and then wakes up, he can examine what was he dreaming about and can LEARN from it.

I'm not sure I understand your point. Are you saying you can't do that with lucid dreams? If so, I disagree.

Originally Posted by CloudOne

I've been having Lucid dreams for a long time and I DO like them better. BUT... Recently I've learned that I can learn from my common dreams so much more about myself. Even I can learn how to solve any problems. In Lucid (very) vivid dreams I can watch everything as I was awake and really it's more about "eye candy" and control than learning about myself. Thus this makes common dreams more important.

Like I said, that seems kind of arbitrary. To you being lucid is more about eye candy and control, but lucid dreaming, itself (as in, objectively) is not "about eye-candy and control". It's simply about dreaming, while knowing you are dreaming. Many people cannot even (or decide not to) control their own actions in lucid dreams, so, in this way, it is simply like waking up and looking back over your dream, in that you are simply watching your involuntary reactions to the dream content, and analyzing what you saw - much like a 'common dream.'

I give up.

edit: Lucid to me is common and I count it to common dreams, as well. The rare ones are vivid dreams which are eye candy but can't help you to learn about you.

Originally Posted by CloudOne

I give up.

edit: Lucid to me is common and I count it to common dreams, as well. The rare ones are vivid dreams which are eye candy but can't help you to learn about you.

This is not totally true... I've learned more about myself from lucid dreams than normal dreams. Everybody has normal dreams, some don't even remember them and those who do don't pay much attention to them. In lucid dreams you can have some idea of how you'd act if you're totally free of judgement from anyone else, plus, you're in a great connection to your subconscious mind, which, at least for me, is great!

Edit: And the more vivid your LDs are, the more realistic is your response to situations, that's my view...

Originally Posted by MrGrEmLiN

This is not totally true... I've learned more about myself from lucid dreams than normal dreams. Everybody has normal dreams, some don't even remember them and those who do don't pay much attention to them. In lucid dreams you can have some idea of how you'd act if you're totally free of judgement from anyone else, plus, you're in a great connection to your subconscious mind, which, at least for me, is great!

Edit: And the more vivid your LDs are, the more realistic is your response to situations, that's my view...

Depends on how you define learning about yourself. From your response it is not what I understand as TRUE learning about yourself. In common dreams (lucid or not is irrelevant - they simply aren't vivid) the content and the theme of the dream is what really is important. Not how you behave but what the dream is ABOUT.

Let's clear one thing: As for me 'common dreams' consist of non-lucid and lucid without control. The 'uncommon dreams' are very vivid dreams with any lucidity level.

Regardless, I don't think many people go lucid every night they go to sleep, so most of our dream repretoirs consist of both lucid and non-lucid dreams. I don't think anyone, yourself included, considers going lucid to be a negative thing because they're then missing out on learning from a non-lucid dream. Whether or not you believe lucidity is the quintessence of the dreaming experience, I still don't see how it could be overrated, even if you view it solely as another type of dream to mix things up.

what about trying to get a greater understanding of the nature of consciousness itself. I figure that's probably easier in a Lucid.

Just a thought.