What is lucidity?

[mactombs]

Question:

What is lucidity? Why do we become lucid? When we do become lucid, why does it happen, and why isn't it the way we always are? Why is it that lucidity is easily lost and generally doesn't last very long?

Have you ever wondered if death is just like a dream, you'll forget, or not have lucidity? Is lucidity a property of physical-life/brain logic?

Why do we have to fight to maintain awareness, and is it the same way when you're dead? If it's not, is the lack of awareness/the need for lucidity due to having a physical body?

[MisterJingo]

It seems when we dream higher brain functions are bypassed - and so we take the part of an observer - yet not realising we are observing. Becoming lucid seems to enable higher brain function (and so critical reasoning) in a dream state.

[Ben K]

Question:

What is lucidity? Why do we become lucid? When we do become lucid, why does it happen, and why isn't it the way we always are? Why is it that lucidity is easily lost and generally doesn't last very long?

Have you ever wondered if death is just like a dream, you'll forget, or not have lucidity? Is lucidity a property of physical-life/brain logic?

Why do we have to fight to maintain awareness, and is it the same way when you're dead? If it's not, is the lack of awareness/the need for lucidity due to having a physical body?

objective knowing. able to touch,see,smell,hear,taste. none of which we can do when we are not lucid. coincidence?

dreams are what you remember in the morning, right? so we can remember seeing something in a dream but only when you are lucid can you really explore a concept or idea. In real time.

[The Present Moment]

Question:

What is lucidity? Why do we become lucid? When we do become lucid, why does it happen, and why isn't it the way we always are? Why is it that lucidity is easily lost and generally doesn't last very long?

I've been taking notes on... notable dreams in an effort to answer those questions.

In a dream last night, for example, there were two heating units in my house where there should only be one (it was cold  ). It caught my attention -- I knew it wasn't right -- yet somehow I managed to shrug it off and continue dreaming without lucidity. The most extreme case was when a dream character told me that I was dreaming, and I denied it!

A week ago I began journaling my daily activities, in addition to my dreams. We know there is a correlation between reality checks and lucidity, so it's worth investigating whether other daytime activities might contribute. If anyone wants my notes, please PM me.

[MisterJingo]

Question:

What is lucidity? Why do we become lucid? When we do become lucid, why does it happen, and why isn't it the way we always are? Why is it that lucidity is easily lost and generally doesn't last very long?

Have you ever wondered if death is just like a dream, you'll forget, or not have lucidity? Is lucidity a property of physical-life/brain logic?

Why do we have to fight to maintain awareness, and is it the same way when you're dead? If it's not, is the lack of awareness/the need for lucidity due to having a physical body?

objective knowing. able to touch,see,smell,hear,taste. none of which we can do when we are not lucid. coincidence?

I do all of these in non-lucid dreams. What differentiates a lucid and non-lucid to me is the ability to make a conscious decision (or to consciously alter the direction of the dream) - rather than just being a watcher.

[knightlight]

Question:

What is lucidity? Why do we become lucid? When we do become lucid, why does it happen, and why isn't it the way we always are? Why is it that lucidity is easily lost and generally doesn't last very long?

I've been taking notes on... notable dreams in an effort to answer those questions.

In a dream last night, for example, there were two heating units in my house where there should only be one (it was cold  ). It caught my attention -- I knew it wasn't right -- yet somehow I managed to shrug it off and continue dreaming without lucidity. The most extreme case was when a dream character told me that I was dreaming, and I denied it!

A week ago I began journaling my daily activities, in addition to my dreams. We know there is a correlation between reality checks and lucidity, so it's worth investigating whether other daytime activities might contribute. If anyone wants my notes, please PM me.

Doesnt that just tinkle you off when you wake up? I HATE THAT!!!!  :combust:

[The Present Moment]

Doesnt that just tinkle you off when you wake up? I HATE THAT!!!!

I find it more perplexing than irritating.

[mactombs]

It seems when we dream higher brain functions are bypassed - and so we take the part of an observer - yet not realizing we are observing. Becoming lucid seems to enable higher brain function (and so critical reasoning) in a dream state.

This sounds plausible to me. If it is true, then wouldn't it mean that if there is life after death, no brain = no lucidity? That would suck.

On the other hand, I've been keeping a log of my dreams, and I virtually always remember my dreams. It may be that dreams are abstract recordings of workings that we have little concept of on waking, and so they seem nonsense. For instance, some dreams seem to be formative of the day's events - almost like you are constructing your reality to some extent. There's a sense of deja-vu when you encounter this ... how memories of dreams seem somehow connected to an event in an abstract way that involves more than just appearances, but emotional situation.

Emotions, symbols, feelings, made into images are confusing if you take them as face value - sort of like Aesop's Fables without the moral or analogy. I think this might be why dreams and the astral are confusing. We're trying to make literal sense of emotive representations, trying to swim upstream, so we become exhausted.

[MisterJingo]

This sounds plausible to me. If it is true, then wouldn't it mean that if there is life after death, no brain = no lucidity? That would suck.

This is where things get complicated. So much of mind function can be related to specific brain function and functioning (such as brainwaves determining what conscious state we perceive), that I don't really think we can know about for definite about lucidity after death.
This is to a degree where my desire for proof of the AP state comes in (as I've argued in other threads).

On the other hand, I've been keeping a log of my dreams, and I virtually always remember my dreams. It may be that dreams are abstract recordings of workings that we have little concept of on waking, and so they seem nonsense. For instance, some dreams seem to be formative of the day's events - almost like you are constructing your reality to some extent. There's a sense of deja-vu when you encounter this ... how memories of dreams seem somehow connected to an event in an abstract way that involves more than just appearances, but emotional situation.

I've seen such things in my dream diary – if one has a keen memory of the days events, then it's more frequent then not to find the dreams of the night shaped by them in some form. Sometimes this is quite abstract – but there is a definite link.
But then again, sometimes I ave dreams which are so far removed from the days events (and seeming reality and logic) that I'm not really sure where they originate

Emotions, symbols, feelings, made into images are confusing if you take them as face value - sort of like Aesop's Fables without the moral or analogy. I think this might be why dreams and the astral are confusing. We're trying to make literal sense of emotive representations, trying to swim upstream, so we become exhausted

I agree with this too. I think we are too word bound in our daily lives. By this I mean we attempt to translate all things into words, even our "thoughts". A lot is lost in the translation.
Something interesting one notices when they watch the mind is that before we actually think something to ourselves, we already know what we are about to think (in internal dialouge). For example I might think: "I'll have to go to the shops soon and buy 'blah' and 'foo' etc". And such a word bound though takes up seconds, yet if I stop myself before the first utterance, on a more abstract level that knowledge already exists. It seems a lot (all?) of word based thought is redundant. I'm not sure if this mode of thinking is a side effect of Western based education systems.
As we become more entrenched in word based reasoning, perhaps our ability for abstract and symbolic interpretation is reduced – who knows.

[MisterJingo]

I just found this from another thread:

There was an interesting programme about sleep on our local TV not so long ago. One of the points is that sleep state activities take place in the old brain and during dreaming the higher brain is switched off so analytical comprehension is not as when awake. It maybe that Lucid dreaming is the state where the higher brain is also active so the dream can be analysed with detail and so on.
It also said when in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep the measureable electrical activity is identical to being awake.

The thread can be found here:

http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?t=1111&highlight=animals

Only part of it is relevant to this discussion (around half way down page 1)