Like, have you ever pretended infront of a dream character to not realize that you are dreaming as a joke? To see what would happen? I’m very interested in this.
The reaction of dream characters fully depends on yourself. Mine keep behaving according to a plot of the dream if I don’t pay attention to them, and after some times they disappear. If you pay attention they’ll start talking to you or do anything else that you subconciensly want them to.
Yep, JustAnotherOne is fully right. If you expects that they will start running and shout “oh my god”, they will do it. If you expects that he will take pistol and shoot into his head, he will do it. If you expects anything, they will do it.
I don’t care if Stephen LaBerge has claimed this. Just think about your past dreams. There are MAAANY instances when totally unexpected things happen. You can expect one thing and something TOTALLY different happenes. You can NOT expect something and something will happen. Come on man, dreams are not that simple. Don’t be brainwashed by LaBerge just because he’s the top researcher in this field. Not even the most intelligent person is right all the time and I think this is one instance. You should take his research objectively and form your own opinions based on your own experiences.
I think Argitoth is right, although maybe in a little different way.
I hold the Jungian beleif that dreams are symbols, and that the majority of dreams have symbolic meanings, and that characters/things that happen in dreams have a deeper level of meaning, perhaps even more than one. (Although I also beileve some dreams are random crap the brain is processing)
For example, I had a low-level LD, and turned to my left EXPECTING my girlfriend to be there (she hadn’t been in the dream yet, but I was trying to see if I could get her to show up). Instead, a cat showed up. I won’t go into a complicated explanation about why because of what is happening in relation to my and my girlfriend her being a cat makes a lot of sense symbolically, but…
What I’m trying to show is how your subconcious (and I’d like to beileve, the universal conciousness) can supercede the concious mind’s ability to control things, and suprise you at every turn in your dreams.
I also believe in a universal consciousness. For example, before anyone knew it was coming, artists began depicting horrible things way more than usual before the Black Plague came, at least that’s what I heard during an explanation of some kind of shared consciousness. I wouldn’t like to spend time discussing this information’s reliability though, it’s not important.
Well, my DC’s, for one, act very spontaneously. For example, I commonly tell other DC’s around me that we’re dreaming. Here is a list of reactions:
Confusion. Sometimes, my DC’s are confused when I talk with them about dreams. Nothing very interesting about this to me. Self-explanatory.
Anger. A few DC’s of mine have been angry when I mention to them that I’m dreaming. One transformed into a monster while another yelled at me and wanted absolutely solid proof.
Indifference. Some DC’s don’t care or just walk away.
Happiness. Esp. my DG (who I haven’t seen lately…). Very few DC’s act like this, actually…
Concern. My other (possible?) DG was concerned when very strange things started happening in one LD.
The list goes on, but this just goes to show the spontaneity of DC’s (or at least mine). DC’s can be predictable (most of mine are confused when I tell them I’m dreaming), but they won’t always do what you expect.
Well, these expectations dosent cecessarily need to be conscious expectations.
Sure you can! And from personal experience i do it all the time. I can do anything in a lucid dream with less than a snap of my finger as long as i am 100% sure that i can do it. If you do doubts about it, then it might not be so easy.
And i know that you might not be able to do this, since you do not believe that you can do it, which again proves this point about expectations influencing your dream.
And of course unexpected things also happen and i havent heard of Laberga claming otherwise either.
No one controls what they are not conscious of. No one controls their subconscious mind. So, what is the point of making that statement? We are not even discussing this. We are discussing the fact that Stephen LaBerge has concluded such simple dream structures caused by your CONSCIOUS mind. This is sometimes the case of course, but not always. Or maybe it’s more this is the case only when your conscious and subconsious agree.
I’m giving a scenario. I know you can expect things and they will happen. I’m saying that’s not always the case.
Well, the problem I have with talking to persons in dreams is that I end up talking to myself with a different voice most of the time.
That’s why I usually prefer a way of communicating somewhat alike telekinesis, if I would focus on it the person would actually talk but what actually happens is that I get the ideas straight into my mind without having to process words first.
And believe me, I’ve tried to have meaningfull conversations in my dreams, but anything useful is usually a mix of mystisistic texts I’ve read combined with the rules of the reality I believe in.
Well my DC seam to carry on with there normal exsistance in my dreams when i am in at LD, my last one i was on a roof top and john goodman was fixing something, at first i ignored him as i was testing a few thing (increasing lucidty), a lucid pill word best by the way.
After i had better control i summoned a joint and sparked it up. He was drinking coffee so i guess he was on a break so i went to talk to him, i was going be nasty to him but then i thought i’d just have a chat with him see what he does. so i say to him shit i only get to smoke in my dreams now (i quit ages ago), he says right on, well i am off to my next job, lucky for you your dreaming some of us are at have to work. then he left.
i think that your subconscience fills in alot while your LDing your awake mind can’t handle complex things like creating worlds and all the stuff that goes it in.
when you think of something i an LD i for instant wanted a joint, i never specified what paper it was rolled in ect ect it was a classic white paper. also the pill was yellow and purple , i never thought of that when i wanted it.
i think that your subconscience has it own idears on whats going to go in your dream. I think that it if you force them then you can controll them into a reaction, but if not then the reactions are that of your subconscience