Isn't there something philosophical that one can state about lucid dreaming? Mainly, the awareness that one is dreaming is indicative of the fact that God-hood might exist if one can dictate one's surroundings and thoughts for any conscious entity?

I'm not sure I have ever dreamed lucidly. I may have realized I was dreaming some time(s) but I can't remember for sure. I cannot deliberately initiate lucid dreaming.

I stopped dreaming (or being able to recall them) along time ago.

Dreams used to be so great though. So stunningly brilliant and full of absurd enigma. Now we have movies to replace them.

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things. — Zhuangzi

Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense! — Zhuangzi

Jorge Luis Borges (an idealist master of meta narratives):

Nils Loc
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I stopped dreaming (or being able to recall them) along time ago. — Nils Loc

Cut back on the weed bro.

I will certainly attest to have had many lucid dreams, but yet, I am unable to describe what makes my previous lucid dreams different from my memories of non-lucid dreams.

Certainly there is a present difference between being lucid versus non-lucid. For example, I can in this present moment either lose myself in a book, or I can scrutinise my environment and check as to whether my experiences cohere with my memories and understanding.

But does it make sense to assert that one can remember being lucid?

One way for me to tell that I am dreaming is that I feel fundamentally "happy" when I dream. I feel free from the constraints of reality and can explore something at ease whilst in my dream.

Does anyone else feel "happy" in their dreams? It is a peculiar sense of happiness. Like, when one falls in love or something like that. A spontaneous sense of happiness, just for its own sake.

I have this notion in my mind that lucid dreaming is in a sense achieving for a brief while enlightenment. It's as if one is cognizant about one's dreaming and surroundings and the ability to alter one's surroundings that are enlightening.

I stopped dreaming (or being able to recall them) along time ago. — Nils Loc

I'm sorry to hear that. One of the main reasons I abstain from smoking pot is due to not wanting to interfere with my dream recall.

Cut back on the weed bro. — Jamesk

I'm sorry to hear that. One of the main reasons I abstain from smoking pot is due to not wanting to interfere with my dream recall. — Wallows

Haven't smoked weed in more than a decade. Don't jump to conclusions.

Haven't smoked weed in more than a decade. Don't jump to conclusions. — Nils Loc

Never meant to intend that. I didn't assume you smoked pot. Sorry.

What are your thoughts about it? — Shawn

However since as long as I can remember I have tried to actually dream lucid but forcing it to happen has never worked out for me. It is only since the past year (2022, for reference sake) that I have been able to experience the phenomenon as it has happened to me twice now and with the second time being last night, hence me posting in this very topic. Both times the lucidity during the dream happened spontaneously and while I was able to stretch the dream(time) significantly the first time, and was actually able to instantly alter the dream-scenario, it wasnt exactly like that last night as in fact I used the lucidity to let myself fall with the intention to end the dreamstate. Within the dream I became stuck at great height, which was also the moment I became aware that I was dreaming, and while that was so I saw no other solution than to let myself fall to free myself of the situation as I was unable to alter anything at all.

The thing gnawing at me since I woke up is the fact that I am afraid of heights en that becoming stuck at that height scared the living daylight out of me and that (ironically) it most probably was the fear of heights at that particular moment in the dream inducing the lucidity in the first place. The decision to let myself fall down I can reason through, as I knew that I was dreaming and that the fall would end the dream, but the absence of fear, throwing myself down while looking down atleast a hundred meters or so, right after the realisation of what it would take and the decision to actually do so, absolutely blows my mind. I woke up right away from the moment I started to fall and just as contradictory as actually letting myself fall, despite my fear of heights, is the fact that I instantly felt it a shame to not have experienced the entire fall down...

I'm actually hoping for both of these experiences to be the prelude for more of the same.

I've spoken of this before, so I won't bore the reading audience. Castaneda's the Art of Dreaming works. Almost fifty years ago and the initial experience is still fresh, an alternate mindscape.

I feel as though lucid dreaming can be enlightening. There is the awareness of a dream and that one can control it? Doesn't it imply that we are all able to dictate how we perceive life? For me, lucid dreaming is an ad hoc assertion of the fact that God might exist. Does the fact that you can dictate what kind of reality you perceive, indicative of the reality that you exist in? — Shawn

You are aware that it is a dream and so definitely not reality, and that you can control the dream, which is not reality, and somehow you see that as implying that you can control reality...

No, I'm not seeing that.

I've had lucid dreams, and the thing that stuck me was that I was aware it was a dream. SO I could decide to summon storms with a thought or uproot trees with the wave of a hand, because it was a dream. Such fun.

What it tells us is that dreams are not reality, and perhaps more importantly for you, reality is not a dream that you can control with a though.

I don't see that it tells us anything about god, except perhaps that it might be fun to be one.

Lucid dreaming is a phenomenon that I want to analyze. What are your thoughts about it? — Shawn

I have naturally occurring lucid dreams every night; they're like movies, they are movies, inside my head.

The thing about lucid dreams is the spectrum they constitute. On one end there's a normal dream you seem to be able to control slightly. At the other end is an experience in which you wake up and move around as if in a heightened reality, feeling and seeing things as solid objects and fully aware. This is an astounding experience that will stay with you to the end of your days.

I had a dream a couple of nights ago, woke up, then I went back to sleep and dreamed about describing my previous dream to a group of friends. So I was aware in one dream that the other dream was a dream. Funnily enough, the people in my dream were just about as interested in my dream as people in real life. That is to say, not much.

I used to be an avid lucid dreamer. I picked up some techniques and understandings on the way. One thing I did was use dream stamps and movement signals to become lucid while dreaming. I would do reality checks, looking at my hands, and ask myself if I was dreaming. I used a movement signal of touching the back of my neck to stimulate a sense of self-awareness or association with lucidity. One book I wrote during this time, was inspired mostly by the lucid dreams I was having. I still lucid dream once in awhile, but not as often as when I was earnestly trying to do so.

I'd like to remark that lucidity and control are two different things. Sometimes one can manifest easily out of dream consciousness, other times, the things that you want to see in your dreams do not appear upon trying to control them. I learned not so much as to try and control the dream as to let the dream happen on its own.

There is also something known as dream interpretation. Its one interpretation of why dreams happen, they are symbolic for our real life situations. One dream I have that reoccurs is of a Tsunamis. Indicating, symbolizing a present fear of things to come. Currently my other dreams are a bit wacky, time travel, worm-holes, robots, and the like. These I recall most easily because they reoccur.

One key to mastering lucidity is utilizing your normal life experience as a template for dream experience.

Dream well.

I used to lucid dream every night as a teenager (whatever that means, see my remark above), but I came to the conclusion that lucid dreaming as a deliberate and willed ideological practice for achieving peak experiences, as advertised in new age,pop psychology, and alt therapy books, is a counterproductive road paved with delusions and misconceptions that leads nowhere, much like the rest of the self-help industry.

Lucidity also comes at the cost of creativity; the more lucid I am, the less interesting and surprising is the dream environment, dream characters lose their autonomy and stop speaking for themselves and I stop hearing novel music. Everything creative and interesting that happens seems to stem from a state of uncontrolled and dissociated non-lucidity in which the self and it's agenda aren't present. For purposes of creativity for it's own sake, i suspect that the ideal amount of lucidity is just enough to start the dreaming process off in a vaguely desired direction and to recall what happened afterwords.

Getting back to the question as to what lucidity is, there are obviously several semi-independent dimensions to the concept, e.g volition, control, vividness and recall, all of which present to some extent in ordinary dreams, and which come at the cost of other dream qualities e.g 'surprisingness' and 'subjectedness' ; isn't it better to ditch the general concept of lucidity for these separate concepts?

Has anyone here experienced a lucid dream? — Shawn

Yeah, I wish more often.
Most of the time it happens when I am woken up in the morning for some reason, am up for a while, and go back to bed.

Getting back to the question as to what lucidity is, there are obviously several semi-independent dimensions to the concept, e.g volition, control, vividness and recall, all of which present to some extent in ordinary dreams, and which come at the cost of other dream qualities e.g 'surprisingness' and 'subjectedness' ; isn't it better to ditch the general concept of lucidity for these separate concepts? — sime

For me lucid dreaming means being aware that I am dreaming while I am dreaming, regardless of how vivid or in control of the dream I am.
Those seem like 3 useful factors: Degree of awareness that are dreaming, vividness, and degree of control.

I've had times where I almost became lucid, suspecting I was in a dream. Maybe this can be called semi-lucidity.
One time when I suspected I was dreaming something philosophically interesting happened. I found an authentication of reality code in my dream, which I was convinced was proof that my dream was the real world!

One dream I have that reoccurs is of a Tsunamis. Indicating, symbolizing a present fear of things to come — Josh Alfred

I used to have recurring tsunami dreams too!

If you undertake a dream journal, and thoroughly and regularly document your dreams, your dreams will grow in extent and clarity (at least your recollection thereof), and you will naturally achieve lucid dreaming. I have done it, the results are quite remarkable.

I don't want to bring the tone down here but erotic lucid dreams can be very interesting indeed but how far can you get? Climax?
I think this is interesting from the standpoint of how the mind can control your own physical reactions in a lucid dream state

If you undertake a dream journal, and thoroughly and regularly document your dreams, your dreams will grow in extent and clarity (at least your recollection thereof), and you will naturally achieve lucid dreaming. I have done it, the results are quite remarkable. — Pantagruel

Never heard about it before but it might be worth a try, I would love to expand on my experiences thus far.

I don't want to bring the tone down here but erotic lucid dreams can be very interesting indeed but how far can you get? Climax?
I think this is interesting from the standpoint of how the mind can control your own physical reactions in a lucid dream state — universeness

A dream come true :naughty: :yum:

A dream come true :naughty: — Seeker

Well, I can only speak for myself but I do experience lucid dreams and I seem to remember dream details quite well and quite often. I can fight and kill threats in my dreams but it's often a 'replay.' I can have a nightmare and become aware and unhappy at the outcome so I can reset the dream to a particular stage and kick the f*** out the monster who attacked me earlier, for example.
I wont give the details of how far I can get with an erotic dream unless pushed to but suffice to say that's it is not good enough to replace the best of what I have experienced between myself(male) and a woman, who are both consenting and conscious at the time of course.

universeness — universeness

I would love to be able to get such experiences. Up until now whenever I have a nightmare it is always about unseen threats and any erotic content manifests itself exclusively during periods of sexual abstinence. To be able to will such dreams or atleast direct it the way I want it to presents itself high on my list of most wanted experiences. Btw I have also never experienced the same erotic quality in dreams compared to the physical world though I have never been lucid during such dreams either.

The key is steady eye contact.

The key is steady eye contact. — Yohan

The key to what? And with whom?

To be able to will such dreams or atleast direct it the way I want it to presents itself high on my list of most wanted experiences. Btw I have also never experienced the same erotic quality in dreams compared to the physical world though I have never been lucid during such dreams either. — Seeker

I seemed to develop lucid dreaming from my late 20's onwards (I am now 58.)
I remember having a lot of nightmares as a child and I got a 'bout' of them again as a teenager and again in my late 20's. I got kind of 'fed-up,' with the quite intense at times, discomfort, I experienced.
I heard about lucid dreaming, I cant remember from where but I started a routine before I fell asleep. I kept thinking to myself that I wanted to know if I was dreaming. I fell asleep trying to maintain that thought. I was kind of trying to 'train my brain,' to do what I wanted it to. I cant remember how long it took but eventually I realised, during a dream, that I was aware I was dreaming and I kind of thanked my brain for doing what I asked. it kind of developed from that point. I then deliberately tried to 'set my brain' to 'lucid dreaming' mode almost every night. Sometimes it worked, sometimes I had no dreams at all. Then I forgot all about the whole thing. I would then experience a lucid dream every so often and I enjoyed the experience so much I went back into trying to set my brain to lucid mode again, before falling asleep. Its now about two or three times a month I will have a lucid dream, more regularly, I just dream random BS but I still remember most of the details of the dream. Sometimes my lucid dreams give me new insight or ideas about recent stuff I have been thinking about during the day.
So I think you can train yourself to dream lucidly. I was eventually able to concentrate during an erotic lucid dream to see how long I could make it continue, with one or two surprising results.

The key is steady eye contact. — Yohan

The key to what? And with whom? — Seeker

I think this is true, you need to be able to know you are dreaming and focus/concentrate on what you want to happen and if the dream scene changes you must be able to realise that and direct it back to the scenes you were trying to control. You may have to figure out how to connect the switched scene and the scenes you are trying to return to. Sometimes I can even remember a dream and concentrate on its main story/characters/important events before I fall asleep (but you have got to be kind of relaxed about it) and then I will have the same dream again and attempt to make it play out the way I want it to. It's good for building personal self-confidence but it does not always work.

So I think you can train yourself to dream lucidly. — universeness

I do hope so and I'm gonna try as well but I also wonder about the genetic components involved and any possible inhibitions because of it. After having experienced lucidity a few times allready I'm a bit more confident about it but I'm still having a bit of a hard time imagining the amount of control you describe. I'm also past my 50's and was never able to will anything during the dreamstate, just until very recently that is and then it happened spontaneous.