Thread: Reality Check

Hello! this is a quick little idea that I have always gone by and just recently realized that I should share it with you. I was talking with someone and I realized that all of his RCs were to prove that he was indeed awake and all of my RCs prove that I am asleep. We brush this away usually by saying if a RC succeeds, does that mean that you are awake or asleep?

In order to talk about this a little more I must put a couple of quotes here that we shall look at together

"You can do anything in a dream"

Many people

“But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.”

Renee Descartes

So this is what I have been looking at lately:

I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep.

I come up with my own ideas from this. I can never know 100% that I am awake, because I could have a dream that was exactly like this. Even if I do a RC, then in a dream (in which anything can happen) that RC could behave just like it would in waking, "proving" that I am awake. But it doesn't prove anything. I know that RCs are mainly to raise awareness, but what awareness are we raising if we don't understand the principal of the reality check.

I usually categorize LDers by one thing That One Lucid Dream. If you have been LDing for a while, you understand what I am talking about. That lucid dream the one above all others. The one that you were convinced that you were awake, because of the amount of realness and vividness and sense that everything around you made, but when you did a RC, you realized that you were in a dream. If you have had that LD, it changes how you think about life, if you have not, then you are in for an amazing awakening soon (do you see the pun?)

So if we cannot know 100% that we are awake, can we know 100% that we are asleep? If I am flying around, I can assume that gravity is not working and I am asleep. If things are not persistent, I can assume that I am asleep, as I know that I the waking world is persistent. But just because something is persistent, that doesn't make it waking.

I guess what I am saying is that only in a dream can we know, almost for a fact, what state we are in.

When approaching RCs, I recommend doing the thing that will prove it is a dream, not prove that you are awake.

I hear people saying things like "I know that I am awake because I can remember what I did the last few hours". Which is funny to me, because in a dream I usually remember exactly what I have been doing for years and months and weeks and days and hours, but it is in waking that I usually forget what I have been doing. I have a mission in dreams, waking is much more weird and less goal and time oriented.

So what I usually recommend for an RC is the idea of trying to prove that it is a dream. Do something that rarely fails in a dream, something that you have mastered. I have a couple of ideas here for me that usually help me tell the difference.
Telekinesis(or any dream control)
I actually try to do this all the time throughout my days, accidentally even. When I am reaching for something or entering a room, I try to lift it to my hand without even thinking that that would be a weird thing to do. I often enter a room in a dream, reach for something and telekinesis it to me and realize I am dreaming at that moment.

Dream Feeling
Most of us have a "dream feeling" that we feel in dreams, something that is almost impossible to explain with words, but is present in dreams. Often if I have a bit of awareness in a dream, I will notice that feeling and stop and realize that it is a dream. It is a feeling that I cannot feel in waking, so it proves that it is a dream.

Doubt
You know what never happens to me in waking? I never doubt that I am awake. Any time I doubt that I am awake, I always assume that this is a dream. It has never failed me, but I still am cautious after and do a dream control RC before attempting anything crazy.

Sleep
This is what has been my new dream goal lately, one of the reasons is that it proves that I am in a dream 100%. As soon as I realize it is a dream, instead of going straight to my goals, I just lay down and go to sleep, use this as a teleportation technique and a 100% RC, because I remember falling asleep 2 seconds ago. Worst case scenario, people think I am weird because I jump on their couch and pretend to sleep.

There are lots of other things like this, but this is what I will cover for now. If you wanted to put it a different way (rather than being in doubt all the time by thinking that you cannot prove that it is waking and thinking you might go crazy), you can say If I cannot prove that it is a dream, then I must be awake.

This has made me realize that I needed to change my mantra (As well as FM helping too!) over to "remember, I'm dreaming", because I never have trouble thinking I am awake, it seems to be default. I like to go through the idea that I should change my mindset to always thinking I am sleeping (unless that 99% rule I mentioned where you are pretty sure you are awake). You may ask "but what if I start thinking that it is a dream during the day?" Then go through a lot of things when you wake up! Because dreams don't always start the same, but waking does, hence the name.


This has made me form my own quote for this whole thing:

I don't RC because I may be sleeping, I RC because I may be awake.

Let me know what you think! Anything to add or take away or if this helps in any way!