Thread: Relationships with DCs

I'm also highly intrigued by dream characters. I consider there to be three main types of DCs:

- Arbitrary: "hollow" projection-like placeholder characters - not specified people
- Representative: People known by the dreamer but energetically "dependent" - clearly specified but not who they may appear to be AKA actors
- defined: distinct, energetically independent entities, with independent consciousness - may be human or not

And one other type of dream character I find in almost all of my dreams:
- Elusive - Ally representative DCs that tend to subtly avoid one's field of view - can assume multiple appearances within a dream

This is just a simple classification I've developed that is useful to explain some of the patterns I've noticed.

I try to interact with DCs to learn from them, but with little success. I once asked a dream character: "what are you?" And he just scowled and turned away. I thought "I guess I'll try again another time..." and continued in the dream.

The thing I'm most interested in is if other dreamers have elusive characters in their dreams that tend to stay out of the field of vision, like right at the edge of the peripheral zone. I have a recurring dream character who is pretty much always with me in dreams, but I never seem to be able to focus on her. I strongly believe it is a dream guide, but I have yet to prove this. I'm usually preoccupied by the dream events to turn and question her, because somehow during the dream I'm always "sure" it's just a friend. But when I wake, I know that the friend was only a representative character. I would have to increase lucidity to get past this. Any thoughts, experiences or comments on this are greatly appreciated.

nightlighter
i know of the actors you speak of, they are hard to weave out, and once you do
they still wont tell you squat

Originally Posted by Arsee17

Any DCs that you look for in a dream and why? What have they done in the past to make you look for him/ her?

I am looking for a lion. When I was a young child I was plagued by nightmares nearly every night and I was so scared by them that I told my little brother who I shared a room with to wake me up when he witnessed that I had a nightmare, ofc I didn't understand that even if he would be awake that he could impossible tell if I had a nightmare or not, but I was very young so I thought one could tell. Anyway one day my mother took me and told me, that my oldest brother was also plagued by nightmares when he was little, so she told him to create a dream animal that he could call upon and she told me how to do it, I should think about my favorite animal, imagine it with all of my heart and when I said I did and told her what animal I imagined, she spoke some sentences I forgot (but she did it so I would believe in it), looked me into the eyes and told me now whenever I am afraid or scared in a dream, I could call after my dream animal and he would come to protect me.

I can remember two nightmares where I called upon him, in both he came and protected me from my own imaginary ghosts in my own mind. How crazy. I want to find him.

I don't feel like sharing this story normally, but whatever.

Originally Posted by Oceandrop

I am looking for a lion. When I was a young child I was plagued by nightmares nearly every night and I was so scared by them that I told my little brother who I shared a room with to wake me up when he witnessed that I had a nightmare, ofc I didn't understand that even if he would be awake that he could impossible tell if I had a nightmare or not, but I was very young so I thought one could tell. Anyway one day my mother took me and told me, that my oldest brother was also plagued by nightmares when he was little, so she told him to create a dream animal that he could call upon and she told me how to do it, I should think about my favorite animal, imagine it with all of my heart and when I said I did and told her what animal I imagined, she spoke some sentences I forgot (but she did it so I would believe in it), looked me into the eyes and told me now whenever I am afraid or scared in a dream, I could call after my dream animal and he would come to protect me.

I can remember two nightmares where I called upon him, in both he came and protected me from my own imaginary ghosts in my own mind. How crazy. I want to find him.

I think that that's awesome. good luck finding your lion! It sounds like he is a great dream-companion.

@nightlighter: yeah. I feel like that if I had a lucid dream, about half the time id do a bunch of reckless things, and the other half id be talking to people. but I cant be so sure.

What a great thread! I also haven't had a lucid but I am so interested in this. So keep posting people!

Does anyone have a reoccuring dream character that they always see or adventure with? Or is it always new people and new faces?

The dream animal to protect one from nightmares: what a great idea! I will need to try that next time either of my sons comes to me after a nightmare. And hey maybe I should try it to, since I have recently had occasional nightmares, although in the past when I had lucid dreams I used to be able to overpower nightmares very effectively, but if I cannot become lucid, maybe at least I will remember to call forth my animal - I think mine shall be a lion too, since I am a leo, so why not. And I know my four year old would want a tiger, since he mentioned that someday he would want to adopt a tiger.

As for DCs: I think that it is a mistake to assume that one's mind can only create two dimensional, boring, hollow DCs - some people have this idea. I know my imagination well enough to be able to construct very realistic interesting personas, and I think that is preferable. We are social animals, and why would we want to spend our dream lives surrounded by boring DCs? I know my father has often featured in my dreams in the past, and his representation was very realistic. Recently one of my dreams that stands out in my memory, which alas was non-lucid, but it featured a very interesting elderly rich woman, whom to my knowledge I do not know in real life, but in the dream we had a striking conversation, which supposedly was a job interview, but ended up being about generational differences and about being accepted by another person despite my flaws.

The dream animal is a very good idea indeed! I've been thinking about my "spirit animal" guide, and wondering if it would be good to try searching for such a thing in my dreams.

acillis: These actors definitely have agendas, and for me they usually function as a quiet but major part of my dreams. I get the sense that some/he/she/it are(is) there to show me through dreams in a helpful, guiding manner. I'm motivated to know more partly out of nervousness, mostly out of curiosity. Carlos Castaneda writes of dream "scouts" that come and go to and from other dimensions within our dreams. I was thinking maybe this was something similar, but I'm pretty unknowing about these things. I believe those elusives that are with me are there to help, but their clandestine nature really irks me, and makes me slightly nervous, but only in the sense that I know so little of them, yet they likely know all about me. I'll work on confronting and interacting with them as a long-term goal.
...
One very peculiar DC I met at a bridge over a mysterious waterway... I am walking along an ancient stone pathway, water is down below to the left. A lady is standing under an archway made of the same stone. The lady is dressed in white, she is very beautiful and appears welcoming, though she stands as if to guard me from passing onward. She says something to me about swimming, and I take time to consider it while gazing into the water. I see a fish descend from the surface down below the murky aqua. Just as I decide to continue down the pathway and cross the water I'm startled in a moment as the lady shoves me off the ledge - I immediately grab her and pull her with me. As soon as we're in the water together I notice that I'm very attracted to her sexually, and she to me. We climb out, return to the stone and make love right there!

I believe this DC has come back to me in other dreams, though I'm not sure, but I've had a few sexual encounters with a lady who looks mostly the same but in different dress. She is so interesting to me because of the significant dream I met her in. The "crossing of the water" was underlined because it was certainly a very symbolic intention. Crossing water usually implies crossing over into a different magical land in numerous mythologies from around the world. The lady was surely set on either sex, hindering me, or perhaps more profoundly she may have been showing me my inclination toward spiritual bypass. Regardless, I've thought of this lady as a naiad, because she just has that aqueous air. I would like to know if anyone here knows about naiads, (the symbolism of sex with a defined woman in white by water is strongly related to what I know about naiads) and any other thoughts, comments, etc. on dream characters. Especially recurring, defined and elusive ones and those involving sex, sensuality etc.

mmmkayyyyy?