Thread: Foolproof RC's (for you personally)

Last night I tried the 'foolproof' RC's of looking at your nose with one eye closed, reading, blocking your nose and breathing.

All of them failed, except for the blocking of my nose.

This is obviously a testament to how everyone is different - but I would expect certain RC's to be more reliable than others.

And thats what this poll is about - what RC's are most effective and foolproof for you? Then we total it up and see what it says

ive been sticking my finger through walls for about a week or more now and have only done it a few times while lucid but have never managed to randomly stick my finger through a wall while not lucid and as a result, realize im dreaming

Doing supernatural things works for me much of the time, especially flying. Flying through space always reminds me that I am dreaming. Flying close to the ground works for me about 25% of the time, unless I am levitating in Indian style position, which works almost every time. I constantly try to get it into my head when I am awake that flying over the ground by my own power DEFINATELY means that I am dreaming. The trouble is that I have so much fun doing it, all I think about is how much fun I am having, so I usually don't think about the fact that I am dreaming. I am trying to change that because I have flying dreams very frequently, and it seems like that would make it a great gateway to lucid dreaming.

when im about to go to sleep i have started a new ritual thinking about all the things i will see and how they are going to be part of a dream and think the next time i see a person I WILL be dreaming

i think if i keep doing this i will get a bunch of lds

hopefully one decently long ld tonight

I like to see other's reactions when I do things (i.e: Taking a shit on their pillow or a whizz on their homework, works like a charm). If they don't like it then I know I'm dreaming. The only problem is, some people don't like it. They're missing out, aren't they?

Taking a shit on their pillow [/b]

And you do this in the waking world too?
You must be very popular!

I almost never do RC's but I put the first one because I normally just notice I am dreaming. If I just notice I am dreaming I don't normally check because I am pretty sure of myself, so I guess I can call it a RC.

I normally just notice I am dreaming[/b]

Yeah, then you make the right vote
You are obviously used to questioning and being aware of your thoughts, surroundings,etc
Tibetan dream yogis practiced this idea of awareness in order to lucid dream.

The benefits go way beyond lucid dreaming if you notice your thoughts all the time. Very educational

Personally, Ive been trying to master this, on and off... with limited success.

Thanks to everyone so far for the input - very useful!

Originally posted by wasup
I like to see other's reactions when I do things (i.e: Taking a shit on their pillow or a whizz on their homework, works like a charm). If they don't like it then I know I'm dreaming.

Are you implyong that it's not normal for people to not like it?

oops I meant other way around

The most foolproof of all i think is holding your nose and breathing through it, theres no way that i can think of that your body can fool you into thinking that you are holding it, the air will always get through if you try.
actually now that i think of it one time it did fail when i assumed i was unable to block it due to my cold, but im ready no and wont be fooled by nothing 8)

When I walk through my house and odd things start happening, like the vcr blinking 12:00 over and over again, i realize I must be dreaming and then jump out of the 3 story apartment window and start flying

I kind of like the nose blocking technique myself
But its also failed me before - because I wasn't being careful enough.
Because I was so distracted, I only blocked my nose for a fraction of a second.

I guess I need to be more careful of doing decent RC's

yeah i think i too have fallen into the RC too fast hole and missed the cue, i was thinkng about it this afternoon and maybe it needs somthing to go with it, like as i hold my nose a breath i say somthing in my head like name day place and how i got there 'jase, wedensday, school, walked' it shouldnt be too hard and then evntually in a dream i might pick up on some irregularities in what im thinking, like if i cant remember the day or how i got to where i am or even where i am, or even if i forgot my name.

My foolproof RC is looking at my hands, I've used this technique about 4 times and each time, it's worked out for me. Though the last time, i had to question my surroundings as well as a double check. I think because I keep using the method of looking at my hands, my brain's getting better at tricking me so it's always good to use a second RC to make sure I'm still dreaming. When I first used this technique, my hands were completely transparent, but the more i use it, the more they begin to look solid so I'll have to find another RC soon if this pattern keeps up.

Of course... forgot the 'look at hands' one :
Silly me
[EDIT] Oh wait.. I didnt. Its on the list. Never mind me [/EDIT]

I used that in the beginning, but replaced it with the finger through palm thing.
Well, not replaced... merged... You look at your hands and *then* put a finger through your palm
Best of both

Oh... btw... Caution. Don't get a fright if eg. your hands turn alien and green. I gave this RC advice to a girl once, who is know afraid of LDing because of this (she screamed)... I tried explaining things to her, but she's not the brightest
Personally, my hands turned into salad spoons

the 2 times i have actually become lucid, is because i questions my surroundings.

the first time. i dreamed that i was downstairs in the parking garage. in real life, my car is parked in the back, on the left side. but in my dream i saw my car, on the right side of the lot, and in the first space... up on jackstands, and w/different wheels. first i was wondering, why is my car here? why is up on jackstands? where the hell did these ugly ass rims come from? then i just realized i was dreaming. i got all excited, and just as i was about to turn around, and look in the direction of where my car is in real life my brother woke me up.

second time, i was wondering how did i end up in an abandoned building, on a stormy night, looking for diablo (yeah, from the game diablo). i kinda became lucid, then i woke up.


i question my surroundings in at least 50% of my dreams, but it never occurs to me that i'm dreaming.

Originally posted by lurker
the 2 times i have actually become lucid, is because i questions my surroundings.

the first time. *i dreamed that i was downstairs in the parking garage. *in real life, my car is parked in the back, on the left side. *but in my dream i saw my car, on the right side of the lot, and in the first space... up on jackstands, and w/different wheels. *first i was wondering, why is my car here? *why is up on jackstands? *where the hell did these ugly ass rims come from? *then i just realized i was dreaming. *i got all excited, and just as i was about to turn around, and look in the direction of where my car is in real life my brother woke me up.

second time, i was wondering how did i end up in an abandoned building, on a stormy night, looking for diablo (yeah, from the game diablo). *i kinda became lucid, then i woke up.


i question my surroundings in at least 50% of my dreams, but it never occurs to me that i'm dreaming.

I guess the majority of my lucids where started because I first looked around and noticed something strange. Either that, or my natural reaction to nightmares.

However, in the first deliberately induced lucid I had, I suspected it was a dream - but needed to 'prove' it to myself. At that point, I hadn't read up properly on RC's, and ended up running around failing all sorts of made up tests.
So deliberate reality checks 'acts' are important sometimes.
But they do seem to start with a realisation that 'there is no spoon'

my foolproof reality check is actually used to do quite a bit in my dreams and nightmares... blinking.

By blinking, i can squeeze my eyes, but they do not feel the same in a dream, and an interesting fact is.. i can also wake myself out of a nightmare by doing this and concentrating all my anger, and that will wake me up. Now, i should also mention that, i can trigger a false awakening if i choose to do so... so for this reason, i voted this way as the foolproof way, because it has served me well in more things then just RT.

Interesting, Unholy!
I guess the blinking thing has a similar reason for working as the blocking your nose thing.
You can 'feel' that your real body isn't actually doing it, but its just a dream.

Unless you have a sleeping disorder that prevents sleep paralysis
Then you're screwed

blinking my eyes causes me to wake up, i did that 2 times last lucid dream (it was a long one )

had to bump this cus i almost posted this question