The reality check is a wonderful tool that is used by both the new and experience lucid dreamer.  As the name implies, a reality check is an effort to verify your current reality.  If you really want to weird out your friends and family, tell them sometime that you regularly practice reality checks.

In a reality check, the prospective lucid dreamer attempts something that is not usually possible when awake.  There are many different reality checks, a few popular ones include:

Pressing your finger through the palm of your hand &#8211 The dreamer extends a finger on one hand and attempts to force it through the palm of the other hand.  If successful, it usually indicates a dream state since this is not normally possible while awake.

Breathing while pinching your nose closed &#8211 The dreamer pinches the nostrils of the nose closed with the index finger and thumb of one hand and then attempts to breath through the nose.  If the dreamer finds that breathing is possible, it indicates a dream state.

Levitating or flying &#8211 The dreamer either wills himself to levitate or jumps into the air.  If the dreamer leaves the ground or is delayed in returning to the ground this indicates a dream state.  Care should be taken with this technique since dire consequences may result if this reality check fails after jumping from tall objects.

Reality checks serve a number of purposes and should be performed by all lucid dreamers on a regular basis.  In the above sentences one use for reality checks has been presented; determining when you are dreaming so you don&#39t embarrass yourself.  Imagine your dismay if you suddenly attempted to seduce an attractive school-mate or co-worker and were really not dreaming.

The second and often overlooked purpose of performing reality checks is that it helps to train your mind.  It is truly sad, but 99% of the world just coasts through the day, never questioning&#46Am I Dreaming?

Performing regular reality checks keeps thin in the forefront of your mind.  It trains you to question while awake, which in turn carries over into your dreaming life as well.  Most prospective lucid dreamers after following a regular program of reality checks will suddenly find themselves performing a check in their dream and come to the realization that they are in a dream!  It&#39s a pretty awesome feeling.

Performing reality checks --  How often?  Which methods should I use? These questions have been asked and debated many times by both the novice and experienced lucid dreamers.  It seems the only correct answer is&#46 &#8220I depends&#8221.

Every person is different, what works well for one person will not work at all for another.  I&#39ll present a few guidelines and it will be up to you to find what works best for you.

How often? --  Once a day is probably not enough, 100 times a day is probably too often.  The goal is to train your mind to question reality.  Performing too few checks will fail to establish the habit and will not carry forward into your dreaming.  Performing too many checks will be counter productive since the quality of the reality checks will suffer, you will most likely find yourself performing the reality check in your dream and convincing yourself that you are awake and just performing another reality check.

Which methods should I use? &#8211 The answer to this is as varied as the different people doing them.  Do whichever one you like, preferably you should mix it up a little and perform two or three different ones, my favorite is levitation.

Think quality, not quantity &#8211 It is FAR BETTER to perform 2 good reality checks a day than 10 mediocre ones.  When you reality check don&#39t just do the check, give it your full attention, really questions reality.  Take for example the finger through the palm technique, perform it right now with me slowly while reading along.

Extend the index finger of your right hand and press it into the palm of your left hand.Did it go through?  Probably not.Why didn&#39t it go through? Do you feel the pressure it is putting on your palm?  Do you feel the fingernail pressing into your skin?  Do you feel the warmth of the palm?Look at your finger, is the skin under the fingernail turning pale?Are the muscles of your finger beginning to hurt a little from the strain?Look around you and think, can you establish an accurate timeline of the events leading up to this reality check?Imagine as vividly as possible what it would have been like if your finger had gone through.  Would there have been pain?  Blood?  Would you have felt the tissue structure of your palm as the finger went through?

A small hint  --  Many people try to reality check on a schedule.  &#8220Well, top of the hour, time to reality check&#8221.  Unfortunately, we rarely watch the clock in our dreams.  Try instead to perform reality checks when certain events occur such as walking through a doorway passing an object like a tree or a car.  Most likely in your dreams you will find yourself doing this and remember to reality check.

Today&#39s assignment:  Post your favorite reality check in this thread.

I&#39ll organize these in a couple of days and then ask you to make a workbook entry containing your current reality check and one additional new one from the list to try.

My favorite is breathing while pinching your nose closed.

My favorite is try floating because it has always worked.

My favorite is looking at my hand(s), and counting the fingers.  I find that looking at my hands in a dream really helps to calm me and solidify the dream.  Normally, by the time I RC in a dream, I already sort of know its a dream, so the RC is more of a stabilization thing to convince myself and remain calm.

The one that I've had most success with is looking at a clock (usually my wristwatch). I'll look once, think about the time that it shows, and then look at it again. When I'm dreaming, the clock will say a completely different time then when I looked the first time. This has got me lucid several times.

I like pinching my nose and breathing.

I've also done some finger through palm.

My favorite would be plugging my nose and trying to breathe.

It's an odd, unique feeling.

My favourite is using both the nose plug and the finger thru hand, since the nose plug often fails for me.

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I do the nose RC and hand checks often.

Nose RC as the failproof one. Sometimes I'll do the clock RC.

I also find that I'm unable to feel physical pain in dreams, but I don't know how trustworthy a RC that is.

Though I'll admit I haven't RCed even once each month lately xD Time to work on it.

(btw, this workshop thing has already given me two lucids and quadriplicated my dream recall. Thanks heh)

I...uh...don't do much RCs...hehehe...

I seldom check if electronic equipment around me works properly. Although I imagine that that only works in false awakenings, since I've been unable to notice anything wrong with that kind of equipment during regular dreams.

Most of the times in which I've become lucid because of a repetitive, weird or completely out of place situation, I get so shocked that I automatically jump into a new dream where I'm not lucid.

The few times I've managed to remain in a lucid dream and I have tried to float, I always start moving in slow motion, the dream starts fading away, and I automatically jump into a non-lucid dream.

My favorite is just to ask myself if I am dreaming and then examine the environment for anything strange.

I have become far more critical of my reality in the last couple weeks, and if anything looks, sounds, feels, or even smells the least bit out of place I do a reality check. I usually do a nose-hold RC, then a finger-through-palm RC just to be sure. That got me a short lucid not too long ago, and let me tell you, feeling your finger go through your hand is a really strange feeling!

Quote from: Clairity on May 07, 2008, 05:03:42 PMMy favorite is breathing while pinching your nose closed.

That's the one I go to first when I think I'm dreaming.  I've also been trying to get in the habit of asking myself "How did I get here?" trying to trace what led up to where I currently am.  I haven't had a chance to try this question out in a dream, but an insufficient answer would key me in that I am not awake.  Most of my dreams move around a lot, so I assume that I would recognize that the progression of events is not logical.

I also don't usually become lucid as a result of RCing.  From my recollection, I always have some sneaking suspicion that I might be dreaming, but performing an RC confirms those suspicions and I can feel free to do as I please.

I go with the majority: pinch my nose and breath.

Works as a 'stabiliser' for my lucids as well. When I find out I'm lucid, lying in my bed, I keep my nose plugged to remind myself I'm still dreaming.

When first reading about this RC, I thought 'yeah right, that's a stupid one', but after 1 experience of a random RC in a dream, I'm a big fan of this one

I prefer the nose check. However, I have occasionally explained it away in a dream as not having a good enough grip on my nose... So I now compliment it with a finger through hand check. So far it's worked well, but I am not in a good enough habit to get lucid from it that often.

Also, the nose check just feels so awesomely weird when it works

Whenever I do stop to do a RC I usually pinch myself to see if hurts then check my watch and try to change the time before looking at it again and finally do the breath-through-nose check. Of course I don't RC all that much and am guilty of going through a good potion of the day in zombie-autopilot mode. Its unsettling to realize you have no recollection of what you were doing in the last couple of seconds and yet being able to affirm you are awake. Personally I blame the mindless state of mind on having too much tension during the day.

I use a mix of them depending on what seems the best at the time. Most commonly I look at my hands and make sure they are normal. I Like it because it discreet. I also like to look and around the room and ask myself where am I how did I get here and is this what it always looks like. text and clock check I usually use thoes before i go to sleep because my clock is right there. If i am alone i will plug my nose and flicker with the light to make sure it works. I try to avoid the finger through hand check becuse it grosses me out. Lately I have been sucking it up and using it because the only RC I have ever done in my dream has been the finger through hand check... but it failed. I guess i could change it to the hand through wall check and then it wouldn't be so gross.

I RC as often as I think of RCing sometimes that once in a day and other time it's every hour... I find more I keep LDing on my mind the more chances I have of LDing the LDs I have had are LDs on days I have RC'ed every hour!

Hello everyone. This will be my first contribution to these community posts, since I am late to the workbook.

My favorite is the finger through palm, and I thank you Seeker for expanding on it... I'll be checking to see if I can feel my nail, the warmth, if my skin is going white, etc.

However, once I've become more accustomed to Lucid dreaming I am going to try to create my own personal reality checks. I believe that literally anything can be considered an RC if the user's belief and confidence is strong enough.

I had two specific self made RC in mind, and both involve a bracelet I'm always wearing. It was made by my dad a few years ago, and consists entirely of wire simillar to barb wire (obviously without the barbs). It was a custom to make bracelets of this style out of elephant hair (my dad and I are taxidermists, so we know all kinds of weird stuff about safari animals), but mine is the only one in the world that I know of that is made of metal. Although it is all one piece, it has little tabs at the top that when put together widen the bracelet's circumfrence, and when pulled apart tighten it.

Since this bracelet is very intimate to me, and I wear it all the time, even in sleep (only take it off for showers) these RCs should be effective for me. One of them was to look at my bracelet and make it glow. This is good because I can do it anytime during the day, no matter what I'm doing, and obviously if I can't make it glow I'm not dreaming. Another was just a personalized version of the finger through palm tech, in which I try to pull the bracelet off through my wrist.

I have decided to wait until I actually have LDs, using conventional RCs, before experimenting with creating RCs. But I do believe that they are not only possible, but more helpful than general techs that are applied to everyone.

I have never really got to grips with the RC so my input here is worthless, really.  I prod my hand whenever I think of a train (for which I blame MB!) but then, dope that I am, go on a train ride and forget to RC at all

Only once has a RC actually worked in a dream - out of sheer panic as I wanted to prove I was lucid - I put my finger in my mouth and bit it.  No pain.   .  But it's not a RC I used before then nor since.

I don't have much faith in the 'pinching oneself' RC because you can just as well feel the pain in dreams just as in waking life. Though, if you don't feel it... So it doesn't seem like it would be all that reliable. But I do subscribe the to nose RC and simply asking myself if I'm dreaming and taking a moment to really examine my surroundings and metal state. I also check my digital clocks at home and I often compare more than one with the clock on my laptop.

And I try to take note of any out of place object or activity and environmental anomaly.

I've hacked my iPhone, and I changed the "AT&T" next to the battery to "Lucid".  Now I RC every time I look at my phone, which also helps me do random RCs and situation induced RCs more often.

You could also make a banner on your homepage to do the same thing.  It works great since I look at my phone so much.

Quote from: StephenT on May 08, 2008, 11:33:57 PMI've hacked my iPhone, and I changed the "AT&T" next to the battery to "Lucid".  Now I RC every time I look at my phone, which also helps me do random RCs and situation induced RCs more often.

You could also make a banner on your homepage to do the same thing.  It works great since I look at my phone so much.

I was thinking the same thing about the banner on the homepage.  I bet many people have dreams coming onto this site, and when its not there or different they will hopefully recognise it as a dream.

My main RC is the nose one.  Usually after that i look at my hands and around me.

I started out using the nose plug check, which works well for me.

The one I use most though is a RC I picked up in a lucid dream. I bit my finger out of curiosity once to see if it would hurt. My teeth closed down on nothing, like biting thin air. In later dreams I started doing this more often, sometimes it hurts but my teeth still sink through flesh and bone easily. If my teeth sink with miminal effort through my flesh (with pain or without) I know i'm dreaming. I think it's similar to the finger through the palm check.

I tend to do a pinched nose RC, and then finger through hands,  before studying them intently.

Although i've never been any real good at RC's, i'm hoping that this course can seriously improve the way I do them. I usually do them for a few days, and then keep forgetting about doing one, before it fades away into non-existance again

I like the finger through palm technique. I also look at my hands, but that one often fails in my dreams. I also often know already that I'm dreaming before I do the RC, but the few times I don't, it verifies that I'm dreaming.

My favorite is the hand RC, easy and discrete, works every time. I do it with a slight variation.  I look at my hand while holding my hand in the 'vulcan greet' way.

(index and middle finger together and ringfinger and pink together, with a space between thumb and indexfinger and a space between middle finger and ring finger, all fingers extended, for those not familiair with the Vulcan greet)

I do it like this because sometimes when i just look at my hand i'm not instantly sure if i count 5 or 6 fingers (usually that means i'm dreaming, but it takes a while to figure that out). If i hold it in the above position, it's instantly clear.

btw, i tried the nose pinch rc and the finger through hand rc in a LD once, the outcome of both was 'not dreaming', while i was. Jumping in the air and checking if gravity has the usual effect on you always works great.

I just carefully observe what's going on and check whether it makes sense to me. I also sometimes think about what has been happening earlier in the day. Sometimes I try to breathe while holding my nose or do the finger-through-palm RC as well.

Stabbing my finger through my hand. Haven't actually stabbed it yet, thank goodness. I'm bad at reality checks as people may or may not know. But, if I do them, I usually do this one, since it's less auspicious compared to nose pinching.

Nose pinching is foreign to me, as I have a very slight breathing disorder as a "mouth breather". It is natural for me to breathe through my mouth, and I can breathe through my nose only if I try... so the finger through palm is the best alternative for me.