A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (14 page)

So stop for a moment

right now and look around

I’m in a body of water, and I’m following 

you, really check this time.

this little cartoon guy as he swims through

Is it possible that you’re

the water. I want to continue following

him under the water, and I think to myself,

dreaming? Test it to make

I can breathe underwater in dreams. I

sure. Can you push your

abandon the snorkel and continue follow-

finger through your hand?

ing the little cartoon guy. —AMY B.

Can you pass through a

solid object? If you jump,

do you float down?

By asking this question, you’re performing what is called a

reality check, and the beauty of it is this: by asking yourself the

question “Am I dreaming?” throughout your day, you will begin to

ask the same question while in a dream. Your suspicion of reality

For two days, I asked myself as many times as I could remember,

whether or not I was dreaming. Of course almost every time I

was not, and it felt weird to continue asking, but I did like how

it brought me more presence and awareness in my waking state.

On the second night, I found myself outside of my house and

I stopped to ask the same question, “Am I dreaming?” I tested 

by looking at my hands. Much to my surprise, when I counted

my fingers I saw that I had eleven fingers. I checked again.

“I am dreaming!” I shouted. It was the best feeling to have finally 

answered the question with a “YES! This is a dream!” I ran and 

jumped into flight, testing my superman skills. —DAVID G.

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will echo into your sleep, bouncing around your mind until—

voilà!—you find yourself in the mecca of your own psyche. Reality

checks are another cornerstone of lucid dreaming.

If you stop and think about it, you can usually tell if you’re

dreaming or not: the trick is stopping and thinking about it. It

may sound crazy to ask this question when you know for sure that

you’re awake, but your feelings of lunacy will be justified when

you have your first lucid dream. Soon enough you’ll perform a

reality check in a dream and realize: “Wait a second, it worked! I

am dreaming!” This sudden realization will be so amazing that it

will validate all of your efforts to practice during the waking state.

Physical Test

In order to perform a reality check you need not only to ask the

question “Am I dreaming?” but you also have to answer it. And

how do you answer your own question, since the dream state likes

to trick us and disguise itself as “real”? Fortunately, over the years

the lucid dreaming community has developed some clever double

checks. Make sure to always perform a physical test as well. Some

standard physical tests are:

b
The Finger.
Can you pass your finger through the palm of

your hand? In a dream this is possible.

b
The hand.
Do your hands look normal? Do they have as many

fingers as they’re supposed to have?

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b
The Jump.
Jumping is not only a hell of a lotta’ fun but a

great reality check. If you jump, do you float down, is there an

absence of gravity? In dreams floating is absolutely possible.

(As a stepping-stone, try floating before you try to fly!)

b
The Nose.
When you hold your nose, can you still breathe?

Most lucid dreamers find this to be the most reliable evidence

that they’re dreaming.

b
The Mirror.
Does your reflection look normal?

b
Reading.
Can you read the same sentence twice without it

changing? Can you read the same sentence twice without it

chulnging?

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As you can see by Susan’s example, a second physical test might

be necessary; sometimes your first test doesn’t work, fooling you

into thinking that you are awake when really you’re in a dream.

Twice within the last year I performed a test within a dream—

once I tried to fly to test whether it was a dream. I could not

fly  and  decided  it  was  real.  Whoops!  Next  time  I  tried  to 

make my hand turn purple. I concentrated hard within the

dream and it worked! I was excited to know it was a dream

but thought, “Now what?” and the dream ended. —SUSAN D.

When to Perform a Reality Check

If you ask yourself throughout the day this golden question, it

will eventually trickle into your dreams. This is why the real-

ity check is one of the easiest and most rewarding techniques you

can try. The question is easy to ask, but turning it into a habit can

be a bit challenging for some. Try it out for the next three days,

five to ten times a day. Take on this simple habit for even a short

period of time—it can spark your first lucid dream. If you need

help reminding yourself to do the check, here are some helpful

habit-creating tips:

1.
Set an alarm
on your cell phone every hour or two as a reminder to perform a reality check.

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