RC's Failed Me!

This is so strange. I had my eleventh lucud dream the other night. I was in math class, and slowly caught on that things were wrong. Finally, I realized it was a dream. I knew it was a dream. I can't say how, but ever since my fourth lucid dream, once I become aware, I can tell a difference between dreaming and real life.

So I knew I was dreaming, but decided to do an RC anyway. I checked my watch three times. Nothing changed. At this point, I walked out of my class, and it was in the wrong section of the school. It definitely was a dream. So I did the plug nose RC. Nothing. I tried to push my finger through my palm. Nothing. It was so weird. I went through every RC I know, and none of them showed I was in a dream. And with every one, I reaffirmed my belief that the time WOULD change when I tried to read my watch again, or I could breathe though I plugged my nose. It didn't do anything. Has this happened to anyone else? It slightly worries me that I will do an RC in a dream, not sure if it is a dream or not, and it will show I'm not.

"or I could breathe though I plugged my nose."

Wait what? The reality check worked if you plugged your nose and air went through when you tried to breathe o. O

The problem here however seems to be that you expected it to be the other way around and because of that you got confused. :content:

No you really should know that it is impossible to breathe through a plugged nose... Plug your nose for real right now and then try to breathe through the nose.

See impossible right? If not you should get your nose checked :shock:

based on what you wrote it looks like you missunderstand the noseplug reality check, or I missunderstand your writing... Hmm..

You looked at your hand twice and counted the fingers?

You plugged the nose and was still not able to breathe through it? - (This can happen if you have a cold and a stuffy nose ^-^)

I can't see it failing in a dream, you seemed aware enough (even lucid) as well, but maybe that's just me.

The best you can do is to try again ;)

But either way, you knew you was dreaming just continue telling yourself that instead. Reality checks aren't necessary for prolonging the dream, if that was your goal. It's a great tool but it is not necessaary.

Just look around and explore, the dream will show you that it is a dream on it's own, if you are paying attention to it.

The nose plug has failed twice for me, but both times I did not assume I may be dreaming (I was sure I was awake and did not seriously test), and I tried one breath. Now I always assume I could be dreaming and breath at least 4 times.

I once had a dream where I got lucid, and reality checked to make sure. But no matter how hard I try to breathe through my plugged nose, I couldn't. I tried it many times, determined to make the reality check work even though I was sure I was already dreaming. I was just kind of annoyed it didn't.

I guess just try to reality check with other things. The school being in the wrong section can also be a reality check in itself, so go with that. When you imagine the time changing, imagine a specific time to change it to, so you have a more concrete idea for when it does change (as opposed to just thinking it will change to anything). Try out gravity, or other magical powers you can think of.

I'm pretty sure many people experience failure with the reality checks (and by fail I mean it tells them it's reality even when it's not). My advice would be practice different reality checks, and don't get used to one or two only. This will give you more alternatives for when one decides to be stubborn and won't work :P

Good luck! And congrats on your lucid :)

One of the few times I got stuck, I just asked myself about what I was doing a couple of hours ago and how did I get there... it was clear to me once I wasn't able to remember a continuous line of events to get there as I do in WL.
Hope this will help

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Originally Posted by Draco77100

This is so strange. I had my eleventh lucud dream the other night. I was in math class, and slowly caught on that things were wrong. Finally, I realized it was a dream. I knew it was a dream. I can't say how, but ever since my fourth lucid dream, once I become aware, I can tell a difference between dreaming and real life.

So I knew I was dreaming, but decided to do an RC anyway. I checked my watch three times. Nothing changed. At this point, I walked out of my class, and it was in the wrong section of the school. It definitely was a dream. So I did the plug nose RC. Nothing. I tried to push my finger through my palm. Nothing. It was so weird. I went through every RC I know, and none of them showed I was in a dream. And with every one, I reaffirmed my belief that the time WOULD change when I tried to read my watch again, or I could breathe though I plugged my nose. It didn't do anything. Has this happened to anyone else? It slightly worries me that I will do an RC in a dream, not sure if it is a dream or not, and it will show I'm not.

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Try breathing through a closed mouth. if your cheeks do not puff up then you should be dreaming. I'm not sure how this or even the plug your nose RC could fail in a dream unless something outside of the dream reality is causing it because those two RC work off real life mechanics. when we breath in a dream, we breath in real life so theres has to be something else causing it to fail.

MasterMind: I think we had a bit of a misunderstanding there. sorry about that, if it didn't make sense its because i wrote it right before bed, because it was starting MILD which reminded me i wanted to write this thread.

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Originally Posted by paigeyemps

I once had a dream where I got lucid, and reality checked to make sure. But no matter how hard I try to breathe through my plugged nose, I couldn't. I tried it many times, determined to make the reality check work even though I was sure I was already dreaming. I was just kind of annoyed it didn't.

I guess just try to reality check with other things. The school being in the wrong section can also be a reality check in itself, so go with that. When you imagine the time changing, imagine a specific time to change it to, so you have a more concrete idea for when it does change (as opposed to just thinking it will change to anything). Try out gravity, or other magical powers you can think of.

I'm pretty sure many people experience failure with the reality checks (and by fail I mean it tells them it's reality even when it's not). My advice would be practice different reality checks, and don't get used to one or two only. This will give you more alternatives for when one decides to be stubborn and won't work :P

Good luck! And congrats on your lucid :)

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That's exactly what it felt like, all of my RC's just failed. Yes, i knew it was a dream already, but it was just astounding to me to have a reality check fail like that.

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Originally Posted by intheworldofnim

Try breathing through a closed mouth. if your cheeks do not puff up then you should be dreaming. I'm not sure how this or even the plug your nose RC could fail in a dream unless something outside of the dream reality is causing it because those two RC work off real life mechanics. when we breath in a dream, we breath in real life so theres has to be something else causing it to fail.

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I will have to try that one, its new to me.

Thank you everyone for your posts! I was a little worried about it becoming a normal thing in a dream, im glad to find that it does happen.

This has happened to me also. 3 reality checks failed....so I became lucid in a dream, flew out of the window and high in the sky over to a local park. Landed...decided to to my reality checks (it did not occur to me that flying there was a pretty good one).

Tried to stretch my finger - fail
Tried to push my finger through my hand - fail
Tried to breathe through my nose with it plugged - fail

Confused I flew off wondering what else I could do to prove I was dreaming.....I'm an idiot.

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Originally Posted by thebigm

This has happened to me also. 3 reality checks failed....so I became lucid in a dream, flew out of the window and high in the sky over to a local park. Landed...decided to to my reality checks (it did not occur to me that flying there was a pretty good one).

Tried to stretch my finger - fail
Tried to push my finger through my hand - fail
Tried to breathe through my nose with it plugged - fail

Confused I flew off wondering what else I could do to prove I was dreaming.....I'm an idiot.

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Don't you just love those types of things? You wake up the next morning, and instantly face palm. My best include trying to WILD...in a dream.

i think most confusion about reality checks arises from the term we use: fail.

for some, when a reality check fails, it means that it's not a dream. but , shouldn't it be the other way around? when a reality check fails, it means that when you checked for reality, it failed, which means it's not reality and is therefore a dream.

i think when they say it failed, it simply means that what they tried to do didn't work. like when they tried to plug their nose and breathe, and they couldn't. it failed. this doesn't necessarily mean that just because it "failed", it "fails" being a dream, which is the total opposite!

hope this clears things up. :)