Thread: Why does so few know about lucid dreaming

It amazes me how small a percentage of the population actually know about lucid dreaming.
It's such an amazing practice, that everyone can do, but for some reason It's not widespread information.
Even my psychologist, who has worked in his field for many many years, had no idea lucid dreaming was possible.
Lucid dreaming could do so much for some people, like those who are paralyzed and can't leave their bed.
Just a random thought. Cheers.

I find it really amazing as well. Perhaps it's that they don't recognize the possibilities of dreams, and add the fact that an average person hardly recalls their dreams let alone pays attention to them.

The mind is so powerful .

Originally Posted by ParanoidLlama

I find it really amazing as well. Perhaps it's that they don't recognize the possibilities of dreams, and add the fact that an average person hardly recalls their dreams let alone pays attention to them.

The mind is so powerful .

You really like llamas don't you...

I agree, not many people pay attention to or care about dreams and their potential. Or just naturally have horrible recall. My stepdad is a psychiatrist, and he helped some of his war veteran patients wake up from nightmares by practicing becoming aware in the nightmare, or changing some aspect of the dream. But even he didn't know it was something you could practice, and induce intentionally, and control beyond just ending a nightmare. He didn't even know it was called lucid dreaming until I told him about it. He's never had one himself either.

I talk to people at work about it alot, and discover that many people lucid dream, or they came upon it accidentally as a child but then stopped. Most of the time the ones that can do it, just don't talk about it unless someone like me starts yammering on about my dreams lol. It's like, maybe they're embarrassed or think people won't believe them. I've had that happen before as well, where a friend was like "That's impossible!" And sometimes it goes against some religious beliefs. The subject of lucid dreaming has had a hard road to the light of knowledge, and that's why we're here

Originally Posted by EnvisionReality

You really like llamas don't you...

Lol. Yes, he does.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

I agree, not many people pay attention to or care about dreams and their potential. Or just naturally have horrible recall. My stepdad is a psychiatrist, and he helped some of his war veteran patients wake up from nightmares by practicing becoming aware in the nightmare, or changing some aspect of the dream. But even he didn't know it was something you could practice, and induce intentionally, and control beyond just ending a nightmare. He didn't even know it was called lucid dreaming until I told him about it. He's never had one himself either.

I talk to people at work about it alot, and discover that many people lucid dream, or they came upon it accidentally as a child but then stopped. Most of the time the ones that can do it, just don't talk about it unless someone like me starts yammering on about my dreams lol. It's like, maybe they're embarrassed or think people won't believe them. I've had that happen before as well, where a friend was like "That's impossible!" And sometimes it goes against some religious beliefs. The subject of lucid dreaming has had a hard road to the light of knowledge, and that's why we're here


Lol. Yes, he does.

could it be we were born with the capacity to live side by side with the conscious and subconscious mind, I mean why does a baby suckle? that is a subconscious thing at that age but you grow out of it later. the more environmental stimuli we experience surely clouds the subconscious into a state of not being needed. Unless of course its basic instinct, fight or flight reactions etc.

but from birth we have the capacity to survive essentially. Perhaps the external influences we experience every day overwrite the standard subconscious.

I myself am still lucid dreaming solely to better myself and understand and feel comfortable with my beliefs. I honestly think it takes a focused and interested mind to recognize the subconscious mind from a conscious point of view and change it.

Originally Posted by Stupidbeaver86

I honestly think it takes a focused and interested mind to recognize the subconscious mind from a conscious point of view and change it.

Well said.

EnvisionReality,

I definitely agree, lucid dreaming is freeing and andventurous. Your not the only LDer you know though are you?

Also I'm curious what do you like to use lucid dreaming for?

Originally Posted by Wisher

EnvisionReality,

I definitely agree, lucid dreaming is freeing and andventurous. Your not the only LDer you know though are you?

Also I'm curious what do you like to use lucid dreaming for?

Well a friend of mine is educated on the subject, but I know no one that really does it.
I myself have yet to have a lucid dream, but I keep a dream journal and do reality checks. Hoping for the best

Originally Posted by Ashikael

You spend almost half your life sleeping, don't you want to do something with it? If you don't remember your dreams, you're pretty much just living only half as long as someone who does.[/I]

Basically this a thousand times.

It always boggles my mind how little most people care about their dreams. I've tried to tell people I know about lucid dreaming, and they just sort of act half-interested and have that look on their face that just screams "Quit making weird things up." They get that same look of disbelief if you tell them they have more than one dream a night.

The way I see it is... You spend almost half your life sleeping, don't you want to do something with it? If you don't remember your dreams, you're pretty much just living only half as long as someone who does.

Besides, who wouldn't want to zoom through the air like Superman, make out with their favourite celebrities, or wander through space and time like the TARDIS on steroids? I just want to tell the world.

Originally Posted by Ashikael

It always boggles my mind how little most people care about their dreams. I've tried to tell people I know about lucid dreaming, and they just sort of act half-interested and have that look on their face that just screams "Quit making weird things up." They get that same look of disbelief if you tell them they have more than one dream a night.

The way I see it is... You spend almost half your life sleeping, don't you want to do something with it? If you don't remember your dreams, you're pretty much just living only half as long as someone who does.

Besides, who wouldn't want to zoom through the air like Superman, make out with their favourite celebrities, or wander through space and time like the TARDIS on steroids? I just want to tell the world.

ditto

Yeah! I definitely agree with you! They just think you are crazy. Most people don't even know what a W.I.L.D is.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

I've had that happen before as well, where a friend was like "That's impossible!" And sometimes it goes against some religious beliefs. The subject of lucid dreaming has had a hard road to the light of knowledge, and that's why we're here

My brother is like that!

Don't even get me started on this. Even when I first found out about LDing, I was so excited and thought it was so cool. I told people about it and was shocked to find that not only did people not try it, they couldn't care less about it. Every time I bring up dreams they now roll their eyes and say "not that weird thing you do again". How could you not want to fly? Or breath underwater? Or literally do anything you can think of without consequences? It boggles my mind that others aren't interested.

I think when the notion of lucid dreaming is explained to people who have never experienced it by accident or otherwise they tend to immediately loose interest, Simply because they don't understand the concept or they ignore their subconscious because they believe they have no control over it or have never questioned the idea of control over it. You have to ask yourself the question why do we question it? in my view, just the fact we did and then went on to research what we experienced, then continue to develop and learn about it means we are utilizing and experiencing our minds in a clearer form.

this is what i tell people: what is freedom? mind without any external influences.

Subconsciousness - of or concerning the part of the mind of which one is not fully aware but which influences one's actions and feelings.
Consciousness - aware of and responding to one's surroundings.

Lucid Dreaming = Consciousness within the Subconsciousness mind

Usually just saying freedom within your own mind can gather interest lol.

I, too, am shocked by the few number of people who are aware of lucid dreaming. The people I've talked to about it act like I'm crazy so I have been very grateful for DV. And, then I can't shut my mouth. I start telling them it's been scientifically proven as if they're going to care about that. What I feel like saying is, "you should try it - you could use a little work on yourself!" LOL.

In order for lucid dreaming to become more popular, it has to broaden as a social activity. Right now, the most social lucid dreaming gets is one person telling another about their lucid dream. The presence of lucidity means very little to the person listening to the dream. Listening to any dream is like listening to a story, which isn't entertaining for people with a poor imagination of lack or interest in the dream content.

If one was able to upload their dream to you-tube in good quality, lucid dreaming would became a lot more popular and well known. It would become an art form, as people would be able to show others what they created with their minds.

If that was possible, and there was like a network dedicated to just that, it would just amazing.
People at these days don't focus on their mental side, they only focus on the outside world. That's what they are doing online.
If it would be like this, humanity would advance so much.

Because there's no money to be made in it. /cynical

Most people are externally fucused, feeding their ego selves with artificial validation. As I walk around during the day practicing mindfulness I see everyone else staring into their phones with their ears plugged up. I feel like I'm dodging zombies. People have effectively replaced their consciousness with an artificial one. A social media profile is a person's idealised ego self and the more it is validated by others the further away that person identifies with their true self buried in the subconscious along with all their ignored fears and anxieties. Until we 'wake up' to our true selves we can't grow and develop. But most people just don't know how to do that and are too lost in their worlds to care.

And I'm not sure I'd like to see people uploading their dreams to Youtube, there's enough scary crap on there as it is.

I'm surprised that you guys/gals are surprised that it isn't widely known. Because in order for something to be widely known it has to be advertised (seems a little weird to advertise something that is free) also its very rare for someone who's never heard of lucid dreaming and experienced then think hmm I wonder what that was... usually they would just disregard it as a realistic dream.

Originally Posted by Gr8God

I'm surprised that you guys/gals are surprised that it isn't widely known. Because in order for something to be widely known it has to be advertised (seems a little weird to advertise something that is free) also its very rare for someone who's never heard of lucid dreaming and experienced then think hmm I wonder what that was... usually they would just disregard it as a realistic dream.

You make a good point, I'll give you that. People don't know about it because they haven't been told, unless they have experienced it themselves. I didn't know about it myself before I came across a random picture on Fb which mentioned lucid dreaming, got curious and started making my own research.

The biggest problem with today's society, like some of you mentioned, is that we seem to only care about the outside world, so even when someone has the chance to learn lucid dreaming, they dismiss it as a "waste of time". And I've experienced this first hand with friends of mine. I think it's a real shame. Despite this, I hope lucid dreaming will become a common thing in the future. Just think of how many mindfulness courses are out there. At least in my country, these courses have become very popular over the last few years, and we all know mindfulness is the very basis of lucid dreaming. I think it's a matter of time before we take this one step further and start teaching lucid dreaming.

PS: I love this post and everything you guys have brought up

You can memorize 100 digits in less than ten minutes with little practice, how many of you know that? The world record is about 500 digits in 5 minutes.

Most people are taught that dreams are these random scenes that you watch as an observer from afar, kind of like a movie;
they don't seem to realize that dreams are actual worlds, like a hologram, where you exist in just the same way as you do in waking life - that is, as a person who interacts with the surroundings.
If more people could realize this fact then I am sure they would feel "closer" to the dream, and maybe start to realize their potential.

Think about this...lucid dreaming is all based on the "honor system". How can I be sure what you all claim to experience isn't just a line of bull you made up? If I have never had a lucid dream, your claim is about like you claiming to have seen ghosts, UFOs or had a "near death" experience. Some may believe but most chalk it up to a few weirdos who exaggerate a bit....I caught a fish THIS big! I would/did fall in this camp a few years ago. But since I have HAD lucid dreams I trust you all are telling the truth as I can now validate it against my own similar experiences. But it wouldn't even surprise me to discover a few on this site pretend to have had lucid dreams, and really think the others are all pretending too, and enjoy the swapping of tall tales not knowing it is REAL for some people. How would you know? I guess that may be the reason for its low acceptance. Only if you experience can you really know.

To further the thought...and even if you believe me, you won't necessarily relate when I say how REAL it is. You will be thinking it is more like a dream, because it is called lucid dreaming. So like watching a movie, maybe....you try to explain with words like.."no, you are present in the moment" but how can they relate when "reality" is the only other similar experience?

Originally Posted by Rothgar

To further the thought...and even if you believe me, you won't necessarily relate when I say how REAL it is. You will be thinking it is more like a dream, because it is called lucid dreaming. So like watching a movie, maybe....you try to explain with words like.."no, you are present in the moment" but how can they relate when "reality" is the only other similar experience?

The reason why I think lucid dreaming should theoretically be easy to understand is the fact that it can actually feel like a waking life experience;
if you tell someone that a lucid dream can be exactly as vivid as a moment in waking life, then that is a pretty good example of what a lucid dream is like.
This should be a very intuitive thing to grasp for people, because everyone obviously experiences waking life (at least mentally sane people) and therefore it shouldn't be too hard to get the concept "okay, lucid dreaming feels like being awake and aware, but during a dream".

Well maybe you've had better luck than I explaining it...problem seems to be the way you ended..."But during a dream". So you have tried to compare it to two things they think they understand...reality and a dream. So which do they tend to gravitate to?....the dream concept I think, when it really is more like reality than dreaming. But then you can fly, teleport, walk on water, etc so it doesn't sound like reality to them. To us it seems so obvious, but that is because we know EXACTLY what it is like. Try explaining what sight is like to someone born blind. Not QUITE that challenging but you get the idea.