One time I tried to make jesus/buddha/a saint/god or something like that appear in a room. I could see a golden light coming from the room and I walked towards it. A little goblin jumped in front of me when I got close to the threshold and I just looked at the creature. It had a big mask. I knew I could have just punted the thing aside but I "decided" to be scared of it anyway and wake up. Oh well.

Unreal! I would have been quite frustrated by this indeed.

It reminds me of the time I was floating in space and a goddess was whispering loving words to me while massaging my back. She told me she was going to show me something I would never forget, but I was such a horny bastard that I instead picture her as a busty woman and felt her breasts instead. To this day I still wonder what she was going to show me.

Usually I don't really play around with dream characters if I am lucid. A lot of my more uncomfortable becoming-lucid moments involve the people disintegrating into puppets or they become zombielike. I can make them say whatever I want them to or have sex with them or kill them

Sounds pretty uncomfortable. I have never encountered puppet-like DC's but I do not want to, and as a result, do not even attempt to will such things, even subconsciously. I value free-will as a concept too much to deprive it even of beings I know I have created.

Re: your edit. It depends on what is essential, it depends on your goals. There are practical differences between awake, asleep, dying, but techniques and lessons learned from one benefit all. I'm not really sure I understand the edit in the context of the rest of the post. It's a big question.

I threw that on at the end because I was worried my post was a little too focused on my experiences and wanted to tie it to a discussion that might be relevant instead of just, "oh, neat story."

I like your mentioning of techniques being applicable to all modes of existing. I want to begin to use lucid dreaming for this purpose, practicing things that I will do in waking life. I've heard of people practicing musical instruments, creating musical scores, paintings - there's the obvious imagining a movie script or story - and of course, it's a great practice for playing with intention and ensuing manifestation.

What's something you've done in a dream that has benefitted you in waking life?

For me it actually helps me understand women better. The women in my dreams actually act surprisingly like the women in waking life, in that they are attracted to me when I'm detached, and repulsed by me if I'm in need of them. Thus, playing around with this in a world where there are no consequences (which, could be said about waking life too) is beneficial.