Scratched the surface of lucidity

[Traveler]

How frustrating. Last night I had a dream that I went to the "Coroporate End" of my college campus (such a place does not exist, except in my mind), and for a brief moment, I thought to myself in the dream, "Geeze, I don't remember having a corporate end of campus before. This seems pretty weird." And then I shrugged and just kept walking. Given how much crazy stuff happens in my dreams, if I could just train myself to notice it I'd be lucid in no time. So, besides sharing my frustrations for all, the other point of this post is to ask for advice on how to notice these abnormalities. I know I need to start doing 'reality checks,' and I've just started doing so, but does anyone know anything else?

[irishcream]

With regard to reality checks, you have to do them during the day, establish that you are actually awake. (for example, holding your nose and trying to breathe through it, not possible) and then when that works, you have to tell yourself that you are going to apply the same technique in a dream, except the reality check is going to fail, that is, you are going to hold your nose and be able to breathe. One question. Are you keeping a dream journal? It's great for spotting dreamsigns. I've just noticed that two nights in a row, i've dreamed about not being able to send an email, or having to send it to a different address. now when i do my emails,i am going to do a reality check. I hope it works!

[Traveler]

Yes, I've been keeping a dream journal - the one, big overarching dream sign that I noticed right away is video game elements - my dreams are full of them. In one dream I was running around a castle in Germany shooting Nazis with a sniper rifle, and in another I got into a fight with a mountain giant in an office building and was literally punched over two cubicles and into a third. That particular dream was quite exhilarating. I guess I should probably start doing reality checks for video game references during the day, as well as for other weird stuff. My dreams are always bizarre, but the problem is that in them I always just go with the flow and never question anything. I pretty much accept whatever happens as reality without reservations.

[Barbizzle]

HI Trav You should do your reality checks every half hour. I know its a pain in the but, but if you do that, really do that, you will have such a great shot at being Lucid. try it out.

[irishcream]

Every half hour?! i'm too busy to remember to do that...i do them when i remember. Which usually ends up being once in a blue moon...

[eXistenZ]

I wrote four "targets", that are objects or deeds that when occur in reality should trigger a reality check: flower, pets, my face in a mirror and turn on the light. Every time one of these happens (for instance, when I see a flower) I do a RC. More precisely, I should do: I regularly forget to do the RC when the target pops up... I put the post-it with the four targets in my pocket, just to remind me todo RC. It doesn't work for me, but I'm a bad dreamer. eXistenZ

[Barbizzle]

hehe well if i say every half hour, they might do it and definatly have a Lucid dream soon. Or they will tone it down to every 2 hours and thats still veryr good