Thread: Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming 4

Eamo24, I wouldn't call that "not going so well" at all! In the run up to my very first lucid dream, I started dreaming *about* lucid dreaming: my mother would say "oh, that guys is a lucid dreamer," or I'd "see" the neighbor woman's lucid dream images appear on a board. Or someone says "this is the lucid dreaming club." The fact that you got that idea on the very first attempt shows it's *really close* to working for you! Now, if you never ever moved beyond that, you could have a complaint.

Nailler didn't mention it but it's part and parcel of every LDing approach: you must be consistent and give it time. Months if you have to, if you really want to be a lucid dreamer.

Yes I dream ‘about’ lucid dreaming quite a lot, Fryingman. I’ve had so many dreams where I’ve been telling people about the importance of reality checks, including having conversations with dream characters about lucid dreaming techniques ! Nailler’s technique does seem like a good one; I’ll certainly keep at it and see how it goes.

Originally Posted by Eamo24

Yes I dream ‘about’ lucid dreaming quite a lot, Fryingman.

That's great. I've more or less stopped dreaming "about" LDing, but then again my LDs seem to come in streaks: 3 weeks off, 1.5-2 weeks on. Maybe coinciding to "importance" cycles, I'm thinking now after reading Nailler's notes about importance.

I do wonder if we might be wasting our time (ish) by thinking about PM and trying to get it to kick off in a dream.

I don't think so! MILD *works*, you have to give it enough time, and be consistent. As for the other cognitive switches, sure, read Sageous's LD fundamentals thread in the WILD DV Academy: self-awareness, expectation/intent, and (access to) memory.

It is a serious question, though: how to *best* spend our waking life practice time to result in frequent and high-quality lucids meeting our frequency goals? It is something I've been wondering about all my months of LD training. It's difficult to resist the temptation to try a bit of this and a bit of that. But doing just a bit of this and a bit of that can result in a lot of nothing since you don't give your brain enough time to adjust to it.

It always comes back to (self)awareness and memory. The super frequent LDers are reportedly *always* thinking about the environment and whether or not they're dreaming, always evaluating their state. I think that is one of the main keys.

MILD and it's near relative reflection/intention are training the brain in the response you want (lucidity) from the given stimulus (the dream state): given enough time, the brain catches on and lucidity comes more and more easily and frequently. The more lucid minutes one wracks up (so the theory goes), the more the neural pathways in the brain become lucid dream friendly.

It's just this pernicious kickstarting period that must be lived through! Well I for one am not giving up. It seems to me the really consistent success comes only after a few years for "normal" people, other than perhaps for closet naturals.

One thing's for sure: if you DON'T do day work, if you DON'T actively try every night, the LDs won't come.