iandude thats very interesting stuff there. I’ll have to try that myself, but hey thats a very good idea! If we all tried this out, it may help us to see if it differs from person to person. Thinking/remembering about waking life, at least. Thinking about things like address, name, number, very ingrained knowledge. We could then try onto more-chaotic specifics like ‘what i ate for dinner’ or ‘what i planned to do in my LD before i went to bed’
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As far as spirit guides go, i would assume the dualistic definition is there to cross the boundary between those who believe spirit guides are supernatural (or external) and those who believe spirit guides are merely the subconscious (or internal). Which one you believe in is up to you, not that it is very necessary (though you might trust internal more than external, theres the argument that external spirit guides are by implication good by nature.) But the constant remains that the guide is there to help guide you in that you pursue (waking life, LD skills, yourself, whatever). Thus the current definition is very transcendent and practical, though hard to understand because it doesnt really put emphasis on the word guide
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Ok, i just realized something. Say that you tell yourself IRL what you are going to do in x amount of time. The more you tell yourself, and/or the less time from the present to when you’ll do it will increase chances that you will remember. Another factor thrown in here in our case, is the fact that we are crossing the border from dreams into reality, which in other words may effect our ability to remember the intention. Im thinking that it does effect it but of course we might wanna test it.
But, another thing, reflecting upon many of my LDs and my most recent ones, is that i am not effected by impulse so much so as i am effected by what opportunities my consciousness becomes aware of in my current dreamscape. A classic example would be:
Before your dream you told yourself that you were going to manipulate your body.
In your dream you are lucid and find yourself in a fascinating dreamscape (say, a huge futuristic city in the sky) that you have never seen or before imagined.
Chances are that you will decide to explore the dreamscape, rather than manipulate your body (esp since you can do the latter in any LD).
The question remains, then, is this action due to impulse? I would say that it is not impulse, but more like present-time free will, especially if you are conscious of your previous intent and the current opportunity at the same time.
Conclusions:
-Just because one does something other than they before intended, does not mean it is impulse.
-Environment plays a part in free will.
Ideas:
-Environment may have a greater weight than previous intentions, because it may be uncommon opportunity (one may not at that point be able to create any dreamscape, or one might like to explore ‘natural’ dreamscape), and because it is more immediate, versus the past.
-The boundary between dreams and reality may have effect on memory, consciousness, etc.
I guess to test it, one could remember their previous intention, as well as be aware of what else they can do. If one has multiple choices in the present and chooses one, then it is free will.
Then again perhaps the memory of the intent can be so arbitrary in comparison to current opportunity that it does not even reach consciousness, but would that make the action impulse?
Perhaps there exists somewhere on the lucidity-ladder two degrees of lucidity:
X-A: Lucidity where one knows they are dreaming but does the first things to come to mind.
X-B: Lucidity where one knows they are dreaming and is also aware of multiple things he/she can do and chooses among them.
Not implying that one is ‘higher’ than the other, btw, for it is easily deducable that each has their faults and benefits.
To reply to other things:
I was wondering if the consciousness differs between IRL and LD, not in terms of perception or feel but in terms of if you are thinking like yourself. I guess we can generally agree that there is no difference (in LD’s).
Im thinking that perhaps it is our very ideals that we experience in our dreams (ND). Like, say you hear really, really good music, the best music youve ever heard in an ND. This could be, in fact, our manifesting and experiencing of our ideal (best music, best whatever) while in a dream. But in waking life we cannot replicate it because here perceptions (the senses) are limited by the physical (keynotes, etc) and perfection, by our societies’ possibly-unhealthy standards, is nonexistent. Its obvious to us all that we can experience what we IRL consider ‘perfection’, in ND’s, but the question is: Can we create in LD’s that which we cannot create in waking life? Can we experience the ideal, the unattainable, in a lucid dream? Or, are we limited to the unpredictable nature of ND’s?
If we are limited, its not so bad. I mean, you could pull a non-lucid-dream incubation and still have a grand experience. In fact, perhaps during the experience you could become lucid, so that though you didnt create it (sorry, no feeling like god ppl) that you can still experience it in ‘normal’ (WL) consciousness.
Brilliant thought. You know, i think that that might be possible. To tie it into your previous paragraph, perhaps with the dream-mind becoming more like the waking mind, the ‘translation’ becomes more complete? Thus, IRL intents can be translated into dream-mind better, and dream-memories can be translated better IRL.