Reverse Lucid?

One of the reasons I became interested in lucid dreaming is that my boyfriend is able to do it. It's strange though, the way he explains it doesn't sound exactly lucid to me, and I was wondering if anyone else has experianced this, or knows anything about it.
He told me it always happens in his nightmares, that he'll say to himself "I'm dreaming" and everything will go a shade of red for a moment and he is then lucid. However, it seems the exact opposite.
For instance, he'll tell himself "That door better not be locked" and sure enough it is. Or he can feel something behind him and he hopes that it's not a monster (or whatever) and when he turns around it's whatever he didn't want it to be.
Is there a name for this?

Yes - pessimism.

Only joking. :)

I have never heard of such a thing.

I'm trying hard here to think of a cure... Perhaps he has become so used to things happening when he doesn't want them to, that he then actually expects it to happen, so it does, as is often the case in dreams.

How's that? :)

Just tell him to expect the door to open, whether he wants it or not. ;)

There - I'm quite pleased with my reasoning today. :)

Wanting it to open is not enough, even expecting the door to open isn't enough, just open the frikkin' door! :D If you think for a moment it might be closed, chances are it will be, so just don't think about it, just open the door. Same with monsters behind you, you simply shouldn't have those thoughts. You can surpress them by being goal-oriented. For example, if you say that next lucid dream, you're going to fly, then if you become lucid, you'll just walk outside and attempt to fly instead of standing around and thinking about all the things that you wouldn't want to happen. "It would suck if X happened." generally is a dangerous thought in a dream.

And, if your boyfriend realizes he is dreaming, then he is lucid. He just doesn't have any control over the dream. However, like almost all things in lucid dreaming, it is something that improves when practiced. So he just needs to put a little effort in it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Xei
Perhaps he has become so used to things happening when he doesn't want them to, that he then actually expects it to happen, so it does, as is often the case in dreams.

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Haha I think you have it there, pessimism is right. Stubborn pessimism no less.

And thanks guys, since I obviously have no experience yet it's nice to hear what you think may work.