A Hypothetical Question

**Invictus** · 11-02-2009 07:00 AM

If I set some sort of alarm to go off every 5 minutes, and did an RC every time it went off, would that transfer to my dream?

I tend to have rather surreal dreams that, though they are based off my life, don't follow many of the rules that govern real life. Also, aren't electronics supposed to malfunction during dreams anyway? That would tend to render the RCs useless.

**Rainman** · 11-02-2009 07:09 AM

For "most" people, electronic devices mis-operate in dreams. That doesn't necessarily mean that they don't work, it often just means that they don't work as intended, in my experience. So it could work, but I'm a little confused about what you're trying, if you could clarify for us.

Do you plan to practice with an alarm every five minutes in the waking world, and then have a "dream alarm clock" go off, and RC? Or have your real alarm clock go off next to your bed as you're dreaming, and you hope you hear it?

Either way, that approach, in my experience, doesn't seem to go to well. At least for me (excuse my redundancy) it has no effect at all. In my opinion, a more effective method for using reality checks would be to read your dream journal, and look back for recurring patterns or themes. Remember what those themes are, concentrate on them for a few days, and tell yourself that when you see a particular theme (or dream sign- something that signifies to YOU from your experiences that you're dreaming), that you will do a reality check. This method works wonders for me, and I wonder if it might work for you.

Good luck!

**Armistice** · 11-02-2009 08:49 AM

Imagine how old that would become. Then it won't be because you question reality, it'll be because an alarm reminds you. I think that you'll eventually tire of it and either quit, or you'll become like a drone and RC but not actually think about the RC, in which case it's no longer doing good if you're not focusing on it

For me, I've started doing RCs the last 2 days and I just do them at times when I remember about dreaming, or something from these forums, or if something reminds me of one of my dreams from the last week, or if I'm doing an assessment of my surroundings. We shall see if my method works

**Rainman** · 11-02-2009 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by Armistice

I think that you'll eventually tire of it and either quit, or you'll become like a drone and RC but not actually think about the RC, in which case it's no longer doing good if you're not focusing on it

I think that is absolutely 100% correct. That happened to me. I wrote "RC" on my hand for a while, and everytime I saw my hand, I would RC. After a while, I just RCed by routine, and didn't actually fully mentally engage myself in the process, and thus it never really worked.