Thread: Strange Lucid 'Glitches'

I can basically do everything in a lucid dream except for one annoying thing. Whenever I try to punch things right as my hand is about to make contact with them, it loses all its force but they still fly back. It's horrible because it's a terrible anti-rush every time. I do a whole string of combos and it finishes with me punching air at a guy ....almost as lame as your gun story.

Originally Posted by dutchraptor

I can basically do everything in a lucid dream except for one annoying thing. Whenever I try to punch things right as my hand is about to make contact with them, it loses all its force but they still fly back. It's horrible because it's a terrible anti-rush every time. I do a whole string of combos and it finishes with me punching air at a guy ....almost as lame as your gun story.

That is EXACTLY what is bothering me, when I try to punch things in my dream, I get the very same reaction.
What could it mean?

I know what you mean with these glitches, I think it might be because your brain has never had to process that situation before, and has to come up with something "on the fly." For example, I tried to "force choke" one of my DC's, but nothing was really happening so I focused all my "energy" into the choke, his bones started breaking than jutting out of the skin, then he exploded, focused to hard I guess. Another time I was running super-speed jumped up and thought i could clear a skyscraper in front of me, I realized too late that I was going to hit the wall, but i came to a full stop 1 inch from the wall without trying, I fully thought i was going to "splat" against it. I think this is because my brain didn't know how to process a collision at that speed from 1st person perspective.

Tip: If you want to fly, since you say you can already run really fast in your lucids, try jumping and flipping on to your back mid-air while still on the ascent from the jump, there's something about not seeing the ground while in mid air that tricks you into thinking you are flying, at least for me anyway

Originally Posted by Rsandee

That is EXACTLY what is bothering me, when I try to punch things in my dream, I get the very same reaction.
What could it mean?

Instead of just trying to punch, focus on the feeling of your knuckles contacting whatever it is you're punching, feel the impact reverberate through your arm, much in the same way as if you were building a dream scene.

Originally Posted by Mystycal

So I noticed that in my lucids, there are some things I can do very well and instinctively, like being able to run super fast. This makes sense to me because I've always fancied myself as an amateur sprinter and my mind honestly believes I'm quite fast. But other things have not been going so well: flying I can understand, my subconscious clearly doubts the possibility.
But there are weirder things which are just annoying.

Like shooting guns. I can never shoot a gun in a lucid dream, or in a normal dream for that matter. They just don't work, however much I try to will them to do so. I often just end up pulling the trigger and then a DC pretends to die. How lame is that?! My DC's pretending to care about what I'm doing. What the hell. And I can't figure out why my mind would block me from firing a gun; I've done it in real life, so I can definitely imagine the sensation.

Feel free to post the things that you can't do in your lucids. Also, any help with my issue will be appreciated

I can understand about firing the gun even though you've done it before and should be able to. I drive in mine, and I've been driving for 24 years, but every time I do the vehicle requires pedals and turns into some form of bicycle.

Sometimes the things we do most often in waking life can become absolutely unreal in dreams. I find no rhyme or reason to it, other than it happens to everyone.

Perhaps the situation isn't right for your mind. Ever consider just holding the gun, unloaded, and get the feel of every crevice in your hand? Try becoming super-aware of the feeling of the object (gun) and get to know it even when you're not holding it. I suspect that over time the feelings will migrate into your dreams.

I believe this could work with any object.

Yup, driving cars is definitely my top glitch (among many).

My problem with it is I can never find the pedals; I'm in the car, engine's running, sometimes its even moving, but when it comes time to slow down or speed up, I can never seem to get my feet onto the pedals to make something happen. I've even done this while very lucid. Weird.

I think these glitches might be sourced in some kind of schema-creation error on the part of our dreaming minds. In a sense, that particular piece of reality is simply not properly represented in the lexicon of images available to the unconscious, so our dreaming mind simply projects what's available, and screws it up every time through no fault of its own.

My experience tells me that this might not be fixable (of course it is just my experience, so I could be wrong), that we may be stuck with guns that won't fire, punches that won't land, and cars that refuse to be driven; it's interesting to see how everyones' minds compensate though: DC's faking being shot and punched, that car turning into a bicycle, etc... it's nice to know our minds are at least making an effort to fix the glitches!

yeah, whenever i've tried to punch someone in a dream i can't it is just impossible for me to do, i can blow their head away with a shotgun lol but i can't hit them with any punches

it might have something to do with it needing a high amount of coordination

One of my glitches was not being able to open doors.
I would stand there, confuzzled (I knew how to open it but for some reason it wouldn't open) so I made up for it by jumping out windows.

Finally in one dream I was stuck (there were no windows , and although I was lucid it didn't occur to me to make a window.. or to go through walls..) so I had to concentrate to open the door. I had to tell myself, "Ok, put your hand on the doorknob. Now twist the doorknob. Now push the door.." ..it was so sad. But I finally got it!

(Ok, so my excitement at opening doors is probably a bit much and not what most people would call an accomplishment , but it was a huge stepping stone for me.)

^^ First, excellent solution with the windows, reveriemyst!

But, it was nice to see that your dreaming mind offered up a better solution for you by seeing that you forgot about windows and had to get that door open...pretty cool when that stuff happens, I think.

I personally understand the effort you had to put in to get that door open, BTW, nice work! I hope it, and your deserved excitement, stays with you.

Originally Posted by Sageous

^^ First, excellent solution with the windows, reveriemyst!

But, it was nice to see that your dreaming mind offered up a better solution for you by seeing that you forgot about windows and had to get that door open...pretty cool when that stuff happens, I think.

I personally understand the effort you had to put in to get that door open, BTW, nice work! I hope it, and your deserved excitement, stays with you.

Thanks!
And it did seem like my mind was posing a riddle for me by completely 'forgetting' to put windows where a window should be. Tricky tricky mind.

It's been such a fun learning experience, and continues to be.

Hehe. I am still learning how to pronounce words properly in lucid dreams ^_^ Seems there's a huge learning curve for the smallest of things that has to be dealt with by the dreaming mind.

I have a problem with walking. or running.
Sometimes my legs feel like I have already run a marathon, and are ready to collapse.
For some reason, I slide along on a skateboard. It has no wheels, and just slides, or hovers above the ground.
All very confusing

I honestly think this is all releated to negative expectations and sub optimal lucidity. I would say to first stabilize decently then reinforce the fact that this is YOUR dream and YOU decide whatever happens. Sometimes it happens randomly too, in my last lucid I transformed into an eagle at low lucidity and got stuck into an invisible wall, then I lost lucidity Anayways, I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Dthoughts

Hehe. I am still learning how to pronounce words properly in lucid dreams ^_^ Seems there's a huge learning curve for the smallest of things that has to be dealt with by the dreaming mind.

Yeah that's odd isn't it? When I find myself facing something halfway scary and unknown I start talking like my tongue is dead and flopping around. Like a curse has been put on me. It's messed up

Hehe, yea. all that comes out is "gurgle gurgle gurgle"

This inspires me to try to longboard while LD.

I longboard usually for a minimum an hour a day, it's my main mode of transportation other than my motorcycle. I tend to skate more though.

I've never even thought of boarding in a dream. I can't wait to try longboarding down the side of a building, or Mt. Everest. I wonder how my mind will make up for the terrain and skating down a building when I should be free falling. I'll post my glitches soon ^^

Originally Posted by ScottyPs

This inspires me to try to longboard while LD.

I longboard usually for a minimum an hour a day, it's my main mode of transportation other than my motorcycle. I tend to skate more though.

I've never even thought of boarding in a dream. I can't wait to try longboarding down the side of a building, or Mt. Everest. I wonder how my mind will make up for the terrain and skating down a building when I should be free falling. I'll post my glitches soon ^^

If you manage to get the knack of boarding you will never look back at walking ever again.
It is up there with flying, and telekenesis.
Let us know if you manage the skill.

Its ironic because i can fly very easy but every time i start to run i hardly move at all. this always leads to me waking up because my actual legs move from exerting such effort in my dream.

It's interesting to khow that other people have almost the same sort of problems: "un-pedaled or bicycle cars", "un-wheeled skateboards", "un-shooting guns", etc. among the mentioned, I had issues with other engines too, although basically it was the same problem, they didn't properly work. Perhaps it would have something to deal with the same fact that doesn't allow clocks, light switches, cellphones, etc. to properly work.

"Slow running" and "weak punching" perhaps have something to deal with the same thing that make us "mute yelling" during some nightmares.

Apparently it has nothing to deal with lack of previous experiences since you can imagine how it would feel like. I think it could be closely related with the significance of the element during the dream, which is not necessarily its function in waking life. Perhaps it's a way for our dreaming mind to "say" things like: "You won't be able to go faster doing this" or "It's not what matters under this circumstances".

I think perhaps it's closely linked to its meaning during the dream rather than its function in waking life.

Heres an interesting one i feel that antirush when i land a foot on running. So and when there was a guy who i saw on the street with a girlfriend and i was going faster than them and passed them. Then later i was in foreign room and the guy was like really close to me at 10. I explained something to him and i closed my eyes, he suddenly bit my ear and i felt the pain? Then he licked my ear and moved and we kissed like 3 seconds and i woke up? I mean nice dream but i thought it was real because it hurt.

Originally Posted by Box77

It's interesting to khow that other people have almost the same sort of problems: "un-pedaled or bicycle cars", "un-wheeled skateboards", "un-shooting guns", etc. among the mentioned, I had issues with other engines too, although basically it was the same problem, they didn't properly work. Perhaps it would have something to deal with the same fact that doesn't allow clocks, light switches, cellphones, etc. to properly work.

Apparently it has nothing to deal with lack of previous experiences since you can imagine how it would feel like. I think it could be closely related with the significance of the element during the dream, which is not necessarily its function in waking life. Perhaps it's a way for our dreaming mind to "say" things like: "You won't be able to go faster doing this" or "It's not what matters under this circumstances".

"Slow running" and "weak punching" perhaps have something to deal with the same thing that make us "mute yelling" during some nightmares.
I think perhaps it's closely linked to its meaning during the dream rather than its function in waking life.

Or maybe it's something a bit more mundane.

When your dreaming mind is producing images, that's exactly what it's producing -- images. In other words, vivid as they may be, the images that your unconscious presents are incomplete. The finer details of reality, like gas pedals that work, bicycle pedals, properly rolling wheels, even our own DC's legs, have not been completely filled in because that was not necessary in the context of the NLD your unconscious provided. They were never necessary to complete the intended dream schemata.

So, when you become lucid, you cannot steer that car, operate that bicycle, etc, because the physical details driving that stuff were never programmed into the original dream schemata. Its only our lucid, waking-life expectations that notices their absence.

So I don't think there is anything meaningful in these glitches; I think instead we're just looking for something when lucid (and occasionally when not lucid) that simply was not provided in the dream provided.

Perhaps fixing or moving beyond these glitches when lucid requires nothing more than a little extra attention, and maybe a firmly worded request to your unconscious to fix the damn gas pedal.