How to distinguish dream from reality. Sleep Criteria

When we are in a dream, we cannot distinguish this dream from reality; according to our subjective sensations, the dream world is no different from the real world. But in fact, this world is much less stable and more changeable. It is his variability that "gives him away".

There are universal signs of the world of dreams that work for everyone, and there are personal ones. The first we will call sleep criteria to separate them from the second. Sleep criteria is a must-have for beginners to test reality. Experienced dreamers can already use personal signs of sleep, while the awareness mechanism will work faster.

So, sleep criteria are a kind of cheat codes. Even if you have never had a lucid dream, you can use them. How? Testing reality. You need to ask yourself as often as possible in the real world, “Isn’t this a dream?” and check with sleep criteria. Whatever method you use to enter a lucid dream, you must add reality testing with criteria to it. Gradually, a habit is developed, and in a dream we use exactly the same behaviors as in real life. Thus, the world of dreams will not be able to “powder your brains” by pretending to be reality.

How to distinguish dream from reality

1. Read any inscription twice: read, turned away, turned and read again. In a dream, the inscription will change.
2. Try to remember what you have been doing for the last five minutes and how you got here. Sleep will be difficult.
3. Look at the clock. In a dream, the hands dance as they want and do not want to show the time, and the electronic clock works just like the text - it is constantly changing.
4. Try to jump high. In a dream, you will feel that gravity is no longer the same.
5. Look at your hands. In a dream, they will deform right before your eyes.
6. Try to remember what you did the last time: woke up or went to bed. In a dream, you will not be able to remember, this question will cause you difficulty.
7. Try turning the light on or off with the switch. In a dream, the switch may not work, or even have a strange feeling of dimness, despite the fact that it worked.
8. And finally, to quickly wake up and get out of the state of sleep - pinch yourself.

For verification, it is better to use not one criterion, but at least two, at least at first. For me, the first criterion turned out to be a “working” criterion, probably because it is the easiest to use in real life. At first I just instilled this habit, and only then I had a chance to make sure that the inscription was changing.

Since ancient times, a person has a deep reverence for dreams. At all times, interpreters of dreams are held in high esteem; astrologers, magicians, and those who are good at solving dreams flourish in royal courts. Indeed, since ancient times, people have known that some dreams are harbingers of important events and changes. And here the question arises - how to determine that a prophetic dream before the events predicted by it happened?

In fact, there are several basic principles that will help separate visionary dreams from any unnecessary mental trash. And the first of them is directly related to elementary logic. It should not be viewed as prophetic dreams that offer contradictory or outright fantastic solutions for any situation. You must understand whether the scenario seen in a dream is in reality likely. If, escaping from a pursuer in a dream, you spread all eight wings plus tail and fly out through the window directly into the pale green sky, then you can safely write this dream into the category of “nothing”. A prophetic dream will certainly be docked with reality and with common sense.

The second point concerns the setting of the dream space. If the prophecy concerns career growth, then in the dream events will take place in an office-like setting, and not in a medieval castle or in the Amazon jungle.

And finally, there is a good test that allows, with an 80% probability, of all the dreams seen last night, to single out the one that really carries the prophecy. The first thing to do is remember the dream and then answer a few questions about it. For each affirmative answer, you should give yourself a plus sign.1. Were there people, objects that exist in your reality in a dream?
2. Did the plot of your dream look quite plausible, which could take place in life?
3. Have you had prophetic dreams before?
4. After you woke up, didn’t you have a flash of a feeling that your dream would certainly come true - a feeling-confidence?
5. Did the plot of the dream deal with an issue that is relevant to you at the moment?
6. Do you have experience in deciphering dreams, any work with them?
7. Do you have experience of meditative practices, immersion in trance, altered states (hypnosis, prayer, meditation, etc.) of consciousness?

The more positive answers you receive, the more likely the dream about which the questions were asked is prophetic.

As you can see, it is not so difficult to distinguish a prophetic dream from a fantastic one. Although here, as nowhere else, the rule “what trains, it certainly develops” is relevant.

Prophetic dreams in some cases can save a person's life. Therefore, many people would really like to learn how to distinguish the heterogeneous pictures that they see in a dream from real prophetic dreams, where each image can act as a harbinger.

How to distinguish a prophetic dream from a simple one

A dream that can be considered prophetic will certainly be unambiguous, vivid, very clear. Vague symbols and allusions may be present, but only in very small amounts. As a rule, in such a dream there is a maximum of clear information, sometimes absolutely literal.

People who live in harmony with their own subconscious, are attentive to the voice of intuition and those clues that dreams sometimes send are best able to recognize a prophetic dream. It is not difficult for such people to see and accept the help that the subconscious mind sends.

In the broad sense of the word, every dream is prophetic. Each of them contains elements of knowledge, prophecy, warning. They can be either explicit or hidden. In some cases, the event is repeated more and more persistently in a dream, and this is a rather alarming sign.

In what cases can prophetic dreams occur

It is far from always possible to see an unambiguous dream that does not have a hidden meaning. We can say that there is a chance to see him if a person is really in great danger. Basically, the subconscious still prefers to transmit information in encrypted form. For example, a war in a dream may mean a conflict that will soon happen in the family or at work. A collapsing house does not necessarily mean the destruction of the building - most likely, this symbolizes the cessation of some important life stage.

A prophetic dream, as a rule, is a kind of plot where the development of events will occur logically and in a certain sequence. Such dreams can in no way be called woven from scraps of some impressions. Instead of the usual scattered pictures, figures, images, faces, prophetic dreams are a kind of plot that develops over time.

In such a dream, many have the opportunity to influence the course of events in a certain way, to change it at their discretion. Prophetic dreams are always very realistic and well remembered, and this makes it easier to interpret. The more accurate the information that the subconscious is trying to give us, the more opportunities to properly prepare for the event and survive it with little loss.

If you suffer from insomnia, go to Rostov the Great. Sleep will begin to return to you already at the entrance to the city. And after you live in Rostov for a week or two, you will hardly distinguish between dream and reality.

Officially, Rostov the Great has been trading for 1156 years. The reporting point is 862. It is this time that the entry in the oldest Russian chronicle, The Tale of Bygone Years, is dated, which says that the city was owned by Rurik, and the “first inhabitants” belonged to the Merya tribe. True, many historians believe that the entry was added to the chronicle in the 12th century, but this is unlikely to have any drastic effect on the fate and temperament of Rostov.

As already mentioned, Rostov arose on the site of the settlement of the mysterious Merya tribe. No one knows what kind of people they were, what gods they professed, and where they eventually disappeared.

Rostov froze in the northwest of Nero, as if carefully, "thievishly" hugging him. In the south, in a more advantageous place, in the very underbelly of the lake, where the Sara River flows into it, at least from the 7th century there was a center of the Meryan people, called by archaeologists the Sarskoye settlement. Judging by the excavations, during which a large number of silver coins, ingots of copper and tin, weapons, jewelry and items from Western Europe, the Kama region, Volga Bulgaria, and Kievan Rus were found, the settlement was a major trading hub.

Probably, initially the founders of Rostov did not plan to stay here for a long time, since it would be very strange for enterprising Normans to settle on a low coastal terrace, the most disadvantageous coast of Lake Nero. Most likely, the long-term plan of the colonizers was to move south, to the Sarskoye settlement. But something unknown violated these plans, and Rostov fell asleep in a "strange" place for a millennium. He fell asleep like a passenger in the waiting room of a provincial railway station, having overslept his train and never woke up.

The trace of the city of Rostov could have disappeared already in the XI-XII century, if the Kiev Metropolitan had not sent here in 990 with a missionary task to baptize the inhabitants of Zalesye, the monk Theodore. Even in Kyiv, the monk was consecrated Bishop of Rostov and went to his flock. The first mission of St. Theodora failed: the local population expelled the bishop from the city.

Two years later, the new prince of Rostov - Boris returned the bishop, understanding all the prospects for the presence of the episcopal department in the city. But after his death, the pagans again drove out the bishop. But, despite this, the diocese managed to stay in the city, and not only to stay, but also to become one of the most influential in the first centuries of Orthodoxy in Rus'. This fact left Rostov in the context of Russian history, and the city somnambulistically, like a lunatic, trailed behind her, arms outstretched.

For a short time, he even bore the title of "capital city", until the "table" went to the more lively Suzdal. The city humbly submitted to fate.

In 1237, Rostov surrendered to the Mongol-Tatars without a fight, and in the 14th century, it also humbly accepted the primacy of the ambitious Moscow. Then the Rostov boyars went into voluntary exile: "alas, Rostov and his princes, they took power, reign, estate and glory from them."

Then the city became part of the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, and in 1608 the detachments of False Dmitry II burned Rostov and took away the Rostov Metropolitan, the future Patriarch Filaret (Romanov), as a prisoner. The foot of the invaders did not set foot on the Rostov land again - for more than 400 years.

True, Rostov himself retired from the affairs of the big Russian game, resigned to the fate of a provincial city, over which the Rostovites themselves tease: ““ The earth is damp, the water is rotten. The people are like an oak." When you walk around Rostov, somewhere subconsciously you perceive it as a "budget" film pavilion. It is no accident that many films were filmed here.

Moreover, along with the historical ones (“Peter I”, “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession”, “Split”), filmmakers found here good “platform” for comedies (“Thirty-three”, “Seven old men and one girl”, “Policemen and thieves” and the same “Ivan Vasilyevich…”).

Although it is difficult to call the city conducive to fun. Perhaps Rostov's "sleep mode" creates a good mise-en-scene for "funny". To tell the truth, when you leave the city, you catch yourself thinking that you have been in the movie "Christopher Nolan's" Inception "(Inception), in limbo, where it is impossible to distinguish whether you are sleeping or awake.

One of the main attractions of Rostov is a unique belfry, for which huge thousand-pound bells were cast. Thanks to the bell ringing, you keep in touch with reality. You leave with the feeling that it is raining here all the time. Even when he doesn't go...

When you are in a dream, it is difficult to understand that what is happening is illusory, the world created by the imagination looks so real. However, it is worth taking a closer look, and signs of fantasy betray a dream. To understand how to distinguish a dream from reality, you need to use the numerous recommendations of experts. Over time, the fictional and real worlds will no longer confuse you.

The first thing that allows you to distinguish the fictional world from the real one is self-awareness. If a person realizes that he is dreaming, he can modify his own dreams. Recognizing a dream is not easy. As soon as a feeling of illusory nature of what is happening covers you, ask yourself - are you sleeping? Remember what happened a few minutes, seconds ago. In dreams, there are no memories, a person is only in the present.

Don't try to pinch yourself. On an intuitive level, you remember the sensations associated with it. The brain will send signals that can deceive the senses of touch, smell, etc. Therefore, an attempt to take off will not help to understand dreams. The person knows that this is impossible in the real world. The subconscious will not allow flight in a dream.

The problem of comprehension of dreams is a decrease in concentration. Feelings that allow you to analyze the situation are dulled. A person does not think about whether he is sleeping or not, even if he dreams of something impossible. Therefore, it is difficult to conduct dream tests.

The method of peculiar beacons is popular. Consider in advance which objects should evoke a clear association with sleep. It can be a thing, a color or a person. As soon as you see this, the brain will send a signal to analyze what is happening. Then try to use one of the ways to understand the real and fictional world.

How to distinguish dream from reality

Numerous experiments with dreams have discovered the general laws that apply when the body is at rest. Night fantasies cannot go beyond certain physical laws. Remember them if you want to understand how to distinguish a dream from reality:

• Perform a breath test by pinching your nose and closing your mouth. If there are no problems, and air enters the lungs, you are sleeping;
• find a mirror and look at the reflection. In reality, it remains clear, without changing. In a dream, the reflection is blurred, smeared, constantly deformed;
• remember how the place where you are is remembered. In a dream, furnishings, the arrangement of rooms will differ from the present;
• pay attention to the hands. In the illusory world, they will float like an image in a mirror, or pass through each other. You can't count fingers either;
• a simple way is to look at the nose with one eye closed. In reality it is simple, but in a dream it is impossible;
• find the clock, look at the hands. They will misbehave - either start spinning wildly or stop;
• You can't read one inscription more than once. The next time you try to look at it, the letters will change, the meaning of the phrase or word will be distorted.

More on the topic: Exit in a dream to the astral plane

Reality Check Practice

The practice of verification in the real world will help to separate fiction and reality. Start by being awake. For example, from checking the inscriptions. Read any phrases or words that come across to you. Do this several times in a row, bringing the habit to automatism. Seeing the inscription in a dream, you will read it a couple of times without hesitation. When the realization comes that the letters have changed, you will think about the unreality of what is happening.

Another way to train is to try to take off. Get on the floor and bounce, setting yourself up for flying. The more often you conduct such tests, the more likely you are to take off in a dream.

Determine what reality you are in with several tests at the same time. Combine reading the inscriptions with looking at a mirror image, trying to remember the previous scene. From the first time, it will not work to distinguish fiction from reality. Frequent and regular exercise is required. Also in a dream, pay attention to the following points:

• distant objects cannot be seen, they begin to elude the eye;
• try to run fast. In dreams, two scenarios are possible. Either you will not budge, or you will instantly move to any, even a distant point;
• in a dream it is easy to pass through walls, breathe under water, look at the bright daytime sun without pain in the eyes;
• flip the light switch. Most likely it won't work.

Although other people are most often present in dreams, the sleeper notes the asymmetry of their faces.

Lucid dreaming, scientific research

Scientists have been developing a way to immerse yourself in a lucid dream for several centuries. There have been attempts to control the imagination since the 18th century. Then the Italian Luigi Galvani conducted an experiment that discovered "animal electricity" to the world. The scientist found out that the body of a living being generates electricity, and its source is the nerve endings.

In the 19th century, the development of technology made it possible to take a step forward. Scientists were able to measure the electrical activity of neurons in any part of the nervous system. Already in the 50s of the 20th century, developments were used to discover sleep phases. After this, attempts to find out what controls dreams have been made repeatedly.