Forums affecting reality testing

Here's something I found pretty interesting...

I've been a lucid dreamer all my life, and I've never really made any attempt to study or learn more about lucid dreams. I've just gotten better and better at it from experience and I find I'm familiar with many of the topic discussed here, though I never knew many of the topics had a name.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon these forums, and started relating my own LD experiences to the various topics discussed here. I was surprised to learn that much of what I have experienced and practiced in LD's is being routinely discussed in these forums.

One topic that I read about is reality testing. For many years, I've been performing reality testing by pushing my right thumb into a conveniently nearby solid object. I had "decided" that the object will resist slightly, like soft clay, but will be easily penetrated. I never had any doubt about performing the test, and it worked 100% of time and in a consistant manner.

So I've been reading about reality testing, and reading about some folks who report failing reality tests. This is a problem that had never occurred to me... My reality test worked, and it always worked.

A couple nights ago, I was dreaming (non-lucid), and in this dream a good buddy of mine and I got into a struggle with several individuals and my buddy ended up falling over a concrete railing about 20 feet onto hard pavement. I don't know about the rest of you, but awake or asleep, this sort of thing causes me to reality test right away. As I was leaning against the concrete railing, I pressed on the railing with my right thumb. At the same time, I started thinking about some of the discussions on these forums about failed reality testing. I suppose doubt crept into my mind for the first time during a reality test.. As I pressed on the concrete, it held firm, and I could feel the texture of the concrete against my thumb. It was absolutely solid and it started to hurt. I relaxed, cleared my mind, and only then did my thumb penetrate the concrete in the accustomed manner. After that it was a simple matter to leap over the rail, drop 20 feet to the pavement and tell my buddy, "Get up, you're fine.. lets kick some ass!"

Can anyone else here recall an occasion when information from these forums has resulted in unpredictable LD occurances?

Hey, man. Welcome to DV. :cooler:

I'd have to definitely say yes. There are a bunch of things I hear about, for the first time, here, that work their way into my dreams. One example will be the light switch reality check. The first time the light switch RC didn't work for me was after hearing about so many people here that have had trouble with it. Before then, every time I tried the light switch RC, the light never came on, and I knew it was dreaming, but after being here for a while, the light switch thing is hit and miss. But, on the other hand, there are positives to this. Hearing someone bring up the idea of asking yourself: "Hmm..what was it that I was doing a little while ago....do I remember waking up this morning?" on top of RC'ing, when something strange happens, has made me remember to to do just that. That's gotten me lucid plenty of times.