Thread: Physical Memory In The Non-Physical

My access to memory is often extensive, but is always limited, as if sculpted.

Originally Posted by Iapetos

And have you ever had an non-physical experience/ dream where you remembered exactly everything from the physical memory?

Now that is an interesting question! I know I've had many, many LD's in which I noticed that the dream scene bore little or no resemblance to the place (or people) it was supposed to represent, plus many non-lucid or low-level lucids where I did exactly as you and assumed everything was fine, only to realize later that memory had failed me (or failed, as it were, to fully turn on).

...But have I ever had an LD where everything was exactly correct? Now that I think of it, no! Aside from LD's where I build the scenes from scratch -- they've occasionally turned out as planned, but are rarely based on real places -- I think I can safely say that my dreaming mind never quite gets it right. Even during LD's, when my awareness is present with "correct" memories.

Your question does indeed raise a lot of questions: Maybe perfect reproduction is a lot to ask of our unconscious? Maybe perception, being different in dreams than waking life, simply isn't programmed to process Dreaming Mind signals the same way it processes, say, light, in waking life? Maybe, in the Big Picture, what your waking life world "really" looks like doesn't matter?

I was interpreting the question more in terms of remembering past events. So, for example, I could be sitting in the kitchen and it looks really, really, accurate, but then if I try to think back to the previous day I find that I can't reach it. Or I could be in a scene that has no waking life counterpart, but I can remember quite a bit from waking life. But always there are gaps in what I can remember. I recall one dream in particular where my memory went back about 30 minutes, then before that, nothing.

Oh. Well if that's the case, then my post is way less relevant, or interesting!

In terms of accessing memory, I guess I've had moderate success in occasionally bringing "full" waking-life memory into my dreams (during high-level lucids only). I'm not sure if everyone does this, but I also seem to "hold" the current dream in my memory throughout the dream, meaning that I can remember back to what was going on in the beginning of the dream, and recognize inconsistencies between then, and current dream activities. For instance, if the dream started in room that was carpeted in green grass, and later I return to the room and the floor is bare wood, I'll notice the change (this helps with lucidity as well).

Thanks for the replies. As you might understand this experience was very exciting because I was as aware as I am right now. Because of that I considered the experience more than a dream while having it, since it was so much more vivid than my usual lucid dreams. I'll was hoping to hear from at least one person who have had a similar experience, because then I can be sure that this was just a dream and not an OOBE or something likely. Now I am just confused, I guess the only way to find out is to get there again

I also form a lot of memories in dreams which I can access more easily later in other dreams than I can later in waking life. Its common for semi-lucid dreams to take place in settings I have dreamed of before, though I don't remember these as often in waking life. In addition to these, there are extensive 'false' memories which are created as a sort of character and plot back-drop for a dream. I don't think I've dreamed those before though, I think I experience them the first time when I 'remember' them while dreaming. I say that because it seems that 'I' am aware of them for the first time during the dream, even though the image itself is placed in the past.

I don't think there's a clear distinction between a lucid dream and an out of body experience. I've had both, and I've had experiences that were a little of both. This seems to fit with other people's experiences in previous discussions.

Notice that always, whether awake or asleep, your visual experience is projected by your imagination, as is your sense of where you are. When you're awake it usually conforms in an expected way with your surroundings, and of course it incorporates sensate information from your surroundings. In the lucid dream and the out of body experience you're not projecting current sensate information, but it seems that sometimes there is current information which comes from some other kind of 'seeing' not with the eyes. The reason for the ambiguity between lucid dream and out of body, is you may or may not project images that match your immediate 'real' surroundings, or overlay a combination of image types, and you may or may not move your projected sense of location to outside of your physical body. But it seems to all be the same kind of thing.

When I'm lucid dreaming, my peripheral vision is always worse than when awake. That's an easy to remember check on whether its a dream, not that I generally have much confusion about that.

With me it improved with time and practice. Early on I would get lucid and could not figure out where my body must be located. I am weird about training skills in LDs. I spent a couple of years doing this during my stabilization time. I would simply try to remember where I had parked my body. Eventually I was often able to remember that I was asleep in summer school vs safe at home. This allowed me to avoid sexy dreams while sleeping at my school desk, for fear my body would start humping or some thing.
It is hit or miss now. I often can remember a lot of details, like where I am sleeping, if I will be able to sleep late or if the alarm is set, if my wife should be in the bed with me, the rough time such as late spring of 2012, and maybe one or two major things going on currently in my life. I can use this now to keep on tasks I have set. The other 50% of the time I can not place if the dream makes sense sequentially in my life. Say I am 20 years younger in the dream, and know that is not correct, but can not guess within 5 years of what real life involves at the time.

I know the feeling you refer to. When I become lucid through a DILD, I then feel quite impulsive..... and act on carnal urges. You're aware that you're dreaming, but your control is more like: 'coming along for the ride', and you usually end up doing something. A real good indicator of being fully aware is that all action ceases. You just stand there, bemused, absolutely aware. Action is no longer an integral part of the dream script running independent to your wishes.

This is mostly why I favour WILDs as my choice of induction... there is no feeling of zombification. Your memory and consciousness carry over from the waking world, and you remember where you were 5 minutes ago. A successful WILD tends to begin quiescently, quiet, and actionless -- you really get to feel the present moment. You really know you're conscious in a dream world. It is at times of stillness and quiet that you're able to remember every detail in the dream... rather than just actions.

Try to remember a dream sign. One that that I used, was the theory that letters look like jumbled/hieroglyphics, and are changing always in dreams. So I looked at a book shelf in my dream, and noticed that the letters were almost alive. This was a conscious memory of what I was reading at the time, brought over into the LD. My memory was crystal clear. I pratice a great memory trick in reality, and I think meditation helps the memory as well. The below trick is great if you're an avid reader. And if you want to learn a dream recall mantra that's good, vist my thread: newbe lucid dreamjournal at the Introductory Zone.

Memory trick:
When learning a new word:
Step 1. Say the word 5 times with the meaning.
Step 2. Look away to the left or right, and say a completly different word once with the meaning.
Step 3. Bring your gaze back to center, and say the original word you're trying to remember one more time with the meaning.

What this trick does, is allow you to plant a short term memory into your long term memory, with easy recall. This trick is allmost 99% perfect (although some words I have trouble with), and I've increased my vocabulary 10 fold, not to mention it's great for remembering proverbs, and theories as well. Developing an illustrious memory in reality may help in the lucid dream realm. Good luck with your recall.

Example: Prophetic (to predict the future)
Prophetic (to predict the future)
Prophetic (to predict the future)
Prophetic (to predict the future)
Prophetic (to predict the future)
Turn your gaze to right or left
Lucid Dream (to be awake in your dream)
Turn your gaze back to center
Prophetic (to predict the future)

Thanks for the tip Splice, although I thought about the letters in this dream as well. On the first awakening I wrote down the first dream with no problem, the letters didn't move it was completely stable, which was also one of the reason to why I at the time didn't considered this a dream even if I knew that this wasn't the physical. My hands even looked normal and they have never done that in all my other lucid dreams.

No matter if this was a super vivid lucid dream or an actual astral projection/ OOBE it is still only a positive experience for me.

Because now I finally know that it is possible to have those real life vivid lucid dreams that I have always dreamed of (haha). Or that the astral is real. (I hope for the later).

Originally Posted by Sageous

Maybe perfect reproduction is a lot to ask of our unconscious?

Perhaps. But it's not impossible for a brain to record and remember every detail of a mental image taken by looking at different buildings. Thus, I give you an excerpt on Savant Syndrome:

"Savant syndrome is poorly understood. No widely accepted cognitive theory explains the combination of talent and deficit found in savants. It has been suggested that individuals with autism are biased towards detail-focused processing and that this cognitive style predisposes both individuals with and without autism to savant talents. Another hypothesis is that hyper-systemizing predisposes people to show talent, where hyper-systemizing is an extreme state in the empathizing–systemizing theory that classifies people based on their skills in empathizing with others versus systemizing facts about the external world, and that the attention to detail shown by many savants is a consequence of enhanced perception or sensory hypersensitivity in individuals with autism. It has also been suggested that savants operate by directly accessing low-level, less-processed information that exists in all human brains but is normally not available to conscious awareness."

Perhaps after more research over many years we can all learn how to access this way of thinking.