I agree with what you say about flying, and the whole “powers” = LD is not something I can agree with.
Actually, I disagree with the FLD concept as a whole. Either a LD–whatever degree–or a ND.
In general I am not fond of the term “lucid dream” due to the ambiguity one could (and I sure do) connotate with the semantics of “lucid”. I had preferred if it was called “conscious dream”… anyway I can live with it.
It’s very simple to know if you were lucid or not. At any point in the dream were you aware of the fact you were dreaming?
If yes, then that is a lucid dream, if no then its a normal dream. False lucid dream usually means a dream where the the dreamer acts like they are lucid, but doesn’t actually realize he is dreaming. Basically this is when the dreamer exhibits a high level of control and manipulation of the dreamworld without recognizing it for a dream.
This isn’t always the case, especially if you had the LD earlier in the night…
I’m just wondering why it would matter? If you do the stuff you wanted to do in a lucid dream, and enjoy doing it, why would you need to put a label on it?
Well yeah that is right but it can be used as a indication for progress towards real, frequet lucid dreaming; having some true LD’s might motivate you more to put even more effort into it than some FLD’s. And keeping them appart helps you see where you stand in your quest for lucidity.
Also if you wanna brag about your LD count you’d better have the right number 
Yeah, i guess you’re right 
I usually just count the good ones haha.
My take is that if you “exibit control in the drea without recognizing it for a dream,” then you are indeed not in control of your dream, you may merely think you are (/were–when you wake up).
Not neccessarily in control of the dream, no, but you can certainly effects aspects of the dream without being in control of the dream in the sense that your guiding whats happening. Leveling a mountain range in a dream is certainly on some level manipulating the dream. I think an aspect of FLD is whether you do it in role or not.
For instance if you had a dream where you were a wizard and conjured fireballs to destroy your foes I’m not sure I would call that a false lucid dream sice you are playing that role within in the dream. However if it is a totally normal dream and yopu jump out of your window, start flying and decide to travel to some fantasy land that would probably fall under the category of FLD. It’s the kind of dream you might wake up from and if your recall was mediocre wonder “was I really luicd there?”
Though I do find if you’re askingthat question 9 times out of 10 you were not at any point lucid.
I believed I understood the difference between the two until I read through this thread… I have alot of dreams where my character does things you would normally think be a part of LD. But they aren’t. My character do these things normally, without the “oh my god I have control” aspect of it. But then again, as I’ve mentioned before, I often play the parts of people who aren’t me. A dream I had about a month ago, I was playing the part of a demi-god, and things LD capable, were just normal to me. I wasn’t lucid at all, to my knowledge.
See this is what confuses me. You say you act like it was an LD, which would imply it was an FLD, but in the same sentence, you say it’s part of the story. There must be a difference between “lucid behavior” and “storyling driven”.
As stated above, in that example. The demi-god. It was just a role as part of the dream.
Flying is a very common thing in my dreams. I often fly to get to places my character is trying to get to as part of the dream, but it is dream-driven. It wasn’t a conscious choice I made, no. But at the same time, my character does not fly as a “hey look I can do what I want” thing. I would not affiliate this flying with any part of LDing.
So where do you draw the line between “normal for the dream”, and “lucid behavior”?
Same for this… How do you know that flying to that fantasy land wasn’t a normal part of the dream sequence?
I would say that the difference lay in if you actually realised it was a dream, during the dream. A dream where you dream you are some sort of demi-god manipulating the world. I would call a Normal Dream. It’s an extraordinary storyline for the dream sure, but I wouldn’t call it a FLD.
The point of a Lucid Dream is not about controlling the dream, or manipulating things. A Lucid Dream is realising it is a dream. A False Lucid Dream, is where you dream about realising its a dream. You can dream about anything, being the king, a demon of some kind, you can even dream that you have realised its a lucid dream. You act like its a lucid dream, with that being a part of the storyline of the dream, but you are not actually aware that it is a dream. There is no, “oh I’m really dreaming right now.” it’s basically acting out a lucid dream in a normal dream. Kinda like you could dream you were playing a computer game, without realising you are playing a game.
It’s like fantasising about how it might be to be lucid.