Reality check = bucket of fail?

[Advantageous Noodle]

I had this dream a few weeks ago in which I was in a mansion in its basement. Very vividly, I could hear my echoing footsteps on wooden floors in an endless hallway lined with televisions (ala the movie Down to Earth with chris rock). A young english woman's voice in my head asked me "You have no idea where you are, do you?" Apparently I always have my phone in my dreams because I always check my phone in real life - not for the sake of RCs but to check the time, check for texts, etc. As I'm pulling my phone out of my pocket to look for a missed call, I realize "Hey this is a reality check I can do" and so I open my phone looking for confirmation. I am confirmed by red kanji characters probably indicating some sort of telephone error. I close my phone and decide to look again because I heard that different things will be displayed each time you look, and I was curious. As soon as I make this decision in my head, the word TRILOGY pops up on the televsions on either side and scrolls across over and over in the Matrix movie font we all would recognize. http://www.scififantasystore.com/sit...;20trilogy.jpg This makes me very paranoid and I'm suddenly very desperate to open my phone again as if it would save me from unseen dangers. It is nearly impossible to open. As I'm pulling on it the tv screens get all flickery and dodgy, "trilogy" bouncing around eerily. With all my strength I get my phone open and to my horror the screen is blank with a white background. My eyes seem to zoom in close on the cell phone screen in my hand, which is shaking wildly because I felt like my phone was vibrating my entire body. I can't breath at all, I feel my mouth literally hanging open, and I hear a sound in my ears like a three year old trying to play the violin - just horrible screeching. My focus goes back to the hallway in front of me and a black hole seems to grow out of the distance and get bigger and closer until everything goes black. Seconds later a white square rolls into my black vision (kind of like in a movie trailer). In red letters it reads "GTA stt!!" Then it scrolls off to the left and another one comes in from the right and it says "Black against brilliance." After it is gone I'm left in a starry void for a few seconds, then I'm awake in sleep paralysis, me being full awake and mobile still seconds later. My questions are thus: If being lucid is merely knowing that you are dreaming, and I knew I was dreaming from RC number 1 and onward, when why would I be so frightened by the word "trilogy?" why would I have this dread of an unseen force? and why would a second RC scare me so much when I saw just what I expected to see when I did it? The sensations I felt when my phone went off in my hand feel alot like what people describe when they are experiencing sleep paralysis - the dread, the vibrations, the noise, etc. Was this LD just extremely vivid hallucinations of SP? Could trilogy or the content of the advertisements at the end of the dream have significance or just be randomness?

[Exdream]

I had this dream a few weeks ago in which I was in a mansion in its basement. Very vividly, I could hear my echoing footsteps on wooden floors in an endless hallway lined with televisions (ala the movie Down to Earth with chris rock). A young english woman's voice in my head asked me "You have no idea where you are, do you?" Apparently I always have my phone in my dreams because I always check my phone in real life - not for the sake of RCs but to check the time, check for texts, etc. As I'm pulling my phone out of my pocket to look for a missed call, I realize "Hey this is a reality check I can do" and so I open my phone looking for confirmation. I am confirmed by red kanji characters probably indicating some sort of telephone error. I close my phone and decide to look again because I heard that different things will be displayed each time you look, and I was curious. As soon as I make this decision in my head, the word TRILOGY pops up on the televsions on either side and scrolls across over and over in the Matrix movie font we all would recognize. http://www.scififantasystore.com/sit...%20trilogy.jpg This makes me very paranoid and I'm suddenly very desperate to open my phone again as if it would save me from unseen dangers. It is nearly impossible to open. As I'm pulling on it the tv screens get all flickery and dodgy, "trilogy" bouncing around eerily. With all my strength I get my phone open and to my horror the screen is blank with a white background. My eyes seem to zoom in close on the cell phone screen in my hand, which is shaking wildly because I felt like my phone was vibrating my entire body. I can't breath at all, I feel my mouth literally hanging open, and I hear a sound in my ears like a three year old trying to play the violin - just horrible screeching. My focus goes back to the hallway in front of me and a black hole seems to grow out of the distance and get bigger and closer until everything goes black. Seconds later a white square rolls into my black vision (kind of like in a movie trailer). In red letters it reads "GTA stt!!" Then it scrolls off to the left and another one comes in from the right and it says "Black against brilliance." After it is gone I'm left in a starry void for a few seconds, then I'm awake in sleep paralysis, me being full awake and mobile still seconds later. My questions are thus: If being lucid is merely knowing that you are dreaming, and I knew I was dreaming from RC number 1 and onward, when why would I be so frightened by the word "trilogy?" why would I have this dread of an unseen force? and why would a second RC scare me so much when I saw just what I expected to see when I did it? The sensations I felt when my phone went off in my hand feel alot like what people describe when they are experiencing sleep paralysis - the dread, the vibrations, the noise, etc. Was this LD just extremely vivid hallucinations of SP? Could trilogy or the content of the advertisements at the end of the dream have significance or just be randomness? There are two things that seem likely here. The first one: the characteristics of a nightmare are generally irrational and uncontrollable fear in certain situations. Perhaps you dreamed you were LDing when you actually weren't. This has happened to me before, in the dream I thought I was LD, but when I woke up I realize I hadn't really been (stuffing cheese into a can of tomato soup doesn't sound like something I'd spend my time doing in a LD! But I thought it was when I was dreaming) Or you gained lucidity for a brief moment, and lost it and drifted into a nightmare, which seems like a pretty likely thing. This doesn't sound like the behavior anyone LDing would exhibit.

[Kadal]

The reason the word 'Trilogy' scared you so much was probably because you weren't fully lucid. There are different levels of lucidity. The lowest is a vague knowledge that one is dreaming, but without fully comprehending that nothing in the dream can hurt one. The highest is being entirely certain that one cannot be hurt by anything in the dream, and one is able to control said dream. I have often found that the human mind tries to prevent one from becoming lucid. As soon as one tries to question the reality of a dream situation, something happens to somehow distract the person so that they lose whatever lucidity they had. As for the 'unseen force', this is perfectly common. It is merely a manifestation of the natural paranoia that occurs when one is frightened. It is very common in dreams to feel that someone is watching and/or persecuting one in some way. In future dreams, I recommend that you, the moment you become lucid, drop to the floor, and lick it. It sounds strange, but it really works. This will force you to focus on one thing so that all other distractions will fade away. Concentrate on the floor, and once you feel that the dream has become stable, continue from there, always remembering to stay in control.

[Advantageous Noodle]

I definately knew for a good couple seconds that I was dreaming. Like you said I must have just lost focus somehow. I had this thought of "why is this happening to me?!! I already realized that I was dreaming!! Why am I still in danger!?! *can't breathe so scared* oh shit OH SHIT!!" running through my mind. That fear was so intense though. Probably more powerful than anything I've ever felt, real or dream-based. I've had nightmares about the woman from the Grudge crawling up over me in my bed and staring me in the face that weren't as bad as that. I wish all LDs could be like my first LD...no work at all to do it, just me on a sandy shore with blue skies, bikinis...and my truck - stuck in the sand. I love dreams. But I seriously hate them too. I swear.