Re-defining lucid dreams

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

I wanted to think about what exactly being lucid means, and experiment with different definitions and perspectives on LD to see if it would help me to become lucid more often. Aware of my sleeping body back in bed I think of it like this: I could become lucid in a dream if I realise at some point that my "real self" is back in bed. There's a problem with that though - when I'm dreaming I'm often totally convinced that my dream self is my real self. A brain-in-a-bowl and a simulation of experience So, the way I think of it is: I can say that I'm awake now - definitely not dreaming - and that this is reality. But, I can never be totally sure of that. So, as an alternative to believing that I have a physical body in the here-and-now, I can think of my current awareness as a fabrication: I have no body, just awareness. I could be a "brain in a bowl" in a room somewhere connected to a computer, and the user of the computer controls the events (all computer-generated illusion) that happen to me in real life and dreams. (I realise this is nothing new btw, bit I find it helps me think like that.) No dreams or awakeness - just spells-of-awareness The user of the computer gives me "spells of awareness". What we know as "dreams" and "being awake". However, I don't want to think using a dreaming/not-dreaming dichotomy, so I like to think of each spell of awareness as being a totally new spell of awareness - there's no "dreams" or "awake". Just different spells of awareness where I have different degrees of ability and limitations. My existence is in flux as I drift from one spell of awareness to the next. Each spell-of-awareness is unique. Reality checks - testing capabilities This is where reality checks come in - I don't want to think of a reality check as something that helps me decide if I'm dreaming or not. I want to think of a reality check as something that helps me find out what my capabilities are in this particular SOA - spell of awareness. So my first reality check is to "steeple" my fingers - just a variation on the "poke finger though hand" RC. I move my hands together quickly so that the tops of the fingers of both hands touch and instead of thinking "does it work or not?" I kind of calculate - as a degree or percentage - how far the fingers move through each other. Remember - I'm not either dreaming or awake, I'm just in a totally new spell of awareness unlike any before, and where I have a range of capabilities and limitations different from any spell-of-awareness before. (NB: the other RC is to see how high you can jump.) Rewriting my lucid dreaming philosophy So, with this model in mind, that means I need to rewrite my main philosphy about LD. Old philosophy: I want to realise I'm dreaming. Rewritten philosophy: 1) Whenever I am aware, I want to become more aware. 2) I want to be aware of my "brain in a bowl" as my "true self". 3) I want to find out my capabilities. (With a RC - or "capability check", as I like to call it.) 4) I am aware of my option to choose which sense I use (bodily feeling, bodily movement, hearing, seeing, smelling are the ones I use). 5) I am aware of my option to choose how I direct my senses (Eg, making myself become aware of sounds while I'm doing a task). 6) I recognise that events I perceive as "good", and events I perceive as "bad" are generated by the controller of my brain-in-a-bowl. MCCAT - an acronym to help me remember I've created the acronym MCCAT. MCCAT is my affirmation/mantra based on my new lucid dreaming philosphy above. M = I want to be More aware in the present moment C = I am aware of my Controller (the person who controls my brain-in-a-bowl) C = I want to assess the degree of my Capabilities in this spell-of-awareness A = I am Aware of my senses and I choose which sense I use T = The good and the bad: the brain-in-a-bowl controller controls good and bad events that I experience. When I label experiences as "good" or "bad", I am aware of this.