What if Dream Characters are really Souls existing in another Dimension/Realm and WE are visitors? Many people comment that their DC’s give them puzzling looks when they tell they they are a DC and/or in a Dream. Maybe these puzzling looks are “This guy is nuts!” 
Well if this is true, they don’t really care about pain or staying alife there, because I have have hurted and killed a lot of people in (non-lucid) dreams and no army or police stopped me. I would feel guilty all the time when I wake up! Also, dream characters are often so “empty” I can hardly believe they are real existing beings.
When I usually tell my DC that it’s a dream, they usually agree with me.
The whole ‘you’re nuts look’ is becuase people have been told that’s how DC’s react. My DC’s never reacted like that until I read about it, and the very next LD i had they started accusing me of being crazy when I told them it was a dream.
Since I’ve realised this though, they’ve gone back to being acceptive.
In my experience I would say I’ve met characters who seemed to be nothing but ghosts and empty illusions, and others who really seemed to have a claim to their sentience. And I have 100% confidence that in one dream I was spoken to by a higher being.
I think if you go around killing and maiming dream characters, higher beings really won’t bother hanging out with you. And I also believe your preconceptions count for a lot… if you expect dream characters to be empty illusions they will be, whereas if you expect to meet higher beings then you may well do that too.
Surreal: why wouldnt DC’s look at you as if you are nuts? In an ld ANYTHING can happen (except light switches working of course)!
lol i have made light switches work as a test 
i used to think about this a lot as well… and whos to say that it isnt true, but i dont think that all of our dreams would be dreams where we swap dims and say hello to other beings but i have had a few LD where things like this has happened. There was one where i was traveling through Dims tring to SD actally and i got somewhere anyway that is a differnt story, the thing is tho… lets say that we make up some DC and then we can also exist in this other dim and here there are other beings as well. So we have our DC and other creatures that hang around as well. there is no such thing as death or life just energy that can be shaped and feelings behind that engery.
That energy is fuled and formed by imagination and that could be what a dream would is? that is ofcourse if it where in another dim i dont really know i am just ranting out there
While i don’t rule out the possibility that some DC-s actually can be “real” spirit guides, or “real” dreamers (in shared dreams) and “real” beings (whatever beings they are anyway), i believe that vast majority of DC-s are pure imaginations of your sleeping brain.
Sometimes they don’t believe that this is a dream, sometimes they do.
Sometimes they speak smart things, many times they speak nonsense (like the dreams are nonsense too many times, because your brain just fits unrelated stuff together into dream stories).
I just cannot take any DC what speaks nonsense to me as “real” person. But at the same time it’s funny to hear their chat and wonder what next your sleeping brain will put into their mouth - words of wisdom, or words of nonsense 
arnt the two words the same
Dreams are based on expectations.
So, if you expect the DC’s to claim you’re lying or mad (as most people expect due to reading that’s what happens) then they will.
However, if you expect them to believe (as I usually do) then they will.
Funny you mentioned the lightswitch - cos they do work.
Once again, it’s based on expectations. Becuase people are told they don’t work in dreams, they don’t. However, if you can get past that expectation, they they can work in LD (myself and others have done it).
Everything in dreams is based on expectations.
Yes I agree with sureal. I have never NOT had a light work in dreams. I personaly belive that DC’s could be actual dreamers from around the world. I have had DC’s dissaper in and aothers appear from nowhere meaning they could be waking up or going to sleep. Thats just my thought and its an interesting consept.
if dream characters were real in another dimension they would probably be afraid of us for killing/mutilating/being not nice to them and would try to stay away from us any way they could… our dream would become empty…
Surreal: While I will agree that some dream content is based on expectation, I would never say ALL of it is… you’ve never had anything happen in a lucid dream that has genuinly surprised you? Sorry to hear that if that’s the case.
Just had a thought: if dreams are all about expectation, then surely the following is true:
- if you expect dreams to be determined by your expectations, then they will be
- if you expect dreams not to be ruled by your expectations, then they won’t be
?
Don’t get me wrong, I do agree that a lot of content is dominated by expectation. I believe the same about waking life, in a way. But I think there will always be things coming along to genuinly surprise you (positive and negative) if you allow them to.
I mean a deeper down expectations, you know like a subconcious expectations.
If you look in EWLD, LaBerge gives a very good example of how the same dream can have completely different otucomes if you have different expectations.
The person in the dream is walking down a street at night.
Now, in the first example, being the paranoid/careful person they are, they automatically assume that it could be a dangerous situation. They see a shadowy figure accross. They (subconciously) assume that the person is a mugger, and so it is. The dream turns into a nightmare.
However, if the person was a confident person, or someone who goes out a lot, they’re walking down the street a night. Instead of being caution, they (once again subconciously) assume they’re going to meet their freinds and go to the cinema. They see a shadowy figure accross the road, only this time they expect it to be their freind, ergo it is. They go and and have a fun time.
However, this is only in theory, and has never actually been tested (I don’t think it can be) so it isn’t set in stone.
My comment on everything in a dream is based on expectations (concious and subconcious expectations) is only aplical assuming that shared dreaming isn’t possible.
I’m not arguing the case that a DC could never be a real person. Hell, they could all be real people, in the state of non-lucidity.
Which may be why they are so stupid. Our (non lucid) dream actions could be based of the expectations of the other dreamers in it, creating an overall net effect, with each DC affecting the other. This would certainly explain why we act so different in our dreams, and why we seem to have a multitude of personalitis and apearances.
(Note: I’m just throwing around ideas here, I have no proof leading to any sort conclusion)
My DCs act the opposite and aknowledges that it is just a dream and that they are only a part of my own mind.
Probably because he expect them to act that way, which is the same case with me aswell.
The thing about lightswitches is simply totally untrue… Lighswitches works just fine when you expect them to work and i have verified this in both lucid dreams and normal dreams.
I dosent even make sense how everything else can be changed in dreams, with the exception of lightswitches… The only reason why it does not work for so many people, is because they have read the false information saying that lightswitches should not work.
This probably influences your subconscious so that you expect them not to work.
Yeah, I see what you mean, and the example from LaBerge’s book is a good one. I do agree this has a big effect on dream content.
But then I have been in the middle of a perfectly positive and enjoyable lucid dream, turned around only to have a swarm of bees rush over my face. The shock of this jolted me into losing lucidity. Or, I’ve had fully lucid dreams where I’ve had extreme difficulty getting any kind of flight to happen, and there’s me in the dream thinking “oh comeon, flying should be easy, it is mind over matter! I know 100% I am dreaming so just give me a break already!”
The theory of subconscious expectation cannot be disproved at all because you can say “well, subconsciously you thought flying was difficult”. Freud had a lot of success with his ideas because of this: there is no way to invalidate them. I do think there is a lot in it though.
Maybe whatever part of you it is that is actually creating the dream world around you, and maintaining it’s physics and so on, has a big say. The “super-conscious” or something? (it isnt the same as the subconscious, right?) You could say to yourself “around this corner will be a nice car” and low and behold around the corner is indeed a red Ferrari, but the part of you that actually creates and maintains that dream-car is what I’m talking about here.
Maybe there is a very intricate relationship between the subconscious, conscious and “super-conscious”(?) parts of us that work together to create our dreams. But then again I havent ld’d in absolutely ages so I’m well out of practice. 
Heh well it was a damn cool idea. The net effect concept sounds like it may have potential.
In my experiences, its partly true! Before I ever read or heared any stuff about switches not working, i had some ND’s and LD’s (dont remember exactly) where i tried to switch electric deveices (including lights) on and it worked either only a little bit (just a bit of light) or not at all. However after that I also had several dreams in which they did work fine (because I read that they should work, or because I knew that I could do whatever I wanted in a LD).
The thing with switches sometimes not working is probably related to the fact that for many people it is for example also hard to instantly change the whole environment, its a kind of sudden and broad chance that is hard to do (but with experience becomes easier). Well this is just my idea on it, im not sure if im correct though 
What i meant was untrue was that it is claimed that it is impossible to use a lightswitch in dreams, wether you are lucid or not.
Dreams are generally more unstable than waking life, so yeah it does vary from person to person and the dream.
The network theory is very interesting. What is the funniest thing is that it can be tested! Not 100%, but for some amount.
What about such experiment?
- find some big audience in a LD;
- tell them you are going to show some tricks;
- make five eggs appear, one after another (you must already know how to do it);
- say “Hey, I’m bored with eggs, let’s try something else”;
- make a light bulb appear;
Then in another LD repeat steps 1,2,3 and 5 (without 4).
You’ll have about the same expectations about getting a light bulb. But if there are any real dreamers in the audience, they will expect to see another egg, so if it is as easy to make a bulb appear unexpectedly, there were no network working in this dream…
Good point! They are what you make them and the more open minded you are, the more likely you will make contact with a higher being entirely.
While we are on the subject of dream characters, I was wondering if anyone has ever encountered a dream god in one of their dreams. To clearify, a dream god is, by my knowledge, a DC of immense power and wisedom, much like a god in the real world. I’ve read only a few things on them, but have never seen one in any of my dreams, or really know if I believe in them. so if anyone has any info about them, I’d love to hear it