Thread: Fed up with semi-lucidity

Originally Posted by Occipitalred

This perspective confuses me. I think it's the mainstream perspective in the modern lucid dreaming community (and I say that in a validating way). I think I might have become delusional by detaching myself from this perspective

Thank you for thought-provoking response (as always).

When we dream... we are asleep. Our brain is asleep. Asleep does not mean unconscious. While we dream, we are definitively conscious. But our brain is no longer in the same state. Am I wrong to think that cognitive abilities are reduced during sleep? Why is lucid dreaming supposed to be dreaming with no cognitive ability disruption + metacognitive meditation (unnecessary to a clear thinking waking experience)?

I agree with some of your points (and some of my most memorable dreams in recent months were non-lucids).
But I don't think I want that much. I don't need perfect clarity, I am ok with low lucidity.
I just want the ability to turn away from whatever's happening in the dreaming and walk the other way.
It doesn't need to be a specific goal or controlled (other than the control of my body), it can be a simple exploring of whatever's there. More freedom.

I don't really understand how non-lucid dreams work. I know they are conscious. I know that all that thoughts in them are genuinely my thoughts. The experience is my experience. I can notice (when journaling later) how the dreams react to my thoughts.
But acting in them? I don't know. In some low-lucidity dreams, I did things that I didn't intend to do and I was unable to tell why I did them. Like the dream was acting for me. Aren't non-lucid dreams fundamentally the same? An illusion of control/free mind but with no free mind actually present? Or is it me acting in them but doing the first thing that comes to my mind, without any real thinking?

I don't think your struggle with accomplishing dream goals is related to a lack of meta-awareness of awareness. It seems an issue of memory. You have to remember the dream goal. Would focusing your attention on your awareness trigger perfect memory of dream goals?

Maybe, yes.
Actually, yes. If I look back on my LD in the last 5 months (counting only those reasonably long, both WILDs and DILDs), I had good memory of my goals in nearly all of them.

I think it's a matter of improving the ways in which I can trigger memories to do certain dream goals. I find that by doing active daydreaming of common dream themes, I learn to better orient myself, think more clearly (or in a certain chosen way anyway) in a future dream with the same theme.

Again, possibly, yes.

BTW, I haven't said that because I am not sure it's relevant but I have ADHD. Nothing severe, primarily inattention, not medicated, not affecting my life negatively but I have some coping mechanisms (think caffeine, being organized and splitting my work into smaller chunks).
Despite that, I would say I have good prospective memory (I rarely use to-do lists). But motivation plays a huge role in it. I can do those memory practices (intention to do something when I see something etc.) extremely well when I really want to but I would probably struggle to keep the motivation going for days or weeks. So maybe my memory works well but in bursts rather than consistently well. I don't know.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responding to everyone as I have time.

Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

What I think is that you're on the verge of having natural DILDs. If you are having a lot of semi-lucid or pre-lucid moments, it's just a matter of time. But unlike WILDs, you can't make a DILD happen on demand. It's more like something you practice over a longer time and build up to, combined with a bit of luck. Patience is key here.

I hope you are right.
I've always had them but now it feels like I have them much more often, so I'll try to take it as a good sign.

Consider the difference (getting this from Daniel Love's video on WILDs) - a WILD is awareness first, plus dreaming second. A DILD is dreaming first, awareness added second. So, in a WILD, it's easy to lose the dream early on because your awareness is the stronger element. With a DILD, it's easier to lose awareness because the dream is the stronger element.

This is a very interesting way how to look at it.
Thinking about it, most of my DILDs were awareness first, so not typical DILDs.
Some numbers - out of 18 dreams in recent 5 months - 6 were WILD, pseudoWILD or DEILD, 3 were FAs (lucidity from the beginning), 4 other lucid from the beginning (some of these were after unsuccessful WILD attempts). Only 5 were typical DILDs. And out of these 5, one was post WILD (pure awareness, no trigger from the dream), 2 were smooth transitions from semis and only 2 were typical dreamsign-triggered DILDs.

Another interesting fact is that I have a much better chance of going lucid in very realistic scenarios (FAs in my bedroom being the easiest). On the other hand, I rarely go lucid in dreams I really enjoy and where I am truly immersed in the dream plot (no matter how crazy they are). Sometimes, I go semi-lucid in these, but it feels like I am happy with where I am at those moments, not wanting to change anything.

Up this to 15 times a day or more. Aim for doing a mindful RC every ~ half hour to hour. You can also set yourself goals to build prospective memory. Something simple such as doing an RC every time you hear the doorbell ring. Or, every time you see a red car.

The problem is that I work from home and RCing only when I am working on my computer probably won't help much (+ I never dream about being at home). I need to get some RCs outside. So combining them with memory triggers (a red car, dog barking etc.) sounds like a good idea.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by Sageous

It sounds to me, IndigoRose, that you need to work on your fundamentals (self-awareness, memory, and expectation/intention), with, as Occipitalred said, a focus on memory. Also as Occipitalred said, in my opinion you are already there, experience and consciousness-wise; all that's needed now is a little tweaking of your presence in your dreams... I think that if you learn to develop your self-awareness and memory in waking-life, you will find that "tweaking " much easier during your dreams.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I am happy to see that you agree with Occipitalred regarding the memory (because my thoughts was about memory missing in some of these dreams too).
I read the threads on fundamentals in spring and learnt a lot from them. But I think I could benefit from rereading them with my current goals and problems in mind... there are always some gems to be found.

Also enjoying your discussion with Occipitalred.