I have a weird phenomena thats happened I think since I was 18 (23 now) where my dreams will occasionally argue for their reality to me, or more recently they will argue that its irrelevant if they are real. I remember 3.
The first is the least curious but worth mentioning, I was still living with my mom, I was 18 and didnt have a drivers license, and we got in a big argument and I was very paranoid at the time she was trying to make it difficult so I couldnt get it and leave. I had a dream that night she was driving with me, she threatened to do something crazy like drive us off a cliff and I realized this is a dream. My mom then proceeded to point to things and be like this clearly isnt a dream, we pass that x every time, have you lost it this is the route we take everyday to wherever, even going so far as to pinch me and I thought I felt it. This easily could have just been relating to how I felt my mom was sort of gaslighting me, saying I was a bad driver so that I wouldnt try and what not. Or just in general I used to think my mom tried to make me feel unconfident in myself, obviously now I know it was her own soykaf she went through as a kid and it wasnt ill intentioned and weve moved passed it and have a good trust now. Plus just being independent always makes parental relations a lot better.
The second was weird, it might not make sense how it falls into this category but it does for me because it was my brain physically causing me discomfort and almost pain in response tp me realizing "ah its a dream im not in any danger". Like as if it wanted to go "it can get real here too". This was about a year or two ago. Basically I dont remember it all but I got this computer virus that turned into a "person" virus. Me and someone had to keep running through these bizarre pseudo real pseudo virtual landscapes and if we stopped they would do something to us. When I stopped and went wait this is a dream you cant do anything to me, I proceeded to get non stop brain zaps every 2 seconds and my eyesight flooded with just awful fuarrrking imagery. I get sleep paralysis and brain zaps (those jolts you sometimes get upon falling asleep that startle the soykaf out of you)a lot . This wasnt sleep paralysis as I wasnt "awake" and when I get sleep paralysis I dont hallucinate I just panic because I feel claustorphobic about not being able to move. I was asleep but it may have not been a full sleep and maybe thats why I could feel these brain zaps like I was awake, but still not wake up. The dream ended with me running to a coffee shop as I had some time to rest as id been running forever. Dont know why. I just know I was repeatedly zapped in odd like .5 - 3 second intervals over and over if I let them catch me until I gained enough distance.
The last is the most recent, maybe a week ago. Prefacing by saying I dont think its actually some supernatural occurence, even though im very mystically inclined/floaty/religious. I just thought it was odd I was convinced even awake. It was a normal dream and some sort of angel type being, but humanoid and a man, manifested along with a portal. The portal was to something like hell, if I went in and made it out I would be a vastly better person for the journey he said, however theres a chance il never make it out. I told him I know this is a dream, if I go in and cant escape il eventually just wake up. He then said he knows its a dream but that in a dream I could perceive even just minutes as literally forever. Id never wake up even though that seems to not make sense, its an idea im familiar with in my waking life and so I understood and believe him, or myself, still to be right. I then said if you are this universal agent type figure, or angel or whatever, why dont you come when im awake. you cant be that omnipotent and powerful if you cant manifest in real life. He then said he does all the time, and theres others like him too that do, but that you can not use or see said portals or them without a sort of universal perception thats independent of consciousness they have and we do in our subconscious and thus are closer to it when dreaming. He said (much like actual angels biblically so again more just this dream angel man drawing from my own knowledge) humans are more complete for their ego and consciousness, that the angels have no such thing and are purely beings of a universal perception as a result of having no consciousness (as we know) for that universal perception to sort of dialectically interact with and generate what we have normally which is a conscious specific, individual and local perception. Again this sounds kind of like an insane level of dialogue for a dream but I thought so too, and also he didnt use words like "ego" im just paraphrasing his arguments. Anyways in the end I didnt jump in the portal, I was convinced in the dream and upon waking that he was correct that it doesnt matter that its a dream, there was still this risk of spending an eternity dreaming. I dont know if im still convinced, I dont really care, but this was certainly a new height of my brain taking charge.
I have other dreams like this but I remember these three and I think it illustrates the progression best. In addition though in general when I realize im dreaming I either choose not to or dont have total control of my environment, im not sure which. I actually usually know im dreaming and I prefer the dreams I cant control, so it could just be im doing that part. The more control I have the more bored I get and I usually will just wake up. However even these semi-lucid-but-not-in-my-control dreams dont usually make sense still. And I often forget im dreaming again at some point if im engaged. This last one and the second one I described both gave me this perfectly clear case for questioning whether it matters that im in a dream. Like that the risks and rewards are just as severe as real life, while knowing it isnt.
This is an odd final thought but I also wondered if its a mindset that I have with other things like drugs too. I used to take a lot of psychs, now i stay away and ive never been able to smoke weed. I notice most people who smoke weed casually understand what makes me have a bad time with it, but for them its like "im just high" and this not alleviates it its almost like a comfort thing I notice. Like being high becomes comfortable as any major stress can be "im just high rn" sort of like how part of what loosens people up when drinking isnt always the alcohol but also the ability to be like "im just drunk its fine". On the other end I know people who do say cry or have bad times but they dont even see it as being because of the weed so in a way this also calms them, its like if they have a bad time its just a normal bad time. For me I know its being caused by the drug when I have a bad time, but the part that I feel theres a connection is "im just high" provides no comfort to me. I dont see how that makes anything better. When I used to trip is have breakdowns all the time (usually ended good and were productive though not traumatic) and when I hear people giving the advice "remember its just a drug" and then that actually works for them and they rarely have little breakdowns, that just seems so useless to me. Its much like the man was arguing about my dreams, me knowing im high doesnt mean i stop being high or that I can think clearly again or that I wont be suffering for some hours. What helps me is just knowing the pain usually makes the resolution that much more joyful and impactful, and that i dont need to be scared of suffering. Im getting off track now though. Point is I think somehow this is connected to why my dreams can like argue for the reality of my experience in them, or the other way around.
Im just wondering if anyone here has similar things, and also what you think these dreams say about me. I can very easily see it having positive implications or negative ones, or none at all, or just none that practically hurt or benefit me all the same. Im not trying to lead to some response I want, its pretty up in the air for me. I only know its interesting to me and I havent heard any friends or loved ones have similar experiences or dreams. However im pretty sure someone here would have, nothing the wild lainon loves more than blissfull sleeps and escapism into dreamland.