I’ve been thinking about the reality check used in the movie “Inception”. Cobb apparently uses a spinning totem to help him differentiate between reality and a dream:
While dreaming, this totem spins indefinitely, effectively telling the dreamer, that he is not awake. In waking life, the totem loses balance and stops after a short period of time. My question here is: Would such a totem make a good RC? Does anyone have a totem IRL which they use to do RC’s and has it been successful?
I have been actually thinking about having such a totem. While serving a good purpose as a RC device, it would also be a symbol of Lucid dreaming, which is quite fun to have in my opinion. However, I need to know if it is no less fail-proof than the other RC’s. Obviously, such totem could fail in a dream, preventing one from becoming Lucid. You would need to expect it to spin indefinitely both in dreams and IRL. But I would like to know what others think about it before I start using one.
I personally like the idea of the totem and you could calibrate it to never fall in a dream. It can also be used to check if you’re in someone elses dream, which is what it was for. That’s why nobody else had to know about it, so that they can’t replicate the results and trick your mind.
If I was able to enter my wristband to permanently be in a dream with me, then a totem can be a great RC just for seeing it!
Thank you, db_FTS for the links. It seems that totems are not as reliable as RC’s, but can be used as a reminder to RC. Well, I guess I should simply experiment. I’ll find and use a totem, but will have the usual RC’s as a backup.
I like the general idea of the totem, but as a RC, practically, I don’t know… I think it’s backwards. Creating something IWL and trying to make it into a RC can be tricky. The idea of an RC is to get something in dreams that happens/fails consistently and then use that, because you know how it works in a dream. You can’t guarantee that the top won’t fall down in a dream, or that it will always have the same result.
But it may work, this is just my way of seeing it I’d love to have one of those tops in my pocket and take it out for a spin every once in a while and see people’s reactions
Yes, that’s exactly what bothers me. Having a totem requires you to be in the right mental state for it to work correctly. You need to have very high expectation that it is a dream (in WL as well), otherwise, it will simply behave like IRL. Though, it is an elegant device and, as I said, a symbol of Lucid Dreaming. It kind of connects reality to the awesome world of dreams. Something you can have in your pocket every day, something you can show to others. It’s simply fun to have a totem. Though, it would be good if it served its purpose of a RC, which is what I want to test.
Ok, so I have a totem. It looks like in the picture, but it is black and doesn’t have that thingy sticking out (it is all perfectly round).
SPOILER - Click to view
I thought of two possible RC scenarios with this thing:
The first way to RC is to simply try to put it on all your fingers as a ring. IRL, it fits only on two fingers on my hand, on the other 3 it doesn’t fit. I supposed that in a dream, it could fit on all fingers.
The other way to RC with it is this: IRL it doesn’t have any magnetic properties, but in a dream it would work as a magnet. Not only attracting metals, but also wood, plastic and any other surface. Thus, if it sticks to something, it is a dream.
I totally didin’t expect it, but I had a LD this night. I was flying around and then it hit me that I’m dreaming, cause you can’t fly IRL. I took my totem from my pocket. I tried the first scenario - I tried to put the totem on my fingers as a ring. Just like IRL, it didin’t fit on the first 3 fingers, but it did on the last two. So the first scenario didin’t work, at least for the first time. I didin’t have a high level of lucidity - that might have been the cause why the RC failed. The dream was very short and I couldn’t try out the magnetic properties of the totem in LD (I was flying and there weren’t any surfaces around). I guess the LD was at the start of the night, cause it was so fragmented I could barely recall it. Anyway, I hope to get another one soon and will try to test the totem properly.
Had a LD this night. And, to my astonishment, the totem did, in fact, work. It had magnetic properties when I tried to stick it to a wooden gate. It just stuck to the gate and remained there. However, I was lucid before that, so I have yet to try it in a ND as a RC. However, seeing that it works in a LD, I don’t see much reason for it to fail in a ND, as long as I keep my expectation in the right way.
And the totem had magic properties, which I unleashed on a poor kitten which I saw walking besides. So it works, at least for me. Could work for anyone else, I assume.
A totem would be a good tool to have once already lucid, maybe to use it to maintain lucidity or something. Like you said yu have to expect it to work. If you used it enough in reality you might use it some in dreams prior to lucidity and maybe those few time one might become lucid. I just think he benefits are better if totems are used once lucid.
I don’t know if the spinning top thing would work, especially for me. For example, I can’t use pushing my finger through my palm as a reality check because I expect my finger to meet resistance. I believe I would just expect the top to spin and then fall.
I do, however, use a “totem” to cue my reality checks.
Yes, that’s why you should choose a totem that has a special ability that is easy to expect and imagine. A good example is my totem, that supposedly has magnetic properties. Knowing how magnets work IRL, it is not difficult to imagine how a piece of metal could stick itself onto a surface and it is not hard to “expect” it to happen. On the other hand, if you have a totem, that should summon a dragon in your dream, it is hard to use. It is incredibly hard to expect a dragon to spawn out of nowhere IRL.
I decided to try my lighter as a “totem”, doing a RC everytime I take it out because it has a label on it that I can read and re-read… has worked well so far, helping me get the habit
I’d love to have one of those tops in my pocket and take it out for a spin every once in a while and see people’s reactions 
