the BIG Reality Check Topic [part II]

This week I had another dream in which I used the fingers-counting-RC to become lucid. Again, random. Because I don’t practice the RC when I’m awake, and that’s what surprised me most. This time I also remembered to rub my hands together. It still doesn’t make any sense to me.

I too am looking for an RC I can do unnoticed, seeing as I spend most of my time in school or at work. :\

I don’t know if this applies to everyone, but I found that the counting fingers technique also works by feeling how many fingers you have. (Or by stroking one finger discretely across your hand, counting the fingers). This way you don’t have to extend your arm infront of you and look at it, which in turn would make people look at you :wink:

I write this on pen on the top of my left hand; ‘You are dreaming.’
Has it help sometime, hopefulyl before i die of ink poisoning

After reading Pedro’s VILD method I learned about the nose-RC. It has only come back in an ND once, but I find it’s easy to do and doesn’t make you look weird in public. I also don’t forget it that much because well, you blink with your eyes all the time, and often I remember to do an RC then. ^^

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If some of you have trouble to remember to do these checks (like me) you can try my simple RC reminder I’ve programmed.

geocities.com/hans_guenther2 … /jarcp.zip
(Copy&Paste the link into the adress field of your browser)

Well, if you don’t sit in front of your computer for long times, it might not be as useful, but you can also use it as an alarm clock or as an digital egg timer if you like :content:

A 32-bit windows operating system is needed. It might even work with the different windows emulators under linux, but well, I didn’t go that far with testing …

Feedback is welcomed …

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I have kept a dream journal for a long time and I have a good list of dream signs that occur almost every night. I do reality checks frequently during the day. Yet I never become lucid due to the presence of a dream sign or a failed RC. I just seem to realize that I am dreaming then I do a RC to confirm it .Has anyone else experienced this. I am doing fairly well with LD ‘ing I practice booth WILD ‘S and DILD ‘s but I could greatly increase my LD rate if I could just get myself to recognize my dream signs wile I am dreaming.

I don’t get lucid from my dreamsigns either even if I remember to do them about 70% of the time I encounter them IRL. But if I do a RC in a dream I usually get lucid. But for some reason the only RC’s my dream self do are ones that I don’t do IRL. Once I got lucid form trying to put my hand trough a window. And I never do that RC IRL. Lately I too have been getting lucid for no reason.

So…any tips on how to build up the Critical faculty to actually attempt an RC in a dream. I’ve RC all the time during the day had have only sporadicalyl attempted an RC in my dreams. The few DILDs I have had, I just all of a sudden realize that this must be a dream and then after the fact do a state test…

That is the way it works for me to. I think that just doing RC during the day, remembering my dreams, keeping a dream journal and studying it so that I get to know my dreams all help develop my critical faculty. I believe that by doing these things I develop a critical attitude toward my reality while awake that carries over to my dreams. I also believe my intention to recognize I am dreaming plays a strong role as well. So far the only dream sign that has caused me to become lucid was flying. I have failed to recognize blatant dream signs that occur almost every night. I either become lucid using WILD where I stay conscious or in the case of DILD I will just realize I am dreaming then I do a RC to confirm what I already know. Im dreaming.

Hi Milod,

Yes, I agree with what you said. I think that perhaps what is important about state testing and keeping a dream journal during waking life is developing an overall familiarity with the difference between the states of waking and dreaming and that familiarity will, in and of itself yield lucidity after a period of time…

Take care :wink:

Hi Pleban

That’s what I believe. It seems to be true for other people I have talked to as well. However, there must be a way to learn to recognize dream signs while dreaming. Otherwise a product like the nova dreamer would be useless. Like I said anytime I find my self flying I know I am dreaming. I don’t even have to be actually flying for this to work. In one dream I was running down a flight of stairs. As I neared the bottom of the stairs I glided over the last few steps and instantly knew I was dreaming.

What is weird is that I never trained myself to try and recognize flying as a dream sign. It is just not something that happens frequently enough to be a good dream sign. Yet any time I find myself in flight or even just a few inches of the groung I instantly become lucid. I am grateful for the times when WILD fails and later I just become aware of my dream state and then lucid. I have several good dream signs that occur almost every night yet they never cause me to become lucid.

my longest and best LD to date (ive only had about 5, handt even heared of LDs 2 months ago either) was after doing a reality check

i was on my landing in my house just about to go down stairs, and i thought ‘ther’s absolutely no way that im dreaming right now…’ and i did actually think this, i was totally convinced that i wasnt dreaming. i looked at my hands like i do IRL after thinking like this and my little finger was sort of flickering on and off. needless to say i became lucid but had a heart attack in the process cos i was totally thinking i wasnt dreaming. i even collapsed and had an FA into another dream but still lucid.

It seems, for me, that whenever I am experiencing a dream, it is like watching a movie without any control, and everything I do seems completely normal, for example: the other night I dreamt, myself and some friends were walking on the freeway in between fast moving cars! You know, just walking along, chillin’ and it all seemed completely normal. I have been doing RC’s in RL for the last week or so, but I don’t do them in dreams yet, but what is frustrating is that even though these things in my dreams that are obviously wrong or things that I wouldn’t be doing, are normal in my dream, and don’t give me any reason to become lucid, even though after the fact, the things I was doing seem exceedingly strange or wrong. Any tips? Unless the answer simply is “practice.” I am actively keeping a DJ, but it just gets a little frustrating…

Quickbeam

You already said that you are doing RC and keeping a dream journal. Both are important for any of the induction techniques and can even cause you to have LD’s buy them selves.

What technique if any are you currently using to induce lucid dreams?

Well, none right now, I kind of have just been hoping to have a DILD, but if you were to suggest a method, which one would you pick?

Yes keeping a DJ and doing RC ‘is a technique by its self and will give you LD ‘s you just stay diligent with doing the RC ‘s and writing in your DJ every night. If you are not already doing it I would also suggest that after you do a RC and if you conclude that you are not dreaming tell yourself that everything you see is a dream and that the next time you are dreaming you will realize you are dreaming.

Some other techniques you can add:

You can look in the How tab on the top of the page to get a basic overview of the skills.

MILD- As you go to bed at night you tell yourself over and over “the next time I am dreaming I will realize I am dreaming”like a mantra until you drift off to sleep. You can read more about it in the BIG MILD topic. This is a very popular technique.

WILD- (my favorite) Where you fall asleep consciously. Find more info in the big WILD topic

These are just a few of the techniques you can learn.

Happy Dreaming

it just occured to me that (being a busy person) i look at my whrist watch quite a lot during the day, but i can’t seem to recall having any dream in which i looked at my watch. would that make the watch RC ineffective for me?

No, it would probably be fine. Why wouldn’t it?

i’m sorry my question was vague :shy: so i’ll try to clarify it now. i didn’t mean that it won’t work, i meant that i won’t do it out of habit. I read in so many places that after performing too many RCs in waking life one would perform them in dreams out of habit. But i look at my watch so many times in waking life and still never looked at it in dreams. That’s why i’m thinking that i won’t do the RC until i become suspicious of whether or not i’m dreaming. Now that i’m doing the watch RC during the day, i’m wondering if it will still work on its own without associating it with noticing a personal dreamsign (i still haven’t collected enough dreams to recognise personal dreamsigns :content: ).

Well, you need to seperate looking-at-watch-for-time and looking-at-watch-for-RC. Every time you check the time (hehe) do an RC, but sometimes do an RC and don’t check the time, or check the time after you do the RC. That should work.