LD (DILD): I was dreaming of a riot in a crowded street. I became lucid after a RC, the lucidity was clearily installed and i was relaxed dispite the riot surrounding me. A female DC appeared in front of me and explained me that knowing that i am in a dream shouldn’t make me so confident.
I answer: “It is a dream so even if what happens is beyond my conscious control, nothing can hurt me for real here.”
she replies: “Even if you can receive no injury you can still feel pain” and she rises her index right above my eyes on my forehead and push through my skull to my brain. At first I start to “feel” pain but as a spectator thinking that anyway it is a dream and therefore i can overcome this subjective feeling.
I reply:“See, you can hurt me but I can bear with it”
She just smiles as a reply. And the pain becomes very intense to a point were I can’t anymore stand it. Then i wake up (RC, no false awakening) all of a sudden and write this in my Diary. Having for 2 minutes the burning feeling on my forehead fading slowly.
context: i had around 10 Ld so far, and it is true that through those successes i might have gotten cocky that would explain this scene
What i ask is your advice on what happened there? I never feel pain in my dreams that’s even a dream hint for me. A lesson from my subconscious to my ego? Is it normal that such strong perceptions can pass from dreams to reality (not an emotion). Every experience concerning pain in dreams would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your replies
I almost always feel pain in my dreams, whether it’s lucid or not. Mostly impacts and blunt force but it is actually kind of “cool” because I have felt what it fells like to be shot. However dream pain is not the real pain felt from the incident IRL, just what you’re mind imagines it to be.
@Wings: I didn’t tried to make her disappear. Her point was not to make me feel pain. I guess it was just a mean to make me realise something else. I was feeling she wasn’t an ennemy. Contrary to other characters of the dream she seemed to incarnate my subconscious self, or my complementary part in other words (@Faraday: malicious indeed XD). It is definitely not a lucid nightmare
My interpretation is that I got too cocky. My ego was too full of itself so my complementary part had to show me that i had to cope with her instead of trying to oppose. Very subjective though… Maybe i should have tried to negociate with her instead of challenging her and then i could have continued the LD, maybe…
This dream is unusual but not disturbing. I’m looking for similar experiences to understand it better. Faraday, in your “predator dream” you clearly remember the pain on your back. But when you woke up did you actually felt it on your back? These is the disturbing point for me. I had a perception of fading pain after i suddenly woke up out of the LD. One hypothesis would be that in case of intense pain, that is in both dream or reality a production of the brain (nociception) the perception might pass from dream to awaken state if the time period is short.
Is there dreamers here who had the reverse effect? i.e. Perceiving pain in daytime (accident, toothache, etc) that was connected with same perception in your dreams?
@allenthelero: Yeah it is kind of cool indeed Pain is a byproduct of the mind so i think it is possible to feel it the same IRL and in dreams. But i agree with you that most of the time it’s not the samee. In dreams, but this particular dream, i would call that “fluffy pain”. XD
Its possible that dream pain carried into the RL could be caused by something you are sleeping on. For example say you slept with something in you’re pillow and it was grinding (For lack of a better word) against you’re head while you slept. This probably has the same effect as people suffocating in dreams and waking up with their faces in their pillows.
I agree with allenthelero.
Once, I wore a blindfold to bed (it helps me fall asleep) and I was still wearing it throughout my dream (and couldn’t see).
Also, in my last dream, I was shot in the leg. It hurt like crazy, but it healed really fast (which made me realize I was dreaming and I got a LD!).
Yes i considered that it could be something hitting my forehead IRL. But it wasn’t the case as i slept lying on the back with nothing even touching my forehead and i’m sure of that because i woke up so suddenly.
Madison981 has made an interesting point. If you can bring to wonderland your blindfold it is certainly possible to do the reverse process. I mean it is already sure for emotionnal states, why not for physical perception?
Let say your leg is shot in the dream (no real world cause at all) you wake up suddenly and you might feel the pain fading. Is it plausible? I guess normally the body sleep paralysis should prevent this from occuring but it may have leaks like for sleepwalkers.
@JayHaze: What would have been her purpose to seek for my pineal gland. Waking me up? What is your hypothesis? I would have thought she was aiming for my prefrontal cortex but only because of the area that was aching
Actually, people sleepwalk during the fourth stage of sleep, which is furthest stage (besides stage 1, which you only enter once) from REM sleep (stage 5) (you go through stage 2-4 then back to stage 3 then 2 before entering stage 5)
Well although I haven’t expirienced dream pain myself I’ve seen plenty of stories on this forum to know that in a lot of cases intense dream pain can sometimes carry out into WL. To further investigate this phenomenon I will stab myself in a LD and tell you all how it goes.
It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and seasonal functions. She might have been trying to wake you up.
@Faraday: Thx for the detail. So it does happen sometimes that you bring pain from dreams. It might even last for a long time according to your experience. So let’s put a warning sign !!!
@Madison981: So according to this piece of info, the “sleepwalker paralysis leak” is not connected with the same sleep stage than REM. But sleep paralysis does occur throughout all stages right? So could it be related to that mechanism? Or maybe you have an other hypothesis?
@Jayhaze: Ty for the neuro details XD. So maybe the all scene in my dream with the female DC is a metaphore for pineal gland activation.“The emotions and automatic reactions to pain are processed in a number of location, including the hypothalamus, superior colliculus, and amygdala.” I couldn’t find a clear relation between pineal gland and pain brain control areas (besides serotonin action on the pain process catalyst). So my guess is that the waking up process and pain perception aren’t directly related. But it is connected in the sense that feeling pain raise up attention and awareness extremely thus leading to waking up.
@fleshandbone: I’m looking forward to see the results of your experiment. I’ll try to do so either. Maybe we can think of 2 experiments:
1 - Stab oneself’s right foot in a LD and continue sleeping. When woken up see the result in term of pain perceived and its location.
2 - Stab oneself’s right foot in a LD and wake up just after. Then check for the same results.
But be careful! Like in @Faraday experience it could lead to lasting pain
So whole picture start to make sense now. Thanks everyone for your comments. If someone has other dream related to pain experiences or can suggest articles on the subject it would be greatly appreciated.
i feel pain all the time in LD’s, but i choose to revel in it.
it comes with my job, and im used to it, and choose to better myself from it, and to expect it when i see it coming.
that way, i can learn to avoid pain, and better myself and skills through it, but in dreams, i also feel fatigue.
in my last LD, i had to run after a man who was being a dick, and he ran FAST.
i took off after him faster than i normally could, and i was keeping that pace very well, but it started taking a tole on my body, and i could feel it.
i kept running after him, let the blade in my arm rip forth (i take the form of a blade acolyte in dreams, a person with blades embedded under his skin, like their a part of him, like wolverine) and killed the fucker without a second thought, but then i felt tired from running at least a mile and a half in 4 minutes.
funny thing though, each time i experience a new form of pain, i feel it after i wake up for a good 2 hours.
like the first time i was shot in a dream, i couldnt shake the feeling for 2 and a half hours after i woke up .
@Akuma Kizuato : Nice dream and explanations. According to your experience and others, i come to think that pain perception in and out of dreams are not so rare. I haven’t experienced many of those dreams though (beginner LD dreamer ) but i completely agree on your point that pain is not something to be feared or avoided in dreams. It is part of the overall experience. In your case it might be interpreted in terms of effort you put in achieving your goals. Your blade shaped dream body is also quite cool XD
Pain is a byproduct of the mind so i think it is possible to feel it the same IRL and in dreams. But i agree with you that most of the time it’s not the samee. In dreams, but this particular dream, i would call that “fluffy pain”. XD
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