How do you check the current integrity of a dream?
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How do you check the current integrity of a dream?
usually when i got into my few lucids, i would realize it and become excited, almost waking myself up. the dream would destabilize and everything would turn grey, not that the objects were turning grey, but it was like something was blocking me from seeing. i would do the rub the hands together trick and soon enough sight is restored and i can continue one with the dream. i can see directly how the dream comes back from almost being gone.
For me instability is like I feel "dizzy," the scene "feels" like it could vanish at any moment, DCs/objects jump around a bit, unless I "hold" it with all my will. Stable is the opposite: the visuals are solid, like in a waking physical location, and I don't feel like I need to spend any effort at all maintaining the dream, I don't feel dizzy, I just enjoy it.
Kind of like paying attention in class, where the words on your paper represent how aware you were during the lecture. If the sentences are well structured, and you have a coherent representation of what was discussed in the lecture, then you could say that your awareness was stable. But if you only wrote a few words, maybe copied a few diagrams and covered the page in doodles, then the information on that piece of paper makes no sense at all. It's kind of the same principle, you know how aware and how stable the dream is by by how coherent the experience is. The plot makes sense, it is well structured from a to b, there are no sudden or unexpected breaks in the narrative, dream characters remain present, there is no randomness or there are no distortions or inconsistencies in the visuals. These are the kind of traits of a true lucid dream.
If the dream is already progressing without conscious effort and is reasonably clear, I don't even worry about it. If I find it getting fuzzy, lacking in detail, or taking place partially “in my head”, then I go ahead and try to stabilize or begin to attempt DEILD.
Oh yess. I'm back in this thread. Travis.. Thinking ahead of a DEILD while dreaming.. that is brilliant...
If you can stab yourself without waking up.
this is exactly how it works for me. Most of the time I touch a nearby wall instead of rubbing hands, or drop to the floor and examine it. The moment I get lucid usually causes the dream to destabilize, it becomes grey, blurrish and noisy. As soon as I have properly stabilized via hand/wall/floor examination, everything looks nice and just like in waking live.