Shared dreaming falls under many “definitions” from two+ people dreaming of the same general topic to two+ people claiming to have the exact shared experience at the same time. Although most of the literature is interesting, there is a lot of wading through personal accounts of subjective experience to which meaning is later applied. This definitely has its place, but probably more along the “synchronicity” thread.
What I’m looking for are verified accounts of two people sharing the same dream experience. For example, two people that keep dream journals and write down their experience before talking to each other, and have several corresponding details regarding the events and scenery. My ultimate dream (pardon the pun) is to get lucid dreamers, who can intentionally regulate their dreaming experience as to scenery and events, to come into the sleep lab so we can monitor their corresponding eye movements. If they both report seeing a ping pong ball match, for example, and both of their EOG (eye movement) recordings show identical patterns of back and forth movement (given the expected differences if they report being in different places while watching the game), then that will say something very interesting about the objective nature of our dreaming experience (as well as to call into question the conventional assumptions regarding waking reality). Anyway, may have to wait for my dissertation for that experiment.
Note to Perfectdark–lucid dreamers actually have a very good sense of how much time has gone by. Several experiments have been done where they’re hooked up to EEG, EOG, and EKG channels and during lucidity they estimate ten seconds, send an eye signal, etc. The experiment is repeated for waking estimates as well, and the results are identical. I think the sense of losing time is because many dreams (especially non-lucid) run like movies, skipping over scenes to move forward in time.
This describes me exactly. I’ve even been able to give people detailed directions inside buildings that I’ve never been in and can often know the next event that will happen because I’ve seen it all before in my dreams.
I remember reading an article about lucid dreaming in Omni magazine many years ago. Here’s what I remember from it:
In order to take control of your dream it helps to realize you are dreaming in the first place. Omni’s suggestion for doing this was the following (*anecdote on this at the bottom of the post):
Make a habit of reading things at random while awake, look away for a few seconds and re-read what you just read. Anything at all will do…the side of a cereal box, a paragraph in a book, whatever. Hopefully, after this becomes a habit, you will do this in your dream. The trick is, supposedly, what you read will change from the fisrt reading to the second reading if you do it in a dream. Ideally, this will clue you in to the fact that you are dreaming and allow you to start to take control.
If you are in a dream you are particularly enjoying and don’t want to leave they suggest a method called ‘dream spinning’. Basically, in your dream, close your eyes, stretch your arms out to your sides (like you’re preparing for a sobriety test) and make yourself spin in place. This method assumes, of course, that you know you are dreaming and have some control.
To learn how to fly in a dream (which is a LOT of fun…I’ve done it on numerous occasions) you need to start small and move up. Practice levitating in place for starters. After that move on to doing moon jumps (long, leaping bounds). After that you can move on to actually flying around. The article mentioned practicing on maintaining height first and speed second.
That’s about all I can remember from the article. I read it about 15 years ago so take it with a grain of salt. As to hearing things around you and having them affect your dream I’ve sort of had this happen. In the waking world my alarm was going off. In my dream the sound was there but I kept thinking of it as someone elses alarm and I was getting angry that whoever’s alarm it was wouldn’t shutoff that racket. I was late for work that day…
*-- A funny aside to the reading things to know you are dreaming happened to my girlfriend at the time. I had told her about the article and what it had said about reading stuff in your dream. A few days later she told me she had a dream in which she remembered that she needed to read something to learn if she was dreaming. She was in her house (in her dream) and spent the entire dream searching for something to read but there was not one single, solitary thing in her house with words on it. She looked for books, food in her pantry, magazines, even the bottom of appliances (for serial numbers and the like) but nothing was written anywhere.
Of course, one would suppose that this would be enough to tip you off you’re dreaming but in typical dream fashion the weird somehow seems normal so she never achieved a ‘lucid’ dream state. She was actually a little mad at me since she felt she had a long, boring dream due to my suggestion.
Oh man that is too wierd - This is exactly what I have done. I learned to fly (in my dreams) by learning to hover just a few feet above the ground, then gradually learning to go higher. Moving about came later. It is really all about confidence. If you believe you can fly then you can fly. I don’t know why but most of my dreams are ‘exploratory’ in nature. Me exploring a building while it is under construction…just flying up and staring at the artwork on the exterior of 38th floor. Exploring (swimming in) a swamp and when the aligators came after me I remembered I could just fly out of the place and did. Exploring caved and natural formations - even stuff about like what you would see in the games Riven or Myst.
I almost always know when I’m dreaming, but I don’t always try to control the dream. Often when I do do lucid dreaming, I can only control my character. Like last night, when I realized I was dreaming, I started trying to talk a guy into being alone with me, but other people in my dream would interupt, or some other outside force would cat, weather, phone calls, etc. So it’s like not even in my dreams. One time I tried to fly, but I couldn’t get off the ground. I think I still need to work on that.
I almost always know when I’m dreaming, but I don’t always try to control the dream. Often when I do do lucid dreaming, I can only control my character. Like last night, when I realized I was dreaming, I started trying to talk a guy into being alone with me, but other people in my dream would interupt, or some other outside force would act, weather, phone calls, etc. So it’s like not even in my dreams. One time I tried to fly, but I couldn’t get off the ground. I think I still need to work on that.
I keep a journal of my dreams besides my bed. If I dont immediately write down what I was dreaming about I know that I will NEVER remember what it was that I was dreaming about.
What I do know is that if I read the journal before I go back to bed I often pick up in my dreams right where I left off. This also gives me the opportunity to have Lucid Dreams where I can controll every aspect that happens.
THERE IS NO GREATER FEELING ON EARTH.
There are key reminders that I pick up in my dreams that, when happen, I think to myself “This is a dream” (for instance often I have the feeling that my legs are paralyzed in my dreams, like I have MS, where I can not walk without cruthes or other support). Now when this happens it automatically triggers a response while I am asleep that allows my consciense to controll my subconscious (or vice versa-who can tell which is which).
At any rate when I have that feeling when I cannot walk alone there is an instant feeling of relief because I can here myself think and controll my dream from that point onward.
However lately I still have these moments of Lucidy in my dreamstate but they are fleeting, and while I can controll what goes on outside my dream in said dreamstate my legs are still crippled, even though in REAL life everything checks out okay (KNOCKS ON WOOD)
A couple of years ago I heard someone on the radio talking about dreams. As you lay in bed, you say (either to yourself or out loud) “I will dream about such-and-such.” Well, I tried it, and it worked. Sounds simple, huh? For some reason, I haven’t tried it more than once, and I think I’ll give it another shot tonight. Research. Also, I think I was pretty tired that night and fell asleep very quickly, which is unusual for me.
Now here’s something odd (to me). When I was a little kid (and now, still), I feared having nightmares after seeing scary movies. So I’d lay in bed and think about the monsters or whatever, imagine them at the door, etc. etc. But I wouldn’t dream about them. So I figured that thinking about something horrible before I went to sleep would keep me from dreaming about it. Ingenious! Of course, it makes falling asleep in itself a nightmare.
I sometimes become aware of being in a dream. Usually this is when having a nightmare or some kind of disturbing dream. I decide I don’t want to dream it anymore, and I open my eyes. Kinda like having two sets of eyelids, I feel my eyes open, and I’m awake.
One other dream point. I used to think you couldn’t die in a dream. I’ve had a few dreams where I was shot. You could argue that I didn’t die, but in the dream I KNEW I had died. In the first one where this happened, Mr. Spock shot me repeatedly with an automatic weapon, an Uzi or something. I could feel the blood oozing out of me. I thought, “Hey! I wasn’t supposed to be shot! I’m dreaming!” And I woke up.
Instead of spending my time creating a whole new thred (I’m tired this morning give me a break :OP) I just decided to ask the question here. I noticed that all my dreams (whenever I’m the “star” of them) I have are in the third person. I never see myself from my viewpoint, instead it is like I am watching a TV show with myself on it, does anyone know if this means anything significant? If it does please share, thanks.
All my dreams are first person, when I am aware that I a dreaming I try and take control but this usually does not work, often for example in romantic situations) someone from Real life eg my brother will come in to the dream and disrupt whatever I’m doing often following me around and not letting me take control of a dream.
Also as I know its a dream I try and change locations instantly - this does not work and I occasional get some weird file set effect where bits of where I want to be (eg walls, buildings) are brought to where I already am.
Thanks to everyone that took the time to answer my question which at this point it completly answered, aside from some off topic and weird responses everyone helped alot so thanks.
