Fear of FA

Well I’m new here and I want to try to lucidity dream. The only problem is I am scared of false awakenings. I am also afraid of dark hallways and bathrooms. I was reading some random thread to find that some people have had FA and go to the bathroom and see a demon or monster. I really don’t want that happening. What should I do?

I’d say a good way to avoid this would be to do a few Reality Checks as soon as you wake up. That way you can determine if it is a FA or not. If your Reality Checks work, and you find you are truly awake, then you can hopefully go to the bathroom without monster problems. :smile:

If you look at the big picture, false awakenings are some of the most trivial things that could happen to you. All a false awakening is is a continuation of a dream in which you think you’ve awakened. Like Fenikkusu mentioned, just get in the habit of doing a reality check every time you wake up.

My question to you is: why don’t you want to see a demon or monster in the bathroom? If you do, you’ll know beyond a doubt that you’re dreaming and that the beast in front of you is actually just a very convincing fabrication of your imagination. What is there to be afraid of? Besides, you don’t know if you’ll see stuff like that until you’ve actually had a false awakening.

My advice to you: don’t worry about it. Welcome to the forum! Enjoy yourself. Don’t worry about whatever mildly unpleasant things might happen and focus on the positive results that you want.

If he is just starting to try lucid dreaming then a monster in his dream will give him a nightmare and not lucidity. You know that in a dream wierd things seem normal, atleast for those of us who haven’t achieved lucidity, so a monster is not really that helpful for us.

Hi btw, I’m Ozmo, new to this forum as you can see, I’m 17 and I’m just getting into this amazing Lucid Dreaming thing, I will post more when I’ve managed to do it!

Well, you should have a FA to meet your monster in a poorly litted bathroom after walking through a dark hallway.

Most of the few FAs that I have had were very realistic, and did not involve anything that would seem out of the ordinary. But that may just be me.

Welcome, Ozmo! I understand that the things our brains invent in nightmares (or nightmarish FAs) can be very frightening, but I was trying to say that they can’t really harm us. Also, I know that realistically most people take time to start recognizing nightmares for what they are. But that doesn’t mean a monster can’t be helpful to you yet. If you think to yourself that you can’t yet recognize monsters as products of your dreaming imagination, it’ll take a lot longer to reliably reach lucidity. Positive thinking is crucial.

If you think to yourself that you can’t have a lucid dream yet because you’re just starting, you may realize you’re right. If you think to yourself that you can have a lucid dream tonight, you also may realize you’re right. Don’t tell yourself that lack of experience will limit your LDing, even though it will turn out that way to some extent.

False awakenings are a great way of becoming lucid, so instead of seeing them as something to be fearful of try to redefine it as a tool that will allow you to gain lucidity.

Well my room is the closest to the bathroom. But anyway, I am forgeting my fears for now since I really want to lucidity dream. I have nearly gotten it but wake up right before. My dream recall has shot up the roof. I can nearly recall my whole dream in great detail. Anyway, thanks for the help guys and girls.

Hi Dreman,

It’s very rare that somebody has fear of FA’s. I don’t remember I have seen this before. I suppose it’s due to a misunderstanding of what is it.

There are two possibilities during a FA.

  1. You don’t realize you’re dreaming, thus it’s not a lucid dream, it’s a normal dream in exactly the same way you have every night. By the way, people who don’t practice LD’ing have dreams in which they dream they wake up, for instance when they worry about being late in the morning. It’s FA’s and it’s very common.

  2. You realize that you’re dreaming. Thus you are LD’ing and the fact this LD started by you waking up or by any other way is not that important.

I have had a few FAs before. Sometimes they get irritating :razz: and its so convincing!!! its crazy. But yes, the best way is to practice RC regularly.