Quote Originally Posted by Sageous View Post
There is, and that switch is memory. The only way to know, even to assume, that something is not right is to have a benchmark of truth to which to compare it. Without memory, that benchmark is inaccessible.


I'm not sure about this. Cognitive dissonance is a similar event, but, as it is a conflict of beliefs, and both the dissonance itself and its resolution cannot happen without some self-awareness present. In other words, yes, you can (and likely will) experience cognitive dissonance in a dream, but only after you're lucid. In regular NLD's the lack of a self-aware "You," and all your requisite (memory based) intellectual and emotional baggage, prevents cognitive dissonance from existing, I think. In a sense, cognitive dissonance is a higher-end logical mode, which requires not only the presence of memory but of self-awareness as well.

Now that last paragraph makes it sound like logic does not work just fine in dreams, but suffice it to say that cognitive dissonance is a condition that doesn't exist without a little self-aware help in waking life, either.



Yup. Self-awareness in a dream is the necessary tool for accessing memory and getting things mentally organized. Keep in mind, though, that even that initial suspicion requires unnatural self-awareness or memory* to be sparked.

* This BTW is why we do all that mnemonic work in MILD, as it creates a rote trigger that slightly cracks the door to memory in a dream, and allows you a chance to become aware of the dream -- suspicious, as it were -- through a failure in the logic that was working just fine before the crack appeared.
I agree with everything you've said however I think you are missing something.

What causes the memory to be a trigger? If it were only the memory, would we not experience that trigger every time equally across every experience?
There has been science done that suggests that a memory which has more emotion attached will be remembered more clearly and longer. This is particularly advantageous knowledge for the advertising industry.
Applying that to our dreams, we can infer that depending on the emotional quality or intensity of memory, that trigger could be more or less powerful. This would lead to our experiences where in some cases, only a throw away explanation is needed, and in other cases, a massive logical sequence is needed to justify the discrepancy.

My point is only that there is an emotional and energetic element to the process. That is why in my opinion, mantras work so well when you believe fully in what you are saying. Repeating words is great, but without the strong weight of intention behind them, they fall on deaf ears.

That is the basic premise. It gets more complicated when you consider that emotion and memory are not specific or linear. Emotions and memories are also very intertwined with one another. The logical aspect in my mind is only part of the justification and explanation process.