Thread: Knew I was dreaming, but reality check failed.

Okay, so I'm in the back of a car, and say out of the blue in my head "I'm dreaming. I'M DREAMING!" I did a reality check, by holding my nose and trying to breathe through it, and trying to put my finger thru my hand, wich is my preferred method. Well, It didn't work, and I felt as if I wasn't allowed to do anything, move my head or whatever, I was still restrained by the dream. I knew I was dreaming, but I was unsure when the RC failed, thinking "maybe I'm not" because I couldn't do anything but what the dream wanted.

I suppose you could say I'm progressing, in my last (and first) ld, I didn't do a rc BUT I could walk around.

Maybe the RC failed because I'm used to it failing in real life. If so, could anybody tell me some better RC's?

I was thinking, too, that It failed because I was inexperienced. When you did your first RC, did it fail?

ON a better note, it was a good dream and I was able to remember it real well

Kill someone... if it doesn't pan out atleast you'll have plenty of time to work on LDing in prision

Looking at text and checking it a few times almost always works.

Well, not always. If you arent' quite lucid--- I remember a dream where I was almost there but kept checking over and over again what new text was being generated and I lost lucidity. So don't get fascinated by it

Well.. the first time in my dream I tried breathing through my nose, I could breathe through it. The second time, in a dream a few nights after, it didn't work (but I still knew I was dreaming so what do I care). So, maybe it will work the next time.

Well, the nose one always works for me, but that's just me. There's actually a tutorial you could look at that has a lot of ideas, but I'll throw out a suggestion or two.

One time I thought I might be dreaming, so when I looked down a hallway the first time, I saw a group of people, but when I looked away and looked back they were gone. Looking twice at something to look for changes can be very effective. Things are always changing in my dreams.

If you're already fairly sure that you're dreaming, you could try jumping up into the air and try to fly. If you manage to, or even if you stay in the air longer than normal, you could still use that to realize or confirm that you're dreaming.

Originally posted by Amethyst Star
Well, the nose one always works for me, but that's just me. *There's actually a tutorial you could look at that has a lot of ideas, but I'll throw out a suggestion or two.

One time I thought I might be dreaming, so when I looked down a hallway the first time, I saw a group of people, but when I looked away and looked back they were gone. *Looking twice at something to look for changes can be very effective. *Things are always changing in my dreams.

If you're already fairly sure that you're dreaming, you could try jumping up into the air and try to fly. *If you manage to, or even if you stay in the air longer than normal, you could still use that to realize or confirm that you're dreaming.

The thing was, I was still restrained. I could only move if the dream allowed it. It was like SP, I couldn't move.

Saying "reality check failed" wouldnt that seem to imply that you were not in reality, "I was checking if I was in reality, and my test failed, therefore, I am not in reality" so arent failed reality check good things for LDS, and successful reality checks bad things for LDs, but good for Real life.

Anyway, I dont even really do RCs in my DILDs, they dont really do anything, you are either dreaming, or you are not, if you cant figure it out just by thinking about it, then your LD prolly isnt going to be clear enough to be really fun anyways.

I determine wether I am dreaming by what my gut tells me. What my gut tells me, and the truthiness of the situation.

Just do the simple time/text check. It'll almost never fail, it's only ever failed once with me. The other kinds of checks are completely unpredictable so I wouldn't recommend them.

It's important to remember that nothing is impossible in dreams. Normally the nose RC works because your real nose is still open when you're pinching your dream-nose. In this case however, like you said, you expected you wouldn't be able to breathe so much, that you couldn't. This is possible just like it's possible to feel like you're choking in another kind of situation in a dream (in which case you can actually still breathe as well).

This indicates the importance of concentrating when you're checking reality. If you do it absentmindedly, there is, as you've seen, a chance that your RC will fail (or succeed, if you like ). If you actually observe reality well besides doing the RC, however, you will have a much better chance of not being fooled, even if the RC does fail.
Other than that I must say I do not agree that time/text checks work better than nose checks. letters not changing form is also possible just as much as a nose check failing. No reality test is absolutely foolproof. Also, I find reading a text twice takes too long to become a habit (though that's just me).

About not being able to move unless "the dream allowed it". The problem there is, again, expectation. You probably thought you had no control over the dream, and therefore, you couldn't control it. However, you were concious enough to try. The truth is, though, that we are always in control of our dreams. We just do everything we do unconciously, and becoming lucid allows us to change that.

In other words, as long as you are aware that this (and just about everything else that will ever go wrong/right in your dreams) is tied to expectation (and motivation), you'll get a long way in terms of dream control. And this is indeed dream control we're talking about.

Hope that helped... O.o

So, If I tell myself "I have complete control over my dreams" I will have a better chance of it working? Does this also apply to rc's?

I don't know why I couldn't move. I moved alot in the dream. But when I was sitting in the back of the truck and realized I was dreaming, It's like I just.. stopped. I didn't move at all for the rest of the dream.

My thinking of why that was happening was that, I was inbetween full lucid and regular dream. I was lucid enough to know I was dreaming and try to move, yet the dream still had enough control over me to keep me from moving.

another theory is, and forgive me if someone already replied with this..

The result of your RC is influenced by what you initially expect to happen.

better RCs,
Digital Clocks,
Lights,
Re-reading passages of text.

Originally posted by BeautifulDreamer
So, If I tell myself "I have complete control over my dreams" I will have a better chance of it working? Does this also apply to rc's?

I don't know why I couldn't move. I moved alot in the dream. But when I was sitting in the back of the truck and realized I was dreaming, It's like I just.. stopped. I didn't move at all for the rest of the dream.

My thinking of why that was happening was that, I was inbetween full lucid and regular dream. I was lucid enough to know I was dreaming and try to move, yet the dream still had enough control over me to keep me from moving.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. The only reason you were having trouble moving is because you assume dreams work that way. That is, you think that in order to control your dream, you have to defeat the dream's control over you.
A dream never really controls you though. You just act, unaware of what you're doing, like when blinking (for example) in waking life. As soon as you break the unawareness, you can stop blinking, stop breathing, whatever it is you're doing unconciously (at least you can for a while).
Lucid dreams work the same way. You break the unawareness so you can control the dream, just like you'd control your breath, with the exception that you don't need to release control over the dream in order to survive, and so you can do it for as long as you're lucid.
The reason you couldn't move was, therefore, caused by your idea of the dream "still controlling you". This would be equivalent to not being able to hold your breath because you think that, even though you're aware that you're breathing, you can't stop doing it because you're normally always breathing like you are.

I'm sorry if that didn't make much sense or if it was hard to understand. I'm trying to explain the best I can, but apparently, it can be hard to put into words.