Thread: Reality check fail

Your expectations become reality in the dreamworld. I think on some level you expected them to fail. I would evaluate your mindset when performing waking reality checks.

I've never had a RC fail. I expect my fingers to be weird and writing to be unreadable in dreams so it always is.

Originally Posted by xxPhoebusxx

Your expectations become reality in the dreamworld. I think on some level you expected them to fail. I would evaluate your mindset when performing waking reality checks.

I've never had a RC fail. I expect my fingers to be weird and writing to be unreadable in dreams so it always is.

Looking back at this thread, this is an underrated post. Reality checks succeed and fail the same way specific attempts at controlling aspects of your dream succeed or fail. Your unconscious expectations influence the reality of the dream you are in.

Trying to consciously change your unconscious expectations can be a bit tricky, as most attempts to simply force yourself to expect something both breeds doubt and is about as effective as trying not to think of pink elephants by telling yourself not to think of pink elephants. By telling yourself not to think of pink elephants, you are in fact doing exactly what you are telling yourself not to do, and it's the same deal here. Telling yourself not to expect an RC to fail leads you to expect that your RC will fail.

The trick to overcome this is to rationalize and really believe why something will be the way you think it will be. This ties into dream control, where trying to use brute force to control aspects of your dream usually results in losing control or reducing your level of lucidity. You have to use a more passive approach. Give yourself a reason to believe why something should be so, and convince yourself thoroughly enough to be confident in the fact that it will work. This usually takes some practice to work consistently though, because it's natural to lack confidence in a technique before experiencing its success. You can't let yourself get discouraged if things aren't working perfectly though, you need to believe that you will learn to do this well once your mind unconsciously associates what you feel like when doing this and experiencing the desired outcome. If you continue practicing and not losing faith that things will eventually work and you'll get the hang of things, it will eventually feel like second nature and you will more intuitively be able to consciously direct your unconscious expectations.