Reality Check that has worked for me

Hi there-
I just found this forum and wanted to share a technique I have used which has led to my first and only Lucid dream. Let me share the dream with you first, then I will explain the technique.
About 7 years ago I was staying at my fathers house. I was sleeping in a guest room and upon falling asleep I used my technique and had the felling of waking up inside the dream. Of being in complete control..as if I were out of my material body but fully aware. I looked down and saw my body sleeping and knew that I was dreaming. At this point I headed for the front door of the house and as I started to think of where I was going to go I saw a flash of light and was awake in my bed. It was dissapointing to say the least, but has inspired me to try again.
At the time of having this lucid dream I was keeping a dream journal and working to develop more awareness and memory of my dreams. I think this helped along with the following technique:
During the day periodically look at your hand. At first just look at it as a whole. Then focus in and bring the detail of your hand into focus. Look at the wrinkles in your skin, make out the fine details of your finger prints. Now slowly bring your focus up from your hand into your surroundings. Do this a couple times a day to build the routine firmly into your subconscience. Before you go to sleep at night think about your hand(insert lewd joke here) and visualize yourself looking at your hand. If the technique is working properly and you realize you are dreaming, look at your hand and try to render the detail in it. This will bring you out of your subconscience mind and into your waking self. When you first look at your hand it will appear as a blob, but as you look closer you will see more and more detail and even color. When you have rendered as much detail as possible SLOWLY look up into the dreamscape. You have to do this slowly so that you don't snap back into the dream world and your subconscience. If you do start slipping back look down at your hand and repeat the technique. You should now be fully aware inside your dream.
I hope it works for you the way it worked for me. Good Luck!

it sounds to me like what you had was an OBE.

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Originally posted by hysteria
it sounds to me like what you had was an OBE.

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Nah...it sounds like a typical lucid dream to me. Why do you think it sounds like an OBE? I have had lucids where I saw myself asleep in bed.

Anyways...about the hand...I guess because I am an artist and have already done intensive hand studies I don't need to study my hands during the day. But I do find that once I am lucid...looking down at my hands and looking at all the wrinkles and details in them will most certainly increase my lucidity. This actually works with anything. If you were to kneel down and study the fibers on the carpet, or the grains in the sand...your dream will become much more realistic.

That sounds like a good RC to me! Thank you for sharing. I think also that focusing on a part of yourself would be slightly better than focusing on the detail of an inanimate object, for the purpose of inducing lucidity anyway, because you are relying entirely on yourself to do it.

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Originally posted by Rakkantekimusouka
That sounds like a good RC to me! Thank you for sharing. I think also that focusing on a part of yourself would be slightly better than focusing on the detail of an inanimate object, for the purpose of inducing lucidity anyway, because you are relying entirely on yourself to do it.

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Agreed. You may waste your time trying to look for a book to read or a clock where as you can just try to float, or stick your finger through your palm, or pinch your nose or something that is readily available.