Faux Lucid? Long first post

I just learnt about this lucid stuff today. I've had some lucid dreams, but they aren't truly 'lucid'.
I mean, in the past (looking back), I've had some dreams where I say 'Hey, this is jsut a dream!", but I'm still worried about, say, taking off my pants or punching someone. It's as if 'being aware about dreaming' is just a 'part of my dream'. It more as if a part of the dream is the fact that it IS a dream, similar to how a part of a dream is being in my old house.

Also, when I was younger (5-13), the way I'd wake up from a dream is to crouch down and force my eyes open as wide as I could (without my hands). I guess opening my eyes hard enough affected the 'real world' me and opened my real eyes jsut a tad, enabling me to wake up.
Anyways, as you can see, doing this (trying to wake up from a dream) requires me to know I'm in a dream in the first place.
An example is, when I was around 8-ish, I was at my house and I walked outside in the dark. All of a sudden, my garage started to open. Frankenstein (original, no?) was inside and, as soon as the garage opened all the way, he started to chase me down my courtyard street. When I gained enough distance from him to crouch down, I did, and I opened my eyes as wide as I could. Boom, I was awake. Worked like a charm, every time. My question is, is this fake-lucidness? I mean, to do it, I would have to know I am in the dream first, or else I'd keep running or whatnot. If I knew I was in the dream in the first place, why didn't I just give Frankie a karate-chop? Maybe it was because I was young and afraid to result to such actions, which brings up my next point.

Now, at the age of 16, whenever I come across distrubing images in a dream or something uncomfortable (a nightmare, if I must call it), I don't do the 'opening eyes' thing. It doesn't work anymore, as I've had some unsucessful attempts when I was 14-ish. Anyways, my 'new' method of forcing myself to wake up is.... get ready for it.... 'The sign of the cross'! Oh yes, crouching down and touching my forehead, chest, and both shoulders works like a charm. However, to do this requires me to know that I'm in a dream. I cannot remember any examples. Either way, if I came across a point in a dream where something becomes scary or disturbing (in grade 6, my teacher passed around a picture of a lady who got in a car accident and now looks like a real-life zombie. Scarred for life), I'm not sure if I know I'm in a dream or just do 'the sign of the cross' as a reflexive 'key out'.

Anyways, is there any way that I, once wanting to not be in the dream anymore, result to other means of getting rid of whatever is bothering me instead of 'waking up'? Instead of forcingmyself to wake up, can my new 'reflex' be to summon a rocket launcher and use that?

Also, in the past before I discovered this website and 'lucid dreaming', when I realized I was in a dream (sometimes it just happens. Maybe I'll try to figure out the cause in another thread), either I wake up (not a good thing to overreact or tell a lot of people that you are dreaming, I suppose) or bad things start to happen, such as disturbing faces coming at me and so forth. Right now, it seems as if this is a very apparent obstacle.

hey there. Well any time you wake yourself up from a dream it is lucid. Very low level mind you, but ti is indeed a level of awareness. Now in order to change your habit you have to tell yourself all throughout the day that when something scares you , you will kill it and attack it. You will not run and hide. Just get that killer insintcit in you for a few days. Hopefully it will permeate into your dreaming mind. If ti works you will use your awareness to destroy what is fighting you :)

I'll try that.

Also, around twice in the past when I figure out I'm in a dream, I don't rally 'know' that I'm dreaming. It's more as if it's a part of the dream. For example, I wanted to run around naked, but was afraid of the consequences. It's strange. I guess it's a sort of fake-lucidness of some sort, because it can't be low level if you don't really 'know' you ar ein the dream.

Something else about whenever I figure out I'm lucid - I'm not really me. Instead, I'm the same 'me' that I am in the dream, with some memories. For example, I haven't ever figured out I was lucid and thought, for example, "MMM, wasn't the dinner I had last night good? Since I'm dreaming, maybe I can steal some of that from the store I bought it from! " or "Hey, there's Aunt Josephine! Maybe I can talk to her because, in real life, she's off on a business trip for 2 days" or "Hey, cool, my foot doesn't hurt anymore from when I slipped while getting out of the shower yesterday!"

It's strange that I haven't ever been 'truly' myself in any of my dreams to the point where I can do whatever I want willingly to my own 'real' will.

There are degrees of lucidity. Sometimes you can know it's a dream, and still be scared to death of the monsters, or decide that taking off your clothes would be embarassing, or think illogically--i.e., mistaking a drem character for a sleeping person, or accepting illogical things. Sometimes you can have a little control--like being able to do telekinesis. And sometimes you're in complete control and you can change your environment at will. They're all lucid dreams, though--nothing "faux" about 'em. Being able to wake yourself up is a definite sign that you were lucid.