The Culture that has been here all the time

I have studied lucid dreams in the past and have experienced some very interesting ones (I remember most of my dreams). I had a lucid dream last night, and this morning, scanning news articles, I was surprised to see a prominent story about lucid dreaming. For those who do not know about them:

Key Characteristics (AI)
Conscious Awareness: You know you are dreaming while the dream is actively happening.
Control and Manipulation: Many (though not all) lucid dreamers can exert control over their actions, the setting, or the dream narrative.
Physiological State: Lucid dreams primarily occur during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Scientists have validated this phenomenon in sleep labs, where participants signal their awareness through pre-determined eye movements while still asleep.

The CIA studied the phenomenon intensely.

My lucid dream involved a relationship with a woman (I never met her in life), I found her very attractive, and we were interacting in various common scenes: a room, a beach, a lunch, just like it was happening for real. Sadly, just as we seemed to be getting into a relationship, my cat decided to walk all over me and wake me. He brought me back to my mundane reality (I still love him and forgive him).

Instead of offering links and literature, I will leave that up to you because the body of information is large and varied.
 

Politicians collect favors; some men collect conquests of women; some women collect conquests of men; and greedy businessmen acquire companies. I collected CDs, rocks, books, and a few guitars. Some may say I collected wives, having been married three times, but my late wife and I were together for 41 years. Since she passed, I struggle to find my place on Earth now.

For most of my life, I overcompensated for my weak ability to socialize and to trust. Becoming a singer-songwriter was my great mask. Now I know how to go through the motions, but I am unsure if I can trust people. The only person I truly trusted was my late wife, and that was from the first moment we met, despite both of us having less-than-perfect lives before then.

Religious people, some family members, and some who claimed to be friends only served to feed my insecurity when they failed to live up to their promises. I have been doing a lot of introspective thinking, and I have come up with a disturbing question: Am I a disengenious person?

Perhaps people misread my inner insecurity, or perhaps I fooled myself into believing I was a good person. I was wild a large part of my life up until I became thirty-six and my marriage to my late wife. We were religious because it seemed to embrace two damaged people, but I discovered it was not a solid truth. I do have core positives, but I may be blind to my core negatives.

BDSM experience has given me a lifeline; I believe most participants are more honest than the general population.