DTILD (Dream Totem Induced Lucid Dream)

**Kona** · 12-28-2010 12:04 AM

(sorry for the unproffesional method title but cut me some slack =) )

hey guys so i saw inception last night and an idea sprung from my head so you know how they use dream totems? well it seems they use theirs as a sort of reality check.

so my point is i found this rock in my desk yesterday and i have been saying to myself

"in my dream this rock will let me control everything it will create my landscape when i'm lucid and when i throw it up in a dream it will float and glow"

so i have convinced myself that in real life my "Dream Totem" will just fall back into my hand and not glow but in my dream it will float and glow and i can use it to control my dreams (like a video game controller for dreams)

so my question is could this be a new method? i saw a post similar to this and this is more of a bit of a different method

so could this work? i'm going to try it for a while and i will keep you guys posted with my results

**Stryke** · 12-28-2010 04:19 AM

cool idea... but first let me just clarify how they use them in inception

its not so much a reality check as it is a security thing... they use the totems because there is something about each totem that only they kno (like which side of the die is loaded or the balance of the chess piece) they have to keep the unique characteristic of their totem a secret. they do this so when their dreaming they can kno if they have actually been taken into some1 elses dream world. If they r in some1 elses dream world then that person whont know how to create the totem accuraley. so the guy rolls the die and if it comes up wrong he knows hes in some1 elses dream world.

but your idea is pretty cool anyway... i use a similar method, not as a form of control but as a dream sign. i have a picture in my room next to my bed. before i go to sleep i stare at it and meditate for a while till i feel comfortable... the trick is i ONLY see this picture as im about to fall asleep. So if i ever encounter the character in the picture or even just see the picture anywhere other that in my bed i will start to think "wait ur only supposed to b in my room" once i make that realization its only a matter of a few seconds till i realized i am dreaming

**lucidpersian** · 12-28-2010 04:23 AM

hey, i was actually thinking about this too!
I was thinking of using a top at first, like Cobb, but then realized that its purpose was to let Cobb know if he was in someone ELSE's dream, not his own.

In your own dream, your subconscious would make it fall more or less. But yeah, I was thinking I could pull out a chess piece, the horse, and stare at it intently expecting it to turn into a real horse. If it didn't, I was awake. If it did, I would be in a dream.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a new method, but its just a twist on doing a Reality Check. And it does seem pretty fun, I might add.

Let me know how it goes. Personally, I'm procrastinating putting a watch on and doing my Reality Checks every hour.. :T

**Kona** · 12-28-2010 04:52 AM

ok COOL and yeah thanks for not shooting my idea down i really hope some other people will see this and yeah i know they use the dream totems for that perticular purpose but i am trying to make it have a new purpose and i couldn't find a top lol so i use a blue stone lol anyways i hope some people can see this!

**tears2roses** · 12-29-2010 05:56 AM

awesome. im totally trying this. i have been thinking about this a lot too and i love your idea to use as a reality check. thankss

**Kona** · 12-29-2010 04:24 PM

no prob! tell me if it works!

**kidcrow** · 01-02-2011 05:32 AM

What if your totem is a 2 headed coin for example. If you flip it in the air it would come down in your waking life right? Well, usually when I throw an object up in my dreams they keep floating. So wouldn't that work in my dreams too as my totem to tell if I'm dreaming?

**Kona** · 01-03-2011 05:05 AM

yeah pretty much but lol i lost my "dream totem" so i'm just gonna keep reading EWLD

**gl431** · 01-09-2011 12:24 AM

I just watched Inception last night and was thinking about this too. Last night I had a multilevel dream, where the last level was me laying in bed thinking about my dream. I felt kind of weird and then realized that I was still dreaming when I noticed my vision was blurred and my window was farther to the right then it is in real life. Then I woke up facing the other direction. That would have been I much less confusing dream if I had a totem to check with.

**mikeac** · 01-09-2011 01:17 AM

I watched Inception last night. Aren't totems used to make sure it's your dream instead of someone elses, but not as a reality check?

Still, it sounds like a good idea, and I already have an idea for my totem. :3

**Panthershark1** · 01-09-2011 02:21 AM

I will try this dream totem idea, ive seen inception and its about time that they put out another conscious and or dreaming movie.

**Dreamchitect** · 09-12-2011 12:01 AM

I have been thinking the exact same thing as you, but with a different totem. The thing to understand is this. If you use a totem, it will do nothing that it does in Inception. But it can be used as a lucid dream induction method as easy as any other reality check, just as long as you know how to use it and it's effective for you. I have recently started trying to motivate myself to use my totem for my reality check, but in all honesty, the fact that it is just in my pocket to remind me is more influential that it being different in the dream, ie: floating and glowing.

**lilthugdollaz** · 09-12-2011 03:12 AM

inception was cool. I plan on just painting a coin tho and spinning it.

**Ctharlhie** · 09-12-2011 07:54 AM

The idea of using a totem as a reality check was discussed recently in this thread http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/using-...minder-121400/

While awesome, not in the least bit practical.