Need some help with reality checking? D:

**Candlelight** · 03-23-2011 10:34 PM

I'm kinda not sure where to start so bear with me.

I guess I can sum up my dilemma in two pats. Firstly, I keep telling myself that in order to learn to lucid dream, I need to constantly perform RCs throughout the day. Thing is, more often than not I just can't be bothered to do them or I forget all together. When I do, I make sure to question my surroundings etc and I do them thoroughly. But that's, what, once/twice a day? I need some advice on how to motivate/remind me to perform them. It'd be very much appreciated if you could help me out here!

Secondly, most of my dreams involve my school. I figured that the only realistic dream signs I could use to remind me to RC would be people/things in school, but the thing is, I left about a week ago. Now I'm still dreaming of it but I don't go, so RCing whenever I see somebody from there would be obviously impossible. How can I get around this? I don't go out of the house a lot now, only to the gym, so if anybody could recommend some dream signs I could use to prompt me to RC that are indoors that'd be great.

Thanks in advance for everything.

**LonelyTurtle** · 03-23-2011 11:21 PM

Reality check whenever you see a bird, see a car, walk through a door, see a school, talk to someone you havent talked to in a while, see something odd, first wake up, or when you dont know where you are.
Do all this, and youll probably be good.

**rynkrt3** · 03-23-2011 11:23 PM

Reality checking is useless, all you need to have DILD's is awareness of your surroundings at all times. "Live in the moment."

**acnarm** · 03-23-2011 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by rynkrt3

Reality checking is useless, all you need to have DILD's is awareness of your surroundings at all times. "Live in the moment."

I agree. Reality checking is useless at least for me anyway. I think it would take along time to become lucid using reality checks. They are good for making sure your in a dream and to make the lucid dream more vivid, but to do reality checking to induce lucidity in my experience is wasting time. You should combine reality checking with a method (such as DEILD or WBTB) or what i have found to have worked is saying and repeating "I will do a reality check," while you are drifting off to sleep.

**ClearView** · 03-24-2011 01:44 AM

Candle, I'm sure your very excited to have a LucidDream. Contrary to what some people think, reality checks are a very important aspect in Lucid Dreaming. Without them, you cannot properly stabilize a dream no matter what method you used to have a Lucid Dream.

Some reality checks that are a NECESSITY to perform, (in my opinion) are the following:

Say you are sitting in class, or working out at the gym, and you feel like time is just dragging on. You will most likely proceed to look at the clock, or your watch. In this case, you must catch yourself doing so. When you do, quickly look away and look back as if the time would be different the second time you look. This way, when your in school in your dream and your bored, you will look at the clock, and remember wait let me look back and see if the time changed. Wala, you have done a reality check in your dream.

Another one which could be done anywhere, and is very simple. The noseplug Reality Check. No matter where you are in the day, and it doesn't matter when you do it, you do this reality check at least twice. You plug your nose and see if you can breathe through it. As stated previously, this should then be reflected in your dream.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I believe this would be of help. If you have any questions, I'm all ears. (well eyes since this is a forum)

~Clearview

**rynkrt3** · 03-24-2011 02:02 AM

Originally Posted by ClearView

Candle, I'm sure your very excited to have a LucidDream. Contrary to what some people think, reality checks are a very important aspect in Lucid Dreaming. Without them, you cannot properly stabilize a dream no matter what method you used to have a Lucid Dream.

Some reality checks that are a NECESSITY to perform, (in my opinion) are the following:

Say you are sitting in class, or working out at the gym, and you feel like time is just dragging on. You will most likely proceed to look at the clock, or your watch. In this case, you must catch yourself doing so. When you do, quickly look away and look back as if the time would be different the second time you look. This way, when your in school in your dream and your bored, you will look at the clock, and remember wait let me look back and see if the time changed. Wala, you have done a reality check in your dream.

Another one which could be done anywhere, and is very simple. The noseplug Reality Check. No matter where you are in the day, and it doesn't matter when you do it, you do this reality check at least twice. You plug your nose and see if you can breathe through it. As stated previously, this should then be reflected in your dream.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I believe this would be of help. If you have any questions, I'm all ears. (well eyes since this is a forum)

~Clearview

Yes, reality checks are important, but these new LD'ers don't know the key thing to having DILDS. Awareness.
This is what Naiya told me. She now lucid dreams nightly, because of awareness.

Awareness is essentially living in the present. Without thinking about where you need to go and what you need to do, you stop and take in what is around you right now. You look at the world objectively. You ask yourself, "how did I get here? Have I been here before? Does everything look normal? Does it all make sense?" In essence, it's like a reality check that you try to keep in the back of your mind at all times.

Keep in mind that also, while awareness is (imo) the best and easiest way to induce LDs once it's mastered, it takes a very long time to internalize this awareness so that it starts to bleed over into your dreams.

For example, when you first learn to drive a car, you have to be conscious of everything you do, right? But after several months, you get into the car and your mind has internalized all the little things you need to do. You don't even have to think about putting your foot on the brake, starting the engine and shifting gears--you just do it without thinking. This is also how awareness works. You must keep practicing it until you are at the point where you do it all the time without needing to think about it or force yourself. Once this happens, you start to do it in your dreams too (since you do it automatically all the time). Then finally, the LDs come, and they come effortlessly.

(All credit to Naiya.)