I Have A Theory - Practical Way To Increase Recall

[Kuhnada29]

I've been experimenting with bare consciousness for like 2 years now, not with dreams but in waking reality, how to get to different states, etc.. I'm starting to remember my dreams again after not being able to remember any dreams for almost a year. They say our conscious logical brain only accounts for 10% of our brain potential, the other 90% of brain potential is subconscious and unconscious. The dream world is the 90% subconscious/unconscious... obviously So what I started to do to access the other 90% was to ..well become subconscious or unconscious...and that is to stop paying attention to the outside world..or just stop paying attention period. Every since I started withdrawing attention from the outside world, and actually "unfocused" my mind.. I've been starting to remember my dreams with difference degrees of clarity and intensity. One time I believe I almost became fully awake in the dreamworld but panicked because I couldn't breathe and woke up. I'm not saying completely withdraw attention from physical world..obviously you need to cross the street, cook, clean do basic logical things which require conscious attention. But if your sitting somewhere, or just bored, or even social situations... It's alright to just "zone out" for a bit for a hit of energy. Every since I started zoning out lol, I've been experiencing increased energy, increased dream recall, increased happiness, increased creativity, it's even easier to sleep now after learning how to unfocus. I think zoning out is how to meditate without actually meditating also...its the same process. So yea..try this out and see if it helps.

[Linkzelda]

Someone told me they're unconscious, and I wondered how they're still up. Anyway, the thing is with subconscious or preferably unconscious is that they're just words to help conceptualize the human mind in general. They shouldn't be taken to absolute law as in something you actually shift into, when it comes to conscious mind vs. the unconscious mind, people may or may not find themselves making dichotomies, literally, to the point where they're not going to make any sense. When people are trying to become better at dream recall, it's not about conceptualizing it as becoming unconscious or subconscious, because I doubt you'll be able recall anything for that matter. What you should consider is just being more aware and receptive to those unconscious thoughts. Just imagine for a moment on why you may not be able to make better connections with recalling dreams in the initial attempts of lucid dreaming. It's because one hasn't made adequate predispositions that allows the unconscious mind being able to connect the dots and you being able to recall things by consciously interpreting them. The thing is, when you stated: or just stop paying attention period. Pro tip: Paying attention to whatever imagery, clips, thoughts, etc. that one would deduce is from the unconscious is crucial to competently recalling dream. It's a matter of shifting your awareness and not having critical judgement of what's going on. You're simply describing what's going on, and when you developed the competence to describe your dreams, it becomes easier. However, even with that, when people spend months going about recalling their dreams, recall isn't always picture perfect. But there are ways to augment recall by doing mental exercises that allows one to be more receptive to the unconscious thoughts (consciously interpreting them better). There are methods like image streaming that aims for one to improve their visual thinking that transcends into the mind making the neurological connections to shift attention towards recalling dreams. In short, when you can learn how to connect the dots faster in what would be seem as random, when you allow yourself to be a bit more loose during mental exercises like image streaming to maximize creativity, with practice, recalling dreams is much easier to do. It's because you've built predispositions that allows for you to be more receptive to what we would conceptualize as unconscious thoughts, because you can consciously describe them better. When people say "unconscious," they would be able to deduce that means they're not going to be aware of what's going on. Unless you can give more information on how you can unconsciously recall dreams and somehow recall them consciously at the same time and provide how one shifts through this presumed dichotomy in your theory here (which ultimately contradicts basic logic of how we theorize conscious and unconscious), this theory is going to be a detriment towards any sensible and competent person's endeavors of trying to recall their dreams better. Remember, it's shifting awareness and not investing too much critical analysis or judgement of what you're experiencing. You had the right mindset that it's about not lending much awareness towards other things that distract you, it's just how you used subconscious/unconscious that made it contradicting is all.

[Kuhnada29]

Your thinking too much into this lol. Looks like you have a better dream recall than me obviously, but I think my original post was clear. When I say subconscious/unconscious..I mean subconscious and unconscious of the outside world.. I don't see how it can get any more simpler than that. Someone told me they're unconscious, and I wondered how they're still up. Some people have been in comas and have been fully conscious in their dream. Meaning their unconscious of whats going on in the external world. There's plenty of times where I like to zone out..not paying attention to whats going on outside around me..or only partially. That's sub-conscious. Doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to be a genius to break down the word sub-conscious or un(not)-conscious lol. When I say "just stop paying attention"...again I'm talking about the outside world. Nothing to do with the inner world of imagery and dreams yet. When you stop paying attention to the outside world the inner world of imagery and dreams pops up naturally and you will pay attention to that. I don't have much experience in the dream world, so honestly I have no idea what consciousness is like there. But I have plenty of experience in the outside world and this is how it works for me.

[RavenOfShadow]

I understand what you're saying, Majestic, I think Link missed the point. As I understand it, you are essentially shifting between hyper focused, like a typical All Day Awareness kind of focus (attention to detail, visuals, sound, events, tastes), and then shifting to "unconscious"; essentially getting into a meditative state where you let yourself go and close yourself off to detailed sensory input. Like flexing then unflexing your arm. Thats really interesting... I have lucid dream quite a few times now, and every time I "zoom" into a lucid dream it feels just like going from an "unconscious" to a "conscious" state, so this just might work. If you train yourself to suddenly become aware, it could work to help you become spontaneously aware in a dream... Don't see why not. ~Raven

[Linkzelda]

I didn't miss the point at all, OP is using terms incorrectly here. It's not really something revolutionary when people shift their awareness towards other things (selective attention, self-hypnosis, or any forms of higher level focus) in becoming lucid. The word "unconscious" itself is used to conceptualize things that are typically inaccessible through conscious effort, it's not something you use literally like a household word in every single metaphor and analogy you can think of. The unconscious mind plays a role in the experiential totality, repressed emotions, memories and such, and with how we go about our daily lives, certain words, formats, and other linguistic models and syntax contribute to triggering the unconscious in giving out a specific behavior and/or emotion. To use the term "unconscious" in this case of OP's thread when it's intended to be used to conceptualize something much greater than we can fathom consciously, it ends up with contradicting logic because people aren't focusing using the idea that the person is shifting their awareness (consciously) somewhere else. Because with things like ADA or any forms of training yourself to be aware of things you're not usually receptive or paying attention to is to expand one's conscious mind more. The conscious mind is like a fish tank in terms of collecting memory and processing it while the unconscious mind is like an ocean. There's no split, just shifts in awareness and being receptive to other thoughts. No need to say "become unconscious or subconscious," especially when "subconscious" itself is just a word for conceptualizing and not an absolute term as in saying "Hey guys, I'm subconscious of what's going on!" To make deductions with being "unconscious" and then applying "conscious attention" towards this is either the person going through skewed Solipsistic ways of thinking, or they're not too competent enough that the terms they're using are incorrect. When OP states "become subconscious or unconscious," despite of their metaphors and analogies to compare it to shifting awareness and paying attention to other things, it doesn't make sense because in order for one to become "unconscious" or "subconscious" means they're somehow making a dichotomy with their own mind. Which is why the logic for this theory is comparable to people who make threads and wonder if they can use their subconscious/unconscious to WILD better (when the unconscious mind is doing all sorts of things we're not aware of and making neurological connections to organize the experiential totality, knowledge, belief systems, etc. ingrained in us). I understand "unconscious" is just not being aware in your context of using the term, but the definition is a bit more complicated than that, especially with it comes to theorizing how the mind works in dreaming in general. You don't say, "I'm becoming unconscious to recall my dreams better," even when you intended to replace it for "shifting awareness," it's not a practical term to use, which doesn't make this a practical theory.

[Kuhnada29]

I understand what you're saying, Majestic, I think Link missed the point. As I understand it, you are essentially shifting between hyper focused, like a typical All Day Awareness kind of focus (attention to detail, visuals, sound, events, tastes), and then shifting to "unconscious"; essentially getting into a meditative state where you let yourself go and close yourself off to detailed sensory input. Like flexing then unflexing your arm. Exactly. For me this causes effortless detailed dream recall and almost a fully lucid state and I don't even record my dreams. Thats really interesting... I have lucid dream quite a few times now, and every time I "zoom" into a lucid dream it feels just like going from an "unconscious" to a "conscious" state, so this just might work. Yea. It's like two different worlds, I feel more conscious in the physical world you feel more conscious in the dream-world lol. There's only like one time where my energy was really high and I got dream imagery while falling asleep then by focusing on the details of those images it's easier to get pulled into the dream consciously. Just by focusing on the details of the imagery you enter the dream effortlessly. It's really strange cause it seems like the waking life world and dream-world are polar opposites. I.e. unfocusing from physical world to get focused in the dream-world Raven how does it feel when you unfocus in waking life? Or does your recall increase when you hyper-focus in waking life?

[Linkzelda]

If you're able to recall effortlessly on dreams to full detail, and somehow avoiding the probability of how the unconscious mind tends to fabricate things that one isn't consciously putting as much attention, I wonder when this dichotomy here you two are stating will make any sense. With this logic, you two are presuming you can fathom the totality of the majority of your dreams, that you're able to have picture perfect memory of every detail, every moment, every emotion, all consciously and sustaining it consistently without any fading of memory. Now, if you honestly think that a few detailed dreams you happened to remember constitutes as being able to fathom all at once consciously, again, the "practical" theory doesn't make sense. To even make a deduction that you have that ability to make deus ex machina like predispositions to connect the dots on nearly all the dreams you have that you don't need a dream journal as a supplement for recording any of your dreaming moments, is a very naive way of thinking.

[Kuhnada29]

I didn't say i had full dream detail, but detailed dreams. I think recalling dreams is a natural process. Just by unfocusing a little more in waking life, and maybe focusing more in dream-life. We won't need dream journals to lucid dream or to have great recall. The point is to figure out a way for all of us to enter lucid dreams naturally every night or at will...not argue about semantics. If "shifting awareness" makes more sense to you than being sub-conscious of waking reality..then just use that.

[RavenOfShadow]

Not sure why you're always so hostile, Link. While unconscious may not have been the perfect word to use, I still understood what he was trying to convey; that's all that matters. I don't often "unfocus" on purpose, so I can't really tell you how it has affected my dreams. My recall is nearly flawless after writing in a dream journal for a few months now every day, so I highly recommend that if your sole quest is to reach heightened dream recall. On the other hand, hyperfocusing through all day awareness, and unfocusing through meditation, seem to have a direct effect on my lucidity. If I meditate once a day, and then hyper focus whenever I can remember to, I tend to have at least two lucids a week. In my experience though, the best thing for lucid dreaming is to keep a tight dream journal, sleep at healthy hours (anything past midnight isn't healthy for lucid dreaming in my experience), and limit the use of electronics. That's whats helped me the most! ~Raven

[Carabas]

They say our conscious logical brain only accounts for 10% of our brain potential, the other 90% of brain potential is subconscious and unconscious. That's a myth. That 10% statistic that gets passed around so often is completely made up and has been disproved by brain scans. Not to say your technique's bad, but 'accessing the other 90% of your brain potential' is not the reason zoning out works for you.

[Linkzelda]

Yeah, I'm not even close to being hostile in this thread. We understand what OP is doing, it's just the terminology is just placed wrong is all, especially when the word "sub-conscious" is considered bogus in the realms of psychology (and unconscious is used preferably). Especially when unconscious clearly means lack of conscious mind, for any person thinking they can become unconscious to recall their dreams better, either they're going through mental dissonance with what's really going on, or again, they're just using the terms too loosely. And just like Carabas stated, "accessing" that presumed 90% of the brain potential when it's presumed that the majority of that content is inaccessible (unless you use methods to trigger emotional responses and such) is completely irrelevant towards those feelings of "high energy" a person is getting, or even how they become more relaxed. There are ways for the conscious mind to interpret the thoughts that are presumed to be from the unconscious obviously, and even when a person is non-lucid, they have to be conscious when they wake up later on and become better at building rapport on how the thoughts from the unconscious mind become interpreted through conscious means. It's understandable that people become "unconscious" because there's lack of a conscious mind (obviously for non-lucid dreams), but when that terminology is used to bring about conscious mind, no matter how much metaphors and analogies they try to use, they're just using the term wrong. It's not even about "if you want to use this term instead, feel free to do so," it's just basic competence to use terms correctly and not create pseudo-meanings when one can use more appropriate terms.