Awareness Dilemma

[Goldenspark]

So far I've had just 2 very brief LDs (1 second or so!), so I get it, but what I don't understand is how to become aware. I understand the principles of mantras and doing RCs, but it just seems that having any sort of awareness within my dreams is a long way off. It almost seems like you need to already be aware in order to do an RC! A few times in my dreams I have thought "that's a bit strange", but never enough to actually become lucid. I'm just trying something slightly different when I do RCs during the day, where I look at my hand and count the fingers, then look around and say "I'm dreaming!" (as a statement), instead of asking "am I dreaming?" like I did before. I'm thinking that if I do this in a dream, then I will think I am dreaming. Also, I'm going to try the DEILD technique of staying still on waking to see if I can get that to work. I've been trying WBTB but I either can't get to sleep, or simply fall asleep! Any advice on this gratefully accepted! I've got back good dream recall since I restarted doing by DJ, often remembering 4 dreams of good clarity a night in reasonable detail.

[Sivason]

Look at how you are doing your RCs. Do not just do physical RCs like plugging your nose. Really take a minute where you examine everything around you, including your thoughts and feelings. Try to remember how you got to where you currently are. You want to get in the habit of honestly looking for signs that you are dreaming, not just preforming a task.

[MasterMind]

Really engage yourself in the dream, a good way to be aware in the now and physical reality is to be aware of the breath. So why not try it in a dream? When you become lucid tell yourself to be aware of your breath to ground yourself. Breathe in through the nose hold it for a little and then breath out through your mouth and hold it out for some time, then repeat the process and at the same time to some basic stabilization technique like spinning but still maintain the awareness of the breath. And as Invasion said, in order for what I am going to mention now to work, you need to be aware of each action, not just robotically doing it because of memory. That is basically what a robot does... Do stuff because of information programed into them, but we are not robots! We are aware beings. We have intention and awareness. Back to topic: Then scream: I am dreaming! And really try to understand the concept of what that means. In the beggining you need to have lucid dreams like this short seconds long and not much awareness, because when you no longer wake up you need to try to understand what it really means to dream. For example you have to be aware of the dream situation, in the beggining you will be convinced of weird thing. Stephen LaBerge took the example of chasing an important bag in a non-lucid dream but when he become lucid he still chased the bag even though he was lucid. This dream situation awareness is something that will come by itself in time, but just try to have it in mind The second step is that you have to be aware that you are in control of the dream. So just consciously chose to fly and when you can have dream control without waking up you can move on. Third, you now have to be aware that your physical body is in your bed sleeping, however the first times you think about this you will probably wake up, but it's essential to be aware of if you want to increase the awareness of your dreaming self. The next step is to be aware of dream characters, for example when you see a friend in a dream try to remember that they are not real, have it in mind I am still struggling with this from time to time so I actually don't have a solution.. yet ^-^ When you are aware and understand all these four concepts while dreaming, you are what I would call fully aware of your thoughts and memories/ perhaps subconscious. There are more awareness-obstacles along the way to full awareness, like even though you know the dream characters aren't real, they don't themselves know it, they are your subconscious so this will automatically work as the characters in Inception the defence mechanism that will be angry at you and do everything in their power to make you forget that you are dreaming. When full awareness is reached (the full awareness of the self). Then the awareness can be expanded, what that means is off-topic so I'll just say that full awareness of the self can lead to astral projection. Good luck in your quest of awareness

[saltyseedog]

Awareness is about knowing the reality of what is going on. Not just what you think about what is going on. You are on the right path. Try to practice techniques of awareness in waking life. Here is a good guide that may help you out: http://www.dreamviews.com/f49/all-da...gyoshi-113253/

[Goldenspark]

Hi Sivason, that's what I have been trying to do with my daytime RCs. I have a smartphone app that vibrates at regular intervals to remind me to RC. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but I do also do impulsive RCs during the day as well. I try to stop, look around and remember where I have just been. I suppose I just need to be patient and the waking RC awareness will eventually spill over into my dream state. The 2 very brief LDs that I had were DILDs, where I just spontaneously became aware, and instantly popped awake because it was so surprising, almost shocking! I don't know why I became lucid. There have been a few other occasions where I recall in my dream thinking that a particular scene was a bit wierd, but not enough for me to become lucid. I know one of my key dream signs is like a tornado, but not like the huge destructive things. They range from little smoke swirls, to dust devils and real small tornadoes, but I often interact with them. They come every now and again into my dreams, but not for some time since I have recognised them as a dream sign!

[djpatch999]

Hi Sivason, that's what I have been trying to do with my daytime RCs. I have a smartphone app that vibrates at regular intervals to remind me to RC. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but I do also do impulsive RCs during the day as well. I try to stop, look around and remember where I have just been. I suppose I just need to be patient and the waking RC awareness will eventually spill over into my dream state. The 2 very brief LDs that I had were DILDs, where I just spontaneously became aware, and instantly popped awake because it was so surprising, almost shocking! I don't know why I became lucid. There have been a few other occasions where I recall in my dream thinking that a particular scene was a bit wierd, but not enough for me to become lucid. I know one of my key dream signs is like a tornado, but not like the huge destructive things. They range from little smoke swirls, to dust devils and real small tornadoes, but I often interact with them. They come every now and again into my dreams, but not for some time since I have recognised them as a dream sign! I'll just drop in here, may I recommend that you don't use the app at regular intervals. If you do them to often and too structured (i.e once every 15 minutes) then this increases the chance of the RC not working. I used to do what you're doing now, I kept doing RC's in my dreams and not noticing. Try to remember what it felt like in those brief few seconds of lucidity. It's hard but if you can remember well then you'll notice that dreams feel different to reality. I use the same technique as you, All Day Awareness and the idea is not to always do RC's but always question your surroundings. Like MasterMind said, we are not robots, we can do things spontaneously and of our own choice Best of luck ~DJ