My reality checks NEVER work

[CatDreamer22]

A while ago I produced a dream using the FILD method. I did a reality check by pushing my finger through my palm, it didn't work. Later, I had another dream where I was in a computer lab. I remembered to do a reality check, i tried breathing through my nose, it didn't work. Just tonight, I did 3 different reality checks, 1 was the nose one, the other was the palm one, and the last was pushing my hand through a wall. None of them worked. Reality checks just don't want to work in my dreams. Even though I remember to do 10 daily, I ask myself if i'm dreaming, I look at my surroundings and imagine weird things happening, AND I do 3 fail-safes, I still can't do a successful reality check. I think I might know what the problem is, but i'm not quite sure. I think iv'e been getting too many dreams that are realistic. And I don't mean extremely vivid. I mean like everything is too normal, and too much like real life. For example, the dream I had last night, I was at my friends' house while they were reading a book and it was raining outside. I can't find any dream signs from that. I still do have weird dreams, but the majority of mine are realistic. How do I create more dream signs, and is there anything else I can do to make my reality checks work?

[Sean Jacobs]

Hi CatDreamer22.

I understand your frustration. Here is what I have learned. My RCs work the majority of the time. I count my fingers on one hand. Dreams respond to your expectations. For any RC to work you must believe it will work; which means you MUST have the expectation that you are dreaming and that your RC will validate that you are dreaming....you MUST have this mindset when you reality check in real life every time.

As I count my fingers, on my right, hand in real life and I reach number 6; I am fully expect I will have 6, 7, 8 fingers. I KNOW that I will have more than 5 fingers. I try to, by force of will, make fingers 6, 7, & 8 appear. When I'm dreaming my mind responds to my expectations and makes it happen.

I hope this helps.