Is my sub conscious trying trying to help me get lucid?

[joshstevens]

So i'm curious if my sub conscious could be trying to help me get lucid, and if so how i can encourage it to do it more often, and what I mean is not like doing something during waking life just travels over to my dreaming life merely and shows up in my dreams (like RC's), but that my sub conscious is trying to tip me off purposefully as i'm dreaming by changing things. 1. for instance I was working on something in the yard the other day and built this thing right... well a few nights later i have a dream about what I had just built except for all my work was completely gone! In the dream i started getting so mad.... and then all of a sudden i realized that, that couldn't be possible and i became lucid. 2. one time i was talking to a few people in a plaza outside in a city... when this woman walked by me and as she was passing she almost winked and this bright light came out of her eye, and it immediatly felt as if my SC was trying to key me in that i was dreaming. 3. one last example was i did wbtb.... and when i started dreaming i dreamnt i was in the room next to me (my brothers) and i instantly knew this was a dream and became Lucid. I guess my question is because i don't remember these types of weird annomalies happening before i started lucid dreaming (cause i'v always had good dream recall). I understand that things are often out of place in dreams in general but this feels very different. So if it is true that my sub councious is trying to help me get lucid how do i encourage myself to keep creating these scenarios which makes me question of if i'm dreaming? Like the other night i actually heard my non lucid dream character think in his mind "your dreaming...." and all of a sudden my conscious mind heard it and immediatly became lucid. I'v had plenty of times where I DILD'd and i noticed an anomoly and I became lucid but it didn't feel like my sub concious was purposefully trying to key me in to the fact that i was in a dream... sorry i don't know if this is making sense... i'm guessings this has something to do with dream signs? i don't fully understand them yet.... but if any one has any insight i would so appreciate it.... I would love to get better at my sub conscious keying my conscious mind into the fact that i'm dreaming. new to this community and am really enjoying and appreciating it. I apologize if this has already been discussed too hah... thanks an advance

[Earthatic]

It might just be self-referential without that kind of intent behind it, i.e., you dream about dream-related issues just like you dream about regular things. You get told you're dreaming by a DC and you start to behave accordingly. Dreams often seem to discriminate and add content based on how you feel about, and react to, said content, and not necessarily because it cares about helping you resolve an issue, but because it wants to motivate and impel you for the sake of motivating and impelling you. To what end, I'm not entirely sure. Maintenance of the PTO and limbic system, maybe? That's my theory.

[joshstevens]

Thanks Earthatic.... I had to read that a few times before i really understood what you were saying but that definitely makes sense, and its something to ponder for sure! very interesting take

[Goldenspark]

Hi Josh, and congrats on your lucids! I don't think there's any problem with you thinking of your subconscious as trying to help you, like it's another sentient. The problem is we still don't really know what the subconscious is aside from the state of being the opposite of conscious! Of course for those of us who lucid dream we know that that the two states are not really opposites at all, but both states are the same. Personifying the subconscious gives us a way to try and understand it, but it's probably too simplistic. For your purposes of helping you to envisage dream signs that get you lucid, that's different and very useful. I have no idea how you encourage it though! Maybe don't try and over think it, and just give yourself plenty of praise and reward when it happens and hope it continues. In dreams if you will something to happen it often does.

[TravisE]

Hi Josh, and congrats on your lucids! I don't think there's any problem with you thinking of your subconscious as trying to help you, like it's another sentient. The problem is we still don't really know what the subconscious is aside from the state of being the opposite of conscious! Of course for those of us who lucid dream we know that that the two states are not really opposites at all, but both states are the same. Well said. There was a time where I was thinking of “my subconscious” as being some separate, sentient entity with a mind of its own that I had to appeal to and convince to do what I wanted. But I don't think that's a particularly productive line of thinking, especially since the more you believe it, the more it will likely become true for you. I prefer to think of the unconscious and conscious parts of me as being me—no more, no less. That's the only way it really makes sense to me now. There might be some unconscious motives or decisions that I am not consciously aware of or no longer remember, but they're still mine, and it is still up to me to do with them whatever I choose. This attitude, I believe, puts me in a much better position to actually change parts of myself I want to change, not to mention I don't have to feel like I'm fighting against a part of myself—it's all just me. For example, I've had some of my own LDs that feel like they were specifically designed for me to become lucid. With this line of thinking, I might think not so much that my unconscious is helping me as that I've simply decided, on a deeper, more underlying level, to become lucid in those particular dreams.

[Goldenspark]

The question of what is it that makes us who we are as thinking beings is a fascinating philosophical one that is a real frontier, and one that I believe lucid dreaming can help to explore. I'm far from an expert on this, but am keen to read up on the latest thinking. Maybe a good topic for a new thread on here - apologies for the thread hijack Josh!

[Earthatic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yYKfUltqxg xD Who is in charge: you or your brain? Is there a distinction? I've been down that road before. It is autonomic and quite patterned in the way it uses dream content to affect the psyche. Interpreting that pattern, for me, has been very problematic, and I want to say that there is a certain type of intelligence behind it that is designed to engage you, but you really have to question its biological purpose. We simply don't have enough information. However, among all of the frivolous things humans do, I don't think dreaming is one of them—even rats do it, and researchers at MIT have demonstrated that they're able to manipulate what they dream about—and so the idea that the unconscious mind is 'helping' you dream about something so inconsequential doesn't make much sense to me.

[joshstevens]

Thanks everyone for your input and ideas!.... its taken a bit to process these different views on this...... I really appreciate this site (this is only my first post) for the quality of people that are very intelligent and know how to articulate deeper thoughts. I totally get what you guys are saying and would agree mostly with it. I know that my subconcious is me and i'm not schizophrenic. That being said I still think there is more that our subconscious mind know's about us then we consciously know about ourselves. I have had several dreams (non LD's) Where my sub conscious showed me something through a symbol in my dream that made me aware of an issue that i had that i did not consciously think i had. It was unmistakeable, and once i was able to address that i found a lot of freedom in my life in a certain area. there is a book called "blink" by a new york times best selling author malcolm gladwell: the power of thinking without thinking that opened my mind up to "what does our sub conscious mind know that we don't know"... its a really interesting read.... but a big part of the book is the idea that you make decisions on a sub conscious level that you can't explain how you know what you know... but that you know it. You will asses situations in the blink of an eye and already know something without it being a conscious thought. We know when kids have traumatic things happen to them when they are young (often younger than 6) their brains often suppress those things and store it in the sub conscious. Often these things can re surface as memories years later when they are in their late 20's to mid 30's. many psychologists think its a protective mechanism... it just shows us that part of us can have information that our conscious mind doesn't have and that it can choose to share it with your conscious mind (through a dream, or repressed memory coming back). Like i said i don't think its a different person.... but a deeper part of who you are. I mean when your LD'ing and exploring a world thats being created by your sub conscious of which your conscious self is observing it and your not in control of everything (unless you'v learned ways to control more of your dream) its very interesting to think about and ponder. I don't really believe that its a duality as much as a deeper layer of your person. Thanks again to everyone who has shared their thoughts i'v really enjoyed hearing them

[Earthatic]

Ah, the mysteries of the human brain. "... which of us is simple enough to be understood by, or complex enough to understand, ourselves?!" - John C. Wright Best of luck in your LD endeavors.

[joshstevens]

Thanks Earthatic! love this community!

[martakartus]

I've had this happen a few times, but not very often. I can't say if your subconscious is purposefully trying to get you lucid, but if you believe it is, this belief is probably going to come true. I mean, intention is key in getting lucid, so if you go to bed every night thinking your subconscious will help you get lucid, it probably will. I don't know for sure if it would work, but somehow it should have the same effect as if you were stating a regular mantra.