Lucid, 11/20/11: Depths of Lucidity

Wow, it's been a while. Well, here's a fresh dose of my dream speculation.

I had some... unusual dreams this past morning. Some parts were sexual in nature, so I won't gross you out with the details of the dream events. Those aren't important right now anyway. I've had similar dreams before and never really illuminated anything useful from them. There is an aspect of them I want to examine though.

I wonder sometimes at the depths of how completely a lucid dreaming brain can create realistic experiences. I think we've all had dreams where the crispness of what we saw tricked us into thinking it was real, but even knowing I was dreaming, I was surprised by the sensory experience, and not just visually either.

I recall someone speaking to me in the dream briefly, and was struck by how crystal clear I heard their voice, as if they were right by my ear. (I could remember what they said upon waking, but it has since faded as dream memories usually do when I don't write them down) This could possibly be explained away by somebody (parent or sibling) coming into my room while I slept, but in this case it seemed unlikely that would have happened. I should probably question the likely suspects to be sure.

Similarly, the sensation of touch will sometimes strike me in dreams like this. I can recall a dream I had a long time ago where I was being attacked by a vampire or something, and I seriously felt the sensation of being bitten on neck. It didn't hurt as much as such a thing would in real life, but it was still shocking to experience.

My point is, I don't find it surprising that there are people who believe dreams are actually our spirits having experiences in another dimension or something. I don't personally believe that, at least not to a religious extent. Either of the following are more likely explanations.

• Our brains are interpreting something that is actually happening while we are asleep (which has definitely happened before to me; I can recall at least one instance: as a kid I once had a dream in which my uncle was making odd yelping or retching noises; I awoke the next day to find out my dad had been sick that night and was in the bathroom vomiting at the time I was asleep),

• Our brains may be synthesizing experiences based on things we've felt in the past. In our waking hours, we have good enough sensory memories to identify things and people by mere sound, smell or touch, so it seems within the realm of possibility that our dreams could tap into those sense memories.

Personally, I do not frequently remember my dreams, and the ones that I do are often just too odd (or personal) to bother trying to interpret. Nonetheless, the subject still fascinates me, and I'll at least attempt to do more research. I should probably get that notebook and pencil by my bedside again, just in case.

So yeah, that's all I've got for now. I hope you found it somewhat interesting. If you've had any sensory experiences in dreams that similarly struck you, feel free to share in the comments. Until next time: sweet dreams.