05 Reality Checks

[Seeker]

Reality checks are useful for a number of reasons.  They help train your mind to questions reality and they also help you focus your intent of having a lucid dream.

Everyone for the remainder of this course, choose a reality check or two and decide how often you will perform it.  Really put an effort into the reality check. 

Don't just perform it and go on your way.  Really question reality and imagine how your surroundings might be different if it had been a dream.  Reflect on your surroundings, can you remember the timeline from when you awoke this morning?  Can you remember what you had at your last meal?  You all get the picture

Each night before bed if possible, make an entry in your workbook containing which reality check you performed, when you performed it, and how many times you performed it.  For example:


Reality check:  Try to levitate
When: Every time I passed though a door
How many times: 10

[Sunshine]

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[Lucidbulbs]

MB, I totally need to do the same thing, I used to be good at questioning, but no more, no more. Maybe we can work on our awareness together?

[Vex]

RCing is an area I need some major improvement in. I have also started questioning my awareness. I think I'll have to do it at particular times to start out until I get into the habit. I think I'll do the awareness check each time I step outside.

[annsie]

I dont get to reality check in my dreams. I almost always instantly know whether or not I was dreaming, in dream world.

However, for the first time in my life, I had a couple of RC in this plane. Since I so desperately wanted this reality now to be a dream that I could wake up from, to have my husband back, that twice I really felt like I was in a dream and temporarily lost touch with this reality for a couple of seconds. I had to shift conciousness level to go back into this reality again.

It was a very interesting experience. I wondered if I did not intentionally shift conciousness level to go back to this here and now, whether I would get lost in dream world and entered the realm of madness or at least of hallucination of the mentally ill ?

[Sara]

I think starting with RCs on a regular basis (e.g. when you pass a door) is a good way to get into the habit, but I think they are more valuable when you've learned to perform them on 'unusual' things. And then the number of 'unusual' things in your environment increases, since you start to notice more and more things that need to be checked.

I've done RCs consistently for a few days each time I looked at the sky, now I often notice a specific color in the sky, or a special shape in a cloud, which (mostly) automatically triggers me to do an RC. So I would choose a specific area to focus my RCing on and see whether this helps the 'justified' RCs when you notice something special later on (when you're not constantly focussing on 'oh, I need to do an RC when I see ....'.

[The Cusp]

Don't just perform it and go on your way.  Really question reality and imagine how your surroundings might be different if it had been a dream.

I think that's the most important part of reality checks, questioning reality for extended periods of time instead of a quick "am I dreaming?  No", and then moving on.  I consider the length of time you question your surroundings analogous to how long you can stay lucid.  You need to keep a certain detachment from the dream plot to stay lucid, and trying to do the same in RL can only help.

Of course I'm probably the laziest lucid dreamer here, so take that advice with a grain of salt!

[AspirationRealized]

I think starting with RCs on a regular basis (e.g. when you pass a door) is a good way to get into the habit, but I think they are more valuable when you've learned to perform them on 'unusual' things. And then the number of 'unusual' things in your environment increases, since you start to notice more and more things that need to be checked.

Yup. Billybob would call this "Correct Reality Checking". So what does that make reality checking every time a benign something or other happens, class?

[LucidBuddha]

So what does that make reality checking every time a benign something or other happens, class?

consistency RC's?

something like a fire drill happens, I'll completely forget that I'm supposed to be monitoring.  And these are exactly the sort of situations that need RC's!

Yea, know what you mean. I dream of cops a lot and it's really really hard to have a first reaction of "Am I dreaming" when you're being shot at or accused of a crime or getting pulled over. So...funny story

I was with a buddy drinking downtown and we decided to head to another party a few blocks away. We had a case of beer and I had one open that I was finishing on the way. A cop pulls up to the sidewalk and asks me what I was doing. I'm pretty drunk and it took me a second to realize that having an open beer was illegal. I quickly dump it and then ask the cop what he's supposed to represent, (thinking I was dreaming perhaps) He didn't even hesitate when he responded, "Peace and Justice" and took off.
That's the only time I confronted a cop and it wasn't even a dream. I think I got lucky getting off too. 

[Sunshine]

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[LucidBuddha]

HA!
I will try that as long as you bail me out. 

[Sunshine]

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