Could this be used?

Hello everyone :) So just to start out with i am making some progress with my dream journal because i found out who my dream sign is... She keeps on appearing in every dream :D
Well my question is, about reality check. I have this rubber ball that i like playing with, and could i use it as a reality check? Like totems in Inception? Would it bounce naturaly in a dream, or would it bounce forever? Because the spinning toy was actually a decent totem? So would any of the totems actually work dreams if you always play with them in real world? Thanks :)

It will probably do what you expect it to do in RL and won't be a reliable RC.

Yes it might but i mean all the scrathes on it... I dont think a dream could really remake all of them :D lets wait for someone elseespond

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Originally Posted by TheyCallMeHawke

lets wait for someone elseespond

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I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Seriously though, I would expect my own dreams to be able to accurately recreate the ball and its scratches, but something my own dreams has never got right is my hands: there are too many fingers, or not enough, or they're badly distorted. You might find checking your hands to be a more reliable check...or you might not.

I think in a dream the ball will react and look exactly how you expect it would in real life. If you really want to incorporate the ball into your RC's you could just keep it in your pocket and do a more reliable RC every time you notice it's there. When I was doing RC's regularly I almost never had to do them in a dream to become lucid, I just spontaneously got that unmistakable "whoa, this is a dream!" feeling much more often. I think getting in the habit of frequently kickstarting the logic center (not sure if this is the correct terminology) of your brain what makes RC's work so well.

Also, totems in Inception react exactly how they would expect if it was their own dream, it only looked funny if someone else was hosting their dream.

I find that totems aren't as effective as just counting your fingers as a reality check and I think it would just work best if you did that. there is a man on youtube that treid this experiment, his name is GizEdwards if you want to go check it out.

Issues with ball as reality check:

1) in dream you might be able to correctly recreate it
2) if your mind does not correctly recreate all scratches, your mind might not be aware enough to miss them, so you might think that it looks just right in the dream when it might not
3) a good reality check should not rely on the presence of an item such as a ball because then you cannot do a reality check in the shower or if you forget the ball
4) your dreaming mind might rationalize if the ball is not there by just thinking "I guess I must have forgotten and left the ball at home."

The best reality check involves your carefully thinking about what you just did, whether anything is not as expected and why, does not rely in any specific items and can be done anywhere any time. also ideally do several types of RCs every time because any one of them may be unreliable. So for example, you could bounce your ball + look at your hands + try to breathe when holding nose closed + try to recall last five minutes of your activity + recall any dream signs you identified and check whether anything around you is like them. That would be a good reality check.

Joanna explained it well.

Also, nothing you saw in the movie Inception should be used as you try and learn lucid dreaming. Nothing. The movie is pure fiction and not based in any way on the reality of lucid dreaming.

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Originally Posted by Bobblehat

Seriously though, I would expect my own dreams to be able to accurately recreate the ball and its scratches, but something my own dreams has never got right is my hands: there are too many fingers, or not enough, or they're badly distorted. You might find checking your hands to be a more reliable check...or you might not.

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you are right here, so if i play with a ball i hold it in my palm right? And if i do i am looking at my hand which might look different which willmake me think like, wait its a dream! Chances are that a ball could begia

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Originally Posted by JoannaB

Issues with ball as reality check:

1) in dream you might be able to correctly recreate it
2) if your mind does not correctly recreate all scratches, your mind might not be aware enough to miss them, so you might think that it looks just right in the dream when it might not
3) a good reality check should not rely on the presence of an item such as a ball because then you cannot do a reality check in the shower or if you forget the ball
4) your dreaming mind might rationalize if the ball is not there by just thinking "I guess I must have forgotten and left the ball at home."

The best reality check involves your carefully thinking about what you just did, whether anything is not as expected and why, does not rely in any specific items and can be done anywhere any time. also ideally do several types of RCs every time because any one of them may be unreliable. So for example, you could bounce your ball + look at your hands + try to breathe when holding nose closed + try to recall last five minutes of your activity + recall any dream signs you identified and check whether anything around you is like them. That would be a good reality check.

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that is actually the best answer and it explained my question fully. thanks a lot!