Subtle Yet Effecting RC's?

[gemini.moon]

What are some subtle but effective RC’s? For me, I find plugging my nose and trying to breathe is by far the most effective RC – it has never once failed me – but it’s hard to do this RC in public without getting some awkward looks (or insulting the person next to you). Reading words/numbers works, but I find that I rarely actually come across words or numbers in a dream. Counting my fingers occasionally works, but there have been times when I’ve thought it completely ‘normal’ to have six or seven fingers in a dream.

So what are you best RC’s to do in public? Also, while you’re answering that one, what are some good ways to remember to do constant RC’s?

[Leijona]

The nose plugging one is the best for me too. Why do you think it’s hard to do in public? I’ve never got any weird looks or the like. I also do the reading one (or the clock RC) and I sometimes try to put my finger through the other hand (it actually depends in which situation I am, for example when I’m going for a run, the nose plugging RC is just not convenient). I do my RC’s everytime I come across my DS or anything else that I recognize as odd in any way. That works pretty well most of the time, but only if I have set my mind to that I really want to practice awareness and RC’s during the day.

[_Laurelindo]

You can also try to become as familiar as possible with the feeling of waking reality;
ask yourself things like “What does this feel like? Can I be sure that this is reality? Why? Is there anything strange or out of place here?”.

[ZRVera]

I plug my nose anyway. Sometimes I’ll try to pretend like it was itching, so I was doing something weird to it. I tend to do strange things a lot anyway, so if I happen to RC (not a lot in public though, I usually forget), I don’t care and just do the nose RC anyway. It never fails me.

[gemini.moon]

@Leijona

The nose plugging one is the best for me too. Why do you think it’s hard to do in public? I’ve never got any weird looks or the like. I also do the reading one (or the clock RC) and I sometimes try to put my finger through the other hand (it actually depends in which situation I am, for example when I’m going for a run, the nose plugging RC is just not convenient). I do my RC’s everytime I come across my DS or anything else that I recognize as odd in any way. That works pretty well most of the time, but only if I have set my mind to that I really want to practice awareness and RC’s during the day.

It’s hard to do in public because I tend to get a lot of weird looks if I do it too much. After all, how often do you see people randomly walking around plugging their noses, unless something smells really bad? Also, I do a lot of RC’s, and constantly plugging my nose does look a little odd. I’ve tried the ‘closing the back of my throat’ (no hands) breathing RC, but it doesn’t work for me; in a dream, I still can’t breathe with the back of my throat closed.

Another thing which is extremely inconvenient for me is that I don’t often come across words and numbers in a dream, but if I do I can usually read them. I’ve suspected it for a while, but last night confirmed it. I had a dream where I picked up a book called ‘My Sister the Moon’, which is a book I’ve been wanting to find and read but haven’t found anywhere. In my dream, I opened it and read the first page. I kept reading the first page over and over again, but the words never changed. I could even tell you the basis of what it said, but I’m not going to get into that. My point is, the reading RC doesn’t really work for me.

And also, to Laurelindo : I’ve been working on that. My goal is to perfect the skill of telling the difference between the feelings of waking life and dreaming. However, it’s one of those things that I think must take a lot of time and practice. How do you suggest going about learning to constantly be aware of the ‘feeling’ of the environment? I find I often forget.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Keep them coming!

[Varien]

As for the “keeping the back of your throat closed” RC, I believe I read the same post you did about it, and the thing is: that RC is flawed. I tested it myself, and it caused me to have a missed dream-sign. However, it’s not to be tossed aside just like that. Look at it this way: The epiglottis closes all air contact when shut, it’s meant to. Simply sucking in air while “keeping your throat closed” closes your epiglottis. So ask yourself this: How does the nose-plug RC work? It shuts off the outside contact with the airway. The epiglottis is still open to receive air with this RC. So, for the “keeping the back of your throat closed” RC, shutting off the internal contact with the airway is no good. So modify the RC! Instead of shutting your epiglottis by breathing in with your throat, make a seal with your lips and try and breathe in through them, just like you would try and breathe through your nose with the nose-plug RC. Simple as that.
*Note: It’s still yet to be tested, however the theory is nearly bulletproof from what I can see. It might work, it might not, I’ll leave that conclusion for the next time I get lucid. It also looks just a tad goofy if you make it too obvious, so you might want to do it when not too many people are around, or you can look away from them for a moment without looking too conspicuous.

Right then, onto the RC’s I use. I keep a watch on my person at all times, and I’m surrounded by clocks not only in my home but in my workplace, and even in my dreams most days. However, my watch is a liar. I have it permanently set two hours ahead of time, any time I want to do an RC, I check my watch, and memorize the time it tells me. However, considering I know my watch is a devious little bastard, I look at the clocks around me, and expect them to say the same time. Since I memorized the time on the watch, and I’m not expecting the time to be any different on the other clocks, how should the time be any different? The fact of the matter is: If I’m dreaming, it shouldn’t. The clocks should all be the exact same. However, if I’m not dreaming, and am in fact within the usual reality, my watch should be the lying little devil it always is.

They key here is expectation. I can’t expect my watch to always be off-time considering I am a lucid dreamer, sometimes, it will be on time, and once it is, I will be lucid dreaming. However, if I knew that my watch was always a liar, and honestly expected the other clocks to be two hours behind my own, then I would be defeating the purpose of the RC.
You must acknowledge the fact that every clock has the possibility to show the exact same time when using this RC, otherwise, you wont ever dream when using it.
Of course, this leaves a considerable margin for error, but it’s the most subtle, yet effective RC in my arsenal, all it takes is a bit of LL.

So, to recap:
Get yourself a watch, set it two hours ahead of time.
Expect your watch to tell the truth, and memorize its’ shown time.
Look at another clock, expecting it to show the exact same time.
If it doesn’t show the same time as your watch, you know your not dreaming. If it does, congratulations! Your in a dream!

[gemini.moon]

@Varien

As for the “keeping the back of your throat closed” RC, I believe I read the same post you did about it, and the thing is: that RC is flawed. I tested it myself, and it caused me to have a missed dream-sign. However, it’s not to be tossed aside just like that. Look at it this way: The epiglottis closes all air contact when shut, it’s meant to. Simply sucking in air while “keeping your throat closed” closes your epiglottis. So ask yourself this: How does the nose-plug RC work? It shuts off the outside contact with the airway. The epiglottis is still open to receive air with this RC. So, for the “keeping the back of your throat closed” RC, shutting off the internal contact with the airway is no good. So modify the RC! Instead of shutting your epiglottis by breathing in with your throat, make a seal with your lips and try and breathe in through them, just like you would try and breathe through your nose with the nose-plug RC. Simple as that.
*Note: It’s still yet to be tested, however the theory is nearly bulletproof from what I can see. It might work, it might not, I’ll leave that conclusion for the next time I get lucid. It also looks just a tad goofy if you make it too obvious, so you might want to do it when not too many people are around, or you can look away from them for a moment without looking too conspicuous.

Right then, onto the RC’s I use. I keep a watch on my person at all times, and I’m surrounded by clocks not only in my home but in my workplace, and even in my dreams most days. However, my watch is a liar. I have it permanently set two hours ahead of time, any time I want to do an RC, I check my watch, and memorize the time it tells me. However, considering I know my watch is a devious little bastard, I look at the clocks around me, and expect them to say the same time. Since I memorized the time on the watch, and I’m not expecting the time to be any different on the other clocks, how should the time be any different? The fact of the matter is: If I’m dreaming, it shouldn’t. The clocks should all be the exact same. However, if I’m not dreaming, and am in fact within the usual reality, my watch should be the lying little devil it always is.

They key here is expectation. I can’t expect my watch to always be off-time considering I am a lucid dreamer, sometimes, it will be on time, and once it is, I will be lucid dreaming. However, if I knew that my watch was always a liar, and honestly expected the other clocks to be two hours behind my own, then I would be defeating the purpose of the RC.
You must acknowledge the fact that every clock has the possibility to show the exact same time when using this RC, otherwise, you wont ever dream when using it.
Of course, this leaves a considerable margin for error, but it’s the most subtle, yet effective RC in my arsenal, all it takes is a bit of LL.

So, to recap:
Get yourself a watch, set it two hours ahead of time.
Expect your watch to tell the truth, and memorize its’ shown time.
Look at another clock, expecting it to show the exact same time.
If it doesn’t show the same time as your watch, you know your not dreaming. If it does, congratulations! Your in a dream!

The watch idea sounds great, considering I wear a watch that I NEVER take off (it’s practically glued to my wrist!), so I think I’m going to try it out. I’ll try to post back how it goes.

As for the lips idea, I don’t think it would work for me. In theory, it would work like a charm, but in reality the back of my throat closes automatically when I try to suck air in through my mouth. Otherwise, I’d just automatically breathe in through my nose. It takes a lot of effort and concentration to do it properly and I can’t imagine my expression would be very pleasant and go unnoticed. But it might work for other people, I might just be weird.