Nose RC problem!

Moved from the First Steps to the Quest forum cause it’s the place where to discuss practical points of various LD’ing techniques

Hello all! I’m amazed at the reliability of the nose RC; it’s never failed me, and I’ve used it to achieve or confirm lucidity in 6 out of 7 LDs. I think this reliability is a result of the fact that we involuntarily breathe while we are asleep; plugging our dream nose doesn’t affect the breathing pattern, so we perceive ourselves to be breathing through our plugged nostrils in the dream. This is great, because it means that the nose RC will almost never fail. You certainly can’t get a false positive (be able to breathe in real life), and false negatives are almost impossible.

But this engenders a problem: when I do the nose RC in a dream, it often shifts my focus to my real-life breathing. This is, for obvious reason, problematic; it sometimes results in the end of the dream, although I can sometimes pull through this via palm-rubbing, etc.

Last night, I dreamed that I saw my deceased dog. I petted her and enjoyed seeing her again before realizing that I should do a reality check. The nose RC worked twice, and I became lucid. But this act directed my attention to my real-life breathing patterns, and I hovered between states of consciousness for a while–not awake, for I still had one foot in the dream, but not asleep, for I could faintly see my room around me. I tried spinning, which produced the dizzying sensations of spinning and even some sensations of my feet hitting the floor repeatedly, but I couldn’t see anything and the exercise was ultimately unsuccessful. I ended up losing the dream completely.

The most successful technique I’ve found for dealing with this (in my limited experience) is palm-rubbing. It can restore the dream back to a more vivid level for me. Too bad I didn’t try it last night.

Has anyone else had problems with this? How do you personally deal with it? Have I doomed your ability to use the nose RC by presenting this theory? :wink:

Thanks.

69 views and not so much as a “I dunno, it’s never been a problem for me.” Shame on all of you! :wink:

I really would appreciate a reply, though…

I read it, and the night after had a fine nose RC. So, in your words, “I dunno, it’s never been a problem for me.” :wink:

Maybe after that, immediately grab on to something in your dream. That’s my strongest way to actually stay in a dream…

I have never had this problem with the nose RC, but I can definately relate to it. In fact, one of the easiest ways for me to wake up from an LD is to try to feel my real body.

I don’t know how to solve that if it’s involuntary. You should stop using that RC for a while…

Yeah, I agree with Bruno. I’ve never even used the nose RC, though I can definitely see how an RC which requires the acknowledgement of your physical body could interfere with a dream. :wink:

I usually just look at my watch in my dreams–it is pretty obvious when 15 different hands are turning in different directions that I am not really awake.

Edit: It could be that you simply believe that you are feeling your real body when you do the nose RC, so you lose grip due to the anticipation.