Dream Characters...it's all in the eyes

Lucid Adventures
1

So I have an interesting question. Last night I had a lucid dream in which I was on a train. I saw a girl walking on the street. She kept waving to me and giving me the “I Love You” sign. She kept staring intensely at me…almost to the point where it made me uncomfortable. Kinda like once she got my attention her whole goal was to say something or do something to me. She clearly wasn’t a “hollow”. I told her to come to the window and I said hi, then she got embarrassed and ran away.

I’ve had this a few other times where there will be one character in particular that stands out and they lock eyes with me and keep looking. One of them flipped me off once lol. Anyways it seems like there’s a real difference between certain DC…like some of them can see right into you…like they know who you are and that its all a dream. Like they have some intelligence.

Could these types of DCs be your subconscious? Are they Dream Guides? I just know that there’s a clear difference between them and regular dumb DCs…and a lot of times it’s all in their eyes at least for me. What the heck are they?

2

From many dream reports, and personal experience, I’ve come to see that some DCs are more intelligent than others.

Also, I had a lucid dream the other day in which I became lucid by looking closely at the character’s eyes. I was dreaming of old girlfriends, and one changed into another. I didn’t notice it, but I did notice that the eyes didn’t match my high school girlfriend.

The eyes, in fact, matched another DC who I had encountered before. Lucid, I challenged the DC and asked why she was trying to confuse me by changing forms. She said she wanted to see if I’d notice and become lucid!

The eyes of this particular, and intelligent, DC are a high contrast mix of dark and light. They don’t look exactly the same in each dream, but in each dream there’s that unearthly contrast.

My personal take (and this is backed up by psychologists by Robert Johnson) is that our subconscious harbors many distinct personalities. They can appear as archetypal, i.e., the Inner Child, the Fool, the Magician, etc. Or they can be quite common-looking, representing something more personal to you.

I have experienced “Hollows.” And I have had conversations with others who demonstrate as much awareness as me.

You’re asking, “What the heck are they?” because you think of yourself as a single conscious entity, but many psychological theorists say that we aren’t. We are a constellation of desires, fears, instincts, intentions, programming and beliefs.

3

Wow, Dreamosis, that answer was really satisfying :happy:

I’ve never looked into a dream character’s eyes, I’ll be sure to do it next time. So far, most of the dream characters I have met are “hollows”, and they don’t even look at me in the eye. They do basic things, and if I make them stop whatever they are doing, like kick them off the road they’re walking on, they ignore me and go back to continue what they were doing.

The few intelligent dream characters I have met were very curious though.

4

I know what you’re talking about. These special DC’s are so interesting it freaks me out a little. It sure is in the eyes, it’s like you’re looking into them and seeing depth, even more than people IWL sometimes :rofl:

5

this is really interesting, i haven’t looked into a DCs eyes before but i will surely try it as soon as i can. what another person said about us not being one individual is interesting and quite close to what i think as well. some DCs do seem hollow but some are very intelligent and interesting, i dont think any of them are actually “dumber” than others but just on a different level than us. they are all different parts of our minds. i asked a DC once who she was and she answered something like “we are you”. so i think some may actually be more “conscious” than others. but thats just what i believe and i am still trying to figure that out.

first post in a long while now, but this topic caught my eye :smile:

6

Yep. I have one that appeared about 6 years ago and reappears in BIG DREAMS. And now LDs. The second time he appeared he was staring through my window in the middle of the night, the first time he gave me a knife during an apocalypse dream and told me to end the world. This is back before I knew about LDs, I was having FA’s & SP a lot and it scared the **** out of me so much I never lay on my back to fall asleep again!

7

I’m becoming more and more curious about DCs. Lately my LDs have become a lot more populous. I frequently feel as though I am inhabiting a sort of parallel or just different reality. One time I consciously crossed over a bridge and into a large and densely populated city. The people in the city had relationships, families, a whole societal infrastructure, and even a sort of entertainer-shaman-oracle. At one point they were discussing science that I couldn’t understand. When I told them that I come from Earth in the year 2012, someone answered “Earth is not my country.” I have met characters who had pets, asked characters their names, and had very long and involved conversations with them. I have tried to talk to them about dreaming, but the results are usually confusing. DCs often become annoyed or offended at the suggestion that they might be products of the subconscious.

Robert Waggoner mentions some very noteworthy techniques for approaching DCs in his book Lucid Dreaming. He frequently asks for thought forms to disappear, and sometimes the results would be very surprising. People who seemed to be unique or independent would sometimes vanish. He also would ask a dream character “What do you represent?” I recall that one of his characters answered, “I am a discarded aspect of yourself.” I think we can stand to learn a lot from the second technique. The first technique would be more useful for converting LDs into Astral experiences or trying to find a spiritual guide.

I believe that dreams are a mixture of both imagery from our subconscious (thought forms) and real entities and realms, astral among others. All of these things make up what shamans refer to as “non-ordinary reality”. From everything that I have read and experienced, it seems as though there are several layers of reality all coexisting, most transcend space and time and probably overlap. That’s why we can experience the mixture of our own thought forms and independent entities while in the “dreamtime”. I think we can learn a lot from both kinds, but even more so if we can differentiate between the two.

8

I definitely know what you’re talking about. I’ve had many dreams where a certain character stands out from the rest. I would always catch onto his gaze for a brief second and then a flow of intensity would linger in me. It’s like he knows… something… But it doesn’t creep me out. The DC would always change in form for every dream, but I could easily tell when he is there. Our eyes would always meet, and that same feeling comes to me.

Whenever I encountered that special DC I actually felt safe…protected. So I concluded in the end that it was my Spirit Guide, probably reminding me that he’s still there and 'keeping an eye on me". :content:

I have yet to meet this DC in a lucid dream though, it’s always in my NDs. Whenever I go lucid mode, DCs tend to disappear anyways lol.

9

I remembered to ask a DC what they represent! I was lucid. When I asked her “What do you represent?”, she got very confused, so I ended up asking her several times. She kept saying, “wep-we-ment??” as if she was bewildered by the notion. Finally, she said, “Represent??” sounding just as bewildered. I realized I was getting nowhere, so I changed my approach. I looked her in the eye and reminded her “I am dreaming. This is a dream. So, that being said, do you think that you are an aspect of my subconscious?” She said “Oh yeah! but…” and she went on to tell a long and mundane story about her personal life. I think she was trying to explain that although she is an aspect of my subconscious, she has her own memories and experiences as well.

Previously last night I also had a ND in which I met some very magical characters but did not become lucid. I distinctly remember one of them making eye contact in a very meaningful way. They came from a magical or imaginary land. One of them was a very small half-sized human! The one I was talking to was very large and friendly. He was teaching me words and meanings from his land’s language. I also learned that they had traveled in from the sky. He said something that prompted me to ask him, “So are you the creator of this place, then?” His eyes got very wide as he looked into mine and answered, “I agree - but that I am who wrote it.” For some reason I thought he was talking about Narnia, and I sighed and said that I had never been to Narnia then felt silly for doing so. I wish I had been lucid so that I could have asked him more poignant questions. He did give me good advice on a personal matter though.

I thought of another good question to ask a DC: “What can I learn from you?” might spark a lot of interesting conversation!

10

I have not tried to look in DC’s eyes before. I have heard of some having swurls and cat eyes. It interests me though to put DC’s in different categories by their eyes I will try that. when I start looking at their eyes and observe their behavior.

11

Not heard or seen these “holllows” before so after randomly reading about this on this site a month back have decided to check it out.

Looked into the eyes (deep) of all my DCs and I havent seen swirls or “hollows”. Some of these guys I know in RL and some are random characters. In the main they are nice and polite and not at all hollow.

When I ask " why are you in my dream?" they just change the subject, and i let it be.

12

Looking in the eyes of DCs is hard for me. I’m intimidated by pretty girls, and even if I know I’m dreaming I find it hard to look them in the eye for more than a few seconds, it’s pathetic. :shy:

13

got a horrible disapproving stare from a statuesque random character the other night. bit weird - I put this down to thinking about this topic (DC’s eyes) recently.

14

In nightmares my DC’s have always that scary yellow cat eyes. When i look to the enemy’s eyes, i mostly get a shock or something. I get a terrefying feeling in my body when looking to the eyes.

15

I’ve never really encountered DCs quite like that, but when I’m lucid, they all treat me like an idiot. I’ve tried telling DCs that it was a dream before, and most of them just stare at me weirdly as if to say “What, you didn’t know that?” One even came right out and said it, and he just laughed at me the rest of the dream.

16

i saw a dc with solid black eyes he was smoking something through his nose and then glared at me. i ended up scareing him away its in my last ld in my dj.

17

My own word for dream characters is yuukai-hitobito ( 幽怪人々), which is Japanese for “spirit people”. :tongue:
I like to think of them that way.