Doubting Reality

#1

I am brand new to lucid dreaming, I have tried a couple times but was never dedicated but I am now. Yesterday was my first night attemtping (didn’t work).

Anyways, I was wondering any of the long time lucid dreamers here every doubt whats real life and whats now. Besides RC what if your in a dream thats so intense it feels like real life. This is the thing I worry about kinda like the guys wife in inception (minor spoilers) how she killed herself because she didnt know what was reality. Does anyone ever doubt reality ever?

Thanks

#2

Yes. My dreams are like WL. I mean, but you don’t see live stuffed animals or people made of clouds IRL. RC’s and obvious stuff like the ones stated previously are the giveaways to consciousness and unconsciousness.

#3

There are obvious differences in WL and LD. Inception messed up the fact that dreams arnt stable enough to be as “real” and constant as WL when your lucid.

If you find yourself able to control WL in every way, then perhaps I WOULD start questioning reality. :content:

#4

It’s very obvious when you’re in a dream as opposed to being awake. While lucid dreams do look and feel like real life you can tell that they’re dreams because you don’t have anywhere near as much control over real life as you do in dreams. Also real life seems to be a lot slower paced to me than when I’m in a dream (most of the time, i have had consistant, long dreams before (longest went for approximately three hours of dream-time).

So tl;dr you can tell that you’re in a dream very easily and it’s impossible to confuse reality for dreaming

#5

lucid dreams can’t be acheieved everyday :confused: ??

#6

Yes, normally people barely ever LD.

On subject; I have doubted reality and continuously RC 'd atleast once before. I was going up the road with my mum to the pub ( bar. ) Inside the pub it was really warm, and kinda stuffy. It felt very surreal and dream like. As I said, I constantly RC 'd. Kinda as practice for when I feel the same in a dream.

#7

I’ve always thought lucid and pre-lucid dreams seem foggier and more… enchanting than reality, kind of like those sunny parts from the music video for the song “Land of Dreaming”:

i.ytimg.com/vi/7wpKNSfJWDg/0.jpg

#8

People who have schizophrenia and bipolar disorder oftern can’t tell their fantasies from reality. That’s why they’re not allowed to testify in court.

I contend that regular dreaming is a kind of insanity, in which you can’t tell your dreams from reality, no matter how absurd they might be.

Lucid dreaming is thus an introduction of sanity into dreaming.

#9

Certainly there have been moments when I wasn’t quite sure. A flash of doubt. But usually it is the other way around. When I am lucid dreaming, I suddenly become unsure, and I have to check again to see that I am not about to do something stupid. Generally, the mind tends to think that everything we experience is reality, and is quite reluctant to accept the notion that it is not. But the practise of lucid dreaming is not likely to make you ever conclude that you are dreaming when you are not, through some change of mental habits. It is more likely to reinforce your confidence that you are not dreaming, because you have tools to investigate the matter.

#10

Well first off, Inception (although a brilliant movie) is not a very good resource for getting a lot of your information, as it is a completely fictional story. Whenever I doubt reality, I do a quick reality check and either discover that I’m dreaming or confirm that I’m in reality.

#11

Although LDs can be so real they feel more real than RL, I never find myself questioning reality (besides on purpose for a RC). Although… I’m only at about 1+ every 2 weeks (it used to be 1+ every week… but I’m not trying as hard right now…)

#12

No, I don’t experience this at all. When I am IRL I know concretely that it is such. Its hard to describe how, but there is just a certain feeling you could say to real life that assures me it is indeed real.

In the same vein, when your lucid, with any degree of lucidity at all you are very aware of that its a dream. The dream “feels” totally different from waking life in some ways, many occurrences are distinctly different. Obviously its possible to be very low level lucid where you don’t realize or barely realize its a dream, but this is different that what you were referring to. I think even in ND we understand that things are not right, but because it doesn’t cross our mind that we might be dreaming we make absurd rationalizations as to why we aren’t dreaming.

If anything lucid dream has served to sharpen my ability to distinguish between the waking world and the dream world.

#13

When in reality I always know I am in reality, I never doubt it. My problem is that I never doubt it in a dream either. That is the only thing that might theoretically throw me off; ‘if it both seems real how do you know which is which?’ but somehow I just do.

#14

Yes, I try to doubt reality as much as possible in WL and in dreams. For me the whole key to becoming lucid is questioning reality. If I lived the day on auto pilot and never questioned anything, then I surely won’t become lucid that night.

Luckily there are many quick reality checks, so it’s easy to distinguish both states and not lose your sanity. (Only series of FA’s can seriously mess with your head for some time)

#15

I do not think I will ever be doubting whether I am dreaming or living IWL to the extent where I could be considered “mad”. I have, however, had occasions where I questioned memories–not being able to distinguish right away whether they came from dreams or the awake past.

#16

I guess the actual meaning of Natural Lucid Dreaming is being able to tell if it’s real life or a dream without RCs or pondering, that is just natural.

I get some natural LDs, however, RCs are important to get more than just usual.
When I’m forcefully questioning reality during all day, I usually get much more LDs.
During these questioning days, I often think I’m with “Reality Paranoia”. :peek:

#17

I’ve only ever doubted my reality once, as was said before there are very concrete feeling ti distinguish reality from dreams.

#18

As far as doubting whether you are sleeping or awake, you can easily confirm this with a positive test RC. But as far as doubting whether our reality is actually the dream state of another existence… well that can keep my mind occupied for a while :razz:

#19

When I said “doubted Reality” I did do an RC, just over and over again because I was absolutely positive it was a dream.