reality checks improved. A new way to distinguish.
Years ago I use to look at my hands, and check the lines on my hands. This was my go to for a long time. I would turn my hands back around and check if the lines changed. If they changed I was dreaming. This took advantage of a quirk in the dream space which is words and lines that are complex tend to re arrange. After doing this several times, it did fail to where the lines on my hands either didn't change anymore or where I didn't notice it. As my process was more refined I moved away from reality checks because I found a big flaw in them. They relied a lot on logic. But I noticed that logic is very changeable in the dream space along with memory of what logic is.
The mind will often fight your attempt to be lucid, and it gets good at mimicking the reality checks almost like an immune system response it adapts to what you are doing. So I found that reality checks would be unreliable long term. I needed a less labor intensive, more reliable test that wasn't based on logic.
This is when I considered my flying ability in dreams. Often the first thing I would do is start flying. I figured that the best way to distinguish for certain without a doubt that I was in a dream, was simply put my arms out in front of me and fly. If I could fly, it was obviously a dream. As I have not learnt to fly in real life. Yet ;)
Anyway this test proved to be the most reliable thing I can think of. Often the dream space is so real and convincing that without that flying test, I would be skeptical if I was dreaming. But once I do the flying test, there is no doubt anymore, no matter how real my mind has made it. I think for me personally, this has trumped any chance of getting confused in the dream about if it's real.
The reason this works so well is it's not based on logic, but on faith ability. When I am awake I never try to fly because I know that would be a complete failure, so this is how it is different from traditional reality checks. It is not so much a reality check as a confirmation about where you are. Often when I go to do the flying test, I already a little skeptical enough to go into lucidity. This is about the same suspicion you have before you do a reality check.
Example
I wake up from my bedroom and I go to the bathroom. I switch the bathroom light on. I struggle with it. I go into my lounge room and flick the light on there. Nothing happened. No light coming on. I thought for a moment is something wrong with the fuse box or a black out. Then the idea hit me. When you are dreaming sometimes light switches don't work. (I attribute my mind recognising this only to the fact of study and observation, otherwise it wouldn't be a concept). At this point I am skeptical, but it's not certain because it 'feels' exceptionally real. The realness of this experience always shocks me. It doesn't feel like a dream at all. This is the time I try the flying test, I take that leap of faith (Already suspecting it's a dream) and I put my arms out and do the flying thing, I find myself hovering at my front lawn. That is when it is confirmed, you are definitely in that "space". This is where that feeling of complete freedom hits you. I'm still not use to it. It feels very free. After having this experience, you basically need it in your life on a regular basis. It becomes like oxygen to you.
As you work through your dream experiences, you are working on yourself personally. It will change you. For me I cannot do regular reality checks. maybe I might go back to them again, as an experiment, but I don't really feel the need to go that much deeper into them, other than this philosophical analysis.
