RCs around people

Do many of you do reality checks when you are in dialogue with people or actually doing something. I find that I mostly became lucid when I am alone and I have a bit of time to think. I am yet to become lucid when I’m talking to people or immersed in some kind of task.

I wonder when other people do RCs or just become more aware of their consciousness. This may explain a lot of non-lucid experiences.

Counting fingers works fine no matter the situation.

I actually do the nose RC pretty frequently… just rubs like I’m rubbing my nose or something. However, if you are for whatever reason afraid of doing a full RC, an awareness check can also do the job. Just make sure you know where you are, what you are doing, where you have been and if it is all normal for you.

I will abuse the topic and reply to Rhewin.

LaBerge wrote that experiments with certain expectations usually lead to result based on that expectation…
If I pinch my nose, logic says I’m not going to be able to breath. So… would the nose RC work regardless of this expectation or should I just not expect to be not able to breath? :happy:

I think the question is do you REMEMBER to do RCs when occupied. I guess Rhewin does his nose RC between customers :smile: Doing RCs in public is easy but remembering to do them and have time to do them and really think about what you are doing when engaged is difficult.

That’s true and expectations can affect the outcome of an RC. The nose seems more reliable since as you breath in, so does your RL body. Nothing is stopping your real nose from getting a breath of air. It still is possible for it to fail which is why I usually do it two or three times.

Now, that aside there is one thing you said that’s key. “Logic says I’m not going to be able to breath.” That’s true, unless you expect to be in a dream, then logically you would be able to. Even if I’m sure I’m awake now, I’m sure I’m awake in dreams too so why take the chance?

@moogle: Yeah, usually after every customer, but oftentimes when I’m with them as well :wink:

i do the nose reality check too. I would NOT reccomend the pinching techqniue to see if you feel pain… Ive lost 2 ld’s due to that… cuz sometimes u actually do feel some form of pain

This is what I mean but I will get back in to it I suppose. I mostly do the clock one but I am in to the mindfulness, that work for me in my DILDs so far.

So in other words, if my surroundings make sense and I remember what i did prior (a RC not that long ago), than I’m most likely awake.On the other hand, say I’m actually dreaming, would I remember going to sleep, or would my long term memory be totally absent?

I never do RC’s when I’m talking to someone or doing activities with other people. That’s mainly cause I don’t remember to do them and because it is weird to pinch your nose/try to make your finger go through your palm in public. However, the “look at some text, look away, look at the text again” RC should work and it’s not embarrasing to do as with other RC’s. The key is to REMEMBER to do it :smile:

Yeah the look at text and look away is my bread and butter when talking to people. When I’m working I like to do the text RC while talking to customers and in-between them I’ll do the nose RC and take a look at my hands. All three of those are easy to do discreetly and won’t make you look like a schizophrenic. :smile:

In regards to the original question, I try my hardest to do an RC every time I start talking to someone. It doesn’t take 2 seconds to find some text and it’s 100% worth it. But it’s really hard to do - I forget all the time!

I have gotten into the habit of asking myself where I am, what I’ve done do I know the person I am talking to , why am I talking to them etc. It’s an easy and undetectable way to RC.

I do the nose RC all the time, including when talking to people. It’s quick and it just looks like I had an itch. And if I do have an itch, then it is two birds with one stone!

I have had one lucid dream i wich I remembered going to bed, Im pretty sure I went into that lucid dream as I fell asleep though. but I think if you are aware that your dreaming then you should probably be aware that your in bed, unless you are not in bed at all.

Thanks gamblino,

This makes sense now. So if I can train myself to constantly recall the recent events, and hopefully transfer this behaviour to my dreams, then at some point, I’ll realize that I’m dreaming. Cool

Heh… I don’t RC in front of people ever since this one time, when I was out at the mall. I thought it would be a good time to RC, so I kinda did it without thinking much about it (nose thing, finger through palm, hand through object. Btw, I wasn’t dreaming XD) must’ve only taken 5 seconds, but when I looked up there’s this random dude staring at me with this really creepy expression on his face. Coincidence? I think not… So I do not do that anymore in public, lol.

You did all of those at once? I could see getting away with something like the nose RC, but if I saw someone trying to stick their hand through a wall I would probably look too XD

Who knows, maybe he’s also a lucid dreamer and was surprised to see someone else practicing RC’s? :happy:
I try to RC always, no matter where I am. I prefer the nose-pinching one and the finger-through-palm, and nobody seems to find it weird so far. If so, I wouldn’t really care, especially if there are only strangers around.

Yep, I try all 3 at once XD
oh, and lejiona, I thought that at first too! (that he did RC’s as well) but it was still a creepy look, lol. What trips me up about RCs is that what if, since you do them so much in reality, your subconsious gets the idea that you can’t breathe through your nose or whatever? It would ruin the point :sad:

To prevent this it’s important that you are really questioning reality while doing the RC and not just automatically answer “No, this is RL”. A week or so ago I read a book about LD’ing and the author suggested that you can throw in a “false positive” here and there, so that when you’re in a dream but come to the wrong conclusion of being awake, you’ll say nevertheless “Yes, this is a dream!” and become lucid. Can’t really say how this works, I became lucid by a RC only once… :neutral: