Dream sign induction help

[sallyrand]

Hello, I've been recording my dreams in a DJ for like three months now and I'm very good at recalling my dreams. Sometimes I can remember 7 or 8 dreams in just one night. I've been doing reality checks regularly and that only helped me to have 3 lucid small dreams since I started. After this time I've realized that I have 2 dream sings. One is my best friend and the other one is my old higschool. (I finished hischool 5 years ago and currently I'm in my last year of University) I dream almost everyday with my friend, we are really close, we see eachother everyday (I've even dreamt that we were dating!) and for the last 2 or three weeks I've been dreaming that I'm in highschool. Could anyone help me to use this to induce myself into a lucid dream? Any tips? Thanks

[Zoth]

Regarding your friend: - Every time you see, or think, or communicate (even by phone) with your friend, ask yourself if you are dreaming. Perform one of your favorite reality checks, and stay alert: if one doesn't work, you might still be dreaming! - Even if your friend leaves for 2 minutes to go to the bathroom, perform a reality check when he comes back! Your memory tends to be really bad during dreams, so don't get fooled by anything! Regarding high school: - Every time you enter or leave your school, perform a reality check. This should be automatic, even if you're just leaving for lunch and then returning! - Whenever you are getting ready to go to school, perform a reality check: why are you going there, are you sure you are not dreaming? Get in the habit of stopping in the middle of nowhere and asking yourself "where am I? Because if I'm at my high school I might as well be dreaming" The key is repeating these exercises over and over again, the more times the better. At first, you will miss/forget a lot of cues, but eventually you will get so used that you will do a reality check without even thinking. Also, don't forget to keep in your mind that you might be dreaming at any point. Just so you take an example, if you like me associate dreams with weird stuff, will loose a lucid just because the radio was talking about gas prices (super normal scenario, but still a dream!). Good luck

[sallyrand]

Than you! This is very helpful I really appreciate it, just two more things. Does it matter if my friend is a girl? (I guess not, we're best frends and we spend lot of time together) and the other thing is that I do reality checks quite often, my problem is that I think I do it automatically I do it as a routine. How can I improve that? (I will try to be more awared about things around me, but can you give me more tips?)

[Zoth]

Does it matter if my friend is a girl? (I guess not, we're best frends and we spend lot of time together) No, the goal is to associate her presence as a possibility of you being in a dream. You could be more alert towards her common behavior/personality, but the best thing is just to be more aware regarding everything: even if all seems normal, do a reality check. It's even better to do reality checks automatically than not doing them every time the scenario allows it. I do reality checks quite often, my problem is that I think I do it automatically I do it as a routine. How can I improve that? Well, that isn't necessarily a problem and I'll explain why: if lucid dreaming is something that wanders in your mind in a daily and constant basis, the fact that you're doing it automatically won't do you much harm. When you are in a dream, just the fact that you might be thinking about a reality check is most times enough to grant you lucidity. For the sake of consistency, it's a better sign when you are failing to become lucid because you don't pay enough attention to the reality checks you are doing, then it is not performing any during a dream. Once again, the emphasis at this point is consistency: look for example at CanidusLucidus Dream Journal and notice how all his lucids start: Somewhere along the way it occurs to me that fortunately this is all a dream. This makes me think of dreaming, though, and I become lucid. This is enough to make me realize that this is a dream. I'm very excited about the possibility of a lucid, which makes me realize that I'm having one right now. thinking about lucid dreaming when it occurs to me that I’m having one right now. I realize that this might all be a dream. As you can see, he doesn't rely on anything to become lucid (doesn't mean using dream signs isn't a great option, they are basically free extra lucids along the trip!), he just is so deep immersed on the habit of wondering if he's in a dream that he constantly bumps onto the situation of questioning himself. It doesn't even matter if he fails to realize he's dreaming, he's making the question, and that is the most important thing to achieve regular lucidity. Now, it is true that your reality checks loose a bit of value if you're not experiencing them manually, but instead doing them like a mindless habit. You can improve this by evolving your mindset from "attention" (I need to do a reality check to see if I'm dreaming) to "mindfulness" (I might be dreaming at any point, I just need to be aware of everything around me). Reality checks are based on reminding yourself to check if you're dreaming, mindfulness is based on the assumption that you know you might be dreaming at any given moment, so all you have to do is be aware of the moment. This doesn't mean you have to look like a maniac doing reality checks every 2 seconds, but it might mean that instead of leaving home to school/work listening to music or thinking your problems or your last night, you calmly clear your mind and just absorb your surroundings (and yourself). It's much easier to detect something is wrong if you're relatively aware of what's happening than it is to "remember" that you might be dreaming, and that is why mindfulness is one step ahead of reality checks. It's on the other hand a much harder habit to master, but once you get the "hang of it", your lucid dream frequency will sky rocket! Hope this solved your doubts, if not, just let me know and I'll try to explain it better

[sallyrand]

You exlpained it perfectly, thanks for your help