Thread: Reality checks

For some people the light switch and reading work normally in the dreams world and questioning if you are dreaming alone has made me lose lucidity before, personally I like to try and press my fingers through my other hand and if it goes through I am dreaming, another one that is supposed to be good is plugging your nose and trying to breath through it. It is always important to expect that the reality check will work though.

Yes I agree Nakara. It is apparent that different types of reality checks may be more useful to certain people because of differing levels reliability. I wonder what different types of mind structures are responsible. Some people are more artistic while others are more mathematical. Perhaps people who read more often find reading to occur in the same manner in both realms. There's a thought that could change the way we ought to select our reality checks. Unfortunately there only seems to be a few that I am aware of, I wish there were more.

As part of my reality check routine I am also using the finger technique that you mentioned, although I have yet to recreate that in a dream so far. Mostly because I have only just started.

In any case I think it is imperative that whilst reality checking to really and truly question whether or not it is possible if it is possible that you are dreaming. During a wakeful reality check it seems that I can just sort of instantly know the answer and be on my merry way but this is a mistake because if you don't pressure your consciousness to question its state of mind while conscious you cannot hope to do it during the drunken stupor of dreams. I believe the base of reality checking is the question. Am I dreaming? I say this because for me personally I can see and do the most crazy and ridiculous things in a dream and yet never once question the impossibility of it. It's really at that moment when the word "dream" slips into my thoughts that my dream becomes lucid. The trick is to find a way to hinge the question and reality check with something that you can bring within the dream. Like a noise or something.