Thread: RCs disabled in LD?

Originally posted by Cresscendo
First off I'd like to just state that I'm new and have always been interested in learning about controlling my LD's, and this site seems just what I need to keep going with my exploration. *

After reading a lot on here, I was just wondering something. Many people use RC's in their LD's to let them know they're dreaming, but is it possible that these reality checks can be "disabled"? It's a little confusing so I'll try to give an example. *

The idea of pluggin your nostrils and seeing if you can still breathe. After you do this RC and realize you're dreaming, is it possible, knowing now you can control your dream, to do the same test, but this time be able to control if you are able to breathe or not? Sorry if this seems a little confusing, but it was something I have been wondering about.

Hey there and welcome to the forum!!
The answer to that is that it depends on whether you believe you can do it or not in the dream. The Reality Checks may not be obvious at first, but eventually, you'll catch on!! And if you do the same test, it could work, so the best thing to do is try it!!

Yeah it's quite possible that they can be, and even if they are not your subconcious has plenty of other tricks (false awakening, and sleep paralysis seem to be my subconcious favorite way to regain controll.) If you do find one RC fails, just change what you do use or use several. I can imagine your subconcious getting around the breathing or light adjustment but I think time checks would be extremely reliable. Does any one have an example of a dream which did pass a reality check?

Originally posted by Cresscendo
The idea of pluggin your nostrils and seeing if you can still breathe. After you do this RC and realize you're dreaming, is it possible, knowing now you can control your dream, to do the same test, but this time be able to control if you are able to breathe or not? Sorry if this seems a little confusing, but it was something I have been wondering about.

Hi! Yes, I did that in a half-lucid dream this year. I was underwater, breathing normally, when it occured to me I probably ought to be holding my breath! So I did... But I hate holding my breath and soon started breathing again. I could turn it on or off and it didn't make any difference whether I had my nose plugged or not.

That happened to me once, before I had a lucid for the first time. All I remember is looking into a mirror, and seeing nothing (no reflection). I thought 'hmm, that's odd', and did an RC by pushing my finger through my palm, but it passed the test. I then thought, 'of course it's not showing a reflection, because there's another mirror beind me'. That makes absolutely no sense, but because I 'knew' I was in RL, I fabricated a reason for my experience.
It was only a few nights after this I finally had my first lucid (and my only )

there have been several occassions of my reailty checks passing. But one time I was waiting for it to be 11:59 for some reason and it was 11:50 and like every 5 seconds I was looking at the digital clock, for a while it was pretty consistent, then it skipped to 11:87 which made me lucid.
And this other time I was walking with these 2 girls then I tried saying something to one of them but she had her back turned and ignored me, then randomly turned round shouting "youre dreaming!" I did a reality check which passed

Originally posted by Senban
If you do find one RC fails, just change what you do use or use several. I can imagine your subconcious getting around the breathing or light adjustment but I think time checks would be extremely reliable. Does any one have an example of a dream which did pass a reality check?

"Passed" as in "indicated reality" or "passed" as in "indicated a dream"? People here have been using the term to mean both.

If I look at my watch more than once in a dream, the time usually changes to a totally different time, but sometimes the time remains the same. I once had an "anti-lucid" dream directly after waking up from a lucid dream where I had the exact same level of awareness as I do in a lucid dream, except that I was fully convinced I was awake rather than being convinced I was dreaming. I read a line of text three times, and it read exactly the same each time, but I was onlly "practicing" since I "knew" I was awake. Then I moved on to doing other stuff. I was extremely surprised when I woke up.

Sorry what I mean is a non LD about performing an RC which seemed to indicate an LD.
It does sound like a contradiction, you should have to be lucid in the first place to do an RC but who knows? The mind is a labyrinth...
I guess the answer would be were you aware of it at the time (LD) or did you remember it when you woke up (non LD).

I don't think I can remember very many examples off the top of my head. I had a dream last night where I tried to turn the lights in a bedroom and the hallway off when I was going to bed, but they didn't turn off when I flipped the switch. For some reason, I didn't seem to really care and just went on with what I was doing. I wasn't purposely doing a reality check that time, though.