Conscious Awake; Conscious Asleep - a simple method.

[Wolfwood]

A tight rope walker, with seeming ease, walks from one end of the rope to another. He has been doing this for years, and rarely if ever falls. One day, a curious girl saw the tight-rope walker put his first foot on the rope. She shouted up: ‘Why are you going to walk across the rope like that?’ He looked down as if he ignored the girl. However, when he began his act, he fell down from above some way across. And so, for the first time in years, he had become conscious of his walking. Indeed, automaticity – the unconscious control of an action had dissolved into the darkness, and was replaced by a wavering consciousness. Ultimately, that girl below asking ‘Why....’woke up the man above from his dream of tight-rope walking. The method I am going to present will be seemingly impractical because it requires you to be conscious whilst you’re awake. You may believe you already are, but the annoyance that you’ll experience from this method will highlight that you really aren’t. Nonetheless, the method is simple in itself. Throughout the day, ask yourself: ‘Why am I doing this (activity) in this way?’ And mean it; the words must not be empty. This should result in the sudden realisation that you are now completing this task consciously, or have become conscious of your position. This is by no means an easy feat to do throughout the whole day without a lapse in consciousness; however, if successful, you will experience what it is like to be awake, conscious, and in control of life. This process focuses purely on action-orientated activities under the assumption that non-lucid dreams are typically action-laden. Furthermore, it is also probable that people tend to have dreams where they are acting out these automatic activities. Usually, during the dream you are not conscious of these activities, but then neither are you in waking life. The formula to success is simple: become conscious in the real world; become conscious in the dream world. Here are some suggestions: Why am I washing myself like this? Why am I driving my car like this? Why am I holding my cup like this as I drink? Why am I going to sit in the chair like this? Why am I brushing my teeth in this way? Why am I typing on the computer like this? Why am I sitting in front of the TV like this? Why am I eating my dinner like this? Note: This is not similar to repeatedly doing Reality Checks throughout the day. Such behaviour will only result in the automation of RCs, and then you will become unconscious in doing these too. You must remain conscious. Remember: this is no quick fix. It requires dedication to remain conscious throughout the day, but the reward for your hardship is even greater than the effort put in. Last thing: you will most likely feel the urge to refuse to question why you do a particular activity in a particular way. It is because, instinctively, your mind does not want to exert extra effort to do what it can already do in an easier manner. It’s up to you whether you listen to it or not – but do note, your success depends on that answer. I wish you success. Good luck. 'There are some who are awake even while asleep, and then there are those who, apparently awake, are deeply asleep.' - lalla

[WaterDreamer]

Thank you for this! I've been trying to bring more consciousness into my daily life, though I hadn't thought about questioning the routine things we usually do mindlessly. Very good point. I will definitely implement this technique.

[elucid]

Good idea, this should work. Also, saying throughout the whole day "This is a dream" might work as well.

[rynkrt3]

Awesome post! I think this is very true. Most people are not even conscious in waking life, so how could they become conscious in there dream? I will be trying this everyday now. Quick questions: Should I question every single thing I'm doing?

[Snowboy]

This sounds like a cool method! I will definitely come back to this thread to report on my success!

[Jay12341235]

do you use this method OP? Can you confirm that this works?

[saltyseedog]

its called stalking yourself

[stprue]

its called stalking yourself Are you a carlos fan?

[stprue]

Question WW Do you recommend asking these questions out loud or in your head?

[Wolfwood]

Awesome post! I think this is very true. Most people are not even conscious in waking life, so how could they become conscious in there dream? I will be trying this everyday now. Quick questions: Should I question every single thing I'm doing? Ideally, yes. However, it is likely that regressing to conscious control of an unconsciously controlled activity will invoke error. So it depends if this error is digestible: becoming conscious of how you play a musical instrument could result in the wrong keys being used and imperfect timing - if this is not too bothersome, then by all means do so. Some researchers argue that we are unconscious of nearly everything we do--when it's in accordance with habitual behaviour patterns--irrespective of whether it can be labelled as an activity in itself. So, essentially, becoming conscious of nearly every action you do is synonymous to becoming a child again. And I'm not positing a direct causative effect here; however, (can't verify this) it seems to be common knowledge that without intervention lucid dreaming is inversely correlated with age. That is, children seem to experience lucidity more so than adults. And it is also follows that children, due to their lack of experience, need to be conscious of their actions more so than adults.

[Wolfwood]

do you use this method OP? Can you confirm that this works? Around 80% of my LDs are DILDs - these have largely come from practising this method. I can confirm this works insofar as asserting that you will become aware that you are dreaming throughout the night. However, this method is not enough to maintain that sudden awareness, it may be fragmentary - In waking life, I practice meditating (focusing) on a physical object to exercise continuous awareness. Combined, you will most definitely experience long episodes of stable lucidity. But effort must be put in.

[mcwillis]

Developing awareness is one of the best activities we can engage in during our day to achieve lucid dreaming. It is hard to do because most of our thoughts and actions aren't conscious decisions, they are governed by our unconcious programming. Eastern traditions and religions talk at depth about waking up from the dream of life. They say this because we are operating as unconscious automatons. This is why Don Juan encouraged Carlos Casteneda to break a lot of his unconscious habits by thinking about his actions during the day and to do them differently. This has the effect of breaking away from this unconscious programming we all have and generating awareness. The paramount peculiarity of dreams is that if something happens in our dreams that is perfectly normal we would see it as being completely absurd in our waking life. When we start to develop awareness in our waking lives this will carry over into our dream lives. Simple meditation is a good way to start developing awareness as we begin to see how uncontrolled our thinking is and how thoughts are generated unconsciously and then appear in our thinking consciousness. As Wolfwood has said examining our behaviour during the day is detaching from our unconscious programming. It is hard to do but an excellent exercise.

[Wolfwood]

Question WW Do you recommend asking these questions out loud or in your head? I can't say which, if any, is superior. But I ask these questions mentally and introspectively. The important point is that your question does not become a 'statement of a question' - it must be inquisitive. And the result is not that you should consciously answer it with words, but to instead become conscious of the actions you are currently exhibiting. Good luck.

[Wolfwood]

Developing awareness is one of the best activities we can engage in during our day to achieve lucid dreaming. It is hard to do because most of our thoughts and actions aren't conscious decisions, they are governed by our unconcious programming. Eastern traditions and religions talk at depth about waking up from the dream of life. They say this because we are operating as unconscious automatons. This is why Don Juan encouraged Carlos Casteneda to break a lot of his unconscious habits by thinking about his actions during the day and to do them differently. This has the effect of breaking away from this unconscious programming we all have and generating awareness. The paramount peculiarity of dreams is that if something happens in our dreams that is perfectly normal we would see it as being completely absurd in our waking life. When we start to develop awareness in our waking lives this will carry over into our dream lives. Simple meditation is a good way to start developing awareness as we begin to see how uncontrolled our thinking is and how thoughts are generated unconsciously and then appear in our thinking consciousness. As Wolfwood has said examining our behaviour during the day is detaching from our unconscious programming. It is hard to do but an excellent exercise. Well put - meditation is definitely a facilitatory accompaniment. In fact I would say it required, even if at the least it is used, as you've said, to become aware that you are unaware. Do you frequently meditate?

[mcwillis]

Well put - meditation is definitely a facilitatory accompaniment. In fact I would say it required, even if at the least it is used, as you've said, to become aware that you are unaware. Do you frequently meditate? Ive been meditating sporadically for nearly thirty years but I take it seriously these days and do at least half an hour a day. I am experimenting with several different methods for generating awareness specifically for lucidity and pure DILD's that don't require dreamsigns or reality checks. One that I am excited about involves the use of a mirror and takes twenty minutes per day. If I have measurable success I will be sharing it on this forum

[stprue]

Thank you for the reply WW mcwillis, your meditation tests sound very interesting. I am looking for some techniques that will increase my LD's. I have started doing reality checks and I stalk myself every day using mostly Eckharts and Hans methods. Walking meditation is one of my favs now that I understand it better. I also stalk my ego as well.

[mcwillis]

mcwillis, your meditation tests sound very interesting. I am looking for some techniques that will increase my LD's. I have started doing reality checks and I stalk myself every day using mostly Eckharts and Hans methods. Walking meditation is one of my favs now that I understand it better. I also stalk my ego as well. I think I have caught myself inadvertently 'hijacking this thread' by talking about my awareness experiments. Apologies to Wolfwood as this is his thread and I shouldn't have mentioned them.

[Snowboy]

This could easily become the starting method for new LDers. CAILD (Conscious Acting Induced Lucid Dream)... yeah, that's a nice name.

[faceonmars]

The unenlightened ask 'Who am I?' and have no answer. The enlightened ask 'Who am I?' and hear "Who's asking?" - a little bit of mind bending Tao philosophy for the RC set.

[saltyseedog]

The unenlightened ask 'Who am I?' and have no answer. The enlightened ask 'Who am I?' and hear "Who's asking?" - a little bit of mind bending Tao philosophy for the RC set. What does that mean?

[Snowboy]

The unenlightened ask 'Who am I?' and have no answer. The enlightened ask 'Who am I?' and hear "Who's asking?" - a little bit of mind bending Tao philosophy for the RC set.

[WaterDreamer]

So, essentially, becoming conscious of nearly every action you do is synonymous to becoming a child again. And I'm not positing a direct causative effect here; however, (can't verify this) it seems to be common knowledge that without intervention lucid dreaming is inversely correlated with age. That is, children seem to experience lucidity more so than adults. And it is also follows that children, due to their lack of experience, need to be conscious of their actions more so than adults. Very insightful observation, in my opinion. While I can't prove it either, what you said makes perfect sense to me... especially since I actually did have 2 lucid dreams in my childhood! (I don't list them in my LD count since I was 12 or younger, and I didn't even know that kind of dream had a name at the time... I only learned what lucid dreaming is a few months ago). It happened on its own back then, and now 15+ years later it seems I have to work for it LOL.