Shawn Spencer Awareness And Recall Exercise

**spellbee2** · 10-24-2014 06:16 AM

I don’t know about you, but I often have trouble with all day awareness. I find my attention span is way too short when it comes to those kinds of things. It’s in times like these where I find inspiration from my best ADD time-wasting device: Netflix! Or, more specifically, my favorite TV show, Psych.

If you haven’t seen the show, it follows a guy named Shawn Spencer, who has been trained from a very early age by his dad, a retired cop, to be hyper-observant. However, he is forced to pretend to be a psychic to the Santa Barbara Police Department, and he and his friend Gus solve mysteries as a psychic detective agency.

Probably one of the best examples of his amazing ability comes in the pilot episode. To test him, his dad makes him close his eyes and recall how many hats are in the room.

Now you’ll probably sarcastically say, “Wow, hats! This will definitely help me in my lucid dreaming!” And I would say “Yes. Yes it will! Now wipe that sarcastic smirk off your face!”

Because the point is not the hats themselves, but that Shawn not only noticed a detail that most people would find insignificant and pointless, but remembered it well enough to fully recall it later. This is the ideal example of the level of awareness you want to practice in waking life to prepare you for a lucid dream. You want to be able to see and know every detail of everything.

So this is how my awareness exercise works. Simply go about your day, and try to remember everything in as much detail as possible. Just kidding, that’s impossible. Or is it? Maybe. It sounds daunting, and it is. BUT, it becomes much easier and definitely more plausible if you practice. How do you do that?

First, don’t take the whole day at one time. Start with small manageable chunks. This can be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute. Here are some examples I’ve done.

During a short walk, like to class or work, try to be aware of everything around you. Then, when you get to your destination, try to remember as many details, no matter how insignificant.
Watch a short video. After it’s done, try to remember everything exactly how it happened.
Stare at a picture for a short amount of time. Then, close your eyes. Visualize everything in the picture.

So now that we’ve determined when to practice, it’s important to know how to practice. How detailed do you have to get? Very. You don’t just want to remember things, you want to remember things on the things, or things about the things. Yes, vague, I know, I’m not good at explaining. But generally you want to remember all the senses. Take for example, something I do a lot, walk to class from my dorm:

What did you see? (This is the easiest, usually) – Did you see a person? What were they wearing? What color is their hair? Were they holding anything? Did they look at you, or at something else? Notice any marks on walls? Any papers or signs? Any cars passing? What color were they? What state was the license plate?
What did you hear? – Were there birds chirping? People talking? Construction noise (common around my college campus)?
What did you feel? – What was the weather like? Windy? When and where did you feel the gusts? Which direction were they coming from?
What did you smell? – Is there any smell in the air? Exhaust from cars? Something cooking? That smell after the rain?
What did you taste? – This one’s hard to even notice in my opinion, and probably even harder to remember, but if you can pull this off, more power to you!

Again, try to remember in as much detail as possible. Visualize the scene in your head. In fact, freeze time in the replay and notice the small details. Let’s use one of my real life true story examples.

Here’s a bad example of recall - this is what you don’t want to do:

I walked past a guy on the phone. I passed a girl before I got to the stairs, then walked down them before I crossed the road.

Hardly any detail at all! Now read this, my hyper-observant recall of the event.

I passed a guy standing in front of the tree outside dorm 21. He had black hair, seemed of Indian descent, had on a black leather jacket and wore brown pants and Converse. He was on his cell phone, which looked like an old slider phone. He held it in his left hand, and when I passed him, he looked up at me for a short time before turning to his left. I kept walking to the right past dorm 21 and passed a girl with brown hair. She was wearing a tan leather jacket, unzipped, showing her pink/white striped shirt, and blue jeans with the bottoms rolled up slightly. She had a cup of coffee in her right hand, and she was on her blue iPhone in her left hand. She didn’t look up at me when I walked by. To my right was a patch of grass that was painted orange, most likely to mark an area for digging or other construction work. As I walked down the stairs, I saw a rotting banana peel sitting on a stair about half way down.

This is the detail I still remember, even several weeks after this happened. And all of this took place in a matter of 10-15 seconds. Did I remember 100%? Probably not, it’s pretty much impossible to remember everything about anything. If I somehow remembered which way each blade of grass was pointing or how many leaves were on a tree I passed, that would be borderline Rainman, which would be freaky. But recalling just the amount of detail that I did notice is good practice of awareness, and can even help with dream stability and recall.

You can probably even take this one step further, observing even more detail and drawing logical conclusions from it like Shawn Spencer. For example, if someone has a tear on their clothes, maybe they were in a knife fight on the way and barely escaped with their lives… What? I’m practicing awareness, not detective skills.

So if you’re struggling with keeping awareness, actually having a goal (super sleuth-ness) or thinking of it as a game can help you stick with it. So feel free to try it for yourself. Or don’t. You’re an independent person. But I would advise you to do it. Because if you don’t, the rest of us will be observant super-sleuths, and we’ll just be driving past you on the road like

**LouaiB** · 10-24-2014 08:39 AM

I have bad news:

ADA doesn't really work. There's the semantic memory problem.
We already have a certain level of awareness in our dreams, so why do you think when a dinosaur passes by, and we clearly know it's a dinosaur, we don't become lucid? It's because during REM, the semantic memory is barely active, and it's responsible to scan the evaluated data in check for "weird", or "off" things, like a dinosaur crossing the road.

Having stronger awareness won't really help. It's like focusing harder on a tree that doesn't have birds in the first place.

**mimihigurashi** · 10-24-2014 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by LouaiB

I have bad news:

ADA doesn't really work. There's the semantic memory problem.
We already have a certain level of awareness in our dreams, so why do you think when a dinosaur passes by, and we clearly know it's a dinosaur, we don't become lucid? It's because during REM, the semantic memory is barely active, and it's responsible to scan the evaluated data in check for "weird", or "off" things, like a dinosaur crossing the road.

Having stronger awareness won't really help. It's like focusing harder on a tree that doesn't have birds in the first place.

Precisely. Environmental/sensory awareness is typically not what triggers lucidity. Myself, and I'm sure many others, have had dreams where everything looked, sounded, felt, etc very realistic and detailed, yet not one ounce of lucidity. It's the awareness of what is going on, where you are, what you are doing, that often trigger lucidity, which happens to be self-awareness. What you actually have to keep an eye out for, and do reality checks when they happen, are things that seem weird or out of the ordinary.

**Forg** · 10-24-2014 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by LouaiB

I have bad news:

ADA doesn't really work. There's the semantic memory problem.
We already have a certain level of awareness in our dreams, so why do you think when a dinosaur passes by, and we clearly know it's a dinosaur, we don't become lucid? It's because during REM, the semantic memory is barely active, and it's responsible to scan the evaluated data in check for "weird", or "off" things, like a dinosaur crossing the road.

Having stronger awareness won't really help. It's like focusing harder on a tree that doesn't have birds in the first place.

But how come that some people do have succes with ADA?

**LouaiB** · 10-24-2014 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by mimihigurashi

Precisely. Environmental/sensory awareness is typically not what triggers lucidity. Myself, and I'm sure many others, have had dreams where everything looked, sounded, felt, etc very realistic and detailed, yet not one ounce of lucidity. It's the awareness of what is going on, where you are, what you are doing, that often trigger lucidity, which happens to be self-awareness. What you actually have to keep an eye out for, and do reality checks when they happen, are things that seem weird or out of the ordinary.

Even then it's hard though, because the semantic memory is still barely active. It's more like the work of prospective memory (MILD), where your PM gets used to remembering these indicators and emotions as clues. The more you train your PM on them, the more you get used to them. Like what I do is to RC each time I feel heavy emotions(which happens a lot in dreams), so now my PM is used to this as an indicator.
Self awareness is more like being aware of your existence and ego. What you're talking about is mindfulness, which is actually very useful when it comes to LDing, cuz the more mindful you are, the better you view and evaluate the now. It's like you're not in the river of life, you're walking besides it and looking at it. You're more meta-conscious. There's a difference between awareness, self awareness, and meta consciousness. Meta consciousness is being in the now, the consciousness of the moment. Different than environmental awareness and awareness of existence. I meditate to increase my mindfulness.

Originally Posted by Forg

But how come that some people do have succes with ADA?

It's because of the intention of being lucid. All this time they're doing ADA knowing they want a LD tonight. It's MILD sneaking into the dish.

**mimihigurashi** · 10-24-2014 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by LouaiB

Self awareness is more like being aware of your existence and ego. What you're talking about is mindfulness, which is actually very useful when it comes to LDing, cuz the more mindful you are, the better you view and evaluate the now. It's like you're not in the river of life, you're walking besides it and looking at it. You're more meta-conscious. There's a difference between awareness, self awareness, and meta consciousness. Meta consciousness is being in the now, the consciousness of the moment. Different than environmental awareness and awareness of existence. I meditate to increase my mindfulness.

Self awareness is not necessarily mere awareness of ego and existence. It's self explanatory, paying attention to your self, and the things you are engaging in and that are going on around you. It is mindfulness.

**LouaiB** · 10-24-2014 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by mimihigurashi

Self awareness is not necessarily mere awareness of ego and existence. It's self explanatory, paying attention to your self, and the things you are engaging in and that are going on around you. It is mindfulness.

I just had a little doubt cuz lots of ppl sometimes put a distinction between the two. Sry

**mimihigurashi** · 10-24-2014 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by LouaiB

I just had a little doubt cuz lots of ppl sometimes put a distinction between the two. Sry

Not a problem.

**spellbee2** · 10-25-2014 03:07 AM

Ok, I think I understand what you guys are saying. Maybe I'm just a little confused in my terms and how I'm phrasing this.

Originally Posted by mimihigurashi

It's the awareness of what is going on, where you are, what you are doing, that often trigger lucidity, which happens to be self-awareness. What you actually have to keep an eye out for, and do reality checks when they happen, are things that seem weird or out of the ordinary.

Okay, I probably overemphasized noticing the tiny details and left out the fact that this is the entire point. I guess in a sense, these are an extended reality check - in that you don't want to do them mindlessly, but use them to question whether you're dreaming or not. Look at your surroundings closely, and use what you see and feel to question what is going on, where you are, and what you are doing. Yes, this is the literal definition of mindfulness, but sometimes putting a different spin on it can make it easier to understand and obtain.

Originally Posted by LouaiB

Self awareness is more like being aware of your existence and ego. What you're talking about is mindfulness, which is actually very useful when it comes to LDing, cuz the more mindful you are, the better you view and evaluate the now. It's like you're not in the river of life, you're walking besides it and looking at it. You're more meta-conscious. There's a difference between awareness, self awareness, and meta consciousness. Meta consciousness is being in the now, the consciousness of the moment. Different than environmental awareness and awareness of existence. I meditate to increase my mindfulness.

Like I said above, I kind of overemphasized looking at your surroundings, but you really want to put some thought into it as well. You can even turn the observation around on yourself to stay self-aware of what's going on. And doing the kind of "freeze frame" technique can also help you stay conscious in the moment.

Originally Posted by LouaiB

It's because of the intention of being lucid. All this time they're doing ADA knowing they want a LD tonight. It's MILD sneaking into the dish.

And again, this intention can easily be added during your observation. For example, while you're observing, think to yourself, I want to remember this much detail when I lucid dream tonight.

So now that I've written this out, it's beginning to sound less like awareness, and more like a glorified reality check technique (maybe a thread title change is in order). However, I do feel certain that the method can definitely help increase dream vividness and improve dream recall, which can give you better success with other DILD methods.

**LouaiB** · 10-25-2014 04:17 AM

I think you'll need meditation for the mindfulness bit.

**Forg** · 10-25-2014 11:25 AM

I don't think you need meditation for mindfulness, but meditation could definately cultivate your mindfulness. I started with mindfulness some days ago, so I'm 'waiting' for the moment when this practice will transfer into my dreams. I get where you guys come from when you say that ADA isn't working in the way the most people think it does, but the part of ADA where you just keep regaining awareness when it slips off will definately work if it becomes a habit. When you are regaining your awareness everytime, you turn of your autopilot, even when you are just aware of your environment.

**Bharmo** · 12-09-2014 12:43 AM

Just wanted to point out how similar (though not exactly the same) this is to this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ream-yoga.html
I think both threads may complement each other.