Thread: Has anyone ever had a lucid dream within a dream?

I just had my first lucid dream, and what it took was for me to wake up in the dream. I dreamed I was being chased in a spaceship by government spaceships, got scared, and woke up (in the dream). I wanted to complete it, so I decided to WILD right then and there. I could feel the control system materializing in my hands, but when I felt it was time to open my eyes and I'd made it, all I saw was my room... and some colorful cartoon animals who were there for absolutely no reason, so I was in a lucid dream within a dream. What followed was short and kinda disappointing, but hey, isn't that just how first times go?

What other fun stories of lucid dreams within dreams do people have?

Lucid dreams within dreams are not possible. Inception is a work of fiction and should only be regarded as a work of fiction. You can make yourself think you are "deeper" but in reality you are just changing the dream scene. I don't mean to sound like a dick but people taking inception seriously is just pissing me off. DV should have a big red banner saying inception isn't real.

Originally Posted by Zebrah

Lucid dreams within dreams are not possible. Inception is a work of fiction and should only be regarded as a work of fiction. You can make yourself think you are "deeper" but in reality you are just changing the dream scene. I don't mean to sound like a dick but people taking inception seriously is just pissing me off. DV should have a big red banner saying inception isn't real.

I do agree on this and you're actually the first person I've seen speaking up to this (it's possible that others have too but I usually ignore every topic with "Inception" in it or "dreams within dreams within dreams" and the likes).
The banner might be a bit over the top, but I also think something should be done to make this clear to new members. Alot of them are coming in here after seeing the movie, and while it is good that it brings them to the topic of LD's, and it might help them become lucid the first time because of thinking about it alot, that's where it stops.

OT: As Zebrah said, Inception is a work of fiction, and as is often the case, they took something that is real and that exists, but they had to make it more..."interesting", and in doing so they created something entirely different. Waking up from a dream, within a dream, is either just a false awakening, or a shift in scenery. Nothing more

I understand that it must be getting annoying with all the new members joining after watching Inception, Ayanizz.

But I don't think DrRoy mentioned anything about the movie Inception, Zebrah. And I wouldn't even say that the use or conception of the term is due to the movie either.

I wouldn't know any other way to put it actually as I've experienced this myself. By experience, it feels like a dream within a dream. If not a matter of depth, it is a lateral transition, from one door to another, a dream that changes into another dream but with the perception of waking up at least once from a dream. The experience gives the impression that the person has moved further somehow. How else are we to explain these FA experiences? I often have dreams in which I speak of "a dream I just had" thinking that I had actually awoken from it.

It may be true what you said, no dream actually goes deeper (or maybe that's not yet proven? Kidding) but to any rational and imaginative person it will be termed "a dream within a dream." This is long before a movie was produced to feature the reality of a False Awakening. There's nothing wrong with being fascinated by it either.

And what's this quote on your signature about anyway?

It's not that I find it annoying that alot of new members join after watching Inception, and as I've stated, this is actually a good thing since it brings them to the subject of lucid dreaming and it show them a part of dreaming they were not aware of in the first place. But that's where it has to stop imho.

Yeah I didn't mean to come off so harsh. DrRoy if you didn't watch inception I apologize. But like Ayanizz I tend to avoid inception related threads. I suppose you could recreate the feeling but it's not really a dream within a dream.

The previous posters can apologize if they feel necessary but I for one completely agree with what was originally said. Inception is a work of art. There is no dream within a dream. It is all shifts in scenery, false awakenings, and imagined scenarios. Even though that term existed before inception, that exact term has been made much more popular by the movie inception therefore most of these references are directly linked to the movie, which while AWESOME, it still brings a lot of misnomers about lucid dreaming. I do give inception credit for bringing new people into the world of real lucid dreaming, but explaining the same things over and over does get annoying. AS for the banner Idea... not so bad, but maybe a little more tame.. like I noticed the home page to dreamviews has a big inception movie review yet it does not take liberty to break down the misinformation about lucid dreaming that the movie creates. Someone should correct this. Starting with the exact sentence. "1. There is no dream with a dream. This perception is created by shifts in scenery, false awakenings, and imagined scenarios." lol

Addendum to what the front page should say:

2. There is no such thing as Dream Totems. The concept for the movie worked because the actors were in someone else's dream and that dreaming person would have no clue how your exact totem is going to act under your custom balancing of it, therefore if it acted different than you expect, you were in someone else's dream. The fact is that totem's in your own dreams will do exactly what you expect them to do, regardless of weight, size, shape, the totem will do exactly as you expect it to, or sometimes the complete opposite depending on how much control you have. Regardless this is not a valid reality check. Please do not ask in the forums about using Totems as a Reality Check.

feel free to add your own.

I find it funny so may people seem so closed minded on this. You can fly in an LD, teleport, travel into other dimensions, walk through walls etc... but you can't do something as simple as dream? I'm not saying you can or you can't but nobody knows for sure.

Actually I am a very open minded person and I will never say that one idea or opinion is absolute fact. My personal opinion on this however is that the brain is the one creating the dream. Your nonphysical self does not have another brain to dream inside this dream that your already dreaming physical brain has created, therefore in my opinion it is just a shifted landscape or scenario.

No dreams like that. I have quite a lot of 'Lucid Dreams' - dreams where you keep half awake and can actually control what goes on in the dream. I think they're just as wierd.

As for dreams within dreams? Maybe the Matrix has you. I hope they're not too frightening for you. That would really suck. A Nightmare you couldn't wake up from...

False Awakening is not a dream within a dream...It only looks like a dream within a dream.
You are only dreaming you are waking up from a dream.
IN THE DREAM it really seems like a dream within a dream though.

P.S. We should find abreviation for '' dream within a dream''

I just want to clarify that while Inception was awesome, when I first watched it I recognized how unlike lucid dreaming it actually was. The feeling of my dream was basically exactly as described by Sweet Dreams. Thanks.

My friend told me that once she had a lucid dream within a dream. In her dream she went to sleep, and entered a fully conscious lucid dream, in which she met me and tried to convince me that what we were experiencing was a dream. She told me I had trouble believing her, and wasn't being entirely co-operative.
But I too have had similar experiences. Last year I had a few dream experiences when I fell asleep in a dream and became lucid. They weren't very exciting, and I awoke at inopportune moments, only to continue with what I thought was real life. Then I would wake up again later and crunch myself against the wall for being such a fool.

First post on this site, here it goes:

I recently had a dream where I became lucid and then did the thing where you spin to keep it going if the dream starts to fade. This was the first time I tried the spin. Realizing that my physical self was lying in bed the next thing I know I am rolling out of bed and falling onto the floor experiencing what people may refer to as sleep paralysis (Ive had sleep paralysis before on acident a few times and its quite disturbing imo), but that was a dream I thought it was totally real! Then I actually woke up perfectly fine in my bed.

I don't think the OP meant a LITERAL dream within a dream, but more like he was dreaming that he did a WILD and didn't realize he was already asleep the whole time

I've taken a nap in a lucid dream. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I will have to look through my notes to see if I've ever attempted a WILD. I know I have, but I can't remember the specifics. I just remember it being very easy.

In my opinions there are two points of origin for lucid dreams...one origin is that the conscious mind is the big force in a lucid dream and the other origin is that the subconscious mind is the big force in a lucid dream. I think because of this a lucid dream could be very different for two people. I would like to know how people reached "stability" in the dream. What is stabilized? No really, WHAT IS STABILIZED?

Hi all,
Although I won't be popular for saying this I do think that while the term "a dream within a dream" may or may not be accurate, we do have to admit that much like the movie inception the subconscious mind will pit itself against the lucid dreamer. The conscious mind strikes a deal with the subconscious mind in the dream world. My experience, theconscious mind negotiates with the unconscious mind while we are dreaming. The deal is what kind of dream world do you (the subconscious) give the dreamer, in which I will be confortable enough to remain stabilized or become the actor in the dream. I think DrRoy has a point, as from my experience the point of origin for the dream is not ourselves but the subconscious. If this is the case, could we not wholly give ourselves to the power of the unconscious rather than striking a "deal" with the subconscious in order to remember the dream? What I am refering to is what kind of "deal" you strike with our subconscious mind. Anything else is just frills, I think most have us have experienced the way the unconscious pits itself against the dreamer. If there was a way to post dreamviews on Inception describing realistic aspects of the movie and false aspects I think it would be a good place to bounce off ideas and separate the bull from the horns.

who knows if it is at a different level of Consciousness but one experience i had was me dreaming about having another dream. the beginning of my dream was at my house before i went to bed. me and my partner haylee were arguing about if lucid dreaming was any different from real dreaming, i told her id show her and we both went to bed and tried wilding i ended up in another dream where i was lucid and haylee was there with me. i was never sure if she was really there. we have both had shared dreams with each other in the past but in the morning she had no memory of the dream, ether way when i ended up in the second dream i was fully lucid and was having a great time showing her how to manipulate the dream. one thing that was certain was that there was none of that extended time bullshit that inception sells it seemed to last as long as any of my other lucids

A dream within a dream is not real, just the illusion of being in 2 dreams at once, it's still the same dream, just another place.

But i had normal dreams where i dreamt that i went to sleep and when i was asleep (in the dream) i became lucid. Then i could do anything just like in normal LDs. When i woke up (in the dream) i lost all lucidity and it went on like a normal dream, i thought that it was the reality... It's weird, but happened multiple times already

absoultely! I don't want to go too far in my theory here... obviously lucid dreams are not like Inception! It's just my subjective experience and the experience of two other LD friends of mine that the unconscious seems to attempt to repress awareness of the lucid dream. From what I understand of my friends experience its seems there are two ways that I know of that a person who lucid dreams might be negotiating with the subconscious like a said above. I was wondering if I could verify similiar experience on this forum. My LD experience is at best average in terms of number of LDs but the one thing I can say is I am new to the forums so I began LDing without any kind of bias a long time ago... and these have always been questions I had ever since my mind started "frackin'" with me

Ok i had a lucid dream inside a dream. So fell asleep in real life and the in my dream it was night time and i went to sleep and in my other dream i was at my old work with friends and i told my friends that i was dreaming and its just a dream that i can do whatever i want. They looked at me like i was crazy and i told them watch this and i started to fly and control what i was doing and i honestly never flew in any of my dreams before. Then i woke up but in my other dream i remember wakimg up cause i saw it in third person then i remember going to a friends house and explaining him what i dremt about how i had my first lucid dream and then my mom woke me up in real life. From the looks of the replies here it looks like its impossible to do that so i want to know what happened to me like what was it? I know some things about lucid dreaming and out of body experience (only by websearch not experience) but I'm not a pro at it and don't know a lot. Can someone please help me to underatand what happened or what it is? I saw posts saying that it could of just been a different scene in the dream cause that happens and i know it does but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen to me or if it did it was so different
this time. Can someone explain it to me?

Originally Posted by barca10

Ok i had a lucid dream inside a dream. So fell asleep in real life and the in my dream it was night time and i went to sleep and in my other dream i was at my old work with friends and i told my friends that i was dreaming and its just a dream that i can do whatever i want. They looked at me like i was crazy and i told them watch this and i started to fly and control what i was doing and i honestly never flew in any of my dreams before. Then i woke up but in my other dream i remember wakimg up cause i saw it in third person then i remember going to a friends house and explaining him what i dremt about how i had my first lucid dream and then my mom woke me up in real life. From the looks of the replies here it looks like its impossible to do that so i want to know what happened to me like what was it? I know some things about lucid dreaming and out of body experience (only by websearch not experience) but I'm not a pro at it and don't know a lot. Can someone please help me to underatand what happened or what it is? I saw posts saying that it could of just been a different scene in the dream cause that happens and i know it does but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen to me or if it did it was so different
this time. Can someone explain it to me?

Ok so there is alot going on here. first off, I've had many dreams like this before and it doesn't seem like you knew it was a dream. Strictly speaking, lucid dreams are dream where you are aware you are dreaming. Another definition is that the dream will feel much more real than a regular dream, smells will be smellier, seeing will be see-eer, and touch will be touchier. That being said alot of people seem to add these other rules, like that you can't have a lucid dream within a dream, that its just one long continuous dream. But to me that is a superficial rule that we bring in from the real world, and I don't believe dreams have the same rules as regular life. To me dreaming is an altered state of mind, so the fewer rules you apply to it, the more interesting and creatie you allow your mind to be while lucid dreaming. In particular, if you are a really good lucid dreamer or are dreaming often I'd say you can expect resistance from your own mind, just like in Inception, for some reason the mind may want to scare you away from a lucid. And the reason I say that is because of experience.
I'm not too sure you had a lucid dream here but you had something close to a lucid because you remember alot and had a lot of false awakenings which can happen in lucid dreams. Next time you are in the dream try to remind yourself that its just a dream and not to be afraid. That should help you to have a more realistic, more lucid dream.

Thank you! That makes a whole lot more sense!! To me I've tried lucid dreaming but its really hard gor me to try and remember to tell myself its just a dream or to look in a mirror or look at time or dates like what can i do to help me? I also have something else yo say. So this has been happening to me for about 5 years, when I'm exhausted and try to go to sleep i feel something really heavy ontop of me which doesn't allow me to move at all and if i try to talk or yell nothing comes out of my mouth not a sound. The way it always starts is i here either chimes, bells, whispers, a screech, or i can here the wind on my ceiling fan, these noises start soft but that's all i can hear and they start getting louder and louder and louder and then that's when i know when its going to happen. At first i was kind of freaked out and then i got use to it. I told my parents and they thought it was something bad because in mexico they have a saying fpr yhis which they say "se te suve el muerto" which means "a dead person gets on you." I didnt beleive this because it happened to frequent and it got to the point where it even happened at school. I would be asleep in class and i felt that happen my body got really heavy and i couldnt get up. So then I researched and talked to my cousin and a friend to see what it is and they said that that's what happens when your going to have an "out of body experience" I've tried it i tried using the "rope theory" and i felt like it was working it was a weird feeling and hard to explqin but i got scared and just woke myself up. It use to happen very frequent like up to 5 times a day before I'd fall asleep. It still happens but not as frequent. I'm almost to the point where i can make it happen if i want but it only works some times. What i want to know is why does it happen to me?