Do Black People Lucid Dream? Awareness and Reality Checks

Are There Black People Who Lucid Dream?  Reality Checks and Awareness.

In my LAST POST ABOUT LUCID DREAMING  I gave a basic overview of what lucid dreaming is.  It's basically becoming 'awake' in your dreams.    The goal is to be able to recognize that you are in a dream while the dream is in progress.   When this recognition occurs the dreamer becomes 'lucid' and can navigate the dream as they would real life.  That sounds kind of spooky written out like that.

Becoming aware while you are in a dream is called a dream-induced lucid dream (DILD).  There is also another type called a wake-induced lucid dream (WILD) which I'll eventually talk about in future posts, but for now I want to focus on how to become aware while within a dream (DILD).

The key to the DILD is awareness and you have to practice this in real life so that it will carry over into your dreams.

The most common method to attain awareness is the reality check.  Throughout the day you must remember to do periodic reality checks until it is a habit that you always remember to do.  If you train your brain to reality check frequently in reality, you will find yourself doing it while dreaming and become lucid. 

I know I mentioned a few reality checks before, but I want to go over them again and add a few more that you can do.

6 Reality Checks

1.  Look at a clock or a page with writing on it.  Turn away for a couple seconds and look again.  Is it the same?  Is it stable?  If not you're likely dreaming.  In dreams people tend to find that the time on the clock changes and words switch to different ones.  Or the numbers or letters will look like weird non-sensical symbols.  In one of my lucid dreams I remember trying to read a sheet of paper in my hand.  I read each word, one at a time, but they didn't make any sense together as a sentence and when I tried to start over from the beginning of the page, the words were different. 

2. Look in a mirror or take a look at your hands.  In dreams your face may look weird and your hands may have extra fingers.  I have no desire to try this in my dreams.  It would freak me out totally.

3. Do something you wouldn't be able to do unless dreaming. Think of a person and expect them to walk through the door.  Quickly elevate yourself on your tiptoes and see if you can levitate or fly.

4.  Pinch your nostrils closed and breathe through your nose.  If you are dreaming you will be able to breathe normally.

5. Take a finger and try to poke it through your opposite hand.  Does it pass through?  Does it feel like rubber?  If so you're likely in a dream.

6. Flip a light switch or try to turn on an appliance.  In dreams electronic items tend not to work.  One time I got lucid when my bathroom light wouldn't turn on and another time I figured out I was dreaming when my keyless remote wouldn't unlock my car when I pushed the buttons!

In a dream, you would find yourself doing a routine habitual reality check as you would in real life.  The reality check would pass to let you know you're dreaming.  You then get lucid!

The hardest part of this method is REMEMBERING to do your reality checks during the day and doing it enough for it to become habit and carry over.

For me, reality checks don't work to determine that I'm in a dream.  I recognize that something's off and suspect I'm dreaming first and THEN I reality check for confirmation.  Doing so immediately makes the dream become "real".  In other words, I've never become lucid in a dream by catching myself doing a reality check out of habit.

Dream Signs

One way to develop a habit of reality checking is recognizing your Dream Signs.  A dream sign is anything that recurs in your dream.  You can use your dream signs to remind you to stop and reality check and/or question reality.  It can be a person, a color, an object or a common situation.

This is where keeping a dream journal is effective for some people.

Here's how.  Let's say that you notice that you frequently see red trucks in your dream.  Well, whenever you see a red truck in real life stop and do some kind of reality check.  That way, the next time you see a red truck in your dream you will do a reality check or at the least wonder if you are dreaming. 

This can be tricky as some people report that once they identify their dream signs, they stop appearing in the dreams.

All-Day-Awareness

Some people practice by doing something called All Day Awareness (ADA).  This is basically a constant reality check where the person spends every waking moment as if they might be dreaming.  All day (from one moment to the next) they will question reality and ask themselves things like, How long have I been sitting here?  What's that smell?  Why am I here?  Has this table always been here?

Just like in dreams, we don't really naturally question our surroundings or wonder what exactly we're doing.

Obviously if you make it a habit to wonder if you are dreaming every couple minutes, you will always be doing the same when dreaming.

In my opinion this is a little much and I think it would take away from the real life experience to sit around wondering if you are dreaming all day long.  But that's just me. 

I would say my method of lucidity is a combination of the methods mentioned.  I haven't had that many DILDs (3 of note) but when I have attained lucidity within them, it occurred because something weird happened that made me suspicious. Once I suspect I can then determine I'm dreaming because I recognize that it "feels" dreamy.  The reality check is my final confirmation.

Again here's Part 1