I am a huge fan of lucid dreaming, and I have been building some new lucid dreaming reality checks lately because my usual reality checks are not working for me so well anymore. But before I talk about my new lucid dreaming reality checks, and what I recommend you do for lucid dreaming reality checks that will work for you, let me tell you what’s been going on in my lucid dreaming world and why I even need new lucid dreaming reality checks.
What Are Reality Checks For Lucid Dreaming?
Reality checks are what you use to see if you are awake or dreaming. They help you discover if you are currently in the real world (where things work in a certain manner) or in a dreaming state that doesn’t follow the logic of the real world.
One Of My Favorite Lucid Dreaming Reality Checks Let Me Down!
My favorite reality check is checking my hand, which I’ve talked about as the lucid dreaming technique for checking to see if you are lucid dreaming or awake.
Usually, I look at my hand, flip it back and forth, and if I’m having a lucid dream my hand will change shape or appearance.
BUT, a while ago, I did my favorite lucid dreaming reality check and it didn’t work. The dream went like this:
I was sitting with some friends from my past and I was trying to show them something on Twitter. I couldn’t open up Twitter on my phone, and I told my friends that not being able to type in stuff to my phone was usually a sign that I was lucid dreaming. Then I said, ‘Maybe I am lucid dreaming!’ So, I did my favorite lucid dreaming reality check and for some reason my hand didn’t shift in any way. I told them that I must be awake! But, still, I couldn’t get Twitter to open up on my phone.
I kicked myself when I woke up because there were plenty of signs that I was lucid dreaming – if I had been willing to look beyond my hand lucid dreaming reality check technique – including talking to friends from over 20 years ago!
But, in the end, it’s fair to say that one of my favorite lucid dreaming reality checks let me down big time. I never thought that it would let me down as I’ve been using it for a long time and it’s always worked.
Someone Suggested That Habituation Could Have Caused My Reality Check To Let Me Down
Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus after you’ve been repeatedly exposed to it. So, while the reality check with the hand has worked for me for years, this person thinks I’m simply not responding to it anymore because I’ve used it so much.
That could be, but the whole point of the hand flipping reality check is watching for something that’s off with my hand because my mind can’t reproduce the exact image of something over and over again. Therefore, it doesn’t seem like that my mind should all of a sudden be able to keep the same image.
But, maybe! In any case, it wasn’t working for me. I’ll have to ask Charley Morley about it when the lucid dreaming quest comes on Mindvalley.
I Switched Techniques And Then The Unthinkable Happened Again!
I decided that I should refocus on other lucid dreaming reality checks and chose to focus on technology. When technology is acting up, it’s a big sign that you are lucid dreaming.
I can never type in my dreams or use a phone properly, and so to do reality checks throughout the day, I started to type into my phone numbers and words to prove that I’m awake and not dreaming. I also just watched for weird things to happen on my computer, phone, and TV.
BUT, not long ago, I was having a dream where I needed to call 911 because someone had sliced their head open while skating. Sure enough, I picked up my phone and dialed 9-1-1 without a problem! Then I talked to someone on the other end who was rude and unhelpful, but it still felt real because I was able to dial the damn number!
Have I Hopefully Evolved To Just Becoming Lucid?
I’m always thinking about lucid dreaming. It’s been one of my top interests since I was 12.
The other week, I watched a class with Charley Morley that I happened to miss on Mindvalley University when it first aired.
His talk stuck in my mind.
One of the things Charley Morley talked about was how your subconscious plays a part in your dream. In other words, you don’t have total control over a lucid dream because you are working with your subconscious, not overriding it.
So, for example, while you may be able to conjure up a pizza, your subconscious supplies the table you are eating on.
He also talked about how being lucid felt as real as being awake.
These things, as well as other things he talked about, stuck in my mind, and I kept practicing some new lucid dreaming reality checks more than ever because I just wanted to have a lucid dream and explore some things that he discussed.
Then, the other night, I had the coolest lucid dream I’ve ever had.
I was working at a pet store and I suddenly just realized I was dreaming. I didn’t need to pull out any of my lucid dreaming reality checks. I just knew that I was dreaming. I didn’t try to take control of everything like I normally do. I think the suggestion from Charlie Morley that the subconscious works in tandem with your lucidity stuck in my mind. I just observed what was going on. I made things happen for the other employees. I changed around lighting in the store. And, I tried to fix an eye patch that my husband was wearing but didn’t lose lucidity when I was unable to do so. I just accepted it as something my subconscious was doing. I even reached out and touched a tree to see what it felt like and didn’t lose my lucidity when I did so. Most of the lucid dream, I just walked around the pet shop and tested my abilities and enjoyed knowing that I was dreaming and had some control over things.
The fact that I just became lucid with no reality checks is still blowing my mind.
What Lucid Dreaming Reality Checks Am I Practicing?
There are a couple of new lucid dreaming reality checks that I’m practicing. These are things I’ve never worked with before but are a huge part of my dreams. So if I need to do a reality check in a lucid dream going forward, they will help me out.
1. Looking at the sky
I love looking at the sky, especially the night sky. One of my common dreams is stars dancing in the sky, and I KNOW that doesn’t happen in real life, so I want to be able to become as conscious of what’s happening in the sky as I can.
Every time something weird happens, I try to look to the sky and see if it looks like a regular sky or something that my wonderful imagination could conjure up.
2. Jumping
If you are like me, then lucid dreaming has a lot of flying involved. Charlie Morley said that there are different ways for people to fly, such as taking off like superman, but for me, it always starts with a small run and then a jump into takeoff.
So, one of the lucid dreaming reality checks I’ve been focused on is a short little run and jump. If I land on the ground, I’m awake. But, if I were to feel any sort of hesitation (such as a half a second of floating) then I would know that I was in a lucid dream, or at least try out another one of my lucid dreaming reality checks to see what’s going on.
3. Reading
In dreams, I have a hard time reading anything. The words can look blurry, and if I can read, the sentences often don’t make sense.
So, when something weird happens in my waking life, I’m using reading as one of my lucid dreaming reality checks. I simply find something to read, like a poster or a book, and try to read a sentence.
If it’s clear and makes sense, then I’m awake.
And if it’s blurry, doesn’t make sense, or changes, then I’m having a lucid dream.
I Recommend You Use Lucid Dreaming Reality Checks That Work For You
You can find a lot of people recommending their own lucid dreaming reality checks on forums. But I don’t recommend getting too caught up in lucid dreaming forums if you are someone who is highly sensitive and visualizes things well past the point of hearing about them, like me.
I find that a lot of lucid dreaming forums and reality check discussions focus on frightening things, and these things are not things you want to focus on in dreams. Just reading about some of these frightening things can be a suggestion that you will carry into your personal dreams and lucid dreams, and some of the stories may even stop you from checking reality at all.
Instead, for your lucid dreaming reality checks, I highly recommend that you pick things that are hard for you to do in dreams, just like I did.
For instance, if you often have a hard time running in your dreams (you run in slow motion, for example) then use a quick sprint as a reality check for yourself.
There are plenty of things you can do for lucid dreaming reality checks that will resonate with you, so if one doesn’t work (or stops working) continue on with something else. If you concentrate on lucid dreaming and reality checks long enough, you may not even need to use the reality checks and just know that you are dreaming as I did!
