dream signs for beginners

As one who successfully uses Dreams Signs and Reality Checks to become lucid, I thought it might be helpful to post my favorite and most successful dreams signs...common ones that I have actually used to become lucid (often confirming with an RC even when I thought I was awake).

Anyone else who has confirmed, common dream signs should post as well.

1. Just could not type in a simple phone number into my cell phone.

2. Looking for a bathroom but all were full or so nasty I would not use.

3. My erratic driving and hard to see or control conditions.

4. Me with no clothes (or shirt) on in public.

5. In a scary, high location (when I have a fear of heights and know I would never get in that situation).

6. Shoes that kept changing colors.

7. Me with a huge nasty gash on my arm, but no pain or blood pouring out.

Thanks for posting. My favorite dream sign is "ruined life". It is when I do something like cheat on my wife, accidentally kill someone, get fired, or something like that that will change and ruin my entire life. When my life is completely messed up, I always stop and think "There is no way that I could have let this happen, I must be dreaming" The amount of relief is amazing.

I also want to know if you could post some LDs with your train of thought on here so that you can give people a good idea of thought processes in an LD.

Sensei, that's an interesting idea, and I will do that when I get to a keyboard so I can give a longer reply. I think there is an interesting common thread...that is, each time I have had some emotional response, along with seeing the dream sign. I think that may be a key trigger.

Sensei, that's an interesting idea, and I will do that when I get to a keyboard so I can give a longer reply. I think there is an interesting common thread...that is, each time I have had some emotional response, along with seeing the dream sign. I think that may be a key trigger.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sensei

Thanks for posting. My favorite dream sign is "ruined life". It is when I do something like cheat on my wife, accidentally kill someone, get fired, or something like that that will change and ruin my entire life. When my life is completely messed up, I always stop and think "There is no way that I could have let this happen, I must be dreaming" The amount of relief is amazing.

I also want to know if you could post some LDs with your train of thought on here so that you can give people a good idea of thought processes in an LD.

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I second this, as far as "ruined life" goes.

If I do something absolutely devastating, I always RC, and pray that it's a dream :P.

One of my other dream signs, which works SUUUPPPERRR WELL, is trying to listen to music.
I listen to a lot of Japanese anime music right now, and I am in the process of learning the language.

I try to listen to a certain theme song, and usually it doesn't have the right words, or beat, or is off in some other way.
It's a very common dream sign for me because of the shameful amount of time I spend listening to anime opening themes..

*Cough* Signature Anime.. *Cough*

Ok, I just had a Lucid Dream last night, so I wanted to post it to show my train of thought. It is a good example because it used a variation of one of the dream signs I mentioned above. I was in a car being driven by a young guy recently out of college. Apparently we were both learning how to become realtors, and he was driving us to go visit some houses. But the way he was using his cell phone, listening to music, and doing other things like that, it was clear he wasn't really that focused or interested in what we were supposed to be doing, and was driving around not really going to houses. At one point we stopped at a college (weird because the car was inside like a cafeteria or other large, open building) and he was talking to some friends (a guy and a girl) and they were talking about some higher-math stuff... it was apparent the guy was brilliant. I remember thinking, "here I am struggling to learn all this stuff", and he apparently is so smart he doesn't have to work at it." We were then driving outside in a park and he wasn't paying attention to where he was driving, talking to me, and I saw the car had veered off the road and was into the grass. I alerted him, and he then veered the car back up to more level ground, but we were now off the road but in the park... he went across an asphalt court of some sort, and then cut through more grass to get back onto the road. I was then thinking about this and though what erratic driving, but fortunately we weren't hurt.. there was some emotion of relief that we came out ok. Then I realized this was just like in dreams I have had, and immediately became lucid realizing it WAS a dream (no need to RC this time). I told him to stop because I wanted to get out (this time we were inside another building somehow), and got out of the car. As is often the case in dreams, I felt like I should be somewhat polite so as I was standing outside the car with the door open, I stooped my head in and thanked him for the ride (there was a guy in the back now too, and thanked them), and I told him to give me a high-five, which he did. However, I noticed the feeling in my right hand on the high-five felt weak and lacking any feeling, so I dont think I was very stablized. But I turned away from the car and decided to fly to the wall I could see... I flew over to it, then banked to the left toward a door. I decided to stay low and land at the door, which I did. I then opened the door and went up a short flight of stairs (just about 5 steps to a landing) then turned right to go up the rest of the stairs.... I flew up the stairwell, but then I awakened. It was a fairly long dream, so I became lucid more toward the end (and it was 6:30am when I woke up).

I am having a bit of trouble with categorizing my DS.
I am keeping a journal, priming, goal setting, dream incubating and practising ADA in the hope of reaching a DILD as I tried WILD and have had pretty bad results (strange SP, high anxiety, feeling of dissociation from my body etc).

As I review my journal, I noticed I am not very good at categorizing DS, and also I think I am a bit too 'generic' as to what constitutes a DS. With hindsight and a clear mind, I seem to see DS everywhere, when in actual facts I should be focussing on 'blatant' DS which are easily spotted and will give me an opportunity to become lucid.

So far I have identified:

- False Awakenings
- Changes in Setting (this happens quite a lot in my dreams and it's something I hope to exploit in order to LD)
- Strange situations (very broad I know)
- Fuzzy explanations (ex: we are looking for an island and since we can't find the coordinates, we jump online ans ask people. The explanation being that you can easily access the internet from the middle of the ocean!)
- Dreaming of family/friends who I cannot see face to face as I live on the other side of the planet.

Do you think those are ok categories?
Can you give me any advice as to how I can streamline those DS better in an effort to recognize them more easily as I dream?

Much appreciated,

Dream Signs are a personal thing, so I don't know exactly what will work for you, but here are some thoughts....first, they won't always work. You need some level of awareness while dreaming. If I am tired I can be too unaware to recognize it. Second, they have to be pretty distinct and unambiguous. Yours seem to ambiguous. Recently I had success with one where I just could not type in a number in my cell phone...which I have encountered before. I got mad and frustrated.
FINALLY I realized it was a dream sign, but it took awhile. That is a clear unambiguous, specific sign for me and even so i almost missed it. So it better be specific. I have another clear dream sign...a big black dog that scares me a little but also attracts me. It sometimes grabs my hand in its mouth. Even so, i have never become lucid with that one. But i hope with time i will. Crazy driving occurred a lot before it ever actually triggered lucidity. So, try to find a sign more specific, in my opinion.

*Update* It's getting a lot harder for me to recognize the whole Japanese music, because I am learning a lot of new words >.>

This is the first time a dream sign has started to stop working.

Yes, I too believe dream signs can stop working. Really gross bathrooms and heights were two big dream signs for me. But it has been a very long time since I have had those signs and they have worked. They used to be my very best ones, too. I have a theory... In the case of heights, I think lucid dreaming has helped me deal with that and it just isn't the terror it used to be. As far as gross bathrooms, I think it was a trick my subconscious developed to keep me from actually "going" during a dream....I could never find a clean, usable bathroom or toilet. But I know now that because of SP I probably couldn't go anyway...and in dreams I have "relieved myself" without actually going in RL. So I think my subconscious doesn't need that safety net anymore. Fortunately, as these signs waned, I have more spontaneous lucids now, so the loss hasn't affected my rate of LDs.

Yes, I too believe dream signs can stop working. Really gross bathrooms and heights were two big dream signs for me. But it has been a very long time since I have had those signs and they have worked. They used to be my very best ones, too. I have a theory... In the case of heights, I think lucid dreaming has helped me deal with that and it just isn't the terror it used to be. As far as gross bathrooms, I think it was a trick my subconscious developed to keep me from actually "going" during a dream....I could never find a clean, usable bathroom or toilet. But I know now that because of SP I probably couldn't go anyway...and in dreams I have "relieved myself" without actually going in RL. So I think my subconscious doesn't need that safety net anymore. Fortunately, as these signs waned, I have more spontaneous lucids now, so the loss hasn't affected my rate of LDs.

cool

When I took the "Laberge" Lucid dreaming course years ago I found that I couldn't pinpoint a specific dreamsign that occurred on a regular basis. The most regular ones were too vague to be noticed (change in setting or situation for example). What I did instead was look for something that always got my attention in real life and did a reality check each time I saw it. This could be anything such as cars, attractive member of the opposite sex, fancy ties, shoes, anything, as long as it is something that gets your attention in real life and that you are bound to come across on a regular basis. Sometimes I would even try to incubate a dream in which I saw my dreamsign. This method would always give me the odd DILD every now and then.

Interesting....that is my method of reality checking too in RL....that is, if something catches my attention. Usually my dream signs don't occur for me in RL (except gross bathrooms). But the dream sign in a dream "catches my attention", so awareness kicks in and then I recognize it as a recurring dream sign. I think that's how it operates.

Quote:

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Looking for a bathroom but all were full or so nasty I would not use.

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So, I'm dreaming everyday at school ? xD

I personally don't have special sign that shows I'm dreaming, or just it's when I'm in a weird situation...

Ha! ItsMin... I did get a chuckle on that.