Places (Submission)

Ever happen to you to dream of a place you know well, a street in your town or even your own house, but things are not quite like they should be: there’s an extra door, or a turn you don’t remember, and if you take the turn around that corner, you enter uncharted territory. Everything seems perfectly real, but even in your dream you know there’s something not quite right about this place. And when you wake up and walk in the real place, the memory of the dream is so vivid, that you find yourself looking for that turn that never was, but which you KNOW, it should be there, if you could only find it again..

There is a cave opening from the basement of my house, but nobody knows it but me.

Thank you for that wonderful submission that explores the familiar yet strange nature of dreams. Often the locations of our dreams are built from places in our waking lives, but then become altered by our subconscious. These slight obscurities can act as great triggers for having a lucid dream. Sometimes it’s not the strangest thing that brings upon a lucid dream, but something familiar that is just slightly off.

Q:Hello! I was just wondering if you could give me some examples of reality triggers? I've been doing the finger through the hand and just becoming more aware of being awake, but I don't know how to trigger it while I'm dreaming? Thank you!

fun-sucker

Hi there! Thanks for the wonderful question.

A couple of triggers that the Dream Team are fans of (besides the finger through the hand) are pinching your nose with your fingers and trying to breath and simply asking “How did I get here?”. The nose pinching exercise is pretty strait forward. Pinch your nose tight enough so air can’t get through. If you’re in a dream, you’ll be able to breath fine, if not, well don’t pinch for too long :). 

The “How did I get here?” method is a great one (partly cause you can do it whenever you want). Basically all you have to do is ask yourself “How did I get here?” and then try to retrace your steps. In the dream world, it’ll be much harder to work your way backwards and the difficulty of that should trigger your mind into realizing that you’re in a dream.

The trouble you’re experiencing about finding the trigger in the dream is very common. Some look at it as being the biggest hurdle to get over. The best way to find your trigger is to be doing reality checks as often as you can in the waking world. The sheer repetition should condition your mind into asking if you’re dreaming or not when you’re in the dream. It may sound a little new age-y, but a lot of lucid dreaming is just changing your perspective on dreams themselves. The more you think about dreams as a place you go to where you can be fully awake, the higher the chance will be that you’ll become lucid.

Good luck!