Thread: Learning real life skills in a dream

Originally Posted by Muggler

If someone that did not know how to drive a car, got into a car in a lucid dream, and experimented with the controls of each part of the car, would the knowledge obtained in waking life?

I imagine that if you knew at least how a car functioned, you would be able to practice driving it and you would get better at it. But if you were clueless, your mind would improvise and it wouldn't be exactly like driving a car.

I believe it will help you. For example say you have never touched a piano in your life but have seen one and heard it. If you play it in a lucid dream then in waking life if you want to learn to play the piano you will learn it faster. I only believe it will help you ONLY in a Lucid Dream.

I definitely believe that it's possible to learn and practice certain social skills in lucid dreams. I was a very shy child, and as young teenager I had a thick "shell" built around me that made it difficult for me to open up to people that I didn't know that well. When I'm lucid dreaming I can practice certain behaviors that I wasn't used to before and through doing so can become comfortable with them. It is now much easier for me to be relaxed in social situations where before I would be tense and nervous. I can even approach and strike up conversations with total strangers now, something that I would never have been able to do before.

This very subject is discussed in great detail in "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge. He confirms that yes, in fact, this is very possible, because dreaming that you're doing it creates nearly identical neural impulses in the brain and body even when paralyzed during REM sleep. It's been proven for years in studies that imagining what you want to accomplish successfully increases your ability to actually perform it like you imagined. The chapter is also chock full of awesome testimonies from real people who have learned real skills in their dreams, some of them quite shocking and profound.

Seriously, though, the book is a must-read. You'll get SO much more information from reading that book on lucid dreaming in general than you ever will asking people on this forum for answers.

(no offense, just pointing out what I notice)

I learned how to ride a bike like 2 months ago, and 2 or 3 days after learning I had a dream about riding bikes, I think the brain practices a lot of stuff during dreams, including other kind of things like social skills and even music. I've had dreams were I jam with other musicians too.

I believe.