First Time Failing a Reality Check...

Last night I was in a Non-Lucid that was so incredibly vivid and coherant, even after I woke up and recalled it, that I actually "passed" a reality check in my dream.

I was in my middle-school, on the hockey team (I've never played hockey and I've been out of middle school for years). I recognized the hockey aspect as being strange, so I walked outside and did a reality check to pass my fingers through the palm of my left hand. They didn't go through my hands, and I even inspected my hands closer and to me they looked normal...

I remember thinking, "If this turns out to be a dream, I will have no idea what is and isn't reality when I wake up!" because it was so real...


Now I am afraid that I will forever fail my reality checks...

Any suggestions or tips on how to get around this in a dream? Did I convince myself it wasn't a dream, and therefore it wasn't? Maybe when I do reality checks in real life, I do them with the assumption that they will always succeed, so they do in my dreams as well... Damn...

~Raven

That happens. Reality checks is not what makes us lucid, awareness does. Before you do reality check, look around, search for dream signs and completely believe that you might be dreaming, then put emotions into it like 'Wow, am i dreaming?' and then do reality check itself, and while doing it fully expect it to show you that you are dreaming. :zzz:
Also reality check is not required if you are already aware that it's a dream. ;)

The nose plug RC failed for me some times, the problem was that it failed one time and then I kind of lost faith that it works. Try to keep believing that it works everytime

How long did you try it for, and did you really believe it was going to go through?

It takes a few seconds before it will go through, for me anyway, and other people too from what I've read. At first you're pressing and nothing is happening, it feels just like you're awake, and then suddenly it goes through. It works the same way for me trying to push through windows - a couple of seconds pressing and believing hard that it's going to work, and then suddenly the window is like a piece of plastic wrap and I'm able to bulge it out a good ways. And once that happens, if I keep pushing then my head and shoulders will go through next. I didn't go farther than that, but I could tell a little more and my whole body was about to pop through.

I also pay attention to what I'm feeling as I'm doing it. Been a while since I've tried fingerpalm in a dream, but as I recall, I wasn't aware of bones inside my hand, it felt kind of like a chunk of bologna or something, and I couldn't feel my finger pressing against those bones. In waking life it can become uncomfortable if I do it pretty hard. For that reason I suspect next time I'm able to do it in a dream I'll be able to tell it's a dream even before it goes through.

Also, never just rely one one RC. Do at least 2 different ones.