Thread: OPEN BETA - Open beta TWOTLD - Day 2

Hi cvdmehden,

Firstly, I hope you truly are looking for feedback and not just pats on the back. No doubt you do deserve pats on the back for the work that went into this, but I see lots of problems here.

That said, I'll start with an editorial comment.

You have to decide who your proper audience is for the book. In the first chapter, you do give lip service to the idea that newbies may try to read the book, but do you really think any newbie reading this chapter would be able to follow your theory?

Originally Posted by cvdmehden

Reality checks are tests performed while awake to establish that one is, in fact, awake.

The more workable approach for me has been to use reality checks to confirm that I'm in a dream... although that confirmation fails more often than not, and it turns out I'm not in a dream, coming at it from that angle... looking to prove I'm dreaming... requires far more inspection of my world than simply asking "am I awake."

Other than vague self-hypnotic affirmations right before bed...

Setting prospective memory and self-hypnosis are apples and oranges. The idea of setting prospective memory was THE breakthrough that led to LaBerge being able to eventually lucid dream almost at will.

...or waking up and going back to sleep all night.

Because sleep cycles are what they are, WBTB is, and always will be, a valuable approach to increasing the odds for success in our lucid dreaming efforts. In my opinion, your tendency to diss proven and workable tools will lessen your credibility in the eyes of experienced lucid dreamers.

But what is it that causes this tool to (sometimes) work?

I suspect you may have missed the boat entirely on how RCs work. What's missing in the dream state is MEMORY. The practice of doing regular Reality checks leads at times to the introduction of a little standard memory function to the dream state, which can blossom into full awareness. It's MEMORY that sparks the awareness which triggers lucidity. Once that awareness is in place, RCs can help solidify the reality that we're in a dream, but for the most part the RC comes AFTER the fact of becoming lucid, rather than before.

“Oh, gravity is just off today.”

“There’s probably a wiring problem with that light switch.”

“I can only sort of fly. If I were dreaming, I could fly a lot better.”

If we consider these scenarios the outliers of reality checking...

But they are not outliers. In fact this is the default state of the dream world. It appears that you're trying to force an unworkable theory to work, namely your idea great truths are to be found in the outliers, when it doesn't want to.

Talented dreamers know the power of intent and expectation in the dream.

My prediction... If in the end your approach leads to improved expectations and prospective memory, there may be some limited workability here, but not because there's been a true technical breakthrough.

In any case, thanks for sparking a great discussion.

Niall