People in dreams - llusion of the mind or actual people?

[Athymari]

I have been thinking about this at work today following my LD dream last night.

I have had several dreams with people in that I dont recognise, last night in particular.  Is there a way to tell who is from the illusion/part of the dream and who might be real?

I have always gone by the idea that 'illusions' may not talk or seem they are in a trance/not very reactive or mind full of their surroundings.

That they are just illusions of body with no mind. Whilst real beings (who you may not recognise) will talk, move, seem to go off at random etc.

I have always seen dreams (non-LD) as like being placed on a stage where a play is in full swing (start of the dream). You are dressed up for your role and act and think according to story, character and you are not allowed to deviate from this set script.

I have often seen myself in third person acting this script and thinking to myself ' why on earth are you doing that?'.  Real beings to me would take no head of this script and act.. almost against it, like they are LDers them selves.

I know this might not seem to make sense but its hard to describe!

[Timandra]

Hello Athymari, I also see a lot of people in my dreams (non-LD) that I don't know. I think we make them up, that they represent other aspects of ourselves, so that they can teach us things about ourselves. I also think that every now and then there are real people in my dreams, or entities, because they behave quite differently. In my case, they always look at me very intensely, and sometimes I feel their energy, even a few seconds after I have woken up. 

[kurtykurt42]

They might be people we make up from movies or TV shows we have seen. And then we just can't remember where we have seen them before.

[Yamabushi]

It is said (for example, by Sivaya Subramuniyswami) that we often journey into the inner planes during sleep and interact with other actual people. This may be mistaken as dreams, or a dream may be constructed later from other actual experiences interacting with people.

However I do believe it is possible for two or more people to experience the same dream coetaneously. But I don't know how one would go about verifying if a stranger dream-person is an "actual" person from somewhere or somewhen or not. When all else fails, follow your gut (intuition).

YB

[Athymari]

If they were real people, I guess they could also be stuck in their own dream. Not seeing the same as me for instance or even seeing me at all.