Finally

[martydee]

Last night, after a month's dry spell, I had a lucid dream. Unfortunately I fell back into a normal sleep and now I can't remember the dream. Bummer, but glad to have hopefully ended the dry spell. And even though I can't remember it, I'm still counting it as an LD. Hope nobody minds.

[Scionox]

Congrats on breaking dry spell! It's unfortunate that you couldn't recall it, but it's good that you think positive, next time you definitely will recall it!

[martydee]

Thanks Checker. Love your encouragement. After posting the above, I went out for my usual Starbucks break. So there I was, my double-espresso in one hand, and a copy of 'Are You Dreaming' in the other. Just for the heck of it, I did a reality check by looking at my hand and suddenly I remembered at least a tiny bit of last night's aforementioned dream. It went something like this: There I was, lying in bed, when, for some reason, I looked at my hand. It looked fine--right size, right number of fingers, and yet something, somewhere felt strange. So I continued looking at my hand and then, surprise, it began to change shape. Among other things, my fingers grew several inches. Whereupon I found myself in rather dullish surroundings and tried to change the environment. I'm pretty new at this so I guess I bit off more than I could chew. Thus ended the dream. Next time I'll take my time, explore the surroundings a little bit, before into taking drastic actions. Coincidentally, reading further in 'Are You Dreaming,' Daniel Love states unequivocally that you shouldn't use your hands as a reality check. And that it was only on rare occasions that your hands would appear different. I was shocked and dismayed that he'd make such an absurd generality as that's the only reality check I've ever used and it's worked every time. Almost made me want to throw this eighteen dollar book away.

[Nelzi]

Hey! congrats on the progress. I'm curious how would you know that you were lucid when you can't remember it? I'm not doubting that you had a LD or saying that you lie just wanna know, how would you know that? So maybe we are lucid much more often than we think or can remember? Seems weird to me, because in the few LDs I had, I was in particular aware of everything and taking mental pictures in order to remember it, which I was successful in and grateful for that I did so, when I woke up. Also, I agree with hands being a bad RC. My dream hands feel and look very much like my real hands, I remember one particular dream, when I even thought that my dream hands seem even more real and detailed than my real hands... however, I know this may vary from person to person, so what I learned from that was you should always find out what works for yourself and not blindly rely on suggestions but regard them as suggestions only. Good luck next time!

[Runeword]

hey Marty, mind humoring me and giving me a little summary of how well you keep up with the dream journal'ing?

[martydee]

hey Marty, mind humoring me and giving me a little summary of how well you keep up with the dream journal'ing? No, I don't mind. Up until two days ago, I wasn't keeping a journal at all. Although I do have a portable recording device by my bed, but I've hardly used it. After the dream incident mentioned above, I decided I should start keeping one. So I'm now keeping one fairly faithfully. Why do you ask, if I may?

[spaceexplorer]

Coincidentally, reading further in 'Are You Dreaming,' Daniel Love states unequivocally that you shouldn't use your hands as a reality check. And that it was only on rare occasions that your hands would appear different. I was shocked and dismayed that he'd make such an absurd generality as that's the only reality check I've ever used and it's worked every time. Almost made me want to throw this eighteen dollar book away. Hold on a second! I've read that book and it's damn good, the points it makes about the hand reality check make a lot of sense, I think you completely misunderstood what it was trying to say. I've just got my copy out to double check. What it basically says is that the hand check has no solid reason/theory as to why it should work other than expectation. It goes on to say that other tests like the nose pinch check have a logical reasons to work and are more reliable. If you want to have less disappointment and more regular lucid dreams, you should choose a reality check that has a logical and practical theory for why it works. In the case of the nose check its because the nose you pinch in the dream isnt responsible for your breathing but the hand check just seems to rely on expecting it to work. The book even explains about how the hands are probably one of the most familiar parts of our bodies so our brains aren't likely to have problems copying them in a dream but it also goes on and says that it's worth experimenting with yourself to see if it works for you, but suggests against it in favour of other tests that would probably be more reliable. That seems like good advice to me. The way I read it was as a warning to chose reality checks that have a solid logic behind them. Also I do have to say, it completely matches my own experiences, I gave up using the hand reality check after about 4 months of getting into lucid dreaming, and i've been doing it for ten years now, because it failed in LOADS of dreams and it just started to piss me off missing chances like that. If it works for you thats great but we do have to admit that the hand check does not have a good logical reason for why it would work. Glad to see things are progressing well for you tho, just thought i'd argue this point with you because I do pretty much agree with the book on choosing a reality check that is going to have a higher reliability rate, and those are the ones that have a good logic behind why they should work, not just because we expect them to.