FryingMan:
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to defer an answer to your question about self-awareness to what I wrote in the earlier sections of this thread -- I think my descriptions then were pretty thorough, more thought-out than they can be right now, and, if you also read some of my responses to earlier questions about it, should effectively answer your question better than I can in 800 words here. I hope you don't mind.
The same goes for expectation/intention, I'm afraid, save that you may have noticed by now that I usually list the two together because for me they are basically the same things, with expectation being thing you build over time, and intention being the thing you "set" immediately before sleep (a la MILD), but both influencing your dreaming mind in a similar fashion.
Now to memory, which I also suggest you look at in the beginning of the thread, but here are a couple more thoughts:
 Originally Posted by FryingMan
But just how does one "turn on memory in a dream?" Just by "turning on memory" in waking life?
I guess it would be like "turning it on" in waking life, but not in the way you're thinking, I think. When I say that memory is shut off in a dream, I mean that in a literal, physiological sense: the portions of your brain used to process and access all short-term memory and most long-term memory are by nature not available during a dream. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that even the long-term memory bits you experience in a dream are not so much memories but information your dreaming mind pulled up to complete schemata... the difference is in context, for if those long-term bits were actual memories, you would know, for instance, that the person standing there has been dead for 20 years.
So how to "turn it on?" Honestly, I'm still working on that. To date, activating memory has come in two ways for me: either by holding onto it through WILD, or using my self-awareness to "demand" its presence (after all, you can't be fully self-aware without having memory in place to confirm your identity and actual current location in waking and dreaming reality). There may be tricks, techniques, or drugs (ie, gallantamine, vitamin b6) that could help, but ultimately the absence of memory is a difficult hurdle for LD'ing, a hurdle held high by our own physical nature (in other words, it's supposed to be turned off, as dictated by millions of years of evolution).
Currently for me, a powerful sense of Self (self-awareness) in the dream is enough to turn memory on a little bit at least, completely on occasion... after all, if I'm aware of a true "Me" in a dream, with a waking-life perspective, I am not going to feel complete or even correct until that awareness includes memory (this BTW is why I believe it's important to remember your sleeping body in its bed during a dream) Also, the prospective memory exercises in MILD are very helpful, and using a mantra like "Remember" during WILD can help as well.
And is the kind of memory you're talking about "life memory" (what I did earlier today, before, etc.), not just "thing memory" (the guy who can remember hundreds of cards in order)? So the steps to turning it on are....? Just spending time thinking about stuff in the past? Is working on dream recall considered part of "turning memory on?".
Yes, I suppose it is like "life memory," which is why I suggest remembering what you were recently doing in the RRC. No, it is definitely not "thing" memory -- that might actually work against you in the dream, because remembering "things" might pile up unnecessary details and images in a dream that have nothing to do with your identity (self-awareness) and everything to do with the bucket of information from which your dreaming mind draws to create schemata.
I guess the memory I'm talking about here is in a sense holistic memory: It's not so much an information stream or database, but an active collection of experience that identifies "You," specifically, and must be present to complete an accurate image of your self in a dream (just as it does in waking life).
I think I already discussed what I could here of the steps for turning on memory (or lack thereof), but yeah, just spending time actively thinking about stuff in your past (preferably important stuff that had something directly to do with you) might be helpful. Indeed, if you could make it a habit, in the RC/RRC vein, you might bring that interest in remembering into a dream with you.
Though it is important in its own right, dream recall is not considered (by me, at least) part of turning memory on. It's a different process altogether, whose function is based on the fact that memory is already turned on when you're recalling dreams, so I don't think even excellent dream recall would help much in switching on memory during the dream.
I understand your not wanting to dictate specifics, but it's really helpful to see some examples of particular things to do as a starting place. Thanks!
It's not a case of not wanting to dictate specifics, I think. It's more a case of a genuine dearth in specifics at all. LD'ing, ultimately, is a very personal event, and not only examples, but perspectives on examples are things that must be generated by individuals as they learn. Because of this, I'm real bad at examples in a forum format where I can't spend thousands of words putting together an image that actually makes sense to someone other than me.
Okay, one note about self-awareness:
One thought I've had churning around for a while: I suppose with ultimate self-awareness (if it's even possible?), the dream would just go away? Like how you say you strip the dream down to a "void" and try to build your tripod? Sort of like how Neo sees the matrix as glowing green stuff rather than a WL simulation. I think for now I'd much rather spend some years with awesome lucid adventure dreams (experiencing "the steak" [albeit lucidly], ala Cypher; Agent Smith and Cypher - YouTube), and then worry about building my void-tripod later .
Yes, "ultimate," or pure self-awareness could change the very nature of a dream, to the point where the stuff of dreams becomes insignificant. Keep in mind, though, that this purity is ascension-level transcendental stuff, and will not replace your "normal" LD's in any permanent way (even if you find, ultimately, that you want it too), and you would always have the ability to keep to the dream, so you needn't worry about having your lucid adventures interfered with by "too much" self-awareness. I still enjoy the fun stuff very much, BTW!
I hope all that helped, and thanks for bearing with me on the self-awareness and expectation/intention dodges.
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