Thread: Accidentally killing yourself when you think you are dreaming?

Hey dreamviews!

Okay, so whenever I try to explain lucid dreaming to other people, they will almost always at one point or another ask the same question:

"But what if you one day think that you are dreaming when you are actually awake and throw yourself off a cliff or something?"

Now, I have never heard of anything like this happening (outside of Inception, I mean), and I would like to think that it cannot happen - but I don't actually have any proof for it, other than "Well, you can fool yourself into thinking that are awake when you're dreaming, but it doesn't really work the other way around".

So, does anyone know of any solid evidence against this, or could it in fact theoretically happen?

Originally Posted by Ashadow700

"Well, you can fool yourself into thinking that are awake when you're dreaming, but it doesn't really work the other way around".

I was gonna say ^^ that. There is no way you can confuse waking life to be a dream. The feeling is just too different. And each time I throw myself out the window, I do RC

Originally Posted by Ashadow700

"Well, you can fool yourself into thinking that are awake when you're dreaming, but it doesn't really work the other way around".

No matter how good or real the lucid dreams actually seem, they don't even closely reach the accuracy of being awake. Tricking yourself into thinking you're dreaming when you're not isn't something I'd say could be accomplished.

The only times I've ever been uncertain about whether I'm dreaming or not, was when I was dreaming. This seems to be the way it works for most people. The brain operates differently when dreaming than when awake.

I think, if it is possible to confused physical reality with a dream, it would happen in people who have trouble distinguishing reality from non-reality anyway.

Well, I've never done it.

Well first off, am I the only one who doesn't kill themselves when they become lucid?

Repeating what everybody else has already said, unless you have some sort of mental condition that would cause this to happen, it's basically impossible for somebody to confuse reality with the dream world. Let's just say that it did happen, and somebody started running around in their waking life thinking that it was a dream. It wouldn't take long for the person to logically conclude that he was wrong because he would have a lack of dream control, not to mention everybody around him would think he'd gone insane and start calling the cops.

I think we can all conclude that if somebody (that doesn't have a severe mental problem) killed themselves in reality because they thought it was a dream deserves to die anyway, or at least shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

I'm an absurdly cautious man and letting go of the inhibitions of social laws, safety laws and ultimately the laws of physics is the toughest thing to do for me in a dream.
Sometimes I even refuse to speak in dreams because I fear I will also speak in reality simultaneously.
The only thing that helps is saying to hell with all of it, if I can walk through walls then I can jump off a building and there's nothing I can do to stop me.

Dreams take place in the brain. Reality takes place in real life. When you are awake, you always will have much more awareness than you are dreaming (unless you're LDing of course). I don't think it's possible to think you're dreaming when you're awake for very long, because something odd and unusual always happens in a dream and you can't really tell the difference between odd and usual. You are just too aware of the unusual in real life to think its a dream for very long.
Plus, it would be a REALLY bad survival instinct for that to happen, so our brain can tell the difference.

Your brains automatic thought is that everything you are sensing is real. That is why dreams are not automatically lucid. If you become aware enough of your state of being, then why would you be less aware of when you are awake?

WILD: staying aware while falling asleep (more awareness)
DILD: staying aware as much as you can all the time, this is why ADA is a good technique (Way more awareness!)
Meditation (seems to be common): self awareness

Pinch yourself! lol

Unless you are a good way from sane this isn't going to happen. Besides, by the time you get to the cliff you will most likely have walked through a wall, flown, teleported, summoned an item with your mind, or some combination. Which tends to be a good hint.

I have jumped out of windows in dreams on the hunch that I was dreaming. It's like jumping out of the window was the reality check....
Luckily, as I said, I've never doubted reality when actually awake.

When I die in or even fall in a dream, I always wake up.

Hey everyone!

Thanks for confirming what I suspected. Now if only I could as easily convince my mum to stop telling me that "Eeeekkk, lucid dreaming not good! Will lead to you hit by train!!"

*Sigh*

I'd just like to raise a point here. While yes I agree that most people will not wake up one day and think they're dreaming, there is a serious risk here that in messing with questions about what's real and what's not that we may inadvertently see that the lines get blurry. I've personally seen just about as blurry as those lines get but for obvious reasons I don't like to talk about that openly although if you want some stories about how dreams can creep into reality hit me up. Anyway, I think on the surface lucid dreaming is a fun thing everyone can do but when you get to a higher level of devotion and you really dig away at it, very strange things happen.

I'd compare it to quantum physics v.s classical physics. Classical is rather simple, easy to understand and describes the world quite nicely. However quantum physics is very abstract, difficult to understand rationally and it doesn't always give you the answers you're expecting or that you want.

It's a case of how far does the rabbit hole go. At the surface dreaming is nice, but deeper things become very strange and you've absolutely got to have your wits about you or it can effect your normal waking life.

Not to scare anyone but the mind is like an iceberg. It's not what's at the top that worries me.

Originally Posted by InterSomnia

I'd just like to raise a point here. While yes I agree that most people will not wake up one day and think they're dreaming, there is a serious risk here that in messing with questions about what's real and what's not that we may inadvertently see that the lines get blurry. I've personally seen just about as blurry as those lines get but for obvious reasons I don't like to talk about that openly although if you want some stories about how dreams can creep into reality hit me up. Anyway, I think on the surface lucid dreaming is a fun thing everyone can do but when you get to a higher level of devotion and you really dig away at it, very strange things happen.

I'd compare it to quantum physics v.s classical physics. Classical is rather simple, easy to understand and describes the world quite nicely. However quantum physics is very abstract, difficult to understand rationally and it doesn't always give you the answers you're expecting or that you want.

It's a case of how far does the rabbit hole go. At the surface dreaming is nice, but deeper things become very strange and you've absolutely got to have your wits about you or it can effect your normal waking life.

Not to scare anyone but the mind is like an iceberg. It's not what's at the top that worries me.

Would you message me your stories? I like interesting stories, and I like to read both sides of an argument. I completely agree with my earlier post ^^^ but I do like to learn more about things, and it is something that I would hate to be wrong about. (like accidentally killing myself)

PLUS+
I have been wrong many times in my life.

InterSomnia, I completely understand what you're saying, but I think that if anything, lucid dreaming is beneficial in being able to see what is real or not. I'm not saying that this is common, but today my mom went out and bought something because she thought my dad said something about needing it. When she told my dad, he was perplexed at what she was talking about. We quickly discovered that she had dreamt the whole conversation in which my dad needed what she bought. A practiced lucid dreamer would have never confused the dream with reality as she did.

As far as the case of how far the rabbit hole goes, I gladly take the red pill, my friend. I don't know what is waiting for me in my mind, but it better be ready to show itself

The only time I was in waking life and legitimately thought It could be a dream was a couple months ago. I had a couple false awakinings that night and then I wake up to the fire alarm in my apartment. Lights were flashing, sirens were blasting and it was 4 in the morning. I jumped out of bed and started skattering around for a hoody to wear outside and I said to myself "wait a minute". Did a reality check and it didn't work. I didn't believe it until I did another. It was kind of freaky.

^^^^^^^^^^ all that is pretty much true.
and even if you are to think that reality is a dream, your RC's will work, you may tell me that RC's work sometimes in the dream world, but when every and each singel RC shows that you are not in a dream, you will wonder why,and will make sure that you are infact not dreaming.

(There is a misconception going around,and just to make it clear,reality check means that you check wether you are in reality or not,which mean that if a RC work, that means that you are in reality (ex:if you plug your nose and can't breath that mean's that the RC worked(you are in reality),and if you plug your nose and can breath,that mean's that the RC failed (you are in a dream))

Another thing is this:

Why would teaching myself to realize when I'm in a dream make me not realize when I am awake?