Thread: Failed Reality Checks!

In my first ever lucid dream, I attempted to push my hand through a wall. What I got instead was a huge imprint of my hand on the wall. Though the wall was pushed in with ease, my hand could not go all the way through it.

I think reality checks are pretty subjective. There are some that work without fail, for instance: plugging your nose and still attempting to breathe through it. In your case with the hand-through-hand check, my guess would be that you have to press hard simply due to the ingraned laws of physics that surround you in your waking world. Your brain knows that in reality, it is not possible to fit your hand through the other. Since your dream is still sensed as a reality by your mind, without the explicit realization that you are dreaming, forcing your mind to comprehend this, you will not be able to defy any of these laws -- without practice, of course.

You just really have to expect it to work. In a dream when doing an RC or something else, you shouldn't really say, for example "I will see if I will be able to spawn that car" or "I will try to push my finger through my hand". You should not think of you failing. You should just spawn it, just believe it will appear. Or not try to push your finger through your hand, but just push it through. I am not good at explaining/teaching things, but I hope you understood what I had in mind.

I would aim for RC that are not based off laws like that yet....for a lot of people pushing your hand through a wall doesnt work. I have been lucid many many times and a lot of the time it was through checking the clock which worked when a hand through the wall or through my finger did not.

In saying that my first lucid dream was using the hand through a wall tech. My advice would this; when you are doing the RC while awake, really imagine what it would look like if you were in a dream, what would happened, what would it feel like , would the wall move or would your finger just slide in, would there be ripples or would it be cold and hard and be very firm? Really try to see in your mind what it would be like and you will have yourself an RC that should work a lot better then if you "just did it" for the sake of it while awake.

R

I second the suggestion to use the plugging your nose method. The sensation of air rushing through your plugged nose just wakes you right into full lucidity.

Dont trust a single RC! All reality checks will fail sometime. I uses the finger reality check, since i finds it very reliable(Most of the time you'll have like 8 fingers at each hand. You might find it discusting, but i works.)
So most of time i do like three to five reality checks at the same time.

//Zelzahim

I love the hand RC. I use it all the time and it's never failed me. The first time it worked for me was my first-ever LD. It was astounding. "One, two, three, four, five... SIX?!"

I just woke up from a failed lucid dream. I knew I was dreaming because I was late for school and was worried my mom would catch me sleeping so I needed to wake up. [I don't go to school nor do I live with my mom anymore lol]

I did the rubbing hands. Failed.
I did the plugging nose, I still breathed through my ears. Failed.
I tried commanding a rope to pull me through the dimension towards lucidity. I didn't get a rope but I did get a line of energy that somewhat resembled a rope and I'll tell you what, it worked about as much as a streak of light would in the real world... not at all.

Then I woke up, lame. I'm not too upset because my conscienceness in dreams have soared as of lately. This is almost three nights in a row. Pretty sweet.

well the whole point of a reality check is to make sure you are not awake correct? so i've never really agreed with people saying things like "im awake!" or "im dreaming!" you can tell yourself anything over over again and still not believe it. thats why physical reality checks are the best. the best way is to plug your nose like others have suggested. the reason for this is that it can be done anywhere anytime without being noticed by others. you cant exactly say "Im awake!" in the middle of a classroom.

by the way tranguility that spiderman web slinging is one of the best things to do in lucid dreams i think!

Originally Posted by FluBB

well the whole point of a reality check is to make sure you are not awake correct? so i've never really agreed with people saying things like "im awake!" or "im dreaming!" you can tell yourself anything over over again and still not believe it. thats why physical reality checks are the best. the best way is to plug your nose like others have suggested. the reason for this is that it can be done anywhere anytime without being noticed by others. you cant exactly say "Im awake!" in the middle of a classroom.

by the way tranguility that spiderman web slinging is one of the best things to do in lucid dreams i think!

Whenever I say "I'm dreaming" I gain full lucidity. If I do a reality check and it works but I don't tell myself I'm dreaming I don't have full control over the dream. Only once was I able to not say it and have control - my whole problem is the habit of saying, "I'm awake!" every time I do a reality check which is bad since I got in the habit of saying it and said it while dreaming.

So I agree that it should be avoided if possible, but sometimes it's just the trick to gain control. I'm working on a different approach so I don't confused myself again.

With all the hard work I did, I somehow managed tonight to get a dream, in which I said to myself:"This could be a dream!"
And I looked at my watch, looked away, and again looked my watch. Time was correct!!! Than I tried to push my finger through my other hand, and it didn`t work. I don`t remember what happened after that, but I think I didn`t start lucid dreaming.

Originally Posted by Zelzahim

Dont trust a single RC! All reality checks will fail sometime. I uses the finger reality check, since i finds it very reliable(Most of the time you'll have like 8 fingers at each hand. You might find it discusting, but i works.)
So most of time i do like three to five reality checks at the same time.

//Zelzahim

Recently in a dream I finally did the hand over nose and mouth and breathing however the check failed and i carried on normally dreaming. How the hell did this happen?

I usually have to give a bit of push for my finger(s) to go through my hand. I can't just wave it through as if my hand were transparent; more like I was shoving it through play-dough.

I find that sometimes the finger-counting RC fails for me, though.

Originally Posted by DeepSleepDreamer

Recently in a dream I finally did the hand over nose and mouth and breathing however the check failed and i carried on normally dreaming. How the hell did this happen?

i dont know if this is how everyone is, but when i do reality checks like this I try and pay attention to how i feel. I usually can tell that i am dreaming before a reality check because i can tell my body doesnt feel right. when you do your reality checks try and make them actual reality checks. where you honestly question whether or not you could be awake or not. your body and your feelings are a big part of that.

Well, judging by the replies here it seems that all reality checks can fail. I have a theory that even if you're not lucid you still have some control over your dream hence the fact that you're preforming a reality check in the first place. Often when dreaming I realize that nothing can hurt me or that I will not feel pain if something bites/stabs me. Even though I'm not lucid I still know certain things.

I think a lot of the time we do things in our dreams like take control over a situation even though we are not lucid. This can only defend that we always have control but don't necessarily realize it.

-Chase

This thread is very helpful! I found it because I just had a frustrating yet exciting experience in which I came very close to becoming lucid, yet failed TWO reality checks in the span of about thirty seconds.

I saw a blue cat and decided to do an RC: I tried to push my finger through my hand, but did it fairly half-heartedly as my main focus in the dream was getting to a toilet to pee. So this one failed.

Then, I saw my reflection in a mirror and looked at it closely to see if anything seemed unusual, but it didn't.

But thanks to this thread I am going to approach RCs in a much different way from now on, and use more of my conscious suspension of disbelief.

haha thats great!! try the breathing one with pluggin your nose. its usually a give away when you can breathe while plugging all your airways! people have to realize that dreams arent bound by physical laws. there are some things we cant do, but they are few and practically irrelevant. remember, there is no spoon.

I have successfully checked my reality in a dream only once using the nose plug technique. Every other time I've become lucid was by noticing something out of the ordinary. I am relatively new to the dream scene, though with my recent interest in dream yoga I've been putting more thought in RCs.

I first do the popular nose plug, then take the same hand I was using and count its fingers. Then ask myself where I am, how did I get there, and why I'm there. I've been doing this for about a week and I have become lucid once though not because of an RC. Still, seems like a fool proof method.

yep, its a combination of practice, awareness, and technique that get you lucid dreams.

I know it doesn't officially qualify, because I can't actually do it while I'm awake, but in a dream my reality check is can I fly? And finally it sinks in that I never consider trying to fly while I'm awake, so just the idea that I want to try to fly is a clue that it's a dream. If I can fly. I'm in a dream. If I TRY to fly. I'm in a dream.

Originally Posted by Timeless08

I would aim for RC that are not based off laws like that yet....for a lot of people pushing your hand through a wall doesnt work. I have been lucid many many times and a lot of the time it was through checking the clock which worked when a hand through the wall or through my finger did not.

In saying that my first lucid dream was using the hand through a wall tech. My advice would this; when you are doing the RC while awake, really imagine what it would look like if you were in a dream, what would happened, what would it feel like , would the wall move or would your finger just slide in, would there be ripples or would it be cold and hard and be very firm? Really try to see in your mind what it would be like and you will have yourself an RC that should work a lot better then if you "just did it" for the sake of it while awake.

R

hmm very interesting tip on the RC's...

The very first time I tried to fly out a window, I crashed against it it was quite funny! lol, but I went back to it and did it little by little... like my hand first... Its so hard to explain but, its like I knew i could traspass it so even tho there was resistance from the window at first (just like there Would be in real life) but i thought, I CAN do this here... I didn't push it, like its been said here, that's using force... just trasspass it, as simple as that, put your hand on the wall or window and see it going thru it, and it will, don't try too hard, just do it/.... to me it feels like this weird energy, its so hard to explain... feels awesome, there's nothing in waking life i can compare it to

In 3 years of LD practice, the nose-plug RC has never failed me once. I don't really need RCs much anymore, but that one is particularly effective. Also, definitely try to break the "I'm awake" habit. In fact, saying you're dreaming doesn't work well either, because in your waking world, you know it isn't true, and that assumption carries into the dream. You have to base things on the impossible RCs.

Originally Posted by zobey

In 3 years of LD practice, the nose-plug RC has never failed me once. I don't really need RCs much anymore, but that one is particularly effective. Also, definitely try to break the "I'm awake" habit. In fact, saying you're dreaming doesn't work well either, because in your waking world, you know it isn't true, and that assumption carries into the dream. You have to base things on the impossible RCs.

i agree completely.. in 4 years of xp nose plug is the way to go.