Ethics in lucid dreaming

Uhh am i the only one who thinks that ld’s are a chance to act beyond the ethics of society.

It gives you a chance to do things you normally wouldn’t do, without consequence.

Not that i have done anything like rape, torture, murder, or anything like that, i’m just saying.

You shouldnt have ethics in an LD, its the one time to set yourself free and go wild.
Of course i have never raped or whatever in an LD xD

But think about it, say you really wanted to see what it would be like to…slit your wrists for example… do it in an LD. Want to see what its like to kill someone, throw a puppy off a building? Do it in an LD. It can stop alot of people from doing things in real life, where so many things are unethical.

^.^

I’ll do pretty much whatever seems like an awesome idea, at the time. That being said, ingrained habits and moral principles might sneak into my LDs, if only subconsciously. Sooo…

-I’d never rape a DC. Call me a prude, but if I were to have any sort of sexual dream I’d most likely stick to my girlfriend.
-Killing would be ok, but no torture… that’s a bit messed up.
-On that, I would NOT search for a specific person, just to kill them. I’ve got my enemies, but dwelling on it is bad. (if I meet their DC along the way, though… well, bonus!)
-I’d never mess with anything sacreligious or satanic… seems like it’d bring on lucid nightmares :bored: .

…that’s about it. I’m pretty big on freedom in LDs, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to adhere to my rules.

I can’t say no boundaries, but very limited ones. Although I have killed people and perhaps some other evil things it isn’t habit or common. I guess you could say I’m not against anything in dreams but I don’t make a habit or commanality of doing immoral things as I feel this could “corrupt” you or fool you into “believing/doing” unrealistic things.

It’s interesting that you included rape because you can always make the DC want to have sex with you, it would never have to come to rape - unless you consider controlling “free will” to be rape.

On a one dream basis - NO. But I think, as mentioned above, that consistently doing evil/unethical/immoral things can lead to more sinister thinking or unrealistic expectations in RL.

I don’t think you should define ethics for yourself in a lucid dream - but instead use common sense, or your consciousness. If it tells you not to kill someone, than don’t do it. If it tells you to say hello to someone, than do it.

Just be sure you are not restraining yourself too much (It can make you lose and will to LD, which is never pretty)

I think theres two types of ethics - the ones that are guilty pleasures, for example sleeping with your wifes sister in an LD, or murder ETC.
But then theres the things that your sub-concious wouldnt even think of doing, therefore of course your restricting yourself, just not… intentionally :content:

My ethic guidelines are… Well is;

  • If it does not amuse you, don’t waste your time doing it.

Your lucid dream is your “funscape” - Do what you please :wink:
This goes to ME, because I feel that I can separate dreams from reality. I know that what goes on in my lucid dreams only happens because I know it’s a dream.

I agree MovieMe.
Thats a good philosophy :wink:

However some people may not have that borderline between ‘its just a dream’ and reality. which is a scary thought. But for most people that are at grasp with reality… this would make sense. (your rule…)

:cool:

The problem is, how do we know the characters in are dreams have no consciousness? We cannot know for sure. Through our perception in our dreams, they act as if they do have somewhat a will of their own. Science does not know what exactly makes up someone having a will; it could have little to do with cells. One goal society has is to create true artificial intelligence with real consciousness and emotions. I’m not saying we’re interacting with other humans, but what if these fictional dream characters are not as fictional as we think they are? After all, they appear real and act in a realistic manner. Even if they are all our heads, are they truly not conscious of their experiences?

At least, this is a possible theory I have. I do not believe it, but I leave it in the back of my mind. As I am a human, I indulge in humanly desires with no regards to ethics sometimes, but for the most part I try to keep up my ethics, as otherwise I feel repercussions through my conscience.

I try, however, to keep my dream ethics as far away from society’s as I can. Of course, as we are all cultivated by society, they will largely overlap, but I try to use psychological logic to back up and dismiss possible dream ethics.

Great discussion we’ve got going here!

Viscount Slurpee, I definitely agree with you. While some people may be able to separate dream ethics from RL ethics, I believe that it’s not good to given into reckless passion, even if it doesn’t directly hurt anyone at the time. I, for one, know myself well enough to say that while going against my RL principles once or twice may not affect my judgement at all, in the end it would desensitize me, and I’d give in more easily to impulses. Rational thinking and higher principles are what make us human, and I feel that having temperance in all activities helps to keep one’s mind and body fit. But hey, everybody’s got their own code of morals that they live by.

… on that, though, I’d totally agree that ethics should be relaxed a little bit in LDs. I’m not one to engage in mindless violence or sex while lucid (see previous post), but if it feels appropriate to the dream and you feel comfortable doing it (i.e. it doesn’t break any fundamental principles that you have), I’d say go for it. For example, I usually just talk/become friendly with DCs, but I had a lucid where I discovered that my doctor was a child molester. So, I punched him out… and you know, it felt pretty darn good :peek: .

i agree with most of the posts in this thread.

Dont you think that once you do things in an LD that are considered “unethical” that theres a less chance of you doing it in RL where consequences are abundant? :wink:

Well, yes and no. While doing things that are unacceptable IRL can be a way to relax and ease your urges to do them for real, I think that it would only be a temporary fix. It depends on the severity of what you’re doing, of course, but let’s say you spent time continually murdering someone in the dream, and taking it slow while doing it. Eventually, you’d be so frustrated at seeing them IRL that the LDs just wouldn’t be enough satisfaction; the dreams would just desensitize you, and make it easier to give in and kill them for real.

Of course, this may be an extreme example. But I think that extremes are the only things that cause real need for a code of ethics in LDs. Small crime, I think, is pretty much ok. Stealing, pulling pranks, fist fights, killing in self-defense or combat… to me, doing these things in the natural course of a LD is psychologically good for you. It’s when one engages in really evil/sinister activities (particularly on a regular basis) that there’s any cause for concern.

I have been told that my grasp of ethics is at the lowest level possible anyway. In other words I only play nice out of fear of punishment. I don’t think I would be held back by real world ethics if there was something I really wanted to do in a lucid dream, no matter how gribbly.

But, as a number of people have said already, I would probably avoid repeatedly acting out specific transgressions. It seems a bit obsessive and I am not too keen on becoming that obsessed with anything, whether in my dreams or in real life.

hmm lets see…
in my lucid dream
i would NEVER touture someone i hope to never have hatred this strong towards someone

i would NEVER touture a animal

i try avoid killing someone however i consider places like prison tourture especialy if u spend a long time there. its half of your life gone in some cases so i proberly would kill someone insted of sending them to jail for half there life

to be honest i would keep the ethical standerds i have in real life

if i was to do what we all want to do :razz: i would get to know that person and never force them or pressure them in anyway

Erm… alright then…

You can control DCs in your dream so you could just make someone dissapear, or transport away from them.
And rape is impossible in a LD considering you can make them want to.

So… Yeah.

I would say not exactly. Repeatedly acting in a unethical way in lucid dreams will change the way you think anad your expectations. If, for instance, you go and every time you have a problem with a DC ylou make his head explode two things happen. First, you get desensitized to violence and unneccesary killing. Second, it creates unrealistic expectations for the real world. It’s not improbable that if you made this habit and ran into a troublesome person in real life you might try (breifly) to “solve” the problem in the same manner. I’m not saying that killing in dreams will transform you into a murder, but I certainly belive that acting evil consistently will have a negative impact on oneself.

I almost agree except its not impossible to rape because you wouldn’t have to make the DC want to have sex. You don’t, however, have to rape a DC if you want to have sex with him/her/it.

How, they are constructs of our mind, any intelligence or lifelike qualities a DC has are simply attributes that our SC attaches to the dream character.

@LucidityMaster -

Well, yeah of course :content:
Was just answering in the context fireblazer was refering to.

believe me when u start as a total noob you dont have that much control, so you can rape somebdy(does not feel good), you can even give them “free will” and then rape them (never done that).

Well, i kinda feel bad, beeing new and a total noob (already mastered materialization and teleportation, and once cloned myself!) I already made every bad think ever mentioned here (exept throwing a puppy off a building i mean WTF?, cutting my whrists or torture an animal) here the experiences:

-Killing for fun feels lil bad, exept in epic battles like matrix or 300 which are fun. Anyway you can rematerialize them again…

-Raping feels got at the moment, but in RL you’ll feel very bad for at least a week, seing the person u raped is like %$&$%&, not good wont do it again, if i had known how to control that DC i wouldn’t have done that.

-Torturing an enemy feels good at the moment, i dont got frustrated when i saw the real one, but kind of provokes more anger.

-I believe that DC are not like real persons, BUT in the practic there is no diference, exept when you take the DC’s free will.

While I understand that part of the fascination in LDs is total release of your inhibitions and that dream characters aren’t real, there is some hurt in mindless violence, rape, etc. It hurts yourself. Ever action you take affects you psychologically, especially in dreams when your mind is more open and impressionable. It’s like a form of self-hyonosis. How would you feel if you broke that barrier and raped your best friend - only to find out that it exhilirated you and whenever you saw that person the image popped up in your mind? It can affect you, but the good news is we coudl also use our dreams to strengthen our positive attributes. Helping a stranger in a dream may very well allow you to be more willing to help out in real life, and so on. Thoughts?