A question.

the Stuff Dreams are made of...
1

Moved from the Quest for Lucidity, cause it’s not about lucidity in dreams.

This is sort of a question, and a statement (or maybe not a question at all, kind of confusing). I used to be able to control my dreams, and I believe several of them were lucid…But now as of late, I only one have series of dreams. Nothing else. Not only do I only have this series of dreams, but they are so vivid, mundane, and real seeming that it makes me question what is reality and what isn’t.

I can’t say for sure that this isn’t the dream, is what I am saying. Its kind of crazy, when I wake up, it takes me about fifteen to thirty minutes to get situated. I am a little loopy in that time.

There are really only three things that tell me this is reality, and one of them is shaky, and the others are becoming harder to validate in my memory as time goes by…And more difficult to stand by. Those things being:

  1. In the past, the “dreams” used to reoccur, they would loop, and I would have other dreams between them. Now there is no looping, I have no other dreams, and there is no reoccuring. I am essentially watching myself grow up in another setting, or something. Hard to explain. This started five months ago.

  2. I can remember going to sleep and having the dreams. The dreams stop when I wake up, and mostly take back up when I go to sleep. So there is that.

  3. The dreams are in a fantasy setting, in sort. I am a friggin elf child in the dreams, being mothered. Beyond this they are mundane.

So any suggestions (other than running to the nearest psych, I’ve heard that bit heh), or any thoughts? To say the least, this has gotten to be a little debilitating, what I described above doesn’t really touch what I am feeling/going through. It is rather insane.

2

some suggestions:

  1. Read Linko16’s dream journal. He also had epic extended dreams in fantasy world. I have read of several other dreamers (not on this forum) who also had extended ongoing dreams. So although rare you are not alone.

  2. read about reality checks (RC). Find ones that prove to you that you are awake (best one I recommend is reading digital clock, look away, check again).

  3. start a dream journal. This will help you with recall and also with identifying certain experiences with the dream world.

3

I will look into his dream journal, but Recalling isn’t a problem…Trust me, these dreams are replacing real world memories, and they are extremely mundane (Being taught how to count, just watching the sun set, ect). I remember them, very, very well.

4

Have you become lucid from any of these? If you have, what happens? Does your elf mother beat you to a pulp or something, perhaps :tongue:

5

Well, it is extremely vivid…Smells, touch, I can even feel the wind on my face (it is first person). Sometimes I know it is a dream, sometimes I don’t…But regardless I can’t alter it.

It really is like living a double life, I can’t do anything out of the ordinary, or anything my “mother” doesn’t want me to do. I am a child(perspective and everything) in it, most of the time I am being held, especially if I just did something I shouldn’t have.

6

From what I understand, the trouble with this doesn’t really concern your dreams, but the state you’re within when you wake up?

7

Pretty much, I guess that somes it up. I mean that is one of the major problems, but there are others.

Besides the fact I haven’t been able to control dreams in 5 months.

Assuming they are dreams. And this isn’t the dream. In which I am not controlling either, so I guess it still applies.

8

Wisecarab, maybe you are joking. But if you genuinely are not sure this state is a dream, then use some reality checks:

  1. read some text, look away, read it again. If the text changes you are dreaming. (Seems like in dream part of visual memory doesn’t work, so you can’t read same text twice).
  2. another version of this is look at a digital clock, look away, then look back. In a dream the clock will do something wrong.
    Other reality checks are less reliable. But so far I haven’t found anyone who has these 2 RC’s fail.

Tibetan Buddhists would agree that the normal waking state is also dreamlike. But they still differentiate between - dreaming, lucid dreaming, waking, and enlightenment (true awareness).

Many people, when they have an unusual experience, become frightened that they are ‘different’. Talented people use their experience to acheive something new. :smile:

9

Wisescarab, if it’s intruding so much into your daily life, I would suggest visiting a professional psychologist and/or hypnosis, because if your dreams are replacing real memories it sounds to me like it could well become a serious problem if you let it continue.

10

People generally don’t confuse dreams and reality because:

  • they wake up from dreams
  • their consciousness is clear and continuous IRL and fuzzy, weak and bitty during dreams
  • so that they faintly remember dreams and dream memories are not mixed with real life memories

IMO, it’s useless to perform RC’s to distinguish RL and dreams. If you reach this point, you won’t be able to perform RC’s correctly. And I don’t think it’s a metaphysical experience at all cause, as Asclepius says, buddhists can discriminate between various states of consciousness. Thus it’s just the opposite of your case.

Now the questions are:

  • what happens when you wake up? This should make a clear difference. I suppose you stay a long time into your bed in a sleepy half-awake, half-dreaming state. This sleepy state is not good. Wake up faster and have a shower.
  • what is the trouble with your waking consciousness? You should have strong sensory experiences which differ from dream. If you can’t distinguish between real life and dreams in which you are in a totally vegetative state, it’s worrying. Practice physical exercices and meet people. Don’t stay in your thoughts and don’t dream awake.
  • what is the trouble with your dream consciousness? Do you really remember dreams so easily and so completely that you can confuse real life memories and dream memories? If it’s the case, just stop remembering dreams. Get out of your bed as soon as you wake up.

Either you give too much importance to sleep and dreams (then stop to focus on dreams; don’t try and remember them; have a more active life). Or you experience a consciousness disorder. If condition persists, consult a physician. :wink:

11

Find one thing that is a constant in these dreams and whenever you see it in real life do a RC and after a while you will become lucid and while lucid make sure you remind yourself that you are in control. Because that seems to be your problem to me is that even when in lucid you have no control .I personnally suggest the nose RC which I think always works. If you want to look even deeper though maybe you are stuck in a rut IRL of feeling like you are not in control or powerless and weak and so your subconsciouse is showing this by portraying you as a child constantly being nurtured by your mother. If you feel this may be so one of the best things to do may be to upon realizing you are dreaming break free of the said parental unit proving to yourelf that you truly are capable of surviving (for lack of a better word) by yourself.

12

Thanks for the responce, lets see if I can adress these somewhat coherantly.

  1. read some text, look away, read it again. If the text changes you are dreaming. >>

[i]The only problem with that is I have come across very little text, and what text there is isn’t in any sort of language I understand. It doesn’t change, as far as I can remember. If I come across it again though, I will try that.

Well at least in this particular aspect, the RC works, I suppose. But I’d have to assume many things.[/i]

<< I suppose you stay a long time into your bed in a sleepy half-awake, half-dreaming state>>

Bingo, it is really, really hard to describe. At times I am completely out there, and I don’t really remember what I do. I’ve attacked people in this state.

<>

Other than that which I have listed…The knowledge that they used to loop, and thus forth…Everything is absolutely as real to me as this is right here. Which in turn causes me to even question whether or not facts given to me here by people, are truly facts. But for the sake of argument (and it would really be a silly thing to argue with oneself at this point) I will assume just that,

<<Do you really remember dreams so easily and so completely that you can confuse real life memories and dream memories? If it’s the case, just stop remembering dreams. Get out of your bed as soon as you wake up>>

That is largely becoming the problem, it didn’t use to be (which is a RC I guess, but that is becoming harder and harder for me to believe in as time goes by). I will try what you suggest, I am not sure what it will do. As it is, I can recall more “dream” memories (and that is assuming things again for me) than I can any other. The insane thing is, it is becoming literally like a double life.

This is getting difficult, to the point where I am beginning to not even trust memories of this - life (for lack of a better word). I mean, how can I really trust my memory? Over the last month I have actually begun to question whether or not my memories of this reality, are just fabrications - dream memories. I could just be dreaming up a whole past for this dream world…At the point I start accepting that, wholly, I don’t think I will be able to function in this society.

And that, is a scary thought.

But at the least I know enough for the moment, that dreaming up HTML and thus forth would be an entirely boring and unimaginative concept. There is perhaps that - that this is generally more complex in concepts/theories than the other. But for all I know I could just be talking to myself at this point, and really good at boring concepts and mathematics.

I am not too that point yet however, but I am beginning to question things.

13

I read that people continue to advice you RC’s. IMO, it’s not only useless, it’s dangerous. Let me explain why. Your main problems are:

  • continuously doubting reality
  • being obsessed by dreams
  • staying in a morbid state between sleeping and waking
  • and perhaps a weakening of your waking consciousness (I’m unsure of this).

Let’s suppose that I start now to doubt reality and imagine that my waking life memories could be false. You will quickly understand that it will become a major problem. IMO, a healthy behavior is not questioning reality. In a non-morbid state, it’s harmless to perform RC’s cause it doesn’t create a fundamental doubt about reality. In you case it isn’t because you are already questioning reality too much.

If what happens to you only occured from time to time, it wouldn’t be a problem at all. It’s rather common to have false memories, especially when you wake up. Yesterday, I searched a book in my flat for a friend and couldn’t find it. Tonight, I woke up and I immediatly thought: “oh, it is certainly under my desk!” During five minutes, I was sure there was a heap of books under my desk. When I got up, I saw there were no books under my desk. And in the first days people start practising dream recall, it may happen that their dream memories mix with RL memories. This phenomenon is harmless and it generally disappears quickly.

You said you attacked people while in your sleepy state. This happened twice to a friend of mine. It’s very dangerous to wake him up! :happy: As for me, I used to stay in bed a long time after having woke up, pretending I was trying to remember dreams yet not willing really to wake up and to write my DJ. I stayed in this fuzzy state in which dreams continue to appear and instead of remembering dreams, you continue to have another dreams or obsessive and looping thoughts. It’s a very bad state and it’s proper to generate morbidity, depression, etc.

From this discussion, and though you gave a lot of information, I can’t say if you’re overevaluating your problem or if you really have a dissociative disorder. IMO, the first thing you have to do is not staying so long in your bed in this fuzzy state. Wake up the faster you can, do no more give attention to your dreams, do no more daydream, do no more question reality, practice physical exercices. And if it continues, don’t hesitate and consult a physician. I wish you good luck! :smile:

14

Wake up the faster you can, do no more give attention to your dreams, do no more daydream, do no more question reality, practice physical exercices. And if it continues, don’t hesitate and consult a physician. I wish you good luck!>>

I think I may end up doing all of the above. I am not depressed however, probably just a little scared (can’t remember when the last time I was depressed was). Well more than a little. As it is I could be quite happy never waking up, and just living in my “dreams” (assuming again). Well, I could, but I couldn’t. I would be happy, but I know at that point I would be totally gone (of course by then I don’t know if I would realize it). I just don’t like change in this regard. If I continue to hold onto the concept that this is reality, then the prospect of losing control makes things scary, and I have to struggle.

Am I even making sense?