For the longest time I was under the impression you could not read in a dream. Last night, I dreamt that I was reading an AIM conversation, though I don’t remember what it was about, I do remember reading the names of the people I was talking to. Was I actually reading these, however, or just kind of remembering the image??
I have found I can sometimed read clearly in dreams as well. Infact, sometime the reality check where you read text, look away and read it again, fails to work for me
I tested out this myth during one my first lucid dreams as a young child. I did find that i could indeed read and that this myth is just bullsh*t.
Just like how the lightswitch myth is just bull as well.
I’ve read a full e-mail in a dream and it didn’t change or get me lucid. ><; Never tried the lightswitch thing though, I must put it on my to-do list.
The lightswitch-Thing isn’t bullshit at all, just because it does not apply to you… to most people it does, so does it to me…
and that was BEFORE i ever got to know, lightswitches won’t work pretty well in dreams. Same for other persons I know.
I can read too, but when I look away the text has changed into something different… And the text in my dreams is quite non-sensical… (So is my real life’s )
I should mention, these aren’t ‘myths’, they acually occur in dreams, they just don’t happen for everyone, in every dream.
Well, the myth goes like this “Lightswitches will not work in dreams” I never said that it could never fail. A lightswitch can even fail in real life! Things that we expect or fear tend to happen in dreams, so if you fear the dark, then the lightswitch will probably not work.
I read in dreams all the time. Just this morning I was reading a medicinal receipe (a really disgusting one, too - it had all these ingredients I hate, like egg, custard and fish eyeballs). I’ve had whole dreams just of reading books - and I’ve had many dreams where I’m searching bookshops for an interesting story by reading the blurbs of books (I had one of these last week, even).
There was a dream I had once with an “unreadable book” in it, where the text kept changing and running around the page, but even that could be overcome with enough concentration.
As for lightswitches… I’ve never tried one in a dream, so I wouldn’t know.
Really, what matters is what works for you. You can’t make a blanket answer when it comes to Reality Checks. Reality checks should really be personalized depending on what helps you enter into an LD.
Well, the text doesnt have to be correct in the dream or take its proper form, becuase when you are reading it, its all already in your head so it doesnt matter what you read, its what you want to read… just like when you hear someone knock on your door ( in a dream ) and you say “oh that might be JOHN” and what do u know, JOHN walks through the door, because its you who decides who comes through the door
I’ve also had dreams about reading things, but in all of these I’ve never looked at anything twice. Whenever I look at things twice, it always changes.
I was also under the false impression that you couldn’t read in dreams–but I remember a lot of dreams where I’m reading and writing all kinds of stuff–but it definately changes if you look away and look back…at least for me.
One armed, I totally agree with what your saying. In most of my dreams, the words appear blurry, but I can remember many dreams where I was reading. But it wasn’t like I was reading the characters - the ideas of the words were already in my head.