tl;dr: These techniques do not do essentially the same things. Like a regular RC, a critical state test is a valuable tool, and would work well if done just before a RRC: the state test might bring you to lucidity ("Hey! This is a dream!"), and then the RRC might open you up to the potentials of lucidity ("This entire world is me; cool!"). A critical state test is more interested in the function of awareness than it is in the acknowledgement and acquisition of self-awareness and memory. The two techniques are similar in that they are both meant to aid lucidity, but they are not essentially the same because they do two very different, though certainly complementary, things.
Bookmarks