Violence in Lucid Dreams

In my first LD (before I really knew what they were), since I knew I was in a dream, I decided to do something I would never do in real life. Turns out that was me punching a random guy in the face.

Anyone else had experiences like this? Punching, stabbing, shooting or otherwise hurting dream characters in an LD?

yes, that’s one of the things so appealing about lucid dreams. I can do whatever I want. In one dream I was insulting everybody and attacked a woman. Of course I wouldn’t do that in real life.

I lurked a bit more, mostly in the threads dealing with what people want to do in their LDs, and almost every other person had some sort of violent act in their to do list. I guess here’s a question: is it moral to kill someone in a dream that is exactly like reality?

i dreamed i crashed a plane purposely if that counts :content:

There was a similar topic about this “do you want to hurt someone in your LD?” you might be interested in. :smile:

I think it’s better to get the beasts in us out in a lucid dream. It’s a better alternative then actually killing someone and going to prison.

In lucid dreams, you can do anything, without consequence. I’ve done a lot of violent things in them.

At the OP: Actually, lucid dreaming is not real life. As close as it might look, sound, feel and taste - it is merely a creation of our mind. What you see and hear exists only as data in your mind, and not as anything else. You can revive it as easy as you can kill it.

At any rate, it can be compared to videogames. Is it moral to kill something in a videogame? Does it really matter how realistic it feels?

  • One could say, that killing anything, either real or imaginative, shouldn’t happen: That killing should be something people don’t experience neither IRL nor in DWs (And thus videogames), and that any sort of bloodshed leads to more bloodshed (Which will eventually reach real people)
  • On the other hand, one could say that if someone is practicing killing in an imaginative world, they feel much less compelled to do the same IRL - since in their minds, they have already dealt with that person.

Now of course, we are speaking of “normal” levels of killing here: Not of obssesivly planning the death of a person again, and again, and again - just punching them in the face, or shooting them, etc.

In my personal opinion, the exact person we are speaking of matters - And as it goes for most people, killing stuff in dreams will avert killing IRL (Though most people won’t kill IRL anyhow). On the other hand, I do believe some people might be motivated to kill after successfuly killing someone in a dream - though they are a very, very small minority, who will get to hurting someone eventally regardless of their dreams (and videogames).

Does that mean you would just kill people IRL if you wouldn’t go to jail?
Nice.

I wouldn’t ever kill anyone IRL, killing leads nowhere, as well as violence.
Killing is for weaklings who can’t deal with something.

Of course, I wouldn’t kill people IRL, even if it were legal.

Anyway, yeah, I agree with TwilightDreamer.Lucid dreams(and normal ones) are a creation of our mind, so I don’t think it’s immoral to kill someone in the dream.

In one of my first lucid dreams, I tried punching people in the face. It’s just a silly thing to do. It is that feeling of freedom. You can do whatever you want, even punch random people in the face. It’s funny. I mean, imagine if you did that IRL, it would be ridiculous. There was no malice in it anyway. No aggression to release, just playfulness. Kittens play by fighting, why shouldn’t we? What do you think they dream about? You can’t go around second guessing yourself in dreams, that’s totally neurotic! If we can’t go nuts in our dreams, where can we go nuts?
I don’t bother with morals much since it’s all invented anyway, but when you kill someone in a dream, you’re not killing anybody, so why would that be a problem? Like cartoons, dream characters can be dead one second and alive the next. It’s just images and sounds and such.

True, but videogames are very impersonal. You control a character, sometimes not even first person, through a controller, which is a very impersonal device. Dreaming, on the other hand, is a first hand experience. It’s a simulation your mind produces, thus you are ‘in’ it. Committing violence when you have direct control over what happens is much more personal than only have a limited control of the situation.

Same here, I could never take a life IRL.

Perhaps this is true; However, as far as the accounts of dream murder I have seen go - Most killing and hurting in dreams doesn’t feel quite as realistic as RL ones. Specifically, killing generally occurs when the victim is out of sight, or by a relativly small injury - As if the death of that person is a fact, rather than something that the dreamer caused. I believe the dreamer knows of that - The dreamer is aware to the fact that the death isn’t realistic in most cases. Therfore, the dreamer is less immersed - unlike certain videogames and movies, where you can see very detailed ways of dying.

Videogames can be quite immersive. Obviously not as immersive as a dream can be, but it is still not reality, but a simulation, just like a video game. If the question is, “how immersed are you in the experience?”, then it leaves it open to say that if you murder somebody IRL, but you’re not really into it, that is less immoral than if you experience it with high intensity. That can be manifested in somebody taking sedatives before going on a killing spree, and he is then acting more morally than someone who does the same thing sober.
Does that make sense? The intent is all the same, the urge to kill, and the result is also the same, the death of people. From a consequentialist point of view, it’s all the same, and from a virtue/vice point of view it’s the same, from a rights point of view it’s all the same. With dreams being hte subject, can it be immoral at all? If the urge is not to kill real people, but only to pretend, then is it a vice? There are no consequences to speak of. Although the subject can be debated, it has yet to be proven that dream characters are actual persons, and it seems as of yet, to be the case that they are not, so nobody’s rights are being violated. From a Kantian point of view, if everybody killed dream characters whenever they felt like it, the world would still be the same.

Dream characters are a part of your dream.Of your mind.
If you kill a dream character, he just might appear in the next dream.
And they usually do( if you see them often in your dreams).

It is just your imagination.OK, imagine a man in your mind…Now imagine that you killed him with any weapon.Now, is that a crime?
I don’t think so.It’s just what you imagine.Just like dreams.

Well, this is what I think about it.

One dream in particular that i had ended quite violently. A guy that had gone to the same high school as me tried to drown my sister; long story short i punched his head until it caved, slit his throat and threw him into a river. It felt very justified within the dream but when i woke up a lot of the vibes were still lingering. It was without a doubt the most emotionally driven dream ive had and certainly felt like a release more than anything. I didnt feel right about it after waking up but I do realise it was just a creation of my subconcious.

It really makes you question what you’re actually cappable of as well as questioning the kinds of emotions and thoughts are stored up inside of yourself.

A curious metaphorical window, dreams are.

i foght alot of monsters\demons if that counts

well i feel, recently, that since this realm is the playground of the subconscious mind then what we choose to do within this ‘playground’ does in a way reflect upon our subconscious - it would almost seem directly. and although i have been on violent binges within my LD’s (using pyrokinesis against foes, blowing up cars with my mind, beatin the hell out of groups of nightmare chasers Neo-style), i feel its much more constructive/profound to dissolve fear within LD’s and promote peace and love, and i think that will echo throughout your being, and bring that type of clarity and response to RL actions to situations.

but it is nice sometimes to let loose i suppose :smile: lol

There are more consequences then going to jail.

I guess killing random people in LDs could be fun, like in GTA :razz:

I’m usually extremely violent in my dreams (not necessarily lucid ones, though I’ve done that too). In some dreams I “go for the throat” as soon as someone gives me so much as a look, if I “sense” that they’re out to get me.

IRL I would not be capable of doing such things, even if there were no negative consequences. Lucid Dreams are like video games. It’s not technically real, so I can do anything I want. I’ve been playing violent video games for many many years, yet I’ve never felt even the slightest urge to do the same in IRL as in a game.

Though that doesn’t explain why I’m ALSO very violent in non-lucid dreams. Don’t know how to explain that. :razz: