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Reality Checks

Are You Awake?

imageeality checks apply mindfulness training to lucid dreaming. They are also the key to being a successful lucid dreamer.

In the lucid dreaming community, we call mindfulness training reality checks because the difference between lucid dreaming and reality is noticeable. By paying attention to reality, we can notice the sense of realism that is part of our waking life, and when we dream we notice the errors in the dream world. This results in the dreamer’s becoming aware in the dream.

We already have assumed that reality itself is a simulation inside our brains. Our brains take in information using our five senses and mix all this information together in our minds—creating our impressions and beliefs about the world. Because both dreams and reality are simulated in our minds, dreams can feel just as real as reality.

Reality checks are also closely related to the Eastern practice of dream yoga. Dreamers are trying to wake themselves up in a lucid dream during sleep, while yogis are trying to wake themselves up from the dream of reality. Many yoga practitioners will say that sounds, visual indicators, psychological symbolism, and a physical practice all support them on their journey to enlightenment.

It’s not fully understood how we can find errors in a dream by reality checking them, but it does work. Practicing mindfulness primes our brains to be more awake to our dreams and to remember them.

HOW TO PERFORM REALITY CHECKS

Here are just a few ways that you can practice reality checks throughout the day. It’s important to remember that any one of these can fail to bring you awareness in a dream, so it’s important to practice a few different reality check techniques.

You can also make your own tools for reality checks by using sounds, lights, smells—anything that will allow you to recognize whether you are dreaming.

Having physical objects to check throughout the day can greatly improve the ability to become lucid during a dream. This often means holding something in your hand at several points throughout the day and asking yourself, “Am I dreaming?” This provides you with the visual (symbolic), physical, and psychological aspects of the practice. Verbally asking yourself if you are dreaming is an auditory cue, much like a mantra in yoga, to help remind your brain that it’s important to focus on dreaming. Practicing these key elements will help you to become more aware throughout your day and while you are dreaming.

On your journey to a lucid dream, you will see that waking life and the dream life are closely related; one will teach you the importance of the other. Through mindfulness training in our waking life, we will see our dreams for what they are: a story. Eventually, we will see that our waking life is also a story.

THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL ENERGY

Using emotions such as fear, love, passion, or anger can allow us to become aware in our dreams. Identifying which emotion may be most useful to you is easy to do: think about the past dreams you have had and the overall emotional energy in those dreams. Once you identify that emotion, focus on it throughout the day. What thoughts are most vivid when that emotion arises?

Before going to bed, focus on that emotional energy and recognize that when you next feel it arise, you will be in a dream. This is a very useful reality check and can be extremely powerful to use in lucid dreaming.

For me, at one time many of my dreams were fear based. I knew that if I felt a lot of fighting energy, I was most likely in a dream. Before going to bed I would even psych myself up to the point that I would be emotionally empowered by the fear. That mental connection would allow me to become aware in the dream and even overcome my fear. As I started overcoming my response to fear, passion and love took its place.

Try using one form of emotional energy for this technique until it becomes useful in the dream, and use it until it is no longer effective.