Talk:Lucid Dreaming/Reality Checks/Nose

As far as i am concerned this method for reality testing is misleading. I can see no reason that such a test will work other than suggestion and expectation. Why would the dreaming mind have any trouble creating a dream nose with one (dream eye) closed?

Where is the scientific justification of this technique and what is the source?


 * Admittedly, most reality checks have no scientific justification but many people have found them reliable and some have been tested by the Lucidity Institute. Most techniques, reality checks etc. now end up in online forums and therefore it is extremely hard to find the original inventor of any technique. I do not see why the source is relevant.


 * It has been found helpful but not nessecary for you to already believe or be uncertain if your surroundings are a dream. Usually before you do a reality check you are uncertain.


 * One possible explanation with, I stress, no scientific justification, is that your mind cannot simulate the suffocation which would occur if you were to hold your nose indefinately. Heartrate has been found to be linked to the heartrate in dreams (at least it speeds up during dreams and further during nightmares) and I cannot see why breathing can't be linked as well. Breathing does speed up in the REM state. r3m0t (cont) (talk) 12:30, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)


 * I am sorry, I thought you were talking about the breathing reality check. I really wish this naming problem could be solved somehow :(.


 * Seeing things in dreams is not quite related to your "dream eyes". Every experiences third-person vision at some point in their dreams, don't they? Additionally, avid readers of manga/anime comics can sometimes dream in comic style, complete with speechbubbles!


 * It is obvious that the logic part of the brain is not as active in a dream, lucid or no, compared to waking. This is a possible explanation. Different reality checks work for different people and some people find that they wear off and become less reliable. I am scared that this may happen with the breathing RC for me because it has failed once for me, luckily just doing the reailty check made me a bit lucid (see the example on LD RC Breathing). r3m0t (cont) (talk) 12:36, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)