How to Reality Check the Wrong Way

[VagalTone]

Do it fast, without any reflection, as much as you can A: Count your fingers and get back to your business B: Read a text twice and get back to your business ...

[Sivason]

Optional wrong way: jump off third floor to see if it hurts (dream will not hurt as much) Another wrong way: try to push thumb through eye.

[Sageous]

^^ Still, Vagaltone does make a good point... an RC done without sincerity or reflection will never achieve its proper function, regardless of how often it is repeated. Or am I being too serious here?

[VagalTone]

Yes, Sageous, that's my point! I meant to be serious too RC are meant to be a conjuction of awareness, memory and reflection and they should be something like a short meditation. If we just do it mindlessly like "am i dreaming? No i have 5 fingers" that's a very superficial and annoying thing to do. Not a new recommendation of course! If we really cultivate the art of RCing we will enjoy RCs much more and probably derive more and better LDs as a result. Following Tholey's RCs steps, for instance, it's one way to go. He teaches what should be done, how, why and when - not just how much! References for an article on Tholey's technique: Efficacy of Lucid Dream Induction For Lucid and Non-Lucid Dreamers | Antonio Zadra - Academia.edu PS: i forgot the purpose of the thread was not how to RC but how not to

[VagalTone]

Link for the classic Tholey's paper Library Genesis: Scientfic Articles Shame on you, VagalTone, for showing copyright respect -once again !

[Zoth]

How not to RC: - Talking to people about lucid dreaming without actually realizing you're dreaming. I remember teaching people how to reality check in my dreams sigh xD

[LouaiB]

Drink some acid. If it kills you, then you are not dreaming. I think mainly why we should RC properly is because wondering if we are actually dreaming serves a function to add for us a schema that we might be dreaming at any given moment, contrary to the common Joe's "I'm always in waking life, duhh". When this schema is established, we would actually consider the option of dreaming next time we are in doubt instead of finding other rational explanations. After all, the schema that we are always in waking life eliminates the possibly of us being in a dream as an explanation to bizzare events( well that and semantic memory being impaired, it's like a double punch). So RCs are not just for coinciding one in a dream to become lucid, but also establishing that crucial mindset that we might be in a dream at any time, allowing us to add dreaming to our sack of rational explanations to bizzare occurances.