Hi Robert,
I asked a question in the MWLD conference today and you asked me to elaborate in the forum.
I have occasional, short lucid dreams that have a vivid, sparkling, awake quality and it feels like both my conscious and unconscious mind are present – so I do have a sense of how it feels when I am having what I would call a “true” lucid dream. These experiences are rare and exciting but I’m not practiced at staying within those states long enough to do much exploring. However, more often, I have seemingly lucid dreams which do really not feel “lucid” – they feel like a non-lucid dream where my conscious mind doesn’t seem to be online and there is not the same vivid quality – yet they have lucid aspects (ie I know I am dreaming, I talk to the dream awareness, or do lucid activities like flying and interacting with the dreamscape). It feels like my unconscious is somehow rehearsing the lucid state based on what I’ve been reading or learning in waking life. So, I’m curious if it’s possible to have a dream about lucid dreaming? Below is a journal entry from one of these types of dreams. This one happened while reading your book, “Lucid Dreaming”. I’d be curious to know your thoughts on what’s going on here.
Lucid Dreaming Practice
There are a series of scenes in which I am “lucid dreaming” and I can move things with my mind. When I focus attention on something, it changes or shifts the more I move towards it – so in a sense I am able to manipulate the dreamscape in this way. I also speak to the dream. It goes on a long time and it is like I am practicing the skills from the book. I notice I am able to stay in the dream much longer. However, it does not have a really “lucid” quality and it feels like I’m dreaming about having a lucid dream. I wake up into another dream and I am telling someone about the long lucid dream I just had.
Thanks so much for your consideration!
Hi there,
Thanks for sharing your experience. In a general sense, ‘awareness’ can vary in the waking state or in a lucid dreaming state.
While awake, you may be very present and aware in the moment — but if someone tells you that they heard Joe has a secret crush on you, then you may suddenly be very aware of thinking about Joe and largely withdraw your focus from the physical world (to the inner world of thoughts, imagination, etc.). Also if you become tired, then your sense of feeling present and aware in the moment diminishes.
In lucid dreaming, we realize other things: 1) that our ‘level of awareness’ fluctuates and we can actually return to regular dreaming if we do not stay focused on being lucid and 2) our ‘focus’ determines where our attention goes, so we can focus on the outer experience or on our inner thoughts about it, and so on.
In this case, you became lucid, did things and then have had a “false awakening” (you write: “I wake up into another dream and I am telling someone about the long lucid dream I just had. “).
Because of the false awakening activity of telling someone about the long lucid dream — you now have two versions of the lucid dream experience in your mind 1)the original and then 2) the re-told version of the original. Which is now more cogent? #2 seems so. It seems more recent in your memory, easier to recall and therefore more powerful. As a result, the false awakening re-telling makes the original version seem distant and not immediate.
A beautiful thing, the mind!!
However, it seems more complicated since “yes” you can have a dream about lucid dreaming!
And you can also have a semi-lucid lucid dream, where you do lucid things but feel that you did not have “full awareness” (and perhaps acted in a habitual manner). But in the example you provided, the false awakening aspect changes the ‘memory’ — and the false awakened memory of the lucid dream achieves prominence.