Thread: What is lucid dreaming really?

Originally Posted by Tweek

there's a huge difference between waking up and remembering a dream, and knowing you're in one a the time. obviously you won't be conscious to know that you were in the dream until you wake up and can consciously understand what just happened. lol You get the idea.

There's probably infinity levels of lucidity. I can understand I'm in a dream, but I can't do anything about it. I very rarely question reality in dreams. like, no matter how weird the dream is I just don't. I could see a monster truck driving down the street and not question my surroundings in the dream even if I remember consciously being awake and thinking in the dream at specific times after waking up. The difference between thinking and doing in my dreams seams as if it's impossible.

Ah yes. Not having to wake up to realise that you were having a lucid dream. A lucid dream should be apparent to the user at the time; he/she should be aware that he/she will soon waken.

Still, I, myself, only consider WILD-like dreams to be truly lucid: awareness before induction, aware during induction, and awareness during its instance. My reason: if I were to describe to others the typical definition of 'lucid dreaming', i.e. simple awareness, then most people would answer: 'ah, yes. I've had those'. And indeed, they would be grossly missing out on something great. For they would, inadvertently, be ascribing their experiences as analogous to mine, and as such, their interest in this 'miraculous phenomenon' would decrease.