Lucid is a really loaded word, that can cause a lot of confusion, a psychologist will have a different understanding of the word due to it’s clinical use.
It is probably too late, once a term slips into popular consciousness it is pretty much stuck there.
It is a bit of a shame because recognized dream may be a more accurate term, as in “I recognized my dream last night” or “a recognized dream is a dream in which a person recognizes that they are dreaming while they are having the dream.”
It doesn’t matter how clear, vivid or how much control a person has, if the dreamer doesn’t realize that it is a dream while inside it, it isn’t a lucid/recognized dream.
Among every community I have joined, I think the LDing community is the most resistant to changes.
You probably won’t be able to change the definition, but may establish as an synonym. You just need to write the synonym every time you refer to it, you could use “also known as” or “also defined as” or even “as in”, for instance:
“This topic is about Lucid Dream, as in Recognized Dream.”
Perhaps you can convince people to use it for definition for beginner’s texts.
But don’t be too stubborn, it won’t help much.
Those who aren’t beginners already know the correct semantics.
In my native language, the term “conscious dream” is popular.
Many words and expressions aren’t fully accurate descriptions of what they describe, but they are popular, and have made their way into people’s everyday lives. If the knowledge of lucid dreaming was more widespread, this problem wouldn’t exist
Really good points. Conscious Dreaming is a good pick as it emphasizes the role of awareness in a lucid dream, I have seen it used occasionally as a synonym too.
It does roll off the tongue better.
