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Basic Definitions for Lucid Dream Terms
Sep. 5th, 2021 06:00 amCut from the intro post for organization purposes.
Basic Definitions:
Due to the varying nature of dream experiences, these definitions are not set in stone. It's encouraged to make your own definitions, such as if that helps to remember them better or if your experiences differ.
LD - Lucid Dreaming acronym. A lucid dream is not simply a realistic dream, although it can be. All that's needed to call dream a lucid dream is being aware that you were in a dream and that this awareness was not intentional from the dream's plot. If it's intentional then it could be the dream using a faux awareness as a smokescreen - making you ignore parts of the dream that you wouldn't if you were fully lucid yet convincing your dreamself that you hadn't ignored a thing.
DC - Dream Character acronym. Any character in a dream is a DC. Most do not count the dreamer as a DC, but some do in the scenarios where your dream counterpart is acting according to the dream's plot instead of how you would normally act, ranging from 'you dreamt as yourself in clothes you didn't have' to 'you dreamt you were Satan'.
Dreamself - Common term for the person you dream as.
Dream Guide - a DC that can act as the dreamer's subconscious trying to help the dreamer learn lucid dreaming tricks. They can take the form of anything, including nonsentient objects. The way they 'teach' the dreamer can be through conversation, actions, symbolism, anything that the dreamer can take meaning in. [Example: an aspiring lucid dreamer wants to learn how to fly in dreams. In a dream that night, a dragon comes up to a dreamer and its presence reminds them that they are dreaming. On another night, the same dragon appears then soars into the sky to remind the dreamer about their goal to fly.]
RC - Reality check acronym. It's anything on one's 5 senses that can be used as a way to question if one is in a dream. Not always a safe method because of the existential questioning, possibly troubling for psychosis. Common RCs include counting your fingers, trying to blow air through a pinched nose, and pushing a finger into your palm to see if it goes through. [Example: a habit of counting your fingers every time you see a clock, which leads to lucidity when you see a clock in a dream and find out your hands have 20 fingers.]
Mindfulness - A meditation technique that many lucid dreamers use in hand with reality checks. This has been found having connections to dream control (Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel; 2017). It's to focus on the 5 senses and try to amplify the sensations of real life. Practicing this leads to a lucid dreamer potentially having more realistic dreams and being quicker to spot inaccuracies in dream logic. Another part of mindfulness is to distance oneself from the thoughts that you have, in order to build priority on thoughts that matter and to better discard the ones that don't. However, that distancing technique can harm those with dissociative issues as it could induce dissociation. [Example: taking a song that you usually listen to without thinking about it and putting effort into absorbing each musical detail, extremely focused on the song, closing your eyes and keeping still to minimize distractions by other senses.]
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Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel. (2017). Mindfulness and Lucid Dream Frequency Predicts the Ability to Control Lucid Dreams. Imagination Cognition and Personality. 36. 229-239. 10.1177/0276236616683388
Basic Definitions:
Due to the varying nature of dream experiences, these definitions are not set in stone. It's encouraged to make your own definitions, such as if that helps to remember them better or if your experiences differ.
LD - Lucid Dreaming acronym. A lucid dream is not simply a realistic dream, although it can be. All that's needed to call dream a lucid dream is being aware that you were in a dream and that this awareness was not intentional from the dream's plot. If it's intentional then it could be the dream using a faux awareness as a smokescreen - making you ignore parts of the dream that you wouldn't if you were fully lucid yet convincing your dreamself that you hadn't ignored a thing.
DC - Dream Character acronym. Any character in a dream is a DC. Most do not count the dreamer as a DC, but some do in the scenarios where your dream counterpart is acting according to the dream's plot instead of how you would normally act, ranging from 'you dreamt as yourself in clothes you didn't have' to 'you dreamt you were Satan'.
Dreamself - Common term for the person you dream as.
Dream Guide - a DC that can act as the dreamer's subconscious trying to help the dreamer learn lucid dreaming tricks. They can take the form of anything, including nonsentient objects. The way they 'teach' the dreamer can be through conversation, actions, symbolism, anything that the dreamer can take meaning in. [Example: an aspiring lucid dreamer wants to learn how to fly in dreams. In a dream that night, a dragon comes up to a dreamer and its presence reminds them that they are dreaming. On another night, the same dragon appears then soars into the sky to remind the dreamer about their goal to fly.]
RC - Reality check acronym. It's anything on one's 5 senses that can be used as a way to question if one is in a dream. Not always a safe method because of the existential questioning, possibly troubling for psychosis. Common RCs include counting your fingers, trying to blow air through a pinched nose, and pushing a finger into your palm to see if it goes through. [Example: a habit of counting your fingers every time you see a clock, which leads to lucidity when you see a clock in a dream and find out your hands have 20 fingers.]
Mindfulness - A meditation technique that many lucid dreamers use in hand with reality checks. This has been found having connections to dream control (Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel; 2017). It's to focus on the 5 senses and try to amplify the sensations of real life. Practicing this leads to a lucid dreamer potentially having more realistic dreams and being quicker to spot inaccuracies in dream logic. Another part of mindfulness is to distance oneself from the thoughts that you have, in order to build priority on thoughts that matter and to better discard the ones that don't. However, that distancing technique can harm those with dissociative issues as it could induce dissociation. [Example: taking a song that you usually listen to without thinking about it and putting effort into absorbing each musical detail, extremely focused on the song, closing your eyes and keeping still to minimize distractions by other senses.]
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References
Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel. (2017). Mindfulness and Lucid Dream Frequency Predicts the Ability to Control Lucid Dreams. Imagination Cognition and Personality. 36. 229-239. 10.1177/0276236616683388
