RC not working, mind tricking me

Hi,

I don't want to make this post too long, as I tend to write too much sometimes, so I'll skip many details. In case you want them just ask.

The thing is that this las 2-3 days I was able to somehow enter a lucid or semi-lucid state, after sleeping 4-6 hours and relaxing trying to WILD or either think some mantra telling myself that I'll become lucid.

The thing is that the main RC I used to detect fake awakenings is not working anymore. I used to put my finger through the other hand. I had 2 fake awakenings which I did not catch, and the worst part is that I spend them laying in bed trying to WILD... I even felt some kind of "power" forming on my chest and then like if my body suddenly weight like 1 ton. Assuming it was some transition coming I stay there relaxed. It faded away, then it came again... and then I woke up for real. I spent some minutes dreaming that I was laying in my bed near a transition, when I was already there...

This happened two days. In one of them I even sit on my bed, drank some water, and noticed that the window blind was higher than I remember. I also did my RC... even if I was sure I was awake. You know, one of those RCs you do just as routine, because "you have to", just in case... And there was a white electric cord near the bed, instead of black as it really is. But none of this gave me any hints. I just lay back again to continue my WILD... and then I woke up.

And today it's been even funnier, or more frustrating if you ask. I was with my boss and some customers after a meeting. All was vivid, and I had complete awareness of me, where was I, how I arrived there, etc... it was a normal day at the office. They started talking about dreams, about "how bad is that you realize it's a dream only when you wake up". One of them said, partly joking: "hey, what if this is a dream?".

At that moment I did my RC... just in case, even if I "knew" it wasn't a dream... Then the woman said: "are we dreaming? :D", while I was still doing my RC... and I said, also joking: "Well.. Maybe! :)". Well, too bad you don't know it's a dream until you wake up. But everyone there knew it wasn't a dream... come on, how could it be? We are on the real life!.

Then I woke up.

I try to remember doing some other RC... but I don't exactly know which one. Also, I'm starting to feel as if I have to doubt even my reality. Yesterday I was at the mall looking around, as paranoid, thinking "what if this is a dream"... Touching my hand... But I don't know what to trust anymore...

Any hints on what to do on those situations where you "know" it's not a dream, other than the usual simple RC?

Thanks in advance for any ideas, and I'll be glad to hear similar experiences.

Sounds like you are doing RCs in waking life on auto and without actually doubting reality, and in fact, you are sure that you are not dreaming, which is completely wrong way of doing them! It's not the action of reality check itself that makes us lucid, it"s the awareness and questioning mindset that we gain while doing them IWL what makes us lucid in dream. :)
When you do reality check, completely believe that it may be a dream, then look around for anything suspicious and dream sign, then do the reality check itself and put emotions into it, like "Wow, am i dreaming?", and expect it to work, and finally, never ever think "Nah, not dreaming" or anything similar after doing reality check. ;)
Check out this thread too: http://www.dreamviews.com/dild/13212...ods-dilds.html :peek:

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Originally Posted by Scionox

Sounds like you are doing RCs in waking life on auto and without actually doubting reality, and in fact, you are sure that you are not dreaming, which is completely wrong way of doing them! It's not the action of reality check itself that makes us lucid, it"s the awareness and questioning mindset that we gain while doing them IWL what makes us lucid in dream. :)
When you do reality check, completely believe that it may be a dream, then look around for anything suspicious and dream sign, then do the reality check itself and put emotions into it, like "Wow, am i dreaming?", and expect it to work, and finally, never ever think "Nah, not dreaming" or anything similar after doing reality check. ;)
Check out this thread too: http://www.dreamviews.com/dild/13212...ods-dilds.html :peek:

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What then do you do when you look around in WL and find nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary? Do you imagine the presence of a dream sign? One challenging place I find is the subway -- advertisements with writing are everywhere, and they're all perfectly stable, should I imagine that the letters are dancing around?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scionox

Sounds like you are doing RCs in waking life on auto and without actually doubting reality, and in fact, you are sure that you are not dreaming, which is completely wrong way of doing them! It's not the action of reality check itself that makes us lucid, it"s the awareness and questioning mindset that we gain while doing them IWL what makes us lucid in dream. :)
When you do reality check, completely believe that it may be a dream, then look around for anything suspicious and dream sign, then do the reality check itself and put emotions into it, like "Wow, am i dreaming?", and expect it to work, and finally, never ever think "Nah, not dreaming" or anything similar after doing reality check. ;)
Check out this thread too: http://www.dreamviews.com/dild/13212...ods-dilds.html :peek:

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Hi Scionox, thanks for your reply.

Well, I guess you're right about how I perform my RCs. The thing is that I started doing them at night everytime I woke up, because I had a couple FAs where I would wake up at night, and then really wake up, so I wanted to catch them next time. I just did the RC and it always failed (meaning it was a dream I mean), but I don't recall doing them in any specific way... so now I just wake up and try to put a finger through the palm. Maybe I did it so many times, to find out I was awake that I guess I just do them as a simple gesture, instead of trying to really do a reality check.

Another problem is that if I'm semi-lucid, I'm not smart enough to think about dream signs. One example is what I posted about the window blind not being as I left it, and a white cord instead of black... I just accepted them. But still though I was "awake" after doing the RC. So it's kinda weird, frustrating, and stupid :D

Anyway, as you say, now I'll try not only to perform the RC willing for it to happen, but also look around paying attention to details to try detecting anything unusual.

I hope to update soon with good news...

Hi Irreo, I am doing RC's right and still I had hundreds of situations like yours. After doing few RC's in my dream I confirmed that it was not a dream, but afterwards I kept seeing something unusual and I kept questioning my self through the rest of the dream. I remember how often I ended up with this decision "Ok this is real but this also might be a dream, I am not sure so I am not going to do anything stupid until I am really sure." I would suggest to try to remember how you woke up that morning, you should recall it easy, rewind fast in your head everything what happened from morning until the moment where you are questioning your self. And again sometimes you have a lucid dream where you wake up and then you start questioning your self, is it a dream? because things looks extremely similar to waking life, and this is a really hard situation to be in.

Once I thought that I woke up in the morning, everything was similar to make waking life. My wife was with me, I went to bathroom, talked to my wife and then I said something strange and started to question my self if it was a dream? I looked out of the window and found lots of signs that it is a dream and then I woke up again. I was in my bed again, the same situation as in first scenario, but now things were even more different and I understood that it is a dream again. Then I woke up again in my bed and it was the same scenario, I was thinking ok I will go to the bathroom again and I am going to talk to my wife again or is it a dream again, should I wake up again? Then I appeared back in my bed and it started all over again. When I woke up for real I went to bathroom, was brushing my teeth and thinking of all those FA's, then I questioned my self if it was dream or not again. I walked out to my living room, did not find anything strange, did few RC's and did not find anything strange, looked out to the window everything was fine. Then my wife asked me a question that was really out of order, something that she usually does not ask. That question just destroyed all my attempts to confirm that it is real, I was answering her and kept thinking that it might be a dream. I went to my computer and after 15 minutes I finally realized and confirmed that I am not dreaming.

There were dreams where something bad happened, and I failed to determine whether it was a dream or it was real. That dream was pretty long, in that dream I even went to sleep because it was night and I felt tired, next morning I woke up and I was in my bed asking my self if yesterday day was real or a dream? I hoped it was not real, at the same time it all looked so real that I was not sure. So I grabbed my phone and called few people, they answered and I realized that yesterday day was a dream. In that dream I even remember how I told my self "oh my god this is bad, but its only a dream, I hope it will never happen in real life", then I asked my self "It is a dream, but I should better do few RC's to confirm that" I did those reality checks they did not help me, those reality meant that It wasn't a dream.

There are moments where in real life I start questioning my self if it is a dream, starts like a usual RC, but sometimes lasts for 10-15 minutes.


So I never answered this question to my self, I do not know if there is a RC that will work 100%, I do not know if there is a trick to confirms that it is real for 100%. Hope my suggestion to rewind everything from morning will help :)

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

What then do you do when you look around in WL and find nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary? Do you imagine the presence of a dream sign? One challenging place I find is the subway -- advertisements with writing are everywhere, and they're all perfectly stable, should I imagine that the letters are dancing around?

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Continue believing that you might be dreaming and do reality check itself. :) The fact that you looked and searched for dream signs itself will increase your awareness. Also the idea with expecting letters to be different is good if that's your RC. ;)

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Originally Posted by Irreo

Another problem is that if I'm semi-lucid, I'm not smart enough to think about dream signs. One example is what I posted about the window blind not being as I left it, and a white cord instead of black... I just accepted them. But still though I was "awake" after doing the RC. So it's kinda weird, frustrating, and stupid

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What you mean by semi-lucid?... Also sounds like your awareness was high enough to notice them, but you were not in questioning mindset, keep practicing reality checks and actually questioning reality and i am sure it will get better once your general awareness will go up and you get into questioning mindset. :)

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Originally Posted by Scionox

What you mean by semi-lucid?... Also sounds like your awareness was high enough to notice them, but you were not in questioning mindset, keep practicing reality checks and actually questioning reality and i am sure it will get better once your general awareness will go up and you get into questioning mindset. :)

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Maybe it's not the proper term. For me being lucid is when I wake up inside the dream, meaning its myself there, being able to recall things from my waking life or take decisions very related to real life. For instance one of my to-do things when I have a LD worth it (for now only small experiences) is to visit a lonely beach at a summer night with a stand where they sell oysters and have a dozen of them. And in the last fake awakening I catched I created a mirror in my wall and though "I will end up on that beach I'm always thinking about" (well it didn't happen, but that's another story :D )

And with semi-lucid I meant that I'm supposed to be lucid, meaning it's myself in the dream and not just some other character or something I'm not (normal dream), like I was the other day while trying my WILD (and I was really dreaming), but I wasn't "lucid" enough to be aware of all those dream signs, so in my understanding I assume that I wasn't fully lucid... It was me, but not at all... I guess I sound confusing.

Try using the nose plug RC. It will never lead you astray... unless you have a stuffy nose.

Well, proper term of being lucid means being aware that you are dreaming, awareness level can vary but it is still lucid dream if you are aware, there's no 'semi' as far as i know. :-?

Try using the noseplug check and see if you can breathe through still. It's never failed me.