Thread: Reality checks

What I do the most is pinching my nose to see if I can still breathe.

A good one to try is writing RC on the back of your hand (I used to put a "D" for dream, but anything would work). Every time you see it during the day, perform a RC (any type will do). That way during your dream you will either see the letter, perform a RC and become lucid, or it won't be there and you will know you are dreaming (or at least perform a Rc to make sure). As for the RC to use along with this technique, I strongly suggest the nose pinch RC. It is the only RC that has never failed for me. Others you can try are pushing your finger through your palm, reading text then looking away then reading it again to see if it is the same, looking at your hands to see if they are normal, etc.

I'll give the nose pinching a shot. How often do you do the nose pinching? Do you do it on a routine or just every time you remember or see the words on your hand? I guess I haven't done it often enough to get into a habit but the text one hasn't worked for me yet. I haven't been lucid enough in a dream to be able to actually remember to do the reality check. I guess I'll work on making it a habit first.
When you perform an RC in a dream, do you always become lucid? I haven't done an RC in a dream yet but just going by how I am in dreams I don't know if my dream self would make anything of it. Lol I can imagine poking my finger through my palm and going "oh would you look at that... oh a purple cat!"

Well with the nose pinch, you generally won't miss lucidity. Pinch your nose, closing off the air passages, and then attempt to breathe through your nose. Its impossible in real life, but in a dream you can still breathe through your nose, because you aren't actually closing off the nasal passage. It is a good, reliable RC that I highly recommend.

I don't understand this.... If i was lucid enough to do RC wouldn't i be lucid to do anything?or do RC just help you become fully lucid. ( I'm a newbie :O )

Ok here is one for you. Read a book... if you can read sensibly you are awake. We can never ever read anything clearly in a dream. Give a jump... if you fall back to earth, you are awake, but if you fly, you are dreaming.

nose pinching is definitely the best,
even though I'm not an experienced LD'er (had one), I can say that I got my first LD thanks to nose pinching, and I once checked my cell phone for the time in a dream, and if that RC wouldn't have failed (the numbers just looked right), than my LD count would be at 2.

nose pinching is also a pretty easy to do RC in public, just pretend you're scratching your nose.
I also regularly do mental RC's (do I know this place, does the storyline of the past 30 minutes make sense)

I normally first, try to put my hand through my other hand and see if that works, try to breathe with my nose shut with me hand, look at my hand and see if it is different.
I've not ever had an ld with these RCs but it might work someday...

Tbh, i think the best RC is to count your fingers. It rarely fails for me.

Originally Posted by Nath

I don't understand this.... If i was lucid enough to do RC wouldn't i be lucid to do anything?or do RC just help you become fully lucid. ( I'm a newbie :O )

Well, thats why people RC during waking life, so it will transfer over into the dream state. In the dream they believe they are performing their normal (waking life) RC, only to find out they are actually dreaming.

Also, sometimes in dreams you will get a weird feeling and suspect that you are dreaming. RCing is a way to help confirm this. If you suspect you are dreaming, but still have some doubts, it seems like your mind will do everything it can to keep you from realizing it is a dream (more often than not it seems, lol). This can be very frustrating and cause you to miss out on lucidity.

I also love to use RCs as a stabilization technique.

PS: It is always good to perform multiple RCs in case some of them fail, but like I said before, the nose pinch has yet to fail me.

Originally Posted by KingYoshi

Well with the nose pinch, you generally won't miss lucidity. Pinch your nose, closing off the air passages, and then attempt to breathe through your nose. Its impossible in real life, but in a dream you can still breathe through your nose, because you aren't actually closing off the nasal passage. It is a good, reliable RC that I highly recommend.

Originally Posted by KingYoshi

Well, thats why people RC during waking life, so it will transfer over into the dream state. In the dream they believe they are performing their normal (waking life) RC, only to find out they are actually dreaming.

Also, sometimes in dreams you will get a weird feeling and suspect that you are dreaming. RCing is a way to help confirm this. If you suspect you are dreaming, but still have some doubts, it seems like your mind will do everything it can to keep you from realizing it is a dream (more often than not it seems, lol). This can be very frustrating and cause you to miss out on lucidity.

I also love to use RCs as a stabilization technique.

PS: It is always good to perform multiple RCs in case some of them fail, but like I said before, the nose pinch has yet to fail me.

Can I move my finger to block my nose and breathe instead? this is more comfortable. should work