Thanks! Much love <3
Happy birthday RareCola!
Oh, I'm not arguing that. Some of my best lucids have been the ones where I used no powers. In fact, it seems that on average the more aware I get the less I take control. Well, sometimes my powers can tip me off to the fact that I'm dreaming when I get them in that zero major state, but they don't always. I really do think that those experiences fall into that category. I know what it's like to have "control" in a non-lucid, and this isn't it, but I'm not entirely lucid either. All of my experiences like this are totally spontaneous, and never involve any sort of realization that I'm dreaming. It's more of a sudden sense of "There are no limits, the rules don't apply to me.", and my scenery gets slightly clearer but not to the degree of a full lucid. After that I treat everything more as if I'm some sort of all-powerful being than as if I'm dreaming; it is definitely a conscious awareness of control, even if nothing else.
Well, to start with he mentions at the end that he believes all layers of lucidity are equally valuable, not just ones where you have full control. I also don't think the layers relate directly to control, but rather to just how aware you are in the dream. Though, you must remember that if you have control then that also equals some higher level of awareness. If you have "control" and you're not aware, then it would just fall into the Zero Major category.
(continued) So I'm completely certain that you don't need to reach that high level of awareness to have control. What do you think?
(continued) For instance, I believe he describes one of the levels (zero major? I think...) as just being aware of the fact that there are no consequences to your actions, like you'd do something stupid and dangerous because you know it doesn't matter, even though you don't really know why. I think it's wider than that. It's not just that you know there are no consequences, you just know that the rules are different, and where that goes depends on wherever you decide to take it. I have zero major lucids all the time where I have at least some degree of control, because all it takes for me to know that I have control is to know that the rules are different than normal. In fact, whenever I have those I'm struck with a feeling of immense power, likely because the setting is still entirely convincing, aside from that one fact. And I'd definitely used a good deal of powers before I ever broke through for the first time.
Well, it's been a little while since I watched the videos so excuse me if I don't remember it precisely, but basically he sets it up so it goes from having a feeling that something is up, to being aware that you're in a dream but not really comprehending it, to then getting to the really vivid stuff and comprehending it but not having control, and then to finally having control on top of that right? Well, as far as different levels of comprehension go, I can totally agree with that... he gets that down pretty accurately, especially the first time you "break through". I spent an entire lucid staring at my hand because I was so amazed with the clarity of it! But you can definitely have control at any level of lucid awareness, and that's a statement I'll stand by every time. All it takes is to know what exactly is different about the reality you're in, you don't even have to fully comprehend what it means to be in a dream.
Could you explain more about why it bugs you?
Hey RareCola. I had a question for you, if you don't mind. What do you think of the layers of lucidity theory in relation to his take on dream control? That's really the only thing that bugs me about it.
