Practical applications for Lucid dreaming

Ok, aside from entertainment and awe and wonder and satisfying various urges, i am interested in more productive things to do in my lucid dreams.

1) Problem solving - I had a few dreams where i actually did simple math problems (some first year calculus problems) and found that the solution was correct after waking up. I have also considered simply asking dream characters for answers to particular problems (not necessarily mathematical). Many times in our lives we are faced with a difficult decision such as "should I ask her to marry me", or "should I quit my job" etc.. Why not simply ask the same question to as many lucid dream characters as possible and poll the results. Further, you could engage the dream characters in conversations debating your decision.

2) Developing skills - I don't have a reference for this, but I recall reading that "imagining" doing something stimulates the same parts of the brain as actually doing it. Lucid dreams are the ultimate in imagination. As long as sufficient control over the dream can be maintained practicing anything from playing a musical instrument, to a particular sport, or even practicing social skills could in theory improve your performance when awake. You could practice delivering a speech, or performing in front of a large audience which could minimize anxiety in real life.

3) Defeating phobias - make an honest list of things you are afraid of and then force yourself to confront your fears in your lucid dream.

4) Spirituality/Religion - For those of us who are believers in a higher power, I can think of no better place in which to communicate with God. Becoming lucid is knowing that you are no longer in the physical world and you could therefore loudly speak to God regardless of who else was in your dream. You could even simply speak to God through a dream character.

5) Developing Creativity - Dreams generate concepts and ideas with seemingly no effort on the part of the dreamer. Why not take advantage of this. For example, you are a advertising executive and you need to come up with a slogan for a product. Again, work with dream characters to breed these ideas. I've always meant to ask a dream character to tell me a very short story and then try to remember it when i wake up.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

There have been some other posts on this subject. Let's see if I can scrounge them up.

\"Is there a purpose for this?\"
\"Lucid Experience Checklist\" has information on what kind of stuff ppl have done or would like to do in LDs.

Those are the two main ones that have been around recently. Hope that was helpful :D

-Amé

Btw, I like your avatar. That dog is so cute!

You forgot about this one - Reasons for Lucid Dreaming ;)

I've always wanted to ask a DC to help me (or by myself) set up a room with video tapes of my memories, and then watch the videos on a tv to help me remember some of my forgotten past. I don't know if this is going to work or not, but I really want to give it a go, because I think it'll be a very interesting experiment.

It's quite funny, just thinking about this 'unlocking of memories' thing, how many people say it could be dangerous! I can't see (if you are a rational person) how this could at all be dangerous. If there was something I blocked as a kid that was horrific then I think I'd want to know, otherwise I would not be complete as a person and would not be able to learn from the experience. Although, unfortunately, I think my life is as boring as most people's. But as I can't remember much of my life as a kid I'm hoping this will work.

WS