Tricking your mind into recognizing Abnormalities

**Fuzzman** · 03-02-2012 02:29 AM

So I've been thinking about a way to increase becoming lucid by creating abnormalities to respond to. What I was thinking is that in dreams there are many times where something crazy is happening or the layout of a familiar room is different but you just don't really think about it being odd or think to ask yourself if it's a dream. It's hard to get used to this because there isn't that much during the day that happens out of the ordinary. What I was hoping to do is make my own strange setup in waking life so that I can get myself used to picking them out from the norm.

So what I had in mind was something like this:

In the morning before school or some time when I'm leaving the house for a while I would move something out of place such as furniture or items that are normally in regular spots that I'm used to. Then after being away for a while, come back and realize that something is off and asking if it's a dream and RCing. It would be a faked reaction because obviously I would know that I did it, but I feel like if I really question it, it may help get me used to responding to strange occurrences in dreams as well.

So far all I've been able come up with for this is:
Rearranging furniture
Moving pictures/posters around
Writing illegible text or sentences that don't make sense
Switching items in cabinet around
Wearing something that I don't usually wear

I can probably think of some more but those are the main ones for right now.

I was wondering if you guys think this would work at all or be in any way effective. Would my mind just ignore it because it knows that I set it up? Has anyone tried anything like this? If you have what other things did you try to do to trick yourself?

I tried to search around but I wasn't really sure what to search for or how to find it so sorry if someone has a thread like this, just wanted to get some straightforward answers directly for this.

**Burke** · 03-02-2012 02:41 AM

That sounds like a possible way to help induce lucidity and I would give it a shot if I were you. The only problem I see would be you knowing that it was all a set-up and that you aren't actually dreaming. You're subconscious always knows what you are really thinking and you can never lie to it, so this could be a hurdle to overcome, but I think this could help. You could also try ADA which is becoming more aware during the day and just becoming more in-tune with your senses. This way you become a more aware person in general and when something is out of the ordinary you are more likely to realize it.

This sounds possible and I advise you to experiment with it and share your results with the rest of us

**Fuzzman** · 03-02-2012 04:14 PM

I have been practicing ADA for a few weeks and so far I've noticed better recall but not much lucidity. I just hoped doing this might get me used to noticing changes in the environment and asking if I'm dreaming. Awareness all day is hard to keep up, I've been getting better at it but I still notice myself drifting off a lot. Doing this technique (if you coud call it that?) seems like it would be an instant cue to ask if you're dreaming and get in the habit of noticing strange things around you. Also it could be a reminder to keep up awareness for a while since I'm always forgetting about that

I'm on spring break for the next week so I think I'm going to test it out over that time. I started yesterday by moving my computer chair to an odd spot of my room before class. When I got back I faked being surprised by really questioning if it was a dream and why my chair is in a different spot. I can't tell if it will help though because I still obviously knew that I had moved it in the first place which might affect it some. One thing I kinda like about this idea is that it can be just be something completely random every time, so that you don't get used to the same things over and over, so that may make it work better.

I'll keep testing it for a while and see how it works out. Just as some background for reference: I'm still a beginner, I've had very few LDs. I've known about it for a couple years but I only started diligently practicing since the beginning of this year with maybe like 4 really short LDs total, my most recent about 2 weeks ago.

If someone's tried this out I'd like to hear your experience with it or if anyone else wants to try this out to see if it helps them be more observant just let me know.