Agreed. I usually "probe" for dreams as well. This morning was a perfect example for me. I woke up and remembered nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was upset, but had the intention of recalling something. After like 5 minutes, I felt that I did have a dream about something as opposed to a total blank. Not the knowledge that we always dream every night, but a feeling that I had just experienced some sort of reality that I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember what though. The feeling was nostalgia again (which is common in my dreams). I didn't know where to start, but I started thinking of people from my past to see if thinking of anyone of these people evoked that feeling. I quickly ran through (in my mind) people I knew from home, family, high school, college- that was it! The feeling grew stronger, as if I had just seen someone from college, but the nostalgia came from high school.

I ran through a list of people in my mind who I know from college, and as I went through several specific people, that feeling grew stronger. I was on the right path! There were two friends who evoked this feeling the most. I had just seen them not to long ago was what the feeling said. I focused on them and them alone. Then like a person with amnesia remembering everything he forgot, my dream came crashing down on me. It was like I was given all the puzzle pieces at once, and I had the opportunity to put them together. First this happened, then that, then that! Before I knew it I had my dream memories and I quickly wrote them down. It may not have been everything but it was something!

It's funny how I don't really think about how I recall, I just do. It doesn't feel over-analytical, it just feels like relaxing and trying to remember. Letting the memories flow back. Your intuition seems to play a role when it comes to THAT feeling. The feeling that you just saw someone or experienced or did something. That is the feeling I always feel when I cannot remember a dream but am on the right path with the memory of a specific person or place or experience. Or sometimes the feelings and emotions that guide you to your memories are those that were evoked within the dream itself. Fear if it was a nightmare that you forgot or maybe other more positive ones.