Thread: Amusing RC malfunction

The dog needed to pay a visit to the garden at 4.30 this morning so on returning to bed I thought I would try Laberges MILD technique of repeating the mantra " the next time I dream I will remember I'm dreaming". I put on an eyemask and some headphones to block out exterior stimuli and settled down. It took a while to get back to sleep but I got into a dream where I found myself climbing the rickety staircase of a spooky old house. The layout was the same as my own spooky old house but even more run-down . Reaching the top of the winding stairs I felt the familiar feeling wash over me and became lucid, bounding down the landing laughing and shouting "I'm lucid, this is a lucid dream!" which is what I normaly do followed by some aerobatics and waking up due to over-excitement. This time I got a grip and went through the stabilization routine I had planned. I knelt down and felt the ground which seemed carpeted, then I patted my body and found I was wearing my wifes bathrobe then my ( dream) eyemask and headphones kept slipping over my face as I rubbed my hands together. I did a reality check by holding my nose and found I could not breath. Then I tried to poke a finger through my hand and it would not go through. Thinking "what the hell?" I laid on my back and tried to levitate- and couldn't. I flapped my arms and legs- no joy. Then I looked around and could see that the scene had changed to my actual house and then it dawned on me that I might really be awake. What if my wife came out of the bedroom and saw me like this wearing her bathrobe etc? . So I got up, edged past an exercise bike I sold 20 years ago and went into the bedroom. I was just climbing into bed when I noticed that the duvet cover was dark brown with gold paisly patterns which we dont own. Then the alarm went off and I woke up.
I found this funny and weird because reality checks always work for me. Still I was delighted because LDs have become a little scarce since I started trying to WILD a couple of months ago and leafing through LaBerges book yesterday reminded me of an effective and easy technique I used when I first started a year ago.

Lol, that's hilarious. The things we don't notice in our dreams xD

I think I have worked out why the RCs failed. Recently I have been stepping up my state checks during the day and using the nose pinch and the finger-through-the-hand routine to establish whether I am dreaming or awake. Of course the answer comes back 'awake' each time so it seems that this is what I expected to happen so-it did.

i had a similar experience last night.i was in my van and just got that feeling over me that i was dreaming. looked at my hands-they were normal. pinch my nose- couldn't breath. i was still so sure i was dreaming i tried a third method-i very gently pushed my hands into my windshield. they kept on going right on through!! i was lucid!! sometimes 1 or even 2 rc's don't work.if you think you are dreaming, keep trying those rc's until you are sure.

Strange isn't it?
The silly thing is, I was lucid before I did the checks and the checks screwed me up. In fact, each time I have become lucid I have either just become lucid or noticed something strange and got lucid that way. The reality checks have just been a formality after the event.

I agree. If I do an rc it usally means I'm already lucid. The rcs just help me to not do anything stupid.

Originally Posted by Integral

So I got up, edged past an exercise bike I sold 20 years ago and went into the bedroom.

This made me laugh. Stuff that has been long gone appears in my LD's, too.

Originally Posted by Sentaku

This made me laugh. Stuff that has been long gone appears in my LD's, too.

Lol, stuff like that happened to me before too. Like, once I dreamt of my brother in my room. Then when I woke up I realized I don't have a brother.

Ahh RC's aren't always reliable, then. I never seem to do them in dreams anyway. Except last night I dreamt I was crossing a bridge at night in the rain, which is one of my dream signs. I stopped and questioned my reality, which is something I do more often now than the standard RCs. Because I could feel the rain and the wooden railings of the bridge I decided it wasn't a dream and carried on. Even though that bridge doesn't actually exist!

It'd make sense for your brain to make the results of reality checks 'awake' in your dreams. Hmm, that's an awkward one :/