Dual consciousness?

I have had LD's for as long as I can remember, but mine seem to include something generally not mentioned. When I was about 5 I started having dreams about a pet that I loved dying. Most of the time it was a pet that I really didn't have when I was awake. I started recognizing the pattern of the dreams. I would get introduced to the dream, and be watching the goings-on from a third person perspective, but still have first person (let's call it "in character") thoughts.
I would let the pet out of my sight for a few moments, then I would find out it was dead. After about 3 of these dreams on consecutive nights, my consciousnesses seperated. I would be watching from 3rd person, like always, but in addition to my "in character" thoughts, I had the thoughts of an audience. Suspense, guessing what would happen next, usually mentally screaming at my "in character" thoughts. However, I only once was able to get my point across to the "in character" me.

Up until yesterday (I'm 15 now) I had no idea that this was not normal. I'm not even sure, as I am usually unable to communicate with my in-character self, if this is true lucid dreaming at all.

I always dream like this, with the exception of one dream I had last night. I was trying to explain the way it felt to my best friend, and he just told me that he'd never not been both body- and character-bound in a dream.

Can I get any kind of explanation for this?

early signs of schizophrenia?

I kid. I get this too pretty often. It only happens when I am a character in 3rd person view. I think it's caused just by the fact that you're watching yourself in 3rd person which isn't something you're used to in real life. Usually when you see something in 3rd person it's in a movie, where you simultaneously assume both the roles audience wondering "oh what is she gonna do" along with a personal immersion as the main character. It's the same kind of overlap for me in dreams and watching a movie.

Hey kathistle. First off, welcome to DV :)

Lucid dreaming is being aware that you're dreaming when you're dreaming, that's all. From your description, it doesn't sound like you were lucid, but I think I know where you're coming from. In my dreams I am constantly switching back and forth between a 3rd person view - which I call "camera view" - and a 1st person point of view. In both instances, though more often in camera view, I find myself with almost two trains of thought. One focuses more on the situation at hand, and the other focuses more on the big picture, often asking questions (that I usually don't specifically remember).

I'm hardly ever just "myself" in a dream and find myself switching my point of view between certain dream characters, who then seem to take on my own personality, be they female or male. There always seem to be people around, but that's just one of the ways that my dreams seem to work.

What it sounds like is that you just have a repititive theme throughout your dreams, something which is not that common, but I know other people who have experienced dreams which repeat themselves over and over again. You can use these themes in order to become lucid, by recognizing the patterns and knowing that when something happens, or you find yourself in a situation, or you see a certain object, you can know that you are dreaming. They're known as "dream signs" in LD lingo.

I don't think that your dreams are that out of the ordinary, at least from your description. How often would you say that you have this dream? It makes sense that the more you have it, the more details are bound to change. Also, just for reference, what are you hoping to accomplish by examining these dreams?

Actually, the repetitive dreams stopped as soon as the in-character me first realised that it had happened before, in another dream. All the other people in the dream freaked out and started screaming at me and I woke up. Since then, I haven't lost the two trains of thought/one body predicament but I also haven't had anything I can identify as a dreamsign. However, the in-character thoughts are always aware that it is just a dream. I'm just unable to communicate that to the me that's dreaming.

I always have two trains of thought (with last night's exception), for at least 10 years every night, and besides that one dream, I've never been able to communicate between them. I've always been myself, though it sounds interesting to have different bodies in dreams.

The dream I had with one of my consciousnesses missing was actually physically daunting. Though it wasn't very stressful in itself, I woke up exhausted and puking. I'd like to avoid that again, if necessary, so I wanted to see if anyone knew what caused my funny thought process to begin with.

Thanks for the welcome, this seems to be an interesting forum and I hope to frequent it.

Hey there,

A very loose guess is that this your dreams have two levels, one normal level and a sort of meta-level where you're basically watching your own thoughts and actions.

Are you a very introspective sort of person during your waking hours? Do you often analyse your own actions, thoughts and ideas? Do you spend a lot of time trying to understand yourself and what makes you tick?

If so, your dreams might represent this, in the way you described.

Anyways, just my 2 dreamcents,

-Redrivertears-

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Originally Posted by kathistle

I have had LD's for as long as I can remember, but mine seem to include something generally not mentioned. When I was about 5 I started having dreams about a pet that I loved dying. Most of the time it was a pet that I really didn't have when I was awake. I started recognizing the pattern of the dreams. I would get introduced to the dream, and be watching the goings-on from a third person perspective, but still have first person (let's call it "in character") thoughts.
I would let the pet out of my sight for a few moments, then I would find out it was dead. After about 3 of these dreams on consecutive nights, my consciousnesses seperated. I would be watching from 3rd person, like always, but in addition to my "in character" thoughts, I had the thoughts of an audience. Suspense, guessing what would happen next, usually mentally screaming at my "in character" thoughts. However, I only once was able to get my point across to the "in character" me.

Up until yesterday (I'm 15 now) I had no idea that this was not normal. I'm not even sure, as I am usually unable to communicate with my in-character self, if this is true lucid dreaming at all.

I always dream like this, with the exception of one dream I had last night. I was trying to explain the way it felt to my best friend, and he just told me that he'd never not been both body- and character-bound in a dream.

Can I get any kind of explanation for this?

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Hi,

I experienced what I would call Dual-consciousness before also, where I am both subject and object. I think maybe this has something to do with the realization of Non-Duality, which is the highest goal of all spiritual paths. When one has the realization of Non-Duality, one is a Buddha.

Karuna (Compassion),
DarkMind

This occurs a lot in my NDs. It's like there is my dreamself, which could be anyone, and just goes along with it and accepts the dream as real, and the 'observer' me, who is watching the events passively, with the vauge knowledge that it is a dream.