RCs Fail - The Clock RC Failed Me

**Loaf** · 12-03-2010 08:45 AM

To anyone that thinks looking at a clock is a foolproof RC method, you are wrong. I had a dream where I thought I was going home, so my subconscious made the time 3:15PM on my watch. After a while, I figured time must have passed by and it was then 3:20PM.

Conclusion: If you expect a time, it'll appear. Therefore, the clock RC fails, because once you have seen a time you'll expect it to be there again.

Do note, checking a clock is a good method to get lucid. But, its not perfect.

**Zephyrus** · 12-03-2010 10:56 AM

it is a dodgey reality check, but not as embarrasasing as pinching your nose in public (i never do that, however in my dreams i always RC like that). i find that the time stays close to or around the time you last saw it, in one lucid the time was 2:30 i looked away and did something. looked again and it was 2:00, it took awhile for me to become completetly lucid. I also find if you look at a analog clock for more than 5 secs then the seconds start to become out of time

**zebrah** · 12-03-2010 03:50 PM

If you expect expect the RC to fail it will translate into your dreams. Simply expect your clock to show the wrong time during the day. Any RC can fail considering your mind is simply that your mind.

**Loaf** · 12-03-2010 10:03 PM

Originally Posted by Zebrah

If you expect expect the RC to fail it will translate into your dreams. Simply expect your clock to show the wrong time during the day. Any RC can fail considering your mind is simply that your mind.

I wasn't expecting anything beyond what I assumed the time to be.

**MrTransitory** · 12-03-2010 10:21 PM

That must've been one firm expectation. Is this largely reflected in your typical dreamworld, that is, is it stable and coherent?

**ruba** · 12-03-2010 10:41 PM

That said, the best RC's are always mental. tracing back your steps, trying to make something float
however, you HAVE to believe it's possible, or it won't.

**Loaf** · 12-03-2010 10:56 PM

Do note I've been using the clock RC for two years now. Just, I've seen people try to claim that RCs are bulletproof and other silly crap and I think its important people don't get that frame of mind.

**TheShadow** · 12-06-2010 05:06 AM

It's a dream... the only things that are bulletproof are the things you expect to be ... any RC can fail, and any RC can work, that's why its always best to do at least 2 RC's every time you think of it IRL. Personally I do the nose pinch then look at my hands, and every time i see a mirror i examine myself and my hands. Also, any time you think "that's weird" or anything similar in real life, that is the perfect time to RC because lots of weird stuff happens in your dreams. When i first saw snow on the ground I did a RC and realized I had forgot my back pack in a lecture hall, possibly saved me from losing a laptop haha, real life applications for lucid dreaming.

**Loaf** · 12-06-2010 08:25 AM

Yeah, clock RC, hands, and nose pinch are things I all do before being fully convinced I'm in a dream.

**TheShadow** · 12-06-2010 09:16 AM

In all 5 of my LD's (lol, im a bit of a noob) I haven't done one RC ... the first LD I had i just thought to my self "when i get home, my dream should end" and when i got home and my dream didnt, i was like "woah, my dad has black hair and im dreaming!" ... in my second one i looked at the sun and it was like a kindergarten's drawing of the sun, with just a cicle and spikes going all the way around it and i was like haha, the sun is on fire, i must be dreaming (i was just joking but it made me LD lol ... ) ... then in my third fourth and fifth i just WBTB'd, though on my fifth it was different in that i felt myself literally falling into the dream .. i was falling and spinning backwards, then i went into the dream and i was falling through the sky, thought to myself when i hit the ground ill smash into it like a meteor, make a huge explosion, but not be hurt ... but right after that i just flipped over and flew for the first time ... pretty epic, learning to fly while falling through the sky

**Puffin** · 12-06-2010 05:11 PM

The time on a digital clock, for me, changes whenever I look away and back again. Sometimes if I look at it for a few moments, the time will even change in front of me - usually consecutively as well. For instance, it would be at 8:55, then change to 8:56, then 8:57.

It has only failed me once, but that's enough reason to not rely solely on the clock RC.

Like you Loaf, I usually do the nose-pinch, then look at my hands, then a clock if there's one around.

**JenMarie** · 12-06-2010 07:03 PM

I remember having a dream once where I looked at my digital watch... It was like I DEFINITELY wanted to become lucid, but it just never happened. I don't even have a digital watch.

**Requiem** · 12-08-2010 12:08 AM

it sounds like you weren't doing a reality check. you were just checking the time. you gotta expect a different time to do the rc. that doesn't always work though. most of the time it does.

**Puffin** · 12-08-2010 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by Requiem

it sounds like you weren't doing a reality check. you were just checking the time. you gotta expect a different time to do the rc. that doesn't always work though. most of the time it does.

Not necessarily. Usually I'm not thinking anything when I do the RC.

**MadMonkey** · 12-08-2010 12:21 AM

No reality check is full proof and actualy for me the clock is usualy similar or the same the first time. Stephan Laberge says that it is much better to look away and look back more two or three times because every time you do it it i much more likly to change. Also you shouldn't wait 5 minuites to look back. You should only look away a couple of seconds because the reason the RC works is because your brain has a hard time compregending letters in dreams so giving your subconscious more time to figure out what the clock should say. Still, no matter how reliable a reality check is it can still fail and is best to do more than one type of RC.