My first post...and I've been wondering...

Hey. I just joined, although I've been checking out this site for months.

What I've been trying to figure out about these induction techniques (mainly ones like MILD and VILD) is, why would you need to focus on lucid dreaming so hard (especially right before you go to sleep) if dreaming is supposed to be your brain's way of recycling unimportant thoughts or memories?

Something I notice about pretty much all of my dreams is that they're usually based on something I think very little about earlier in the day. Simple example:

A few nights ago, I had a dream about a nuclear bomb being dropped (fun). Earlier that day, I remember thinking about nuclear explosions for about a minute, and then not thinking about them at all for the rest of the day...


The whole reality check thing makes perfect sense to me. I'm talking about how in some techniques you're supposed to focus on having a lucid dream before you go to sleep...

Physically, I don't believe anybody knows what dreams are for, or if they even have a purpose at all. Some people think dreams are just a random assortment of memories in thoughts.

Other than that, dreams could be a way for your subconscious mind to talk to you. Dreams can often be very nonsensical, so sometimes it's not so clear what your subconscious is trying to say to you.

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I'm talking about how in some techniques you're supposed to focus on having a lucid dream before you go to sleep...[/b]

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The idea is that if keep thinking about something right up to the point you fall asleep, whatever you were thinking about will manifest itself in your dream. Ex. You were saying "I will recognize that I am dreaming...I will recognize that I am dreaming etc." Then you're more likely to recognize that you're dreaming.

By the way, thinking about one thing over and over without losing concentration 'til you fall asleep is harder than it sounds.

I've always heard that dreams are unimportant thoughts being recycled, but who knows? I might be right, I might not be.

All I know is that I usually dream about things I think about once or twice in a day and that's it.

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Originally posted by Psychophylus+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Psychophylus)</div>

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All I know is that I usually dream about things I think about once or twice in a day and that's it.[/b]

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I know exactly what you're talking about - I do the same thing. I've never figured out why - maybe our minds thinks this topic deserves a little more attention.

<!--QuoteBegin-Psychophylus
I've always heard that dreams are unimportant thoughts being recycled, but who knows? I might be right, I might not be.

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I believe that some dreams can have definite meaning behind them - I've had a few breakthrough dreams that solidifies this assumption in my mind. I also think some dreams are just random assortments of information and images and don't serve any purpose

But it's not the dream that matters, it's the person having the dream. A dream may mean something very deep to one person, and mean absolutely nothing to the next (that is, if two people could have the exact same dream - which I don't know exists).

But anyway, welcome to the forum, and keep posting interesting questions! :)