I was dreaming about driving motorcycle convoys in Hardanger, Norway. Apparently the convoys were dangerous, with many crashes. There was great interest in joining, everything from Harleys to mopeds and trial bikes. I think that one guy from my gym was organising it, possibly the mind went there because he looks a bit like a biker. Signing up happened in a party tent with some basic camping tables. When I came to sign up the last time just before I woke up, the race was completely full and I said "Ok, I'll drive alone today then", I recall many near crashes and driving alone didn’t seem like a bad choice to me at the time. I think I had a girlfriend in the dream but I can't recall who she was. The dream had a pleasant feel to it, mixed with some adventure and excitement. I think it was a quite vivid dream.

I almost forgot it immediately upon waking, but fortunately I could pull back the memories before they were irretrievably gone. It's amazing how quickly they vanish!

I am thinking about the difference between a dream where I am not lucid and a lucid dream. It seems to me that a non-lucid dream is very much a happening. It happens, there is no thinking, no true agency. I witness thinking and agency happening without participating in it. The dream lives its own life, in a way. Like a film.

How would that be different if the conscious mind entered the dream? Would I be able to sit down in the tent and think about it? Enjoy the view? Write a blog post? Do "slow" activities like taking a walk in the dream? Would time appear to move slower in the dream?

Upon waking, I began thinking about whether or not perhaps I had had a false awakening, and did a "reality check". I think that the simple act of asking that question "Am I dreaming?" may act as a bridge between the waking and the dreaming world. I should ask myself that question more often throughout the day.

It seems to me that the waking world is a different kind of dream, where there are things like thought which gives the appearance of a fixed "me", whereas in the dream there is only the dream. In the waking, there may also be only the dream, but the dream consists of being a self, a person which causes confusion about the dream. It seems more solid because of the fixed reference point - me, which is constructed of thought.

It is difficult to articulate the difference accurately, probably because when "not being anyone" in the dream, there is nothing to talk about. Agency is present, but it is not owned by "a someone". Decisions occur, reactions unfold, but there is no reflective centre claiming them. It is closer to watching a film that somehow already knows what comes next than it is "actively deciding what comes next".

In waking life, there is also only the dream, but one of its recurring characters is a self that seems fixed. Thought keeps re-asserting that reference point, stitching moments together into a narrative called “me”. That stitching gives solidity, but it also creates the impression that there is someone standing outside the flow, when in fact the flow includes that someone. The question is, in the waking dream, does "actively deciding what comes next" in actuality happen? I think perhaps not. The waking dream also somehow knows what comes next and my decisions have very little to do with what that is, if anything at all. All they do, is create the recurring centre "me".