Thread: Method of Loci and Lucid Dreaming

Okay so this may seem like an odd question. Is anyone familiar with the Method of Loci/ "Memory Palace" technique of mnemonics? For those who aren't, it is essentially a technique in which one composes mental 'pictures' to aid in remembering. The images are placed along a path or road or such that is very familiar to the person. Alternatively, an elaborate 'memory palace' can be constructed where each step of the mnemonic series is placed in a specific location. That may not be a good explanantion, but Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it-(Link).

Anyway, so obviously when attempting MILD, it is important for the stimulus to 'remember' that you are dream to come from internal prompting. But if you are using a technique like the method of loci to keep track of dream signs and such, would this skew your ability to remember to do reality checks in a LD?

Also, having a memory palace or path involves what I think is high visualization ability. Am I correct in assuming that the ability to recall the path through a building with vivid detail and 'summon' it before the mind's eye is the same as visualization? In that case, can this technique have any use for attaining LDs?

I am familiar with it. I recently read an article on it in either Discover or Scientific American (cant remember ), and I tried practicing it with a string of numbers. One stood for sun , two stood for shoe, three stood for tree and four stood door.

If I wanted to remember the dates 1432, I could visualize myself for example, standing under the sun (1) and then walking to a building with a big, wooden door (four), walking to a tree (3) and thanking it for the sacrifices trees like it make in providing wood for doors, then climbing the tree and finding a shoe (2).

I was supposed to devote more time to it, but I got distracted.

I'm not sure how this would work with lucidity. Doesn't it have to do with order and remembering things in sequence?

How would I use dream signs in an orderly way? Would I remember to check my palms if I see someone flying for example? Maybe pinch my nose if I am swimming? Dreams don't happen in orderly ways most of the time.

I'm curious to see the other responses.

Well, for me, I use it as a general way of remembering things and visualizing things, not so much as a way to keep an order. I'm a very visual thinker, so it helps me to make 'pictures' in my memory palace to remember passwords, page numbers of important passages, things like that. I'm currently practicing a technique for increasing my ability to associate dream signs with reality checks (taken from LaBerge) and each morning I 'program' the day's targets into a part of my memory palace. It works well and if I miss the stimulus the first time, I almost always get it several more times that day at least. So that is just one application of the technique.

Sorry to 'bump', as it were, but does anyone else have an ideas?