Thread: My biggest fear has happened. Please help.

I'm screwed. I now have no RCs that work for me. Last night for the first time ever the nose pinch test completely and utterly failed me in a dream. I couldn't breathe at all. I would have and should have become lucid. I paid such careful attention to the check but my breathing was absolutely blocked off just like RL. My f****** brain has finally learned to simulate this too.

It's 6am and I feel completely ripped off and cheated. I did a WBTB at 4am, went into a dream, did my nose pinch and it failed. There's no point in me going back to bed again now because I have no way of establishing whether I'm dreaming. I'm so depressed right now. The NP check was not only the only RC left that worked for me it was also quick, subtle, and didn't require me to interrupt conversations with people or stop what I'm doing at work. Hence I've been able to do a huge number of them. As a result I've had enormous success with DILD. I have done approx 30 NP checks every day for two months. That's about 1,800 nose pinches. Now it's over. There's no point in me ever doing another one. I don't see how I'm going to achieve lucidity now. Stopping to really think about "whether I'm dreaming" isn't going to be anywhere near as easy, convenient and effective. It's going to be rude and disruptive and probably unreliable too.

I am really quite upset right now. I dedicate so much time and energy to my lucid dreaming. The very last post I made on here before I went to bed last night was saying how LD is the best hobby I've discovered in my life. I should be sitting here right now completely elated and writing in my lucid Dream Journal. I would have had a hugely long LD if the RC hadn't failed because the dream went on for ages afterwards and I should have been lucid.

This is frustrating beyond words

What RC can I use now?

The following RCs do not work as my brain has learned to simulate all of them perfectly:

• nose pinch
• hand through wall
• scene change
• jumping
• looking at my hands
• looking at my clothing

Experienced lucid dreamers, I really really need your help with this one. This is going to be a challenge. I've actually been testing out other potential RCs during my LDs in case the nose pinch ever started failing. I've found nothing reliable.

I might have to carry some text around with me and use that. It's going to be nowhere near as convenient but it's all I can think of.

Maybe I'll use my digital watch. The problem is, it's really intrusive to look at your watch when talking to someone. They notice it and think you're in a hurry to go somewhere.

So has anyone else faced this problem? Please can you share exactly what RCs you do during the day. I'm feeling quite down and out right now

Originally Posted by DreamQueen

I'm screwed. I now have no RCs that work for me. Last night for the first time ever the nose pinch test completely and utterly failed me in a dream. I couldn't breathe at all. I would have and should have become lucid. I paid such careful attention to the check but my breathing was absolutely blocked off just like RL. My f****** brain has finally learned to simulate this too.

It's 6am and I feel completely ripped off and cheated. I did a WBTB at 4am, went into a dream, did my nose pinch and it failed. There's no point in me going back to bed again now because I have no way of establishing whether I'm dreaming. I'm so depressed right now. The NP check was not only the only RC left that worked for me it was also quick, subtle, and didn't require me to interrupt conversations with people or stop what I'm doing at work. Hence I've been able to do a huge number of them. As a result I've had enormous success with DILD. I have done approx 30 NP checks every day for two months. That's about 1,800 nose pinches. Now it's over. There's no point in me ever doing another one. I don't see how I'm going to achieve lucidity now. Stopping to really think about "whether I'm dreaming" isn't going to be anywhere near as easy and convenient. It's going to be rude and disruptive.

I am really quite upset right now. I dedicate so much time and energy to my lucid dreaming. The very last post I made on here before I went to bed last night was saying how LD is the best hobby I've discovered in my life. I should be sitting here right now completely elated and writing in my lucid Dream Journal. I would have had a hugely long LD if the RC hadn't failed because the dream went on for ages afterwards and I should have been lucid.

This is frustrating beyond words

What RC can I use now?

The following RCs do not work as my brain has learned to simulate all of them perfectly:

• nose pinch
• hand through wall
• scene change
• jumping
• looking at my hands
• looking at my clothing

Experienced lucid dreamers, I really really need your help with this one. This is going to be a challenge. I've actually been testing out other potential RCs during my LDs in case the nose pinch ever started failing. I've found nothing reliable.

I might have to carry some text around with me and use that. It's going to be nowhere near as convenient but it's all I can think of.

Maybe I'll use my digital watch. The problem is, it's really intrusive to look at your watch when talking to someone. They notice it and think you're in a hurry to go somewhere.

So has anyone else faced this problem? Please can you share exactly what RCs you do during the day. I'm feeling quite down and out right now

Here's some things that you can do. First you can try bitting your arm in your dreams. You really shouldn't feel pain in your dreams, then you can do a gravity rc. maybe try jumping off of something like a table or if you have good dream control try flying as a gravity rc. I'm going to do some more searches online for more reality checks to help you. Here are some more rcs that i found out about. Pick up a book, often the pages inside the book will be blank. Also try flipping a light switch, the light may not come on. You could find a mirror, and look at your reflection, you may look different.

Thanks so much for your quick response. It's much appreciated because I am feeling pretty discouraged here.

I think I'm going to have to use text. It's the only thing my brain can't currently simulate.

Looking in a mirror is no good - not only can my brain simulate this in dreams perfectly but it's not convenient to run off in search of a mirror 30x a day and there will be times when I simply cannot (eg imagine popping off to do this doing this during a job interview).

It's also not practical if I'm say in a shop or a movie theatre or at work to go playing with the light switches. The driving force behind my enormous success with DILD has been that I have been doing RCs heaps and heaps with no limitation on when and where I can do them. Besides, playing with lights wakes me up in dreams anyway.

Biting my arm - my brain will learn to simulate the feeling, trust me.

Jumping off a table won't work. It's completely impractical to do this in public 30x a day and my brain will easily learn to simulate it in a dream.

Finding a book might work, but again, it's not practical to go looking for a book 30x a day.

The brilliance of the nose pinch was I could do it anytime anywhere without anybody knowing.

I did say it is not going to be easy to fix this problem!

I'm thinking I will have to use my digital watch or my cell phone screen and explain to people why I'm looking at it so they don't think I'm in a hurry to get away.

You can't really suffocate in a dream.... can you? *gulps*


If I think of any RC that you haven't named, I'll tell you. All mine I do is the ones you name.

Originally Posted by hellohihello

You can't really suffocate in a dream.... can you? *gulps*

I totally couldn't breathe. I always do my NP check really carefully in RL and I did it carefully in the dream paying close attention. My airway was completely blocked. It felt identical to RL.

I'm really thinking I'm going to go with the digital watch check. I am feeling quite positive again and my spirits have lifted a bit.

I actually do more than 30 RCs each day, that was an average estimate. It's more like 40 or 50, which means I have pinched my nose and tried to breathe about 3,000 times in 2 months. That's how bloody dedicated I am! And it has been working a treat. I'm having so many DILDs! Last night would have been awesome. I was so conscious and in such a vivid dream. I was even thinking about this forum and telling you all about the amazing thing that happened. If only my check hadn't failed!

I bet once you stop doing the other RC's all together, your brain will forget about it. The digital watch should be your best bet because no matter what you do, it will never look the same.

Edit: I wonder what would happen if you kept your nose pinched in your dream

Yeah good idea hellohihello... I'm declaring war on my brain.

I'm going to get a digital watch with all sorts of complicated features including having a space invader-type game built into it if I can find one and I'm going to wear it 24/7.

Let's see my smart-arse brain try and simulate that in a dream!!!!!!!!

Hey, I've got to go to work now, but will be back later. Any further support or suggestions appreciated!

DQ

Hmm... That is quite a serious problem there DQ. You already know that I don't rely on RCs to become lucid so I can't help you there, but I can try to get you to do it my way.

Now, remember that "feeling" of being in a dream, that is the only thing I really rely on to know that I'm dreaming. So the advice I can give to you is to "double check" your reality when you do your RCs. When you get to the point of doing an RC, try to ask yourself what you were doing a few moments ago and how you got to where you're at now. I've noticed that when I find myself in a place having no recollection of how I got there usually gives me the idea that I'm dreaming. Because when I try to trace back what I was doing to get to where I'm at now, I usually remember that the last thing I was doing was falling asleep! But I know that there's always a lot going on in dreams, but if you slow down enough to do a RC, then I think you might be able to slow down enough to ask yourself what exactly is going on.

I guess this isn't very helpful because I dont have much experience with RCs at all.

On another note, you can try getting back into WILDs. I mean remaining conscious all the way until you're dreaming so that there wont be any doubt whatsoever as to whether or not you're dreaming. That one always works for me!

I remember one! It's about memory.

Can you remember what you were doing earlier? Stop and think about it. Ask yourself is all this real.

It's a little more work but it is one way.

Yeah, both clock and text can fail, as they are stable on my dreams... Then again, I suppose part of your problem comes from thinking your brain will eventually find its way to mimic the new RC, if not, it would have been like that in every single dream (logic dreams, I mean) <.<
So just be positive and the brain will stop with the mimic game,
I agree with Hellohihello, the memory check should work, unless its a FA. Or if not, you can always try my gravity RC lol

Originally Posted by DreamQueen

Finding a book might work, but again, it's not practical to go looking for a book 30x a day.

carry one.. with you?

lol

try thinking more positively about it. don't always think that the RCs will not work in dreams, because if you think like that they most likely won't. the hand RC always works for me in dreams. when i try to put my fingers through my hand they don't go all the way through but you can feel that it's kind of like play-do or something.

look at something, look away from it then look back again it should be diffrent...hoped this helped!

The most effective reality test i have ever found is to carry around one of
thoses key ring torches and switch it on and off at least three times.
In my experience its never worked correctly three times in a row it either will
at best work on the first press and on the second and third press either does
not work or does something strange like spark.

Hi DreamQueen! Man, I'm still not lucid, but I've had some very close calls! Again! Anyway, sounds like you've got some very good advice already. If you don't mind me adding...one of my favorite RCs is thinking back an hour ago...two hours ago...four hours ago. Can you remember what you were doing? This one gets me to think, really think. Plus it doesn't take too much effort. Well, sometimes it does! But like I said, it looks like you've gotten a lot of good advice already.