Taking Reality Check's to the next level? Experiment

So I’ve been thinking… In my dreams I’ve had some fail RC’s. And I realize it’s because IWL, I don’t really understand my RC’s. I’m just told to see if I can breathe with my nose plugged, etc. So I think I should take them to the next level.

When I question myself if I am dreaming, I first do a normal RC. Even if it does work, I still need to now look around my room and I have to think if everything’s in order. Yearbook by my shelf? Check. Certain pictures hung up? Check. Does my fan actually blow air out of it? Check.
Then I actually speak, and see if it sounds like me. Sing, and see if I have my regular voice.
And finally, I feel. I go to my furry blanket, pet it and make sure I feel it normally. I rub my hand on the wall and get the normal bumpy feeling.
And just something for the girls who wear nailpolish- check to see if it’s the same one you wore before sleep! :smile:
I think that we need to actually know what’s reality… Being able to breathe in your nose isn’t so close to reality that we could breathe in our dreams. Sometimes it’s better to try and see if everything is just how it is.

So if any of you have regular failed RC’s can you try this out and tell me how your results are in your dreams? I’m gonna be doing this from now on.

The way I do my RC, I just nose plug every now and then. Whilst doing it I tell myself that if I was dreaming I would be able to breathe through my nose, and if I can’t I am not dreaming. This way the RC didn’t fail me. (I had my first and only LD from a reality check)

Cool to see someone else doing something similar to what I do.
I like to call this a ‘senses’ RC because your using your senses eg sight, touch, sound, instead of a reality distortion test like a nose block or trying to poke your finger through something. I tend to use this because I have allergies to dust and pollen and stuff so my nose is blocked most of the day anyway lol and in the past those RCs haven’t always worked for me. I use my sense of touch for a RC because in my dreams and lucid experiences my sense of touch is extraordinary and increases awareness really well :content:
i just wish my sense of taste was better, i tend eat a lot in my dreams but unfortunately the food is rather bland :meh:

It’s a great exercise, especially for awareness. I for one have let myself be fooled by the amazing realness of dreams a few times already. So now, if everything is like IWL and nothing is odd or out of place at the first glance, I do the nose plug RC. But what works even better for me is paying attention to my feelings: A dream just has a different feeling than RL and usually I also feel different once I question whether it is a dream or not.

Same here. But after depending on that one for a while… Well, it started to fail for me. It failed for me about 2-3 times and sometimes people don’t have such crazy dreams, such as being able to breathe through a plugged nose. Sometimes in dreams you can’t. Because the mind tricks us.
Omkar says that if you’re near a light switch and flip it 10 times, you’re most likely gonna get a lag or a glitch in it during a dream so that’s reliable.

My basic method to achieve lucidity is RC, but I don’t use tests like the ones described in this thread or LaBerge’s ‘look at some writing, look away and look back’ test. I simply stop and let myself become aware of where I am and what I’m doing. If I actually stop to pay attention I can’t possibly be fooled as to whether I’m dreaming or awake - I have never had a failure. In the beginning, before I could reliably tell the difference, I simply asked myself if I was dreaming and answered yes, even if I was awake. And I tried to recall the feeling of coming lucid and tried to imagine that I was in a dream for real. I think this is more reliable than tests which make assumptions about the dream world, which is infinitely changeable.

The key for reality checks to work is to actually be conscious of doing it. Not like doing them for the sake of it. But stopping and clearing everything in your mind that distacts you, performing it, and questioning yourself. Also, don’t expect them to fail, be curious , think of it as if you could be dreaming and perform them.