okay, so basically I would like to know a little about reality checks. I’ve been lucid dreaming with a DJ for about a year now and do so pretty religiously, but for some reason, I never do reality checks and I never took the time to really understand what the point of them is.
If I know I’m dreaming, why perform a reality check? I’ve never actually had the “hmmm, is this a dream? let me check” kind of experience, all my LD’s have been BOOM I know I’m dreaming.
so what is a reality check, do I perform it in a dream? why do I hear people talking about doing them in real life? and should I start taking them more seriously?
I don’t think they’re necessary. I LDed before I even knew what they were. If you check around on the forum, you can see the different kinds of RCs people use. I don’t really NEED them to be lucid, but sometimes I enjoy doing them, and there’s a few times I thought it wasn’t a dream, but checked anyway, and it was.
RCs are controversial for me too. i’ve been trying to do them, but none ever make it to my dreams. which is why now i’m going to start asking the question “Am i dreaming?” to myself? because usually when i LD, i also sort of BOOM wake up, but aside from that sometimes it’s enough to just ask myself “is this a dream?” and i just know. the trick is (same with the RCs) if you keep asking yourself and wondering IRL, you might start wondering in a dream too, and those BOOM realizations might become more frequent
interesting idea! I’ve actually been kinda doing that lately, I’ll be walking around in WL and then I’ll sort of practice becoming lucid, so maybe I’ll start doing it in my dreams
I find them to be the key to lucidity. I practice constant awareness in my waking life as well, but sometimes we just “got with the flow” Doing a lot of RC’s can pull you out of this immediately, and give you that “boom” that was mentioned.
Hi JJDreamer. I’ve been writing my dreams down for the past 3-4 days and having been taking it very seriously. I keep my notepad and my pen and small flashlight under my pillow and if awaken at any time i wrote down any piece of dream that i can recall and when i wake up in the morning i write down more dreams. I will lay there for a while and let my mind seek these dream fragments then i jot everything down. My recall now is about 4 to 5 dreams a night.
During the past week i have had two lucid dreams. I also have been trying to do an RC every 30 minutes every day.
Now with the two LDs i did have: I became lucid not from a reality check, but i guess it was just a sponateous lucidity. I tried to trace the start of the lucidity but was unable to do so. I couldnt accept at first when recording my dreams that the lucidity was spontaneous. I was like thinking, it has to be from an RC or i must of had to see something bizzare that triggered lucidity.
I think though that when you are recording your dreams very seriously and writing down as much detail as you can and things that were said in the dream then lucidity just occurs. I personally see the RC as a BACKUP. Say for example the spotaneous lucidity didnt occur or you didnt see anything bizzare in the dream to trigger lucidity. Now hopefully if you’ve been doing a lot of RCs during the day (And taking them seriously actually pondering checking carefully to see if things are in order IRL) then you will dream about doing an RC and become lucid
And since we spend most of our days at work and we dream about being at work. You must not only do RCs at home, but everywhere especially at work.
So when there you are at work dreaming of whatever it is you do. suddenly your autopilot self in your non-lucid-dream does a reality check. you can be like, WOW im dreaming right now!. Then suddenly its not just a dream its a lucid dream and your in it and totally aware.
wow, Dreamscape_Awakener! that is amazing 4-5 dreams a night and 2 LDs in a week… you’re amazing, and really lucky too
lucidity does come spontaneously. probably it’s because you’ve been thinking about it very much these last few days or weeks. it’s the motivation it’s happened to me too.
unfortunately not everyone’s as lucky as you. we don’t get spontaneous lucidity as often. i’ve been trying actively with different methods for more than two weeks, yet only i got just one dream. also, RCs somehow don’t always work. i did one tonight, it worked, i was like wow… and still i kind of forgot about it and it faded. it’s really hard to understand why it’s like that, and i don’t know, maybe it works differently for different people.
congrats on your experiences though you’re doing really well.
Thanks Avalinah. It does require me to be very dedicated. Sometimes in the morning i have so much “dream details” just there on my mind. I think to myself i dont want to write all this down but i force myself to empty out all my “dream details” and put it on paper. I’ll be there for a while just writing when i dont really want to, but in doing so as i write more of these dream memories fill up my head again. So i must be swift in writing down my dreams so i can immidiately start writing down this new information that has just filled by brain
I’m glad though once i write it down because I look at it and think wow all these dreams happened last night i was here and i was there in all these different places (not aware that i was at these places of course at the time untill after awakening)
And i just go back and i could “watch” these dreams again in my minds eye. They are entertaining to read and look back on but these dreams are just the regualr dreams or nonlucid dreams.(These are the dreams that jump around from place to place and make no sense. you are not there playing an active role in what is occuring. you dont even know you are there in the first place!..untill after you awake from sleep) I’m after the big prize the lucid dreams. Those dreams…those are the one im really looking forwared to writing down after experincing them. Becuase well when i write those dream down those lucid ones. I could look back at then when i read then and say “Yes i remember this part of the dream i remeber that i decided to do this instead of that and that i knew my body was asleep and yes i remember when i was flying i CHOSE to do this it didnt just happen i was just put in different dreamscapes INVOLUNTARILY…oh no…i CHOSE to go to this place or that place”
i know, the writing duty sometimes bugs you ;D well, i usually don’t remember many details. if i start writing down, it starts fading and i have kept a good dream journal since 2007! so i don’t think my DR will be any better xD although i remember that in the past i used to remember at least one or two dreams a night, now though it has gone down. i think it’s cause i fixate on the LD techniques more than on DR
looks like you had long LDs too mine have been too short to do anything so far. you are really lucky
Actually my LDs that i had this week were real short and sort of a low level lucidity. I just need to come up with a plan. I’ll get lucid and not really know what i should do. Then when i decide its to late haha
mm, that happened to me too. make a plan last time i did (at least a short one), and while i still had a goal to perform, i had lucidity lost if afterwards.
I think RC’s are just a physical manifestation of intent to LD.
It helps for something to be physical, a motion, a gesture, something tangible. It’s harder to overlook that, as opposed to just a thought.
But either way, i think the thought pattern is what counts, whether it’s reinforced by a RC or not. If your thoughts don’t stray far from LDing in waking time, i guess you don’t -really need- to perform a RC. I do think however, that it’s useful to. Eventually, your thoughts morph and twist in new currents, and someday, away from LDing. Having a persistent physical RC should help keeping it steady through time, as it’s the center of question “am i dreaming?”.
Personally, i don’t use RC’s, but i regret not getting used to them yet. I lose a lot of time “going with the flow” as Dazino put it. An apt description. I think that if i had a reliable RC i’d be better at questioning “is it a dream?” sooner.
yeah I agree, I think maybe I should have gotten used to them in the beginning, and then I might have applied them a lot more, which might have led to more lucidity. It’s just that every time I’ve gone lucid I haven’t the need to do an RC because I just know I’m dreaming, I don’t question it. But I’m sure a dream will come along where I don’t know for sure, in which case I’ll perform an RC
Happens to me too, just going with the flow… I know I am sort of controlling the dream but not while being fully aware. I don’t even think about doing a RC.
So this morning I was lying in bed after waking up and I was day dreaming. I do that a lot without knowing it. I make up a story and I see it in my mind as watching a movie, all very non realistic, exactly like my dreams. So I then thought, why not do RC’s in those all the time? It’s much more closer to a ND then doing RC’s in RL! I think it might work very well…
In the one LD that I have had, it was induced by an RC. The nose one to be exact. Even if you don’t need them, do the nose one anyway just because it feels SOOOO cool to breathe while it’s plugged and your mouth is closed. It’s like this little tingly sensation and you still feel air passing through your nares.
and i have kept a good dream journal since 2007! so i don’t think my DR will be any better xD although i remember that in the past i used to remember at least one or two dreams a night, now though it has gone down. i think it’s cause i fixate on the LD techniques more than on DR 
