Thread: Hello Everyone

Greetings! I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks now and recently decided to join "for real" to keep me consistently motivated to develop my lucid dreaming abilities. I have fairly good dream recall already (for now! -- it comes and goes), but while I have had a few lucid dreams already, they all suffer from an inexplicable handicap: I always get double vision whenever I become lucid, which is extremely distracting and tends to quickly destabilize whatever dream I'm in when it happens. I've tried the various "stabilization techniques" -- e.g. spinning, rubbing hands together or on textured surfaces, pausing to reflect, etc. -- but none of them have helped at all. I understand that I may just need to believe more strongly that my vision will be normal, but that's easier said than done after a number of experiences with evidence to the contrary...

As for non-dream-related interests, I consume and reprocess copious amounts of instrumental music from the years 1897-1923 daily, and I both read and write "old-fashioned" (non-free verse) poetry in spurts of about two weeks at a time with months-long gaps in between. Sometimes I also like to pretend I can draw; but alas! I cannot even shade a pencil sketch properly. That's about all that comes to mind at the moment; so long for now.

Hello. LisezLeLuie. That's a tongue twister... That does sound frustrating the double vision thing. I don't remember if I've had anything like that happen before. Well, maybe if I had one too many beers. But not that I remember in a dream. I hope you are able to straighten that out. I'm not sure what kind of advice to give on that. Except maybe try not to think about it, and see if it clears up naturally. It's probably like a psychological loop. It happened once, and now you think about it and it keeps happening. I don't know... Just a thought. I like some classical music as well. I like the weird stuff, or if it's like violin and piano. Or cello and piano. I love that kind of thing.

Welcome to Dreamviews, LisezLeLui! I wonder if verbalizing something like "enhance vision" or something like that could help. Or maybe you could conjure some glasses to look through that have the special cure for the double vision. Some other more experienced LDers may have some good advice too. I'm sure you'll get it resolved in time. At any rate, good luck with your LD journey!

Welcome Lise. I totally agree with zelcrow about summoning a pair of glasses, maybe you could visualize doing that before bed.

That's a good idea about that glasses. I just had an idea. I know it's just a dream but have you tried closing one eye? It helps with double vision when having had too much to drink, ha. I have no idea if it would help in a dream or not, but couldn't hurt to give it a try.

Originally Posted by Caradon

That's a good idea about that glasses. I just had an idea. I know it's just a dream but have you tried closing one eye? It helps with double vision when having had too much to drink, ha. I have no idea if it would help in a dream or not, but couldn't hurt to give it a try.

Does that actually work? Very cool xp

Originally Posted by ZenLD

Does that actually work? Very cool xp

Yes it does. There has been many nights when I was drinking and playing video games and drank too much and was seeing double too badly to play. So I would close one eye so I could see straight enough to play. lol.

I completed the entire final level of Dying Light that drunk once, with one eye closed lol. And that's a challenging level of being chased by monsters and parkouring and balancing on narrow beams high up on a skyscraper building.

Just to note. Currently not drinking. Haven't a long time. Don't even want to anymore. Caffeine is my feel good drug now a days. But, been trying to cut back on that quite a bit too because I hate being so addicted to the stuff.

Thanks everyone for replying! Unfortunately, I have actually tried the glasses before to no avail, but it somehow slipped my mind to try closing one eye. I'll be trying it tonight; it seems like it just might work.

Welcome to the forum, LisezLeLui!

Sucks to hear about the double vision thing. Often the best way to counteract something like that is to use the dream's logic to get what you want - that's why I think closing one eye is a great suggestion ("I'm seeing everything twice, so looking with half my vision should fix it!"). Another example is maybe taking off glasses instead of putting them on ("hey, I have these funky 3D glasses on. I should probably take them off if I want to see straight."). The brain makes a lot of weird and interesting connections that kinda get exaggerated when you're dreaming, and a lot of lucid dream control is manipulating the brain's assumptions with these connections. A common example is when someone's having trouble flying in a dream, they can often get it work with some external help, like a jetpack (it works in all the movies, right?).

Other than that, the only advice I have is that it might just take some time. I'm not sure exactly how many lucids you've had, but dream stabilization methods often become more effective the more LDs you have and the more you get used to being in a dreaming environment. So if all else fails, keep powering through it - both the length and clarity of your lucid dreams should improve over time.

Let us know if you have any other questions, and feel free to stop by our Discord to chat.

Welcome!