How lond do you take to record your dreams

[MagicChicken]

Whenever I wake up and start to write down my dreams, i feel like there is almost always more detail that i could write down for lucid and non lucid dreams. I normally end up writing about 3 dreams down and each dream takes up around half a page.... this is getting time consuming. I dont want to not write down what i remember becasue i might miss a dream sign or important aspect, but its getting a bit tiring and difficult to take this much time out of my day. Any advice? How do you record your dreams? Has anyone tried a audio device to solve this problem, and can you review your dreams as easily with a audio device? thanks

[Sageous]

I think the first thing you might do is try to see the time you give to recording your dreams is not being wasted, but going to a valuable purpose. LD'ing may emerge as one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in life, and the best things in life almost always require a certain amount of work and sacrifice to be achieved. It might take a while to write down your dreams but that may be time very well spent if it brings you close enough to your dreams to make consistent LD'ing easier and more rewarding... do the work and sacrifice your time, MagicChicken; in the long run you will not be disappointed. All that said: I personally take as long as two hours to record my dreams, but at this point I generally only record LD's that I find significant (and I also only do it once a week, in general), and they tend to go on for pages. And yes, recording them is tedious, annoying, and pretty much eats up my Wednesday afternoons (given that Wednesday morning is the time I give to dream practice). I often have to really steel myself to get an entire dream down, too. But I've never regretted spending the time writing them down, both because it guarantees that the dreams will be firmly attached to my long term memory, and I also have some interesting reading available for years to come. [ BTW, I also record any significant or interesting dreams (LD or NLD) that might pop up at other times, because sometimes good stuff happens during the rest of the week... but I do not make an effort to record every dream I have anymore (I say all this not to illustrate what a slacker I am, but to show that there is an end to uch of the tedium, eventually).] Here are a couple of tips I hope you'll consider: * Write your dreams down, pen on paper. There is something about the physical act of writing that helps to make your dream much more likely to be held in long-term memory, and that "something" simply does not happen with voice recordings or typing into a computer or phone. * Write down everything that you can remember, but don't embellish. A lot of people suggest just jotting down just a couple of words or images that will spark your memory later on, saving you time. The trouble is, this only works for a little while. I did this for a couple of years long ago, and now I have several notebooks filled with meaningless words... take the time to write down everything. That said, write everything but be careful not to embellish: write down only what you remember, and try not to fill in scenes with what you think "probably" happened, or "should have" happened. This will both save you some time and also insure that your recording of your dream is accurate. * You don't have to record every dream; your DJ is not about volume, but quality. If you can recall several dreams but don't have much time, just record the one that seems the most important, or impressive. Now, if more than one dream seems impressive, you might be doomed to write down more than one; but generally one would probably be enough. * Don't worry too much about catching dream signs. If you are recording at least one dream a night, and building your recall in the process, the dream signs will be obvious (if they are not obvious, BTW, they probably aren't dream signs anyway). tl;dr: Some things are worth the time and tedium, MagicChicken; this is one of them. Write your dreams down, pen on paper, as completely as you can remember, and in the long run you will be glad that you did... but don't be concerned about recording all of your dreams; picking the "good one" may be adequate.

[Threeofeight]

Gotta love how Sageous puts dream signs into perspective so eloquently. I was gleaning over this and thought to myself; I wish I had more useful things to say about this. And then Sageous post pops up. And covers nearly everything there is to say about dream recall! Although there is more.. Things you tend to forget in the long run as you try to recall past dreams : Details. So remember to write those down if you want a full recall. This is especially true for dreams you consider special and want to remember in it's full entirety. Take some extra time for those special lucid dreams. I just started today, but I woke up this morning with a few dreams. And I wasn't feeling it to get up to write things down. So what I did is to recall them. Then recall them a few hours later. Then write a few words down still later. I notice that the vividness in which I recall (one scene, it was one image. ye my recall is bad) is extremely vivid today. My theory is that repetition increases pathways for long-term memory storage.

[MagicChicken]

Got to love the interactive and helpful community here on DVs! Sageous you said something which I found interesting Don't worry too much about catching dream signs. If you are recording at least one dream a night, and building your recall in the process, the dream signs will be obvious (if they are not obvious, BTW, they probably aren't dream signs anyway). Ive been recording my dreams for a while now and have maybe ~250 dreams. My dream recall is good, and i have reviewed my dreams for dream signs and nothing pops out. is there a better way for me to go about looking for dream signs? Also, threeofeight, I like your insight into how your dream memories become more vivid throughout the day, I think i have noticed this in the past (i.e I remember the words a DC said to me, tho I thought they didnt say anything before). As far as details, what type of details should I focus on specifically?

[Dexter33]

I think the post from Sageous is really a good perspective on the whole thing. However, it does assume that you are writing to remember those dreams later. For me, sometimes the purpose is just recall. I remember back when I would write down everything and eventually I had 6 or 7 dreams sometimes that I would record, and it could easily take hours to do that and get the details down too. I think you have to find your own balance. Sageous presented his well. My balance is more like this: I'll write down dreams normally in 5-10 sentences. This is adequate enough for me to remember them years later (more or less), and also increases my recall. But I don't have to spend more than say, 20 minutes writing down dreams. However, we all have the super special dreams, so usually at least once a week I have dream where I spent 30 minutes to an hour writing it down, because I really want to remember it later. It's because of this I have dreams from years ago that I can recall vividly. Decide what's important to you. How much time are you willing to spend to record dreams? How vividly do you want to recall them later? That should help you decide how much effort you should put into recording them. And as far as dream signs go, honestly they should be really obvious. Like Sageous said, you should be able to identify these pretty easily or else they probably aren't dream signs

[Occipitalred]

i have reviewed my dreams for dream signs and nothing pops out. is there a better way for me to go about looking for dream signs? For what it's worth, I don't use dream signs. Lucidity comes anyways. There are certain triggers though. For example, when a confrontation escalates and I fly away, that reminds me I am dreaming because it is exclusively a dreaming behavior. But that is learning that I did while dreaming, not awake. Dream signs are rather something I use to recall dreams. When I have difficulty remembering dreams, I think of things I am likely to have dreamed about, my family, friends, work, water, familiar places, etc... As for dream recording. I write them down in a journal every day after waking up presently. For ordinary or low quality dreams, I just write a few words, I like to believe the effort helps with recall. And I just describe the dream. I like to label the emotions I feel.

[Threeofeight]

Got to love the interactive and helpful community here on DVs! Sageous you said something which I found interesting Ive been recording my dreams for a while now and have maybe ~250 dreams. My dream recall is good, and i have reviewed my dreams for dream signs and nothing pops out. is there a better way for me to go about looking for dream signs? Also, threeofeight, I like your insight into how your dream memories become more vivid throughout the day, I think i have noticed this in the past (i.e I remember the words a DC said to me, tho I thought they didnt say anything before). As far as details, what type of details should I focus on specifically? I think I get what you saying, you repetitiously remember the specific words. But you haven't remembered the dream amiright The type of details I meant; visual colors textures furnitures. Just things that are there but don't have much to do with the plot. I find those are the hardest to remember, although every single thing i've wrote down about dreams I really cared about. I remember them. I don't even have to read it myself. There's just these details that I know where there and did not oblige myself to remember and write down. Those details are lost forever it seems. that's what I meant. The last thing I want to say, What you may need to work on is to focus on truthfully and skillfully extrapolating what is presented in the dream. As short and as sharp as possible. If you come across thoughts related to but not explicitly represented in the dream but still is important.. Maybe make sidenotes. Hope that does it.

[Sageous]

Ive been recording my dreams for a while now and have maybe ~250 dreams. My dream recall is good, and i have reviewed my dreams for dream signs and nothing pops out. is there a better way for me to go about looking for dream signs? I think this has already been answered at this point, but, again: If you must look for dream signs, and cannot find them, then maybe there are no dream signs to be found. Dream signs are not a guarantee; many of us, myself included*, dream a different dream every night, with no repeating symbols or imagery to be found. This is not a bad thing, I believe, but it does sort of eliminate the usefulness of dream signs. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that dream signs are only useful if you happen to have them. For instance, if you find yourself dreaming of, say, a happy blue chicken every night, and that happy blue chicken stands out in your memory upon waking, then you have yourself a dream sign -- and you will know it. But, on the other hand, if your dreams present a variety of imagery that does not include a recurring, recognizable symbol, image, or moment, then you may never find a usable dream sign.... which makes it time to move on to something else, I think! Mastering dream recall is about far more than just being able to spot dream signs; that to me is about the last thing on the list of recall priorities, frankly. Keep a good DJ for the sake of building your relationship with your dream life, for strengthening your recall and memory in general, and, lastly, for forming a permanent record of your dream adventures (yes, Dexter, writing them down so you can remember your dreams later is only a minor aspect of the process, though a nice one that I think is often overlooked, so I tend to mention it). So, if you have trouble spotting dream signs, don't worry about it; there are other, more important, reasons to keep a dream journal. * Actually, I've found a few things that recur occasionally, but often enough to be dream signs (i.e., "back in school" dreams, dreams of commuting to work, or dreams of family). Oddly, though, I never seem to have any hope of lucidity whenever those things appear. I once found this strange, and annoying, but I've come to accept that, though they recur often, these things really aren't dream signs for me.

[Threeofeight]

Sageous, is there any alternative to dream signs that you can give to this poor guy to help him gain lucidity. I can think of non myself therefore I think we should ask you as an authorative on the matter I also find school to be a recurring theme. Maybe we have regressed so far into the subconscious mind that we're back into childhood state of mind and it's harder to find adult lucidity in there (not that i'm in any way adult xcept for the movies I watch). Or they are so repetitiously performed in real life. That it becomes near impossible for our minds to conclude something about any conflicting illogicality. I actually think this is the case. I am referring to Sageous' repetitious travels to work. Doesn't say we should give up on it entirely! Which brings me to my next point. I dream of old friends regularly and houses I used to live in. It never occured to me this could be a dream sign until just now. I wondered how to use it and I think knowing and consciously playing with the idea that it's useable hopefully brings itself into the dream. I find this very hard to explain but if the mind is one continuous experience throughout dreams there are actually segments of one whole mind. Then there is literally no reason that it shoulden't be possible to bring back this dream sign knowledge and memory that conceived here into those dreaming parts. As long as I consistently bring back this concept. i think. Next point, dream recall and lucidity, How important is dream recall actually towards attaining lucidity? Ime, dream recall is shit and my lucidity is shit too. When I start remembering more dreams at night. My lucidity naturally starts to occur. Gives me fuel to believe that the two are intimately related. Last but not least, Sageous, if you have time to put in a small effort. I wanted to ask why you think dreams are such a worhtwhile hobby. I guess it's obvious when you've had a few big lucid dreams but. I wanted to know what is it about dreaming that makes it important to you and drives you to want to share this hobby with so many people here. Thank you.

[MagicChicken]

Im reading the book "lucid dreaming plain and simple" by Robert Waggoner and Caroline McCready. So far i have really enjoyed this book and as i was reading it today, i noticed a section on dream signs. Basically (paraphrasing) the book suggested that if you dont have a dream sign you can incubate one before you go to sleep. Sageous and threeofeight, have you guys tried this method? Also, have you tried or know of anyone who has attempted, making a particular thing or object which occurs in WPR a dream sign. Let me explain. I have been using water as a method for practicing prospective memory. Every time i see water i preform an RC and question my awareness. im wondering if this will transfer over into the dream world (this has not happened yet however). (Side note. last night i had multiple dreams where my car either didnt start or had some for of problems. When I tried to start my car this evening, guess what... dead battery. This was my first experience of what seamed to be a predictive dream... or maybe its just coincidence )

[Occipitalred]

Magic Chicken, at the expense of being a downer, I think that trying to make the "dream sign technique" work is more complicated than simply lucid dreaming. Incubating a dream (dream sign), in my experience, is harder than gaining lucidity and accomplishing a dream goal. I wonder if there is even a significant proportion of people who experience a recurring dream sign that is not a commonality in waking life. If acquiring a dream sign is just a fun goal for yourself, then, okay, that makes sense. I tried for a long time to have a totem in my dreams (a bit like Inception, but instead of being for knowing if I was in my own dream, simply to perform an RC). I carried it all day and reality checked with it. I never saw it at all in any single one of my dreams, even if I used it for quite a long time years ago and even still now have it as a decoration as a symbol of my dream hobby. It still has not been in any of my dream. [Now, time to advertise my ideologies... Instead of spending time looking for a dream sign, I suggest you simply observe if there are any recurring themes in your dreams. For example, I had lots of chased dreams (very often) and was always alone in all my dreams. Analyzing my waking life, I decided, for me, it was probably because of my tendency to feel like an outsider in all the groups I am a member of in my waking life. I decided to change my perspective and remind myself that I belonged to these groups and was an integral member of them. My chased dreams dropped in frequency by a lot, and I am very often surrounded by supportive and friendly dream characters since. It is a very nice change. And I have lots more examples of recurring themes, I have got five I can think of now. I think that's more fun than looking for meaningless objects] Back to dream signs, this is I think my most important point. I mean, in terms of animals, I often dream of spiders, but there's no way I will RC every time I see a spider in real life. I have a relationship with spiders that is not related to dreams (well, that's kind of not true). It's much more related to fear and courage (I use to hate them so much for reasons I have indirectly mentioned in other threads, but now I nonchalently take them with my hands and take them outside. This is meaningful to me. If you start RCing everytime you see a common entity, you are reinforcing a relationship to this entity with "I might be dreaming" rather than everything else that it could be. I don't want to make my relationship with my family to be dreams. I want it to be about my relationship with them. If this doesn't make much sense, just think about how dreams flow, from schema to schema. If you expect to go from a dream sign to reality check, you must reinforce a relationship between the schema of the dream sign with a schema of the RC at the expense of weakening other relationships. That is, I should make it that when I dream about spiders, instead of thinking about my fear of them or my acceptance of them, I would think to RC. I mean, maybe that's nice for some. But I think it's at the expense of a meaningful dream.

[Dexter33]

I wonder if there is even a significant proportion of people who experience a recurring dream sign that is not a commonality in waking life. I can't speak for the entire population, but I too experience getting chased as my most common dream sign... although for different reasons than Occipitalred. This certainly doesn't ever happen in real life. Other dream signs: jumping really high or running really fast. See how obvious this would be to know it's a dream sign? Magic Chicken, I agree with Occiptalred. Don't waste a bunch of time on dream signs unless you want to. Incubation is, however, very possible. I just don't think it relates to real life. Your water example doesn't make complete sense because you see water in reality all the time. You want your dream sign to be something that happens only in dreams. In this case, you're really just using water as an associative RC, nothing else. I don't think you can make a RL object a dream sign, but you can make it an RC. You can create a recurring dream signs in your dreams though. For instance, you can make a DC that appears in your dreams reminding you that you're dreaming, etc. Dream guides kind of blur into that idea. If you do it enough those things will appear often enough in your dreams to be considered dream signs. But why go through all the effort for that? Doesn't really make much sense.

[cooleymd]

Before the computer in my sleeping room stopped working I would wake from the dream, collect my recall for up to 3 minutes then begin typing in still while lying in bed and usually with my eyes closed (makes for a lot of misspelled words) I type until I can think of no more details, but as I type I often remember a few more. Also I often open my eyes to fill in earlier details or details in the middle as I remember them, closing my eyes again and typing on. So total time is like 5 minutes.

[Sageous]

Threeofeight; MagicChicken: That's a lot of questions, guys! Lemmie see... Sageous, is there any alternative to dream signs that you can give to this poor guy to help him gain lucidity. I can think of non myself therefore I think we should ask you as an authorative on the matter Well, there's always WILD. Since dream signs have never worked for me, even once, in the thousands of LD's I've had, I'm probably not too terribly authoritative in the matter. However, I've always got something to say, so how about this: MagicChicken: As I can personally attest, since I'm apparently living proof that DILD's can occur without dream signs, you really are not required to have dream signs in order to LD. If you are the type of person who dreams of the same things regularly, and you can easily list a few images, events, or actions that occur a lot in your dreams, then dream signs are the way to go. But you don't seem to be that sort of person. So consider tossing dream signs off your "things to do" list, and work, perhaps, on MILD (it works fine without dream signs, BTW), or perhaps look into WILD techniques. There are a lot of options to try that don't include dream signs, why not pursue them? Oh, but that doesn't excuse you from keeping a good DJ, though; as I already said, there are still good, even better reasons to do so. Anyway: I also find school to be a recurring theme. Maybe we have regressed so far into the subconscious mind that we're back into childhood state of mind and it's harder to find adult lucidity in there (not that i'm in any way adult xcept for the movies I watch). Or they are so repetitiously performed in real life. That it becomes near impossible for our minds to conclude something about any conflicting illogicality. I actually think this is the case. ... funny thing is, I haven't stepped foot in a school in over 30 years, and I left my "commuting to work" job a dozen years ago... go figure. I am referring to Sageous' repetitious travels to work. Doesn't say we should give up on it entirely! Which brings me to my next point. I dream of old friends regularly and houses I used to live in. It never occured to me this could be a dream sign until just now. I wondered how to use it and I think knowing and consciously playing with the idea that it's useable hopefully brings itself into the dream. I find this very hard to explain but if the mind is one continuous experience throughout dreams there are actually segments of one whole mind. Then there is literally no reason that it shoulden't be possible to bring back this dream sign knowledge and memory that conceived here into those dreaming parts. As long as I consistently bring back this concept. i think. All good points; but I must add one small caveat: recurring dreams of old friends, school, childhood homes, work, etc, might not be the best of dream signs because they represent themes that are too close to your natural persona, your general theme of life. In other words, things like these are simply too real, too close to the things in life with which you are irrevocably comfortable, that you unconditionally accept as real. Because you accept them without question, there is no need to access memory to confirm their validity, or "flesh out" their validity; there is nothing, in other words, to trigger a "this is a dream sign" memory, so access to memory remains unattained. So the dream signs to look for, instead, might be the unusual things that crop up repeatedly, rather than things that are extremely familiar to you in waking life. For instance, if, say, a fire hydrant, or perhaps a DC of unique description, appears in one dream after another... and, if you are that sort of dreamer, they will. Next point, dream recall and lucidity, How important is dream recall actually towards attaining lucidity? Ime, dream recall is shit and my lucidity is shit too. When I start remembering more dreams at night. My lucidity naturally starts to occur. Gives me fuel to believe that the two are intimately related. The two are indeed, in my opinion, intimately related. Dream recall is critical to lucidity, but perhaps not for the reason you might think: Dream recall serves to merge your dreaming-life with your waking-life, because it effectively adds, through memory, your time in dreams with your time in waking-life. In other words, through memory your dream experience becomes just as valid as your waking-life experience... and, come dreamtime, this validity tends to invite self-awareness, because you are able to "relate" to the validity in the context of a dream, causing you to comfortably "know" you are dreaming (that sounded a lot better in my head; but hopefully you understand what I mean regardless). Last but not least, Sageous, if you have time to put in a small effort. I wanted to ask why you think dreams are such a worhtwhile hobby. I guess it's obvious when you've had a few big lucid dreams but. I wanted to know what is it about dreaming that makes it important to you and drives you to want to share this hobby with so many people here. Thank you. That's a pretty big question, and one that I've literally written books about, but let me offer a brief list (presented in no particular order) that might at least light the tip of the iceberg, leaving the bulk of the berg for another time: * Lucidity offers a chance to consciously connect with your unconscious mind (your dreaming mind, the creator of all that imagery, is a direct reflection of unconscious activity). * Thanks to its direct connection with your unconscious, lucidity might serve as a vehicle for transcendental spiritual journeys that are simply unattainable in any other way, except perhaps many years of dedicated very high-end meditation. * Philosophically speaking, lucidity offers a unique chance to not only experience but to understand the non-dual perspective, a perspective that can be life-changing in waking-life. * Lucidity is the ultimate form of virtual reality. While lucid you can create anything -- scenes, DC's, plots, worlds -- that you can imagine. That kind of easily accessible and manageable creative power simply does not exist in any other form in human existence... which, in my opinion, is very cool! * Lucidity offers an opportunity to experience your dreams in a manner that allows you to experience and examine their symbolism in a first-hand, self-aware way that might bring their meaning to you in an immediate and intimate way that might just reveal the meaning of your dreams as you have them (should, of course, they mean anything at all). * Lucidity extends your life. Think about it: if you are enjoying a few hours of LD's every night, you are literally adding time to your waking-life experience... you're experiencing more life, every day. * Lucidity offers an opportunity for, say, artists, musicians, pubic speakers, etc., to "test" their creative processes in an infinitely flexible environment. * Lucidity offers an opportunity for internal healing, potentially both spiritual and physical. * I could do this all day, but I think you get the point. Im reading the book "lucid dreaming plain and simple" by Robert Waggoner and Caroline McCready. So far i have really enjoyed this book and as i was reading it today, i noticed a section on dream signs. Basically (paraphrasing) the book suggested that if you dont have a dream sign you can incubate one before you go to sleep. Sageous and threeofeight, have you guys tried this method? Sure, I've tried, with limited success.... ironically, my focus on incubating the dream signs tended to make me expect to be lucid throughout the dream, so the dream sign itself meant nothing, because I was already lucid, come dreamtime... and the dream sign was nowhere to be found. So eventually I dropped the dream-sign bit and went straight to "incubating" a LD. Also, have you tried or know of anyone who has attempted, making a particular thing or object which occurs in WPR a dream sign. Let me explain. I have been using water as a method for practicing prospective memory. Every time i see water i preform an RC and question my awareness. im wondering if this will transfer over into the dream world (this has not happened yet however). Forgive me, but I have no idea what "WPR" stands for, but yes, if you do that exercise often enough, there is a good chance it will wander into your dream life, thanks at least to day residue. (Side note. last night i had multiple dreams where my car either didnt start or had some for of problems. When I tried to start my car this evening, guess what... dead battery. This was my first experience of what seamed to be a predictive dream... or maybe its just coincidence ) Probably just a coincidence, but hey, you never know! P.S.: I can't help but notice that none of this has much to do with recording dreams...

[Threeofeight]

Im reading the book "lucid dreaming plain and simple" by Robert Waggoner and Caroline McCready. So far i have really enjoyed this book and as i was reading it today, i noticed a section on dream signs. Basically (paraphrasing) the book suggested that if you dont have a dream sign you can incubate one before you go to sleep. Sageous and threeofeight, have you guys tried this method? Also, have you tried or know of anyone who has attempted, making a particular thing or object which occurs in WPR a dream sign. Let me explain. I have been using water as a method for practicing prospective memory. Every time i see water i preform an RC and question my awareness. im wondering if this will transfer over into the dream world (this has not happened yet however). (Side note. last night i had multiple dreams where my car either didnt start or had some for of problems. When I tried to start my car this evening, guess what... dead battery. This was my first experience of what seamed to be a predictive dream... or maybe its just coincidence ) I think if you can find the energy to try and incubate dream signs into ur dreams then you should do it because nothing is impossible. What page of the book can you find this suggestion? Since I have the book right here and haven't read a single page just yet. The closest I have ever come to incubating a dream SIGN is what I thought is called "Mantra Induced Lucid Dream" in which I took a nap and repeated hypnotically something to the extent of 'I know that I am dreaming'. Upon which I fell asleep and faintly heared my voice repeating the words while riding a bike in dreamland totally oblivious. Upon which I saw a billboard SIGN which said Dreamviews. Upon which I thought; 'Hmm, Lucid dreaming is really gaining popularity'. Lol. Missed it What's a WPR btw About ur water example. Prospective memory is a mystery to me. I'm still learning about it too. But I don't think the visual que of water is what triggers lucidity. More-so the prospective memory remembers the mental intent to remember to do RCs and expect to be dreaming. Most of the time you are not dreaming but at some point you do a RC and you are dreaming.

[Threeofeight]

Threeofeight; MagicChicken: That's a lot of questions, guys! Well we are young and curious ... funny thing is, I haven't stepped foot in a school in over 30 years, and I left my "commuting to work" job a dozen years ago... go figure. All the more reason not to dream about it anymore isn't it. Hehe. The two are indeed, in my opinion, intimately related. Dream recall is critical to lucidity, but perhaps not for the reason you might think: Dream recall serves to merge your dreaming-life with your waking-life, because it effectively adds, through memory, your time in dreams with your time in waking-life. In other words, through memory your dream experience becomes just as valid as your waking-life experience... and, come dreamtime, this validity tends to invite self-awareness, because you are able to "relate" to the validity in the context of a dream, causing you to comfortably "know" you are dreaming (that sounded a lot better in my head; but hopefully you understand what I mean regardless). Yes, I do understand. Roughly speaking the dream content that begins to surface into ur mind forces your mind to accept it's validity as a real memory. This naturally makes your mind consider it atleast once as a dream. And this brings about experiental knowledge of the dream state. In combination with our waking knowledge about lucid possibilities this is a very strong trigger for lucidity. I think this is partly how the brain functions. There is a control panel in the brain. I believe it was the hippocampus but i'm hazy. Where mostly all sensory information is processed consciously I think and stored or discarded. I could be wrong. That's a pretty big question, and one that I've literally written books about, but let me offer a brief list (presented in no particular order) that might at least light the tip of the iceberg, leaving the bulk of the berg for another time: * Lucidity offers a chance to consciously connect with your unconscious mind (your dreaming mind, the creator of all that imagery, is a direct reflection of unconscious activity). * Thanks to its direct connection with your unconscious, lucidity might serve as a vehicle for transcendental spiritual journeys that are simply unattainable in any other way, except perhaps many years of dedicated very high-end meditation. A brief list is all I wanted for now. I can't wait to get deeper into it. But we don't want to exhaust you. I know how much energy it takes (atleast for me) to write comperehensive posts on DV. * Philosophically speaking, lucidity offers a unique chance to not only experience but to understand the non-dual perspective, a perspective that can be life-changing in waking-life. I am not sure what is meant with non-dual perspective. But let's that be a mystery for now. I suppose it's the link between the dreaming unconscious and the non-dreaming counterparts. * Lucidity is the ultimate form of virtual reality. While lucid you can create anything -- scenes, DC's, plots, worlds -- that you can imagine. That kind of easily accessible and manageable creative power simply does not exist in any other form in human existence... which, in my opinion, is very cool! It is. Lucid dreaming IS very cool * Lucidity offers an opportunity to experience your dreams in a manner that allows you to experience and examine their symbolism in a first-hand, self-aware way that might bring their meaning to you in an immediate and intimate way that might just reveal the meaning of your dreams as you have them (should, of course, they mean anything at all). * Lucidity extends your life. Think about it: if you are enjoying a few hours of LD's every night, you are literally adding time to your waking-life experience... you're experiencing more life, every day. * Lucidity offers an opportunity for, say, artists, musicians, pubic speakers, etc., to "test" their creative processes in an infinitely flexible environment. * Lucidity offers an opportunity for internal healing, potentially both spiritual and physical. * I could do this all day, but I think you get the point. Hehe. Maybe next time. Thanks for the inspiring list distant internet friend. Well, count me a little bit responsible for that P.S.: I can't help but notice that none of this has much to do with recording dreams... I think maybe we should stop. Although it was very entertaining

[MagicChicken]

I think if you can find the energy to try and incubate dream signs into ur dreams then you should do it because nothing is impossible. What page of the book can you find this suggestion? Since I have the book right here and haven't read a single page just yet. What's a WPR btw Im not sure exactly what page it is on... I have the book on audio so unfortunately no page numbers. what I meant by WPR was "waking perceived reality" or just normal awake life.

[Ginsan]

I take about 15-20 minutes. Maybe if I try a little harder and keep going for a few days, I can keep writing for 30-45 minutes.

[Dragnets]

I been storing my dreams in my head. Using Mnemonic and visualisation technique Benefits: - I can store whole dream in 30 sec - Available to me any time of the day - No need to carry Dream Journal to analyse Dreams - Multiplied dream recall (was better than Dream Journal ) - Develops visualisation skills. - Able to store complex information in your head for long period of time - Saves huge time Disadvantage - Develop visualisation technique - Learning curve - Requires to recall the dream 3-5 times for long term memory

[Occipitalred]

@Dragnets I did this also for 2 years at least. I was convinced it would be a superior technique, it was logic to me anyway. I have now reverted back to dream journaling. I think it works better. I wonder why.

[Dragnets]

@Occipitalred I guess it down by the personal experience. Some people find some thing easier and other harder. End of the day if that works for you better, then you should continue writing. As long results are better you are on right patch.

[Occipitalred]

I guess it down by the personal experience. Some people find some thing easier and other harder. End of the day if that works for you better, then you should continue writing. As long results are better you are on right patch. Too easy. I'm not sure exactly what exactly "mnemonics and visualisation techniques" mean to you. But for me, it was memory temples. I had two for dream remembering, and some more for other things like "to do lists" and life lessons I wanted to be able to look back on constantly. Most were just extension of the firsts. The way it worked for me is during the day, I would create/visualize a temple, and more specifically a walk from a starting point and around the temple. Each room or place would store a new dream every day. When waking up, I could place a major identifier of each dream in the rooms. Walk through and remember the dreams. Only rarely did I forget what belonged where. These temples I have been in so many times, I still remember them easily and use them occasionally. But the only thing that remains is the rooms. The dreams don't stay obviously. The important ones need to be written down. I don't browse so much on this website, so I am probably missing a large portion of what people are talking about. But I started a thread on it when I first came. Just seems to me that few use this technique, hence why I had to butt into this conversation. I think the reason I have been favoring dream journaling over this recently is my problem with discipline. Doing this mental stuff in the morning, it's easier to fall off the wagon, I find, then to physically accomplish a task. Especially, that my mind is either busy with work or busy wondering.

[Saizaphod]

15 minutes each morning.