Thread: Lucid Dreams without waking memory???

There is a little problem, I'm having. In recent months learned a lot of new techniques and have lot of lucid dreams I'm using mantra before fall asleep and combination of WBTB with SSILD or VILD,WILD in rare occasions(there are a little harder). For day work, I'm using "Here and Now Awareness" instead of RC to become one with the moment, I'm taking 3mg melatonin BTW.

So the problem is when have a LD, I can't access waking memory, neither my goal. They are not fake LD, I have fine control in them: can manipulate dream scenario, summon DC's, can fly and I know I'm dreaming. When try to remember my goal or waking memories, I'm getting a blank spot, so I'm just acting on my instincts(like I'm having an amnesia). Even from time to time I'm hearing a voice in my mind "Remember your goal", but I still can't remember. Hell recently even had a dream battle with DC's and while fight them, they try to make me remember "control yourself, remember who you are".

So what I'm doing wrong here? Is this a side effect from SSILD?

BTW SSILD work wonders, having multiple LDs through the morning.

p.s. I have one more question, but in a new thread.

I often have this happen at times, still; waking-memory access can be tricky. I think it helps if I try to practice recalling what I want to remember in my next LD frequently throughout the day, basically keeping it on my mind a lot and trying to get it to the point where it can pop back up instantly with zero effort (as if I were rehearsing for a speech, say). This seems to increase my chances of remembering it when I'm asleep.

I've also heard it advised to aim to remember your sleeping waking-life body when you find yourself dreaming along with the fact that it is still where you left it when you went to sleep, to help activate memory. I've experimented with this some, though personally I seem to have had mixed results.

So this is not so uncommon thing, to have LD without knowing who you are in the real world?

I don't think so. My ability to remember my waking life varies. I can be lucid in a dream and yet not be able to remember anything from waking life despite trying to, and other times I can remember waking-life things well. A lot of times it's somewhere in the middle. False memories during dreams that muddy my idea of what is really going on in waking life are pretty common, too, and those can be difficult to detect.

I feel my best LDs are those in which my waking-life memory does work well, though; having that memory there to put things into perspective really helps on strength of lucidity, and having the “full me” present as a result seems to make the dreams much more satisfying as well.

Similar to what TravisE said, from having read about it what I understand could be helpful would be to spend some time doing visualization rehearsals for you lucid dreams throughout the day. Maybe try and imagine it is what your intent/goal is for the dream and try to mentally play the scene out.

Also, have you tried memory work in general? Throughout the day when you perform your RCs it can be helpful to try and recall exactly what you were doing five, ten, or fifteen minutes ago, and even working beyond that which could potentially help you to remember your goals.

Prospective memory training might be worth mentioning here too. Prospective memory, which usually goes along with MILD for LDers, helps you to remember to do things based off of events. So if you train your prospective memory to do things like reality checks when you see or perform a certain action, (i.e. the next time you see leaves on the ground I'm going to do a reality check) that type of memory can transfer to dreams. So once you make it to the dream world it could help trigger and bring out the intent/goals you have more clearly.

It's possible you've read about all of these things and have been practicing them already. If not, I hope some of it is helpful. And that's great that SSILD works so well for you. I have not successfully executed that techniqe so far.