A block on my lucidity, how to progress?

Hi everyone,

I have seen a lot of posts on the forums here regarding lucid like dreams, semi-lucidity, dreaming about lucidity etc.
I’ve experienced this recently and it has been fairly consistent, and I haven’t been able to have a lucid dream due to these occurrences. Last night I recall in several dreams, having the thought ‘I must be dreaming’ performing some reality checks and finding myself carrying on as normal. 10 fingers, check, no breathing whilst holding my nose, check, read some text, look back and it’s exactly the same, check. My assumption is I’m not dreaming.

I’ve had lucid dreams in the past induced various ways, but now I seem to be stuck! This has been happening for a couple of weeks now, following this type of dream/state/behaviour, however you wish to label it.

I’m asking for advice, similar experiences, how have you resolved it etc. or just general thoughts and comments.
I look forward to hearing from you!

How good is your recall?

How many fragments, how long are they, how present are you?

I'm not sure what you mean by how many fragments?

These dreams are maybe 5 mins so that I can remember

Assuming how present I am is referring to how realistic it seems and how much I feel I am there in the moment, then very high, there was nothing unusual about the dream it was like a normal day, the only thing that triggered me to question it was I was at my old place of work

It may just be that the scenario was so mundane that it wasn't enough to snap you out of it. Also, if the RCs are indicating you are awake, you may need to change how you are RCing during the day (perform them more mindfully). If the RCs are indicating you are dreaming, but you blow it off, probably means overall awareness was low in that dream (and could possibly indicate your general level of daily awareness). Also, WBTB is super important for boosting awareness during dream. If you don't do them, might want to give it a try (even a short one: 5-10 minutes), along with focused induction.

Yes I think the daily waking awareness could be heightened somewhat, I'm sure that would help.

It was a very mundane dream! But this type of thing has happened in more typical dream like scenarios, unfortunately this isn't a one off :(

If traditional reality checks aren't working for you, pick an act of dream control as a reality check, something that you're proficient at and isn't likely to fail if you try it.

Hello jd90!
Just yesterday I read two articles that might help you with general daily waking awareness:
http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...kingyoshi.html
Puffin's DILD Guide - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I really like them, and I began practising the techniques described in them, although I haven't given them enough practice to form a verdict on their usefulness.
Good luck!

If you're facing a blockade preventing you from lucid dreaming why not walk around it instead of bashing straight into it over and over. In other words, take some weeks of lucid dreaming and try again later when you feel ready.

can you do basic math in your dreams? I know I can, but it is much slower and more hazy than in waking live. Stuff like... 5 x 26... -13... and so on. In waking live I shoot the answers straight out, in a dream I take much longer. That's also my go-to motionless RC.

I am shocked that the nose pinch RC does not work for you. I sometimes have difficulties at the first breath, but I really try hard every time I do it, also in waking live. At the moment I do the nose pinch RC I also always question "am I dreaming at the moment?" and try to look for other RC means, like digital clocks, switches and so on.

Text is normally visible to me in dreams, and also is always the same, no matter how often I look away. Only have two dreams so far to confirm this, but still...

ThreeCat Gave a really good reply, the general issue seems to be a lack of awareness in a dream.

As you've said:

" My assumption is I’m not dreaming."

One trick I've learned is to do reality checks with the assumption that you are dreaming. This challenges the basic human assumption that all experiences are waking experiences.

It shifts the burden of proof on your mind to prove that you are NOT dreaming.

Another thing I've found helpful is meditation. Some people are thrown off by meditation or see it as mysticism or new-age non-sense. However, meditation has been proven to improve mental clarity and concentration.

In my personal experience I've found meditation very helpful for increasing both my waking state and dream state awareness.

these a very helpful replies, I like what you say Arnov about shifting the burden of proof. I have read in several places the reliability of text and watches etc in dreams as a RC, if these have been realistic in my dreams I have just accepted it as a waking state.
I will question these more in future and come up with some sort of internal RC as well.

If you don't seem to get a positive result on any RC, what about trying the gravity RC where you jump into the air and float down. I've not had any success or even remembered to try that one to get lucid, but I guess it might work for you?

Ive not tried that, but when i used to drive in and out to work I would often have false awakenings so in the car every morning I would pull back on the steering wheel (slightly!!!) to simulate a planes joy stick and surely enough on the odd occasion the car would fly up into the air! I recommend anyone who drives to try it.

What has worked for me in the past is to 'will' something to move, slam a door, move a car for example, so as an internal RC I will try this more

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jd90

I'm not sure what you mean by how many fragments?

These dreams are maybe 5 mins so that I can remember

Assuming how present I am is referring to how realistic it seems and how much I feel I am there in the moment, then very high, there was nothing unusual about the dream it was like a normal day, the only thing that triggered me to question it was I was at my old place of work

---

Sorry I forgot to reply to this. :P

5 mins is pretty short for a dream, if you go by REM, all of your dreams are longer than that except one. If you think of NREM dreams, then all your dreams should be longer than this. I would recommend more recall or General Dream Awareness. This means that you are more aware in a dream, so even if your state awareness is high (thinking that there are two states enough to do a reality check), then if you are not aware enough in a dream, the RC becomes more a habit rather than an actual check of reality. If I ever think for one second "This might be a dream" I change my mindset to "I'm dreaming" I am not going to do anything stupid until proven, but I don't see anything wrong with flying right where I am or using TK at any point. One of the ideas for that I use for this is that the fact that I can't prove that I am awake in one second is proof that I am dreaming. It is a dream until proven wrong (I think that someone else said this on this thread as well).

Yeah it seems to be a common theme treating the situation as if it were a dream until otherwise proven. I guess that could be the reason my lucid dreams have reduced so drastically; because the RC's are as you say a habit rather than a genuine check.

I'll have a look around on the forums see what suggestions and threads i can find on improving dream awareness.

Lack of awareness in the dream is THE problem in lucid dreaming (at least it is for me and I'm sure many others)
Although my dream recall isn't too bad, my awareness in the dream is poor. I've only done an RC that caused an LD twice. Usually I end up doing an RC after I have become lucid just to confirm.
Although I do waking RCs, it seems very difficult to make them truly critical, and for me they just aren't bleeding over into my dreams.
One thing I have noticed more recently is that my dreams are more like normal life,with very little crazy things going on, which probably makes spotting it as a dream more difficult.

I think the key is to try not to assume anything before doing RCs. When I'm about to do one, I suspend my intuition for a moment and just honestly ask myself what should I do if this turns out to be a dream. Then I perform the RC, being prepared to accept and act on whichever result it happens to show. This has served me well since a lot of the time I'm actually quite surprised to discover I'm in a dream and not real life. Getting used to trusting the RC more than my own assumptions allows me to avoid “explaining away” the RC result in a dream and remaining nonlucid.

RCs in dreams seem to work better as confirmation tools for me than invoking lucidity in themselves. I usually start suspecting I'm dreaming by noticing something a bit weird, then I'll do the RC to find out what's going on. I think this is because my habit in waking life is to try to remember to RC (and be open to either possibility—WL or dream) anytime something seems just a bit off (even if it's not all that unusual), or I have a particular emotional feeling, etc.—whatever seems to occur commonly in my dreams.