Thread: All RCs Fails - loss of lucidity???

I think the root of the loss of lucidity and RC fails is an understandable fear of possibly doing something unsafe due to mistaking the waking state for the dream state. This fear results in a bias towards thinking we are awake, which can cause us to look for evidence that we are awake while disregarding evidence we are dreaming.

To become fully lucid, we need evidence that we are dreaming and confidence in that evidence.

This confidence in evidence we are dreaming is increased by the assumption we are dreaming and decreased by the assumption we are awake. If we do things during a dream that would be safe to do if we were awake, there is no reason to assume we are awake during the dream.

With an assumption we are dreaming, we can find evidence we are dreaming by looking for it while doing things that would be safe to do if we were awake. For example, we could play pretend (in a safe way), change clothes, go for a walk, get something to eat, ect.

Once we know we are dreaming, becoming fully lucid is a matter of fully realizing the dream is coming from our minds.

Perhaps consider incorporating the ADA (all day awareness) technique into your waking life in conjunction with your reality checks. The problem I find with reality checks as a whole is that it becomes routine. A reality check is only useful if there is already awareness of your surroundings. Dreams have a very distinct feeling to them. As you become more adept, you learn to recognise this feeling.

When I was at the peak of my lucid dreaming journey I found I could distinguish between dreams and reality by how it felt alone. I would still reality check now and then just to be sure, but only when I was seriously questioning my reality.

daily breath watching meditation will solve your problem

Originally Posted by GravesTC

Perhaps consider incorporating the ADA (all day awareness) technique into your waking life in conjunction with your reality checks. The problem I find with reality checks as a whole is that it becomes routine. A reality check is only useful if there is already awareness of your surroundings. Dreams have a very distinct feeling to them. As you become more adept, you learn to recognise this feeling.

When I was at the peak of my lucid dreaming journey I found I could distinguish between dreams and reality by how it felt alone. I would still reality check now and then just to be sure, but only when I was seriously questioning my reality.

That sounds true. After having performed RCs daily for close to a couple of months now, I have a hard time feeling like they aren't becoming routine sometimes. I really want to work on being able to distinguish the difference in feeling from waking life and dreams so I can have more lucids that way.

What do you attribute to you honing that sense of feeling the difference between the states to a point where you get lucid from it? Was it ADA or did you do other things as well?

A reality check fails, because reality checking it's self is pretty, fallible.

What I would recommend is, prospective memory exercises. Remembering to remember something based off of intentions.
What people usually do is, they remember to do a reality check randomly throughout the day, based off of something else reminding them to do so, like an alarm, or something looking "weird" in waking reality.

Well the truth is. In a dream, you'll still think it's waking and you'll still believe its 100% real, even if you were able to shoot balls of lava from your armpits, it would still be like "Yep, this is my life, I'm not asleep right now", as lame and as wacky as that may seem.

It's a bit hard to explain but, don't do reality checks for the intention of doing reality checks, they don't work like magic if you just do the action
also, don't rely on, something looking "weird" to trigger you to remember reality checking, don't rely on an alarm,
also, don't use reality checking as your first line of "defense" so to speak

Lucidity, is, an experience, something you feel, something you just KNOW.
Be aware in your body, when you think you are in a dream, and truly feel and be aware.
If you are in a dream, this will boost you to lucidity, if you are in waking, then you'll just be sitting there with awareness. Either way, awareness def works, and prospective memory works as well.

Hey Skipper1100, thanks for your reply. You make a good point. It seems that performing mechanical RCs can do more harm than good because as a mindless habit they'll transfer to our dreams in that way and will not help getting lucid.

Fortunately, I have been doing several RCs as a result of prospective memory training for the last six weeks or so. The events triggering my mind to be aware and do RCs has increased over this time. The awareness aspect seems to be a struggle. I find myself going through hours of time without thinking about it, then at other times I am able to maintain awareness with more ease. My mind, of course, tends to wander fairly quickly on a lot of discursive thought.

In response to your question, Zelcrow, the main thing that contributed was time and experience. It was a good 4 years or so until I was able to become familiar with the "dream feel". I'd say the other main factor was simply awareness. I used to try to remain conscious of the present moment throughout the whole day (ADA). It's a noticeable shift in presence and sensation when you slip into a dream, because you lose that strong feeling of a "connection" to an external world with external stimuli, alongside a state of alertness. This was what I used to trigger my lucidity. My "reality checks" during the day turned into becoming lucid in waking life instead. Inevitably this would fizzle out as soon as I'd become distracted, but would periodically return whenever I would have that cue to perform a reality check.