Why does my subconscious oppose lucrid dreaming

Often when I become aware that I'm dreaming I feel a part of me tries to convince me otherwise. I first noticed this when I found myself regularly asking people in my dream if I'm dreaming, they always tell me I'm not. Also, I find that once I start questioning the world around me it starts to make more sense. For example, if I notice that my reflection isn't accurate and conclude that I'm dreaming, my reflection will then appear normal and it's almost as if I can hear my subconscious saying "see, everything's normal, you're awake". I also often have false awakenings while lucid dreaming and find myself desperately searching for proof that I'm still asleep. I'm sure I often fail to find this proof and soon forget that I'm asleep and as a result, don't remember this ever happening. Does this happen to anyone else and does anyone have any theories on why?

I think it is a defence mechanism of your brain. If you see anything out of ordinary, do something extraordinary then you'll really convince that it's a dream. I told many times that it is a dream to my family or friends in my LDs. Never have I gotten any satisfying answer. They were always like "No, it's not. Are you crazy ? " But I always ignored them and flew through the window. So do not be discouraged by that. In time you'll see that you are more in control. By the way, do several RCs.

lol - I tend to to something drastic like fall over on purpose just to make sure - Coz its doesnt hurt, im certain :) or i try to find my hands and if i do then im certain too :)

Some people feel the pain in dreams so hurting yourself is not very reliable :D It's best that you do at least 3 RC

I don't think there's an explanation for it, it just happens. One theory is this...the inhibitor is the result of expecting things to be normal when you are awake. You expect everything to be normal and not dreamlike. It may help if you change your perception a little more toward dreaming like expecting oddities to happen because you are dreaming.

IMJ

Indeed, it is a definite drawback when you're just learning, but everyone can get used to it with a little perseverance and dedication.

A brilliant method (yet not quite so straight-forward) is to just remember the feeling of your own well-being in your dream at the time of all this happening, at the time when your subconcious is heretically convincing you that everything is real, try and remember back to your mix of emotions and various thoughts.

You'll realise that you felt much differently to how you feel right now- maybe emotions of discomfort about your general surroundings, things maybe not feeling so right and probably the biggest one is feeling like you want to be back to normal and wanting to go back "home".

Remember those emotions and try and associate them with dreaming, with time you wont be met with justifications by your subconcious as you'll "just know" that you're dreaming.

Hello!

That happens to me all the time, it's almost as if I'm not allowed to have lucid dreams! My dreams usually just get really really weird if I start to think I'm dreaming - and it takes my mind off the fact that I'm LDing and I get all caught up in the weirdness of the dream, or the opposite happens and weird things stop happening just as I start to think I'm dreaming and I fall for it all the time.

I find I'm extremely gullible aswell- like the weirdest things never even seem weird to me during the dream, I just go along with it then wake up thinking 'that was so obvious!'

:(

Wow thanks for all the comments guys.

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=67026

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I have the most horribly unrealistic dreams and I still can't realize that I am dreaming.

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That's not like the exact same question or anything... :roll:

I get this a lot, too. Especially with dream characters who don't believe it is a dream. Maybe I secretly just love proving it to them. "Oh yeah? Watch this..."

Scientists say it is something to do with the low level of beta brain waves when we are dreaming but that doesn't account for the subconscious actively distracting us, all I know is it's infuriating. Apparently the only way to beat it is by having an unbending intent to be aware when you're dreaming, if you can keep it up long enough it eventually gives in.

Yeah I can definitely recall that. I remember I didn't think about it much when I did have my best DILD. It just happened, I never doubted it and I was never even close to losing lucidity. I can't even remember how it ended it was so long.

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Originally Posted by Swingdance

Often when I become aware that I'm dreaming I feel a part of me tries to convince me otherwise. I first noticed this when I found myself regularly asking people in my dream if I'm dreaming, they always tell me I'm not.

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A lot of people seem to have trouble with DCs telling them they're awake, but I've read about a few people whose DCs actually help them get lucid. Sometimes I'll realize I'm dreaming and tell a few DCs who happen to be nearby. They usually look at me kinda funny, but they've never started arguing (maybe that's because I'll start flying away and forget about them before they have a chance to say anything, lol).

As for my subconscious not wanting me to lucid dream...I had did have a very odd lucid once. My subconscious "told" me it's opinion rather directly. Here's an excerpt from my DJ:

Spoiler for Dream Excerpt:

My mom and I were in a somewhat dark building. I was supposed to clip a dog's nails (it may have been a person at first), but I was having a hard time. I gave up, and began studying the dog's hands. I was looking at my own hands and even toes, trying to figure out what it was that was different. I moved into the next room over to take a closer look at the dog's hands while my mom stayed in the previous room. All of a sudden, I realized what it was. The thumbs were on the outside!!! This shocked me much more than the fact that the dog had hands in the first place. I kept telling my mom that the thumbs were on the outside, trying to get her to understand the importance of this discovery. There was something about the thumbs being on the outside that felt deeply wrong.

I looked back at my own hands, and on an impulse I did a reality check and counted them. I knew I was dreaming. I told my mom, and started to go out the door. I didn't know where I was going, but I wanted to go somewhere else. To fly somewhere else. I hesitated, wondering if my mom was coming, or if I should just start off on my own. Then a voice said, "Why are you resisting?" I was confused for a moment, then interpreted this to mean that I should just let the dream go it's own course. But why would I let the dream continue normally when I was lucid? As I nervously wandered back into the room, it occured to me that maybe this could be interesting. In a normal dream, the subconscious is mostly in control, showing messages that I may not be aware of at the time. In a lucid dream, the conscious mostly in control, and I basically do whatever I feel like. So what if I was aware that it was a dream, and listened to the messages? A direct connection to my sub-c. (This was the first time that I'd interpreted the voice as being my subconscious.)

Even after these thoughts, I was still uneasy. It was a combination of confused guilt, that maybe I'd been frivolous with my previous lucid dreams, and fear that whatever lessons my sub-c wanted me to learn would be hard to bear. There was a shelf full of books. As my mom pulled one out, I thought suddenly, "I can learn in my sleep everything I really want to learn while I'm awake!" I (or possibly my mom) began reading from the book. It said, "How to control people's will." It reminded me of corporations. And then the meaning of those words sank in like never before. I became very upset, to the point of crying even, saying that the concept shouldn't even exist. I heard my dad's voice, going into rant/lecture mode, "That dog would never survive in the wild." There was something about how the dog's nails would not funtion properly. My dad continued, "Constantly clinking on glass, arowroro, scratch scratch scratch, aarowowrororo..." I woke up.

Oh I had the same problem years ago, all my normal dreams were either FA or dreams with a really good plot as to how I got to the place were I was... And then everything was going as good as reality, so I couldn't tell wheter I was dreaming or not and had to find something my brain were not able to mimic in my dreams, thats how I found gravity to be my best RC lol
Well, there were the nightmares too, wich were mostly lucids, but very rare <.<

Yeah thanks Walms, that was helpful! :banana:

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Originally Posted by nautilus

I've read about a few people whose DCs actually help them get lucid.

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Good point :D I get this all the time, also. I guess some part of me just has an agenda all its own.

In my dreams it rather opposite. People around me will often remind me Im dreaming. Or I'll tell them and they believe me. Sometimes I'll do something amazing to convince them, but in the end they acknowledge its a dream. On occasion I've even had arguments over whose dream we're in, mine of theirs.