How to Lucid Dream.

Step #3 - Reality Checks

What's the most popular way for beginners to become lucid in dreams?

It's to spontaneously realize that you're dreaming - while you're dreaming.

You might be having high tea with David Hasselhoff, when a fleet of flying pigs begin circling overhead. The sky turns purple and cracks in two, as The Hoff suddenly looks like your mother.

"Oh my God. This isn't real! I'm DREAMING!"

Upon this mind-bending revelation, all the elements of the dream snap into focus. It becomes as vivid as the reality you perceive right now.

You suddenly have the clarity of mind to decide what to do next and the dream world populates itself according to your every whim.

Now you're lucid dreaming.

But how did this realization come about? What prompted the insight? Why should you become lucid tonight, when every other night you accept your bizarre dreams without a second thought?

The answer is... you're not used to questioning your reality.

It's all too easy to sleepwalk through your days, fulfilling basic needs through work, relationships, family, friends, hobbies and other activities.

You never stop and sit and simply observe reality. Like a contemplative monk.

That's right, we're getting existential...

Today's lesson is all about asking the question: What is reality?

What Are Reality Checks?

"What is real? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain." - Morpheus, The Matrix

When you dream, your brain simulates electrical impulses that give you a sense of an artificial reality; an inner world which only you can perceive.

You may be walking barefoot through a park, listening to birdsong, feeling the sun on your skin. Out of context, it is hard to tell whether you're awake or dreaming, because both dreams and reality can deliver the same type of experience to your brain.

We are so distracted that even when something bizarre happens in a dream, we sleep right through it! We don't stop and think.

That's why we need reality checks in order to consciously "think" in our dreams.

Getting Started

Reality checks are impossible actions which, in reality, prove themselves to be such.

However, in dreams, you can do anything... and the check becomes proof that you are dreaming.

Pushing your hand through a solid object is a reality check. Try to do it right now (seriously).

As you do it, ask yourself, "Am I dreaming? Is this real?"

Ok great - you've just done your first reality check. It took all of 10 seconds.

From now on, perform 10-20 reality checks per day. Really try to push your fingers through the desk, wall, or the palm of your other hand, imagining how it would look and feel if you actually managed to do it. All the while, ask yourself: is this real or a dream?

Some people like to use reminders (such as doing a reality check every time the phone rings, or when they climb a flight of stairs). Others just get on with their day and naturally pause to do reality checks when the thought crosses their mind.

Final Thoughts

Soon, you will perform reality checks habitually throughout the waking day. And when this habit becomes ingrained into your waking life, it will easily filter into your dreams too.

Your heightened sense of dream awareness will give you the clarity of thought to stop and say, "Hang on, this isn't real!" You'll perform a reality check and the impossible will happen.

Combine this with your dream sign recognition from our last lesson, and you have a sound strategy for having spontaneous lucid dreams from here on.