Attempted to view my hands --- But I was wearing gloves?

Hi, I'm Sam. I'm new to the forum, and fairly new to lucid dreaming. I've been having very vivid (though not lucid) dreams lately, and find myself horribly shaken up at the magnitude of my dreams upon waking. I've recently read and immersed myself within Carlos Castaneda's series of books on sorcery, and had become interested in dreaming. I should note that I'm a regular marijuana user.

This is the second vivid dream I've had in the last few days. In the dream, I was at the beach of a river, and several men were jumping from a tall diving board above the river. I had driven to the beach, I remember. I can still see in my head the road I took too, as well as the surroundings. It was astounding the detail I can remember it in. I recall for a moment the idea crossed my mind that I was in fact dreaming. At that moment I was watching one of the men jump off the diving board. I could see his facial expression, his muscles moving, his flight, and finally, the splash made in the water. It was almost clearer than every day perception. I convinced myself that this must be my waking reality, and discarded the doubt.

I remember talking to a friend of mine in my dream, which makes sense, because I had just run into her a few days before in town. I remember she had something important to tell me. It was something so important that it was beyond comprehension, something that could change my world. But I hesitated. I could not come to talk to her, to hear this. Something convinced me to walk away and leave, as if I was not ready to hear the unimaginable information she had for me. I told her I would come back, though I knew that was not true. I walked to a small bed and breakfast, where I knew I would find my car keys, despite having never been there before. I had the concierge retrieve my keys for me, after which I walked outside. At this point it occurred to my reason that I should have had my keys the entire time. Something was flawed. For just a moment, I questioned my reality. I looked down at my hands to control the dream by that method, but I discovered that I was wearing a pair of black leather gloves. It was useless. I could not overcome such an obstacle. There was no way I would ever see my hands.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Haha!! Yeah, it's funny the way the mind tries so hard to trick us out of lucidity, even with cheap shots like that!!

Of course you could still count fingers, see if there's anything weird about the shape or size of your hands, try a nose pinch or fingerpalm RC. Even just the fact that you were wearing gloves on a day when people are diving in a river means something is weird - is it cold enough to wear gloves, or warm enough to dive?

This means you're right on the verge. Obviously you've been thinking about lucidity enough to get the ideas into your subconscious, and they're showing up in your dreams, and your mind is even forced to resort to all kinds of cheap tricks to try to fool you. That means you're getting really close. Just keep at it, and if you see your hands with gloves on again take that as a sign that you're dreaming. Or move on and try another RC. You should always try at least 2 because that reduces the chances of getting easily fooled out of one.

Actually, with Castaneda's trick of looking at your hands, I don't think it matters, does it? Wearing gloves doesn't negate the fact that you were still able to remember to look at your hands. Take that as a triumph and a sign that you're just on the brink. Soon..

That's a really great point about wearing gloves in that temperature, I guess at the moment my reason didn't catch that. And yeah, hopefully the gloves occur again, because I'm pretty sure I could catch that a second time and figure it out.