So I've been practicing doing Reality Checks EVERY time I encounter a person.. whether they approach me or I approach them.. ( and also every time I see a good looking girl because.. well you know)
Anyway, I've been getting better at doing this more often but I can tell its going to take a lot of practice before it becomes a natural response.
I've been doing this rather well for weeks with no LD's.
Do you think it will eventually pay off? What's your experience with R.C's?
Well...Maybe reality checking that much won't help you...Because I do RC's about 2-4 times a day and I will just randomly do one in a dream and boom, i'm lucid.
well i have a small problem with reality checks. i dont do them very often. i need to get in the habit for looking for something odd. everytime i see something odd or strange i do a reality check, which is great because Im getting in the habit for checking.:D but i only see something odd or dreamy maybe once a week:( which isnt enough, i need to start looking for them now. the habit is already in for checking if i see something odd so now i need to search. see i only do a RC if i see something odd, im not searching.
I reality check a few times each day but it hasn't filtered into my normal dreams and made me lucid yet.
I do use reality checks when I'm already lucid, just as a means of making sure I'm still dreaming.
I also use them at the start of a WILD to check if I'm dreaming yet.
I use the nose plug method, which always works. I try to float off of the ground or bed. I also bite my finger, no pain = I'm dreaming.
I think it'll pay off eventually, but a few weeks is already a long time!
It's not so much the frequency but the instinctiveness of the dreamsign/RCs that is important.
And doing RCs on people... woah... lots of RCing ;)
But when it becomes instinctive and filters into your dreams, it'll be a great dreamsign
In my case, I find that practicing a dreamsign causes lucid dreams unrelated to the dreamsign. It seems to trigger your lucidity just because you're trying... or something.. ?
Hi there, I would consider the second RC to be more effective. Doing checks whenever U encounter a person is not enough to enter the subconcious because there is no emotion involved. If U use the second check...the emotion involved is love or whatever to make an imprint in the subconcious and it's also less frequent. A good dreamsign/check is one that isn't too frequent, isn't too normal and has to have emotion that will cause an imprint in Ur subconcious like meeting the girl at school U always wanted to go out with but can't in real life.Quote:
Originally Posted by TalkingHead
IMJ
Yes.. I think you're right about emotion RMJ... It's amazing how good my mind is at forgetting though. That's why I write everything I have to do down.. otherwise it all just fades.
I want to try R.C. all people for a little while longer though to see if I can make it instinctive. I'm guarenteed to encounter a person in my dreams.. not always an attractive girl though.
I think I might have to start bridging bridging this into my dreams though. I'm going to do a lot of visualization before going to sleep tongiht... with the same person popping up in front of me again and again to tell me I'm dreaming.
I think there's two ways you can go about RCs. Like Placebo said, it's a good thing to not be robotic in your reality checks but rather by thought or realization of a dream sign or something similar, rather than just "I haven't RCed in a while, so I probably should..."
However, I wouldn't discount the other method either. There was a month or so where I began doing a significant amount of RCs a day (50+?) and although I've stopped doing that many, there was a noticeable increase in number of lucids.
So although the second method isn't necessarily best, it can pay off as well, so it's really up to you.
Yeah U should continue with that too since U already started the ball rolling. From experience the subconcious does not like to change it's instructions, it gets confused if U keep changing it.Quote:
Originally Posted by TalkingHead
IMJ
So is the purpose of performing RC's to find something emotional that makes an impression on your subconscious, or to make it habitual so you end up doing it in your sleep, or both?
I've been doing a lot of RC's or just questioning of my awareness (am I dreaming?), but not always on dream signs or things that I'm particularly emotional about. More along the lines of trying to be aware all the time which "reality" I'm in -- not robotic, but also not emotional. Can't say I've had that many DILD's as a result, so far (I've been at it for about 3 weeks). Would you just keep it up, or should I be looking for a better or more emotional approach?
For me I need emotion to get the RC into the dream so I'd say emotional rather than habitual. I did RCs in the dream that I hardly do in reality and it's always the same RC, provided I'm up to it that night (emotionally charged about the entire thing). Or I could get emotionally charged about doing something I can't in real life and most likely have a lucid dream complete with RCs...:). Sounds like what Ur doing does work for U...give me 3 weeks of doing what U do, Nothing! U could try adding new features to Ur exisitng RCs but be careful not to override it entirely or U may have to start from scratch again.Quote:
Originally Posted by PaleRider
IMJ
I have tried doing RCs routinely for months and never had it appear in my dreams, not even once. Recently I started doing RCs whenever something odd happens, and I am starting to do them in my dreams.
So I guess making it a habit doesn't always work.
You opened web browser to access dreamviews, right. You surfed probably too. Did you consciously realise, there are banners everywhere? NO. Why? becouse you see them very often.
What we do often is considered unatractive and makes us ignore it... but if there is an emotion.... Well somthing better.
This is really a good thread. Especially for those, who are doing everything robotically. The quantity not always pays off in long time. :D
Thanks for the great advice imj, Remared, and adraw! I'm going to give your advice a try, I'll try to find more meaningful or emotional things for my RC's.
That's pretty wierd, because I've had lots of people with the exact opposite problem - trying to RC 'whenever something wierd happens' and never getting lucid.Quote:
Originally Posted by Remared
Why?
Because nothing seems 'wierd' in a dream. Think about it - if flying pink bananas were buzzing around, you'd think it was perfectly normal in a dream.
It's because the dreamer did not program his/her mind to do a reality check whenever flying pink bananas were buzzing around....:D. Same thing with the watch...I could have easily dismissed the watch's time changing as it being faulty and carry on with the dream but I recognize it because it's been programmed as a sign that I'm dreaming.Quote:
Originally Posted by Placebo
IMJ
I'm sticking with the people Reality Check for the moment because I still haven't gotten to the point where its automatic in Real Life and I can tell this is going to take awhile.
What I will start doing is try to also think about Lucid Dreaming or get myself excited every time I do one of these R.C.'s and maybe that will help.
I'm talking about doing reality checks without dreamsigns, or dreamsigns that are vague ('when something wierd happens')Quote:
Originally Posted by imj
Remared was saying that it worked for him, so I was responding to that.
Obviously if you had a trained dreamsign for flying bananas, then things would have worked out.
Me too, but I don't think it's a good idea to do that one every time a good looking girl approaches, TalkingHead. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Vex Kitten
I do Reality check everytime I go to use the restroom, or when i'm looking in the mirror .
One thing that might be of interest to those struggling to have an LD:
I had a problem with a dripping tap, and had a lot of water dreams. Some of them lucid.
Now consider this: train yourself to have a water dreamsign, and then play a sound of a tap dripping (or make a tap drip)
Make sure your dreamsign is working first, because you might get used to the dripping.
Windows are also a good dreamsign, btw. Just look out the window and question what you see.
I've been doing reality checks for a few weeks now and i haven't had an LD yet because of them :/.
My RC experience was pretty rare I think. I had started my interest in LDing but then gave up because I simply didnt feel like putting so much into it (but now i do:D) and I only had about 1 dream journal entry and did reality only like twice or 3 times a day and somehow I still managed to have my first lucid dream with one of my fav. RC's which is the hand one where you look to see if you have more or less than 5 fingers. I heard that it does take a while for your brain to be able to RC normally in a dream like IRL.
Be sure not to focus only on RCing because theres more than just that. ;)
i was in a dream and was doing an RC with a DC, and i didn't go lucid. the DC and I just laughed about it. it was funny. i haven't had an LD yet, and I really really want one. i am somewhat jealous of my bf. he can LD like nobody's business. ugh.
Now what about doing a Reality check before every time before speak to a new person.
It would be like a vow of silence until you remember that a simple reality check will allow you to speak.
How long should you spend doing a reality check anyway?
For me, they've been starting to carry over into dreams, actually. I had two LDs now triggered by habitual RCs.
No matter what method you use, remember that you honestly have to ask your self "Am I dreaming". Don't say "obviously I am awake" instantly because you think you are. Look around and look for things out of the ordinary. Think about all the times your mind tricked you in your dreams, and ask yourself "Is my mind tricking me now". Don't allow yourself to stop questioning reality until your certain beyond all doubt that you are awake.
I had a dream once where I looked at my hands and they were really deformed. I thought "I must be getting nerve damage" because I had taken a 100 mg dose of b6 before going to sleep. After that I just went on with my dream.
Make sure that you don't dismiss the idea that you could be dreaming just becuase you think that your not. If you do that you will see results.
I generally find that as soon as I start to question my state I zero in on the fact that I'm dreaming; So my reality checks are just me saying "dreaming" in my head.
My problem is taking any kind of initial first step to quesition reality within the dream
Start doing an RC every time something 'odd' happens or if you find your self thinking 'wtf?'
Pound those dream signs into your SC
That's not enough and it barely ever works. What you mind find odd IRL seems totally normal to you in a dream. I could have a parade of pink elepahnts running in front of me, IRL I'd do RCs for two hours while in a dream, it's all fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by shotbirds
Do RCs all the time, make it a habit. I look at my hands for about 20 times a day, I mean, when waiting for the bus or something, what do you have to do other than RCing? It's not like that takes too much time or something. Do it whenever you get to mind "hey, I should make an RC".
Tonight I had another LD because of looking at my hands. It didn't last, but it triggered my "awaking" in the dream. RCs are for me the key to getting lucid and they really take no effort.
for a reality check, i wrote "You are Dreaming" on my hand. I thought this would work when i am in a dream i would either see it and realize i was dreaming or not see it there and realize that i am dreaming. Nothing has worked so far...
And another point to the conversation, i ended up having a dream where i was telling someone that i was taking some B6 (for dreaming) and it still didnt click that i was dreaming at the point.
I swear, Lucid Dreaming is so hard to get down. Only three Lucid Dreams, two of them with no Lucid Aids and the other one after watching Vanilla Sky. (haha)
Anyway, hopefully if i put more meaning into my RCs, I'll be able to recognize out of the ordinary things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DigitalNinjaLee
Haha I've had a lot worse than that. I had a dream where I was telling my friend all about lucid dreaming and what not. I even showed her what the reality checks were but they all failed in that dream.
I find that only doing RCs when something odd happens is to few and far between for me. I was reading ETWOLD last night and after looking at Laberge's state testing method, I think I have found my own personally fool proof RC.
I am going to read something twice everytime I enter a new room(street signs for driving and walking). I think this will work great for me, since Im a student and I go from room to room all day long. Also in dreams you always change scenery. Doing RCs only when something weird happens is too unreliable for me, because I rarely find things odd.
IMO the best way to maximise your chance of a lucid dream is the practice of recalling your dreams immediately upon waking each morning and then continuing the story for a few minutes in your head as though you are still dreaming. When you do this you find your dreams become longer, more vivid and more real and eventually you have such clarity of mind you naturally become lucid. That's how I had my first completely incidental lucid dream. RCs work well in conjunction with this technique along with journaling.
with the experience above, i can usually pull that off. As in, thinking of possabilities then the dream continues with whatever i am thinking BUT it has never turned into a lucid dream sadly...
Hi.
I can snap my fingers. Sometimes I like to imagine that for every time I snap my fingers, a small flame appears upon my fingers immediately after the snap. I understand that in dreams anything is possible...
...Would it be considered a reasonable reality check to do the aforementioned action?
Quote:
Originally Posted by LucidM!nds
Wow! Thats a really exciting reality check... I'm going to start doing that to mix it up a little. That would be so cool if it happened.
i've been really confused about RC's, when I joined the forum I was all about making them habitual which never really trigger any lucids but make me think damn alot about ld's which I belive increased my recall, I would wake up and instantly think about LD's and what I should do to get closer to having one. In short I think it help my motivation.
I also think this became incorporated into my dreams as my first lucid was trigger by me having a conversation about LD's and demonstrating that light switches dosen't work in dreams.
Now I don't do them unless somthing wierd happens because I heard that's the way to go, but I just don't know whats the best method.