Perception in Dreams as an ILD-help

We can all agree that, allthough Dreams can get extremely, convincingly realistic to the point of being freaky, Perception in general is quite different in Dreams. Most RCs focus on Differences between the nature of the Dreamer's enviroment, but the problem with those RCs are that the Enviroments seldomly give us a hint that we might be Dreaming as it either keeps us too busy or doesn't seem any abnormal at all.

However another thing that is typically different from Waking Life in Dreams is our General Perception itself. That "Dream-Feeling" is actually because we are in an altered state of Perception: an ideal indicator that you are Dreaming. And perception is something you'll allways have with you. You could make a habit of Checking the Perception of your senses.

Visual:
Waking Life:
Well you oughta know exactly how you see in Waking life. Sharp, Coherent, Streaming and with the colors and contrast you're used to.

Dreams:
Things generally look somewhat, or heavily, blurred/hazy in Dreams. Or sometimes they look SUPER sharp(hyperreal) Often Colors are enhanced and shapes are exagerated/deformed.

-RC: Check your Vision frequently throughout the day: Is it Sharp? Or Blurry? Are the Colortones and contrasts as usual? No matter what your conclusions are allways follow it up by another, reliable RC.

Auditory:
Waking Life:
You oughta know off course. Coherent, continuous sound-perception, Sound percieved should be consistent with the source(voice, machine, wind..etc) the Accoustiscs of the space it is made in (Bedroom, huge Cathedral hall, Echoing caves..etc) and proportional in volume ( a plane crashing on the horison some 10 kilometres ahead of you should sound like a deep, but distant and relatively soft explosion) and the direction from which the Sound
came should be consistent with the action that made the sound (Your Footsteps' sound should come from right below you, a car passing by on the right should be heard from the right)

Dream:
Sound is often most unusually percieved in Dreams. Strange Echos, ping-Pong Left-Right effects, Muffled/Muted sound, the complete absence of sound or The perception of Sound in any other unusual, perhaps undescribable ways are often experienced in Dreams.

-RC: Any strange echos? Unusual ways of perceiving sound? Any strange sound effects? No sound at all? Muted or interrupted perception of Sound?
Follow with another, reliable RC.

Tactile:
Waking life:
If someone touches you you feel it the moment of contact. Well you oughta know...



Dreams: Reduced or sometimes absent tactile perception of a physical body. Sensations such as Pain, itch, Sexual Stimulation, The feel of a surface or the Feel of falling in your Stomach are often overly Dramatised and feel very unusual. When moving, instead of a coherent, step by step, walk forward many Dreamers percieve a sort of forward floatation/thought-driven motion. I often feel as if I am bodyless unless the Storyline of my Dream needs to create a specific physical sensation.

-RC: Check your Tactile sense. Do you feel anyhow Dissociated from your body?( Do "You" feel completely attatched to/placed inside your body?) Touch your skin: Does it feel as usual? Follow up with another, Reliable RC.

Taste&Smell:
Hardily ever, if EVER at all, remember having used these senses in Dreams. Let me know if that isn't the case for you.

Emotionally/Psychological:
The perception of percieved "internal" Emotions, feelings, sensations, mindstates within the Mind itself.

Waking Life:
You ougghta know.

Dreams:
A magical/twisted/strange overall sensation of the Mind/Self. Emotions are usually greatly exagerated and often experienced in an unusual way and/or mixed in with other emotions in combinations that are never, or hardily ever, felt during waking life.

-RC: Check how you feel internally. Any signs of unusually mixed feelings? Any alien emotions/sensations? any signs of emotional/psychological exageration? No matter what your conclusions are follow up by another, reliable RC.

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My Deaf Dreams:

I have noticed that, allthough sometimes DCs speak or there is music or ambiance sound in my Dreams, actually my Dreams are quite Mute. When someone will speak to me I will "hear" them say it, but I will hear it like I hear a verbal thought. The same with Music: I will hear it as if I am hearing a song that's stuck in my head. It's more imaginative than real, whereas the visual aspect of my Dreams are very Real. I noticed this a while back.

I have always remembered Dreams Visually, sometimes but rarely, with an element of tactile sensations(dog bite, falling-feeling in the stomach..etc), But I can never recall any sounds from my Dreams. Only those "Imaginative" sounds when DCs are talking to me or when a plane crashes near me for instance, but not nearly as realistic as the experiences of my other senses. Just like sound doesn't really play a role in my Dreaming.

Are there any Dreamers around here who find the same to be the case for themselves?

Cuz a Good Reality Check for these people might be to Take some time to "snap out of the moment" and listen to the Sounds of their enviroment. And try and analyse wether the Sound you percieve is any different from usual, Muffled/muted or completely abscent. No matter what the conclusion of your Sound-analysis is always do a second Reality Check afterwards; Stick-hand-through-solid-object has never failed me before.

Very good post =)

And the bottom line is: If something is weird, RC

Perhaps my natural awairness of these things in waking and dreaming life explains why I have DILDs so much (an average of just over 3 per night, including nights when I am NOT lucid at all).

However, I do frequently smell and taste things in my dreams. My DCs often have smells associated with them such as; perfume/cologne, bad BO, pleasant BO, ciragette smoke, food smells, etc. And just the air in my dream is rarely scent-free. I smell the traffic, the flowers, plants, people, and so on. However, these smells are often not what they would be like in waking life. I remember one dream I leaned over to smell a woman's corsage and it smelled like pickles! So, congruency of smell would also still be a good DS for me.

Thanks for the post. I will work on these.

The problem is, your discriminations based on your perceptions are also altered in dream state, and so what would normally seem strange feels/looks/smells/sounds/tastes right.

Well everything seems right UNTILL we stop to analyse. Most people hardily ever or never ever do that in Waking Life: Stop to snap out of the moment and critically observe and analyse.

The idea was to make a habit out of snapping out of the moment to analyse your perception. If this habit makes it into your Dreams then you defenitely WOULD discriminate your current perception from your usual, daytime perception.
Example of this:
I did the stick-hand-through-wall RC in a Dream once and couldn't go through the wall right away. But because I took that time to "snap out of it" and check I noticed that, allthough my hand wasn't going through the wall, the sensation of the wall to my fingers felt very different from usual. After noticing that I stuck my hand through the wall with full confidence, but it goes to show that when things seem "normal" in Dreams it is only because you aren't analysing and questioning your Reality for a moment. If you would, you WOULD defenitely notice things are not quite as usual.

Just need to make a real habbit of "snapping out of it" to make all your attention available for a proper Reality-analysis followed by an RC.

@Seeker28:

Could you elaborate on your Daytime awareness? I used to have a decent amount of DILDs too(the only way I've become Lucid with sofar), but I haven't had a lucid in a long long time. I've become very occupied with mental issues so that is most likely the reason why I'm not having any lucids nowadays. I'm rather sucked into my Mind/World of thoughts alot so I am easily distracted from my external surroundings.

This sounds pretty promising and interesting, and I think this is what you're saying, but I'm going to reiterate for mine and others' understanding.

I think that maybe what you're saying is that we really need to be AWARE.
Aware of what we're thinking, and our surroundings...
like those moments when you stop and sort of "step outside" of your world. Where you don't really observe the world as yourself. Sometimes I like to look at people like I'm some superior being that can laugh at humans. :eek:

I think that if I were to analyze my emotions in a dream, I'd find nothing out of the ordinary. But if I were to step outside of the dream world and observe,

You all know how Stephen LaBerge talks about people being sleepwalkers in real life in his book. Well, I think he's talking about awareness. You don't have to be aware of everything that's going on around you, but soaking in the details of life is enough.

If our consciousness in the dream world parallels (to some proportion) that of our waking consciousness, I think it's safe to say that generally it's more difficult to become lucid if you're unaware of the world, although there are MANY variables to this, so this statement is no reason to feel bad about anything (though maybe you should think about somethings). I've voiced this before- but I think that the logic used in dreams is rationalization as opposed to reason. And I also believe that rationalization is almost an opposite to reason. (or maybe an instinctual form) A rational view of things is only a general view - and most things are not general! Maybe a rational view could help a human in an unfamiliar situation to judge consequences. A rational view beats down the odd options because they are "strange". During a dream we rationalize that since we feel real, it must be real! A reasonable view, though, does not SUSPECT the far-out option, but analyzes like SKA is saying - and hopefully comes closer to the truth. If one knows life, then it is not an unfamiliar situation - and we should use reason instead of rationalization. Reason should only be limited by life as we know it. If we only have a limited view on life because we ignore it, it's easy to rationalize.

Besides - I believe that nothing you encounter in life should be viewed as "weird". After all, it just "is", and is obviously the result of some natural phenomenom in accord with the natural laws of the universe. If we really, really observe life, maybe we'd know that we're in a different universe (figuratively) when dreaming.

Whatever though - all theories. :?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SKA

@Seeker28:

Could you elaborate on your Daytime awareness? I used to have a decent amount of DILDs too(the only way I've become Lucid with sofar), but I haven't had a lucid in a long long time. I've become very occupied with mental issues so that is most likely the reason why I'm not having any lucids nowadays. I'm rather sucked into my Mind/World of thoughts alot so I am easily distracted from my external surroundings.

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Okay, I wasn't going to talk about this, but it is the only way I can think of to explain why I am so aware of my perceptions. I have a brain disorder that causes me to frequently see, hear, smell, taste, and feel things that are not really there. Because I am determined to function as normally as possible, I have trained myself to constantly analyze what I am experencing in order to be able to determine what is real and what is not. I constantly ask myself if things make logical sense, am I awake or asleep, are the sounds coming from inside my brain or outside, are other people reacting to whatever I am percieving, and other things. I look skeptically at everything in my enviornment. I do not automatically assume that things are real. I have gotten quite good at determining what is real and what is not. However, I do make mistakes. Most people don't even realize I have this problem.

I think my constant analysis of the world has made me unusually able to pick out discrepancies and to become lucid. I am lucid about 6 out of 7 nights.

On top of this, I am an artist and a writer, so I look closely at the world from those viewpoints. I take in the details. How sunlight looks on different surfaces, how people interact, and so on.

Sorry if this was a bit rambling. I hope I sufficently answered your question.

epilepsy?
I have no idea, really, but it sounds really interesting. Even though your disorder may be painful in some ways, it seems to have benefited you at least a little.