Thread: I have an idea- Develop this habit and it could end up being an automatic way to get lucid dreams

In a dream, a person often isn't aware of what events preceded the events currently taking place in the dream, right? That's because there ARE no events preceding the dream. If a person starts thinking to themself "how did I get to this moment?", they'll realize that the moment came out of nowhere, and then they'll realize that they're dreaming.

So, if you make a habit of constantly asking yourself "how did I get to this moment?" in real life, that habit will transfer to your dreams, and result in you attaining lucidity on a regular basis.

For many people this isn't a new technique, and has actually been used for quite a while now in general lucid dreaming - it's based on being aware of the moment, what you previously did, why you're doing what you're doing, and the likes. It's definitely helped me become lucid, as well as many others, I'm sure of it.

Ya it is a very effective method but its been around for as long as lucid dreaming has. I wonder why people keep reinventing old techniques and thinking they are brand new? I guess smart people think alike.

Wow it seems this was already out there but I'm definitely incorporating this into my RCs. Wait a minute what am I doing? what did I do before this?

I already unknowingly adopt this habit when I was young. Well..maybe it was because of this that caused me to have nightly LDs??
No one knows for sure lol.

Unfortunately I never think to do this, despite the fact that I practice doing it in real life...oh well.

This technique rarely works even if you practice it all the time in waking life. Just like practicing reality check during certain events, while the logics seem correct, our dreams do not work that way. For example, even before you could have a chance to ask how you got here your dreams would have already filled your mind with tons of background information. You may well end up taking on another person's memory! Say whenever you see the sky you pinch your nose during the day. But in your dream you are a fish living in deep water. Now you'd never see the sky and do not even have hands to pinch nose, right? Of course, these are extreme cases in order to demonstrate the concept. Chances are, you never remember to do those things you have developed as habits in waking life. Why? Because in dreams our consciousness is asleep. The abilities to recognize odd things (they are all over the place throughout our dreams), the stuff you told yourself to do during the day, and your waking life's memory, they are all asleep along with your consciousness. With consciousness asleep, you will have very little chance to become aware during a dream. On the other hand, as soon as your regain some consciousness, you have a much higher chance to notice you are dreaming and thus become aware. Read other people's dream journal, you will frequently see this -- "I just became lucid." Yeah, just became lucid, without any reason and means. Lucidity is not triggered by techniques, they just occur by themselves! You become lucid during those random moments when your consciousness awakens from sleep. These moments are like sparkles of light, illuminate a dark room. In fact, this is also why WBTB is so highly effective. The process of waking yourself then returning to sleep allows you to carry a large amount of waking consciousness directly into your REM sleep, thus greatly increase your chances.

Originally Posted by ion

This technique rarely works even if you practice it all the time in waking life. Just like practicing reality check during certain events, while the logics seem correct, our dreams do not work that way. For example, even before you could have a chance to ask how you got here your dreams would have already filled your mind with tons of background information. You may well end up taking on another person's memory! Say whenever you see the sky you pinch your nose during the day. But in your dream you are a fish living in deep water. Now you'd never see the sky and do not even have hands to pinch nose, right? Of course, these are extreme cases in order to demonstrate the concept. Chances are, you never remember to do those things you have developed as habits in waking life. Why? Because in dreams our consciousness is asleep. The abilities to recognize odd things (they are all over the place throughout our dreams), the stuff you told yourself to do during the day, and your waking life's memory, they are all asleep along with your consciousness. With consciousness asleep, you will have very little chance to become aware during a dream. On the other hand, as soon as your regain some consciousness, you have a much higher chance to notice you are dreaming and thus become aware. Read other people's dream journal, you will frequently see this -- "I just became lucid." Yeah, just became lucid, without any reason and means. Lucidity is not triggered by techniques, they just occur by themselves! You become lucid during those random moments when your consciousness awakens from sleep. These moments are like sparkles of light, illuminate a dark room. In fact, this is also why WBTB is so highly effective. The process of waking yourself then returning to sleep allows you to carry a large amount of waking consciousness directly into your REM sleep, thus greatly increase your chances.

Ahh paragraph it please! Your text is awfully cluttered.

My reason for quoting you:
When you say that your waking life's memory is asleep during the night, it is not true. I have often found myself thinking a lot about things I went through during the day IN the dream.
Like for example, I was talking to my mother about wanting to buy new shoes for the summer. In the dream later on I sat at a café and I overheard a few people talking about a sale and immediately I thought to myself "Oh wow I have to tell my mother so we can go buy those new shoes I talked about today." Sadly, I am so stupid I don't realize I'm dreaming at these moments. But I just wanted to point out that what you said isn't true.

Ion, your point is very valid but I think you should look at the bigger picture. At least 200 of my lucids have come from using the technique that the OP described, although yes, it's not necessarily the "questioning things and trying to logic through events" part that makes you lucid. However, when you ask questions and think about things like that in waking life, it also increases your general awareness because you're looking at everything around you. And that awareness is what actually causes the lucids, as you've said. The method just has to be interpreted a bit further to include awareness.

Sounds basically like all day awareness. Not really my cup of tea though, I don't like putting the work in during the day I have DILDs through good recall, so I don't have to aware during the day. I figure going on DV is good enough for keeping it in my mind on a daily basis.

Originally Posted by Raphael

Sounds basically like all day awareness. Not really my cup of tea though, I don't like putting the work in during the day I have DILDs through good recall, so I don't have to aware during the day. I figure going on DV is good enough for keeping it in my mind on a daily basis.

Its not really the same thing as all day awarness. Using reality checks can be spontanious and just every once in a while through the day but all day awarness requires you to constantly be aware throught the whole day.

I agree with you. Practices such as All Day Awareness, as well as other spiritual practices, in fact have the effect of causing more consciousness to be expanded into our dreams. In Dream Yoga, for example, the ultimate goal is to expand consciousness/awareness to such degrees that they are no longer like sparkle of lights in a dark room, but rather like sun light, which is continuous, and fills ever corner.

"You become lucid during those random moments when your consciousness awakens from sleep."
Huh? So you mean those who have frequent LDs..their conscious always awaken at night?

Not "always", but more frequently so compared to people with lesser capabilities.

Then was their conscious awake throughout the LD?

It's definitely the same as awareness in general. ADA is one technique that involves awareness, more specifically, using it all day, but you can also go about increasing your awareness in random intervals over the course of a day. It depends on the person.

Originally Posted by Puffin

It's definitely the same as awareness in general. ADA is one technique that involves awareness, more specifically, using it all day, but you can also go about increasing your awareness in random intervals over the course of a day. It depends on the person.

Where can I learn more about these all day awareness techniques?

Shinice, yes, most DILDs involve the person suddenly becoming conscious while in the middle of a dream. The person is then conscious until the dream ends. Once it ends, they can try a DEILD to enter a new dream, still conscious, or they might end up going into a new dream without being lucid anymore.

Originally Posted by SuperFob

Where can I learn more about these all day awareness techniques?

The Dreamviews DILD Tutorial goes into awareness a little bit. My guide has a strong focus on random, spontaneous awareness, while KingYoshi's guide involves constant awareness spread out throughout the day. Different people will find the technique that suits them best, just look around and you'll find what you're looking for.

But I just wanted to point out that what you said isn't true.

Really? You wrote a whole post just to tell someone they're wrong? People here sure are feisty

Ion, I too have to disagree with your post. Being asleep is not the same as parts of your brain being "shut off". You still have access to real memories (what do you think dreams are made of?) real thoughts, plans, goals, parts of your personality and most importantly, habits. Habits in particular are habitual precisely because they are ingrained at multiple levels of your awareness and so they are triggered by deep seeded states of mind beyond your direct conscious control. When someone says they "became lucid" they aren't describing the full experience. "just becoming lucid" is awareness dawning on you because of a pattern of thought that has culminated in you fully or partially realizing the nature of the dream state. That ground work for that pattern of thought is most easily built while you are awake.

I aslo disagree with ion. Making a habit of reality checking which then transfers over to dreams is the main premise behind DILD and DILD is the easiest and most reliable method for most lucid dreamers.

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

I aslo disagree with ion. Making a habit of reality checking which then transfers over to dreams is the main premise behind DILD and DILD is the easiest and most reliable method for most lucid dreamers.

Just going through the motion of doing a reality check will cause you do to it in your dreams without thinking much of it, though.

Of course the key is awareness and not the actions that you do in order to trigger that awareness.

Question for anyone who's done the All Day Awareness thing: Have you had nightmares since you started doing it to make your dreams more vivid and possible to control?

Reality check perhaps? Just a thought.