Thread: Is Lucid dreaming Reality checks similar to Insanity/going crazy?

Though the OP of this thread is some 4 years old, I feel a need to respond to this, and the conversation in general.

The premise of the OP, basically this:

Originally Posted by voByJunior2013

So i am reading and hearing( in video tutorials) that you have to repeatedly do reality checks in your waking life and like ask yourself seriously if you're dreaming and like talk to yourself.

... is categorically wrong, and represents a real failure in communicating what a RC actually is.

Critical state tests, or RC's, were originally meant to confirm that you are not dreaming, and not the other way around.

In other words, when doing a RC you are questioning a reality you already know is true (waking-life), in the hopes that you might be in a reality that you didn't expect (a dream). This is very handy if you should happen to do a RC during a dream and it works (i.e., your finger passes through your palm), because then you can come to realize that you are dreaming. But the opposite is absurd: to try to imagine that you are dreaming when you know damn well you are not dreaming is indeed an exercise in insanity, and by no means helps improve your LD'ing prospects.

I'm not sure where this whole "assume you are dreaming during your RC" rule came from, but I think it originated because Stephen LaBerge, the guy who basically defined state tests (RC's), suggested that you imagine you are dreaming after you performed the RC (and it failed, proving you are awake), just to get a dreamy sort of mindset in your head during a moment you happened to be thinking about dreaming. That imagining is a completely different step that has nothing to do with the RC itself, but over time the two somehow got conflated, I think.

So, in a nutshell: RC's are incredibly simple things to do: if, say, your finger doesn't pass through your hand, you are wake. Period. Doing things like imagining you are dreaming (when you know you obviously are not) are not part of RC's at all, and such counter-intuitive complications them will only lead to confusion.

Here finally is the sequence for RC's as they were originally concieved: Something happens that is odd (or perhaps you just rememebr to RC), and you ask the question: "Is this a dream?" ... you ask that question with the assumption that you are not dreaming, but do the RC just to be sure. Then, if your RC works (i.e., your finger won't pass through your palm), then you have confirmed your reality and that you are awake, but if it fails (i.e., your finger passes through your palm), then you are dreaming. It really is that simple; all that convincing of yourself that your are dreaming, when you know you are not, is utterly unnecessary during a RC.