Funeral homes, cemeteries...? Are you a mortician? haha (I do love walking in cemeteries in any case.)

Quote Originally Posted by AstronomyDomine View Post
Occipitalred if you don't mind me asking, how often are lucid, say in a monthly average, and through which sort of induction do they come?
I don't mind your asking. Recently, how many times I know I'm dreaming in a month? Let's say 10? I do think that during dreams I remember, the knowledge that I am dreaming is readily accessible. Dreams in which I know I am dreaming AND feel awake, clear, lucid... 3. Dreams in which I have clear waking life memory. None. I also interpret my lucid moments as being very short: ~1 min. For techniques, I don't recall success with WILD. I DILD. I don't set intentions to lucid dream, but I do set goals. I don't RC. I journal and maintain a relationship with my dreams.

Quote Originally Posted by AstronomyDomine View Post
You have buses for dreamsigns; I have certain geographical locations -- and funeral homes lol. Last night I had an extremely vivid NLD which featured a known DS: my old house in San Marcos. It has been an established DS now since 2017, when I started journaling. It's rare for a DS to trigger lucidity for me; apart from waking analysis and identification IRL, my confirmed dreamsigns are not yet sufficiently anchored...at least that is what I suspect. I'm not quite sure how to anchor them. I know what they are, and I know they exist. They're all throughout my journal. It's uncanny. I just haven't figured out yet how to appropriate them in conscious dream. I've had some success in fixating objects with anchors, but with immaterial thoughts not so much. Especially if it's a location, like a specific country or a cemetery.
What's an example of when you anchored an object to a dream sign? I'm interested.

My worry is that using dream signs, you limit your 'lucidity' to a fraction of the dreams where they manifest, which is fine really. But you seem to seek a way to reliably be lucid every night. I guess, it might be because I have failed at this goal myself, that I have decided to shift my expectations. But I do doubt the feasibility of ubiquitous clearness of the sleeping mind.

What I noticed instead, is that the reason I loved dreams was not dependent on that goal. I like dream study. For example, the other day, I tallied my responses to perceived danger. I noticed I fight only in imminent danger, flee as soon as possible, and prefer hiding somewhere safe by far. This information is quite relevant to me: I have been playing it safe in real life, and part of me knows it's time to leave that comfort zone. This is something I must do in real life. It barely matters that I get 'lucid' so I can be a fighter in the dream. But it'll be interesting to see how I change. And interestingly, in my last lucid dream, I was guided by the dream to war. It was very thematically satisfying. This is how I measure my success, more than LD frequency. That's kind of what I advocate for now.

Quote Originally Posted by AstronomyDomine View Post
I am interested in you elaborating more on your strategy and sharing the results.
'ADA', 'illusory body,' and traditional LD practice is what I used to do, until I just didn't have the discipline to keep it up. My strategy nowadays is just to study my dreams. Notice trends. Decide if I want to play with anything. For example: If there is danger, instead of hiding, confront it (both in real life and in dreams). Anyway, isn't this -self-awareness-? If in a dream, not only am I aware that I am dreaming, but I am also aware that I am avoiding healthy confrontation and I am partaking in a trend of excessively seeking safety... then, how about that for self-awareness. That's what I seek. (compare this to knowing you are dreaming and using basic dream control to indulge in the pattern of avoidance behavior).

You're interested in the 'aha' moment. But what is the 'aha' moment, cognitively speaking. Is it the same as -lucidity-?

Are we seeking a transient 'aha' moment? I guess, I would consider an 'aha' moment to be a -metacognition- ('awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes,' in this case, being aware and understanding specifically that you are presently dreaming). Meanwhile, what is lucidity? I would say it's the access to many different cognitive functions that are generally inhibited during sleep. Which cognitive functions are inhibited during sleep? Maybe all, I guess?

In terms of executive functions, here's a list from Wikipedia:
- Attentional control (funny story, I once thanked a psychiatrist for his attentional control at the end of a presentation and though he laughed, he said it wasn't a thing... what an embarrassing moment, oh well, it's on Wikipedia, damn it!)
- Cognitive inhibition Attentional control and cognitive inhibition, isn't that what you train with ADA or concentration/attentional meditation?
- Inhibitory control I'd say this might be irrelevant because you don't act anything out in dreams, am I wrong?
- Working memory Think, remembering goals in dreams, remembering dreams, remembering anything about waking life in dreams. (I find this so difficult to do)
- Cognitive flexibility Maybe this involves metacognition like the aha moment? And self-awareness which is another metacognition...
- Planning
- Fluid intelligence (reasoning, problem solving)

My questions are not rhetorical, I am wondering about this. But it's complex. This is why I'm curious about ADA, is training attentional control enough? Or why is it valued above the other cognitive functions? Isn't practicing ADA comparable to someone practicing All Day Problem Solving so that while dreaming, they can easily access their reasoning skills, because that's what they do all day? Then they can have lucid dreams characterized by clear reasoning skills while all the ADA people have their lucid dreams characterized by enhanced attention and concentration? And/or, maybe, is it that practicing any of these in a dream helpful to access any of the others, because maybe they all wake up together somewhat? I guess, personally, I've been focused self-awareness/understanding. But, I guess, there is no need to do an All-Day of anything as long as you are using your mind in some way all day.