I’m not sure if this is abnormal/ an odd question, but my past few lucid dreams have been frequent, but nearly impossible to control. I’m not sure why. On top of that, I’ve been having trouble with reality checks.
last night, I had another LD where I already knew I was dreaming (I often go through my day repeating “this is all a dream” and it easily filters into my sleep, so I haven’t actually done reality checks in a while). But my dream felt different. I looked down at my hands and there was great detail sketched into them—they looked incredibly normal. but when I tried to push a finger through it, nothing happened. It was like real life. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to try any other reality checks to see if there was the same effect.
Has anyone else experienced this? Can it be fixed? Could it have failed because I’ve been wondering recently if RC’s could actually fail in dreams? Or do I simply need to continue doing reality checks alongside the ADA technique I use?
No reality check is 100% reliable, and there are several ways you can fail a reality check, like rushing it with critical thought, or explaining the result away. In addition, it sounds like you are using the finger-through palm reality check, which is less reliable than the nose pinch and digital clock reality checks because of the logic involved. Most people see their hands a lot every day, and often experience the solidity of their body. So, in a dream, expecting your hands to be permeable just because of belief, and not accounting for actual dream logic, like that you can breathe while closing your mouth and nose etc, is unlikely to be effective most of the time. In short, pick a more reliable reality check to work- eg. nose pinch- and don’t expect RCs to be 100% reliable (this is why it’s good to do more than one). I hope this answers your question.