The nature of reality checks: what do you think it is?

Quest for Lucidity
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Hi all.

I’ve decided to put more effort into lucid dreaming. I’ve discovered ways to experience lucid living and have developed a foundation of beliefs for it. I’m at a point now where I want to connect waking and sleeping realities through reality checks.

About 4 years ago I was doing reality checks. I put signs up, randomly checked my senses to test reality, and other similar techniques. What happened was I would habitually reality check in the dream and conclude the same response: this is normal.

Now I think a reality check is a feeling that triggers self-awareness. But what triggers the feeling? From what I’ve read, training the mind to see certain things in waking-reality as odd could be a good start. The feeling that something is odd seems to connect to a trigger in the mind to check one’s self-awareness.

Does anyone think this is effective because there are a lot of oddities in dreams, or because the feeling of oddity is intimately connected with lucidity and self-awareness? Does anyone think there are other feelings that are intimately connected to lucidity and self-awareness which might increase the effectiveness of reality checks?

Has anyone else thought about reality checks and

Also, after thinking about it further and looking at a piece of cheese that had odd stuff growing on it I realized that these sort of reality checks should lead to stillness of the mind rather than a habitual mental conclusion (this is waking reality).

If the point of a reality check is to trigger self-awareness and lucidity, then the habitual conclusion should BE self-awareness and lucidity (not a mental label). I have found in waking reality that self-awareness and lucidity can be attained through a mental stillness and unadulterated observation. I’m going to test this one out and post any results.

Two posts edited together. :mattias:

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I practice the sporadic awareness technique and that sounds like a similar principle as I have read. I did reality checks for a few months before achieving a lucid dream, which only happened after I stopped what i was doing and began examining my surroundings instead of just doing reality checks without thinking. Awareness is an important part of triggering lucidity and really asking yourself if you’re dreaming. :smile:

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For me it’s awerness that leads to reality checks in dreams. you have to train your awerness in waking life. The reality check is just a tool used to deduce beyond most doubt that one is dreaming, though you can NEVER know for sure if your not dreaming. It’s your awerness of the situation that will lead you to question it. You theN answer by reality checking.