Dreams are vivid but I just can't recognise it

[TongoFu]

Hi guys, So OK, in one sense i'm a newbie - I've had 1 x LD, in another sense I'm not - that LD was nearly 3 years ago and nothing since then. Here's the thing - my dreams a generally quite vivid and easy to recall, however, when I wake i'm usually left frustrated with myself as I didn't recognise I was dreaming. I've looked for dream signs through my dream journal, but there's nothing physical that pops out as a sign - I've tried focusing on more abstract signs, such as emotions, but this isn't getting me anywhere fast. I'm RC'ing a lot but this doesn't translate into my dream. My one previous LD was a DILD - and yep, now I'm trying to switch to a more WILD WBTB technique to see if that suits me better. Has anyone else had this problem - or maybe know of any tips - vivid dreams but can't recognise it's a dream? I possibly guess it's an age old question - It's just very frustrating that every morning, even though I've set intentions and maybe the scenario is - If i show up in my dream in a new place then I will recognise this, and realise I'm dreaming... And then, I have a dream where I'm in a new place but i never recognise it... Ugghhhh!!! Thanks

[Sageous]

You may have no problem at all, TongoFu; just a bit more work to do. Contrary to its name, and to what seems to be a popular misunderstanding in the LD'ing community, lucidity has nothing to do with vividness. Yes, once you are lucid you can learn to make your dreams more vivid, but that's about it; you aren't closer to lucidity because your dreams are vivid. In other words, you can be extremely lucid in the dullest of dreams, just as you can be not even slightly lucid in the most vivid of dreams, and vise-verse. What is lucidity about, then? It is about the presence of your waking-life self-awareness in a dream; nothing more, nothing less. I think the next step for you might be to work on that self-awareness, as well as the other two fundamentals of consistent LD'ing, which are memory and expectation/intention. Lucidity is also all about getting your head in the right place: recognizing dream signs and RC's will not work if you are not already slightly lucid during the dream (another myth in the LD'ing community, BTW, is that RC's make you lucid; they do not, but only confirm it). Until you have a proper lucid mindset, any techniques you choose to use to DILD or WILD will probably not work consistently. So I suggest that you do two things to take the next step on your lucid journey. First, come to understand that lucidity has nothing whatsoever to do with vividness, regardless of what you've heard, and second, to start working on those fundamentals so that your mind is in the right place to have LD's, be they vivid or not.

[TongoFu]

Thanks for the feedback. I've always practiced self awareness even before wanting to LD - perhaps I could be better at it though. I read through your post about memory, it's interesting, I've never thought about it like that. When I RC, I usually add a "how did I get here?" type of question, and then think back... not nearly as often as I should be doing I guess. I need to digest your post and have a good think about it. Thanks again, it's much appreciated.