Thread: My friend can't remember ANY dreams he has

Around twenty years ago, when I first learned to lucid dream (now I am returning to it after many years of not practicing), my first lucid dreams ever were "Oh, I am flying. Therefore, this is a dream. But I can also fly in waking life." I must admit that when I awoke from these lucid dreams, I would test my supposed flying abilities, and unfortunately they never worked. I finally accepted the fact that I could not fly in real life (no matter how much I wish I could), and then after a while I started having lucid dreams where I was more aware of the dreams and more aware of differences between dream and waking life. Of course, there is a small chance that I actually was right, and that I could fly in waking life, and that I managed to get indoctrinated into not believing that I can even though at the beginning I knew better in my dream insights. But most of me thinks that it is far more likely that my dream awareness in those early lucid dreams was very low, and thus I had some faulty logic based on wishful thinking. The part of my consciousness that really wants to be able to fly in waking life protests vehemently.

I used to not remember almost any dreams for a long time, but once I started to work on my dream recall with a dream journal, I managed to go from 0 dreams recalled to at least one or sometimes even three per night within one week of effort. then my stress level caused me to have less dream recall again. So now I am again working on building it up. A dream journal is a good tool to help improve dream recall. Also it is important to try to move as little as possible upon waking up, and focus on remembering the dream then. In addition, improving one's memory in general in waking life can help improve one's dream recall, too.

What do you guys think?

I think it's his mentality towards it. Here's the thing; being able to remember a large portion of the dreams you have throughout your nights requires work, it requires intention. Improving dream recall is an active mental process and not just something you sort of just have, at least for a large amount of people. So your friend has to work towards really wanting it, but that's not the only thing, mental blocks can also get in the way. If your friend claims that his subconsciousness wants to block his dream recall, then that in itself can hamper his ability to remember dreams.

I believe it is more likely that it's a mix of just not trying hard enough, and also being blocked by his own belief in his subconsciousness not wanting him to remember. If that is what he truly believes, then obviously that is what's going to happen, no dream recall.

JoannaB gave a good tip on the dream journal, it is pretty much the first mandatory step for anyone who wants to do something serious with dreams, and lucid dreams. And as she says, there's things you can do upon waking to improve your chances of remembering dreams of the night. Here's a few you can tell him to try out:

When you wake up, move as little as possible. Movement tends to have the effect of hindering your dream recall (if you are to believe what Stephen LaBerge says in his book, Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming). From that point you should then try to focus on remembering the dream, which can be done in a number of different ways. You can ask yourself questions such as "What was I just dreaming?", or you can try to get clues and hints from asking yourself things such as "What was I just feeling?", as emotions can be good at triggering those parts of memory, it has worked pretty well for me. Other questions might include "What did I just do?" or "What did I just see?", really, you can try any kind of creative questions which might help trigger the experiences you had in a dream.

If you recall a specific scene from a dream, I also find that it helps greatly to remember other parts of the dream by "rewinding" the experience from the scene you remember, keep asking yourself "what happened before that?" to make an attempt at experiencing your dream backwards

Originally Posted by Extremador

I've wanted to post this for a long time but was too lazy...

I've always tried to get my friend to take up lucid dreaming but he always tells me he can't remember his dreams, ever. He finally told me a couple of weeks ago that, in a dream he was having, he figured out how to fly in the dream in a way that would potentially also allow flight in waking life. In other words, he unlocked the secret to flight in his dream. But the problem was that, the dream ended right after the epiphany and he could no longer remember it when he woke up in the morning.

He claims that his subconscious is blocking his ability to be able to remember his dreams because it doesn't want him to be able to have a similar dream and have the knowledge in waking life.

What do you guys think?

I think your friend is developing schizophrenia and should seek help.

Moved to Dream Signs and Recall.

Originally Posted by Extremador

I've wanted to post this for a long time but was too lazy...

I've always tried to get my friend to take up lucid dreaming but he always tells me he can't remember his dreams, ever. He finally told me a couple of weeks ago that, in a dream he was having, he figured out how to fly in the dream in a way that would potentially also allow flight in waking life. In other words, he unlocked the secret to flight in his dream. But the problem was that, the dream ended right after the epiphany and he could no longer remember it when he woke up in the morning.

He claims that his subconscious is blocking his ability to be able to remember his dreams because it doesn't want him to be able to have a similar dream and have the knowledge in waking life.

What do you guys think?

Tell your friend if I believed everything in dreams, then 6 x 9 =4, Pi is rational, there is no color except for blue, and it's 2023 in Brazil.