Thread: Reality Checks, Various Things

Originally Posted by Ethereal

I get what you're saying. You've helped me a ton just today, and I really do try to step into the moment and regard my past memories with suspicion, and check to see if this really is reality.

The problem is, I don't always act out my habits in dreams that often, so I think I'm going to need to rely on noticing dream signs instead. I haven't built up enough of a dream log yet to tell, but mine are either being chased around (happened in all 3 of my recorded dreams) or sensing a sort of witch-fire, eerie green light.

Glad to hear I can help

Relying on habits is just stupid, IMO. If you get into the habit of blowing off a reality check 27 times a day, what's to keep you from blowing off a reality check one time in a dream? Not a whole lot- in fact, you're training yourself to blow off reality checks. Yes, every so often there will be that one time and you will notice you are dreaming. It has happened less than four times since April, for me. Not odds I'm willing to waste lucids on.

The goal of a reality check should be to increase your awareness, to really submerse yourself in the notion that anything could be a dream, and that you have to always be on your toes about what's going on in the world, what makes sense, what you're doing, what your emotions are. The purpose of a reality check is to cultivate this awareness, so that in your dreams you are more aware, more conscious, and more likely to notice that things aren't adding up. Then, you'll be more ready to notice a dream sign, more prepared to do a thorough set of reality checks when you notice your dream signs.

Keeping a dream journal, building recall, and identifying dream signs is THE way to go. But even that isn't necessary, it's simply an aid (dreamsigns, not recall) to helping you with that awareness. I'm not saying don't keep a dream journal, fuck no that is critical as hell. What I'm saying is, the focus should be to increase your awareness and understanding that, just as you feel like you aren't dreaming right now, you COULD be. So reality check! Ok, that failed. Have you done a backup? Ok, that failed too. Try one more time, because you never know. This is how real a dream will feel, and you need to be ready

If you were able to read past that very first suggestion to do a reality check, without stopping everything you were doing, then you need to learn to prioritize your RCing. In a dream, what's to stop you from putting that off and getting distracted? Nothing, and it will happen. So just keep working on the RCs, you will get used to them soon and you will get lucid from them soon