Lucid Dreaming

[Gumby]

It costs $100...

Or make your own for $3...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2027990/m ... ask_for_3/

[Gosso]

It costs $100...

Or make your own for $3...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2027990/m ... ask_for_3/

Hehe, I saw that as well, although I'm thinking the cables might create a hazard.  The wireless one looks doable -- could be a fun project.

[Lone Wolf]

Has anyone tried the "Lucid Dreaming Mask"?  It is supposed to flash red LED lights when you hit REM sleep, which causes you to see red in your dream and alerts you to the fact you are dreaming.  Here is a video on it (4:14):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bit ... aming-mask

It costs $100...

That is hilarious!  I wonder how well that works?  Anyone have any idea?

Not sure I could do this.  I am having a hard time imagining the moment where I announce to my wife that I will be wearing a set of flashing dork-goggles to bed every evening! 

I love people's creativity on the homemade ones too.

[moda0306]

Not sure I could do this.  I am having a hard time imagining the moment where I announce to my wife that I will be wearing a set of flashing dork-goggles to bed every evening!   ;D

Probably better than when you took her to Skeeter's Pawn & Gold with 1/4 of your life's savings!

[Lone Wolf]

I finally, finally managed to achieve a second lucid dream!  Total consciousness, full memories, mental capacity, and awareness.  I relaxed and took things easier this time and was rewarded with a longer experience.  Just so cool... I'm hooked!  I also tried out some experiments that I'd thought up beforehand.  Some cool tidbits that I noted:

Dreams are high-def.  Since I find dreams slightly "foggy" when I recall them I wondered how sharp the imagery really is.  I took the time to consciously assess the visual quality of the image and remember my precise thoughts for later.  Everything that I saw was absolutely crystal clear, detailed and every bit as sharp as real life, only much stranger.  I can only assume that non-lucid dreams are the same way.

False awakening.  I woke up from the dream and wrote several lines in my dream journal.  I then noticed some weird notation in the margins, performed a "reality check" and... woke up again in my bed.  I'd experienced the classic "false awakening" or "dream within a dream" because I had expected to wake up in bed... and unintentionally conjured the scenario.

Hands look weird.  I checked out my hands repeatedly to see how they would look.  Color was always normal but the right hand would often have an extra finger.  The palms were sometimes longer than they ought to normally be.  It would change when I'd look at them and then look away.

Restabilization works.  When I was "losing" the dream and about to wake up, the imagery would be replaced by a milky gray.  Rubbing my hands over my forearms and "feeling" the sensation would pull me back in and completely stabilize the experience.  This was very easy and bought me a lot of extra time!  I was surprised by how well it worked.

Reality checks work.  My chosen reality check was to try to push my index finger through the palm of my other hand.  My hand would stretch and warp around my finger when I tried this.

I've got a few more experiments that I'd like to try in future forays.  Hopefully it won't take me another ~two months to get a lucid dream.    (BTW: for anyone who's curious, I utilized Stephen LaBerge's MILD technique for this dream.)

[MachineGhost]

I've got a few more experiments that I'd like to try in future forays.  Hopefully it won't take me another ~two months to get a lucid dream.    (BTW: for anyone who's curious, I utilized Stephen LaBerge's MILD technique for this dream.)

So how does it compare to being full conscious inside/playing a 3D game?

[Lone Wolf]

So how does it compare to being full conscious inside/playing a 3D game?

While I didn't actively compare my experiences of 3d games to what I was seeing in-dream, my memorized remarks lead me to believe that the dream imagery is superior.  The precise review that I committed to memory was: "Everything is crystal clear.  I can view anything I want in full detail."  I tried extremely close examination both of my hands as well as the brushed metal surface of a refrigerator.

One thing that I can say with complete certainty is that human figures are far more realistic-looking in dreams than in games (where they often look like bizarre mannequins.)  There were two dream characters waiting patiently in the scene with me while I gawked and stared.  I recall that they were utterly lifelike, something I've never thought about any game.

What I think is going on is that when judging the images that you see, you compare them to your expectations.  But your expectations are also what generate the images.  Thus they're bound to look very impressive (although, at the same time, often very weird.)  But I'm new to this so it's only my guess.

I enjoy games myself so I'll try to make a direct comparison to them when I manage to achieve another lucid dream.  Perhaps I'll use the latest "The Last of Us" trailer as a baseline. 

[Gosso]

LW,

Good job, I am jealous!  I haven't had any new lucid dreams.  Actually, my dream recall has been weak over the past couple weeks, but has picked up in the past two nights...I'll blame the previous few weeks on stress.

I'm thinking I need to start performing more reality checks.  I'll have to try the "finger-through-hand" technique.  Another one is to hold your breath...if you continue breathing then you know you're dreaming.

[Lone Wolf]

Good job, I am jealous!  I haven't had any new lucid dreams.  Actually, my dream recall has been weak over the past couple weeks, but has picked up in the past two nights...I'll blame the previous few weeks on stress.

I'm thinking I need to start performing more reality checks.  I'll have to try the "finger-through-hand" technique.  Another one is to hold your breath...if you continue breathing then you know you're dreaming.

Thanks, my friend!  I'm glad that your dream recall is coming back now that it sounds like you have put out a few fires.  For what it's worth, I was coming off a stretch of 3-4 days where I had recall of only a single (very hazy) dream.  I started wondering why things were slipping so much and went hunting for information about repairing dream recall.

Instead I happened upon an article about ultra-frequent lucid dreamers (people that have maybe 4-5 in a night!!)  The common trait for them seemed to be a constant study of their environment and habitually reviewing how they got where they are.  Just an overall sense of awareness during waking life, I think.  (This was the article.)  Could be a good one to read before bed.

Goes to show that a little slip-up in dream recall can turn out just fine, particularly since yours is normally really good.  Loads better than mine.  Definitely post when you manage to achieve lucidity!  I think that the pieces will all line up again for you soon.

[MachineGhost]

Is there some kind of axiomatic fear people have about dreaming?

It seems to me if I happen to start to become aware that I am dreaming while sleeping, there is an semi-automatic reflex to wake up and get out of it, perhaps to avoid potential nightmares or sleep paralysis.  When I really think about it, it feels that being lucid in the past has correlated with suddenly finding myself trapped in unpleasant nightmares.

And after the fact, how does one tell superior recall and emotional impressions of an epic dream vs lucid?  Does lucid imply full sensory and body control vs participant passivity?  Is lucid dreaming the same thing as astral projection?

[Lone Wolf]

It seems to me if I happen to start to become aware that I am dreaming while sleeping, there is an semi-automatic reflex to wake up and get out of it, perhaps to avoid potential nightmares or sleep paralysis.  When I really think about it, it feels that being lucid in the past has correlated with suddenly finding myself trapped in unpleasant nightmares.

That's interesting.  My response was exhilaration and an over-eagerness to treat my subconscious like a playground.  In my first lucid dream, my over-excitement and overuse of dream control actually woke me up about 20-30 seconds into the dream.

If you have suffered from sleep paralysis and bad nightmares in the past I can definitely understand a gut reflex to wake up and get the hell away from a bad experience.  However, I've read a few accounts of people using lucid dreaming in order to work through nightmares.  Many ultra-frequent lucid dreamers, in fact, were people that suffered terrible nightmares as children and learned to cope by becoming lucid and facing the nightmare with the full presence of their conscious, rational mind.

I have no personal experience with lucid nightmares as of yet.  All still fun and games for me.  Stephen LaBerge worked through issues with nightmares via lucid dreaming, preferring to literally invite the nightmare figures to sit down and talk with him.

And after the fact, how does one tell superior recall and emotional impressions of an epic dream vs lucid?  Does lucid imply full sensory and body control vs participant passivity?  Is lucid dreaming the same thing as astral projection?

Lucidity is that feeling where you are totally aware that everything you are experiencing is a dream.  All of your memories, intentions, and clarity come online and you feel like... you.  I think that full sensory and body control are generally a part of it too (or at least have been for me.)  I don't know about you, but I make some fairly ridiculous decisions and believe some really strange things in my non-lucid dreams. 

In a lucid dream, you feel like yourself.  Just you living in the world of your subconscious.  (A world that you can often shape -- by how much I am still figuring out!)

Is lucid dreaming the same thing as astral projection?

I have no supernatural beliefs so I feel that they are the same thing.  Instead of thinking "it's all a dream" I believe the astral traveler just thinks "I am on the astral plane".  Just my opinion, though.

[Gosso]

LW,

Have you delved into any dream interpretation?  Normally I wouldn't take this stuff seriously, except that I have a great amount of respect for Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.  I have been dreaming a lot about airports, planes, trains, and resorts.  Normally the dream will also involve me realizing that I'm traveling in the wrong direction, and I need to change planes/trains.  I am no expert on interpreting the symbolism of dreams, but I'm pretty sure that my unconscious is telling me to step outside of my current routine, and to embrace change.  Pretty cool stuff!

Plus I have noticed a few minor things from my dreams that will transfer into the conscious world.  One example is where I was riding a unicycle in my dream (I was taking it over crazy jumps!), and then the very next day I saw someone riding a unicycle on the sidewalk outside my house.  Since I virtually never see unicycles around my area, I thought this was a little strange.

[Lone Wolf]

Have you delved into any dream interpretation?  Normally I wouldn't take this stuff seriously, except that I have a great amount of respect for Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.  I have been dreaming a lot about airports, planes, trains, and resorts.  Normally the dream will also involve me realizing that I'm traveling in the wrong direction, and I need to change planes/trains.  I am no expert on interpreting the symbolism of dreams, but I'm pretty sure that my unconscious is telling me to step outside of my current routine, and to embrace change.  Pretty cool stuff!

You're right, that is pretty cool.  I haven't done anything with dream interpretation myself.  You seem to have a much more mature attitude about this whole thing than I do.  While you are probing the most profound desires of your inner mind, my to-do list is filled with stuff like "jump around the rooftops of my neighborhood" and "turn myself into King Kong". 

Your interpretation sounds quite convincing to me.  It's striking that the themes are so consistent for you.  Mine tend to be weird and amusing while sort of jumping around from theme to theme.  That consistency you're seeing makes me think that your subconscious is exploring a set of ideas that's very important for you right now.  I'm glad you've been able to latch onto it!

Plus I have noticed a few minor things from my dreams that will transfer into the conscious world.  One example is where I was riding a unicycle in my dream (I was taking it over crazy jumps!), and then the very next day I saw someone riding a unicycle on the sidewalk outside my house.  Since I virtually never see unicycles around my area, I thought this was a little strange.

Ha!  That's really cool.  Do you think that there is any chance you had noticed that guy before without registering him consciously?  Frankly, this "rational explanation" I'm offering seems rather unlikely.  A dude on a unicycle is sort of hard to miss.  I guess it's just one of those mysteries that all you can do is appreciate.

Aha!  Ride a unicycle!  Perfect for the "lucid dreaming to-do list"! 

[Gosso]

Still no lucid dreaming...although I haven't been performing the reality checks, so my laziness is likely to blame.

Plus I have noticed a few minor things from my dreams that will transfer into the conscious world.  One example is where I was riding a unicycle in my dream (I was taking it over crazy jumps!), and then the very next day I saw someone riding a unicycle on the sidewalk outside my house.  Since I virtually never see unicycles around my area, I thought this was a little strange.

Ha!  That's really cool.  Do you think that there is any chance you had noticed that guy before without registering him consciously?  Frankly, this "rational explanation" I'm offering seems rather unlikely.  A dude on a unicycle is sort of hard to miss.  I guess it's just one of those mysteries that all you can do is appreciate.

Aha!  Ride a unicycle!  Perfect for the "lucid dreaming to-do list"! 

Haha!  That unicycle dream was crazy...it was like motocross except with unicycles!  So much fun!  But as for the deja-vu, I really cannot explain it, it has happened a few other times with other dreams (although not with unicycles, unfortunately).  Just weird stuff, it's really neat when one begins paying attention to dreams.

By the way, here is a nice summary of Carl Jung's Theory of Dreams.

[Lone Wolf]

Still no lucid dreaming...although I haven't been performing the reality checks, so my laziness is likely to blame.

I was going to wait until I'd had more successes before mentioning it, but maybe this technique will be useful to you.  I got my 3rd lucid dream from a technique called SSILD that was posted on the ld4all forum.  I'm still working on it but so far, I got one super-stable lucid dream and a huge number of extremely convincing false awakenings.  Basically, for me SSILD appears to be a "false awakening generator".  I then need to have the presence of mind to reality check upon "waking up".

The first night I tried SSILD, I "woke up" because I heard a strange noise outside of our bedroom.  After going out into the hallway to investigate, I looked back into the bedroom and saw this strange green energy tempest blowing around the doorway.  I pushed through it and the experience was like walking into a wind tunnel.  I reality checked, confirmed I was dreaming, and then bolted off to try flying.

After that, I've had a good number of false awakenings that I failed to convert into proper lucid dreams.  Still, I was impressed with the technique and it may be a good one to try if you are in the mood to experiment.  The downside is that it does require waking up for about 5-10 minutes after 6 hours of sleep then returning to bed.  Right now I'm a little short on sleep so I've missed a couple of nights.

Haha!  That unicycle dream was crazy...it was like motocross except with unicycles!  So much fun!  But as for the deja-vu, I really cannot explain it, it has happened a few other times with other dreams (although not with unicycles, unfortunately).  Just weird stuff, it's really neat when one begins paying attention to dreams.

By the way, here is a nice summary of Carl Jung's Theory of Dreams.

That's a cool article on Jung.  While nobody yet fully understands the dreaming process, I think he got much closer to the right idea than Freud, whose analysis seemed to consist mostly of pointing to stuff in a dream and saying, "Oh yeah, that dream you had about a tree whose branches covered your childhood home and whose top reached to the stars?  Phallic symbol.  Total phallic symbol." 

I also think Jung was right that dreaming allows us to tap an enormous reservoir of inner creativity.  Now that my dream journal has grown consistent and detailed I'm astonished by how much I was missing by not paying closer attention to what was happening in the dream world.  Even now, the 2 or 3 dreams that I remember each night (just a fraction of the total number that we have) are filled with lots of weirdly interesting ideas.  I've had a number of dreams where I was exploring the finished product of ideas that I didn't even know I had.

After carefully scouring that article, I am sorry to say that I found no information on how to interpret your vision of a unicycle.  Is this one of those collective dreams, perhaps?  Like how the Norse believed that the world would end in the battle of Ragnarok and the Cherokee believe that the earth will slide into the sea, perhaps Canadians have an end of the world belief that is built around unicycles.  I, too, believe that when the Messiah returns, He will do so on a unicycle. 

[Gosso]

Still no lucid dreaming...although I haven't been performing the reality checks, so my laziness is likely to blame.

I was going to wait until I'd had more successes before mentioning it, but maybe this technique will be useful to you.  I got my 3rd lucid dream from a technique called SSILD that was posted on the ld4all forum.  I'm still working on it but so far, I got one super-stable lucid dream and a huge number of extremely convincing false awakenings.  Basically, for me SSILD appears to be a "false awakening generator".  I then need to have the presence of mind to reality check upon "waking up".

The first night I tried SSILD, I "woke up" because I heard a strange noise outside of our bedroom.  After going out into the hallway to investigate, I looked back into the bedroom and saw this strange green energy tempest blowing around the doorway.  I pushed through it and the experience was like walking into a wind tunnel.  I reality checked, confirmed I was dreaming, and then bolted off to try flying.

After that, I've had a good number of false awakenings that I failed to convert into proper lucid dreams.  Still, I was impressed with the technique and it may be a good one to try if you are in the mood to experiment.  The downside is that it does require waking up for about 5-10 minutes after 6 hours of sleep then returning to bed.  Right now I'm a little short on sleep so I've missed a couple of nights.

Cool.  I'm not sure if I'm willing to wake up after 4-5 hours, but I'll try the exercises whenever I naturally wake up unusually early.

As for the unicycle dream, well I have no idea how to interpret that one.  Maybe another clue will show up in another dream...

[Lone Wolf]

Cool.  I'm not sure if I'm willing to wake up after 4-5 hours, but I'll try the exercises whenever I naturally wake up unusually early.

I hear you there.  Sleep is so precious and I don't like to be woken up via alarm clock if I can avoid it.  With a wife, it would be very hazardous to my physical health to set some sort of alarm that might wake her up in the middle of the night. 

At first I just made sure to drink enough water that I'd need to get up at about the right time.  Stumbling to the bathroom wasn't all that much fun, though, so now I simply set a mental intention to "Wake up at X am and remember my dreams."  It usually works really well if I'm not too tired (in which case it just wasn't meant to be.)  After I've spent 5-10 minutes writing in the dream journal, I SSILD and go back to sleep.  Dream recall, at least, has been very consistent, which I am enjoying a ton.  Can't believe I used to just forget all of this stuff!

Loads of false awakenings, too, which are also very entertaining.  Just need to convert more and more of them into lucidity.  We'll see how it goes.  Very fun process so far.

[Lone Wolf]

I'm thinking I need to start performing more reality checks.  I'll have to try the "finger-through-hand" technique.  Another one is to hold your breath...if you continue breathing then you know you're dreaming.

Gosso!  I used your recommended reality check to get lucid dream #4 last night!  I noticed that my iPod was missing its headphone jack.  This was weird, so I decided to pinch my nose shut and try to breathe through it for a reality check.  When my breathing continued uninhibited, I immediately became lucid.

Unfortunately I was at a party in some vast house, so I couldn't practice my flying all that well.  I kept trying to jump high into the air as I'd done before but I would always hit the ceiling and floated back down (much to the amusement of onlooking dream characters, to whom I kept bragging that this was my lucid dream and they were about to see some flying.)

So how does it compare to being full conscious inside/playing a 3D game?

MG, I tested this out a bit as well.  Interestingly, thinking about video games caused the paintings (or tapestries?) hung on the wall of the house to show scenes from the circa 1994 first-person shooter DOOM. 

I spent the most time studying the detail of dream characters and they all looked like real people.  I only recognized one friend, who was photo-realistic.  I studied at a minimum three other dream characters that I can remember well and all had at least faces which were photo-realistic.  One looked very offended and annoyed, shoving me away when I bounced off the ceiling and nearly landed on her.

[Gosso]

I'm thinking I need to start performing more reality checks.  I'll have to try the "finger-through-hand" technique.  Another one is to hold your breath...if you continue breathing then you know you're dreaming.

Gosso!  I used your recommended reality check to get lucid dream #4 last night!  I noticed that my iPod was missing its headphone jack.  This was weird, so I decided to pinch my nose shut and try to breathe through it for a reality check.  When my breathing continued uninhibited, I immediately became lucid.

Unfortunately I was at a party in some vast house, so I couldn't practice my flying all that well.  I kept trying to jump high into the air as I'd done before but I would always hit the ceiling and floated back down (much to the amusement of onlooking dream characters, to whom I kept bragging that this was my lucid dream and they were about to see some flying.)

Awesome sauce!  It's good to know it actually works.  I will try it out once my dumbass unconscious notices something is wrong in the environment.  I figure this is some sort of survival mechanism, since if we were able to hold our breath in our dreams (or drown) then it might actually stop our real bodies from breathing -- that's a scary thought! 

[Lone Wolf]

We started veering into the area of lucid dreaming in the Garden of Eden thread, and I thought I'd dig up the original lucid dreaming thread and post here.

Quick summary of where I stand with lucid dreaming: I really studied up since starting this thread, got way into it, and have had quite a large number of lucid dreams now.  (92 as of this morning.)  So I have a bit of a different perspective on the topic now than when the thread began.

So what do you take or do to encourage a lucid dream?  The only person I know who says he can do it almost at will says that if he repeats his own name to himself in his mind over and over again as he falls asleep, he greatly increases his odds of having a lucid dream.  I have no explanation for why that would work? 

My most common technique is Stephen LaBerge's MILD technique (short for "mnemonic induction of lucid dreams") that simply involves visualizing a recent dream as you I off to sleep, imagining myself realizing that I'm dreaming and continuously asserting my will and intent to become lucid.  This is most effective for me if I wake up after about 5 hours of sleep, stay up for 30 minutes or so quietly reading or studying, then go back to sleep while performing MILD.  These wakings have become completely automatic for me over time.

My back-up technique is "WILD" or wake-induced lucid dream.  This involves trying to fall asleep while just barely hanging on to my self-awareness as a dream begins.  This requires some finesse and timing, but it's a cool experience.

I augment all of this by spending the day much more aware of my environment and the dreamlike nature of life.  As for things that I take, if I'm looking for something special, there are some substances I can take to "kick things up" a bit and enhance the experience in various ways.  Most of this is stuff like B6, choline, melatonin, apple juice, caffeine, etc. that you can find at the drug store, but on the whole this is an advanced area that just augments the fundamentals like MILD.

Your friend's technique is interesting!  There are a couple of ideas I have for what that might be doing.  The simplest is that by repeating his own name as a mantra when he falls asleep, he is likely to remember or repeat his name, and perhaps bring his own identity to mind.  Often in dreams, the stories we participate in make very little sense, and the simple act of seriously questioning, "Why am I doing this?  How did I get here?" is enough to make us lucid.  Another theory is that your friend repeats his name to hold onto his identity while he slips directly into the dream state.  He'll probably be able to tell you which it is -- spontaneously become lucid during a dream, or move straight from waking consciousness into a dream.  They both work, but they're very different experiences.

[rocketdog]

This doesn't really apply to lucid dreaming, but I wonder if anyone else has had dreams where they are trying to do something specific, but you're never able to actually do it.  For example, you are running from someone, but your legs don't work and you move really slowly. 

Sorry I'm late to the party...

As a kid I frequently has a dream where I was being chased around our diningroom table by a monster of one sort or another.  My legs were heavy like lead, or like I was running through molasses.  The monster never caught me (or else I woke up before it could), but I've never forgotten that dream. 

Also, as an interesting aside, you are actually paralyzed from the neck down when you sleep (having a lack of whatever biological mechanism this is is why sleep-walking occurs).  Sometimes you can wake up before the effect wears off, so you'll be awake, but unable to move at all.  It's a really frightening experience.   

That's called a hypnopompic state, when you wake up paralyzed.  The other state is called hypnogogia, where you feel paralyzed as you're falling asleep.  People frequently have hallucinations in these states where they think there are other people in the room.  This is where myths about things like nighttime alien abductions, the night hag, the incubus, and the succubus all stem from. 

[rocketdog]

Great stuff, you guys!  It sounds like flying (or flying up high enough to dunk, at least!) is a very common desire/occurrence in these lucid dreaming experiences.  It's certainly what I found myself wanting to do.

I repeatedly had flying dreams as a kid.  I don't recall if they were truly "lucid" or not, but they were very vivid and I remember feeling like I could control the flight.  It was more of a floating sensation, like swimming in the air.  I would be floating above my neighborhood at about rooftop height, and I would slowly start to sink like a hot air balloon and needed to "swim" upwards to gain altitude. 

Sometimes even today as an adult I'll have a dream where I take a running jump and wind up floating in the air for a long time on a gentle trajectory.  I can spin and do flips while in the air, and the people on the ground are generally looking at me either perplexed or annoyed at my behavior.  It's kind of a cool dream, but not a lucid one.

[rocketdog]

Here's a question for you lucid dreamers out there: do you have specific "reality check" rituals that you perform during the day?  I had an interesting experience with one of mine.

For the uninitiated, a "reality check" is a habit that you form in your waking life that when performed in a dream should tip you off that you are dreaming.  The idea is that if you form this habit while awake, you are much more likely to attempt it in the dream state and kick yourself into lucidity.

You mean like the totems they carry around in Inception?  A ritual like you suggest might be better than a totem because then it's something you can't lose.  Interesting idea...

[Lone Wolf]

* Last day of high school.  Graduation time!  Except that, for some odd reason, I forgot to take that final year of English.  No graduation for me.

These are the worst!  Although I'm sorry for your misery, I'm glad I'm not alone with these.  For me, it's always the day of the final, I've never attended a day of class, and forgot to drop the course in time. 

I repeatedly had flying dreams as a kid.  I don't recall if they were truly "lucid" or not, but they were very vivid and I remember feeling like I could control the flight.  It was more of a floating sensation, like swimming in the air.  I would be floating above my neighborhood at about rooftop height, and I would slowly start to sink like a hot air balloon and needed to "swim" upwards to gain altitude. 

Sometimes even today as an adult I'll have a dream where I take a running jump and wind up floating in the air for a long time on a gentle trajectory.  I can spin and do flips while in the air, and the people on the ground are generally looking at me either perplexed or annoyed at my behavior.  It's kind of a cool dream, but not a lucid one.

Lucid or not, those sound like great dreams!  Flight wasn't something I ever did until I learned how to become lucid, and even then it required me to move past my brain's insistence that "You can't do that!  It's impossible!"  It sounds very similar to the kind of thing most people like to do when they're lucid.  Although I usually have tons of ideas for what I want to try in a lucid dream, if I can't remember what I had in mind, flight is an option that never fails to be awesome. 

You mean like the totems they carry around in Inception?  A ritual like you suggest might be better than a totem because then it's something you can't lose.  Interesting idea...

I agree.  The "totem" concept was an awesome storytelling mechanic, but the best reality checks are the ones that you can perform with nothing but your own brain and body.  Perhaps the most reliable one is to pinch your nose shut and then breathe through it.  In waking life, this won't work but in a dream a determined effort will allow you to easily breathe 99% of the time.  As you can imagine, the sensation of breathing through a pinched nose is very, very strange and will usually make you fully lucid.

These days, my most common reality check is to simply question how I got where I am and whether the narrative structure of the world I'm inhabiting makes any sense.  You might remember from Inception that Cobb asks Fisher to remember how he got where he is, triggering Fisher to begin a lucid dream.  Although Inception takes lots of artistic license with lucid dreaming, this is actually a very good way to become lucid.

But yeah, when starting out, I like the "nose pinch" reality check.  I still fall back to this one if I'm experiencing any in-dream confusion or I'm hitting a lot of false awakenings in the process of getting to my lucid dream goals.

[rocketdog]

I'll have to try the nose-pinch thing, but then again in my dreams I usually don't have any awareness of my body.  I don't think I've ever seen any of my body parts during a dream (hands, arms, feet, legs, reflection).  It's more like a movie shot with a POV camera.