Thread: Totems for Stabilization

I'm actually reading through LaBerge's ETWOLD right now and I'm glad you posted those excerpts! I can definitely understand where you're coming from now. Also, I'll readily admit that most of my knowledge of lucid dreams up untilthe last few weeks came only from forum posts and articles online rather than original sources such as Alan Worsley, Paul Tholey, LaBerge, etc. As such, most of those articles/posts seem to strongly warn against rehearsing instead of evaluating, since in what they say, if you rehearse in real life, you may just rehearse in the dream and go on your merry way.

But to your (and Stephen's) point, my reality checks almost never translate directly into the dream (I rarely ever put my finger through my palm, and I've only noseplugged once). 99% of the time, as you've said, some peripheral in-dream observation or thought just triggers my awareness and I look at my hand and realize it's all in my head. So I think both methods work, as they achieve the same goal of making a habit to bring the waking life idea and awareness, or "lucidity schema", to the surface of your dreaming mind.

Also, I love the advice to be ambitious -- definitely going to put that into practice. I started to memorize a list of dream goals/tasks so that I can have more stuff planned to do than I may actually have time to do before losing lucidity. The idea being, my expectation will be to be in the dream longer because I'm motivated by my plan to accomplish those tasks. Oh god, I'm really starting to sound like a self-help guru...but from what I've seen so far this expectation stuff really does work. Anyway thanks for your in-depth responses!

Not 100% on-topic, but I figured it would be better to post in this stabilization-related thread than start a new one.

Has anyone tried the method called "Anchoring" discussed here?
I'm still struggling with lengthening my lucids so I think I'll give it a shot. Essentially you focus on a strong memory of a time you felt calm and confident, and achieved something, and then focus on some anchor (here, the feeling of putting your finger and thumb together), and strongly associate the two (visualize all details of the memory until only the feeling of confidence remains). He suggests you do it for 5 or more strong memories.

Anyway, thought I would share and see if anyone has similar experiences or techniques.