Logical Heritage From Previous Dreams

In a lucid dream tonight (My 4th Lucid :banana: yay!) I had a problem. In the previous dream (normal dream, not lucid) I was looking for that guy. Unfortunately this thought carried over into my lucid dream. When I became lucid I was still compelled to look for that guy, so I guess you could say my lucidity wasn't very high. I remember shouting "Increase lucidity!", but that didn't work (apparently). I said to myself that all the stuff that's on my list for doing in a lucid dream has to wait for a little while, I first gotta find this guy.

How do I prevent this from happening? Are there other techniques for increasing lucidity and how can I be sure they worked? Should there be a discernible effect in the dreamscene?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Hey there,

The thing with dreaming is, I doubt you'll ever be able to fully control it. Strange things happen, unexpected things happen, silly things happen. Unless it turns into a repetitive thing, I wouldn't really worry about it. Nor would I start thinking about how to prevent it next time.

Instead, I'd advise you to just concentrate on what you're doing, set goals of what you want to do if you become lucid, and continue to work on those. Most likely it was a one time occurance. (Unless you continue to focus on it and worry about it, in which case it could well become repetitive exactly because you're paying it so much attention. Sort of like a self fulfilling prophecy).

Just my 2 dreamcents,

-Redrivertears-

What I want to know is, why not find that guy? He seems interesting enough, maybe even important, espcially if the urge carries into lucidity. It may be fun to see what finding that guy actually does. If I had a dream in which I was looking for something, and then had a lucid dream, it'd be pretty exciting to help sate that normal dream's wish.

I say it can be fun to go with the flow sometimes.

But that's not a true answer. To increase lucidity, try doing math problems, thinking of what you ate for dinner last night, and thinking of any lucid goals you set prior to dreaming. The first two suggestions wake up different parts of the mind (more like connecting them) and bring an altogether more aware feeling. The third is also very important--if you have no set goals, it's hard to follow them in a dream!

Thanks for the replies.

I know that focusing on a problem can make it worse, but I hope that's not the case here. Doing some math problems and recalling some memories seems to be a good idea. I'll try that next time. :)

I do have a set of goals. That's not the problem. Actually I have a lot of them but of course I start with the simple ones. Telling DCs that they're in my dream is on top of my list. The huge apocalyptic all-out battle against an army of alien invaders is a bit further down. :D

I understand that going with the flow can be interesting, but especially as a lucid dreaming beginner I have lots of stuff I want to try out and I don't want some guy stealing my lucid dreams. :(