Thread: Lucid dreaming working for me.. or is it. Help me figure this out please.

So you may have heard of this before, but I honestly have not and can't figure out why in the heck this is happening. It's happened 3 times so far.

I've read that the more focused you are on lucid dreaming, the more you think about it, the more likely it is to happen for you, and this makes sense. Some nights I get REALLY focused on lucid dreaming and end up having a lucid dream, however, it's not really a lucid dream.

Ex: Last night I remember having a lucid dream. I followed my dream plan and asked my subconscious a bunch of questions, talked to people, walked around, it was pretty interesting. I even asked my subconscious how I could have more lucid dreams (this was not my last dream of the night, so I don't remember all of it), but I think my SC told me to go to bed at 9:00, and set an alarm for 4:05 AM, then go back to bed thinking about lucid dreaming.
However, when I woke up, I did not feel like I had a lucid dream.
It felt fuzzy and disconnected, like I was watching a movie.
It was like I had a dream ABOUT having a lucid dream. This has happened 3 times.
It almost seems like my mind doesn't want me to have a lucid dream, so it keeps tricking me into having fake lucid dreams.

The strange thing is in the most recent one of these non-lucid lucid dreams (I know that's contradictory), I don't remember becoming lucid, I was just in the middle of this dream. And the one before that I remember doing a reality check, incorrectly stabilizing the dream, and then it ended, but once I woke up, I didn't feel like I was ever actually conscience in the dream.

I basically want to know more about this, how to prevent it, and what is going on.

I've been trying to lucid dream for a while, with little success, I just can't will myself to WILD after WBTB, I can't make myself wake up enough to not sleep during WILD. So I've tried various methods with almost no success. Strangely though, all 3 of these fake dreams have been induced using either DILD, or MILD.

I'm not sure if these are just low level lucid dreams, or if there's actually some trickery going on here.

Thanks for reading and helping me with my predicament.

Improvements with dream recall can intensify the feeling of the dream upon awakening, that is if the memory is more efficiently present the experience will also feel more authentic. Not just memory of what happened but as important in my book the sensory input, the details.
Another factor is the different levels of lucidity, you can set your intent to try and increase lucidity every time you recognize a dream, this can be done by doing multiple rc's along the dream and doing basic logic exercises like calculations or something.
Stabilization is also essential to increase vividness and perhaps even lucidity. There's a lot of tutorials on increasing lucidity, stabilization and dream recall.
Happy dreams

Sounds like you're having some problems with False Lucids, Blankrofl.

A False Lucid (FL) occurs in exactly the manner you describe -- you spend so much time thinking about being lucid, desiring to be lucid, and expecting to be lucid during waking life that your brain dutifully obliges you with a dream based on those expectations of lucidity. Trouble is, you don't have any waking awareness in the dream with you, so you're not really lucid.

I've been doing this for a very long time, and I still regularly have FL's; they're fairly unavoidable, and probably more common than people might think -- or want to think. I know that's not a very popular thing to say here, but I do believe it's true. To find out more about FL's, check out my Treatise on Proof thread, if you're interested.

What can you do about it? If you work on your self-awareness and memory, practice regular RC's, and generally prepare well mentally for LD'ing sessions, you should find these FL's less common, because your self-awareness will very likely be stronger than the stuff your dream is calling up -- indeed, with waking self-awareness in place, you can actually work with the FL's schema to better establish your lucidity.

I hope that made sense. I'm also pretty sure someone will be posting shortly to assure you that there is no such thing as a False Lucid.

Originally Posted by Sageous

I'm also pretty sure someone will be posting shortly to assure you that there is no such thing as a False Lucid.

Heh. Ok, I did say recently something about not believing in false lucids. But that was before I read your post Sagaous, that explained what they are. And sure enough, I have those myself, just didn't know that's what they are called.

I had plenty of them when I started lucid dreaming and that was all I was thinking about for days.

For WILDs, read WILD class articles, or join that or any other Academy class for personalized guidance. Happy dreams

Originally Posted by Sageous

Sounds like you're having some problems with False Lucids, Blankrofl.

A False Lucid (FL) occurs in exactly the manner you describe -- you spend so much time thinking about being lucid, desiring to be lucid, and expecting to be lucid during waking life that your brain dutifully obliges you with a dream based on those expectations of lucidity. Trouble is, you don't have any waking awareness in the dream with you, so you're not really lucid.

I've been doing this for a very long time, and I still regularly have FL's; they're fairly unavoidable, and probably more common than people might think -- or want to think. I know that's not a very popular thing to say here, but I do believe it's true. To find out more about FL's, check out my Treatise on Proof thread, if you're interested.

What can you do about it? If you work on your self-awareness and memory, practice regular RC's, and generally prepare well mentally for LD'ing sessions, you should find these FL's less common, because your self-awareness will very likely be stronger than the stuff your dream is calling up -- indeed, with waking self-awareness in place, you can actually work with the FL's schema to better establish your lucidity.

I hope that made sense. I'm also pretty sure someone will be posting shortly to assure you that there is no such thing as a False Lucid.

After reading your post and the thread you linked, my false lucid sounds exactly like that. Although I do think that it is a good stepping stone, because it means I am motivated enough to have a lucid dream, I just need to apply my motivation in a practical way.

I definitely need to work on doing more reality checks, but it's hard for me to remember to do them or have a steady thing I can trigger a reality check with, seeing as how I go to school for 7 hours a day, and I never see the same environment twice per day.

^^ FL's are very likely are a good stepping stone...

For the RC's consider doing them whenever you see something odd (which is a handy mindset for dreams, BTW); if something strange crosses your path, do an RC. That way you don't need a regular pattern of remembering to do them (which is not always a good thing, because that pattern can be built into your dreams just as easily as anything else, and before you know it you're having False RC'S!

If the odd isn't to your taste or opportunity, try doing an RC whenever you pass through a door (include touching the door frame, and checking that it is solid). There must be doors at your school, right?

Originally Posted by Sageous

^^ FL's are very likely are a good stepping stone...

For the RC's consider doing them whenever you see something odd (which is a handy mindset for dreams, BTW); if something strange crosses your path, do an RC. That way you don't need a regular pattern of remembering to do them (which is not always a good thing, because that pattern can be built into your dreams just as easily as anything else, and before you know it you're having False RC'S!

If the odd isn't to your taste or opportunity, try doing an RC whenever you pass through a door (include touching the door frame, and checking that it is solid). There must be doors at your school, right?

Yeah, Originally I wanted to do an RC every time I passed through or saw a door, but I couldn't remember to do one when I saw a door. I'll try harder, and thanks for the help!