What Is Real? by Stu
November 8th, 2007 11:32 AMI have been able to wake myself up from dreams when I knew they were getting bad, but I've only done that a handful of times, and this task appealed to me both because I'd like to be able to wake myself up, and because I'd like to be able to prevent the waking by taking my dreams into my own hands a little more.
I don't like sleep. I haven't since I was a kid. It's uncomfortable for me. That's probably in part because I get a lot of nightmares. I haven't had a good dream, a really good dream, in years. I frequently have dreams of assault and rape and death and terror, and if I could have some say in what goes on, I might be more comfortable with sleep in general. So, besides being a neat task, this may help me in the long run.
I wasn't sure of the best way to document a reality check (RC). I decided to, by default, look at my hand during an RC, and to do at least one other RC after looking at my hand. I took a picture of my hand every time it was convenient when I was doing RCs over the past two days. I've probably done three times as many checks as I have pictures, but I figured 24 pictures of my hand is probably enough to be proof.
I have not yet taken a picture of my hand in a dream, but I do look forward to the day something like that happens.
But before all that happened, this was the first task I started. I found my camera, but I didn't know where my camera's battery charger was. I spent 30 minutes looking for it, and I FINALLY found it:
Boy, did that make me happy.
So, I spent the next two days taking lots of pictures of my hand. I've submitted other things in the meantime, but this one was ongoing.
I'm going to show you a single picture of my hand, and you can look at the other 23 as you wish. None has six fingers, elongated fingers, or any other signs that the picture is from a dream:
I wrote captions and descriptions of all the hands, so you should look through them if you think that'll be entertaining.
Charger and battery
Happy to have found it.
Hand
I found a bunch of black backgrounds. I always took a picture of my left hand with my right hand.
Hand
I like my hands.
Hand
They play piano.
Hand
They bring food to my mouth using utensils
Hand
They can sew and fold origami.
Hand
They shake hands.
Hand
They touch people.
Hand
They lift things.
More hand.
They can be decorated.
Hand
Or covered up.
My pointer and middle fingers look elongated.
But I wasn't dreaming. I guess they're just long.
Still my left hand.
I took this picture holding the camera upside-down because it's easier sometimes to press the shutter button thing with my thumb.
Big old shadow
I think it was my other hand.
Hand looks tiny.
Angles do funny things to perspective.
Only 9 more. Sheesh.
Hand.
This is how I picture my hand in my mind.
I think.
Dark.
I don't like flashes.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP!
WOAH!
Fuzzy.
My hands shake a little. Taking clear shots takes ISO 1600 and patience. Sometimes, I have no patience.
Four more after this!
I like knuckles.
Really dark.
Nighttime shot.
Hand
HAND HAND HAND!
Blurry again.
I like the fuzzy look around the fingernails.
Scary hand.
Looks like it came off something EVIL.
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That's a really nice series. I like them gridded like that, this sort of amalgamation of reassurance. Is it more real if there's a lot of it?
Terrence McKenna once pointed out that science only really studies events that have predictable results without regard to time (A + B always implies C), and was therefore a terrible way to try to deal with real life, as A+B might imply C on Tuesday and D on Wednesday.
If you have pictures of your hand from yesterday and today, is right now still not a dream?
Spidere: I haven't yet, but if I do, I'll certainly report back.
Connor: Thank you. Things aren't real if there are none of them, and lots of them frequently means they are more real, so yes. My hands are REALLY REALLY REAL.
Those pictures could be in a dream. What would be really neat is if I had a dream that I was looking at the pictures and they all waved to me.
I've never seen them fing.
Oh wait... there they go.
-Auto the Bus Driver from the Simpsons
That's a good solid completion of the task. I hope you get to follow through and have a lucid dream!
Fish: Thank you, and I hope so, too. If only I could take pictures from within my dreams and post them...
You have bravery.
I don't know that I could do this taske without overly spooking myself.
El Capitan: Thank you. That's probably a good reason to try.
Very nice. I like all the captions and hand pictures. Did you ever manage another lucid dream?