handoflixue comments on Being Wrong about Your Own Subjective Experience - Less Wrong

37 Post author: lukeprog 24 April 2011 08:24PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (187)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: wedrifid 25 April 2011 01:45:50PM *  5 points [-]

Dreaming in color - I don't even see where you're going with this. Some people do, some don't. It changes over time. Where's the error? Are there people who think they dream in color but don't, or vice versa? How is this relevant?

Dream in colour? With, like, pictures? I think I mostly dream in concepts. With occasional pictures included for effect now and again.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 25 April 2011 02:29:21PM 2 points [-]

Can you describe a mostly concept dream?

I always have visuals in color going on in dreams. I'm not sure that I hear sounds. I get some kinesthesia. Sometimes I get concepts in the sense of "just knowing" the backstory for something in a dream. I only remember taste/smell happening once.

I've read that no one dreams of landing a real punch, which I assume means a plausible amount of tactile/kinesthetic input.

Comment author: handoflixue 25 April 2011 08:33:26PM 3 points [-]

I've read that no one dreams of landing a real punch, which I assume means a plausible amount of tactile/kinesthetic input.

I've found my dream senses work about as well as my imagination and memory do - which is, admittedly, certainly a bit fuzzier than reality, but I have all my senses.

Admittedly, upon being told I "can't" do something in my dreams (dream in color, read in a dream, observe fine detail), I'll usually have a dream within a week that contradicts that assertion. My subconscious is ornery like that. It's also annoying having learned that if I pinch myself in a dream, it does in fact hurt, which lead to one dream where I was utterly convinced it wasn't a dream until after I woke up >.>

(Inexplicably, light switches never work in my dreams. This is the sole "sign you're dreaming" that has actually worked for me)

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 26 April 2011 09:27:28PM 2 points [-]

(Inexplicably, light switches never work in my dreams. This is the sole "sign you're dreaming" that has actually worked for me)

Mentioned in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream#Reality_testing , as well as the non-reliability of the pinch test.

Comment author: handoflixue 26 April 2011 09:53:11PM 1 point [-]

Interesting, thank you! I don't recall that information on the "pinch test" last time I read.

That said, the "look at ground" has never worked for me, and I realized "look at numbers/text" doesn't work for me when I started doing comparison price shopping in my dreams. I'll have to try the breath holding one, but, ahh, given it's a very familiar sensation, I doubt that test will work for me either ^^;

Comment author: Cyan 26 April 2011 10:53:23PM 0 points [-]

One that worked for me was to check if I could see through my hands as if I had X-ray vision.