Trading lucidity for control?

This idea has a lot to unpack, so stay with me.

First of all, a few nights ago, I had a very lucky and interesting non lucid dream. It showed clearly how lucidity and dream control are quite separate. Basically, a combination of maybe dream seeds from reading “Are you dreaming?” and weird happenings in the dream, the dream went in a intriguing direction. Everyone had just been granted infinite wishes with no logic or rules, just infinite wishes. Now, as I was non lucid, I made some bad decisions with my wishes, and did not really think too much about what to do, just mindlessly went through making weirdly specific wishes. Examples: wishing for a clone (maybe) which I then wished away, a small force field for no reason, the ability to walk through walls (neat), and lastly, a mask to wear because I was inside a building (safety first). And, in a moment of sheer irony, I thought of and decided against wishing for more lucid dreams (what’s the point with infinite wishes?) But, the biggest lesson in this is that wishes really do work to help with dream control. There are some nuances, though:

First, there is no way to reliably get a non lucid this fortunate with easy dream control, it’s better to aim for lucidity, which has more benefits.

Second, I am not that good with dream control, but this was a great lesson in the role of expectation. Because my non lucid mind blindly accepted the idea of infinite wishes, that WAS my reality, which means there was no reason to not expect it to work.

With all of that said, I was thinking about the potential of this experience for use in lucid dreams. Like the title implies, I wonder if giving some logic or lucidity away could work to improve dream control. It seems like this could be a balancing act of accepting the possibilities of being in a dream with waking expectations. I tend to overthink things quite a bit, so maybe just a more relaxed approach at dream control would work out? I’m not too experienced with this topic, but I wonder if this is a good strategy as I’m aware that “full control” or “full lucidity“ aren’t common or even always beneficial in a dream.

So in conclusion, I had a lucky non lucid with lots of untapped dream control. I learned the power of expectation to influence dream control first hand. I thought it might be a good strategy to apply in lucid dreams (stop trying too hard, convince yourself of a fictional rule). I know this is a bit repetitive, it sounds like the reframing and wishing techniques in “Are you dreaming?” , but I wanted to share my perspective of these ideas.

As always, comments and thoughts are helpful, so don’t hesitate to share! Especially on the opposite phenomenon, trading dream control for lucidity.