Thread: Pathetic dream control

Wow. DreamSwimmer, your lucid experiences are like mine. Yes I found things that might be a good check for many does not work for me if the dream is determined to be the one in control. If the dream wants to keep me in line I'll be able to pinch myself and cause pain, read just about any writing, even flip on light switches (I gained that ability in one dream after a friend told me that was his way to check if dream or reality.) But yeah the level of realism I can relate. I can touch, smell, even taste in some supposed non lucid dreams.

I've finally come to accept I (and maybe you too) lucid dream differently. It seems in order to gain dream control is to not control the dream. Oddly enough a paradox. Each dream has its own laws of physics right? Like some dreams you can fly, but others you can't? Some dreams you might not fly but you can climb into the clouds and walk in the air? Or some dreams you're indoors but unable to get out or underground the whole time?

Instead of bothering to change the setting, I get better results treating the dream like I would as if I were in the waking world. If I fight it, the dream will quickly remind me its laws of physics (like if there is gravity for instance). The more I fight, the worse it gets. But going along with the dream, I can sometimes be granted choices to make. Sometimes it might be as simple as what side of the street to walk on. Do I look left or right? Look up at the sky? That one usually is rewarding because the weather is almost always very strange in Dreamland. Whether it be square shaped mammatus clouds (yesterday's dream), or a very out of the world vivid sunset or it might be night. if night I might get to see surreal star formations, even spaceships.

It seems the less I fight, the more into the dream I get and the more rewarding it gets. It may or may not be as fun as getting what I want, but the experience seems more genuine. The few rare total control dreams I get feel more like I was just imagining the whole thing and more less guiding imagery through my imagination than actually experiencing it. Not to say it is bad. I've had some great story like dreams. it seems the most vivid dreams are ones I have only partial control but get an epic story from, just by following along making decisions when i realize they are available.

Another thing I noticed, an ability I gain dreaming this way, is the ability to think just as logically as I do in the waking world. I can think about what I just saw and react. I can pull up memories. Sometimes from the waking world, other times from dreams. It seems if I am in a recurring setting I will know this in my subconscious and be able to recall that dream. When I do it flashes through my head as a memory just like pulling up a memory in my waking world. I find it fascinating. Often these aren't dreams I remember when I am awake. But because I recalled them and remember the recall, I sometimes get chances to remember dreams I forgot just because I was able to recall it in a recent dream. There were also a rare dream I recalled that was a forgotten real life memory, from when I was like 2 years old feeling like I accomplished something, (climbing down the stairs on my own) discovered a new place: the basement) And then there's also "parallel universe" dreams where instead of living in an apartment I seem to be seeing a future self living in my own house. The house appears in enough dreams that it's got me curious of its origins.
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Re: The window dream - you might be able to open the window like you would normally in real life and then jump out it to fly. I think I did that with a flying dream once. It helps that irl I live on an upper floor, so the jump wasn't that hard to generate once the dream let me open the window. Or if you fall, maybe try to grab onto the wall and climb or see what happens after you fall. Or if you feel too afraid to do so, like feels too real life like, then maybe it would be better to just skip the window thing and just find another way to get around in the dream.