Thread: Great Reality Test

I've heard that this sometimes doesn't work while dreaming. The one I use that never fails is trying to breath through a closed noze. You can't clamp your noze shut while sleeping, so your brain can't trick you. Unless maybe you have a stuffed up noze...

The only one that works for me while I'm dreaming is the lightswitch one. I can always read my digital clock and fine print and stuff like that.

I remember a dream I had that ended up becoming a reality test for me that always works.

In my dream I was dressed up in a Tux looking like James bond and all, but i was looking at myself in the mirror. After awhile of looking at myself I realized that the reflection in the mirror was not myown. So i stepped away from the mirror and then stepped back infront of it. This time the reflection was of a completely different person again, and yet it wasn't my own reflection at all. I did this three or more times and I became Lucid.

Now when i'm in a dream and have think hey is this a dream, I run for a mirror to see if it's my reflection or not.

Originally posted by Mickeys_Elbow
I've heard that this sometimes doesn't work while dreaming. The one I use that never fails is trying to breath through a closed noze. You can't clamp your noze shut while sleeping, so your brain can't trick you. Unless maybe you have a stuffed up noze...

This has always been my favourite, if you are careful not to fool yourself with too casual an excuse in your dream.

HOWEVER... this past weekend it failed entirely!
How? I don't know - I closed my nose, and could not feel my breathing

Maybe you just stopped breathing?

Originally posted by Mickeys_Elbow
Maybe you just stopped breathing?

Even better
Either way, it didnt work...

I'm still new to this subject, but it seems to me that if you are conscious enough in a dream to figure out or remember to count your fingers... then you're alread having a LD.

Originally posted by i8aflea
I'm still new to this subject, but it seems to me that if you are conscious enough in a dream to figure out or remember to count your fingers... then you're alread having a LD.

The trick is that when you do enough reality testing at daytime, it will go into your subconcious, and soon you will do it in dreams too. I think it's just about training your subconcious to remind you to check reality.

Originally posted by i8aflea
I'm still new to this subject, but it seems to me that if you are conscious enough in a dream to figure out or remember to count your fingers... then you're alread having a LD.

Often this is true, but most of the time it's not.
You find yourself unsure whether it's a dream. You might be vaguely lucid, but mostly just doing it as a habit. In that case, you don't KNOW it's a dream, you just have to check.
A dream can be very deceiving and very realistic sometimes

Originally posted by i8aflea
I'm still new to this subject, but it seems to me that if you are conscious enough in a dream to figure out or remember to count your fingers... then you're alread having a LD.

I'm with you on this one, flea-eater.

If I have the presence of mind to question whether or not I might be dreaming, then I am always able to tell immediately if I am -- no RC required. It just doesn't "feel" like reality. At that point I will usually go ahead and "test" by flying, but I always already know that I will be able to.

Placebo -- maybe it didn't work because YOU WERE AWAKE!
(just kidding, I'm sure you figured it out at some point)

Try this one that i use to succsesfull effect. Every morning when i wake up i randomly either open the dictionary or think of a word and that word becomes my word for the day (today it is ironicly 'word') then whenever i do a RC during the day all i do is think of the word for that day, if it is a dream then i imediatly relize that there was no morning to that day and no word for it then my mind clicks to lucidity. I occasionaly follow this with the nose RC if im still sceptical. I like thw word RC because it uses no effort at all. Involves a simple second long thinking exercise. 'think of my todays word 'word'. right, im not dreaming' simple as that-works like a charm.

I think that after a day of repeating a word to yourself, you may be likely to recall it within the dream. This also goes back to my previous inquiry... that if you are consciously prompting yourself to recall a word, test a light switch, count your fingers, etc... you are already conscious... you are already experiencing a lucid dream. A normal dream would simply transpire... with your only conscious interaction being your recollection of it upon awakening.

I agree that you will be at least partially lucid at the point you do a check - however, if you don't successfully determine that it's a dream, you will simply go back to a mindless normal dream. Unless you're very careful
Just my opinion and experience

I like the idea of the 'word in the morning', with one alteration: you need to also make sure you can't recall going to bed the night of the word (eg. explicitly tell yourself when going to bed that you have finished with that word, and will now sleep). Of course, memory is a little dodgy in a dream, so that remains a serious loophole

It's a very nice idea, but flea has a point that you might end up being able to recall the previous morning in your dream, and think that everything is just fine
I'll think on it...