Ironic process theory: Activation through suppression

This method, which I find to work extremely well—almost infallibly, if done right—is a double-edged sword; it can cause problems to manifest and escalate, and people do it all the time without even realizing it.

This is related to a phenomenon known as 'Dual process'.

Basically, whenever you try to mentally suppress an oneiric effect (because it might make you feel upset or uncomfortable), there is a cognitive mechanism that is designed to push back, counteractively. This can be anything: an idea, an emotion, a tactile sensation, an image, or a sound. Studies have even shown that if you try to suppress a negative thought during the day (or before bed), it is more likely to show up when you are dreaming. That goes double for LDing, where an unwanted effect can be activated, almost as if it's challenging you to acknowledge it, forcing itself on you even more if you try to suppress it. This can lead to a disturbing outcome, often causing the person to feel scared, ashamed, annoyed, or even disgusted after they wake up.

If you are suppressing or rejecting something, it has not yet been emotionally/intellectually resolved in some way. If it has, it shouldn't bother you whenever it shows up in your dreams. That is not to say, however, that events only manifest whenever they bother you. The process, at a certain stage, behaves autonomously while actively comparing associated bits of information (which might seem random) in order to test your response. As the events successively become resolved and extinguished, the scenario will continue to develop into something else. It continues to do so until the dream ends.

As with any theory, it might as well be useless if you cannot derive an effectual operation and solution from it. My results have been positive, though.

Incentive and motivation play a very big role! You know what you care about and what troubles you, and that information is automatically stored in your brain. You cannot dupe it; you have to be honest with yourself.

Here are a few solutions that can help you move along:

1) Embrace and submit to the problems as they show up, no matter how uncomfortable or disappointing it may be to do so. This can have some undesirable psychological effects, though, because it can dramatically alter your ideological preferences and sense of morality, for obvious reasons.

2) Meditate on the recurring issues that manifest, and then consider how they relate to you. Figure out what can give you a sense of peace and safety.

3) Disregard, with confidence and assurance, the problems as they show up. Do not try to suppress them. The more negative and troubling the problem is, the more difficulty you might have. Some issues are more complex and demanding than others, and so they may require an alternative action.

On the opposite side of things, there is an approach that can utilize this mechanism for the better, pushing the dream in a desired direction. First, there are some things you must acknowledge:

• If you try to suppress something that you are perfectly happy to have occur, your mind ends up feeling comforted as it happens—this can cause it to quickly cease, or develop some sort of irritating characteristic, thus leaving you feeling dissatisfied. That is its nature, and not much can be done to change the way it behaves. The mechanism is quite limiting, indeed.

• You do not have to spend much time focusing on getting from point A to point B, e.g., you don't need to look for an object in order to obtain it. Getting too fixated on the former can become a huge distraction and can make you lose your train of thought.

• Refusing to be satisfied with an enjoyable event will increase the duration of the experience, just as it would with something that is negative.

• Emotional incentive, such as anger or sadness, is what can prompt an issue to surface. It is, on the other hand, secondary; suppression is what causes it to persist. Keep that in mind.

For now, that's the best I can do. Knowing this has helped me tremendously, and I hope it will help others.

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I shouldn't be surprised. Long-winded, highly subjective posts are rarely appreciated.

It is an expanded report on what I have learned about the "ironic process", which has been proven to have an effect on dreams (The effects of suppressing intrusive thoughts on... [J Sleep Res. 2013] - PubMed - NCBI), and can be explained from a darwinistic POV.

In essence, "Ironic process theory holds that processes that undermine the intentional control of mental states are inherent in the very excersize of such control. According to this idea, the ironies of mental life are not just happenstance examples of the frailty of human endeavors but rather are logically entailed by the nature of mental control. The theory says that attemps to influence mental states require monitoring processes that are sensitive to the failure of the attempts and that these processes act subtly yet consistently in a direction precisely opposite the intended control. This means that when efforts to implement the intended mental control are undermined in any way, the monitoring process itself will surface and ironically overwhelm the intended control to yield the opposite of the mental state that is desired." - Daniel M. Wegner, Ironic Processes of Mental Control

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This morning, there was an amazing—very ecstatic, if not dark—dream that I had, where the things I would normally want to have happen were mentally suppressed. Needless to say, it worked. This, being fresh in my memory, has put something into perspective: that is, negative emotions drive a person to repress thoughts, but the reason they continue to persist is indirectly caused by the negative emotions. Breaking this habit is a bit difficult at first; still, you don't need to force yourself to hate what you currently enjoy.

You waited 11 minutes for people to reply to your thread and went on the offensive?

The only thing needed to overcome impediments is a higher state of awareness, cognizance and memory.

Quote:

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You waited 11 minutes for people to reply to your thread and went on the offensive?

The only thing needed to overcome impediments is a higher state of awareness, cognizance and memory.

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11 minutes, 12 hours and 130 views later, I concluded that it was another TL;DR moment for many folks, and I cannot blame them for that.

That was a knee-jerk accusation, on your part, unfortunately.

Interpreting the direction and recognizing what is truly impeding you is the first step. There are many lateral approaches one can take, given all the theories that are available. Some are more effective than others, as I have found out.

This does seem like an interesting topic and I am looking forward to a productive discussion. Thanks for sharing your views Earthatic, there are some really good tips there. I have come accross research about emotion suppression and am slowly working to recognize issues I have which manifest in dreams and deal with them properly during meditation time. This process has been going on for a few years now, but I see some good results in both waking life and dreams.

Unfortunately, Earthatic, people do skip or skim over long posts, but being patient is always a plus. And even if your post doesn't get any replies you can never know how many people not registered on DV have read the stuff and had a thought about it.

Take care! :)

Well, I know that many people don't want to read over verbose blocks of writing that they think might contain useless information. Reminding someone of their potential reactance and habitual response seemed like the right thing to do, even if it might be seen as an expression of self-righteousness or impatience, since there are countless posts on DV that get overlooked for similar reasons. I catch myself doing it all the time.

Que sera, sera. I appreciate your gracious manner.

Okay.



There isn't a whole lot to add or discuss without getting wrapped up in meaningless debate over semantics and subjective value. Summarily, the approach presented sits soundly and provides a fairly universal approach--a rarity around these parts--but I'm disappointed by the formal explanation which unnecessarily complicates processes so readily grasped as focus and attention. In the end, it's all the same, and we're more or less in agreement, so I'd rather not get into a lengthy discussion if you don't understand where I'm coming from--too few hours in a week for that...

You're right. It is a fairy straightforward message and approach, but the formal/prolix format is just my communication style, though, and I can see how it might seem unnecessary to get the point across. Anyway, what's done is done.

On a side note, in relation to the OP, this aspect could add further credence to the hypothesis of 'Threat Simulation', depending on how you want to interpret it. It makes more sense to me now.

It's really hard to create a unified theory for dreaming, as there appears to be so many complicated aspects that are involved. This is just one facet.