Anybody else sometimes think of dream characters as "real" while lucid?

I'm sure this has been in a thread before, and I know it is pointless, but I find this an interesting topic to discuss. My question is the title:

Anybody else sometimes think of dream characters as "real" while lucid?

Yes, I know that when we aren't lucid, we accept dream characters as real people. The key here is that you accept dream characters as real people even while knowing you are dreaming. For example, my mom calls me to do something in a dream. I know I am dreaming and do not need to do the task. However, I think of my mom as a real person; not an imaginary person yelling at me to do something.

Or, in a fairly new lucid dream my aunt told me lucid dreaming was dangerous. I knew I was dreaming, but completely accepted her as my aunt. Later I was listening to music, curious with what my mind could come up with. I saw my little brother and called him over because I really wanted him to hear it.

As a final example, I dreamt a kid gave me money. I knew I was dreaming, but believed the money was absolutely real, given to me from a real person, and that I'd find $2 on my lap when I awoke.

So, anyone else have instances like this? I find "dream logic" like this very interesting while lucid. While this thread is up, I don't mind if you also talk about dream logic while lucid.

I most commonly have fake dream memories while lucid. I'll sudenly remember a character I've never met, or a place I've never been! It's disappointing when I wake up from these instances, because it's a sure sign that I wasn't fully aware...

I think there are different types of awareness in a dream. Sometimes, the only thing we consider is the fact "I am dreaming." In a good lucid dream, we branch out from this concept into an entire thought web of awareness (I am dreaming, so none of this is real, and I can alter anything, and none of what happens here really matters, etc.). I bet there are physiological factors involved in blocking these expanded realizations.

I guess how lucid you are depends on how strongly and consistently you specify lucidity. To see all the rules of the dream world while asleep, you must vigilantly consider them while awake.

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Originally Posted by Abra

Sometimes, the only thing we consider is the fact "I am dreaming."

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This is very true. I've had quite a few of those where I wasn't even lucid. I just figured that things worked the way they did because "I'm dreaming of course." I actually do usually manage to get that nothing matters or is real, except for people. As I've said, I sometimes never think that they don't exist either.

Well... I never consider them real "people" since I screw that term... but consider them as real "life" other than that my multiple personalities that live within my dreams are real lol

As a writer, they're just as real to me as any other characters that pop outta my head... :banana:

The other night i was in a lucid dream, and in it i was talking to my best friend james, and i was trying to figure out if he was really james, or if he was just a figment of my mind. i was very convinced that it was actually him, and that somehow we as people were connected cause we were both asleep. I asked him what his favorite video-game was, to try to see if he was real. He said "quake 2" and that convinced me that he was real, since i wasn't sure what his favorite video game really was, and we had never played quake 2 together so i couldn't have come up with it myself. So basically i duped myself in the dream, although i now know that quake 2 isn't his favorite game, thus proving him a figment of my imagination haha

I usually consider DC alive independent of my own mind, even when lucid. However, there have been many times were I've thought of them only as figments of my imagination. I actually enjoy dreams were I think of and treat DCs as "real" more than the other kind.

When I was much younger, I had a dream where when I was waking up I heard a voice in my head asking if I wouldn't mind giving him a lift. My response was "Sorry, I don't pick up hitch-hikers in my head." Then I woke up a bit, and forced myself back to sleep so that i could say "Sorry, though. I hope someone stops for you."

I told a friend and he said that its a good sign if you are polite to parts of your psyche. They have a reality, even if they are only really synapses in your head. Dreams allow you to practice virtues and learn lessons. Both I find easier if I treat dreams as real to some extent.

Of course, sometimes I don't do this.

Yeah, I've had a couple of experiences like that!

In my very first lucid, I had no idea that it was possible to LD and so I thought that my friend had to be real. I realized that it was a dream, but I thought that he had somehow managed to be in my dream with me and give me consciousness. He's into that magic and witch stuff so I thought maybe he'd actually found a way to use it to enter my dream, because that was the only logical explanation for what was happening. I think once I saw how illogically he was behaving I realized that wasn't it, though, and that he was just another dream character.

Here's a bit from one of my best lucids:

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I got up and went into my sister’s room. My sister is a natural LDer, and we’d had a long conversation right before we both went to bed about WILD and LD and prolonging LDs. “I’m in a dream!” I told her, and she responded, “Yes, I know. So am I. I’m having a lucid dream, too.” I realized that I couldn’t discount this.

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But again, she started acting too irrationally for her to actually be a person in a lucid dream. Even considering how irrational you sometimes are in LDs :tongue:

Recently I've started trying to be nice to my DCs and treating them like real people, instead of letting on that I'm in a dream and know they are just a figment of my imagination. But I still know that they are DCs.

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Originally Posted by Shift

Recently I've started trying to be nice to my DCs and treating them like real people, instead of letting on that I'm in a dream and know they are just a figment of my imagination. But I still know that they are DCs.

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I did just the same thing last night, when I had a lucid dream. I started exploring the forest with a DC, who is a friend of mine in real life. We explored the woods, and I didn't tell him that I knew I was dreaming! I treated him like he was real, instead of thinking he was another DC.

yep all the time. Last night I thought my dogs were somehow linked mentally to the real waking life dogs. Like I had powers to communicate with them and they would know in waking life as well.

It really gets weeeeiiiiird in there sometimes.

Absolutely. I always think my DCs are real and that I need to help them realize they are dreaming too.

I never think DCs are real . . . It's no fun really because I'm essentially in my dreams all alone. I won't bother to interact with DCs at all. I really wish that I'd think of DCs as having some importance.

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Originally Posted by AlexLou

I really wish that I'd think of DCs as having some importance.

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even if DCs aren't real, your subconscious will still play out your imagination

if you imagine DCs as important, or even dynamic characters, they eventually will be. I've had lots of interesting DCs that were even able to out smart me from time to time, but thats because I love a dream that feels like movie. so my dreams play plot twists - creating semi smart DCs

When I'm lucid and I see a DC that seems real, maybe because of their appearance or their personality - I always ask them, are you a real person? And they always tell me yes. Though even afterwards, most of the time, I never believe them

But one time the DC was my friend. And I wondered, am I having a shared lucid dream, or is my friend just a figment of my imagination?

She certainly looked like my friend, but her personality was dead - like she was a mindless zombie. So I thought, gotta be a DC. Either way I play along, some how hoping maybe it is a shared dream. And I tell her lets fly together to some place. Except she couldn't fly. She was jumping up and down, and tumbling and falling all over the place, kinda embarrassing really. Definitely DC I think! Because I think, you know, my friend has lucid dreams too, and I would think she would be a good flier.

Well, thing was, I told my friend about my dream the next day. And while she doesn't remember sharing any dream, she told me the dream I had was true to her dream persona. SHE CAN'T FLY. Not even in a lucid dream. She's a terrible flier she explains, and most of her lucidity skills go into transformation into four legged beasts.

So, I'm still kinda questioning it.

Maybe it was a shared dream? Maybe the reason why she acted like a mindless zombie, was because she wasn't lucid? After a failed attempt at flying, she was really stressed out - and kept going on and on about having to do something for her mom. The entire time I was scratching my head, you know, who cares, your mom ain't real - its a dream. She ran off to go do her own thing, that is, some sort of chore for mom. After that, it kinda felt like I was in her dream. Like the entire dream world and storyline now revolved around my friend needing to do something for her mom, and I was just dragged into it.

I thought, okay, let's do this chore then we try flying again? I was determined to help my friend learn to fly in the dream. But I wake up shortly after.

I think shared dreams are a possibility. So when I'm lucid, I treat the DCs like they are real people. Even if they aren't, ive gotten some interesting results. Some have told me about their lives, or planets they come from :banana:

I almost always treat DC's as real people even if I'm lucid. I prefer it that way, it's interesting to see how well your own mind can emulate some one.

Ok, here goes a little rant and rage about DCs... :)

WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK THEY CAN ABUSE THE HELL OUT OF DCs?! I don't get this attitude about thinking DCs are available for whatever treatment we want to dish out because they aren't real people. I'm perfectly happy with accepting that some people want to behave and act out evil things, that's totally cool with me because it's intentional. However the misconception that DCs are just dream robots is insane. Anyway, this brings up the point of what is reality and what isn't.

The dreaming plane, is this real? Some people seem to think it is. So why would some of these people think DCs aren't real? What is real? How are we defining what is or isn't real, anywhere? Some people think if you 'will' DCs away, and they vanish, they are not real because they're just a part of the scenery. Then the faulty logic goes 'well the ones that remain are real'. Are you sure? Maybe the ones which vanish are just not very aware... they may infact not be aware of anything, but to think the entire population of DCs are mindless drones seems a tad simple. Maybe I just live in a complicated world but before we all became lucid dreamers, could we have been what others perceive as a mindless drone?

I admit, part of my perspective on this is that some of the DCs I've come across show varying degrees of intelligence. I would hate to think I randomly attacked a DC just because I could. I mean, mindless fun is great but hell, I wonder how many thoughtless lucid dreamers have given me a nightmare just because they thought I was a mindless DC built just for their entertainment.

Again, I have nothing against deliberately attacking others, it's just rude when you do it to DCs who have no clue what's going on. Pick on someone who's more of a challenge and leave the poor drones alone. Lol. Picking on DCs is like picking on mentally challenged kids, it's just not cool.

When I became lucid last night I was in the kitchen with my Dad, I yelled at him for not telling me I was dreaming, I was lucid but I had no idea he was just a dream character.

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Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

When I became lucid last night I was in the kitchen with my Dad, I yelled at him for not telling me I was dreaming, I was lucid but I had no idea he was just a dream character.

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uhm. wow. imagine this, awesome idea: train your DCs to tell you you are dreaming, would take a while but it could work

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Originally Posted by Theepicdreamer

uhm. wow. imagine this, awesome idea: train your DCs to tell you you are dreaming, would take a while but it could work

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Awesome idea man. I'll try this out in my next lucid! :D

:D I often catch myself thinking "oh no, that would make people think I'm weird..." in a lucid dream. I think that we're just to used to the fact that everyone around us that seem real, IS real...:? I have to test that DC training idea, genius!:D