Do dream characters exist beyond the dream? I asked one.

I met a person in my dream last night and it was a friend I use to have several years ago in college, but we parted ways. I had a pleasant talk, some of it confusing and others enlightening, but personal stuff that I don't need to explain.

(I don't remember the exact words, but this is essentially what was said in more or less words:) I ran out of things to talk about and I looked him straight in the face and asked, "You know this is a dream right?" He said yes. I asked, "Do you exist?" He said, yes, I exist in your head. (It made perfect sense to me at the time. I can see him, hear him, if I wanted to I could have touched him. He exists in all the ways we define existence in reality.) Then I asked, when you leave here, and I continue with the dream elsewhere, or if I wake up, do you still exist? He didn't answer and he turned and left around a corner, but I followed to keep my eye on him. Although viewing him from behind I felt like he had morphed and upon closer inspection, I was right. He was now a different person altogether. I yelled at him, "Do you remember who you are!" I tried to jar his memory, but it was too late. He was gone, and a new body took his place, without 'him' inside.

Wow! That's actually really interesting!

I've had characters who I have made up in real life when I'm creating characters for my work (Animating video games) where I am required to give them back stories and history, actually appear in my dreams as if they were human and after talking with them, would seem as if they would return to whatever job or event that I had created for them when I would leave them.

If they appear in another one of my dreams though, its as if they have been reset back to when I first talked to them. It may be because I haven't advanced on their story in my head yet, so it just sticks with what I've already created. O:

This is sort of where my Reunion with Dream Characters post question came from. I personally hope it's all based on what we believe or what we want to happen with that DC when we meet them again. I still havent had a good enough lucid dream to meet a DC I wanna meet, hang out with, and meet again, myself :| . But when I finally get lucky, I want to meet, then meet again with them remembering me, our experiences with each other and having the same personality they had before.

No.

Guitar48300 wrote: This is sort of where my Reunion with Dream Characters post question came from. I personally hope it's all based on what we believe or what we want to happen with that DC when we meet them again. I still havent had a good enough lucid dream to meet a DC I wanna meet, hang out with, and meet again, myself :| . But when I finally get lucky, I want to meet, then meet again with them remembering me, our experiences with each other and having the same personality they had before.

This same question has been brought up many times in many ways. I still haven't met the same dream person twice and have been able to pick up where I left off as if they have a memory of the past dreams. I don't even care what they look like or what form they take. I want to meet the same 'person' again, with the same memories whatever they may appear as. It hasn't happened for me though.

I'm a nay-sayer, and think dream characters only exist in our minds and dreams no matter how vividly they appear. Our minds are miraculous things which I can only begin to understand. (You would think we are born with this, but no, I can spend my whole life getting to know 'myself'.)

Some think they exist. I personally don't think so. But what does it hurt to ask? We should all do that! But just like my dream tells me, they do exist for all intense and purposes, but only in the dream as long as you perceive them. (makes you think about 'what is existence at all?', but that is a whole new can of worms for not just a topic, but a whole forum for the ages!)

It is possible for a DC to exist beyond just one dream and reside as part of ones own subconscious mind, but this is unusual but may happen with characters which writers make up in thier books or those who make animated games .. they think of thier character so much that it starts coming into their dreams and can then also take up like a life of its own too at other times IN THE PERSONS OWN MIND, in the most extreme cases it can even start (their own subconsciousness) talking to them in that character in their daily life (like a halluncination which sounds real to the person who's competely awake). Im not refering to those who get mental disorders here.

So yes it would be possible to that question but very uncommon. .........

sighs.. I cant even get a reincurring DC into my dreams in which is someone I dont know in real life.

I think it would be interesting for a advanced lucid dreamer to tell certain DC's a number to remember, then in a later dream yell that number as loud as you can and see if the DC returns. This could be a great way to identify your DC's. It could be a number, a name, anything that is unique. Someone please attempt this and tell me how it goes im SUPER interested.

Look up Hellblazer. Alan Moore once claimed that he saw the real John Constantine. Not some sting look alike or Keanu Reeves, but the actual guy.

Wow I wish I can become lucid and just talk with a dc for once. But alas I can't become lucid. Idk why. After trying for like 3 months I just gave up. Many I should start trying again ;)

Maybe you should stop denying people their well earned cookies! :lol:

Lol I can't. It's hard not to....I need the cookies. I survive on them :D

I take it Cookie Monster and Cookie Nazi (Seinfeld) were already taken hence the name. But I kid.

As for you Haggart dream characters existing in real life. Aside from from what I said earlier regarding Alan Moore and Constantine. It actually really depends on what you mean. Like are you asking if there is a place they go when you are awake, or could they exist in the real world? But existence in of itself, my belief is that if you can see and feel it, it's real regardless of if you alone feel it or anyone else with you can as well. In most of my own lucids I have seen and felt almost anything I laid my eyes and hands on. Even by chance encounter just to see if what I was seeing was real I grabbed someone by the shoulders. Much to my own supply I felt real clothing cloth and skin. If that is not real I don't know what is.

Though now that I think of it. The way you described your DC seems like the Dream World Equivalent to a Time Lord. The same person, but always different in persona and sometimes appearance.

AceOfSpades wrote: Much to my own supply I felt real clothing cloth and skin. If that is not real I don't know what is.

Agreed. They ARE real in the dream the same way we define what is real when awake. Some of them have 'self-preservation' instincts just like any other life form too. It blows me away! But I have never met one that retained any memories of our last encounter. They seem to just disappear when the dream ends (or even sometimes before it ends), and if I meet another it is a clean slate all over again.

Some of those self-aware type dream characters I meet, although they appear different each time, and have no memory of our last encounter, I have a sneaking suspicion that they are the same 'entity', whatever they may be. Perhaps my subconscious awareness personified, or something more paranormal, but whatever they are, I am very interested and am working on it. My goal is to meet them and say, "Hello again! Remember last time we met?" and start where we left off.

HAGART wrote:

AceOfSpades wrote:Much to my own supply I felt real clothing cloth and skin. If that is not real I don't know what is.

Agreed. They ARE real in the dream the same way we define what is real when awake. Some of them have 'self-preservation' instincts just like any other life form too. It blows me away! But I have never met one that retained any memories of our last encounter. They seem to just disappear when the dream ends (or even sometimes before it ends), and if I meet another it is a clean slate all over again.

Some of those self-aware type dream characters I meet, although they appear different each time, and have no memory of our last encounter, I have a sneaking suspicion that they are the same 'entity', whatever they may be. Perhaps my subconscious awareness personified, or something more paranormal, but whatever they are, I am very interested and am working on it. My goal is to meet them and say, "Hello again! Remember last time we met?" and start where we left off.

I meant to say surprise, damn auto correct. The way I see it, only speaking from my own experience there are three factors when it comes to a dream character. The first factor is that many of them stem from the memories of your friends and loved ones hence why some dreams before they become nightmares often depict a good day to have with a family member or a close friend. The other factor is characters spawned from your own subconscious which are split into two or more groups. The first group being different versions of you be it who you are on the inside and who you want to be. The second being your perception of characters you seen in a movie or a TV show. The third factor though and this one I truely believe is that the character is not a character at all but an Avatar of an outside force who some how got in from another person to an entity from another world. This person would not only feel as real as they look but unlike the examples I mentioned who are zombies convinced that the dream world is the real world. This Factor knows the world you and he/her/it inhabit are not real. The first version of yours may be a factor 3 while the "Different person" is a factor 2 posing as a factor 3.

AceOfSpades wrote: I meant to say surprise, damn auto correct.

LOL. I was a little confused, but actually thought maybe it's some sort of slang, and I am an idiot. Regardless of that damn auto-correct, I understand the content of what you are saying and that is more important.

We all have our own theories why, but there is a clear distinction between a DC that knows it is a dream and others that don't. That's undeniable to anybody who has experienced it. Some have a full personality separate from my own and others are like mindless drones. This one in particular was about half-way between.

And we can't answer this with one post or one thread. That's what this whole section, sub-forum is for. And I am not afraid to say those three words most people dread: I DON'T KNOW!

Knowing things makes us people, but when we reach the point of saying those 3 words it makes us human. Well you anyway. Me I am not even sure what I am. My look is human but the way I talk has often sounded otherworldly. Maybe these lucids taken toll on my mind or maybe something else. Anyway, don't wanna ramble on. In between you say? Now that is a supply (Surprise. That wasn't auto correct this time. Since you thought it was a slang I decided to make it one.). When I am not going in and out of the lucid world one of the few things I have tried to put together as sort of a hobby was trying to create an A.I. One thing that always intrigues me about A.I. is that it starts out as a drone, but upon development be it by it's developer or itself is that it eventually takes a life of its own. Goes from a robot created from codes and set patterns to a living artificial being with a mind and emotions. Your in betweener sounds like the Lucid equivalent to a robot gaining a mind of it's own, evolving for lack of a better word. Never have I known to see that happen.

Maybe this is going off tangent, but I like this discussion.

I believe that an artificial intelligence can be created in a computer. It requires some creative programming and allow it to evolve and learn on it's own. You can use the human brain as a model. Once created though, it is self aware, has a sense of self-preservation and starts to think about it's own existence and what is beyond it's scope of reality beyond the machine it inhabits. Give it some way to sense the physical world or feed it 'artificial' physical sensations, and you have a life form. IT'S ALIVE! It's like Frankenstein's Monster or HAL from 'A Space Oddessy'.

What does it mean to be 'alive'? Some argue that fire acts like life, because it feeds, grows and procreates with embers. Philosophers have pondered this for ages, long before any of us, and we still don't have a concrete answer that I can stand on and say, "YES! That's the way it is."

I still use those three words, which doesn't make me weak. I am just honest. And proud of it!

GOOD TALK!

Thanks I love a good philosophical conversation. But ya this quote though might turn around your "I Don't Know." Ironically it's from a work of fiction.

From Justice League episode Legends. Green Lantern: It's stupid really. Why should I feel like this? I mean, they weren't even real. Hawkgirl: They gave their lives for us. That's real enough for me.