An interesting way to remind yourself to do reality checks.

[FMprime]

write "Are you dreaming?" down on the side your index finger. That way whenever you are looking at your hand, or even just something in/near your hand you'll remember to do a reality check. Then you look at your watch (or the nearest clock) and do a reality check. It also looks pretty cool when you make a fist, because it says "are you dreaming?" and it's wrapped around in a spiral. What other methods do people use to remind them to do reality checks throughout the day?

[Seeker]

Cool reality check! I've thought about getting that, or something like that tatooed. I always reality check whenever I walk through a doorway, also when I walk outside, I will look up at the sky and perform a check, especially on a cloudless day. It seems that most of the time in my lucid dreams, the sky is cloudless and extremely blue.

[Clairity]

Seeker, the doorway, walking outside and looking at the sky reality checks that you do.. have you ever been dreaming and remembered to do one of them? I'm just curious to know if these reality checks have been helpful (as they sound promising).

[Goliath]

I have attained lucidity once by looking at the sky. The colour and shape of the clouds was all wrong and I knew it was a dream.

[Mystical_Journey]

I like the idea of writing 'are you dreaming' on your hand, that would be a great reality check. As long as you dont have to justify yourself to strangers (lol). It reminds me of a technique I read about a few months ago:- You draw a circle in the middle of your right hand, every time you see it during the day, you perform a reality check. The person who did this said that when he was dreaming he would see an eye in the place of the dot, to prove he was dreaming.

[Valo]

I really like that idea I don't reality check nearly as often as I should I'll definately give that a try

[spydrswebb]

Ive tried this, yet people asked my wtf i wrote on my hand? It was gone the next day .

[simpsin]

haha don't care about what they say ... I have written it on my hand for the past week after first reading this and it has greatly improved my frequency of RCs. Ive yet to use them to realize I am Lucid in a dream but Ill take as much help as i can get.

[simpsin]

i also like it when people point it out cuase i get reminded to RC

[Bruho]

In the Carlos Casteneda books , the fist step to controling his dreams was to simply look at your hands during your dream. At first he sees a monster's hand and shit like that. Then when he does see his hand... the next step is to look at your surroundings withought them fading out. its hard to explain, if you haven't read the books you should. The first one is The Teachings of Don Juan "A Yaqui Way of Knowledge"

[Taosaur]

In-dream, I always like the finger-through-palm RC, tho I rarely try it in waking life, and sometimes the results are inconclusive in dreams. Still, when it works, you know you're dreaming, plus it's just kind of cool and freaky.

[Jammy]

What would "Am i dreaming" be in latin? Anyone know latin here? Have that tatooed on the hand would be prette fancy/handy! You get it... handy! no? Since we write "Am i dreaming" down the finger on the HAND.... that way "handy" would be apropriate to say.... handy.... ha....... ...

[Valo]

Es vos somnium? I used it in my custom title "are you dreaming?" in latin or at least i'm almost sure that's the translation. if not. shame on me. haha I'm pretty sure (if that's correct) that i'm getting a tattoo of that. It's always handy when your friend is the head piercer at a tattoo shop

[Malkav]

Writing down on the palm/finger of a hand.....really practical way to do RC's! trying it right now

[samf]

Thanks, I'm gonna try this technique. also, for some odd reason. Everytime I think of Reality Checks, I think of hopping on one foot

[dancingxinxthexrain]

Yes! AWESOME idea! I would really hate to have to explain it to people though.....

[bobsworth]

i just wrote AUD (are you dreaming) on my finger and seeing as im at school half the day and holding a pen i always see it. can anyone vouch for RC's working? i dont want to sound sceptical but i dont think i'd RC in a dream.

[the thinker]

I tried writing LD on my hand. I got tired of explaining it to people who don't understand things of deep nature. It didn't work, though, I had a dream i was going into a bar and the bouncer looked at my hand and let me in. that's probally because i sometimes told people the LD stood for 'legal drinker'

[Clairity]

When I tried this method years ago, instead of writing words or letters on my hand, I simply made a ink mark or line on my hand. I still knew what it meant when I saw it and, if anyone else saw it, it looked like I had accidently written or gotten ink on my hand.

[Remus]

Normally at school, I've been drawing a little compy power sign thing on my hand. xDDD No idea why, It looks cool, and I've started to decide to do a RC whenever I see that symbol.

[abyss]

Another suggestion, for those of you who spend much time in front of your computers, is to download the free, lite version of the Post-it Note software. Then you can just create a post-it note on your desktop and set the alarm on it for every hour or two. When the alarm sounds, you do a RC. That's what I'm using at the moment. I also like the 'message on the index finger' idea. Nice.

[Paranoid Society]

it can be an useful way to LD but considering longtime-rc with that method, that's not good cuz ink is harmful to us

[SKA]

In the Carlos Casteneda books , the fist step to controling his dreams was to simply look at your hands during your dream. At first he sees a monster's hand and shit like that. Then when he does see his hand... the next step is to look at your surroundings withought them fading out. its hard to explain, if you haven't read the books you should. The first one is The Teachings of Don Juan "A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" Yeah I've read a couple of excerpts of Carlos Castaneda's books amongst them The teachings of don Juan and The art of Dreaming. In the excerpt of the art of dreaming He only mentioned looking at his hands once but he mainly explains a radically spiritual way of perception that sorcerers use to practice the art of Dreaming. He insisted that to understand how Dreaming is done you first need to understand the spiritual , sorcerer view of the world. The excerpt mentioned something about awareness being able to move out of the world of human perception and expand. And that was the same principle as dreaming. Also he mentioned the 7 gates of the dreamworld , like obstacbles, one must overcome to master dreaming. I enjoyd reading it alot, but it's still alot of theory. Does don juan have some more concrete practices discussed in his "Art of Dreaming"? I wish to buy this book anyways.

[Nefarious]

I will definetly get a RC message tatooed on my palm in a cool font so that everytime I will look at the time I will see the message.

[sourcejedi]

Yeah I've read a couple of excerpts of Carlos Castaneda's books amongst them The teachings of don Juan and The art of Dreaming. In the excerpt of the art of dreaming He only mentioned looking at his hands once but he mainly explains a radically spiritual way of perception that sorcerers use to practice the art of Dreaming... I enjoyd reading it alot, but it's still alot of theory. Does don juan have some more concrete practices discussed in his "Art of Dreaming"? I don't believe so. I wouldn't advise expecting much specific advice; treat it as fiction. Like Science Fiction which includes science fact along with mind-expanding vistas of originality. You shouldn't rely on the fiction to tell you which are the factual bits :-). I can find linky if you like. It's presented as fact but not only is much of it unverifiable (to put it politely), taken as a whole his books contain substantial contradiction. But if you enjoy the extracts for what they are, I'm sure you'd enjoy the book(s).