In the 70s, McCreery proposed the following: If one finds oneself seriously asking the question whether one is dreaming or not, it is likely that one is.
Charles McCreery co-authored the book Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep with Celia Green, and useful input is found in the 'False Awakening' chapter where several examples of bizarre thinking within 'pre-lucid dreams' and false awakenings are listed.
It makes it clear that we cannot tell whether we are dreaming or not solely on how vivid or realistic our surroundings appear to be. The best reality checks, however, as Stephen LaBerge once intimated, are those that rely more on stability, especially when the environment is probed for a prolonged period of time. For example: try gazing at your index finger about six inches from your face for more than ten seconds—in the dream world, objects seldom withstand this type of inspection and soon exhibit warped behaviour. Another one is reading text, looking away, and back ...
However, even LaBerge was careful to mention he was speaking from personal experience when he said he could reliably do the text reality check as the reading content changes every time he looks away and back. There are also many other idiosyncratic factors to take into account; for instance, some people have photographic memory whereas the majority of us don't—how much this influences the level of accuracy expressed by bedroom replicas in lucid dreams is still unknown, but I would venture with due, hypothetical tone, that it have some sort of mnemonic impact upon lucid dream environments that mimick the real world.
For those people with photographic memory, it might not be a good idea to rely on spotting anomalous forms a way to check reality, and here is where unstable objects will more reliably betray the illusory nature of the environment. What McCreery proposed is not a reality test, but rather, a type of dream sign that can potentially ward off that part of the mind that tries to explain away the oddities encountered in dreams—in other words, the tendency to make sense of, or normalise, the anomalous.
The reasoning behind it is that in the waking state we don't sincerely question whether we are dreaming or not as it always seems obvious; instead, we deliberately perform reality checks in spite of the obvious mundanity that surrounds us in the hope that this habit will manifest when we actually do dream. We only sincerely doubt reality when we dream because something suddenly seems off. This analytical mind is what needs to be cultivated in order to promote lucidity.
Charles McCreery co-authored the book Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep with Celia Green, and useful input is found in the 'False Awakening' chapter where several examples of bizarre thinking within 'pre-lucid dreams' and false awakenings are listed.
It makes it clear that we cannot tell whether we are dreaming or not solely on how vivid or realistic our surroundings appear to be. The best reality checks, however, as Stephen LaBerge once intimated, are those that rely more on stability, especially when the environment is probed for a prolonged period of time. For example: try gazing at your index finger about six inches from your face for more than ten seconds—in the dream world, objects seldom withstand this type of inspection and soon exhibit warped behaviour. Another one is reading text, looking away, and back ...
However, even LaBerge was careful to mention he was speaking from personal experience when he said he could reliably do the text reality check as the reading content changes every time he looks away and back. There are also many other idiosyncratic factors to take into account; for instance, some people have photographic memory whereas the majority of us don't—how much this influences the level of accuracy expressed by bedroom replicas in lucid dreams is still unknown, but I would venture with due, hypothetical tone, that it have some sort of mnemonic impact upon lucid dream environments that mimick the real world.
For those people with photographic memory, it might not be a good idea to rely on spotting anomalous forms a way to check reality, and here is where unstable objects will more reliably betray the illusory nature of the environment. What McCreery proposed is not a reality test, but rather, a type of dream sign that can potentially ward off that part of the mind that tries to explain away the oddities encountered in dreams—in other words, the tendency to make sense of, or normalise, the anomalous.
The reasoning behind it is that in the waking state we don't sincerely question whether we are dreaming or not as it always seems obvious; instead, we deliberately perform reality checks in spite of the obvious mundanity that surrounds us in the hope that this habit will manifest when we actually do dream. We only sincerely doubt reality when we dream because something suddenly seems off. This analytical mind is what needs to be cultivated in order to promote lucidity.
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity https://ift.tt/3xCEw1f
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