Lucid dreaming is more complex than it looks/sounds (long post)

Thought I'd share my findings about dreams and lucid dreams so if anyone knows more than I do or has a clearer explanation please jump in..:). I'm in no way trying to debunk lucid dreaming just my take on it. K....my dreams are made up of 2 parts which are a base and a variable(can be anything under the sun). The base is a constant, it's always from reality as in past experience like the location or people I knew. Then the variables are the events that take place around the base. They are non reality and are mostly random and very possibly came from more abstract sources like fears or desires and ideas. So far I am able to control the base I want to a certain extent like I can 'fix' the dream to be in my flat which can be anywhere from within the unit to outside the block but still within the area of target. But I can't control the variable part which is random and comes from non-reality. I only have access to reality which is the base...:P.

Then there is another problem of lucidity with all this...where does the idea of checking if I'm dreaming comes from? Reality? as most people would expect. My mind is always on the idea of lucid dreaming in waking time BUT it's rarely so in the dream. My theory is this...the idea of lucid dreaming is just an idea. So when it's an idea what is it?.....A Variable! What? A variable?...How can that be..I do those checks and what not in reality that makes it real right? Not so....because the checks that we do are a reality action that is LINKED to lucid dreaming BUT NOT lucid dreaming itself. So most likely I'd get a dream that was based on either my bedroom or other things that were real or even the watch that I used EXCEPT doing checks or for that matter the idea that I may be dreaming.

Then there are the dreamsigns which are supposed to work. But do they? Not always. Dreamsigns work by pattern recognition or better put....memory triggering. But memory in dreams are dependant on how tired the person is. The more tired the more difficult it is for the dreamsign to trigger the memory and most likely the dreamer acknowleges the dreamsign but walks away.

IMJ

The 1st rule of behavioral science is that you get more of what you reinforce. e.g: If you reinforce dreamsign recognition... guess what happens more often? :)

There is a technique known as WILD. I've actually gone straight into lucid dreaming before, without any loss of awareness from lying down. In this fashion, you can actually create an entirely new dream from your imagination. There is no need for reality checks here, because you know you are dreaming before you create ...a dream. hence WILD, that's wild right?
I understand what you are saying about dream signs....and I think you put it best when you talked about only being able to recognize them when you aren't tired...but perhaps even more accurate is that you don't notice them when you loose ...mmm... a sort of self-reflection. When you aren't "stalking" yourself, you fail to notice a great number of things - this is true in waking life too, no?
Sooo....I believe it is this "stalking" which must be cultivated in both waking life and....dream life. These two lives have a very interesting connection...the cross-over is...well, I guess I might argue both are happening simultaneously (non-stop) and we only need to become aware of what is already there.

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Originally Posted by OrionStyles

The 1st rule of behavioral science is that you get more of what you reinforce. e.g: If you reinforce dreamsign recognition... guess what happens more often? :)

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It's more than that..:(. It has to do with doing just the right amount of repetition and also right amount of desire to do the thing. If there is too much repetition or physical contact and no desire then most likely it'll not be in the dream or very rarely for me at least..:P. And if too much desire and too little repetition or physical contact also no go. So my best 'way' hit(less than the lottery) and miss(more) which is to stop doing RCs when I get the feeling of pointlessness and I stop thinking LDs for like a while. Usually the desire to RC or do the dream sequence returns but I don't do it..I let it be an unfulfilled desire and it mellows down to a possibility to do the RC or dream sequence within hours to sleeptime. Anyway thanks for reading...:).

IMJ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eyesofthemirror

There is a technique known as WILD. I've actually gone straight into lucid dreaming before, without any loss of awareness from lying down. In this fashion, you can actually create an entirely new dream from your imagination. There is no need for reality checks here, because you know you are dreaming before you create ...a dream. hence WILD, that's wild right?
I understand what you are saying about dream signs....and I think you put it best when you talked about only being able to recognize them when you aren't tired...but perhaps even more accurate is that you don't notice them when you loose ...mmm... a sort of self-reflection. When you aren't "stalking" yourself, you fail to notice a great number of things - this is true in waking life too, no?
Sooo....I believe it is this "stalking" which must be cultivated in both waking life and....dream life. These two lives have a very interesting connection...the cross-over is...well, I guess I might argue both are happening simultaneously (non-stop) and we only need to become aware of what is already there.

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Yes it's called WILD but what I'm looking for is a technique to have LDs more frequently like say 3 or 4 per week but at the same time does not take up too much mental energy and disrupts sleep. So far in the past, the dreamsign has worked because it was a incubated dreamsign specially for RCing. It worked for sometime but my mind got tired/used to it and I am unable to dream the dreamsign. And now I can dream the dreamsign but I already disabled the RC routine...:P.

IMJ