RC not working

Hey folks,

I’ve been reading stuff on this site (and forum) for a while now, but haven’t really felt the need to post so far. Well, until now, that is :eh:

I’ve been trying to achieve a LD for a few weeks now (I’ve tried it before years ago, but never succeeded so gave up). I’ve mainly been trying WILD in the evening. Someone on the forums here called it C-WILD (you count to 100, get up, do a RC and should be dreaming, if not -> repeat), and I’ve been achieving some results, but haven’t managed an LD yet. I’ve gotten myself to feel absolutely numb, and I’ve been hearing random noises during those attempts (even though my room is generally completely silent), but I have not yet achieved an LD using this way. But it’s a matter of practice, I suppose.

The other thing I’ve been doing is making sure I do RC’s regularly. I mainly tried looking at my hand, counting fingers, trying to push my thumb through my other hand, and I’m using the breathing with nose pinched RC. All of them when I perform them awake are well checked (I think :razz:), as in I really make sure I do have 5 fingers and I really make sure that I can’t breathe and I do realize (using logic) that this means I can’t be dreaming. But last night something different happened.

It seemed day, of course, I was in school and we were getting marks back, and I got two really horrible marks in subjects I generally score A or B. After some thinking I thought “this can’t really be the case right? Maybe I’m dreaming…”

So I decided (in front of the akward faces of my classmates :razz:) to perform an RC. I tried counting my fingers and then I tried breathing, but they either seemed normal enough to fool me or they weren’t working. Either way, I convinced myself that I was not dreaming and I had indeed screwed up chemistry.

So, what went wrong here? When I woke up it was crystal clear I had indeed dreamt it, but the RC’s failed to prove it. Is there any way I can improve my RC’s to make them work during dreams (and to actually convince me I’m dreaming)?

Kind regards,
Reliku

I know that feeling… That’s why I stopped RCing lol >.<
Either way it seems to me like you’re doing them correctly and believing it, but instead it’s become an automatic response i.e “ah this is weird, I could be dreaming” does RC “It didn’t work. Ah well carry on…”

Your dream self is probably imitating your waking self. In real life the RCs prove it’s not a dream and your brain emulates that response into the dream. You could also be subconsciously expecting it to not work, so in the dream you expect it won’t work, so it doesn’t.
Especially if you’re in front of your classmates or important people; you don’t want to seem weird in front of them, so sometimes you subconsciously hope the RC will fail so you won’t make a fool of yourself in case you make a mistake and it isn’t a dream. Did that make sense? I’ve had that happen before so I’m trying to describe it best I can.

I guess fixing that would be based on whether or not what I said was correct. If it is, you could try just changing the way you think when doing RCs. Instead of just wondering, take a look around the environment as well and pinpoint weird things? Taking a break can help too.

Hm, so instead of wondering ‘will this rc work?’ I should just say ‘this rc is going to work!’, you mean? I’ll keep that mindset, we’ll see if it works. I’ll also try observing my surroundings next time I do an RC (err, that’d be right now :smile:). Thanks for the input, I’ll try that out.

Also, it would be better not to perform RC’s in front of (important) people? Could be a bit of a hassle, but I’ll try it next time I notice something weird :smile:

I haven’t succeeded in getting an LD through WILD yet, but I’ll keep trying, haha :smile:

Sorry, it sounds like I confused you :confused:
I’m not sure if saying “this rc will work” will work, because if it’s automatic then your dream self could end up saying this and you won’t get lucid anyway, which has also happened to me… You can probably tell Reality Checks were very frustrating for me haha
Anyway when I said you could change the way you think I meant not thinking the same thought each time you do an RC, changing it up a little can help eg ‘am I dreaming?’, ‘will this RC work?’, ‘why am I doing a reality check?’, ‘Im going to do an RC. If I realize I’m dreaming I’m going to…’ etc
Otherwise, just keep RCing and wait it out. Don’t get frustrated! I’m just making suggestions, it is up to you to decide if this is all correct and if it will work :uh:
But I do recommend giving the environment a quick look before passing it over. It has worked for a number of people I knew as they did an RC which failed, but they found that there was something very strange about where they were or what they were doing :smile:

Also, about the important people thing, it is good to do it in front of them, but I suggested it could be the subconcious that was making you expect the RC to fail. Wasn’t sure if that could have been part of the problem so that’s why I brought it up. By all means keep up your RCing routine! :smile: :rc:

No routine thinking when doing an RC, got that one :smile:

I’ve been busy integrating the surroundings-check, but I haven’t had the chance to do it while dreaming - yet. Haha :smile:

The point of Reality Checks is to make you more aware of your surroundings and the present moment;
and for this reason they are useful even when you already know you are dreaming! :wink: