PROBLEM: Our aim is to maintain awareness of the nature of dream at all times. This means to realise at all times that we are in a dream and to observe from a position of disinterested consciousness.
BUT the concept of reality check depends on a distinction between dreaming and not dreaming - it involves the suspicion that we are in a dream, which is then confirmed, or not, by what we can see. This is often a useful way to have lucid dreams.
SO there is a cognitive dissonance between the concept of reality check and the attempt to experience the dream-nature of reality.
SOLUTION: not to ask, “Am I dreaming or not?” but “What kind of dream is this?” - a dream where we can do anything, or a dream where we are limited by physical laws and social conventions. SO the purpose of the reality check is not to check whether we are dreaming or not, but to check whether we have a chance to use our super-powers such as flying and teleportation.
Thinking of it in this way seems to make reality checks much more powerful for me as a way of clarifying consciousness, and moves us conceptually closer to a continuous understanding of consciousness, while still allowing a useful distinction to be made.
I totally agree with this. Many times people ask themselves if they are dreaming, they say yes, yet they are not lucid. If you were to ask yourself what kind of dream you’re in, the only way to answer the question would be to fly, or teleport, etc. And by the time you’ve done that, it should be clear to you that you are in a lucid dream.
The purpose of RCs, as I see it, is to cause a shift in attention from non-lucid to lucid, get the ball rolling. Once it is rolling, the focus shifts to control. I don’t differentiate between dreaming and not dreaming, just lucid or not. Waking life is as much a dream as dreaming.
I have never had a problem with doing an RC in a dream and not becoming lucid, so this new question should be a help to some who do.
However, perhaps because of its novelty, I love this new question. I don’t have any kind of classification for dreams, so my answer would be the same as any RC question: waking dream or a sleeping dream. Sure do like the question.
But my question is, how do you put it into effect? How can you make this useful into actually having lucid dreams?
We’ve all had problems trying to make our brains ‘click’ and recognize the dream/non-dream distinction, so how, exactly, do you make this philosophy work for you?
I’m truly curious. This idea sounds great and I’d like to experiment with it further, but I have trouble seeing a way to make this a part of my daily routine to where it will carry over in a dream. Do you just constantly remind yourself that everything is a dream, then check if you can fly, etc.? Wouldn’t that be the same as a standard reality check? (i.e., seeing a dreamsign and checking which reality it is) Or is it merely a way you think about things? If that’s the case, how did you incorporate that philosophy?
Having had LD’s on and off for 30 years and participating in forum discussions led me to
closely analyze the “mechanics” or “feelings” associated with lucidity. My experience
with lucidity in a dream made me much more aware of what those feelings are. Basically
it’s being “alive”. By comparison, think about tying your shoes. The first time you did it
you were paying close attention, concentrating, looking at the strings. Now you do it like
a robot. And while tying your shoes, you can worry about being late for an appointment.
Tying your shoes is no longer the lucid activity it was the first time you did it.
Maintaining lucidity in a dream is like tying your shoes for the first time. There is a
concentrated effort to control your attention. It involves a minimal self-awareness,
realizing it is a dream is also minimal. Memories and feelings are accessed, if at all,
briefly, and the majority of the time your attention is focused on your surroundings.
Lucidity is lost the minute your internal thoughts take over the majority of your attention.
I liken strengthening the lucid state to building a muscle, you got to work out. Since it’s
impossible to do it in a dream, I do it while awake. In my waking state I don’t constantly
remind myself it is a dream, rather I constantly try to remain lucid. This is not something
that is distracting or some how makes me unable to operate. Rather, I feel more alive and
actually operate better in the waking world. It eliminates all of the automatic chatter that
normally goes through my head. I personally believe it is the most optimal state for
anyone to operate in.
I recently noticed in the “Acronym” thread that the number of “_ILD’s” is growing. I
personally find this amusing. It’s like identifying symptoms as the cause. If someone eats
a pepperoni pizza and has an LD there will soon be a PPILD. For my money the cause of
becoming lucid will never be pizza. Rather the cause is building that lucid muscle. First
you have to be aware of it, then you start pumping your attention units.
RC’s in and of themselves are good things. They get you in the habit of getting lucid.
But I think they don’t go far enough. You go; “Is this a dream? No”, back to worrying
about your taxes. It’s a good habit to do RC’s but I want to hang on to that feeling of
lucidity as long as possible even though I know it’s not a dream. The feeling of lucidity is
the same for me in both waking and dreaming states.
Any other questions, I’m here, and thanks for asking. I love thinking about this stuff.
I hear what you’re saying about ‘waking lucidity’ dust mote. It’s hard to do all the time though.
For starters, try just sitting down and relaxing a bit. Then look around and ‘marvel’ at the vividness of the textures, patterns and colours that surround you, taste the air you’re breathing in, and concentrate on all the external stimuli that you would normally take for granted. Try and put an expression of wonder on your face, this helps for some reason.
I read about this in ‘exploring the world of lucid dreaming’ and when I tried it I had a great LD that night. I’d forgotton about it though. I’ve gotta try doing it again.
Once you’ve got better at the above excercise, you may be able to do this in more distracting situations.
I had 3 slices of Pepporoni Pizza last night, I didn’t have any LD’s though, do I need to eat the whole pizza, or is three slices enough? If it’s any help, I also had a slice of super supreme.
There's once piece left over, I'll eat it tonight before bed, Wish me luck. Would microwaveing it impede on it's lucidity inducing qualities?
