I just had a really weird dream. One of those that you wake up and go back into the same dream later when you fall asleep again. I was me but surrounded by people I don't know irl but I truly did in my dream. I was with a group of friends. One of them was going through a separation and we were helping him move out. The ex was there as well and we all knew her and the guy for years. She was a part of the friend group.
The thing that really fucked with me is these people that don't exist were so real. It included inside jokes that I knew, back stories of how we met. Reminiscing of things we did together in the past. I remember pulling out my phone and shooting the shit with one of the guys showing old pics and videos of crazy shit we did in the past for instance.
There was also drama that I knew about in my dream and watched progress / unfold in front of me. Like a few of the closest people to the guy going through this were a no show.
Idk it was just fucking weird, like I was completely emersed in the situations, having unique conversations with these "friends", the story progressed like the movers finally showing up. People coming and going. Me getting yelled at to get off my ass and start helping.
The whole thing was surreal and I think what made it weirder was that it wasn't very eventful. Usually dreams are more interesting? Like it was just me, existing, doing something with this friend group that doesn't get together very often anymore that I had known for years but literally don't exist. Another weird thing is I wasn't the main character. I was just helping a friend out that needed me.
Idk, the whole thing fucked with me. I have never had a dream so.... Immersive based completely on people I don't know?
I've had lucid dreams as long as I can remember and yeah sometimes they really stick. I tend to have good control over my dreams too and so when I get into one and I can't control it I feel very helpless. Historically I've also been able to wake myself up from dreams when I lose control but the last couple of years my brain has caught on. Sometimes now when I wake up I actually end up in another dream that mimics how I wake up from dreams then it'll warp back into whatever I was trying to wake up from. It's turned into an arms race where I'll go through my wake up procedures multiple times and honestly some days I'm uncertain if I've actually woken up or not.
How do you know this isn't a dream?
Pinch your nose so you cant breathe through it. If you can still breathe even though you're plugged up tight, you're dreaming baby. Note : might not work with a cold.
Also you can check the time, and see if it stays the same when you check it again.
Also mirrors. You look fucked in a mirror if you're dreaming.
Also "lOoK FoR tHe ReD bAAaLllLlL". I sarcasmatyped that one because it keeps coming up in tropes and its never once worked for me.
I'm gonna be real, something deep in me can't tell the difference. This reality has more emotional consequences (both good and bad) than dream reality though so I'm more careful here. I just kinda let that existential thought sit around off to the side and if I don't poke at it too hard it doesn't cause me any noticable harm
In a way, life is a dream, inasmuch as it's interpreted through the same wetware that dreams are. Much of the same stuff is at work at all times.
I think fairy tales and religious stories tickle something in us IRL because they have an almost dreamlike quality to them
I get in those false awakening loops, too! They're so trippy and stressful.