The BIG Reality Check topic, part IV

Hey all

Was just wondering, how many RC’s do you need to do roughly to have the most chance of performing them in dreams? I’ve started wondering if its because I’m not doing enough RCs that I’m not getting lucid often

The best way to get the most out of reality checks isn’t just to do as many as possible. If you focus purely on quantity, then you may find it becomes something you expect to fail and get tired of doing. The best thing I believe to do, is to do as many RCs as you feel comfortable doing, trying to remember to do them when certain events (Dream signs) happen. When you do them, you want to try and really think, it might be a dream. Try to be in the mindset where it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if your reality check said you were dreaming.

Tying them to an event is a good idea, it has been successful for me. Try to spend some time, when you have nothing better to do, focusing on your intention to RC when [insert dreamsign] happens. You can use some generic dream signs if you don’t know any, two good ones are, things not working as expected, and things feeling dream-like. (Where the world seems so clear, like if it was an exceptionally sunny day for example) Placing a reminder of your intention to RC when [insert dreamsign] happens may help too. For example a quick note on you computer desk.

I normally pinch myself, to see if it hurts. Now may need to think of something else as I was able to hug and felt it with a person in my last LD (the person that hugged me died 3 years ago, not sure if it was because we made contact) I’m going to try other methids from now on…

There is some RC I thought of (I’m not sure if it’s already been done) that could be used by anyone who wears glasses. I’ve noticed that I never seem to be wearing glasses in dreams even though I have them on almost all day. It’s just a quick RC that can be done by looking in a mirror or looking out of the corner of my eyes.

even the nose RC is not that reliable. it failed once for me. itried to breathe air out but it did not come. but i was quite sure that i am dreaming, so i did another RC

A few general thoughts on RC’s:
I’m going to start trying the vision RC–I wear glasses, so if I have perfect vision without glasses, I’m certainly dreaming. Or if my vision is blurred with glasses, same thing.
I find that it’s useful to do the hand RC a lot, because I never actually look at my hands in dreams. Blurry hands would be a good sign.
I don’t know how well this would work, but here’s my idea: seeing as my dreams are always crazy illogical, I’ll start asking myself during the day “has anything really odd happened recently?” It’s kinda broad, but a sudden change of scenery is definitely something that I would find weird in waking life.

Ha I had a weird one! I was sitting in class, and the dream was on Thursday night, so I knew that it must be Friday, which I knew we were supposed to get off. I turned to the girl next to me and was like “Hey, why do we have school? We’re supposed to have today off.” Then the teacher looked at me and was like “It’s a dream.” and I was like “Really?” and she nodded. Then I was like, “So, I can leave?” and she nodded again, and I got up and awkwardly walked out of the room. Haha!! My reality check was trying to fly, it didn’t work but I figured it was dream because the teacher told me so. Weird.

I tacked up a piece of paper to my ceiling above my pillow that says REALITY CHECK. It works.

I also write it on the back of my hand twice. Each in a different color. Ever time I see it, I do a RC.

I had a VERY frustrated with this dream! Does this happen often? I must have checked my reality 20 times in my dream…

I don’t remember the entire dream scenario but I was talking with someone who I can’t recall. I believe I was inside an off-white building with some windows. Within the dream I said, “Wait, I’m dreaming!” and I performed a reality test in which I tried to put my right hand through my left. It worked just as it would in reality, in which my right hand could not go through the left. At first I dismissed the thought and resumed what I was doing but a few moments later I thought, “Wait, no, I really am dreaming!” and I tried it again… and it worked as it would in reality. The person I was talking with thought I had gone mad. This made me VERY frustrated which reckoned a spell of attempts to overcome the reality check. Each time it operated just as it would in the waking realm and each time I grew more and more frustrated. I tried again overcome the threshold of the dream by plugging my nose. In the dream, I should be able to continue to breath while my nose is plugged. This also worked as in reality. With my nerves on end I devised an ultimate attempt. Recollecting on the techniques portrayed within a LD book I am reading, I said to myself, “In dreams, you can fly!” so I began gallivanting through the hallway trying to achieve an unrealistic (in waking) air-time. After failing miserably, and feeling quite embarrassed about it, I finally (wrongly) admitted, “Ok, I’m definitely not dreaming.” and continued my dream as normal… I nearly punched myself when I woke up.

Strange…The nose pinch is the only RC that actaully works for me…

Iam yet to performa reality check ina dream even tho I do at least 20 a day, and also when I do reality checks I do at least 3 so to make sure one doesn’t slip thro the net.

I stuck my finger through my hand in an LD (weird!), and breathed through my fingers.
But I haven’t gotten an LD from RCs. :lol:

My finger comes out of it’s joint slightly when I pull it. Seems weird but long story short would this be a suitable RC I can never be bothered with others. ( And prefer to be different :smile:)

Merged from a topic in General Lucidness. :dragon:

Freaky… does your finger come out IRL ? If so, it wouldn’t be good as an RC as your finger comes out IRL and in dreaming life… hope you understand what I’m talking about :smile:

Okay! I did not realize how awfully creepy the thumb through palm RC would be! It’s just gross! But it did work, I have no idea what prompted me to do an RC while I was dreaming but to see your thumb go through your hand and the nail pop out on the other side is definitely good at shocking you lucid!

ehehe, I was actually really amused by this. I might have been sticking my finger through my hand for good 5 minutes in one LD :tongue:

Thats an original method I just stick to the good FingerPalm method

Mad cool

I’ve never used that RC before, but I try harder during the day now to RC.

During a dream once I checked by looking at some text twice. I didn’t realize the text had changed. now I double check during the day

but the palm skewer sounds sick.

didn’t want to make an entire new post about this, but had an interesting experience last night.

I’ve gotten into the habit of counting my fingers as an RC, don’t do it as often as I should, but anyway, counted my fingers last night in a dream and they were all there. For some reason I wasn’t satisfied that this was reality and kept counting them, finding them all to be there. Then I pinched my nose and discovered I could breathe through it. with this confirmation, I didn’t proceed to have a lucid dream or any fun lucid adventures. I simply didn’t care and continued on. the only part of the dream I remember today is me doing the reality checks.

usually if I discover I’m dreaming I get excited and try to make things happen. this apathy confuses me. any idea why I couldn’t have cared less, or how to concentrate and maintain lucidity?

For me personally I do not think that I would do good with this particular RC. Just because of the fact that my dreams tend to be a bit more realistic and take on the characteristics of RL. I am not saying that I don’t have weird dreams I am merely saying that some RC that work for others do not work for me. Everyone probably experiences this to some extent. :lucid: :rc: