That's extremely common and I never found that particularly frightening. After my very first lucid dream (that I can remember) I woke up and started writing it up in my dream journal, but the ink kept dissolving as I wrote, as if I was writing on fresh tippex. Took me a while to figure out that I was still dreaming. Then I woke up properly.
The dreams aren't so much nested as in sequence. You have a dream, you become lucid, you get excited, you think you're going to wake up, and so you dream about waking up and become un-lucid again.
Took me a while to figure out that I was still dreaming. Then I woke up properly.
Or not.
EDIT: Having read through a lot of the book now, it's very interesting to consider what's going on and the metaphysical implications are intriguing. I digress, what I'd like to know is how do you know that you have not simply dreamt that your dream was lucid. How can you really know you have control as opposed to having dreamt you have control; this question finds an analogue in the question of freewill in [wakeful] life.
Of course, you could try arguing that I just dreamt that I was making conscious decisions, but that's just splitting hairs.
That's exactly what I was intimating. Some believe that freewill is a similar illusion. There is no clear way to know, except that within the restricted arena of your dreams, assuming you're an honest person, then we can ask you to dream a certain thing in advance and see if you can.
That doesn't rule out the dream being a created memory that doesn't occur until you come to "remember" it however.
Comments
That's extremely common and I never found that particularly frightening. After my very first lucid dream (that I can remember) I woke up and started writing it up in my dream journal, but the ink kept dissolving as I wrote, as if I was writing on fresh tippex. Took me a while to figure out that I was still dreaming. Then I woke up properly.
The dreams aren't so much nested as in sequence. You have a dream, you become lucid, you get excited, you think you're going to wake up, and so you dream about waking up and become un-lucid again.
Took me a while to figure out that I was still dreaming. Then I woke up properly. Or not.
EDIT: Having read through a lot of the book now, it's very interesting to consider what's going on and the metaphysical implications are intriguing. I digress, what I'd like to know is how do you know that you have not simply dreamt that your dream was lucid. How can you really know you have control as opposed to having dreamt you have control; this question finds an analogue in the question of freewill in [wakeful] life.
Pretty easy:
1) I was dreaming
2) I had the conscious thought "hey, this stuff doesn't make sense. I am dreaming. Wow, I am aware that I'm dreaming, even though I'm dreaming."
3) I then took conscious steps to alter my dream, for instance, stepping out of the car within which I was and flying away.
Of course, you could try arguing that I just dreamt that I was making conscious decisions, but that's just splitting hairs.
Of course, you could try arguing that I just dreamt that I was making conscious decisions, but that's just splitting hairs.
That's exactly what I was intimating. Some believe that freewill is a similar illusion. There is no clear way to know, except that within the restricted arena of your dreams, assuming you're an honest person, then we can ask you to dream a certain thing in advance and see if you can.
That doesn't rule out the dream being a created memory that doesn't occur until you come to "remember" it however.