My problem when I do Reality Checks during the day is that I simply cannot take them seriously when I know I am awake.
I mean, if I stay awake in a completely stable and logical world for several hours, never see anything strange whatsoever and can never change a written text no matter how many times I glance at it then I can safely assume that I am awake - so how I am I supposed to use Reality Checks in this situation?
Well you don’t exactly have to only do reality checks when something out of the ordinary happens. I do them all the time. You just have to set something up to make you remember to do them. If you spend a lot of time on irc, where cough some people make you lose the game quite often, then do a reality check whenever you lose it. If you are at school, maybe do a RC every time you look at the clock. In my opinion you have to adapt it to your own personal style.
I kind of have this problem to though. It’s not so much DOING them. it’s taking them seriously. If you at random points check your hands or whatever your RC is, or even do them at certain intervals when you see something, that is still different than taking them seriously. And I think I saw somewhere on here that if you don’t try to take it seriously you’ll probably blow it off in your dream as well.
Yeah, me too; I can’t take them seriously enough to do them more than once…Each time I’m about to do one, I feel a fleeting irritation about the whole thing. I always thought it was because there was a better way, or I wasn’t doing them properly.
I even tried to develop a huge elaborate meditation technique to avoid doing the stupid RC…
I’ve even tried to narrow it down to, when looking at my hands make sure I recognize the scars and marks or fresh cuts I have on my hands. But it still feels pointless and stupid. (Like as a kid when your parent is scolding you for the umpteenth time about something stupid - it feels similar to that)
I really want to be able to take these more seriously. Since in a dream recently I checked my hands. But even though the answer to what I saw wasn’t right (I was wearing gloves. I didn’t remember putting them on or feeling them but yet I was still pretty iffy on it being proof) So I’m sure that if I can take RCs more seriously it’ll be more effective.
I just realized that I once read somewhere that the point of reality checks is to make you more aware, rather than actually creating lucidity for you.
So instead of asking if you are awake, you could question why you believe you are awake instead?
This should have roughly the same effect.
That also reminds me of when I read about people who had tons of lucid dreams naturally. I belieive it was Robert Waggoner who studied them. I remember he said that one of them would compulsively ask themselves, “What was I just doing?” or “Where am I?”
Maybe I should keep experimenting with this one. As soon as I ask the question, “What was I just doing?” my brain immediately focuses with more conscious awareness on my environment, my self in that environment, and the immediate task. And I don’t feel annoyed or like I’m trying to deceive myself 