I can't convince myself I may be dreaming

[Sl137]

Every time I've had a lucid dream, I've never looked at something wierd, examined my surroundings and through that was able to tell I was dreaming. Every time I just know that I am. So in waking life when I do rcs, I'm never able to convince myself that I could be dreaming, and my reality-based checks feel pointless. How can I remedy this?

[Sensei]

Have you ever had a dream, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? Matrix aside, have you ever had a dream that you were 100% was real and then you woke up? There is a dream that I tend to call "The Dream" It is the dream that makes you realize exactly how realistic and insane and aware lucid dreams are. The only way that I can describe this is to say to look around now and realize that no matter how much you think that this is real, no matter how much you remember of the day, no matter how clear your hands are, it could still be a dream. Lucid techniques are not trying to incubate a RC into your dreams, but trying to incubate awareness into your dreams (awareness of the fact that there are 2 states). I usually have a higher chance of becoming lucid in a dream about going around my house getting ready than I do if I am having a space adventure dream. It isn't noticing weird things that get you lucid, but remembering that there is such a thing as a dream. A reality that can be just like this one that we visit in our sleep. This is why I don't say "Am I dreaming?" during RCs, but "I am dreaming." I am only trying to remember that there is a dream state and realizing that there is a good chance that i am in it.

[Sageous]

Or... Every time I've had a lucid dream, I've never looked at something wierd, examined my surroundings and through that was able to tell I was dreaming. Every time I just know that I am. So in waking life when I do rcs, I'm never able to convince myself that I could be dreaming, and my reality-based checks feel pointless. How can I remedy this? State tests (aka, RC's) were meant to confirm your state -- whether you are dreaming or awake -- and were not meant, at least originally, to have you convince yourself that you are dreaming. They were also not meant to convince you that you are awake either. They were meant to do nothing more than confirm that your conscious state (awake or dreaming). So there is no need to convince yourself that you are dreaming during a RC... or anything else, for that matter. In other words, the only thing you should be doing during a daytime RC is (sorry, Sensei!) asking the question, "Is this a dream?" and then doing a simple test to confirm your state (i.e., looking at a clock twice, or trying to push your finger through your palm). Nothing more. If the RC succeeds, then you are not dreaming (or else they would have called it a Dreaming Check); if it fails (i.e., the clock's numbers change or your finger passes through your palm), then you are dreaming. After your RC confirms you are awake, you could certainly take a moment to imagine things like the dreamlike characteristics of of your surroundings, but you certainly do not need to convince yourself that you are dreaming. How could you, especially after you just proved to yourself that you were not dreaming? I'm not sure how all this other stuff got attached to doing a RC, but I can see how all those extras have made a very simple exercise very confusing. On top of all that, trying to convince yourself that you are dreaming seems a mission doomed to failure, because in your heart of hearts you know you are awake when you are doing one (and, ironically, you will have that same sure knowledge that you are awake if you do a RC when you are in a NLD, though the state test will hopefully tell you otherwise). tl;dr: You do not need to convince yourself that you are dreaming during a RC; just ask yourself if you are dreaming and do a simple test to confirm your state.

[Forg]

Something that really works for me: don't answer your question "Am I dreaming?" with 'no' or something like that, rather answer it with 'maybe' or don't answer the question at all to keep yourself a bit wondering about the state you are in at the moment.

[Hitokage]

I have actually always used RC in an opposite way. Not like convincing myself to be dreaming but checking if this is real life. Try to use that, feel the life around you, feel your body and your presence in the world. You might notice that the feeling will be different in dream, somehow "not complete" ^^

[Dutch]

Imagination can be as realistic as real life. Your reality really just is what your brain pieces together from imperfect inputs from your senses, and it adds and removes plenty of things it thinks are there or aren't there. Things that come to mind are colour in your peripheral vision, the blind spots in your vision, hypnopompic hallucinations and phenomena like ghost limbs and random itches. In short, your brain gives a very limited, imperfect view of reality, and whatever it might simulate without the senses can be just as real to you, the observer. There are certain things it'll mess up in a dream though, and those are the ones you seem to have to look out for.

[DreamBrandt]

My simple remedy to this is to say " I am dreaming " throughout the day. This is effective for a few reasons. The end goal of attaining lucidity is not to question whether or not you might be dreaming. The end goal is to know you are dreaming. To attain this, it is better to ground your intention as a direct statement in the now. "I am dreaming". I find that when going through the day questioning " am I dreaming? ", I end up in my dream spending all of my time wondering if I really am dreaming. That is partly why I find RCs to be useless.

[Sensei]

My simple remedy to this is to say " I am dreaming " throughout the day. This is effective for a few reasons. The end goal of attaining lucidity is not to question whether or not you might be dreaming. The end goal is to know you are dreaming. To attain this, it is better to ground your intention as a direct statement in the now. "I am dreaming". I find that when going through the day questioning " am I dreaming? ", I end up in my dream spending all of my time wondering if I really am dreaming. That is partly why I find RCs to be useless. Hi, I agree with you. We be friends long time? Haha. But seriously I am completely in agreement with this but I haven't met someone with ore LDs than me that holds this idea. I am not worried about thinking I am dreaming in waking. I just want to know I am dreaming in dreams.