Reality Checking...

[hapkidoman]

I'm not the first to realize this, but I've finally "got it".......I use to do 20-30 reality checks everyday at random to see if I was dreaming, hoping that I would continue this into my dreams. I did, but I would only do a RC in my dream maybe once every week or two. Then, I decided that instead of doing RC's at random multiple times a day that I would do them every time I noticed my dream sign. For me, my dream sign is a restroom. For some reason, there is almost always a bathroom in everyone of my dreams. So, every time I entered a bathroom, I would do a RC. However, once I had done this for 1 week, I stopped having a bathroom scene in my dreams. The frustration was unbelievable. So, I stopped trying to get lucid for about 3 months; I lost interest. Then, for some reason, I thought that I would try again, but focus my RC's on something else. It seemed as though, in my dreams, I would do something absolutely unbelievable, but would not notice it as such. For instance, I would talk to a squirrel and it would talk back, no big deal. So, I decided to only do a RC when something strange happened in real life. For instance, the other night at work, the printer printed a report all in mirror image. That has never happened to me before and so I immediately did a reality check. I only do maybe 4 - 7 reality checks a day, mainly because nothing truly out of the ordinary occurs in my life. And the results?............................ In the past 5 nights, I've had 4 lucid dreams. Now, I'm not the first to suggest doing RC's this way, but I tried it and want to say that this is BY FAR THE BEST WAY OF DOING RC'S (for me) and if your struggling trying to get lucid and the other methods don't work I highly suggest trying this. You do much fewer RC's throughout the day then other methods but like someone else said on this forum: QUALITY IS BETTER THAN QUANTITY.......and it is so very true. However, the RC that I do is the whole, "plug your nose and try to breathe through it" technique. However, once I do a RC in my dream, I can breathe through my nose and I realize that I can, but I still can't believe that I'm in a dream, because my dreams are so vivid. So, I will try another RC. I try the finger through the hand (but my finger never goes through my hand) and the whole, "look at some print and see if it changes" technique, but when I look at some print it doesn't change. I can read a sentence, look down, look back up, and read the exact same sentence again. The numbers and letters do not change!!!!!!! I will also try to change the environment by closing my eyes and imaging the place I want to be. The result? The scene does not change so I assume that I must have been mistaken about breathing through my nose and fall back into the dreamscape. Does anybody have any suggestion on how I can overcome this? I feel that as soon as I can learn to overcome this that I can have a lucid dream almost every night................ Any comments about your experience with only doing a RC when something weird happens?

[Mes Tarrant]

Oh you do hapkido? That's awesome! I only ever do the nose RC, but if that's not enough for you then once you do that one and find that you can breathe, you can then try to fly or walk through a wall or something like that to validate that you are dreaming. The bathroom is also an extremely common dream sign for me (I wonder why we dream of bathrooms so often??), but I'm in the same situation - RCing there IRL has stopped working!

[hapkidoman]

Yeah, I love Hapkido I'm so glad somebody knows what it is. I think that I'm just too self conscious in dreams. I feel that I'm in RL trying to see if I'm dreaming and I don't want to look stupid trying to fly and embarass myself or run into a wall. However, I will try this tonight to see if it works.

[Mes Tarrant]

Yeah I thought about taking it up, deciding between that and Taekwondo. I hear Hapkido's better. Here's something I just remembered... I think it's advice from one of the tutorials on here, I can't quite remember. Do a RC and then in your head come up with a logical reason for why you are or are not dreaming. So if you do a nose RC and you can breathe, but you still think it's RL, then come up with a reason why you think it's still RL. With any luck you will realize that you're dreaming!

[Jamoca]

I've been trying to do that, the problem is, I never notice strange occurrences until an hour after the occur! I'll see something weird, and then think up a rationalization for why it happened, instead of immediately doing an RC. About an hour after I'll think, "Doh! I should have RCd when so-and-so happened!" It's pretty hard. I'm working on it, but it's tough to remember. Of course, if I can't remember in real life I'll never remember to RC in my dreams, haha.

[hapkidoman]

1. Hapkido is much better 2. I think that is an excellent suggestion. I will definitely give that a try tonight as well. Hopefully I can break through the barrier of realizing that I am in a dream and then go on to trying to control my dreams. I don't know why, but I keep getting the feeling that something doesn't want me to realize I'm dreaming. It's as if our brains are programmed to not let us realize, like it's not natural. But, it's way too fun not to try.

[hapkidoman]

To Jamoca I kind of have the problem as well, but trust me, once you get in the habit of doing a RC immediately it really increases the chances of becoming lucid, at least for me. I hope that you have as much success with it as I've had lately. Let me know how you progress.

[Mes Tarrant]

Yes that's interesting... I've never considered before that our brains might be trying to not let us make the realization! .... If that's true, I wonder why! .... Oooh...

[hapkidoman]

Mes Tarrant: What do you do to get lucid? What's your technique of doing RC's in real life? Can you please be as specific as possible including what you are thinking while you are doing the RC?

[BigFan]

Yes that's interesting... I've never considered before that our brains might be trying to not let us make the realization! .... If that's true, I wonder why! .... Oooh... Only guess is so that we don't mix up what happens in a dream with the RL

[Mes Tarrant]

Mes Tarrant: What do you do to get lucid? What's your technique of doing RC's in real life? Can you please be as specific as possible including what you are thinking while you are doing the RC? I just do them randomly these days. I think about lucid dreaming often but don't really put effort into practicing it, and as a result I get random lucids every now and then. It's because RL is sort of getting in the way at the moment! Only guess is so that we don't mix up what happens in a dream with the RL Ahh... but see.. it's when we don't realize that we are dreaming that we are most likely to mix up dreams with RL, right?

[Frazorx]

i just do just NP and looking at my hand and counting the fingers and i have at least 1 LD per week. One last night too

[MrFantasy]

think of it this way: I (you) really want to have a lucid dream, so I will continually check to see if it is time to have a lucid dream until it is. Whenever you think about dreaming, check to see if it's time to have a lucid dream (do a state check). Also do this whenever you see anything odd or dreamlike (dreamsign). In addition to this, just try to pay attention to your state of consciousness.

[BigFan]

Ahh... but see.. it's when we don't realize that we are dreaming that we are most likely to mix up dreams with RL, right? Partially agree. If we don't remember our dreams, then we won't mix them up with RL. Recently, I've had cases where I thought I did something in RL but it wasn't the case and I was pretty confused to what has transpired. If you remember your dreams, then you can write them down in a journal but if you remember one, but, forget to write it down or forget it altogether, then you'll have the same problem as I mentioned before

[hapkidoman]

I didn't have a near lucid dream last night, so I couldn't put into practice some of the advice on new ways to check if I'm dreaming. However, I have been putting an emphasis lately on constantly looking for bizarre things throughout the day, hoping this thought process will manifest itself in the dreamscape and I will become lucid. Has anyone else had good success doing this? I have also been supplementing my "plug the nose and breathe through it" with "look at my hand and see if it changes" I am less self-conscious about doing this in RL and hope that I will have the opportunity soon to see if it works in the dreamscape......................

[mrcuteblackie]

maybe God does not want you to lucvid dream and see the unknown. iT BELONGS TO him, LOL.

[pond weed]

i have an idea. as you go to sleep. imagine yourself encountering a dreamsign and doing a RC. as your laying in bed go though all of your dream sign scenarios, doing RC's. another thing you could do for an RC is to think back to see how you got there, are there any gaps or anything strange

[hapkidoman]

Have you ever noticed though, the harder you try to have a lucid dream the less likely you are to have one? Whenever I want to have a lucid dream, my dream recall diminishes, and I don't do an RC in the dreamscape. However, when I could care less about lucid dreaming, my dream recall skyrockets and I do a ton of RC's (which fail)................ UGHHHHHHHHH so frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[mrcuteblackie]

Have you ever noticed though, the harder you try to have a lucid dream the less likely you are to have one? Whenever I want to have a lucid dream, my dream recall diminishes, and I don't do an RC in the dreamscape. However, when I could care less about lucid dreaming, my dream recall skyrockets and I do a ton of RC's (which fail)................ UGHHHHHHHHH so frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 It's so frustrating, it seems God does not want you to pry into His secret world. What do u think?

[dreamingofdreaming]

I don't know if we need to get G O D involved in this thread but that's just my opinion I definitely agree with the reality check technique of only doing them when something out of the ordinary happens. Also, i think putting too much effort into LDing will result in failure. I am constantly thinking about it and I'm one of the lucky ones who have had lucids all my life (didn't start controlling them until I found this site about 2 months ago) but even if I try too hard and mess up my sleep too much to LD, I fail. I also wanted to add in another RC technique I use... I write a small "A" for awake on the palm of my hand and whenever I see it I do a couple RCs, in hopes that in my dream I'll see a "D" for dream or at least see the "A" and trigger a RC. Another thing I do is use a ring I wear. It is a silver ring with a very funky stone in the middle which reminds me of a hypnogogic image so I call it my Lucid Dream Ring and whenever I wear iit and see it, I do a couple RC's. This one worked for me once, I was in a dream and I saw the ring on the floor in front of me, I put it on and immediately went lucid.