Thread: Can you "hurt" yourself when doing the fall-over trick?

So I've heard of this dream control technique where you fall over with your eyes closed to change the scenery.
Now my question is, what if you just hit the ground instead, can it hurt? As in, feel pain?

Yes, you can feel pain. Will you actually hurt yourself? No, because pain can't hurt you, it just hurts in a dream, there is no "physical" cause for the pain, so there is nothing to worry about. I wrote something about this earlier this week, should still be floating around the forums.

I know that it's not dangerous. But pain is pain
Has this ever happened before to someone then, where they "hurt" themselves because the fall-over thingy failed?

Originally Posted by MemeViews

I know that it's not dangerous. But pain is pain
Has this ever happened before to someone then, where they "hurt" themselves because the fall-over thingy failed?

Wow. That is new to me but it sounds interesting. Perhaps you should think of the floor like the dream wall. When you go through it do you expect yourself to hit your face with it or do you just go through it like nothing? I personally would not prefer to just let myself fall but if your comfortable with it give it a few trys and have the same confidence you had with going through walls.

But pain is pain

About the pain in dreams, I've experienced different types of pain and I think the strongest pain I felt was nothing compared to WL pain. Although it was somewhat similar to the strong pain I felt in WL it wasn't enough to make me stop trying things in dreams. Don't let dream pain stop you from doing the things you want to try in dreams either. Those dream pains don't pop up a lot and usually came up when I was stressed and its usually another dc giving me the pain feeling.

I have jumped off of tall buildings or mountains in a lucid to experience free fall. I have never once hit the ground. Even when I tried : D

I throw myself backwards often during my transition to a WILD to initiate the transition sensation. I have fallen into deep wells and other places, but again, never hit the ground. I was either pulled back like on a bungy cord, or landed in another dream.

Pain itself can't hurt you. It's just a symptom of some injury or illness. And in a dream, it's just a feeling not connected to any real injury. It's safe.

"Pain is good. It lets you know you are still alive."

^^ That.

I've been falling backward for decades now, MemeViews, and landing -- much less pain -- was never, even once, an issue.

If you expect to land when you choose to fall, you will land. If you expect that landing to hurt, it will. The choice is yours, when lucid, about where your fall takes you, and whether any part of it will hurt. I suggest that you shake a fear of pain from your expectations, and this technique might work for you without issue.

I was lucid 2 nights ago. I tried to phase through a screen door with a little too much "confidence." I tried but failed. It felt exactly like you would expect it to feel in real life when I whacked into the door...without the embarrassment. Not painful, but the mind is very good it seems on re-creating sensations. My point is, you may feel something, but absolutely no injury will result.

Originally Posted by MemeViews

So I've heard of this dream control technique where you fall over with your eyes closed to change the scenery.
Now my question is, what if you just hit the ground instead, can it hurt? As in, feel pain?

I have not purposely done this, but I have fallen down in my dreams and it has hurt a lot. However, in lucid dreams I mostly felt "stunned" than hurt. Our expectation of what will happen is what happens. Most of the times when I fall in lucid dreams i just fall down endlessly or end up in a ocean. The more afraid of pain you are, the more painful it's going to be. I once got mauled by a surreal monster in a lucid dream. It was a chilling experience I was caught up in shock of it, but there was absolutely no pain. I am usually not afraid since I know my guides are always near me, even when I'm hurt I get "healed" and pain doesn't last long. I also have the mindset where I feel like if I had to experience pain then there is probably some lesson in it for me.

In short, yes it hurts if you expect pain and it can hurt quite a lot or not at all. For example, you may fall from a very high place and feel nothing at all, but may hit your toe on a table and it might hurt a lot. Just remember that your physical body is fine no matter what! XD

I use the falling technique often to get to a new place in a dream. I close my eyes, spin around once quickly, and then fall on my back, thinking about where I want to go. I think that this combination, at least for me, helps 'disorient' me so that I never actually hit the ground because I'm concentrating on where I want to go and spinning. Every time I do this, I open my eyes to a new place, with me lying on my back, but never actually hitting the ground. Maybe doing this will help you?

It also helps not to think about the pain. I know it is extremely difficult not to think about something, but if, instead, you think about how excited you are for the dream, the pain is much less likely to come. If you still are afraid of falling, you can use other methods like a doorway or mirror. Good luck!

I have fallen backwards in a dream trying a new flying technique and to my complete surprise, instead of floating like I was convinced would be the logical result to my action, I hit the back of my head against the hard ground and it hurt. But then the dream continued and there was never a time where the pain was unbearable. I think the difference between pain in dreams and in real life is that pain in real life is unbearable because it stays. My advice is pain shouldn't be a deterrent for you. It really is not the same as pain in real life, even past the fact that there is no harm actually being done.

Originally Posted by Occipitalred

I have fallen backwards in a dream trying a new flying technique and to my complete surprise, instead of floating like I was convinced would be the logical result to my action, I hit the back of my head against the hard ground and it hurt. But then the dream continued and there was never a time where the pain was unbearable. I think the difference between pain in dreams and in real life is that pain in real life is unbearable because it stays. My advice is pain shouldn't be a deterrent for you. It really is not the same as pain in real life, even past the fact that there is no harm actually being done.

I suppose you didn't try it again afterwards anymore?

Originally Posted by MemeViews

I suppose you didn't try it again afterwards anymore?

lol!

I haven't tried it again, but like I said in my post, not because I am repelled by the potential pain. I find pain to be just as interesting an experience in dreams as any other. I have always trusted my mind to protect me from overwhelming and harmful experiences in dreams. However, sometimes, I am surprised by the liberties it takes.

More so, this dream is another example to me that solidifies my disagreement with the popular belief that events in dreams are a result of expectations. I thought up the idea to do this within the dream. This means, it wasn't something I incubated but had last minute doubts as I was doing it for real. In the dream, it was logical that things only really exist subjectively (rather than objectively). It made sense that if I fell backwards rather than frontwards, I wouldn't see the ground so it wouldn't exist. This was obvious to me and I was simply looking forward to calmly floating in the sky. These were all assumptions, not planned thoughts in an attempt to trick my mind and perform dream control. Yet, it failed. This and many other experiences make me doubt that "if you expect it, it will happen," which people say to imply both the limits to what will occur in your dreams or the limitlessness of your dream control abilities.

Maybe I should try doing it on a soft ground, like my mattress or something?

lol

No way. Unless you want to experience finding a mattress and falling on it.

Even though I doubt that expectations create the dream, if you are focusing on the fact that you are putting a mattress or a soft ground below you, you increase the probability of falling on it rather than entering a new dream.

The best way for me to get a technique to work is to try it multiple times. I feel practice is not useful only in real life but also in dreams. If you fall on the ground the first few times, it will eventually work and then it will be easy. I am not saying that it shouldn't work the first time though. I don't ever spend time thinking about whether it will work or not. It seems counterproductive. I guess, that's me adhering to the expectation theory again...