If things were truly that simple, it'd save us a lot of debate (ofcourse, it'd make things a lot less interesting too).

However, it isn't...

Lets take a look at your definition, shall we?

"a lucid dream is any dream in which you know you are dreaming while you are dreaming."

That sounds fairly clear at first sight, but any study of this definition will tell you it is anything but. Lets look at the two key elements.

Knowledge

Dreaming

So, in order to understand what lucid dreaming is, I have to understand first what 'knowledge' is, and what 'dreaming' is. And that's where the problems start. Try and define knowledge. Try and define dreaming.

Maybe you can. I sure can't. So I decided to call in some help! Dictionaries:



KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.

Ooops!



So in all actually one of the key elements in our definition is already under contention.

Maybe we'll have more luck with the second element. Once more, I called in the experts:



DREAMING: Neurology of Dreams: There is no universally agreed biological definition of dreaming. General observation shows that dreams are strongly associated with Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, during which an electroencephalogram shows brain activity to be most like wakefulness. Participant-remembered dreams during non-REM sleep are normally more mundane in comparison.[1] During a typical lifespan, a human spends a total of about six years dreaming[2] (which is about 2 hours each night[3]). It is unknown where in the brain dreams originate, if there is a single origin for dreams or if multiple portions of the brain are involved, or the purpose of dreaming is for the body or mind.

Ooops again!



Seems like our second key element in that defintion, is in fact anything but clear as well.

So a lucid dream (?) is a dream (?!!) in which we know (?!!!) that we are dreaming (?!!!!)


Yes, that is very clear indeed... hmm...

Now to those of you who just sort of dabble along in dreaming, try some techniques, have some fun, it doesn't matter. The completely unclear definition will in fact give you enough of a general idea to get along. But if you decide to go seriously investigate your dreams, you will very quickly come to the conclusion that our conventional definitions are just completely inadequate to describe the full range of lucid experiences one can have.

-Redrivertears-