Just a little bit of speculation..
A good RC could have these two features
1- easy to remember to do
2- somehow you feel compelled to do it, kind of obsessed about it (easier perhaps for more obsessive go getter personalities)
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Just a little bit of speculation..
A good RC could have these two features
1- easy to remember to do
2- somehow you feel compelled to do it, kind of obsessed about it (easier perhaps for more obsessive go getter personalities)
I'm not sure how you would formulate an RC so that you felt compelled to do it, but it would not make it a better RC. When RCs feel like something you are forcing yourself to do, they become less about honestly questioning the reality of what is happening around you and instead become just another chore. If RCing is in any way unpleasant, you will think about that unpleasantness when RCing instead of about whether the results of the RC indicate that you are dreaming or not. Being easy to remember to do is a good quality for an RC to have, though. RCing guides often recommend choosing a few common events each morning (e.g. washing your hands or drinking water) and trying to remember to do an RC every time one of those things happens. Tying RCs to common events like this makes RCs easier to remember and helps build prospective memory.
I would say the best RCs are things that take no effort and will not be noticed. I click my teeth and run my tongue over my teeth. I tap my index finger against hard surfaces. I look at one spot and watch for changes in the visuals, such as swirling or going in and out of focus.
I would not say something you feel compelled to do, but something you can become compulsive about doing. Borrow a page from the OCD handbook, lol. Build a habit that is so much a part of daily life that you will dream about it.
A universal principle for success that I have found that is great to take into consideration is the truth of:
"The importance lies not in what you do, but how and why you do it"
That means that it's often the state of mind and mindset behind the right action that is more effective to focus on than the action itself.
In this case I would say that the state of mind that you want to be in is AWARENESS/ PRESENCE/ MINDFULNESS/ BEING IN THE NOW
and the mindset is CRITICAL THINKING.
The reason for why the state of mind of being in the now is important is scary to think about. Most people are actually living their life like it was a dream, controled by their own psychology and thoughts, not actually using the prefrontal cortex of the brain that governs will power (that separates us from animals). And if you are a slave to your own mind during the day, you are most likely going to be a slave to your mind during the night as well. This is what the movie Waking Life talks about. And it is shown that people that have a higher activity in their prefrontal cortex actually experience more lucid dreams. I could talk about this for hours but a simple way to get more will power and higher prefrontal cortex activity is -> Meditation. :meditate: (See my guide in my signature)
And watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n6oBUkv6oU
But the most important element for awareness of dreams is not that you perform a reality check during the day, but the fact that you actually are aware of the possibility that what you are experiencing right NOW will feel real but can be a dream. This mindset is not achieved by thinking about it, that is just theory, you need to KNOW. This is achieved by experiencing moments where you believed that what you were experiencing was real, only to wake up and realize that what you just experienced was a dream. Just like the matrix, it can't be explained, it has to be experienced!
It is possible to fall asleep and then dream and randomly realize that you are in a dream, but in my experience there is a better way of doing it, intention.
Look at your hands before going to sleep -> Fall asleep -> Wake up (naturally or with an alarm) -> Remind yourself that the next thing you experience most likely is a dream -> Fall back to sleep.
Reality checks during the day is in my case not very effective. During the day for me the only thing required have been awareness of being in the NOW and not in the thoughts (also called presence) and at the same time being aware of the fact that even though it could feel real it could be a dream. And this thought alone would make me lucid because my dreams are usually not calm, quiet and "boring" as physical reality, there is most likely something strange going on. It doesn't hurt to throw in a reality check here of course, but for me it's not really relevant and here is why:
To just reality check out of habit is good of course, but in my opinion the reality check itself is not what's important, it's the critical awareness that is.
Critical awareness alone have made me wake up in a dream, because if I am thinking critically and see a big space ship in the sky, well then I am already aware and THEN to verify I do a reality check, sometimes the reality check is not even needed I just become aware and remember the feeling of dreaming and realize that it's a dream. But I have also had instances where I did a reality check saw 6 fingers on one hand and treated it like it was normal. So you see it's not the reality check that's most important, it's the critical awareness itself.
So we start as a prisoner of our own mind (a zombie) just on auto-pilot following our thoughts and emotions and circumstances of life, then we become aware which means that we are in the moment, then we become critically aware and reality check to test where we are. It's the evolution of consciousness experienced and re-experienced!
Just something to keep in mind. :)
But other than that, any reality check that works as a way to test reality is fine.
Peace!
I have noticed that i am using a RC that is both easy to remember and plays with my mild obsessive traits lol
I am currently experimenting with touching one finger at a time and remembering afterwards what finger i have touched. It feels very easy to remember ( hands are a very visible and important body part) and kind of automatic, and i also enjoy the challenge of trying to remember (probably the obsessive trait), which is in itself a good RC. But even if i dont remember the last finger i used, i just pay attention to the net finger that comes in sequence, starting first with the thumb.
Let's see if i can build a solid RC habit, which is the goal, and the less effort and struggle the better
Hi, can you give some examples of how you implement critical awareness into your day please? Does this mean you question the logic of everything / some things that you see. I understand what mindfulness is and 'living in the present' by paying attention to the 'now' but how do we move from mindfulness to 'critical awareness?Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterMind
What do we actually do? If im walking down the street 'in the present' and being mindful then what actions / thoughts should i take so that i am being critically aware instead of just mindfully aware. Thanks and great meditation guide
Ezzo
To explain how to understand critical awareness is as difficult as explaining air to a fish. We have always lived uncritical in our dreams which is why all people aren't lucid dreaming. But one way to understand what critical awareness is, is to experience what critical awareness isn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by ezzolucid
And this you do everytime you have a dream that you are aware of experiencing but you aren't aware of the fact that it is a dream.
Let's call this dream awareness, because you are aware in the dream, but not aware that it is a dream if that makes sense. I mean you have to be somewhat aware of the dream in order to experience it.
So to get this dream awareness what you do in practise is to focus on improving your recall until you reach a point where you are almost every morning experiencing the following: You are no longer recalling dreams by retracing your steps upon awakening, you are remembering them because you experienced them! Just like you remember your everyday life. In other words you are basically experiencing a mental movie every morning and waking up with the thought "Oh that was a dream!"
Now you know that you can be aware and really involved in an experience that feels real but that it might actually not be real.
This idea hit me when I was experiencing multiple false awakenings of me getting out of bed and recording my dreams in my journal.. Yea imagine how annoying it would be to wake up like that and how paranoid I was on every awakening. Because of this I started to expect to be in a dream, but still knowing that I probably would believe that it was real and that critical intention and awareness of the fact that the next thing I experience most likely is a dream, actually made me more critical in my dreams. I still struggle with this from time to time, for example this morning I had a dream of being on a train with strange things happening without suspecting a thing. So to remain critical isn't easy, but it's crucial for lucid dreaming because it's that mindset that makes us FULLY aware of a dream.
Then sometimes I am in this dream awareness experience but remember the fact that it might just be a dream and this thought alone and seeing the strangeness of the dream can either make me lucid (critically aware) or I'll make a reality check to confirm my belief that it isn't real and I get lucid that way.
In practise during the day while walking down the street present of the moment, I just think and reflect over the fact that "Wow this could be a dream" and I don't just think it, I really believe it because I have had dreams that felt as real as this and then waking up seconds later. So to say it as it is, to be critically aware is to be slightly paranoid at will several times during the day. For me just thinking this is enough for me to spark critical awareness in my dreams as well, because what happens is that I am basically during the day seeing a quiet, still reality while asking it and then during the night I see something strange and that in itself works as my reality check. But feel free to add a reality check at the end of your paranoia moment if you want to. :)
Because if you think about what dreaming actually is you understand why this type of crazy thinking is helpful.
Dreaming is basically like being schizophrenic, dream awareness is being aware of it, lucid dreaming is to become sane. ;-)
So... Based on what I have written here critical awareness is: Being aware of the possibility that you in this moment might be crazy. :laughhard:
That's great advice especially for someone relying on reality checks. You explained the (now obvious ) reason my reality checks haven't been working. It's also identical to what most of my lucid dreaming teachers have said. Thanks for the reminder!
I've never heard about these RCs, but they sound awesome. Plugging your nose and hopping up and down are fine once in a while, but I've found that doing that constantly gets annoying after a few days, and obviously I can't do that at work. Could you elaborate on the RCs a bit? How will the results be different in a dream?Quote:
Originally Posted by sivason