Thread: Memory: the Forgotten Fundamental

Not trying to sound argumentative, but that quote by itself contradicts the emphasis on memory: if the memory is not retrieved, then we're still pulling awareness into the dream. But for that specific purpose, we're then talking essentially about reality checks. The question is then the habit of performing an action: in this case, recalling a memory. But memory in itself (apart from the obvious need for retrospective memory) has no relevance in the exercise, aka, it's not necessary for the purpose in mind which is awareness. Replace that by other reality check and one can reach the same result (of lucidity).

I guess what I'm trying to find out is exactly what Sageous means with memory, as the term is so general that we can literally say it's present and relevant but not because of lucidity itself, but because we need memory for everything in our lives. Hopefully he'll clarify this and meanwhile I'll finish reading the post.

I think you're analogy was great, hopefully, you can see why it is important to talk about memory (even if it is always important) in situations where it is highly impaired

Seeing as certain types of memory are largerly useless to induction of a lucid dream, saying "memory" is not just enough. Would you say that you can't discard any type of memory in this activity? Because we'd automatically be excluding many people with certain memory disorders from achieving lucidity. That's the case for the relevance of being specific.

Guess it's my fault again, that analogy wasn't giving away what I was trying to say: I mentioned oxygen when playing the flute as in: it's not the oxygen which is relevant, it's the breathing. In that context, mentioning oxygen does not capture the key lesson you mentioned in your post.