Thread: Can you read?

You know, I don't have a lot of trouble with reading in my dreams. Sure, the words may change a bit when I look away, but apart from that it's fine. Reading in a lucid dream can be a a lot of fun, seeing what your mind comes up with.

*Jdeadevil has a FlashBack of that time when he nearly went Lucid*

Ahh, Hello Jonny this is your Maerd G_ide speaking. You are Dre... EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!!!!!!

I once read a warning in a pub in my dream. I don't really recall if I actually could see something written in the board or if I was just thinking of what was written on it.

2 days ago, was waking up and drifting back into sleep and had a short LD where I was reading the spine of a book covered in red cloth with gold words written on it. I could understand what the words meant, but looking at them they kept shifting and moving and ended up looking more like Russian than English - mix of letters and numbers

example ---> YF34l_3R3R|| 5èÆ4ii 45ŽŒ4

sometimes (okay, about three times), Words have flashed across my vision, and I have been able to read them. No problems there ...

Most of the time I can not really read. This is often a way for me to become lucid, a simple reality check... Like walking down a street and try to focus on a street sign, it move all creepy like. I can read if you mean pick up a book and hear in my thoughts what the book means, or just understand its meaning. So when it comes to looking directly at a page in a book it will start making little sense, parts of sentances that morph and get mixed up. I have had about 12 dreams in which I honestly could read letter for letter something very short like a stop sign with out it morphing, but have had hundreds where I could not read (letter for letter read). I would say maybe just read by letting the book tell you a story or just accept that you understand a sign without trying to actually see the words.

2 days ago, was waking up and drifting back into sleep and had a short LD where I was reading the spine of a book covered in red cloth with gold words written on it. I could understand what the words meant, but looking at them they kept shifting and moving and ended up looking more like Russian than English - mix of letters and numbers

example ---> YF34l_3R3R|| 5èÆ4ii 45ŽŒ4

That is similar to me. I cannot read in LD's.

The other night, I was LD'ing, and I decided to test if I could read something. I picked up a deodorant can that was nearby (don't ask me why!) and tried to read the label. As you say - they started out as words, but the more I screwed up my eyes and tried to read, the more they morphed into unintelligeble symbols and lines. It was very odd! I wish I could Lucid read though, that would be awesome. To read something that doesn't exist, is an acheivement, I believe!

There is scientific reasoning behind this.
The left hemisphere of our brain is associated with processes such as math, reading and logical processing. Because we are asleep, the right hemisphere is more in control that the right.
This may vary however dependent upon your level of lucidity. With the reasoning that the more lucid you are the more active your left side of the brain is.

Oh that's interesting. Kind of makes sense. If the reading part of your brain is still asleep...then makes sense that reading is pretty hard in dreams.

I had this reoccuring dream where I was in a car, and a girl passed me a small bit of paper with a joke on it. I remember laughing at it, but could never remember seeing what was written.

Perhaps you were just laughing to dream-impress her.

No, I remember thinking the joke was really clever and I needed to remember so when I wake up I can tell other people - But never did remember it.

Originally Posted by becominglucid

Oh that's interesting. Kind of makes sense. If the reading part of your brain is still asleep...then makes sense that reading is pretty hard in dreams.

On a few occasions where I was experiencing a high level of lucidity, I played chess. This only lasted until the game got 'deep', then my logical processing began to get provoked and I then awoke.
Same thing goes for the (telephone technique) Because numbers are difficult to process makes this concept difficult.

Originally Posted by AdamA

No, I remember thinking the joke was really clever and I needed to remember so when I wake up I can tell other people - But never did remember it.

You know, that's an interesting point. I very rarely remember what things say when I wake up, I just remember that things were written and I read them.

One of my LD tasks is to always find something to read. I think that LD reading eventually becomes a form of RC for me. The longer that I spend looking at LD books and magazines, the clearer that the words become.

Like in my recurring office LD, me and my PA/DC were sitting there going thru the days mail. I was looking at the papers and reading some fairly stable words.