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>When I am dreaming, I am receiving images/stories that are produced for me, not really by me This can really only be partially true for lucid dreaming, though

>When I am dreaming, I am receiving images/stories that are produced for me, not really by me This can really only be partially true for lucid dreaming, though, right? Maybe all dreaming is really just lucid dreaming. We're all usually just in some kind of split-brain patient situation where around half our brain is "lucidly" controlling a dream and the other half just goes along for the ride. A lot of dreams are just kinda nonsense, but some I've had are pretty clearly well-thought-out metaphors for things that are happening in my life. Somebody or something pretty smart that knows a lot about me had to have come up with it.

saghm 4y ago
> This can really only be partially true for lucid dreaming, though, right? I've had a lot of lucid dreams over the years (starting when I first was prescribed medication to help me sleep when I was a kid, where I'd have them several times a week, and gradually becoming less common over the years to maybe once a month). At least in my experience, being aware that I'm dreaming gives me the ability to choose how to act, the ability to force myself to wake up, and occasionally the ability to break minor "physics" rules (I pretty commonly find in lucid dreams that I can hover a few inches above ground and float around that way instead of walking), but I've never experienced the ability to change my environment, and the "people" in my dreams I interact with continue to act independently. Obviously my dreams are entirely a creation of my own mind, so some part of my brain is in control of it, but being aware of that isn't sufficient to let me control it arbitrarily any more than I can stop myself from feeling physical pain or disliking the taste of some food in real life. Ultimately, we're not really in "full" control of how our mind and body react to real-life stimulus either; if we were, things like depression and phobias wouldn't exist.

saghm 4y ago

> This can really only be partially true for lucid dreaming, though, right? I've had a lot of lucid dreams over the years (starting when I first was prescribed medication to help me sleep when I was a kid, where I'd have them several times a week, and gradually becoming less common over the years to maybe once a month). At least in my experience, being aware that I'm dreaming gives me the ability to choose how to act, the ability to force myself to wake up, and occasionally the ability to break minor "physics" rules (I pretty commonly find in lucid dreams that I can hover a few inches above ground and float around that way instead of walking), but I've never experienced the ability to change my environment, and the "people" in my dreams I interact with continue to act independently. Obviously my dreams are entirely a creation of my own mind, so some part of my brain is in control of it, but being aware of that isn't sufficient to let me control it arbitrarily any more than I can stop myself from feeling physical pain or disliking the taste of some food in real life. Ultimately, we're not really in "full" control of how our mind and body react to real-life stimulus either; if we were, things like depression and phobias wouldn't exist.