Is your dream journal private?

I think dreams are real reflections of ourselves. Dreams know us better that we know ourselves. Sometimes the truth can be disturbing to our waking self. And we supress the messages even ourselves.

but yeah milod we have nothing to be worried about. Sometimes dreams are not always what they seam to be.

I confess, I probably would if it were disturbing enough. Especially if they were lucid at the time.

I agree. I wouldn’t be really taken aback or anything, but if it were strange, I would have a new view of that person. Mainly because I believe dreams express a deeper part of a person and aren’t merely “dreams”–dismissed after you have them. Most of my own dreams express what I am dealing with in my waking life. Therefore (based on my own experience), it is possible to learn a lot about a person from their dreams. ESPECIALLY their lucid ones. :wink:

I am not sure that is really true. I mean, I have often awakened from a dream saying, “what made me dream of that”? However, for the sake of argument, lets assume that your dreams do express a deeper part of yourself. In that case I would be more concerned about what a person does in their normal dreams. If dreams do express a deeper part of yourself then I would think that your normal dreams is where that “deeper self” is going manifest it’s self. Not lucid dreams. I a lucid dream you are aware that you are dreaming and nothing is real.

Well, I never stated what I said as fact because I know there are those people who don’t believe dreams have a deeper meaning or connection with the dreamer.

is what I said, so no need to take it out of context.

There are lots of times I wake up from a dream and think, “What the heck’s up with that?” But if I’m truly honest with myself (notice I say me, nobody else), I can usually find the meaning or some sort of connection to my life. I am not saying that is true for everybody, but it applies in my own situation.

That’s a good point you bring up and I see the fallacy in my own argument. I tend to flip on how I interpret LDs and NDs, though. Applied to this scenario we’re looking at, NDs WOULD have the greater meaning, as they aren’t lucid and are fresh from the subconscious (per se). But with LDs, you are in control of everything, which means you act out whatever the hell you like. During that time, you can see what a person is REALLY like (if they were to tell you) when they have absolutely no boundaries. I think that’s what I was trying to say, or what I was thinking at least. What do you do when you have no limits on you and your world? That’s when the real person inside is let out. Nobody’s watching–complete freedom. I think you discover a lot about a person when they truly feel open to express themselves.

I never meant to imply that you were stating something as a fact and I did not think you did. I knew that you were just talking from your own experience. Sorry if I made it sound otherwise.

I am not sure what you are referring to here. If you mean that what a person does in a LD is somehow indicative of what a person would:

=> Do if they lived in a society that had no laws. (or)
=> Do if they could get away with it.

Under that scenario I would disagree with you. There is, in my opinion, an additional factor that you also need to take into consideration. I believe that LD’s are completely unreal so, no one is hurt in any way buy what you do. ( I am not talking about violence here. There are enough threads discussing that ) That I think is the real difference. Just because someone might do something in a lucid dream that does not imply that they might do or, want to do, the same thing in waking life. In real life there are things that we would not do even if it were legally permissible and socially acceptable. For example: I would not use drugs even if it were legalized and “everyone does it”. It is just not something that I am into. I guess what I mean is that(IMO) there is no “negative” consequences to your actions in a LD.

I see where you’re going, but I don’t think this is really what Sno was implying.

Would you do drugs in a lucid dream? If so, why wouldn’t you in RL? Because of their long term effects? Because they would distract from more important obligations? Because you’d end up spending too much money? Because you wouldn’t like others to see you as a drug user? Because you don’t want to get addicted? Whatever the reason, if you’re willing to give it a shot in an LD, simply because none of the above consequences apply, that still tells us something about your personality. This probably isn’t the best example, because lucid dreaming doesn’t exclusively provide a chance to commit crimes and get away with them. It lets the dreamer shape the world around them, say things to people that they’ve always wanted to say, build a refuge to escape from daily life, or, as we’ve already mentioned, break the law and enjoy the lack of retribution. I personally feel that I can get a better understanding of someone’s personality by reading how they consciously spend this limitless power, than I would by reading of their ND experiences. Not that ND’s are without meaning (quite the opposite, I don’t think any single event in an ND can be described as meaningless), but they tend to borrow too much from external influence, in some cases forcing you, the dreamer to behave in a way that contradicts your general attitude. It’s fun to map the various elements of the dream to their likely inspiration, but it’s not a very good demonstration of your conscious personality in action.

Just a few of my thoughts. :smile:

I agree completely with Atheist’s post (and that was what I was trying to say). Sorry if my own words were jumbled or confusing.

I see where you’re coming from, but what i think Atheist is talking about is Intent. Even if it is a dream and you know no one can get hurt etc, you still do it. Intent may be based on any number of reasons why you did that thing, so you have to take that into consideration.

Say for instance that in a lucid dream, you kill someone. You dont do this out of a malicious intent, you do it simply to understand the feelings and emotions of killing. When your describing this to someone, without telling them the reason you killed, then this person might think you were a crazy killer, when in fact your not. So you have to look at what you are intent on doing.

sno_isulli: LOL. As if gardening requires the use of many brain cells.

I do gardening and get paid to do it on an hourly basis, but even if I wasn’t getting paid I’d still do it. True, planting a flower doesn’t require much brainpower, but actual gardening does, depending on what you want to achieve.

No !!! I do not want to turn this into a discussion about killing dream characters !!! There are a couple of threads dedicated to that already.

I understand what everyone is saying just not sure I completely agree with it.

Let me try to come up with a different scenario that has nothing to do with killing, or any sort of violence.

Lets say some guy has a girl friend or, is married. Has a lucid dream and summons up Brittany Spears or Madonna and well, you get the point. Would you conclude that the person in their “heart” is a cheater or an adulterer based on this dream?

Atheist

No. I have never done drugs in a lucid dream. To be honest the thought never occurred to me. There are just so many other things to experience in a lucid dream that drugs just would not be that exciting in comparison. Besides, just being lucid in a dream is a thrill in it’s self not to mention flying.

If the person you tell understands LDing (such as me telling you) then they would understand that you did because you can… and you probably would not in real life. It really depends who it is you are telling I think. My dream diary doesn’t have too much bad stuff I wouldn’t want ppl to see but I still get really uptight about ppl seeing it. I find it very personal just because it’s MY mind. Also theres all the dreams which had sexual content etc.

I actually had a very interesting ND where I gave someone my DJ to hold onto while I ran about and did stuff in a hotel… but once I was inside I realized that they might read it so I ran back and tried to find them! You think having my DJ with me would have made me lucid but it didn’t lol. Sure I a post about that dream in my diary here… Anyway! As I said, you really need to think about who it is you are talking to.

Pedro wrote

Ha but, there is the problem. Even among lucid dreamers many have different points of view on this. I try not to judge people by what they do in a lucid dream. I do not believe that what a person does in a LD is an indicator of who they really are.

Sometimes I share my dreams with my family, unless it’s somethin about them, like I kill one of them because they wouldn’t move out of my way. If I shared that with them they would probably make me go to anger managment XD.