Does anyone else feel like this...

I think I know what you’re talking about. I’ve had dreams like that too. It’s like you’re kind of “watching” yourself acting out things lucidly, right? You ARE lucid, but nothing seems or feels as real as you would like. Kinda hard to explain :confused:
I think it’s just a matter of lucidity levels. This is probably the lowest stage of lucidity.

Sort of, except it is ALL dreams, not just lucid.

I would have to say that I get a mix of dream “levels” (for lack of a better word). Now days most of my lucid dreams are extremely vivid and often feel more real than waking life. Every once in a while I still get those strange lucid dreams that don’t seem real. No not real is not quite the right word. It is more like not feeling connected to the dream. I just don’t get the same feel from them. They are true lucid dreams and not false ones. I doubt that makes sense to anyone. Fortunately that is the exception rather than the rule.

Perhaps these are NREM dreams. It could be even a lighter type of dreaming. Perhaps something more in between rem and the hypnoga ??? That is something I never thought of till now. It could be possible. We always think of NREM in terms of something deeper than REM sleep. If it is possible to dream in stages that are deeper than REM then, it stands to reason that one may dream in lighter stages as well.

“No not real is not quite the right word”- ^,^ it’s two words.

Oh, and I completely understand what you mean, as feeling “Not Connected” is a very good explaination of what I mean. ^.^ Thanks for sharing… anyone else?

Yeah, I would say it’s just “levels” of dreaming, like Milod said.

Two questions:

  1. Are you sure it’s not a lucid dream with such a low level that you can barely even think straight? To put your feeling into words, “this doesn’t seem like reality, but I don’t seem to be able to do much about it…” Would that kind of feeling describe it at all?
  2. Are you sure it happens ALL the time? Has it just been happening for a week or two and SEEMS like it’s been happening very often?

I would just say that maybe you’re noticing dream elements (levels, etc.) for the first time, even though they’ve probably been happening forever. But really, I have no idea. Just food for thought really. :content:

Sounds kind of like hypnogogic imagery. My dreams vary in their vividness. I can increase the vividness by deliberately touching objects, staring at them, etc.

You sure it’s not just your DR?

What is DR?
I know that it’s not levels, because I’ve had low level and High level, yet ALL of my dreams for as long as I can remember have always been like this! Even my normal dreams do.

I don’t really know what to make of your situation. I gather (from your posts that I have read) you have been lucid dreaming for some time. I assume that you have used all the techniques to increase lucidity and the vividness of the dream world. The only thing I can suggest is to use these techniques again. Only this time really believe it will work. In fact outright demand it of your dream and fully expect the dream to comply.

Good luck

I used to be such a little whiney bitc… jerk about this stuff on this board when I didn’t get an answer to a question, just the same stuff over and over. I’m not saying that’s happening here, I’m just suggesting you don’t read my post history… ^,^" eh heh…
But I am alot more chill out now and trying to LD again, from scratch, and getting good recall up, so I will try again. I posted this topic cuz I notice that in my recall, just as it has been as long as I can remember, everything is so far away. You know? I will try again, though.

Anyone else?

Here’s the only piece of advice I can come up with pertaining to a situation like that-

When your dream isn’t as clear as you would like it to be, rub your hands.

Yes to your theory… IMO… I’ve been feeling the same way… especially with the few “true” WILDs I’ve done I’ve had that problem… they start out as detached flat lifeless scenes, I enter them… and well, they don’t necessarily feel unreal at that point, they just feel distorted to me…

as for unreal dreams where things just don’t make sense and are really goofy, I get those too, but they seem to be a very deep level of dreaming… I firmly believe that whatever stage of sleep you are in affects how your dreams are, and I think that maybe the reaosn my OBEs are NOT REAL (no verifiable physical world) is because I OBE during REM, and REM is meant for nonsensical typical normal dreams… but OBEing from hypnagogics isnt’ much better… so I don’t know.

I think it has something to do with how deep in sleep you are at the time though.

I used to do the rubbing hands, and the spinning, and all of that good stuff, and it WOULD make my LD’s more vivid, but they still felt Faaaaaaaaar away. I even had one this morning. All I remember is going lucid, and looking at my hands to make things more vivid, and it worked. But when I look at it, it was just like all of my other dreams… faaaaar away. You know?

Trung Of Wu

I did not think any of your posts were that bad. I did not review your post history though. I just remember you from some old posts I read. Don’t worry I try not to take things personally. I know that lucid dreaming can be a bit frustrating for some people. Starting again from the beginning may be a good start. Have you ever tried any type of deep meditation or self-hypnosis? Perhaps when you are in a deeper state you can give yourself a suggestion that your dreams will be more exciting, vivid and meaningful. Just a thought. Sorry I cannot be of more help.
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[color=indigo]Yep, I know exactly what you mean…every dream seems real, I know what I’m doing, but nothing extraordinary seems like that, its wierd

so, yeah, I know, sometimes, they seem so real it’s annoying that they didn’t make you lucid![/color]

side note: is there a way of telling, by looking at a thread, if you have posted in it? Most forums have holes in the thread icon, or something like that, this makes reading these boards confusing for me, and makes me wonder if I’ve already said what I’m about to post sometimes.

Okay, so one thing I have been thinking about is lack of realism in dreams means you just kind of wander through life not paying attention to things.

Take walking for example… when you walk around the house are you as good as detached from your body daydreaming or thinking about other things, do you ever really stop and feel just what it is to really WALK, feel the muscle movements, the resistance of the ground, the way the air feels and smells…?

Or do you just suddenly find yourself at your destination with little memory of the process itself?

Our subconscious makes our dreams from the information we give it and pay attention to in the day, if your dreams are consitantly unrealistic, the solution might be to pay attention to the little things during the day…

I think this is where Tibetan Dream Yoga comes in, and I know I have posted exactly what I am posting before right now, somewhere else, but it does seem to work… I myself am extremely absent minded, I’m never paying attention to anything and often detached from “reality” so… if I were to be meditative while walking, or looking at nature, things like that, it would probably make my dreams 10 times more realistic.

I kind of think I know the “far away” feeling, but I feel that in real life, a lot… so… I don’t know… if it isn’t a result of you being in a not ideal stage of sleep it probably means something, either as a message to you from your mind, or as a reflection on how you interact with the waking world… it might not be just an issue of needing to stabilize the dream, as much as needing to “rediscover dreaming”, and consequently rediscover living.

One thing that enmorously helps just in general though is to get right up against a wall and start rubbing it, sometimes I get blown away by the realism and it helps me feel “there” and connected to the dream world. I don’t know, there’s a lot of fine tuning you have to do to make your dreams enjoyable, getting lucid isn’t really the hardest part it seems like.

MAybe I did not state my situation correctly-
(Oh! I have tried the deep relaxation, but not for this purpose.)

It is not that my dreams are to realistic or unrealistic, it is not the level of my lucidity, it is not any of these things, for I experience all of these things that every one has said in varying degrees. It is that I do not feel as though I am experiencing them, they are so far away, as if I can literally not reach out and grasp them as I can my normal life. It seems like I’m on auto pilot, or that it’s not even really me in my dreams, but just some empty dream body whose eye’s I am watching through. It is so far away… that’s the only real thing I can say about it. You know?

Well my post was not just about realism, pretty much the entire thing I talked about about how you live your day to day life is applicable to detachment in dream.

but like, once I had a kung fu dream and I had “myself” do a move, but I was not using my body, then once I used my body I could no longer get myself to do those moves… would that be what you mean?
" It seems like I’m on auto pilot, or that it’s not even really me in my dreams, but just some empty dream body whose eye’s I am watching through."

The summation of what I was saying is that there is a reason your dreams are that way, and I think it is (like most all dream content) correlated to how you life your waking life it is a statement about something, such as you being lightheaded and day dreaming, or maybe a message about how you perceive the waking world.

I can’t say anymore without word for word repeating my previous post, if someone were to run through their entire day like a detached zombie, not paying attention to things, being lifeless and absent minded and daydreamy, that would give them the kind of dreams you are talking about, in my opinion.

Hence, I suggested that paying great attention to the small details that make up your daily activities might really help… but it could be like a message of you being “lost” or feeling out of control of your life, too… maybe.

Does any of this apply?

Just as a little note to the thing you sadi about feeling what it’s like to walk andfeel your muscles moving, I did that today! I was walking down the road,and I thought about how wierd it is to actually be moving around, how complicated the body was to be able to let us move around on these two wierd little leg things, and I was feeling how my muscles moved, man I was out of it, but it was really wierd.

Well, doesn’t everyone feel a little detached from themselves in their dreams? In waking life, I feel like I’m in total control of myself and choices. But aren’t you far more strongly influenced by your subconscious in the dream world? After I’ve waken up for a while, I realize that in my dreams I did things and said things that I would’ve never done in waking life given the exact same situation. The same goes for my (only two) lucid dreams. If you’re just talking about a feeling like, “that wasn’t really me…” then I believe we all experience that.

If not, then I guess I simply don’t understand what you mean. But that just might be because I’ve never experienced what you’re talking about. :tongue: