Some Lucid Dream Questions?

[Luciera]

Hi guys! So, I am a total amateur, who has never had a lucid dream, but really want to have them. I just have a few questions of lucid dreaming, if I may ask? Thank you. 1. If a create a world in my lucid dream, can I visit it anytime to make changes, add some stuff, etc? Can I finish half of the construction on my first lucid dream, visit Jamba juice the next lucid dream, then let's say a week later, go back to my half finished place and will it be as is? 2. Is it true that we can meet others in a lucid dream? Mutual dreaming? 3. Have you every died in a lucid dream? I've heard rumors that if you die in your dream, you die in real life. It sounds like a hoax, but I can't help but wonder. Can you feel pain in lucid dream? 4. Can years in a lucid dream be only minutes in real life? 5. Has anyone tried changing genders? How was it? How did it feel? 6. If I wanted to fly into the air and blow up a planet, how will it work? I've never blown up a planet before, nor have I ever seen a planet blow up (fortunately). If I don't know how to do something, how will it work? Another example, visit the earth 300 million years ago. Will my mind just dream up a random scenario of how the earth looked? 7. How many reality checks should I do per day? Sorry for all these questions.

[spellbee2]

1. It is very possible to create your own world in a lucid dream, and you can always teleport to it whenever you want. However, making it so everything will be the way you left it is a little more tricky, but very possible. These are called persistent realms, and you can read up on them here and here. 2. That's still up for debate. There's no scientific proof of shared dreaming, though some people swear to have experienced it. You can read some threads about it in our Beyond Dreaming section of the forum. 3. It's a hoax. I've died several times in dreams, both nonlucid and lucid. And unless I'm pulling a Bruce Willis, I'm pretty sure I'm very much alive. Actually, dying in a dream can be a very interesting experience. As for pain, it kinda varies from dream to dream. However, it's all simulated pain, so if you're lucid, you can make the pain go away fairly easily. 4. That's another grey area. Though time dilation is possible (that is, making dream time feel much longer than actual time is possible), the extent to which is possible is debatable. Plus, it usually just feels like a montage playing, and not actual real time. The longest I've ever personally experienced was about a day in a dream, though I've heard stories of people having a few weeks to a month. Years might be pushing it though. 5. I have changed genders in two separate lucids. It is... interesting, to say the least. I don't remember exactly how I did it the first time, but the second time I did it by taking a pill that turned me into a female. It felt pretty realistic, as far as I could tell, since I have no experience being female. Of course, I got caught up in my area down below, and... uh... yeah. 6. Expectation plays a lot in lucid dreams. So if you fly into the air and expect the planet to explode, it often will. Sometimes you might have to justify it to your subconscious, like maybe something like "Okay, the reactor cores in the center of the earth will blow up in 3... 2... 1..." or something along those lines. As for traveling back in time, everything will pretty much be how you expect it to be. It's unlikely that everything will be historically accurate (it is a dream, after all), but it will be as realistic as you expect it to be. Hope that helps.

[Luciera]

Wow! Thank you, THANK YOU for your quick and concise response! I greatly, greatly appreciate it!!!! 1. It is very possible to create your own world in a lucid dream, and you can always teleport to it whenever you want. However, making it so everything will be the way you left it is a little more tricky, but very possible. These are called persistent realms, and you can read up on them here and here. Thank you so much for the link. I will be sure to read about them. Persistent realms are very cool! I can't wait to make a realm, my own paradise and visit whenever I want! I will be sure to remember it, so I can possibly draw a picture of it. It will be amazing for my standards. 2. That's still up for debate. There's no scientific proof of shared dreaming, though some people swear to have experienced it. You can read some threads about it in our Beyond section of the forum. Thank you so much! It'd be really cool to actually meet someone while lucidly dreaming. Makes me wonder, wouldn't you both be gods? 3. It's a hoax. I've died several times in dreams, both nonlucid and lucid. And unless I'm pulling a Bruce Willis, I'm pretty sure I'm very much alive. Actually, dying in a dream can be a very interesting experience. As for pain, it kinda varies from dream to dream. However, it's all simulated pain, so if you're lucid, you can make the pain go away fairly easily. PHEW. If it was real, I would never want to dream. Kinda nervous to die in a dream, but I must face my fears! And making pain go away easily would be very nice. Can you imagine your body non susceptible to pain and that actually 4. That's another grey area. Though time dilation is possible (that is, making dream time feel much longer than actual time is possible), the extent to which is possible is debatable. Plus, it usually just feels like a montage playing, and not actual real time. The longest I've ever personally experienced was about a day in a dream, though I've heard stories of people having a few weeks to a month. Years might be pushing it though. Wow! I would want to have a forever lasting dream in which I could do anything. Wait, hold it. Forever is too much. Though being able to be a god of my own realm for such a long time would be nice! 5. I have changed genders in two separate lucids. It is... interesting, to say the least. I don't remember exactly how I did it the first time, but the second time I did it by taking a pill that turned me into a female. It felt pretty realistic, as far as I could tell, since I have no experience being female. Of course, I got caught up in my area down below, and... uh... yeah. Oh wow! nice! And ohhh. Did you...you know....have fun? XD Gosh, what's wrong with me....Sorry about that. Feel free to ignore that. It'd be really cool to change genders. So, it is possible to create a separate gender of myself and interact with the gender? 6. Expectation plays a lot in lucid dreams. So if you fly into the air and expect the planet to explode, it often will. Sometimes you might have to justify it to your subconscious, like maybe something like "Okay, the reactor cores in the center of the earth will blow up in 3... 2... 1..." or something along those lines. As for traveling back in time, everything will pretty much be how you expect it to be. It's unlikely that everything will be historically accurate (it is a dream, after all), but it will be as realistic as you expect it to be. That's really cool! I have some planets to blow up and some galaxies to terminate! Man, I love power. I love doing things I could never imagine doing in real life. Hope that helps. It helped so, so much! Once again, thank you for your response!

[duke396]

I like Spellbee's answers, but I'll take a stab at a couple of these. #3: First of all yes I have "died" in non-lucid dreams, I don't recall ever dying in a lucid. Every time I've died I've immediately woken up. I put it in quotes because I haven't ever gone through the process of dying, but when I get a fatal wound I typically jolt awake - there have been a few occasions where I just sort of brush it off and keep going though. I believe the rumor of dying in a real life could indirectly have some basis in truth, though. Several of the times I've died in dreams I've woken up with my heart pounding from the shock, especially in a nightmare type scenario. I don't think it'd be a huge stretch to say someone who may already have a bad heart could be in trouble in that situation. Not to say the dream is any more dangerous for that person than being awake (a car backfiring near them, someone sneaking up and yelling "boo!"), just throwing it out there. #4: Again, from personal experience, some amount of time dilation is definitely possible. I haven't been able to do it on purpose, but sometimes when I'm getting up for work I'll set my alarm for an extra 15 minutes or so. Sometimes during that time I'd swear I had been asleep and dreaming another 2 hours. I can't remember 2 hours worth of actual linear dream content though, so I think Spellbee was probably right about it being more like a montage.