Superstition Induced Lucid Dreaming

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Originally Posted by ndpendentlyhappy

I searched the forums for topics of this nature to see if it had been discussed before and what I found was that it had been talked about previously, however, this was back in the summer of '05 by Mr. Howetzer. So, I hope that I'm not stepping on anyones' toes by bringing it up again. Its only that I think some people could stand to benefit from seeing this topic again given a few of the comments that it had generated before.

My story: after having had a lucid dream this past Monday evening, I spent most of Tuesday morning trying to recall what all I had done to prepare myself the previous evening. What I had managed to figure out was that I, in addition to practicing something of a MILD technique, realized that I had also just put on newly washed sheets and had taken the time to remove all of the misc. stuff that I wear to bed like a bracelet, necklace, and a ring or two. Anyways, long story short, after repeating Monday night's rituals sans freshly washed sheets, I managed to have another LD.

The thing is, I'm not a naturally superstitious person; no more so than the next fella, I imagine. Nor am I a person who gets caught up with rituals, to any extent. So, maybe, there is something to be learned here. Maybe, the novelty of being superstitious is placebo enough to work for some others as well as it had for me these most recent two evenings.

Though I feel that the resulting lucidity would be short lived, given that the psychological effect of the placebo would wear off quickly with time for most, I imagine this might still be useful to some for quick results; at least for those of you whom do not currently subscribe to lives of habitual superstition and/or routine.

To visit the aforementioned topic, please click Here.

Also, if any of you who happen upon this topic find yourselves caught up in various routines or rituals before going to sleep with the intent to have a lucid dream (not including those practices specifically addressed in the tutorials with which most of us are familiar), please post it hear as I believe that some of DV's members who are struggling with LDing could benefit from the information.
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This topic holds great significance for me as I've experimented with rituals in the past for lucid dreaming. Usually I tell myself (this all depends on belief) -When I do this, ie: change sheets, organize my stuff put something outside that bothers me (I find this to possibly penetrate more into my dreams), "Everything I'm doing now is for a lucid dream" "Since I did this, I will become lucid tonight" Sounds crazy right, well maybe it is, :) but if you review this before sleep like you said, with the though that these things will help you become lucid, they just might. (I don't know if for everyone this will work but I'm trying it).

But yes I beleive that superstition can help, in combination with rituls if you set the intention to lucid dreaming.

Tangent--The one problem I find most frustrating though is that (this is slightly off topic, sorry) my mind seems to tune out what I want it to dream about so it doesn't often get through, or it does in a masked , different way :(

P.S- I was going to try this the other night by for one night putting a candle (safely) in my room, with the hopes that it may get into my dreams, and somehow cue me in to the fact I was dreaming, however I thought twice about putting fire near my papers and stuff :?

This is an interesting idea. I haven't heard of this technique, but it seems to me like another way of fooling you subconcsious into inducing an LD, by making it think you are doing something that is "LD inducing". It is a pretty good idea though, as if it works it works.

Just by recognizing that what you did (changing your sheets) was just a ritual and held no real significance whatsoever, you've robbed yourself of the placebo affect that it was giving you :P

Also, anyone who reads this topic probably won't benefit from it due to the fact that they now realize on a conscious level that any rituals they do won't really have any physical affect on their brain at all.


The best way to put it: you just told all the patients that those miracle pills they've been taking are nothing more than sugar water ;)

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Originally Posted by ndpendentlyhappy;

But, as we all know, this knowledge rarely keeps superstitious people from performing their daily routines, not to mention starting new ones. This is what makes the idea of having a superstition novel to a person who does not subscribe to a life of belief based rituals. It is that flicker of curiosity in the human brain, that desire to want to believe in a superstition, maybe even so much that your brain helps to make it so, that I was betting on when I set out to have an LD that evening.
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Interesting. This is something I have thought about before but never really talked about. I have both spontaneously felt superstitious about certain things, and have tried to induce superstitions in myself because I know the human mind is susceptible to them, altho I am consider myself to be rational and realize in both cases (spontaneous or induced) that the action/outcome are not related.

I don't know how much luck I've had with the "induced" superstitions however. Maybe I was trying self-hypnosis without knowing anything about it. I would like to try it for LD, but the first time it failed I would quit believing in that particular one. I am waiting for hypnosis books that I ordered to come, so maybe that will work.

ndpendentlyhappy:

I'm sorry, I must not have read your topic post thoroughly enough.

I was going under the assumption that you were talking to non-superstitious people here.
My thought processes brought me to believe that someone that was non superstitious would think about the ritual in a logical way (ie. "I just changed my sheets, perhaps the absence of dust mites made my head clearer so I could become lucid!"), thus fooling their subconscious into believing that the lessening of dust mites means they are more conscious throughout their sleep (giving a placebo effect).

I didn't realize that you were just saying you should try to ignore reality and hope you fool your brain...
My bad.


(I guess ignoring reality would work for people that have lost touch with it, so your technique does have some value!)