What a Dream Character Thinks About Dreams

[Earthatic]

She took the appearance of an older woman, organizing some things in a closet. I asked her, "What are you able to do in dreams?" She responded, "Absolutely nothing. Dreams occur at the back of your mind when you are doing nothing. But if you believe that every thought has potential, then [dreams] donate raw materials." This is one of the craziest things I've ever heard in a dream. That, and the idea that dreams are messages from tiny invisible people from another realm who watch us all the time. What have your dream characters said?

[Tiktaalik]

Dream characters rarely say much when I’m lucid but I did once have a funny encounter with the Dalai Lama. I had just become suspicious I may be dreaming when I saw him. He smiled at me and said “Do you need me to explain or do you need to wet your pants first?” Very strange. I also bumped into a DC who was dressed like a builder and I asked him “are you a part of my subconscious?” “Yes, but not one you care about” he replied bitterly and walked away. The dream then collapsed sadly and I hope to one day find this character again and find out more about him.

[Summerlander]

I find that quite interesting, Tiktaalik. It makes me think we have aspects of our personalities vying for our attention in lucid dreams. I really do hope you find that DC or an equivalent representation and learn more about it. If its revelations are not too personal, do share the experience with us. I have a feeling it will be personal though ...

[Tiktaalik]

I find that quite interesting, Tiktaalik. It makes me think we have aspects of our personalities vying for our attention in lucid dreams. I really do hope you find that DC or an equivalent representation and learn more about it. If its revelations are not too personal, do share the experience with us. I have a feeling it will be personal though ... Yeah, It’s on my list of goals but I haven’t tried to manifest him again yet. Maybe I’ll make that my new priority. It’s long been one of my goals to speak to aspects of my personality in a dream as well. I don’t consider DCs to be sentient and able to think for themselves but they’re still reflections of our subconscious and it could be interesting to speak with them and see if we can learn anything about ourselves we maybe didn’t know. I’ll be sure to share it if I do succeed.

[Summerlander]

I am also inclined to think that dream characters are not sentient, although some forms representative of patterns of thinking lying beneath the surface may be brought to consciousness in dreams—and consciousness here doesn't necessarily mean their consciousness, it just means brought to your attention, the dreamer. The subconscious is a vast reservoir of information and we may summon a particular object or form in a lucid dream which won't necessarily be what we originally have in mind, but rather, something like it with perhaps schematic addictions that we didn't request but which an organising principle beyond consciousness has concocted out of habit and predictive power by association. In lucid dreams we are essentially bringing thoughts or thought patterns into consciousness where they can be represented by sensory modes such as vision, tactility, sound, emotions or whatever qualia may help to define them. In saying this, experts who have been involved in callosotomies have got the impression that the brain hemisphere we thought was largely unconscious has exhibited, in some instances, more awareness than an infant. Consciousness appears to be emphasised on what one is most attentive to. The perception of the ever-changing objective world is transformative of consciousness. Consciousness appears to be an irreducible awareness more fundamental than the wisdom that comes through experience across time. Epistemologically speaking, the first instance of consciousness, which is the awareness of something, does not come with explanations about what is perceived other than a reductive display of percepts in a range of visual, auditory and tactile forms such as shape, colour, size, dimension, pitch, density and, evanescently inclusive or suggestive of all forms with a potential for reification, thought. Consciousness is the field in which things that can be said to exist, or can be implied, make an appearance. Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.~ Gary Zukav ~