Thread: What should a reality check be like?

You can use some physical RCs too.

One common one is to close your mouth, pinch your nose and then wait. See if you are still able to breathe. In a dream you usually can breathe.

Another one is to look at your hands. Look for 5 seconds or more. How many fingers do you have? Do your hands look weird? Do they change? Often in dreams a person's hands will have the wrong number of fingers or look wavy.

Or you could try to gently but firmly push your finger through your palm. Often in dreams this is easy to do.

A non-physical RC that serves me rather well is to think about where I am. How did I get here? Do I remember coming here? What have I been doing? This one can be tricky, as many people have an easy time accepting the illogical nature of dreams.

When you RC put some real thought and effort into it. Focus on what you are doing and why.

Hope this helps!

pushing my finger into my hand is the one I almost always do

Looking at my right hand always gets me Lucid in dreams.
I look at it ever hour in real life, saying "I will look at it in my dreams", in my head.
(so no-one thinks I am crazy)

Originally Posted by DreamChaser

Looking at my right hand always gets me Lucid in dreams.
I look at it ever hour in real life, saying "I will look at it in my dreams", in my head.
(so no-one thinks I am crazy)

Thats funny, Ive actually had a few people ask me if Im okay because they see me staring at my hands and counting my fingers.

Same thing happens to me about the whole "looking crazy" thing. I usually do the breathing one and the palm one but the psychological RCs are the most important. In a dream you will not do an RC unless you have reason to believe that you might be in a dream (even if you do and it works you'll probably accept it as normal). Psychological awareness in dreams requires constant skepticism in your daily life about whether or not you are in reality. Just get into the habit of thinking "How did I get here?" "Is this a logical situation?" "Could I be in a dream?" (basically the lyrics to 'Once in a Lifetime') on a set Que. The Que could be anything from looking at your hands to saying hello to people. If the situation appears to be illogical then you do a physical reality check.