this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024

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Lucid dreaming is like being Neo in The Matrix (dubvee.org)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've tried and failed to train myself to do it, but I've only lucid dreamed twice in my life, both times by accident.

It's like the ultimate VR sandbox where you can go, do, or create anything you can imagine.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

When I get decent sleep, I often lucid dream. I didn’t really practice, I’m just usually aware that I’m dreaming (maybe because I’m on drugs to suppress nightmares, so I’m just really aware of dreams).

I have a dream town I frequent, it’s.. usually interestingly mundane though. I don’t need excitement often, just things I can’t do in real life, like taking stuff I want (collectibles!!), playing free at the arcade, eating free in fancy places, drinking free in the nice socializing bar, breathing underwater or flying sometimes if it fits the exploration..

It’s a really consistent sort of place that just grows over time, as more places are added and incorporated as welcoming spaces to explore. There’s even a glass water garden/aquarium/pool that reminds me of some final fantasy shit. And recently a massive underground transit structure was added on that has high-speed shuttles to different large attractions, and a whole new residential tower (for some reason I have a room on the 4th floor, it might be a college dorm), so that was an excellent confusing dream to have for several days.

There’s a house in it that’s sort of my landing pad. A mix of a lot of places I’ve lived or been that just keeps growing over time. It’s got dozens of spaces to explore that mix in things I want and things I know, and just some creepy huge empty spaces that will probably get filled in later but are just full of weird junk I haven’t unpacked at the moment.

I like to just explore the town and surrounding areas, and do things with random people. I don’t really do that in life anymore, so. I’d love to build it in VR but I have no idea how to do that. It seems perfectly suited for it.

I used to get a lot of false awakenings when I pushed too hard to control the story or environment, and I found those to be wildly unpleasant (nightmare reasons), so I don’t exert much control now. I can, but it’s more fun to go with the fantastical and let the adventure play out, fully aware that this new space I’m dreaming about is going to be a recurring space I can explore again in different ways later.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago

Be careful (/s)...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

As a kid I used to lucid dream a lot. I would purposely imagine myself in a world or scenario that I wanted to dream of and when I fell asleep while having those thoughts I would lucid dream. It was fairly easy for me, but for some reason I can't anymore. I rarely even remember my normal dreams.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Waiting for the reaction when OC discovers Inception 😂

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the post. I have now decided that my new year's resolution for 2025 is to learn to lucid dream.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Good luck. I've tried for years. Like, I have a "signal" but can never get to a point where I can use it. For me, it's "how did I get here?" but if the situation isn't ridiculous enough, I just roll with it and never think to ask. If it's too ridiculous, I just wake up.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

[–] kambusha 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

What if we're all lucid dreaming. Right now.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Neuroscientifically speaking, we all experience our own custom hallucination all the time, and 'reality' is just the shared aspects of our hallucincations that we agree on.

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/577087/neuroscience-perception/

Or you can go the Taoist route:

"Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, 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 Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, 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."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

This view is outdated and goes back to Descartes‘ view out of the window. No, we‘re not in our head observing the outer sphere.

We‘re within the sphere/ world and interact through our body. We influence and got influenced. We position ourselves by our body movements in the world. There is no such thing as we‘re just our mind. We are a mind-body-thing.

In lucid dreams there‘re no body feelings as it’s in your mind only. That is btw. one of the control mechanisms :to check if your body sleeps but your mind not. If you don’t feel the bed and duvet on your skin. Another check is writings. There‘re never the same, they aren’t consistent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Your mind-body can be hallucinating all the time just as a mind can, its just a more complex hallucination.

As for lucid dreams not having body feelings, being completely produced by the mind?

I guess I'd like to see a source on that.

...

Ever met a sleep walker?

They have that 'control mechanism' break down, they don't wake up when their body no longer senses it is in bed and safe to dream... and they'll often also talk whilst sleep walking,.

You can even have conversations with them, and when they wake up later, they'll remember parts of the conversation, but basically everything their body is experiencing during the sleep walking is a kind of garbled input into their dream.

The things you said to them may have been said by you, in their recollection of their dream, or maybe another person, or maybe multiple different people.

If you touch them, or they interact with things, this will also be incorperated into their dream, but again, exactly how is unpredictable.

They may have a recollection in their dream of grabbing their keys, starting their car, and then picking up a package from somewhere, but what they've actually done is grab a TV remote, sat down in a chair, and then grabbed a book off of a shelf.

With sleep walkers, the body is very clearly still part of the input process for dreaming, its just... confused.

...

Have you ever had sleep paralysis / 'locked-in' syndrome?

Where you mind is awake and aware, but the parts of your nervous system responsible for intentional muscle movement just... don't work, are not active for some reason?

That's a non lucid dreaming experience which is pretty much totally reliant on the mind, your mind is basically disconnected from your body.

...

How about neuropathy or nerve damage, where your body feelings just do not really actually correspond to what it is actually experiencing, your body doesn't feel things that it should, and does feel strange sensations and even extreme pain with no obvious external stimuli?

That's your body functionally hallucinating, again not in a dream, but you experience it as reality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

As for lucid dreams not having body feelings, being completely produced by the mind? I guess I'd like to see a source on that.

Source: Some books of Carlos Castaneda who taught me lucid dreaming https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda

Btw I said you that you aren’t feel the REAL body senses in your lucid dreams. For sure, one can dream/ hallucinate some. Though it’s rarely standards such as a foot on ground, a hand on door knob or such. That’s too boring. It’s more about flying, diving, running, and so on.

I’m not sure what all your other points are about. What are you trying to say or prove? Do you second the former threads argument, that

'reality' is just the shared aspects of our hallucincations that we agree on.

I do not support this view. Reality and interactions with reality is real and not hallucinated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Well I can control things in a dream so yeah… not so much.

[–] TriflingToad 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I don't remember my dreams, the only dreams I remember are when I'm half awake and my mind is being weird so all of my "dreams" are lucid. It's very much different than other people's experiences as I only get a short time before I fully wake up and if I do anything crazy my mind will be like "wait... what?" and wake up. It's like I can play a RPG and can wonder around and talk but can't do anything crazy like creative mode Minecraft if that makes any sense.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

I've had good luck with just repeatedly counting my fingers during my waking hours. Also, to keep me lucid and not lose it, I will literally touch grass in my dream and it kind of ground me, which is funny in it's own way. Keeping a journal is also important.

Keep trying because it's a lot of fun!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I kind of lucid dream but only enough to know I'm in a dream. Been the same since I was young.

It usually happens during nightmares. I've learnt to throw my right shoulder back as hard as I can in the dream and I wake up doing it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I found this trick in lucid nightmares working well: Talk with the monster. Do some small talk „What’s your name? Do you have sisters?“ It will „distract“ them and leads to a different flow in your mind. Actually, you are re-setting the atmosphere in your mind. It’s a bit as how mantras work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I was into it for a bit and managed it a few times. It is totally amazing. If I lived the kinda life that could involved naps again I'd be tempted to retrain, but it might have to wait for retirement...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

I like the sex parts

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Better watch out then. You might end up going through several boss fights, some of which seem to go on forever. In the end, you also sacrifice yourself, so there’s no way for you to win.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

I think it's different for everyone. I remember as a kid, I had the same scary dream so many times that I would know I was dreaming when it was happening.

It was always about me being chased by some guy and I couldn't run properly so he would catch up with me and stab me in the back. And I remember it hurting enough that I wanted to avoid it.

So one time I just refused to run, turned around and faced the guy. I don't remember if anything happened but I remember I never had that dream ever again.

Face your fears. True story.