Anchors don't work - any idea why?

Hi there,
I'm so glad I found this forum, hope anyone can help. My problem might be a typical beginner's problem, but I wouldn't know about it.

Here it is: I've started "preparing" for lucid dreams about four weeks ago. I never had problems remembering my dreams in the first place, I easily remember about three dreams from each night. I don't keep a dream diary, but that's my laziness - I remember so much about my dreams, even in detail, that I would have to get up an hour earlier every day just to have the time to write it all down. Honestly, no show-off.

So that seems like good base to start off from.... I paid special attention to dream symbols that keep popping up, to use them as an anchor to remind me that I'm dreaming. I very frequently dream of dogs and musicians or pop stars of some sort. I see a lot of both during the day too (I live in a big city = loads of dogs, and work in the music biz), so I would use that to do reality checks while I'm awake. It didn't work in the beginning, which didn't worry or stress me though. Then all of a sudden, last weekend, my first lucid dream was sparked off by something completely different - I was flying, and totally out of the blue I was like "whooooaaa I'm dreaming"! So I did the odd reality check, played around a bit and then woke up.

Fine, I was happy with that and really thought of it as my breakthrough. So I thought, hm, I don't really care which symbol sparks off lucid dreams, as long as anything does.

But what can I tell you?? I haven't since dreamed of any dogs, pop stars, no flying, no nothing.... I only dream of boring old every day situations like they occur while I'm awake too. Honestly. Like last night - I dreamt absolutely every bit of the way from my house to my working place, like I take it with my bike every day. I have normal conversation with people I see every day and so on. Nothing odd whatsoever.

now that's odd in a different sense though..... would anyone know why my subconscious is doing that? Is it keeping me from having lucid dreams to prevent me from discovering something it's been trying to hide???? :eek:

Hi. Yea dream signs are weird,... for me they come and go, chnage every once in a while. You could be having boring dreams ebacse yoru rutine each day is the same, and you go to bed thinking of your day. Try to do something spontanuous each day and when you go to sleep, dont thnik about your rutine for the day beofre or ahead. Try to extemorarily fasion a story or something as you go to bed to prod yoru dreams to be exciting. ;)

Hi there,

and thanks so much for your reply - but are you sure that could be the reason?? You see, my every day life is quite lively. I work as a PR agent in the music industry, and no day is like the other... loads of highs and lows. And until that night where I had the first intended lucid dream, my dreams had been quite colourful, realistic and fairly crazy. It's just like my subconscious is doing the exact opposite from what it's supposed to be doing - which is, to just continue with what it's always done.....

Weird though, isn't it?

hmmm. Well if you start believing that your dreams will eb boring, they WILL be :P So It is best to tell yourslef, to really belive, that tonight you are going to have an amazingly vivid and livley dream. See if that works for you ;)

Hi,

Nice nickname: I'm from Italy, tons and tons of mozzarella :)

I'm a beginner, I never had a LD, thus please take my thoughts as they are: reasoning around my readings on LD.

I would say that you daytime reality check on dreamsigns works well: it works so well that you entered a lucid dream without need to be triggered by the usual dreamsigns (dogs, pop artists and so on).

Keep dreamsigns in mind and keep reality check, but do not expect that they work as a button to enter a LD: they're probably more an exercise to keep the mind ready to enter into lucid dreaming, than an actual trigger. One exercises on a given dreamsign just to be good at recognizing the dream, whatever is the target.

I've some clear dreamsigns too, but my only fragment of LD was unrelated to them.

eXistenZ