Reality Checks, Various Things

Hi. Ive been here before months ago, I began to try really hard to lucid dream, but it slowly drifted off to the back of my mind, I took my dream journal and used it as a notebook, and I did reality checks less and less. I have not had a lucid dream other than one time after I started trying. What is a good way to keep yourself going? Reality checks arent on my mind during the day. I think, bah, this is stupid, why do you care what you do when you sleep. And then when I get home and settle down, I think, I really wished I did reality checks. That is getting annoying. :P Thanks

I know what you mean. I've just started 3 or 4 days ago, and I can't help but think "Does staring at my hands and asking if I'm dreaming even help?". I try to really honestly ask the question, but it seems mighty discouraging. I don't have any answers for you, I'm kind of in the same boat as you.

You've just got to work up the discipline and motivation, I don't know that anyone can help you with that. Make a list of dream goals, come up with your dream signs, but really you've got to have the passion to keep yourself RCing. Almost every lucid dream I've had has been from reality checking.

I suspect that you haven't quiet had that -AHA!- moment regarding reality checking, just like people who say that RCing is boring. Every single time you reality check, it should be because you just realized that everything around you might not be real. That you might ALREADY be in a dream. So technically, every reality check you do should be an incredibly thrilling moment because you just might be in a dream and about to become lucid.

Have you had a lucid dream before? It's hard to get into this mindframe at first, that nothing around you is real. It should get easier with experience, especially once you've had enough lucid dreams simply because you RC'ed.

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.

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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.

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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 :)

Well, I did a reality check like you told me as I read it.

I'm trying something new - I block my ears so my head is filled with white noise like I'm underwater... I give into the darkness for a few seconds, then perform my checks. It hardly 'disorients' me, but it helps to sort of throw you onto a clean slate.

Good thing happened today, though. I went for a walk tonight, high up into the hills for about an hour - something I've rarily done. It seemed really surreal, walking around - almost dreamlike. Bringing in new experiences can't hurt, in my opinion, and it really gave me a desire to reality check quite a lot.

I think my problem is really just gaining a grip in my dreams - not even to become lucid, really. My dreams jump around so often it seems, that I never really have the chance to physically RC. Still, my dreams are becoming more and more vivid (or maybe my recall), and I'm already having pretty interesting experiences- just not lucid ones.

Ive been trying to do some more rcs lately.
One thing I found odd. I know when I rc in a dream, its happened before. I remember one dream, I was walking through like a wheat field, and I thought, wow, this is too perfect of a scene, and I RC'd, and the whole world blurred, and like got all staticy (like short circuting) I remember that, but the blur went right over where I rc'd, I went on with the dream without realizing anything.
Is there also a difference between doing routine rc checks, and doing routine rc checks with a passion, like actually wondering if you are awake, with the intent to become lucid. I find it hard to actually care during day to day stuff, its when I get home that I regret not rc'ing.

I think as Shift said, doing it as sort of a habit is useless. I know I did that about 2 days ago, just continually looking at my hands and counting. It doesn't help.

Instead, consider that since your brain tends to make up memories and explanations, you never know where you are. Your entire life could have been fabricated, memories implanted, and for all you know, you were a barbarian chief who took a hammer to his head and fell unconcious - you just don't know. So, your only tools to really get your bearing are your hands, a clock, and your in-bred suspicion.

Believe nothing, expect everything.

(Sound epic enough :D)?