I dont really understand what to do when I do one (IRL). This is what I do:
Think I am dreaming.
See the place around me and see if I have seen it before.
Check if I can see my nose with my right eye, then left.
Check to see if I can breathe through my nose while pinching it with my right index and thumb (thumb on right side).
Think on how the tests would fail in a dream.
Imagine saying “I’m in a dream” and becoming lucid.
I dont know if thats right, so can somebody tell me what they do?
Also, I’m kinda worried that I do all this stuff in a dream and still not actually realizing its a dream, just doing the procedure and going on with the unlucid dream.
The point of repeating them is to make them a habit. Once you have made RCs a habit, you’ll find yourself doing them in dreams and becoming lucid.
Essentially its just as you described. Pick a cue for something you hear or see during your day. Like a dog barking, a car horn beeping, your watch alarm going off and associate that sound/sight with doing an RC. Once you’ve proved or disproved the nature of the reality around you, you’re done.
Realy try to question reality when you do them. As Thai Boxer said, just saying the words “am I dreaming” without thinking about the difference between reality and dreaming can lead to RC’s in dreams that don’t cause you to become lucid even if they work. (i.e. you have 7 fingers on each hand, but think that is normal in the dream and just go on with the dream)
Think about how the check would be different in a dream. This helps in two ways. First it tells you SC what you expect so you don’t have five fingers on each hand when you do this RC in a dream, and second it conditions you to notice the difference and become lucid.
don
hmm… i diasagree with setting your watch to go off, it never worked for me and i set it to go off every hour. i never ONCE heard it in a dream so i never RCed
i had the finger test fail once, which was ok as i had an LD earlier in the night. i think it failed because my idiot self felt as if i was “cheating” to make it work (god knows why)
when i do the finger test in a dream, my mind cannot decide how many fingers to give me and they appear and disappear at random, but its hard to tell because its blury
does anyone else get this on the finger test?
These are all good ways to RC, the RC s I do often would be the
Hmm Wait, am I dreaming?
2.Plug my nose and try to breath
3.Look at my hands
Count my fingers
Even if im not dreaming, I just think to myself, what would I do if I was dreaming? And then imagine what you would do right at that moment what you would do if you were dreaming.
I’m missing something important here though… if you use RC’s too much they become a habit and for some people some RC’s wont even work in dreams…
What i’m doing:
1: Am i dreaming ? ‘IF’ i was dreaming what would i be able to do now ? Do i see anything weird, do i taste something different, what do i feel ? (touch something) or do i hear something weird ?
(1b: If youve got enough spare time (like in classroom) inmagine what you would do if you where dreaming right now… do nothing but just enjoy the idea of what you would be able to do IF you where dreaming)
2: Do the Reality Check… you’re not dreaming ? better luck next time, at least you thought of some cool things to do in your next LD. You are dreaming ? Have fun
[color=darkblue]They are meant to become habit so there is more chance of them cropping up in your dreams!
For example: If your common RC is to check your watch to see if the time is correct and does not change, then by checking your watch a lot throughout the day you are making such an activity become habit. When you dream, you will no doubt dream about your day and if that includes the watch checking, the RC will fail and you will realise you are dreaming![/color]
[color=darkblue]It is important that you realise the effect of your RC during the day. Before you check your watch, think of what you would do in each case. I.e. what would you think if the RC failed? You have to drum it into your mind that the words associated with a failed RC are “I’m dreaming”.
You have to presume you are dreaming when you RC even if you are sure that you aren’t! I know this sounds strange, but in most dreams you will no doubt be sure that everything is normal so you have to get the message to your brain that everything might not be as it seems…[/color]
[color=darkblue]True… Everyone has their own techniques, but there are generally accepted RC’s (Like checking text or a watch) that should work for everyone. Better to use a tried and tested RC such as this one, to one of your own that you are not sure will work or not. RC’s can take up time so you don’t want to spend ages doing one only to find out that when you did it in a dream you didn’t become lucid.[/color]
Infinitycascade was too fast, I wanted to say that.
One more point about why RC’s don’t always work in dreams. What you are trying to do with an RC is get you logical/rational functions working in the dream again. That is why it is so important to realy question reality “every time” you do an RC. Then what you are doing is teaching yourself that when you do an RC, you are useing you logical/rational mind. If you can become logical/rational in a dream, then you should be lucid. (or at least get closer to it) If you do not question your reality every time you do an RC, then your dream self, without the logical/rational part of your mind will come up with some unlogical/irational reason why it didn’t work, or why it worked like it did. You can see a lot of that in the DJ’s here on ld4all.
don