What effect do our dream actions and experiences have on our brain and body?

[spiralsofgold]

Hello all, I haven't posted here in ages since I pretty much got my techniques down for lucid dreaming. With lucid dreaming, I kind of allow it to happen whenever it does, I stopped putting any effort into it. I do still get them sometimes, definitely more than previously to practising all this, and they're just as vivid. Anyways, the reason why I'm suddenly posting here now is because of an extremely strange experience I had last night I fell asleep at 6pm, woke up at 12am, played the ps3 game Journey for a few hours and went back to sleep in the living room with its soundtrack playing. I think its a possibility that the game put me into some very spiritual state, along with being awake at the right time, but anyway.. I go back to sleep, fall asleep almost instantly. Then in the dream everything is extremely vivid, just like waking life. I got up from where I fell asleep, walked across the room and thought right away, "If a dream feels like reality, but when you know you're dreaming you can control it. What about reality, what if reality is actually all completely a dream?" And I touched on a very specific thought that felt like an extreme realization about waking life, and I had this really uncomfortable feeling. Similar to when you attain lucidity in a dream, but less pleasing. There was this pressure around my head, and it felt like I was trying to walk against an extreme wind that was pushing me back. I was curious what would happen if I kept trying to go forward with this thought, but then I woke up, seemingly. I woke up into a false awakening, completely vivid, and then I actually woke up into reality. From the moment when I realized this, my heart was pounding and it was even pounding when I woke up, I had a slight headache too. After that, I kept waking up and falling asleep right away, amazingly having control over my state. I had more dreams, all of which I had control. In one I was flying away from three murderers in tiger costumes or whatever (they never caught me). Another, I looked out the living room window and saw a giant alien spaceship fly by, going out to see them and one of the alien-human hybrid beings appeared in front of me, but I was afraid so I walked away from it, as it knowing it was inviting me to go to them or something. Then another dream, I was in the living, lying on the same spot I fell asleep in, and my brother came home and said hi. Here, and I think later too, I had this strange telepathic conversation with some being (I speculate it was the hybrid I met earlier or something) They were asking me something, and I said I dont think that was really my brother. And they asked why, I said idk, he just behaved differently. I sensed a smile coming from them here, as if they were waiting for this moment of my consciousness to occur. Another dream I had was where I was in some fantasy looking space, like ruins from under the water, but they were above ground. There was an overweight man singing 'over the rainbow' with his ukulele. I came over to him and started singing in harmony, then sang my own song and the crowd around us applauded us. It seems my joining him uplifted their spirits. While they were applauding, I wanted them to applaud more and they did. It was wonderful. There were more really beautiful and interesting scenes in these WBTB dreams that kept continuing. I felt that the people in them were rather just a part of this dream reality, just parts of my own parallel reality and that it was all my world while some beings were trying to guide me or something. I also had another dream where I was walking around my house, knowing of that weird experience. I was hallucinating that there was no ground in some places but when I stepped there I felt my feet touch the ground and such. Maybe I was sleepwalking here? Which has never happened before Through all these dreams, I started with being in my sleeping position in the living room and remembered that first strange experience (which had an effect on all new dreams after it) Anyway. What I am asking here is really, wtf was that first experience???? It was extremely strange. I feel maybe, while in this dreamstate I somehow tapped onto a part of my brain, or activated some part of my brain more than I am used to. Like I said, it wasnt limited to just that the dream was a dream, but that my entire life, all this world in my waking life is actually all a dream in some way. I still have a headache from it now. I dont think it was necessarily a bad thing - since Im very spiritual so I take it as a sign of further awakening, maybe an extreme sudden shift in my awareness. But, has anyone else had something similar? What could this be? It's starting to get me to wonder about waking life too. I think what if its all just our beliefs that limit what we can do, just as in a dream? And what if we live in parallel realities of our own, and constantly shift through them. (ps - if any of you know of Bashar's teachings and could somehow help apply his teachings to this, that would be great)

[dutchraptor]

The only way you will find an answer to these questions is through yourself. Although I do not believe in parallel realities or hidden abilities I feel that one can learn alot about themselves through deep thought and lucid dreaming. I dont mean in a spiritual way but in a way which unrestrains us from the limits we mentally set ourselves. When im on my own I often meditate (not in a boring way, I usually do it as I practise martial arts) during these times I think over nature and myself. It helps me keep away from heavy social media sights like facebook becuase I no longer seek social recognition through people I dont really relate to, It gives me extra willpower to improve on real life things like sports and meeting new people and appreciating nature. So yes, through lucid dreaming and deep thought we can lift the limits we set ourselves. Also when I meditate it does feel like an alternate imagination I can go to during a usual day.

[spiralsofgold]

The only way you will find an answer to these questions is through yourself. Although I do not believe in parallel realities or hidden abilities I feel that one can learn alot about themselves through deep thought and lucid dreaming. I dont mean in a spiritual way but in a way which unrestrains us from the limits we mentally set ourselves. When im on my own I often meditate (not in a boring way, I usually do it as I practise martial arts) during these times I think over nature and myself. It helps me keep away from heavy social media sights like facebook becuase I no longer seek social recognition through people I dont really relate to, It gives me extra willpower to improve on real life things like sports and meeting new people and appreciating nature. So yes, through lucid dreaming and deep thought we can lift the limits we set ourselves. Also when I meditate it does feel like an alternate imagination I can go to during a usual day. Yes, I agree! I believe I will eventually find an answer to these questions, even though through some deep thought I've already created some theory about it as I stated. Maybe I should get back into meditating as well... And, its really amazing that you mention that! Just today I've been obsessively checking for recognition and messages from here, tumblr, etc and its driving me mad. This is a little off topic but, how did you get to the point of no longer seeking social recognition? Was it all just through meditation and feeling better, or was it a particular piece of insight that helped you? How does it work - finding answers while meditating? I find having the question in mind always has kept me from hearing the answer for some reason.. thanks for you answer

[dutchraptor]

I use meditating as a way to develop my answers more than to answer questions. In general I am around 70% comparable to the avarage human - constantly connected, eating large quantities of mass produced food and using unneccesary amounts of plastic. But I live in the beautiful countryside not far from a large town and I'm athiest so I have an outside perspective from most people who are caught up in "the modern life". I have always questioned society and built up my own ideology like - we are superior to animals becuase we can make moral decisions which makes us responsible for their wellfare and make sure not to abuse them, but I look at people who have never seen a chicken in their life while they constantly eat its meat. When I notice these problems I feel slightly disgusted at the human race and say to myself "I will try only buy organic chicken etc". In this same way I studied how people will constantly seek communication if its available. So I started to examine how much of my days were spent trying to get likes on facebook and all, becuase in the end thats what everyone cares about unless they are trying to learn something online, and I realised how fake everything was. I would post something funny and Id get 5 likes, 4 from people I dont really like in real life which brought me to the thinking why I am even friends with them on facebook. Now I can see that having many friends is not imporant but it is made hugely popular by social media sites, what really matters is having good reliable friends you can always have a real conversation with. From then on started to meditate. I dont really think about questions or take it too seriously but what I usually do is try tell myself I can do things and act like im putting imaginery energy into my body. Instead of trying to solve the questions I try to see how I can incorporate them in my life (If this makes any sense, I kinda got carried away )