Comment by GetSchwifty on How did experiments with lucid dreaming pan out? · 2016-11-26T09:34:58.545Z · LW · GW

Hello there. I am a lurker. To make an account for the sole purpose of momentarily commenting on one post is, highly abnormal for me. But I thought it might be beneficial for your inquiry. Some of us do lucid dream quite regularly. I am not aware of the statistics regarding such things and I wouldn't say I have the most pristine memory capabilities as compared to any other individual, but I do believe that I may be on one extreme of the spectrum.

I lucid dream practically every night and have done so for as long as I have been able to adequately self reflect on dreams. I suspect this is sometime around pre adolescence. I am able to recall in what I can only describe as a photographic manner, most all of my dreams to some degree, for at least the last couple of years. This is most likely I believe due to an aptitude to retain said information upon waking better than others. I say years, as while I don't recall every slice of every dream, accounting for every week and month etc. I do remember more so than not and this result has been consistent. Almost like recounting one's favorite movie scenes. I can recall floor plans, number of occupants, gender of company, distinguish real persons from projections (copies of real people vs npc's), and regularly experience a recurring degree of disembodiment and in a shifting first person to third person perspective.

My dreams usually encompass multiple and distinct parts and I find it very easy to pick up a dream where I leave off after momentarily waking. Also, I have found that the degree of realism doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference. Whether I'm at work or teleporting between solar systems, once aware, I am able to distinguish myself as an entity from my surroundings. Imagine the now meme ridden inception film. This is how it appears but to a slightly lesser extent. I know I am not experiencing real physics or time. I know that people in this space are not real persons though they may feel real under momentary scrutiny. This is a hard experience to conceptualize.