Inception totems

I'm well aware this topic has come up before, many times, and I read most of them.
However they never really addressed the point at hand.

If say you had your own totem. It could fit in your pocket and didn't take much space of time to use. You could have it on you all the time and when you used it it did something that would not work in a dream.

Wouldn't this be better than just your hands and looking at clocks? Your hands as a reality check do fit the description above, yet a totem itself would be better than your hands because it is an object, and we tend to notice objects before we notice our own body. Like if you suddenly tipped over in a dream and landed on your hands on the ground, you would notice the ground before your hands, wouldn't you?

So the same principle applies to having something in your pocket you could use, as you notice it more in your pocket, rather than trying to notice your hands which are always there and eventually you forget them, and thus you do less R.C.s?

And yes I did just watch Inception, great film.

The RC's are made to be used in a dream whenever you experience something out of the ordinary or question your reality. They basicly just confirm you're dreaming and there's nothing that you've trained yourself more through out life than how your body is and what the physical laws are. Whenever you feel like RC'ing, you're already lucid really. Better to question everything around you rather than relying on a single little check to fail to confirm that you're dreaming.

I would agree your body is as good a check as any, but I'm still wondering if having something that isn't part of your body, would that have any advantages? And even if that object had multiple ways of testing reality?

Would it be easier to focus on and use an item better than your hands which you have had forever?

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Originally Posted by Avalanche

Would it be easier to focus on and use an item better than your hands which you have had forever?

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I don't know, maybe it will. It's a good point. But I'm not sure it would work, because it's not sure you have it on you all the time.
But I've thought about the same thing. But again, maybe the totem wouldn't work, just like RCs fails. So it's not more sure than normally RCs.

And yes - Inception is an amazing movie. ;)

Question Reality > Gain slight control and awareness > Perform RC > Further control and awareness
When you gain control, you will instinctively perform the reality check you've decided to do, distinguishing the details of small object is much harder than looking if your hands look alright, in my opinion.
Anyway, when I become lucid I normally don't usually Reality Check anyway, because that gain in awareness makes me just observe my surroundings.
Hope that helped ;)

to address your point directly, i think totems would pretty much be useless, IF your aiming to use them like they do in inception. I.E observe the weight, shape, texture etc of your totem and notice any differences in the dream-world. Well, the thing is, if you spend so much time examining the totem, your telling your sub-conscious exactly how it feels, what it looks like and how heavy it is, therefore when your dreaming it won't act any different and will most likely fail as a RC.

Like arch said anyway its not usually RC's that make you lucid, they're more used to confirm lucidity

I was just wondering if totems as foreign objects to your body would give them an advantage over your own hands which you see and use every single day and almost all the time.

Perhaps there is one totem out there that would work better, but right now I would agree your hands are the best way.
Maybe in the future someone will discover this totem and see that it works more effectively than your own hands.

A problem with this is that: it would probably take a long while to get used to having this object in your pocket for it to carry over into your dreams. This would take longer than learning DILD or MILD or something of the sort. Now this doesn't mean this idea sucks but it would probably just be best to stick with one of the techniques. But hey, if you feel like you want to try this out then go for it!

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by nito89

to address your point directly, i think totems would pretty much be useless, IF your aiming to use them like they do in inception. I.E observe the weight, shape, texture etc of your totem and notice any differences in the dream-world. Well, the thing is, if you spend so much time examining the totem, your telling your sub-conscious exactly how it feels, what it looks like and how heavy it is, therefore when your dreaming it won't act any different and will most likely fail as a RC.

Like arch said anyway its not usually RC's that make you lucid, they're more used to confirm lucidity

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That is the only correct answer to this question, I think. When I watched the movie, I was amused that they actually thought that talismans followed some sort of special physics where they could only do one thing each in the dreaming and waking worlds. That is absurd -- a talisman will do whatever you expect it to do in your dreams -- which makes it a pretty lousy reality check.

Stick with "testing" things already in the dream, like clocks, scenery, your hands (all of which you can practice easily in waking life without explaining to people why you spend all your time fondling some small toy), make questioning reality second nature to your waking life consciousness, and you'll do fine. Forget the toys -- they look cool in movies, but they're just not necessary.

I know that I usually use my watch as a "totem," but it is more of a sign that i need to do a RC. There is a very distinctive pattern on the band, so 2 things could happen.
1. i always do a RC when i look at it, and
2. I may notice something odd about it

Totems have potential, as i see it, but lets face it, inception just makes it look 136% more epic than it really is (-:

Yeah, Inception was filled with long, clear and stable LDs. Plus they weren't in full control all the time, so they were surprised as well. That is often what an LD lacks, the ability to surprise you. In some they might, but that comes with the sacrifice of control.

I can't see them as being more effective that the nose plug RC, unless of course shared dreaming was possible and wanted to make sure I wasn't in someones dream.

Yeah plugging your nose would be the best totem! lol Breathing physically exists in the waking world, and it's in your body's best interest to keep breathing. So I think that it's probably the only RC that would qualify as a "totem". It's like a link to the outside world that can't be broken even if you wanted it to be. Plus, you're the only one who knows what it feels like to breath through your own lungs, so that'd fulfill the personal knowledge part of a totem.