Religion and Lucid Dreaming

Hello everyone!

I am not a religious person, In fact I generally identify with secular humanism. I understand (correct me if I am wrong) that Lucid Dreaming is commonly associated with Buddhism, which, from the very little I understand of Buddhism (I really should learn more…) seems to fit. I was wondering how your religion, or lack of religion affects, or doesn’t affect your Quest for Lucidity.

Moved from Quest for Lucidity. :dragon:

nahh i wouldnt worry about it in fact (just guessing) that most of us are not buddhist. Im christian and soo yea… doesnt really make a difference Whatever religion you are i think we can all agree lucid dreaming is a heck of a lot of fun :smile:

it’s just dreams, just… the inside of your head. how could it affect religion? :tongue: anything i do in real life, i can do there too, and vice-versa. so how is it different from just normal life (with more powers xD)? i don’t see how it would affect religion.

although i know one person from here who is extremely motivated and energized about this, he even calls LDing his religion lol :happy: but i think it’s rare that people actually do that.

I was raised Christian, and one of my friends, when I told her I actually practice it, told me that her mom sometimes becomes lucid, but only to wake herself up from nightmares. Then I started telling her that I LD so I can do different things, and she was unsure of it because of the things that could be done in the dream. I don’t think LDs are necessarily associated with a religion… some religions might just pay more attention to them than others. Lately I’ve been mostly using them to work on self-improvement, so I don’t think she really has anything to “worry” about, currently. :lol: Plus, I know two people from my church who are natural LDers and are lucid in most of their dreams. (Yes, I’m so jealous. XD) So really, I think it just has to do with the individual. :wink:

Lucid dreaming is independant from religion in the strict sense. There may be religions which might seek to claim it, but there is no requirement to belive anything specific to be a lucid dreamer. You can be a secular atheist, pagan or orthodox christian and it won’t stop you lucid dreaming.

Religions effects are kinda by proxy. Dreams respond very strongly to our expectations, and if you expect that violating your religious beliefs will stop you lucid dreaming chances are pretty high this is the effect you will observe. The effect can also manifest in a number of other ways including elements of lucid dreams that seem out of your control. I.E ‘dream police’

Thanks! I guess that puts to rest one of my fears about it, that it sort of relied on religious belief…

Not everyone agrees on that. Some people thinks dreams are outside our head which can be seen as religious.

I guess lucid dreaming relates more to hinduism than with buddhism (ie. yoga nidra), but there is a lot of exchange among the two anyway…

I agree it’s mainly religion-independent, though.

One thing that relates to Lucid Dreaming from religion is faith. Faith pretty much allows you to control the dream world, without it you’ll have doubt and thus struggle.

Faith in religion is believing in something that has little or no evidence. The way for me to control LD’s is to use Expectations. If you truly expect something in a dream it is very likely to happen. And if you doubt that something will happen it probably wont.

Well it’s like having faith in one’s self to achieve an objective or desire that normally wouldn’t be possible. Or you can call it confidence, it’s a similar sort of feeling that’s hard to explain. But you are correct, expectation does play a great role within lucid dreaming.

I’ve actually talked to people about LDs before, and they chastised me and accused me of using my dreams to perform “black magic” and informed me I was a sinner having LDs. :happy: It was pretty priceless.

Isn’t it amazing how people jump to conclusions about things they know absoloutely nothing about.

To tell the truth, I’m agnostic and I’m personally seeking to use LDing to maybe help me get back close to God again. I think that doing what i want to do in LDs (e.g. creating worlds and being God and stuff) could help me get closer to him because I’d somewhat know what he felt like to create the universe, if you understand what I mean?

Priceless :grin:

And did they ever tell you which commandment you were violating, or which “law of god” it is you broke? I don’t see any religion believing LD is a sin.