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I've been trying to lucid dream for a few months now, and I haven't had one yet. I heard of a technique called "Looking at your hands" by Gritz, and I'm a little skeptical. I was just wondering if anyone has had any luck with this technique. Any tips would also be greatly appreciated.
Hi,
In all lucid dreams at which i looked at my hands they seemed distorted, blurry, or simply said weird.
Everything depends if you have enough awareness to notice weird stuff that goes all the time around in dreams.
While looking at your hands you should aswell mindfully question yourself if they are looking like real life hands should.
You don't want to turn your Reality Check into mindless habit.
I suggest you reading this thread:
http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...d-secrets.html
I mean honestly it does work, but it takes time. Robert Waggoner used this method. But theres really nothing special to it, all your doing is training yourself to see if you're dreaming when you look at your hands. You could easily mold this method to fit yourself, meaning instead of using your hands you could use your feet, or anything else you could think of. Its the same thing you do when you figure out your dream signs, you train yourself to notice them and see if you're dreaming. This is a very flexible technique but if you know how to use it right it can do alot
The name Gritz is not familiar to me. Maybe that's a user from a different forum? For me, the idea of looking at your hands for lucid dreaming is most associated with the books of Carlos Castaneda, who describes a South American shamanistic "Nagual" approach to lucid dreaming (some of which turned out to be exaggerated or fictional, but that's a whole other topic). Regardless, it's a decent technique that is useful even outside that traditional belief system.
Looking at your hands is both a reality check and a dreamsign. As a reality check, while looking at your hands, you should ask yourself very honestly and critically: "Am I dreaming?" The hands are convenient because they are always with you and you should be familiar with what they are supposed to look like. At the same time, it's a bit unusual to look at your hands closely. How often do you do it in a normal day? That combination of familiar and unusual is a good recipe to test your memory and awareness of reality. As a dreamsign, it's often the case that your hands look strange because your dreaming mind doesn't always get the fine detail correct. You might see too many or two few fingers. Your fingers may stretch and bend like clay. If you usually wear a ring, it might be missing. You can use these strange dream visuals to confirm that, yes, you are dreaming.
So, if you're curious to try it, it's a good reality check + dreamsign to use along with MILD or any flavor of DILD technique. To be more specific, I'd suggest counting your fingers. Do it slowly and deliberately, while questioning if you are dreaming. You can practice this in waking life and it will hopefully carry over to dreaming. The important thing to remember is that it is a habit to cue you to question your state and look for clues that are dreamlike (like having too many fingers). That is what makes you lucid.
I suppose that's possible but the hands do work the best because it's easiest to lift them into your field of vision. Usually you're busy standing on your feet, and even if not it's tricky to get one in front of your face, and then there are shoes in the way…Quote:
Originally Posted by OneUpBoy71
Hands were chosen because they're almost always there and easy to lift into your field of vision. Props may or may not exist - there may or may not be any walls or floor or ground in whatever place you find yourself in a dream. You may not even have a body, but the hand trick is for those dreams in which you at least have that. Or I suppose if you try to look at your hands and find you don't have any that should make you realize it's a dream.. :chuckle:
Personally I think if I were using that old trick I'd combine it with a finger palm and then do a nose pinch, since you've already got your hands activated in the dream.
Thanks everyone! I dont think I was very specific before, as I am reffering to the modified version of this technique which can be found here: How to Lucid Dream: 16 Steps - wikiHow
Yeesh!! Look at your hands for 30 minutes??!! I'd think 30 seconds would be a lot better. Personally I'd just look at them and examine them briefly, while really pondering whether this is reality or a dream. Then when closing my eyes I'd visualize looking at them over and over. Maybe also a mantra to remind you.
Thanks for the thread, MisakaMikoto! I'm beginning to read it and its very in depth and helpful.Quote:
Originally Posted by MisakaMikoto;2111697
I suggest you reading this thread:
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Yeah, if you're looking at your hands for 30 minutes, then it's not really the hands that matter. That's just an anchor to focus your attention, like meditation. In that case, it's the amount of time that you spend with your mind thinking about lucid dreaming that would have a positive impact. It's not a bad idea. Personally, I'd recommend spending those 30 minutes journaling, planning, or daydreaming about lucid dreaming.
I know, right?! I thought 30 minutes was way too much. Thanks for the tips, I'm definetly trying that tonight!Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkmatters
Every time I looked at my hands in my lucid dreams they were heavily distorted/blurred/disformed or other weird stuff, even if I try keeping them steady they blurr all over the place. However I never became lucid from the RC, I was already lucid but used the RC as a confirmation.
I see my hands in less than 1% of dreams, if even that much. When when lucid I mostly only see my hands when I will myself to look at them out of curiosity. As a lucid trigger for me at least that's a poor choice. Unless you combine it with dream induction techniques or waking habits of frequently looking at your hands. You should tune your lucid trigger to match what you tend to dream frequently about.
Looking at your hands as an RC wouldn't be the "best" RC. Your hands can be deceiving in your dreams. They can be as real as your subconscious mind projects them to be. IMO I say focus on self awareness, there's a lot of perks to come with it. Environmental on the other hand is a different story.
The only dream sign I have is friends. Every dream I have has a friend in it, but thats completely realistic, so I try not to depend on dream signs too much. Any tips on that?Quote:
Originally Posted by FryingMan
There is no rule that dreamsigns must only occur in dreams! If you always see friends in your dreams you should definitely stay mindful and do RCs whenever you meet with them when waking.Quote:
Originally Posted by alanaelease
Lol DarkMatters I feel like you know what I mean all the time but you still enjoy over analyzing it or going against me :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkmatters
Oh wow, that totally slipped my mind... That's gonna be awkward but I think a lucid dream is gonna be worth it. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by FryingMan
I would also like to add that it is easy to remember to look for your dream signs while being in a mindful, "I'm going to look for dream signs" state--whether it be your hands, your feet, or anything else. I think the important thing is associating "dream!" with an object so completely that whenever you see this object, you immediately are yanked out of however many layers of non-lucidity you are currently wrapped up in and brought into a critical state of mind. I find I can form this association more easily with objects (like items that frequently show up in my dreams) than for people and actions. This may be my own personal limitation. I do carry a "totem" (for lack of a better word) to jog my memory about performing reality checks. Whenever I see it in waking life, I immediately think to do a reality check. On the other hand, trying to attach "dream!" to whenever you sneeze, or whenever you drink something, IMO, is harder.
Keep working at your goal, alanaelese. I would also recommend finding a good induction method to begin practicing before bed and whenever you wake up in the night. MILD works well for me, and seems to work by making me overall more critical of my surroundings (as opposed to waiting around for my hands or other dreamsigns to show up). Good luck.
Thank you so much! This was really helpful. I wish I had an object that frequently appears in my dreams... I think for me personally that would really be a lot easier. Thanks again!Quote:
Originally Posted by ThreeCat