Thread: Do you feel your dreams, or just remember them?

Don't know what's normal, but I definitely feel like I was there. It's like any waking memory except it will fade faster if I let it. I can also relive my dreams just by remembering.

Most of the time my dreams leave me with little physical recollection, it is primarily emotional and spiritual, which is nonetheless potent.

I am by no means an expert LD'er, but it has been my experience that dreams leave me with few physical memories.

As fate would have it, last night included an exception to this, in which an attractive girl interlocked my left arm in a moment of closeness; this I am sure I felt and remember. Hope this helps

i know what you mean. Usually I have to lay in bed for a second and really try to hold onto that feeling after I wake up from a lucid before I can get up to write it down. I only "feel" like I was really there if I wake up directly from being lucid (rather than slipping back into a normal dream then remembering the lucid later) and if the LD is really vivid. But yeah, I think it's normal, and I think that's one of the reasons why some people dont think lucid dreaming is all that special. Because they really did have a lucid dream, but they couldn't remember how it felt, so although they thought they were experiencing a lucid dream to its full potential, they really weren't
make sense?

I definitely feel as if I am in them, both during them and in my memories after waking up. In fact I'm usually annoyed when I try to photoshop a dream scene and I just can't get it to feel like I'm IN the dream, but that I'm only looking at a picture, when my sense of having been in the dream environment was so real.

So basically my memories of dreams and RL are usually on the same level, but in-the-moment my dreams are slightly less "real", especially if I am not lucid.

This may sound strange, but when I have very vivid dreams that has an event that can make sense or I see a person I know, I sometimes forget if I had that interaction happen in a dream or in real life. It can be really annoying.

For me its different for each dream. Sometimes I'll only remember a LD while writing in my dream journal, trying to actually recall a dream. Other times I'll wake up with a huge grin on my face just FEELING my dreaming and instantly knowing everything about it.

Oh almost forgot. Sometimes I really do feel like I have been there in the dream. For example there are numerous memories that I have from bring a kid that for the longest time I thought were true but only recently had discovered were really just dreams that I confused with normal life. ( mind you these are very old memories, from when I was like 5-7 years old)

Originally Posted by WhiteLightsaber

I sometimes forget if I had that interaction happen in a dream or in real life. It can be really annoying.

That happens to me a lot, but not so much anymore since I really started thinking about dreams and lucid dreaming.

Originally Posted by Echoes

there are numerous memories that I have from bring a kid that for the longest time I thought were true but only recently had discovered were really just dreams that I confused with normal life. ( mind you these are very old memories, from when I was like 5-7 years old)

Same here, a lot of them were false awakenings that I never realized weren't real.

HA! For me LD's are the only dreams that I actually feel I was there. I think that's why I like them so much.

Originally Posted by Enigmik

HA! For me LD's are the only dreams that I actually feel I was there. I think that's why I like them so much.

Lol, thats basically how I feel. If I have a really well controlled and vivid lucid. then I wake up just feeling great and I remember EVERYTHING. though if I'm not very lucid and things are seemly faded in the dream, I usually don't remember much about it. sometimes I only remember that I'd had a lucid dream but cannot recall what really happened.

Wow thanks for all the replies, guys. Seemed like a pretty mixed outcome. I hope I can train myself to feel my dreams, I had an insanely vivid and long dream last night, I wish I could have felt it though.

Personaly, I find it helpfull if you wake up right after the dream. That happens after most of my LDs and they certainly feel like I was there, no doubt.

The lack of "feel", could be down to poor recall.

You know, I signed up here about 15 minutes ago because I've just had a terrible dream and I can't seem get the taste out of my mouth. It so wierd, like the atmosphere of the dream has consumed my bedroom, everything looks normal but it just FEELS different.

Depends on my level of dream recall at the time, though if I have alot of lucids my recall can build it's self up, it also depends on what type of technique, deilds tend to be more better recalled but often pretty short, dilds are longer but I often don't recall it intill later in the night or if I wake up right after.

But I know there are dreams that I've felt were alot like real memorys.

I feel my dreams. My lucid one I felt and i'm still feeling it now(2 days after).

In my lucid I flew and i still remember how it felt when i was floating. It was awesome.
I still feel the exact feeling of when i was flying. and how it feels to be floating in the air.

But i've only had 1 lucid.

But in general, my nonllucid dreams...I feel them. well especially the nightmares and the sex dreams.
The others not so much.

But the lucid, i definelty felt it.

It is different - for me as beginner.
Some lucids seem to be rather fleeting - the ones, or the parts of it - that are not completely rendered out, and taken hold of - they can drift into forgetfulness easily.
Like some of my last one in the beginning.
But after startling myself with flying very, very fast - the second part of that LD - it is I was definitively there memory.
But many of my memories of LDs are a bit muddled.
Interestingly - my first ones - and a long semilucid at that time - they are as clear as if they had happened yesterday.

I am aware of the fact, that memory-access is not like returning to the same shelf with the same info on it - but it morphs with all the rest of you - and even following certain principles.
But there are memories, that are clear - and the clearness and realism and even pictures seem to be deeply impressed - as deeply as very emotionally important real life memories - even if they do "warp" over time.

When it comes to feeling - I have one absolutely amazing experience from lately - where somebody hugged me and swirled me about.
In the end it was us embracing and rotating in nothing at all.
But anyway - I had closed my eyes for 10 sec. for the TOTM, and tried to put all my attention towards feeling my body - not to wake up from closing my eyes.
And it worked.

No memories parallel the actual experience of an event whether that event was dreamed or lived in waking life. My advice to you is to live fully in the present moment and to be attentive to your experience during the dream, not after. That is the only way to fully "feel" the dream experience.

On average, gulagman145, you have posted less than one post per year. Bravo. Haha.

Sometimes I just remember my dreams, unless they are very emotional and I gain attachment to a DC or something. Only the really vivid ones I remember.

Like, in my last DJ entry, I describe a dream in detail that I had about 8-9 years ago. Somethings are just memorable I suppose. That dream wasn't even a lucid though, but feel free to check it out. Link in my signature.