Confusion: Rising Hands

[Peranthai]

Odd Experience: I just attempted sleep breathing while lying flat on my back and had something odd happen. After a certain amount of time my hands and forearms started to raise upwards with very very little effort on my part (it started on its own). Nothing else was raising and after my forearms were fully upright ,with my hands still a little limp, I opened my eyes. I performed multiple reality checks but all of them worked out and I knew I wasn't dreaming. Is there anything I can do from this point to put myself in a lucid dream? Also what was this?

[gab]

I believe those were your dream arms, not your real ones. If that happens again, try to lift your whole body by thinking/wishing yourself to rise up and you can direct your motion also by thinking where you want to go. You can think 'to the door', or any other place away from your bed. You can also try to roll out from your sleeping body, or stand up and walk away.

[bro]

I agree with Gab and also think you were dreaming already. The thing is, more often then not, when you find yourself lying there, in your (what appears to be real) room, thinking "Damn, here I am again after trying to WILD", and dismiss any strange happenings (For me: Stretched/glowing hands, flickering digital watch, "stretched"-looking room), you've successfully gotten in. For you, the sign was very weak hands. Learn from this: As you experience more False Awakenings, you will become familiar with the subtle oddities that make your dreaming world different from waking. When you're eventually at the point where you agree and think "hey, maybe this is my lucid dream" don't be afraid to get up and move. Get on up =)

[Sensei]

I don't like to risk moving voluntarily because it changes my balance of concentration. I like to imagine something raising me up from the ceiling without me moving. Then I imagine a dreamscene without opening my eyes. That way I just teleport away. (I hate my dream room). If you start feeling sensations, then ignore them and just stay in the same awareness or you can knock yourself out of the WILD zone.

[gab]

The thing is, more often then not, when you find yourself lying there, in your (what appears to be real) room, thinking "Damn, here I am again after trying to WILD", and dismiss any strange happenings (For me: Stretched/glowing hands, flickering digital watch, "stretched"-looking room), you've successfully gotten in. For you, the sign was very weak hands. Learn from this: As you experience more False Awakenings, you will become familiar with the subtle oddities that make your dreaming world different from waking. When you're eventually at the point where you agree and think "hey, maybe this is my lucid dream" don't be afraid to get up and move. Get on up =) 100% agreed. The transition can be so smooth, that you can be still thinking about WILDing or even what to prepare for dinner, without noticing, that you are already in the dream, still aware. All you need to do is stand up to realize, that you are in a lucid dream. This may take some time for anybody to process. It took me a while to get it and to start believing that it is possible. When I read comments like "when vibrations stop, just get up". I looked at it in disbelief, because I never felt like I could "just get up". But the key is to think about it often and to believe, that it will happen for you the same way. And don't wait for vibrations, or any other sensation. They may never come, or you may have different one each time. But as bro says, you will get familiar with that dreamy feeling and know when you can get up or roll out. My first attempts were "ok, I know I'm still awake, but I'll give it a try and get up, even if it will ruin my attempt". The moment I got up, the environment changed from me being an observer to me being inside a 3D environment. I take leap of faith. By the time you are seing your dream room, you may not be able to remember what you wanted to do, or just simply think you are still awake. For this I started using mantra "when I see my room, I get up". Later I have adapted this mantra to "when I see, I get up". This had worked wanders. Not only for WILDs, but a few times when I fell asleep into regular dream, later in a dream I realized "I see" and it got me lucid. Main thing is to believe that it's possible and you can do it. It is so much fun to go through these hallucinations, I wish everybody could experience them. Happy dreams

[Peranthai]

So I tried again just for the hell of it. After I tried I was sure that I was awake because I posted something on a forum. After checking again in the morning I found it again so I know it actually happened. Also when my arms raised up when I woke up my actual arms had raised up too (with little to no effort of my own). Does this mean that my dream body was trying to pull away from my real body and it didn't really work or something? (Note I've been trying to LD for a long time but never really did any deep research into the terms and what not)

[gab]

It should not be happening after you wake up. Maybe the feeling stays with you for a few seconds, but after you awake, your dream body should be back in sync with physical body. Are you sure, you were awake? Did you do any reality check? You could have been still so relaxed, with little feeling in your arms, that it may have felt as they are moving without any imput from you?

[Peranthai]

Now that I think about it though, I might have been dreaming. I thought the post I had posted when I woke up was there but I remember posting something somewhere and possibly waking up in the morning and finding out it wasn't there. I'll pay attention more next time. I do know for a fact though that when I got up I couldn't make anything special happen. I tried closing my eyes and imagining other things to be there but nothing spectacular occurred. Also I suppose it's the whole point of "false awakening" but everything pointed to the fact that I was awake.