Thread: Reality Check False Negatives

Hi all, new here so hope this is in the right place

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever done a reality check and concluded they were in a dream when in fact they were awake. This can't be very common but I'm guessing things like holding your nose could give a wrong answer if you were over-eager enough not to try a second test. If so - what happened?

I can't imagine mistaking reality for a dream even without RCs as everything is too coherent, but then I've never really had dreams as realistic and convincing as I've heard described on here..

Thanks!

You should have several fool-proof reality checks. Whether its looking at your hands, trying to put them through each other, jumping, checking a digital clock or looking for a change in complex patterns/imagery or chunk of text, mixing them should give you a generally good idea where you are. Also trying to remember how you got to a certain place, wherever you are standing/sitting, back track your thoughts. In a dream, you generally -- I like the term I read earlier on the forum, clearly from a gamer -- spawn almost randomly in places, you just appear at the start of the dream.

If someone mixed reality for a dream, that would be very dangerous. Although I don't know how that applies to the sleep walker and lucid dreaming.

Whilst doing the reality check you are suppose to the same in your head. So while you are pinching your nose (or whatever your RC is) you should be asking youself some important questions. Such as

How did I get here?

What am I doing?

Is this a dream?

Hopefully once you have asked yourself them sort of questions you should be fully aware if you're dreaming or not.

I am not aware of anyone mistaking waking life for a dream. Not at least during the day. Perhaps it's possible to be confused when you have just woken though.

Heh, for me only 2 RCs work, and once both of them failed while awake. Of course I was really, really sick and that was the reason, thankfully only thing I tried was to fly, and quickly realized my mistake lol

Originally Posted by Hukif

Heh, for me only 2 RCs work, and once both of them failed while awake. Of course I was really, really sick and that was the reason, thankfully only thing I tried was to fly, and quickly realized my mistake lol

You seriously thought you was dreaming enough to try and fly? xD

I was sick, the atmosphere was dreamy, there was a mist, I felt incredibly heavy. My RCs told me it was a dream, and most of my non-lucids are about waking stuff, so of course.

I wonder if the reason dreams are so fragmentary and surreal is so that we can tell the difference between them and reality. Evolutionary speaking that would be a bit of a disaster for a person's survival if they couldn't differentiate between reality and dreaming.

I mean the brain must be capable of creating a logically consistent dream that feels like reality, it must be an evolutionary thing that keeps it from doing so. Maybe I'm way off :s

Don't think that matters, we have paralisis to stop us from doing anything stupid. If at all, sleep-walking people would die <.<

Plus, I will bet that someone running through a lava forest with rainbows everywhere, has an higher chance of death than a LDer.

Originally Posted by Hukif

Don't think that matters, we have paralisis to stop us from doing anything stupid. If at all, sleep-walking people would die <.<

Hmmm yeah I get what you mean, but I mean if someone regularly mistook reality for the real world they would eventually die whilst awake because they thought they were dreaming and do something MENTAL like poke a sabre-tooth tiger with a stick.

Well, we are a social specie, so the other members would stop them from doing that. Though it would be fun as heck lol
Though if they mistook reality with dreaming THAT often, I bet they would have serious mental problems and it would be hard to survive even without mixing dreams and reality.

Sounds kind of like schizophrenia actually :s

Originally Posted by Hukif

Well, we are a social specie, so the other members would stop them from doing that.

Don't be so sure. Also because we are a social species, a large group being near you is statistically almost as dangerous as being alone, because no one will stop you based on the assumption that no one else is doing anything either. Or also typical, they will assume some else MUST be about to help you. If there's not a very assertive person in the group, you're fucking screwed.

I think mistaking reality for dreams would be dangerous, but I also think it's more learned than instinctive. Through the course of an average person's life, their brain realizes dreams don't matter and forgets them. The same knowledge of "this isn't real so it doesn't matter" is why I think dreams are fragmented and hazy even when lucid. Of course, I don't know what causes dreams in the first place (physically I mean) so I can't really argue on a factual basis about whether or not dream traits can be inherited.

Back in the day, there was an alpha male, unless the one with the problem was the alpha male, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be allowed to do something as dangerous. Now we have psychiatrists and psychologists to look at mental problems, so don't see how much of a problem that would be.

S28,

My wife struggles to understand how I can be so sure of my status. She's afraid I'm going to jump off a building and die. Therefore my best RC is to float a little off the ground. Clearly this is impossible when not dreaming, plus it avoids any risk at all. To me, RC's are just a confirmation. The dreamstate has always been very evident once I realize my status as dreaming. We're all very different however.

As to your original question, I've never been remotely close to mistaking a non dream state as a dream state. Hukif is the only person I've heard of that has made a mistake. His explanation makes sense however. We should all be careful.