The BIG Reality Check topic, part IV

From what I remember from EWLD:

  1. Do a reality check
  2. Ask yourself “I’m not dreaming now but if I were to be dreaming what would it be like?”
  3. Imagine what it would be like if it would be a dream.

It goes on something along those lines.

Doing a RC every time you see something is what describes a dream sign. Every time you see that dream sign you will do a RC.

I know this is partially off-topic, but can a dream sign be a type of lighting in the dream, or is that just a general factor of dreams and extremely common? Just curious

It could be a dreamsign, if you see that certain kind of lighting in most of your dreams. A dreamsign can be anything that reoccurs in your dreams.

I use to dream with weird creatures a lot… like demons, monsters, ghosts, aliens… So what should I do? Look at my hand every time i see a demon? :tongue:

:tongue:
If your dream-sign is not likely to show up in reality then there are a couple of ways you can try to train your self to RC. You can imagine a dream you had recently in which they showed up and imagine yourself doing an RC in it. You could also try to associate RCing to the demons, when you see them on T.V for instance. :smile:

The “sticking a finger through the hand/palm” method is an unreliable reality check (leastwise for me). It helped me to reach lucidity for the first time, but secondly I was unable to do it so I needed to do the “holding the nose” method to be sure i’m really lucid.

By the way, today was the first occasion i reached lucidity. :smile:

I close my mouth and try to breath though it.

I just discovered a RC for me. It works if you wear glasses and it doesn’t look awkward in public. I just look to see if I’m wearing my glasses since I usually never wear them in dreams.

I normally try a million different RCs in my dream

I plug my nose
Look at my hands
Plug my nose
and then I look at my hands again

For some reason my hands are disformed in my dreams

the nose breathing is my personal favorite. I don’t use and true induction techniques, all i do is a couple RCs (nose breathing being my favorite.). As far as dependency and quickness go, the nose breathing one is by far the best in my oppinion. for me it works every time, and it’s fast and easy. I have tried reading text in dreams before, and either i wake up before i can complete it, or i just don’t have to focus to do it. and hands usually look the same for me.

Last night, I had my first lucid dream since joining the forum last week. I have had many LDs before, but began getting frustrated and confused with false awakenings and going in & out of lucidity. I learned about reality checks, and tried it last night. WOW was that neat! Once I realized I was dreaming, I tried to stick my right finger through my left hand. It wasn’t an easy pass-through, I really had to dig, almost like trying to poke a stick through heavy modeling clay. Once I did it, I was doing it the whole dream. All day today, I have the strangest feeling in the middle of my left hand. I must have been playing with my palm in my sleep. ??
Another cool thig about last night – this is the first dream in a long time that I actually had a conversation with a dream character about my lucid dreaming. Although I can’t remember exactly what he said, I can still picture what he looks like in my head. He was a cross between Adrian Grenier & Seth Rogan. Analyze that one!
Glad i was able to use a tip I learned here!

I recently (a week ago) started to do the finger-though-palm one, but I felt I was doing it too much and that I didn’t think about it really. Now I writed RC on my hand and on my leg. Each time I’ll see it, I’ll do some random RC I can think of. Also, when walking through a door, I’ll try to do a RC.
The only LD I had was using WILD, so I hope I’ll have some using RCs, too.

I do a reality check in a dream and nothing happens ?

Many times it happen that I do it in a dream and then nothing.

I tried different reality checks.

What could be the problems ?

Thank you in advance for your eventual help

Merged from Quest. :dragon:

This often seems to be caused by some sort of expectation that the RC is going to say you are awake. A way of combating that is to really question and give it some thought, if you are dreaming, when you do your RC. Doing the same RC over and over might also cause you to become used to it failing. So perhaps doing a few different RCs might help if you RC often. :smile:

Ive jsut started a DJ to help withdream recall, and ive been trying to do RCs too, but i never think of them druing the day. Is there any way to help make them a habit?

I did stick-your-finger-though-other-hands-palm relaity check in a lucid dream, and it failed! Or, rather, worked! Failed! Eeh…
Basicly, it didn’t do what it was supposted to do: The finger was stopped by the palm! So if I would ever do this RC in a ND, I wouldn’t get lucid!
Thankfully, the nose one worked, so I’ll use that one.

Sanky:
Thats exactly what happened to me. My finger didnt go thorugh my palm, but the air supply got through my plugged nose afterwards so… i dont bother with the hand-through-palm RC. As the nose one always works for me :content:

I’m not sure if this method was mentioned yet, but I read somewhere that you could write a large “A” on your palm that stands for “awake.” If you look at it in your dream and its there it might remind you to do a reality check. I hope that helps.

I actually don’t do much RCing. I like to do the levitation RC, but only after I’m lucid. The classic “examining surroundings” trick works with me too.

Reality checks can come in many differnt ways. In my first self induced lucid dream a poptart served as a reality check. :happy: