Thread: What Does Being Semi-Lucid Feel Like?

You are not in control of the settings and what is happening but you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming and can somewhat control your actions just not the settings/locations.

Originally Posted by mikee1877

You are not in control of the settings and what is happening but you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming and can somewhat control your actions just not the settings/locations.

Okay, So I guess I was semi lucid.

Lucid / semi lucid can be used to your own individual tastes. I've had dreams where I knew I was dreaming, but it just didn't feel like I really had my full brain use... and still acted like a dream-me. I call this semi lucid. It's down to weather you think you were fully lucid or not.



Remember the actual definition of lucid is 'knowing you are dreaming.' no matter how much control you have. You can learn to have more control as you get better at Lucid dreaming.

When you know your dreaming but it doesn't hit you full if you know what i'm saying (6/7 lucids were semi lucid)

This morning I had my 6th Lucid Dream.
It was awesome! But one problem.

I fell asleep on my face. So My right eye was forced shut. In the dream I couldn't open my right eye. I felt very drunk. I actually tried to fly but fell over, I had to stabilize the dream but woke soon after.

That was my semi lucid experience

Well guys, it's totaly up to you, if you want to call these types of dreams "semi lucid". There is no harm in that. But I think I can shed some light on this.

When you realize you dreaming, you are lucid. If you don't realize it, you are not lucid. You can be either lucid or not lucid.

But then we can have different levels of awarenes. When you 100% aware or close to it, you can tell what's happening, you can have control or not, it's not foggy at all.
When you lose some awareness, you are still lucid, but you may feel like you just following the dream, and it feels like you are not really there, you may not see lots of details, it may feel like a regular dream. Hope this helps.

Almost all my lucids were "semi" lucid. Basically what happens is you realize it's a dream, but just go with the flow of it for no specific reason. You don't think to question your actions, you just follow what happens while thinking "I'm dreaming".

Originally Posted by gab

Well guys, it's totaly up to you, if you want to call these types of dreams "semi lucid". There is no harm in that. But I think I can shed some light on this.

When you realize you dreaming, you are lucid. If you don't realize it, you are not lucid. You can be either lucid or not lucid.

But then we can have different levels of awarenes. When you 100% aware or close to it, you can tell what's happening, you can have control or not, it's not foggy at all.
When you lose some awareness, you are still lucid, but you may feel like you just following the dream, and it feels like you are not really there, you may not see lots of details, it may feel like a regular dream. Hope this helps.

What if I'm aware I'm in a dream but I'm not really sure. And I had control over it?

I think of it like fededreamer has put it. Technically if you know you are dreaming it is lucid. If I only realize it is not real but do not have a moment where I truelly get lucid, then the dream roles along on its own and I soon drift back into a normal dream.
At first I would count ever dream where you know it is a dream as a lucid.

I would imagine it can be a little different for everyone.

The other day I had a dream in which I had what I would call, "light" lucidity. I knew I was dreaming but, as you said, everything was still on auto-pilot. There was minimal control over my actions and even my thoughts. It's a very weird feeling to me.

There's another name for this kind of stuff actually, I believe "semi lucid" is called by the name layer three lucid I believe. The 5 Layers of a Lucid Dream - YouTube

These types of dreams are my favorite. I like it when the dream plays out normally, but I still have a bit of awareness to be able to appreciate it. It is like watching a good, immersive movie. I know it is fake. I know it is a movie, but I am still immersed in the story, and attached to what is happening.

sivason, No I disagree, you have to be mindful of the different layers of lucidity and the feeling you felt when acknowledging the type of dream you had. When you are in a semi lucid state, the dream still has influence over you which means it's not trully YOU, it's only remains as a FEELING. It's definitly a lucid dream but it's not a COMPLETE lucid dream, so you have to acknowledge the level of lucidity you had because theres a wide spectrum of lucidity. It's not an off or on switch where you perform a reality check and then (BOOM) your lucid. No, the only way you become lucid is when the logical side of your brain awakens. with out that part of your brain awakening, you would never be able to become lucid. Lucidity is a feeling you get while in a dream, this feeling intensifies when that part of your brain contenues awakening. This is proven by the fact that many can feel that they are dreaming without ever gaining the sense that what they see is not normal. this proves that a spectrum exists. So I do not think we should be marking every type of lucide dream we have as just "lucid dream" because confusion will arise. their are types of lucid dreams yes, but those types are defined by layers which every person who wants to learn how to lucid dream should know about. A layer 2 minor is NOT a layer 4 major, there is a DRASTIC DIFFERENCE between the two. You would not be helping yourself by comparing those two because layer 4 majors is the epitome of subcoscious, conscious interation while in layer 2 minors, you're practically still a dream character. you need to mark down the level of lucidity you had so you can understand the differences between each layer. low level lucidity levels are not true lucid dreams becomes you still don't know the true implications of your dream. True lucid dreams is when your real life waking life conscious is awake in the dream state. so recognizing your lucidity level is important.

Ok this happened once... I was in a dream, and it turned out to be a bad dream, but then I went Semi-Lucid and messed everything up and turned it good xD it was awesome

Originally Posted by intheworldofnim

sivason, No I disagree, you have to be mindful of the different layers of lucidity and the feeling you felt when acknowledging the type of dream you had. When you are in a semi lucid state, the dream still has influence over you which means it's not trully YOU, it's only remains as a FEELING. It's definitly a lucid dream but it's not a COMPLETE lucid dream, so you have to acknowledge the level of lucidity you had because theres a wide spectrum of lucidity. It's not an off or on switch where you perform a reality check and then (BOOM) your lucid. No, the only way you become lucid is when the logical side of your brain awakens. with out that part of your brain awakening, you would never be able to become lucid. Lucidity is a feeling you get while in a dream, this feeling intensifies when that part of your brain contenues awakening. This is proven by the fact that many can feel that they are dreaming without ever gaining the sense that what they see is not normal. this proves that a spectrum exists. So I do not think we should be marking every type of lucide dream we have as just "lucid dream" because confusion will arise. their are types of lucid dreams yes, but those types are defined by layers which every person who wants to learn how to lucid dream should know about. A layer 2 minor is NOT a layer 4 major, there is a DRASTIC DIFFERENCE between the two. You would not be helping yourself by comparing those two because layer 4 majors is the epitome of subcoscious, conscious interation while in layer 2 minors, you're practically still a dream character. you need to mark down the level of lucidity you had so you can understand the differences between each layer. low level lucidity levels are not true lucid dreams becomes you still don't know the true implications of your dream. True lucid dreams is when your real life waking life conscious is awake in the dream state. so recognizing your lucidity level is important.

Interseting, but you misunderstand me. In trying to teach and coach those members who can use a little help, I will treat each person according to their needs. Teaching should not be soo rigid as adherance to charts and graphs. My comment was "at first I would count ever dream where you know it is a dream as a lucid." Refering to those of you who are excited to get any LD. If a student tells me "I knew it was a dream, but I was confused and everything was blurry and it lasted 30 seconds" Then hell, I am going to pat them on the back and say "that is awesome! You had a real LD!!!" Note the !!! this hobby can move so slow at first, that beginners should charish any lucidity, write it in their DJs and tell there friends, maybe even start a thread telling us about their 30 second long LD.
Now, if we remove the 'at first' line of thought, and we now talk about 10+ years experience then counting things like the 30 second confused LD as much is useless. For fun i some times play Matte's competion thread. I will never claim points for a semi-lucid, all though the rules do not say I should not. In listing my LD count at 2K+ I only counted the average 2 a week solid LDs (average 100 year) going back 20 years. Ive been doing it for 25 years, but can not remeber how common they were way back then. So, at higher levels, be hard on yourself because you are seeking to master a skill. If I counted semi-lucids and 30 second LDs that are confussed the number would be something stupid like 6K+, but that is childish and stupid at my level of trainging.

Here is the point in brief... Beginners get a thrill out of any lucidity, unless some hard ass takes it away, by saying "no, that was not it, only semi-lucid, try again" The better approach would be to count any of that stuff as their first few LDs. "Good job Tom! You made it to lucid! You will be flying by the end of the year!! CHEERS to you!" Which teacher would you rather work with?

Full fledged dreamers do not say I had 12 LDs last night, if you mean each was 30 seconds long with limited visuals. Beginers DO CLAIM YOUR FIRST LD as long as some small part of you realized "this is a dream". That is all my comment meant.

Originally Posted by syth406

There's another name for this kind of stuff actually, I believe "semi lucid" is called by the name layer three lucid I believe. The 5 Layers of a Lucid Dream - YouTube

Your link answered all my questions

Good points here. I agree that if you know you are dreaming it is an LD. Count it (if you are like me and keep a running 60 total). But you WILL notice degrees over time. My last two fit gab's description very well. I personally have 3 categories I have noticed, for me. Most are almost like reality... 80% I rate them. My semis I would rate 60%. Then there are the awesomes... SO real or better than real. Some of my non lucids are still great and maybe 50% rating. But I think everyone may be different and coming up with standard definitions may be hard. Maybe we need a 3 number system... reality vector, control vector, rationality vector.