Re-defining lucid dreams

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

I wanted to think about what exactly being lucid means, and experiment with different definitions and perspectives on LD to see if it would help me to become lucid more often. Aware of my sleeping body back in bed I think of it like this: I could become lucid in a dream if I realise at some point that my "real self" is back in bed. There's a problem with that though - when I'm dreaming I'm often totally convinced that my dream self is my real self. A brain-in-a-bowl and a simulation of experience So, the way I think of it is: I can say that I'm awake now - definitely not dreaming - and that this is reality. But, I can never be totally sure of that. So, as an alternative to believing that I have a physical body in the here-and-now, I can think of my current awareness as a fabrication: I have no body, just awareness. I could be a "brain in a bowl" in a room somewhere connected to a computer, and the user of the computer controls the events (all computer-generated illusion) that happen to me in real life and dreams. (I realise this is nothing new btw, bit I find it helps me think like that.) No dreams or awakeness - just spells-of-awareness The user of the computer gives me "spells of awareness". What we know as "dreams" and "being awake". However, I don't want to think using a dreaming/not-dreaming dichotomy, so I like to think of each spell of awareness as being a totally new spell of awareness - there's no "dreams" or "awake". Just different spells of awareness where I have different degrees of ability and limitations. My existence is in flux as I drift from one spell of awareness to the next. Each spell-of-awareness is unique. Reality checks - testing capabilities This is where reality checks come in - I don't want to think of a reality check as something that helps me decide if I'm dreaming or not. I want to think of a reality check as something that helps me find out what my capabilities are in this particular SOA - spell of awareness. So my first reality check is to "steeple" my fingers - just a variation on the "poke finger though hand" RC. I move my hands together quickly so that the tops of the fingers of both hands touch and instead of thinking "does it work or not?" I kind of calculate - as a degree or percentage - how far the fingers move through each other. Remember - I'm not either dreaming or awake, I'm just in a totally new spell of awareness unlike any before, and where I have a range of capabilities and limitations different from any spell-of-awareness before. (NB: the other RC is to see how high you can jump.) Rewriting my lucid dreaming philosophy So, with this model in mind, that means I need to rewrite my main philosphy about LD. Old philosophy: I want to realise I'm dreaming. Rewritten philosophy: 1) Whenever I am aware, I want to become more aware. 2) I want to be aware of my "brain in a bowl" as my "true self". 3) I want to find out my capabilities. (With a RC - or "capability check", as I like to call it.) 4) I am aware of my option to choose which sense I use (bodily feeling, bodily movement, hearing, seeing, smelling are the ones I use). 5) I am aware of my option to choose how I direct my senses (Eg, making myself become aware of sounds while I'm doing a task). 6) I recognise that events I perceive as "good", and events I perceive as "bad" are generated by the controller of my brain-in-a-bowl. MCCAT - an acronym to help me remember I've created the acronym MCCAT. MCCAT is my affirmation/mantra based on my new lucid dreaming philosphy above. M = I want to be More aware in the present moment C = I am aware of my Controller (the person who controls my brain-in-a-bowl) C = I want to assess the degree of my Capabilities in this spell-of-awareness A = I am Aware of my senses and I choose which sense I use T = The good and the bad: the brain-in-a-bowl controller controls good and bad events that I experience. When I label experiences as "good" or "bad", I am aware of this.

[rockerboy90]

thats a pretty cool philosophy.

[Jeff777]

Weirdness, very good. I like your way of thinking and the way you structure your thoughts in your posts.

[beachgirl]

this may be similar to somethign that i've been pondering maybe, maybe not... in a DILD, you know you're *lucid dreaming* because you sprang into it from a dream but in a WILD, you went there from waking consciousness... so you entered from a really different place. Awake + aware. how do you know if you are dreaming or awake when WILDing? or is it just shades of "awakeness"/awareness? like different flavors of ice cream? with different flavors having differnent capacities? ~~~ bg

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

Thanks for reading everyone. Here's a related article I wrote that you may like - finding a degree of success.

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

I'm sitting here reviewing dreams from last night and I'm thinking, "I didn't lucid dream - no success." Mindful of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques - particularly All-Or-Nothing thinking - I want to change the way I think about my success at being lucid - I want to find a degree of success in every dream. I want to know that, even though I didn't become lucid, I am still taking tiny steps towards achieving my goal. So, say, for example, I had a non-lucid dream last night about: my boss shouting at me and making me eat his desk. I find a degree of success in the dream using the MCCAT acronym in the post above. M - I want to be more aware - There was some awareness there. I dreamt, which is a start. My awareness was in constant flux throughout the dream. I was first aware of his anger, then became more aware of his shouting, then became more aware when I had to eat the desk. I didn't become lucid, but my awareness did change, and soon it will change to the point where I have control in my dreams. C - I can be aware of my brain-in-a-bowl and of its controller. I didn't have that thought in the dream last night. However, to a degree I did know that there was an outside influence on me - my boss. My boss had a degree of control over my existence. In future dreams there will be others who have control over me. I will remember that, and eventually I'll know that the only controller is the one who controls my experience in my brain-in-a-bowl C - I want to assess the degree of my capabilities Although I didn't RC, when I started eating the desk I wondered how easy it would be to bite through the wood of the desk. So, I did test my reality, my capabilities, even if only to a small degree; I realised I was capable of chewing through wood. A - Awareness of my senses The dream was mostly visual, but the boss did shout at me (hearing). I can remember feeling my teeth sink into the wood (feeling and movement). T - The Good and the Bad I knew that being shouted at by my boss was bad. However, in this dream, my awareness didn't shift to realising that my brain-in-a-bowl controller was responsible for creating an event I perceived as, "bad".

[Jeff777]

Hm, you should apply for the lucid dream book staff. -> http://dreamviews.com/community/show...58#post1120258 We could use a man of your talents on board.