Thread: What the hell happened here?

It seems like either you didn't genuinely believe you were dreaming (and more just said it out of habit or something), or you were too drawn in and lost lucidity...hard to say without experiencing it myself, though I can tell you that I have before said to myself in a dream, "There's no way that I could walk through walls in real life. I must be dreaming!" but never attained lucidity because I was immediately distracted by something else and forgot.

This can happen from time to time. You simply didn't grasp the concept of lucidity. Any time you suspect you are dreaming or even if you know you are dreaming, perform some reality checks. RCs will really help plant that "I am dreaming" thought into your mind. RCs are your best friend when it comes to maintaining lucidity. I perform Rcs every so often throughout the dream, so I don't lose my lucid focus.

Don't worry though, this a common problem with an easy fix.

Originally Posted by KingYoshi

This can happen from time to time. You simply didn't grasp the concept of lucidity. Any time you suspect you are dreaming or even if you know you are dreaming, perform some reality checks. RCs will really help plant that "I am dreaming" thought into your mind. RCs are your best friend when it comes to maintaining lucidity. I perform Rcs every so often throughout the dream, so I don't lose my lucid focus.

Don't worry though, this a common problem with an easy fix.

I don't understand how I am supposed to 'perform reality checks' while not awake. I have no logical thought while in a dream (no next none) my dream goals, RCs and everything else do not occur to me.
How am I supp

Originally Posted by Duo

I think I have possibly discovered the most annoying aspect of attempting to attain lucidity (well, apart from all of the other annoying aspects of it).

I was in a dream the other day, and I was lying in my bed (in the dream) and I thought "I can teleport, why am I lying here?" so I picked somewhere to go and teleported there. Once I got there I realized that there was no way I could actually teleport and that it must be a dream.
Here comes a lucid dream right? right?
No.
I kept on doing dream things and generally not being lucid even though I knew it was a dream. Why on earth did this happen and what can one do about it?

That right there is logical thought. Next time this happens, perform a reality check. You were very close to becoming fully lucid. Technically, as soon as you realized it was a dream, you were lucid (if only for an instant). Just from now on know that you will perform a reality check if you suspect you are dreaming. The hard part is getting yourself to suspect you are dreaming. Once you get there, its pretty simple. Just confirm that suspicion.

Originally Posted by KingYoshi

That right there is logical thought. Next time this happens, perform a reality check. You were very close to becoming fully lucid. Technically, as soon as you realized it was a dream, you were lucid (if only for an instant). Just from now on know that you will perform a reality check if you suspect you are dreaming. The hard part is getting yourself to suspect you are dreaming. Once you get there, its pretty simple. Just confirm that suspicion.

I wouldn't really call that the hard part, it is rare yes, but I do not put any effort into it.
The hard part is remembering to perform the reality check in the first place. What I mean is hard to explain because obviously I do have logical thought of some kind otherwise I would never have realized teleporting as being nonsensical, but however, reality checks and all my techniques never occur to me while I am dreaming, it's like I have logical thought, but I am about ten times stupider than normal. Another way to explain this is like so:
When I wake up after this kind of event, I remember having those thoughts, but I don't remembering THINKING them as such, almost as if they were someone else's thoughts entirely, I remember them being in my head, but not making them.

wait at this point are you controlling the dream. because now im confused, based on what yoshi said, it is possible to gain control before becoming lucid?

Originally Posted by mooseantlers

wait at this point are you controlling the dream. because now im confused, based on what yoshi said, it is possible to gain control before becoming lucid?

No, throughout this whole thing I never had any dream control because I thought it was real.

Make it a goal as you fall asleep to take a grasp of your existence the next time you're concious with the goal of performing a reality check, and make sure immediately when you wake up do your reality check.

Ideally this thought will transgress into your dream when you realise you're dreaming, and in that instant you will focus on your reality check. Regardless of if it works or not, hopefully you will stay focused long enough to fully understand you're dreaming, and gain control.

I've had this happen to me before; it's just a common thing that happens every once in awhile. You do an RC or something in your dream and then realize your dreaming, but just go about your way. Sometimes you don't gain the full level of awareness in your dreams that you need to have a full lucid.

I know this is probably a repeat of what everyone else said, but you can never get too much info on LDing, right?

Originally Posted by mooseantlers

it is possible to gain control before becoming lucid?

Yes.

You just didn't fully grasp the concept. Like you said, you weren't thinking logically. Your goal should be to make yourself think logically in your dream. It is not enough to just recognize that you are dreaming. You really need to switch your brain back on. That is why people always advise that reality checking out of habit is not enough. You really have to push your awareness and think about what you are doing when you reality check.

Originally Posted by sloth

Yes.

How

Look at it this way, I can relate to everything you've said, so I think I understand.

well, I consider you lucky. I almost NEVER have logical thought in my dreams, the only way I can make them happen is by increasing my daily awareness, reality checks and such do just this. They train your mind to stop once in a while and "think" for a second.

The hope is that this routine of stopping and thinking will carry on into dreams, the fact that you had logical thought and went straight to dreaming is really good news. Basically all you have to do now is monitor the times in your daily life where you stop and really think, (pertaining to lucid dreaming most likely, but this can be used to build daily awareness too) and when this happens, try and tie your NEXT initial thought to say reality checks, so that in a dream RCs will be the next thing that follows, just out of habit.

I don't like reality checks precisely because they are indeed hard to remember to do, if you think to do one it's almost like you have to be lucid in the 1st place, I have done rc's and not realized I was dreaming, I did a reality check once with a dream involving flying cars and it failed, during a false awaking after a failed wild I have walked into my mundane bathroom and a light was slightly moved in a direction I knew it wasn't, and instantly knew I was dreaming.

I actually used the DEILD technique to resurrect non lucid dreams before, well I guess it would be called a DEID technique in those cases, but still.

I had a dream that is similar to this. I had a dream, simply dreaming about being lucid, but not literally lucid. I knew it was a dream, but no excitement came rushing at me and I didn't even perform any reality checks, I just quickly assumed that I was dreaming. My dream self tried to fly, and tried to spawn people which worked a little bit, but I wasn't lucid, though, my dream self knew I was dreaming. It didn't really feel like lucid at all. It just felt like a normal dream, I had no control of myself.