Thread: Are false lucids a sign of progress or failure

I'm still here, phew!

Originally Posted by gab

Ok, now, sageous, wasn't it you, who was saying that there could be different levels of awareness and that determines how much we remember from waking life. So we can have a low awareness LD and don't remember where my sleeping body is, for example, but remember what I wanted to do in next LD? And It can be all foggy or all crisp, but awareness could be low in both?

Yep, that was me. But I was talking about actual LD's, where you did manage to confound your unconscious at some level (hell, any level) and became aware that you were dreaming. Yes, a low-level lucid usually does not include much memory, if any, so yeah, you wouldn't remember your sleeping body. And yes, low-level lucidity can come in any form of vividness, since vividness and lucidity are two different things. That bit from the woman's story about remembering was just one symptom of many, BTW; had that been her only issue, I would've congratulated her on her LD instead of being Danny Downer.

Now here's the ironic bit about false lucids, and maybe an important point, too: Because your dreaming mind is giving you exactly what you want, a false lucid (notice I'm not calling them FLD's, as acronyms tend to legitimize terms) will usually seem like a full-blown lucid with all the bells and whistles you expected. This, BTW, was the case with the woman in the story, and was definitely the case in the many false lucids I've had. This is a good thing, I think, because it gives you a very fun experience, and, after you've prepared mentally, you will be able to recognize that this dream is a false lucid, and then turn it into a proper LD.

In other words, false lucids would not be confused with low-level lucidity.

I guess why I'm not partial to name False Lucid is, because it has the name Lucid in it, but it has nothing to do with LD. It's just a regular dream, in which you dream of having a lucid dream. Like False awakening has nothing to do with waking up.

Yes, just a dream, but it can have something to do with LD'ing, in that a false lucid can be a tool for becoming lucid... just as false awakenings are used by many as tools to become lucid.

A little more:

I would be very uncomfortable telling people that they didn't achieve lucidity, until they have a high awarenes lucid. That low awareness LD is not LD, just being on the verge of reaching lucidity.

Frankly, this is something very new to me. This would discourage so many people.

Again, this is not about levels of awareness! If awareness is very low, it can still be called lucid, and you can and should encourage away. It's when awareness is completely absent, and the dream was just a dream, that the ugly truth might need to be mentioned, for the dreamer's sake.

And remember, since false lucids can ultimately be a learning experience, you can still encourage even after coughing up the bad news!