staring at hands technique questions

Hey, I have been trying the staring at your hands technique and repeating "tonight when I dream, I will see my hands and realize I am dreaming", as described in the book "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self".

Last night though, this little voice in the back of my head kept questioning the technique, and I found myself wondering how just seeing your hands can make you realize you are lucid. I am afraid it won't work at all if i think it won't, and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me why it does work.

imo, it involves the same concept as, say, looking at a digital clock or trying to read text in a dream. you don't just look at your hand; you try to notice any small details that there may be such as the texture of your hand and/or the wrinkles of a knuckle, etc. the aforementioned examples are usually small in nature and therefore more concentrated/convoluted than something like a big red fence. for some reason it is difficult for the mind to make out small details such as these while dreaming, thus these things become distorted/not normal, which in turn aids the mind in realizing one is dreaming.

For me, they're not normal. I oftentimes have more or less, smaller or bigger or just weird fingers, just analyze them.

You can do the same with other peoples hands and eyes and stuff, or at least, that's how it works in my dreams ;)

The thing that discourages me is that I saw my hands in a dream the other night (while holding a pistol and nonchalantly walking past a cop), but they looked completely normal, like my own hands and I didn't question it.

A lot of things look completely normal when you're dreaming. I use it as just another reality check, I don't know how the book described it but that's what it is for me.

Also, I didn't believe it would work either (like every reality check failure is almost unimaginable until you experience it) until I had like 7 tiny fingers or something, I use it as just another reality check, it never failed me yet ;) .

Thanks, I'll keep trying it. I'm also trying the pinching your nose to see if you can breathe technique.

Actually, I remember holding my hand out in front of me in a dream once, and seeing through it almost completely. It was really amazing.

But I was already lucid though.

I think the point of that technique is to look and see if your hands are normal.

Apparently, in your dreams, your hands look bigger, smaller, fatter, skinnier, you have more fingers, they are different sizes, and what not.

Is your avatar of Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of World War II?

I remember using it as the loading screen picture for the night El Alamain map I made ;)

Looking at your hands have been a great RC for me. It have worked in every DILD I've ever had. Also telling yourself to look at your hands, before going to sleep is a very good "suggestion". It isn't abstract as saying "I want a lucid dream". If you've never had a lucid dream then how would your consciousness, know what it is or even worse: how to have one?

So yes - keep looking at your hands, it is also a good way to stabilize your dreams.

Whenever I look at my hands in a dream I relize that I would only do that if I was trying to relize if I was in a dream or not. So then I begin rubbing them which stabalizes the dream then I can start interacting with my enviroment.

I had an oddish, silly experience the other day... :huh:
I was in my bathroom, suddenly reminded of RC. So I started counting all my fingers as usual... I actually went: 1,2,3,4,5,6....umm??...now, wait..1,2,3,4,5!! CRAP Just when I hoped... :silly:

well, not ALL of the fingers :D didn't mean to say that!
Btw, dellclown, let go of that fear and trust us, no way your hand will look normal! In that dream with a pistol, you obviously weren't anywhere near lucidity so you didn't even do a RC, you are just recalling of that dream now and thinking your hand was normal, right?

Try to count your fingers.

When i try to cound my fingers moving them, there will be a sixth finger [only when i count

Yeah, I count my fingers twice, and I look at my lines on my hand to see if they look the same.

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Originally Posted by dellclown

Hey, I have been trying the staring at your hands technique and repeating "tonight when I dream, I will see my hands and realize I am dreaming", as described in the book "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self".

Last night though, this little voice in the back of my head kept questioning the technique, and I found myself wondering how just seeing your hands can make you realize you are lucid. I am afraid it won't work at all if i think it won't, and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me why it does work.

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I've just read that too actually and he implies that his hands just appear infront of him without him intentionally making it happen and that is his dreamsign. My hands look normal half the time, and wonky the other half.

Who is this "he" you're talking about? I never read that book.

But I think that's a good RC, it's easy to do it, although it is a kind of circular way to become lucid. You can just think "I'll remember that I'm lucid tonight" instead of "I'll look at my hands tonight and become lucid". Chances of becoming lucid are kind of higher the first way... :D

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Originally Posted by Arutad

Who is this "he" you're talking about? I never read that book.

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Robert Waggoner - "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self"

very interesting read

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dellclown

Hey, I have been trying the staring at your hands technique and repeating "tonight when I dream, I will see my hands and realize I am dreaming", as described in the book "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self".

Last night though, this little voice in the back of my head kept questioning the technique, and I found myself wondering how just seeing your hands can make you realize you are lucid. I am afraid it won't work at all if i think it won't, and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me why it does work.

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You shouldn't really think about how techniques work and if they will work. I find questioning techniques I learn don't seem to work only until I say: This time it will work. The hands thing has worked for me many of times and it's fun to see how they look in your dreams. I'm sure you have read this somewhere before but rubbing your hands works as a RC only because you wonder in your dreams... wouldn't I only be rubbing my hands if I was... dreaming? POOF lucid. I wish it would happen like that more often lol. Goodluck!

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Originally Posted by Linkwitz

Robert Waggoner - "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self"

very interesting read

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Omg it's a total rip-off. And the author is a crappy thinker, jumping to conclusions that he wants to be true with childlike excitement.

Advertising this book should be done on psi-sites...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arutad

Omg it's a total rip-off. And the author is a crappy thinker, jumping to conclusions that he wants to be true with childlike excitement.

Advertising this book should be done on psi-sites...

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Datura person? You can speak directly to the guy on Mortal Mist if you want.

Thanx, but I guess it's rather clear that I don't want ;)

The point is not to "stare" at your hand, but to examine them with attention and count your fingers.
<--- This is the result when dreaming ,)

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Originally Posted by MindDaguerreotype

The point is not to "stare" at your hand, but to examine them with attention and count your fingers.
<--- This is the result when dreaming ,)

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Do you see two heads when you look in the mirror, too? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dellclown

Hey, I have been trying the staring at your hands technique and repeating "tonight when I dream, I will see my hands and realize I am dreaming", as described in the book "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self".

Last night though, this little voice in the back of my head kept questioning the technique, and I found myself wondering how just seeing your hands can make you realize you are lucid. I am afraid it won't work at all if i think it won't, and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me why it does work.

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I read about this technique in Castaneda's books. Don Juan said to Castaneda, look for your hands in your dreams. So I got into the habit of looking at my hands as my sole reality check during the day - I don't use anything else.

Anyway, one day I'm dreaming, and I decide to look at my hands. I stare at my palms, and after a few moments my fingers start getting longer and longer, just growing. So I understood I was dreaming, of course, and started a LD right there.

My theory is that the dream body is unstable, it doesn't have a fixed form, and as a result it cannot "fake" some hands for more than a few moments. Probably if you tried to look in a mirror as a RC, you would get the same kind of effect - but then you would need a dream mirror ;).

For me, Looking at my hands is always a dead give-away that I am dreaming.
Extra fingers, missing fingers, bent fingers, .....half fingers, you name it.
Something is always weird about my hands.
Here is one I like; go through your keys, (this one is for the house, this one is for the car, etc.) I've seen some crazy looking keys.
& try to find a mirror, you'll be surprised how handsome you are. :)

Peace,
The Cutter

I has the finger-rc as my standard one, because when you does it in a dream, its so badass! Once i got like ten fingers, and i could really see fingers growing out of the hand. Discusting - but fun.

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Originally Posted by Zelzahim

I has the finger-rc as my standard one, because when you does it in a dream, its so badass! Once i got like ten fingers, and i could really see fingers growing out of the hand. Discusting - but fun.

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That is sick.

Alot of the time I look at my hand in my dreams, and it's normal :/. Sometimes I become lucid from the action itself, because I notice other things (blurriness, where am i, WhyTF am I here?, etc.)

The nose-pinch reality check, however, works for me the best. I always become lucid from that one.

If you are doing a RC in a dream, no matter if it fails or not you should always realize you are dreaming. People put too much emphasis on whether the RC fails or not, but really you should keep in mind that a RC is really just a crutch to help you ask the question "Am I dreaming?" so with every RC you do make sure you ask that question.
I am flying through space, this seems like a dream, I look at my hands, I only have five fingers, RC fail, it must be real. -- This shouldn't happen.

Really the only times where RCs have to be relied on more is during a false awakening, when looking around your room and you can't really tell if you are dreaming or not, but for most dream situations, even if the RC fails, you should still just think to yourself if you are dreaming or not, "How did I get here? Is this situation logical or likely?"

Personally I always use the pinching the nose and trying to breathe technique, I haven't had it fail yet, but even if it ever does, I am still going to think about what caused me to do the RC and why I thought I was in a dream.

I find the watch-check RC to be the most effective, since I already do it so often xD

"Okay. It's now fifteen-thirty-fi... I don't have a 24-hour watch. Alrighty then."

*Fall backwards into pool that has suddenly appeared below my floating house.*