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There are 4 states of consciousness - waking, dreaming, dreamless and Turiya although some people do refer to 5th state called Turiyatita. According to Adi Shankara, dreams are created by Jiva.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.3.9 -

He himself destroying, he himself shaping dreams with his own splendour, with his own light.

There is a type of dream known as lucid dream. According to Wiki:

A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming. During lucid dreaming, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment.

This is the difference between normal dreams and lucid dreams, in normal dreams, dreamer has no control over environments and objects but in lucid dreaming, the dreamer decides what to do next!

Dreamer might want to go on a solar system trip or a visit to Betelgeuse which is 700 light years away. Dreamer can fly like a free bird or dive in the ocean like Godzilla! There are a lot of experts in this field who have years of experience in lucid dreaming and according to research, most people experience atleast 1 lucid dream in their life.

But do scriptures contain anything about it? As far as I know, Upanishads talk about dreaming state but not sub type of it.

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  • Shaiva scriptures subdivides these states. And for lucid dreaming, Malinivijay Tantra says- "When during the entire phantasmagoria of his dream state, the dreamer does not lose hold of his self-consciousness, when he is fully aware of himself and knows that he is only dreaming, then this state is known as svapna-turya. This is also called susamahita state, because in this state the dreamer is a fully integrated individual. " Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 11:22
  • I think the phenomenon of Lucid Dreaming proves that dreams are created by Jeeva...
    – Tezz
    Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 13:05
  • @Tezz Well the Jeeva doesn't have complete control, just enough to nudge the world in a direction, just like they do in the waking world. Commented May 25, 2021 at 10:53

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