So... After reading all of these posts in one sitting, my mindset has changed. I now find myself looking at everything, half-expecting things to be different the next time I look at them. I'm questioning reality, and that's a good start.
However, due to my stoner memory, I can't remember what the earlier exercises were.
Don't worry, I'll look them over again and try them when I'm in a better setting. Too many distractions where I'm at now.

Random question, but my curiosity is killing me. While you were in South America with those shamans, did you happen to partake in ayahuasca? You made a reference to "plant teachers" somewhere.
I ask mainly because my first lucid dream came a little over a month after I drank ayahuasca. I had a habit of reality checking and keeping awareness after that experience, before I even had an interest in lucid dreaming. I didn't know what I was doing or why, but I believe my "exercises" might have triggered that first LD!
It reinforced my belief that DMT plays a role in dreaming, anyway.

Oh, and my ayahuasca session was legal, of course.