I’ve recently been thinking about reality checks, and how they result in similar behaviors when performed by different people. If both you and I were to perform a ‘hands’ RC, in most cases the result would be an extra finger, or a lump, etc. However if we were to both look at a table, or a bar of chocolate, they would usually look the same as in waking life.
I predict some people will say something along the lines of “once you’ve read about the reality check, it’ll occur more frequently in your dreams”.
I assume it depends on the nature of the RC. For instance, the RC that works for me the best is when I plug my nose, shut my mouth, and try to breathe. This usually works, probably because breathing is something we do so often that your subconscious doesn’t seem to care the circumstances in which you’re actually breathing - you’re not actually using your respiratory system anyway.
For things like looking in a mirror, it’s probably a different ballpark altogether, being what you are afraid to see or other similar things. This one is not as constant, though, so I’m guessing that’s something to do with the beliefs thing. Text in my dreams is also pretty stable; I’m guessing that’s a result of my reading a lot, and so on.
On the subject of the hand RC, that one’s a bit interesting. I’ve heard (I can’t remember from where) that maybe it’s a brain thing - it’s also the same reason that (for a lot of people) hands tend to be the most difficult part of the body to draw. I think it’s also very possible that the RCs effect may change based on what you’ve first read; that before the behavior becomes established in your dreams, the effect is still very based on your expectations. In fact, that’s probably why each RC tends to work the same in each of your dreams. This all just speculation on my part, really. It may be for a different reason; it’s hard to tell with dreams.