The Effects of Analysis and Memory on Lucidity

[Super FZL]

I've begun to notice that people who naturally lucid dream or easily lucid dream have stronger analytical ability. That is to say that the natural lucid dreamer is more likely to notice details that just don't make sense. Memory affects lucidity because if you can't remember your dreams, what is the point of lucidity. I'm wondering if increasing your analytical ability and memory can lead to having lucid dreams. Is anyone willing to try this with me?

[Adam]

Perhaps.... Being a Business Analyst myself, it never occured to me my analytical skills might be better than my peers due to lucid dreaming...

[NewDreamer08]

Ive always been able to naturally lucid dreams and i am relatively perceptive, people say i analyze things too much but still, i never connected the two. one thing i used to do is put up post it cards up on my walls and random places in my apartment that simply said "am i dreaming?" and i awake? it soudns stupid but then i got even better because when i dreamed and i was in my apartment those notes wouldnt be there and it would trigger something and id realize, plus it reminds in your waking hours to remind yourself to ask.

[Lordalmar]

This would be me, my ONLY problem is i follow along to much and don't become lucid. If i stopped and thought of my own will i would be lucid, any time i wanted to be.

[MisterHyde]

I can naturally lucid dream, but I also have dry spells. I find using this forum is very useful, maybe because there are a lot of messages that say "Am I dreaming?" and "Do a reality check". Oh, and I have a naturally analytical mind, but I think this is because of my Autism.

[Abra]

Memory affects lucidity because if you can't remember your dreams, what is the point of lucidity. This is nitpicky, but I must point out an error in logic. Memory does not directly affect lucidity, but it has great effects on the perceived frequency of lucidity. People may be natural lucid dreamers, but they don't realize it because they have poor recall. Memory is correlated to lucidity. The correlation resides in motivation. The more motivated you are, the more you remember your dreams. The more motivated you are, the sooner you will have another lucid dream. Another correlation exists as a product of motivation. The more you remember, the more you can go to your dream journal and recognize patterns in dreaming, which will lead to more lucidity.

[Super FZL]

You're not being nitpicky, you're right. But still, I consider someone's lucid dreaming frequency to only be as good as they can remember.

[unseen wombat]

Sigh. I'm an engineer, so I wish you were right. I suppose I've done better at LD'ing than some people who have been at it for months with nothing to show. But, save one, my LD's haven't been that high level anyway.

[Super FZL]

Honestly, this is just my conclusion based on observation.

[yabber]

Hmm.. I'd agree that these things are somewhat related, but there is more to remembering dreams than having a good memory and more to realizing you're dreaming than being analytical. I'd consider myself extremely analytical (obsessively) and I also have a very good memory. Still, I've only had three lucids and remember only an average of one dream-per-night. I don't want to use myself only as a judge because obviously everyone's experiences are totally different, but dreaming experiences feel far different from regular analysis and remembering. Now that I'm thinking about it, isn't part of true analysis having an open mind and believing that anything is possible until it can be disproved? When I remember a dream, it also feels far different from when I remember other things. When I remember a dream, I either remember it because I just woke up, or I get a deja vu sort of sensation. Sometimes I also remember feeling something or experiencing something that didn't really happen in real life. (Such as: a couple of days ago when I got up from bed and walked downstairs, I remembered the sensation of walking with a shoe only on my left leg, which is already slightly longer than my right. I remembered that I've had a dream about this before and realized that I must have that morning, as well.) In real life, I either instantly remember something that I didn't even know that I knew, I remember something that I have memorized, I remember something that has happened, or I remember by reasoning through things that I know. I'd say that the reason memory is different in dreams and in waking is because of our instincts. Perhaps, as some scientists think, dreams are for learning from our mistakes, and then the lessons are imprinted on our subconscious instead of our conscience (like an animal learns. I'm no expert, but I'd guess that a rat doesn't learn how to get through a maze by thinking, "right here, left here".) When we try to remember something in waking life, the things that are deeply embedded in our subconscious are the hardest to remember consciously. Similarly, breathing, which is easy to do subconsiously is hard to maintain consciously. Maybe like a computer, our conscious brain can't read "files" that are saved in a "file format" made for our subconscious. Anyway, I wouldn't want to say that either of these skills could not be improved in myself. And after all that, I would say that yes, I think that many lucid dreamers are more intelligent than non-lucid dreamers (just to generalize). But that may have to do with the fact that intelligent people often have wide interests and horizons.

[Robot_Butler]

I remember reading something last month about memory and dreaming. I believe it was a study that showed an inverse corrolation between the two. The study showed that people who have better dream recall have worse memory. It stood out in my mind because it seemed counter intuitive to me. Did anyone else read this? I'll try and figure out where I saw it, if it wasn't on this forum.

[CiD]

Just to add to what yabber was saying. I don't know if any of you have studied any psychology (probably helps a great deal with lucidity). Personally, I'm a computer science major, but im intrigued by the unexplainable such as our freaking brains. If you know anything about agnosia*, it has proved that our brain subconciously recognizes and creates the objects we see every day in real time (contrary to what you may have been taught in grade school that our lens flips the image upside down and our brain flips it right side up). This makes sense since the entire back half of our brain is devoted to visual processing and object recognition is part of another lobe of the brain. This means are brains are capable of some amazing things that we are not conciously aware of (considering while it is resting it is creating a completely fictictous world that has its own set of physics and what not). Ok, so our brain is subconciously is fitting things into the perceivable 3D environment, but aren't we still seeing in 2D with an added perception of depth? (bathosmigia is worth looking up for this) Anything you see can be recorded to show it exactly on a 2D television. I know this is going a bit far, but in order to percieve 4D wouldn't you need to see in 3 dimensions? I had a vivid dream last night (posted somewhere else), in which the cops were called on me and I had just passed one...Long story short I hid the car behind a tall oddly shaped wall, and no one in the car believed that the cop was coming for us. Obviously since it was my dream, it was. Since I got this feeling I was able to zoom out of the car and peak over the wall where I saw the lights coming into view. Sounds a bit strange, but I believe this is an example of seeing in 3D. All that to get to my opinion... I believe to achieve and control a lucid dream, a person must be able to link concious 3D thought with unconcious 3D basic visual processing. So a person who does not have trouble attaining lucidity is a person that is good at thinking in 3 dimensions. This is a skill that could be determined by how well you can predict the outcome of an event before it occurs. For instance, a pilot would be good at this because they are always thinking about where they are in 3D space. If my theory is semi correct, it may also aid in having LDs to understand gravity (I realize its different in dreams) and how it affects objects in motion (basic physics). For example, a racecar driver knows how the handling of a car is affected as it goes over the top of a hill, however, the average driver (going the speed limit!!), is only concerned with forward, backward, left and right (only 2D). Sorry about the length...I tend to do this if you have seen my other posts. I'd like someone to test my theory. Anyone good lucid dreamers that are pilots? Or any that seem to specialize in flying planes or helicopters in video games? ????s If we can have 3D sight in dreams can we perceive a 4th dimension in dreams (another disorder to look up: prosthetomegethy)? Good idea for a topic, this sparked some ideas for more experiments next time im lucid. In conclusion, I think too much. *Form agnosics are able to perceive parts of objects, but cannot spatially fit them together to form the object in its entirety. Associative agnosics are able to perceive objects but may see the wrong object (You may have heard of the famous case in which the man mistook his wife for a hat). There are many forms of this, and it is worth looking into. edit: one more, look into logophrenia for possible insight into how we are able to control dreams. Yabber, you are not the only one who is obssively analytical.

[yabber]

I think it's obvious, like you were saying, from reading the articles on this website that our brain is insanely complex. Anyone who can function in the world has the abilities to analyze, create 3D fields out of 2D sensory information, understand a complex system such as language, etc. It seems to me that the dividing line between being extremely intelligent and slow is very fine. Maybe it only involves the cognitive part of the brain. If that is so, shouldn't normally functioning people have ample understanding of gravity (or they wouldn't be able to walk) and how things work or look to be able to synthesize them in a dream. As for a race-car driver versus a regular driver, I'd say that it's true that a race car driver has better reflexes and is a better driver, but I think that driving a car is much more complex than just steering around. You have to be aware of how your car moves, how fast its response is to gravity and its controls, etc. Now, in a dream, a regular driver might drive a car that flies over a hill, and a race car driver's car might obey the laws of gravity, but that is probably because the race car driver has undergone rigorous mental training to really understand how his car drives in order to control it precisely. Anyway, in the case of your dream, it's impossible to concieve a sense which we cannot perceive. If someone were describing you some extra sense they had, it would be impossbile for you to understand. "It's kind of like seeing but with an extra dimension." You would think, WHAT??!?!? Therefore, if you experience a sense in a dream that you do not have in real life in a dream, your brain has the ability to concieve this sense, and the only reason that you could possibly not feel it in waking life is that you don't have the physical capability. So when we see some object in the real world, two processes happen: Our brain changes two 2-dimensional images (or one stereo image) into a 3-dimensional image. (Remember, 3-dimensional doesn't mean all-seeing.) I see what you mean when you say "So a person who does not have trouble attaining lucidity is a person that is good at thinking in 3 dimensions." But I would say that everyone except people with those disorders can see in 3 dimensions. Couldn't it be said that we synthesize the third dimension from those two 2-dimensional images? Therefore, couldn't we synthesize three dimensions in dreams? Perhaps the difference in dreams is that we don't have physical eyes. Maybe the 3D image is created by a process other than stereo imaging, and it does take some other ability to see in 3D in a dream. So anyway, I wouldn't say that you saw in another dimension in your dream, but that you just had one of those weird dream experiences. Something else I just thought of but isn't really related. The first three dimensions are all really the same and can be interchanged depending which plane you're on. So in terms of the first three dimensions, all of it is being made up in our minds all the time. The fourth dimension that we can perceive, time, is also being made up and interpreted in our minds. Everyone has a different internal clock, and its less easy to train our sense of time than our sense of space. Since we're making this all up all the time, it should be easy to make it up in dreams. Perhaps the above statement about time explains why people often have trouble perceiving time in lucid dreams. It's one of our less-developed abilities. Someone's sense of time depends on how much they are really into their life, right? If someone zones out alot and loses focus of the world, they're surely not aware of time. Maybe awareness is truly the thing we're missing. After all, beginning lucid dreamers often have trouble with time in their dreams and advanced dreamers have sometimes reported extremely long dreams. Maybe the reason these dreams are so long is because the person is so aware that each second is longer for them in a dream, where they can control their environment. Actually, you may be right. If we saw in a dream the same way we do in life - with two images combined into one, then we'd have two synthesize two 2D images and combine them into 3-dimensions. We do this while awake, but if we start out with two 2D images, we must also know before that they will combine to form a cohesive 3D image. You could say that the brain can correct two 2D images that don't align correctly, but try this: cross your eyes and look at your nose. The resulting image doesn't make sense. That's because we don't have the capacity to correct an image that doesn't align. Since we can't see in true 3-dimensions in a dream (tell me if you have, really) then our brains must be compiling the images and making them fit together before we perceive them. How wild is that?? So CiD, maybe you're right. Maybe the difference between people who can and cannot lucid dream is in their spatial awareness and in their ability to see ahead! This may be true, although I'm sure there are some other factors. I feel very spatially aware. I generally know which direction I'm facing, even when I haven't been paying attention, and I remember things spatially the way they are oriented in relation to where I am facing now. But when I imagine myself, I can't imagine myself facing a different direction or what it would be like if I were facing a different direction. I can imagine what behind me looks like, but not that I was actually looking at it. I'm not really sure what's up with that. Actually, check this out. Apparently spatial awareness includes an awareness of our body's position in space.. which might translate to not being able to imagine yourself facing another direction. I may be spatially aware, but so far my lucid dreams haven't been very spatially complex... After all that, I'm guessing that these parts of our brain are not normally activated in REM sleep. So even if someone does have these abilities, and cannot activate them (and other abilities such as reasoning) while sleeping, they also cannot have a lucid dream. Read this: http://www.balametrics.com/explain.htm. If you want to train your spatial awareness, maybe practice a sport, and be aware of what's around you there. Sorry for such a long post. If anyone else has any objections, comments, or advice for people who want to train their spatial awareness, please don't hesitate.

[CiD]

Anyway, in the case of your dream, it's impossible to concieve a sense which we cannot perceive. If someone were describing you some extra sense they had, it would be impossbile for you to understand. "It's kind of like seeing but with an extra dimension." You would think, WHAT??!?!? Therefore, if you experience a sense in a dream that you do not have in real life in a dream, your brain has the ability to concieve this sense, and the only reason that you could possibly not feel it in waking life is that you don't have the physical capability. So when we see some object in the real world, two processes happen: Our brain changes two 2-dimensional images (or one stereo image) into a 3-dimensional image. (Remember, 3-dimensional doesn't mean all-seeing.) Allow me to elaborate a bit. I left a lot out of my post because I didn't want to write a book nor does anyone want to read one that is not fact or well based theory. If I am looking at a scene and I take a picture of the scene, it will appear exactly as I saw it (minus the peripheral). So aren't we perceiving a 3D world from a 2D interface that depends on our perspective? So, if someone were to perceiving 4D they would have to do this through a 3D (atleast) interface. Btw, yes of course the 4th dimension of time...My mistake, I was referring to a 4th phsyical dimension. Since we perceive 3 dimensions, we think in 3D with no need for any sort of interface, since we really can't see it. Spatial awareness is a state of mind in which you are constructing the 3D world around you (sort of like a 3D map of your surroundings). For instance, depending where you are in a particular room, you know where certain objects are that are not in your vision. I'm sure you have navigated rooms in your house with no light before with relative ease, unless someone moved something which would conflict with your internal map. What does it mean to have a 3 dimensional perspective? I see what you mean by 3D not being all seeing, but I will try to explain what I meant (Sorry, I seem to have a hard time conveying my ideas into text). Imagine you lived in a 2 Dimensional world such as a piece of paper. I draw a bunch of lines to simulate walls that you cannot pass through in some sort of maze. You see a bunch of walls and will probably turn into a bunch of dead ends, while I in the 3D world have no problem seeing the maze in its entirety. So, I can see the whole maze with a 2D perspective. What if I had a 3D perspective on a 3D world? Wouldn't I be able to perceive a portion of the world in its entirety just like my internal 3D construction of my surroundings? When I parked the car behind the wall, I got out of the car and peaked over the wall with out physically changing my position. I wish this dream would have been lucid. It was very similar to an out of body sort of experience that is associated with a number of different drugs, such as ketamine (I realize these are hallucinations). As for perceiving a 4th physical dimension in a dream, you are correct. How can one perceive something they cannot conceive? To this end, I say...... Well shit. :::Spaces out into theoretical brain storm::: I will fight to keep the possibility alive since it is in my sig. Caution: theoretical tangent. Feel free to skip. -First, in order to accomplish this, a 4th dimension must truly exist. It is not merely enough to have an understanding of what it may look like in our RL perspective. I feel I have a decent understanding of how a perceived 4th dimension would affect my RL perception. But this is only an idea, and to experience this in a dream would only be a clever trick of my imagination. -Second, I would have to possess some sort of subconcious knowledge of the fourth dimension that I do not have conciouss access to. This may sound like a long shot, but considering we dont know what the universe is made of and the fact that we have some sort of perspective at all is quite amazing in itself. Let alone that our brain constructs the physical world instantaneously****. Turns out, our brain does subconcious math too... http://youtube.com/watch?v=UqLzoiVzEY8 This savant reads his subconciousness through a form of syneasthesia (sp?). He pretty much experiences numbers as landscapes...wtf?! He explains how he does the math toward the end of the video. To think I have taken math all the way to calc III, and my brain has it already programmed somewhere in my head...what a waste. The first three dimensions are all really the same and can be interchanged depending which plane you're on. So in terms of the first three dimensions, all of it is being made up in our minds all the time. The fourth dimension that we can perceive, time, is also being made up and interpreted in our minds. Everyone has a different internal clock, and its less easy to train our sense of time than our sense of space. Since we're making this all up all the time, it should be easy to make it up in dreams. Perhaps the above statement about time explains why people often have trouble perceiving time in lucid dreams. It's one of our less-developed abilities. Someone's sense of time depends on how much they are really into their life, right? If someone zones out alot and loses focus of the world, they're surely not aware of time. Maybe awareness is truly the thing we're missing. After all, beginning lucid dreamers often have trouble with time in their dreams and advanced dreamers have sometimes reported extremely long dreams. Maybe the reason these dreams are so long is because the person is so aware that each second is longer for them in a dream, where they can control their environment. This is so true (in RL anyway). According to a quite knowledgeable member of this site, O'nus, the part of the brain that is active during conciousness is not active during sleep which contradicts your theory. He says that experiencing a dream is merely a realistic recollection of memory and that it does not take affect in real time. Since this idea also contradicts/complicates lucidity, all I can say is that this is an area in which I have much to learn/research. Personally, I believe your idea has some true merit. Great athletes probably experience a slightly slower second. This but it is not something that you can change, but everything changes ina dream!. I had ideas like that since I was around 10. I remember trying to explain it to my mom. It is could be said about every kind of perception. For example color... Everyone will agree that blue is blue. There is no other way to describe it. I could experience it in the same way someone else experiences green, but I could never prove it either way. I call this the paradox of perception. My mom never got it. If you want to train your spatial awareness, maybe practice a sport, and be aware of what's around you there. True, but wouldn't you only be helping your thought in 2 dimensions. If you've ever seen a play drawn out on a board you are looking at it from a top view because up and down does not matter. This is where I got the the pilot example from, but your idea may have more impact than I originally thought. A pilot (fighter pilot in particular) must maneuver through 3D space to get behind his enemies position. Though in a sport, you are aware of more detailed 3D objects on a virtually 2D plane. However, the pilot's opponent's shape is constant and irrelevant. The question is, does it make any difference? I must apologize about the length. As I stated earlier, typing out my ideas into text usually make it hard to follow. My sentences seem to run on and my descriptions tend to be quite ambiguous. Btw, that site looks like an interesting read. I will check it out tomorrow, it is a bit late Sweet dreams. ****Turns out the computation is not instantaneous, but there is an explanation for why it gives the illusion that it is. PM me if anyone actually cares to know.

[yabber]

Wow, those are some hard questions. That video was amazing, though. If he can think of two shapes and the shape that goes in between, then there must be a true system of numbers - they work together perfectly like that! For example color... Everyone will agree that blue is blue. There is no other way to describe it. I could experience it in the same way someone else experiences green, but I could never prove it either way. I call this the paradox of perception. My mom never got it. What a great way to explain it! According to a quite knowledgeable member of this site, O'nus, the part of the brain that is active during conciousness is not active during sleep which contradicts your theory. He says that experiencing a dream is merely a realistic recollection of memory and that it does not take affect in real time. Since this idea also contradicts/complicates lucidity, all I can say is that this is an area in which I have much to learn/research. That's probably true, but I've always had trouble understanding it. When I parked the car behind the wall, I got out of the car and peaked over the wall with out physically changing my position. I think I see what you mean now - sort of like in a video game when you can rotate your point-of-view around your person. The character doesn't move, but you can see around obstacles and things. The only difference is that you're looking at a certain point from different angles, and not literally seeing all of it. When you're thinking of your own position in a room, and everything in front, side, behind, above, below yourself, is this the 4th dimension you're talking about? It sounds like what you're describing is literally the "all-seeing" 3 Dimensions. Do you mean that you are like a point that can see in every direction that eminates from it? I don't understand, probably because I don't think in 4 spatial dimensions. That guy from the video was truly amazing, but I thnk the video was correct when it said that ordinary people can learn to do these things too - like the kid with the abacus. If you search for it, I'm sure you can find some sort of syntheasthesia that you experience, too. Did you ever listen to a song (with good headphones) and feel like higher frequencies were actually higher in space? I know it's sort of a weak example, but it proves that normal people can integrate their senses into different experiences in their minds. Quote: If you want to train your spatial awareness, maybe practice a sport, and be aware of what's around you there. True, but wouldn't you only be helping your thought in 2 dimensions. That may be true.. But what would help you use 3D space better? I'm not sure what all that had to do with the topic, but maybe you can figure it out. ;D

[CiD]

YIKES, I have been duped. That vectors.usc.edu website posted that from an artistic view point and some of the disorders in which I based some of my opinions off of are in fact bogus. Specifically prosthetomegethy and bathosmigia. The others appear to be real. I have done reports on types of agnosias and I know they are real, but These to are made up. I believe the author was trying to use them to support his conclusions (http://vectors.usc.edu/issues/04_iss...ion/unify.html). Read the other commentaries, too. It seems it is an idealist view on the possibilities of future human evolution. An interesting read, but why throw in 2 fake disorders with completely accurate descriptions of others? Do you mean that you are like a point that can see in every direction that eminates from it? Any who the all seeing 3D perspective is simply my own theory. I meant that it would mean seeing everything in a given area. I know it sounds a bit strange, but imagine your internal map of you current position... Is there a true perspective? Can't you look at it from every angle? It makes sense because a 2D perspective allows us to see a small 2D plane in its entirety (the maze on the paper example.) A person living on the 2D plane could not see over the drawn lines and must try and traverse the maze like we would a corn maze. Again, I am no expert, but I have a basic understanding of quantum physics and Einstien's theories. Syneasthsia is a condition in which sensory pathways over lap in someway. For instance you may experience a sound as a color or vice versa. Unfortunately, this can only be accomplished by having syneasthsia, considered a disorder or inducing it through drugs (most notably acid, or LSD). I have tried LSD in the past, but to induce this condition requires A LOT of it, and I never reached that state. It is possible that you have a minor form of this. I can see everyone having some minor form of it. Our brains can't be perfect and it isn't exactly a disadvantaged thing. I remember seeing a guy on TV that experienced taste as a color! He would shop at the grocery store by color. As for the sport thing... If you are on a football field, you are concerned about the position of everyone on the field. You are concerned about length and width distance, but height is irrelevant because no one is floating. A fighter pilot is concerned with position in 3 dimensions. The reason sports may matter is whether it helps your awareness because the objects are more detailed and malleable. An enemy plane is a dot at distance, and has a static shape at close range. In basketball you are concerned with other players position on a 2 dimensional plane, but you must navigate the ball around 3 dimensional people constantly moving to stop you. The question was does this make a difference? If it does, which one is more important? To answer this, we need some good lucid dreamers to tell us if they are good basketball player or if any good lucid dreamers are pilots of sort (helicopter/plane). Also, a crane operator would probably have good spatial awareness as well. The other question: What else do you think is a factor in lucid dreaming? As many on this site would suggest, memory plays a big role. Any others ?

[O'nus]

I study psychology and philosophy as passionate as possible and feel very confident in my lucid dream abilities. There may be a correlation. I am not sure how my name came about but I am willing to elaborate or answer any questions. Basically, your cortex is disactivated during sleep but your essential sensory system is still residually active; the reticular activation system (RAS). A common conception is that dreams are simply random synaptic firing that project the memories as actualy sensations. This would be like when you imagine things during waking life except that in your sleep they project and become real (this is similar to how hallucinations come to be). Perhaps the more intricate you study, the more likely you are to randomly dream of a lucid dream. Of course, there is a lot of controversy over lucid dreams and it is very similar to the controversy over what is real and what is not real. It is convoluted and we have little measn to systematically observe and record these arguments. What do you think...? ~

[yabber]

Well, based on experience, it seems that in my lucid dreams (few) what I do is determined by memories. I'd say that there are three states of observation: "zoning out", active participation (as in a conversation), and looking "from the outside in", or just as an observer. I'd say that being a philosopher means observing the world as an "observer". If we take ourselves out of the equation, the truth comes out oftentimes. I know that many people want to find a connection between what we do in waking life and in dreaming life, but just as there is no way to observe lucid dreams systematically, there all the minute connections in someone's head are way to complicated to make any firm conclusions. Maybe the connection lies in what stimulates the correct parts of the brain, sort of like CiD's syntheasthesia. For me, random lucid dreams occur when I think for a long time about how lucid dreams form - the proccesses behind them. It could be that it's all physical - and that's why no one method works for everyone. The ability to have lucids is determined by the part of your brain which is physically closer to the part which is active during lucid dreams. Maybe natural lucid dreamers have certain key parts of their brains closer to the RAS. Maybe the reason that it's possible to lose natural lucid abilities is that brains move as we age. Still, it's true that we can't conclude anything, because we can't make any direct observations.

[CiD]

This would be like when you imagine things during waking life except that in your sleep they project and become real (this is similar to how hallucinations come to be). This is similar to what I was saying about 3D thought. When someone pictures something in their head, isn't that a concious process? I always thought that a person is taking a peak at their subconciousness in a dream, but I have too many theories that I cannot connect them into one basic idea. So should I be able to perform math while in a dream (since I haven't tried yet)? edit: Next time I am hallucinating I will try and control them! =D

[charlieboy24]

i think its about the willingness.... are u willing to accept this as a realety....it is the mind we are playing with here...or the soul if you wish..so if there is doubt in the mind....simply there is doubt...and therefor it will be hard to LD... the soul is allways right....what is right 4 u is right...just determent what is right!!! self-determenism is the key word here!!

[CiD]

I get what you are saying, but I keeps LDing and I am not even trying. 5 this month and, before January, I cannot even remember the last time I had 1! Had a pretty long one last night, too. I tried jumping really high by simply jumping as hard as I can a couple times and it didnt work. It was kind of like that scene in the Matrix except on a smaller scale. I was trying to jump onto the roof of a pickup truck. I started thinking to myself..."There is no gravity" I was making the number 9.8 (gravitational constant) and 0 go through my head repetively (like 9.8 0 9.8 0 ect). Then I jumped up like 20 ft. in the air. Felt like there was no gravity and I would have kept going if I didn't force myself to the ground. After this I was experimenting with it and wasn't always successful. Then, I wanted to try some teleportation but, some little kid I know tackled me and threw up all over. Normally, I like to draw concrete facts out of something that happened, but so far I have no idea how I am doing this. I want to have lucid dreams, but thats about it. I have no idea at what point during my dreams that I become lucid. I never remember the point at which I become lucid, so it is like I am WILDing but I am just going to sleep like I always did. I have tried reality checks but only after I am already lucid. I must agree with you charlie. I guess i am doing this through intent (determination ...intent same thing sorta).