Shared dreaming

I often wonder if one of the characters I see in my dreams is an actual person somewhere in the world who is sharing the same dream from their point of view. However, from the little I've read of current data on shared dreams it seems to require the ability to lucid dream which doesn't hold much water for true sharing.

If two people agree to lucid dream for a specific script and then do so in their dream they are just both enacting what they agreed to do. Not true sharing especially if you discuss the dreams in general terms of the script after waking. E.g. a dream about riding a unicorn will sound the same but you may not ask about the details of the environment you were riding through.

I've read that family, friends or twins can share dreams. Is this purely anecdotal or is there scientific evidence and what is the level of similarity in the dream?

[Rawnrr]

Lucid dreaming does not involve scripts.
The reason people talk about lucidity being required for shared dreams is that you need to have your consciousness reasonably active in order to differentiate between an actual encounter and something that is just fanciful thoughts in your own head.

[Squatchit]

I have a friend who had a shared dream. Three of them arranged to meet at a pub in their dreams. No script. Two of them remembered similar things, talking to each other etc. The third didn't remember anything, although the first two saw the third at the pub. Anecdotal yes, but interesting. I have no reason to doubt his integrity.

As Rawn says, lucidity is preferable for these types of experiments as, putting it crudely, you take more of your "mind" with you when lucid. Meaning you can think sensibly, logically and clearly without any "dream fuzz".

With regards to "true sharing", is our waking reality ever truly shared between two people? Ask a group of people who have experienced the same event to share that event. Odds are you'll get different accounts from each person.

A few years ago my best girl friend and I shared similar dreams. Unlike the responses here me and her never planned to share a dream it just happened.

For both of the dreams she said exactly what had happened from her point of view. Except in one of them where I woke up and she told me what happened after I left.