Denying yourself lucidity

Lence · Blogger Joined: 02 Dec 2010 Posts: 390 Location: Belgium

Last night I had this odd dream in which I suddenly realized I must be dreaming, but it didn't quite trigger a lucid dream.

Long story short: WW3 was going on in my dream, while my closest friends and I were on some kind of tropical island where everything was fine. While we were watching the news, my friends and I started wondering why were fine and what the hell we were doing in this place. I tried to remember, but couldn't and figured it must be a dream.

For some reason though, I decided not to accept this realization and I just went with the dream. It's like I was afraid to lose the dream, so I just denied myself lucidity. Maybe the dream "reality" was too comforting for me? Maybe it's because I didn't want to wake up (I had to get up early to do a lot of work). I don't know - it boggles my mind now how it didn't trigger "full" lucidity, because I clearly knew it was a dream at one point.

This wasn't the first time this happened. The last couple of weeks I've had several similar experiences. At first I thought something in the dream must have distracted me, but now I'm starting to think that maybe I'm just enjoying the blissful ignorance of the "dream reality" a little too much. Confused

Any thoughts on this? Why do you think this happened? Have you ever "denied" yourself lucidity? Have you ever taken "the blue pill"? (and no, I don't mean viagra) Razz

cgkraz · Joined: 21 Aug 2010 Posts: 164

All I can say is that I have done this myself when I was enjoying the dream, and everything continued as normal. I've done it several times, but I've always enjoyed my ND's as much as LD's.

Rik · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:47 pm Post subject:

I used to do it quite a lot, really. I didn't really have any lucid goals, so I just went along with the plot and forgot I was dreaming. It feels a bit like I neglected my lucidity skills, but it's quite alright, dreams are awesome as well.
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Dream Cream · Joined: 24 Aug 2010 Posts: 122 Location: Your dream space

Haha, yes I have. 2 times I decided that I didn't feel like doing anything with my dream, so I went back to bed in the dream. Once I went with the plot because I it seemed fun. :]
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nailgirl10 · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 1:50 am Post subject:

Isn't that part of the fun in studying LDing?? That is what I have found. Not only are the things you do (content) in dreams fun...but trying to figure out their structure or orientations, is also very intriguing. Every time I think there couldn't be any other new "situations" (again I don't mean the content), I have to figure out another new one. (Figuring out failed RC's, Dreams within dreams, getting a result of "dreaming" but still not believing it, FA's, etc. I have had all of that)
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DCJack · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 41 Location: USA

Its funny that people think that there is something that they are "supposed to do" in LD.

That's like thinking that there is something you are supposed to do in life.

Lence, your post was brilliant, but you seem to have forgotten one little detail.

Who do you think was creating the dream you were having?

If you awaken and realize that you are dreaming, then you are lucid. You do not have to do anything else. You are already conscious. Congratulations. You did it.

Since you created the entire dream yourself (unconsciously perhaps, but you can develop that part later), then you can just sit back and enjoy your brilliant creativity. This world you are witnessing, in all its bounteous brilliance? Its yours. You did this. You don't have to start flying. You created a brilliant universe and it is marvelous. Enjoy it!

The more you can just accept what is presented to your awareness, the more you enter into this new reality and the more easily you can learn its secrets.

Lence, you said it was "blissful"! Do you realize how rare the experience of bliss is? Congratulations! You are a master of LD. There is so much more for you to learn after this. So much more.

I greatly appreciate your post.
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We must believe in free will. There is no choice.

Lence · Blogger Joined: 02 Dec 2010 Posts: 390 Location: Belgium

Thanks for the replies guys!

@Jack: I think you misunderstood my opening post. Yes, being lucid is nothing more than being aware of the dream state and no, I don't think I'm "supposed to" do anything more after achieving lucidity.

What I meant with "denying yourself lucidity" is being momentarily lucid during your dream, but for some reason rejecting this realization and almost instantly going back to the "non-lucid" state. What I didn't mean is becoming lucid and just consciously going along with the dream instead of taking control (and probably "losing" lucidity during the dream that way). So the difference is that the choice of whether I want to try maintaining the lucid state or not is being made unconsciously in the first case and consciously in the second case.

I don't see this as a problem or an obstacle in my learning progress, so I'm not asking for advice on how to "fix" this. I just found it really interesting. It might be something obvious to you, but I've never really thought about it before.

So apparently the dream world is sometimes so convincing to us (to me), that the sudden awareness of the dream state is too shocking to be accepted. If that makes sense... That's what happened in that dream I think.