I do not believe in RC.

Sometimes I think this RC thing is non sense. I does not matter how unrealistic are my dreams. I do not realize that I am dreaming. A few days ago in one of my dreams I saw an elephant painting, and that is no unusual, but when I asked it about his artistic behavior, the elephant said " that is nothing, I can use a stappler and showed me two pieces of paper that he (or she? ) had previously stapled. Last night I saw and egg. I some way I coud see inside of it. There were some little snakes. All of the sudden the litlle snakes broke free and in a rare metamorphosis began to fly. At tha point there were no snakes but fish with wings. I depaitated one using a machete...bla ...bla bla..

Well, the issue is that I RARELY have lucid dream. They are short. About two or three minutes. But in every one of them lately, I realized that I am dreaming without doing any RC. They are normal dreams, about my family in Cuba when I was a child ( 1954- 1957). It is simple, I realized that I am dreaming. The only thing I do is trying to remember the date, son when I am awake I am 100% sure that it was a lucid dream. In all those dreams the atmosphere is like being in a color movie. I realize when the dream is fading. When I wake up, I feel like my blood pressure is 200/120. Sorry for my English.

mmm, maybe you are doing your RC improperly?

try to do them with too much awareness, so that the dream will not fool you ;)
how much time did you tried these things??

RC's are not nonsense. If you never question your state of reality in the waking world.. How will you ever do it in the dreaming world?

Spiritofthewolf

Actually, I sort of agree with you, in a way. I've never *needed* a reality check to become lucid (so far), but I think it is a good idea to reality check often or whenever you see something strange, in the hopes that you will remember in your dreams and alert you.

Spiritofthewolf, you are perhaps the member to whom I pay more attention, but in real life I do not have to question my awareness. In dream I have never question my awareness either. Whe I have a lucid dream, it is very simple, I know that from the beginning.

I think reality checks are mostly just to change your point of view throughout the day. They help keep you from getting carried away in your thoughts, or zombified by whatever you are doing. They are an excercise to train your brain to stay more aware.

Once you have this awareness trained, it will pop up more and more in your dreams. As soon as you switch on that "aware mode," It is normally obvious that you are dreaming. Even if nothing strange is happening, most dreams just have a certain "dreamy" feeling. Be careful, however. Some dreams are incredibly realistic and convincing. I've had some dreams where I was still incredulous, even after doing several reality checks. They are rare, but you still have to watch out for them. Your dream can feel just like real life.

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Originally Posted by sanctispiritus

Spiritofthewolf, you are perhaps the member to whom I pay more attention, but in real life I do not have to question my awareness. In dream I have never question my awareness either. Whe I have a lucid dream, it is very simple, I know that from the beginning.

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Yah it's interesting you say that, because I just woke up from a nap, and I just knew it was a dream without doing a reality check. It happens every now and again! :P

RC daily has gotten me almost all of my lucid dreams including the one I had last night! =)

What type of exercise can I do to avoid daydreaming all the time. When I drive to work in the morning I do not remember even where I stopped at the red lights. It does not matter how hard I try to stake focus. My mind is allways wandering. I realize that could happen during my dreams.

I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to grab some grapes from a high vine, but I jut can't reach them! Bah, they're probably sour, anyways! :mad:

I could not believed what happened last night. I had thre lucid dreams in a row. AS is happening all the time, I do not to do any RC. I realized that I am dreaming from the beginning. The first lucid dream was short, ( like 2 or three minutes ) I awoke and went to the bathroom. I came back and all of the sudden I was lucid dreaming again. The subject of the dream were more or less the same. At some point I was tired because I could not change the dream. For some reason I could not rotate like I have done in other dreams, so I decided to wake up. it is interesting because I rarely have lucid dreams ( one a month). I never thought that a decrepit person like me ( 60 years old) could do that. Anyway, who is the oldest person in this forum.?

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Originally Posted by ld411

RC daily has gotten me almost all of my lucid dreams including the one I had last night! =)

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Yeah for sure 6/7 of my dreams were from RCs :)

sanctispiritus, I'm like you. Whenever I have a Lucid Dream, I just know, and I don't RC. But I don't view them as useless because of the way I do use them. When I get Lucid, I use RCs as dream stabilizers. I've just actually started doing this in my Lucids (the 1st time I did it was during my 6th LD), and it's helped immensely in keeping the dream stable so I don't wake up prematurely. If you try this the next time you are Lucid, I guarantee that you won't view RCs as useless anymore. :)

90% (a loose estimate) of LDing is mental. If you do not believe in RCs then they will never work for you. If you don't believe you can become lucid, then you never will. You have to be positive in every aspect and actually believe in order for alot of things to work. Sounds silly to some, but the good LDers know they are good and know what they do will work. Just a thought for you.

Like Snowy said, RCs are great stabilizers. Often times I become lucid without the need of RCs, but out of my 51 DILDs at least half (maybe a bit less) were from Reality Checks. They definately work if you are practicing them right. Here is a little hint, when doing an RC in waking life, pretend that you are dreaming. Look around at your environment and pretend that it is all a dream. Convince yourself that it is a dream until you RC then you realize it isn't. Give it a try.

Oh, kingyoshi, that's very interesting, I'm going to use it! thanks!

At first I was wondering if you were even being serious. It seems that some people actually agree that they aren't that helpful.

I've been caught off guard when I noticed the digital clock in my truck said something like 9:84 and I was like "cool I'm dreaming" but if it would have said a normal time (which has happened) I just continue on with the dream assuming I'm awake.

I don't rely on reality checking that often but it has helped.

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Originally Posted by sanctispiritus

What type of exercise can I do to avoid daydreaming all the time. When I drive to work in the morning I do not remember even where I stopped at the red lights. It does not matter how hard I try to stake focus. My mind is allways wandering. I realize that could happen during my dreams.

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I understand this. I am a daydreamer. Meditation helps a lot with general mental focus.

When I am driving, music helps me focus. I think my creative side is getting stimulated (talked to by the music) so it kind of shuts up. When I am driving, I actually say in my head, "I am driving, I am driving." I think about how I enjoy the freedom of being able to control this machine of transportation.

Living in the present in everything helps. For example, when I cut vegetables, I say, "I am cutting vegetables. Cut, cut, cut!" in my head, and I am less likely to cut my hand.

I enjoy my food a lot more, too.

Increasing awareness in waking life will increase awareness in dreams. Living in the present means being aware of yourself, your thoughts, your emotions, your body, you surroundings.

Oh, and I'm 34, if that means anything to you. My mom is 59, and lucid dreams all the time.

To keep from daydreaming, I try to pay attention to my point of view. I take a few minutes here and there to think about the interaction between my body, my vision, and my imagination. How are they all combining to create the world I am experiencing? A lot of times, I will be completely ignoring my body, and paying attention to only my vision. Other times, I will be ignoring both my body and my vision, and lost in a daydream.

Driving is hard, because the car becomes an extension of your body. Your point of view changes to accommodate the speed and scale of the driving environment.

You could argue that trying to remember the date is a reality check itself.

I need to increase my awareness when I'm outside. When I'm home I RC a ton but once I'm outside I get lost I guess. I'm hoping to change this soon since most of my dreams take place outside.

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Originally Posted by sanctispiritus

Sometimes I think this RC thing is non sense. I does not matter how unrealistic are my dreams. I do not realize that I am dreaming. A few days ago in one of my dreams I saw an elephant painting, and that is no unusual, but when I asked it about his artistic behavior, the elephant said " that is nothing, I can use a stappler and showed me two pieces of paper that he (or she? ) had previously stapled. Last night I saw and egg. I some way I coud see inside of it. There were some little snakes. All of the sudden the litlle snakes broke free and in a rare metamorphosis began to fly. At tha point there were no snakes but fish with wings. I depaitated one using a machete...bla ...bla bla..

Well, the issue is that I RARELY have lucid dream. They are short. About two or three minutes. But in every one of them lately, I realized that I am dreaming without doing any RC. They are normal dreams, about my family in Cuba when I was a child ( 1954- 1957). It is simple, I realized that I am dreaming. The only thing I do is trying to remember the date, son when I am awake I am 100% sure that it was a lucid dream. In all those dreams the atmosphere is like being in a color movie. I realize when the dream is fading. When I wake up, I feel like my blood pressure is 200/120. Sorry for my English.

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It is non-sense if you are using RCs to have lucid dreams. RCs are after you are aware that it may be a dream, it's to confirm the flimsy possibility that you may be in a dream. You should focus on dream awareness instead of RCs. Pick on anything that may be dreamlike or suggest that it may be a dream when awake and because it is dreamlike..think.....'I may be dreaming' and really feel the doubt that you may in fact be dreaming, THEN you do the RC.

IMJ

I believe it depends on the person, it doesn't work for some and does for others. It works for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sanctispiritus

What type of exercise can I do to avoid daydreaming all the time. When I drive to work in the morning I do not remember even where I stopped at the red lights. It does not matter how hard I try to stake focus. My mind is allways wandering. I realize that could happen during my dreams.

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Live in the moment. When you are driving, focus all your mental energy on what you are doing. Be deliberate with your moments. Sit up straight. Breathe deep. Look at the road. Be aware of the other people. Be aware of their machines. Feel the seat. Feel the pedals and the steering wheel.

Save day dreaming for another time, such as lunch.