Thread: WILD According to Sageous Q & A

Thx for your reply. Another question, when i do rv rc, i usually imagine i see myself and everything arrounds me, it hard to explain it in english hahaha. For example, when i imagine im sitting on my chair 5 minutes ago, shd i imagine i sitting on that chair too or i see my self sitting from another view ? Thx, hope you understand my english

^^ That is actually and interesting question, Nove13.

My first response is that you should try to remember yourself sitting in that chair just as you perceived yourself doing it 5 minutes ago. You are, after all, trying to simply remember where you were and what you were doing; it is best to keep the memory as accurate as possible. But then I got to thinking:

The point of the RRC is about considering your interaction with your local reality, past, present and future. The actual details of that consideration are in the end not very important; what truly matters is the thought you give the answers to your three questions -- how deeply you wonder about those answers. So, using a different perspective to remember how you were sitting should make no difference, because it is not the perspective you are wondering about, but the sitting itself. In fact, remembering from another perspective might even help a bit, because it sort of loosens up the memory, leaving you to wonder more about the interaction that the actual specifics of the moment.

I hope that made sense to you, and I also hope I understood the question!

Nice reply. Thx very much. Really help. N last question, may i set timer for this rc? Coz in dream we have no timer to remind our to do rc. Thx btw

Yes that is interesting to ponder the rrc from different angles as i think it does give extra substance to the "wonder" of ones connection to ones local enviroment .. Sageouse, could you give some examples of your being present enough in your dream to do the rrc? Ta

Originally Posted by Nove13

... last question, may i set timer for this rc? Coz in dream we have no timer to remind our to do rc. Thx btw

Sure, set a timer (I always did).

I personally think RC's and RRC's are far more important to do during the day than they are at night, because they help build the self-awareness you need to become lucid when dreaming. By the same token: though I'm sure they occasionally do so, I do not have much faith in RC's (or RRC's) actually making you lucid during a NLD. You must already be a little lucid in a dream in order to do a RC that works; if you are not lucid at all, then you will simply dream you are RC'ing (or RRC'ing), and the results will likely match your waking-life experience (i.e., a RC will fail, "proving" that you are not dreaming). I for one have never in all my thousands of LD's used a RC to become lucid, though I have used them often to confirm lucidity.

So I guess the answer here is that a timer would be fine, because it s more important to do the RC's in waking-life. Here's a thought: if you use a timer with, say, a vibration alarm, you can also use it when you sleep, in the hopes that when the timer goes off you will feel it in your dream and do a RC.

Originally Posted by Patience108

... Sageous, could you give some examples of your being present enough in your dream to do the rrc?

Not really. I guess if the level of my lucidity is high enough to do a RRC in a LD, I can and might do one. I know that sounds silly, but there really has never been a series of events in a dream that "caused" me to do a RRC, so to me specific examples just don't make sense. It is more a tool for establishing my mindset in the dream, increasing self-awareness/lucidity, and maybe clarifying my perspective in case the dreamworld I'm in threatens to outshine my lucidity. But like any tool, I can use it when needed, and generally I am "present enough" when my lucidity is at a moderate to high level (meaning: self-awareness and access to memory are at waking-life levels).

That said, I can give you a generic example: I would be in a dream, lucid, usually at a point where I just left my given dream scene (I do that a lot) and am drifting in an in-between place (usually dark or misty nothingness) looking forward to my next adventure. One aspect of that looking can be doing a RRC, where I remember back past the last dream scene to being awake in bed, I examine where I am now, in this dark or misty place that I half-created by removing the "reality" of my previous dream, and then I look forward to the place I expect to be; I spend some time wondering about my participation in each phase, especially the "next few minutes" phase, and am empowered by the firm realization that the transactions between me and these dream places are completely my doing, and completely enfolded in nothing more than my own being.

Wow, I realy thank you for that reply - it makes me sure glad tobe learning the art of LDing - your answer is very inspiring and one to be pondered!

I see, the clear and unquestioned understanding of all having enfolded from yourself, your own being ,must be truly empowering, yes - can I ask when you involve in RRC in waking life does it reward you with "such" understanding a lot? Could you give a WL example too please?

About RC, i almost never do RC in my lucid dream, i realize im dreaming suddenly, no weird thing or do RC, i just know im dreaming with no reason. So i thought it bcoz i train my awareness during waking life, thats why i asked about RRC.

Originally Posted by Patience108

I see, the clear and unquestioned understanding of all having enfolded from yourself, your own being ,must be truly empowering, yes - can I ask when you involve in RRC in waking life does it reward you with "such" understanding a lot? Could you give a WL example too please?

An RRC in waking-life is much different, because it allows me to consider that I am transacting with a reality that is not me. So the understanding it invokes, though important for self-awareness, is somewhat less profound or personally empowering than that of a RRC in the dream. However, it can still be very interesting, because it allows you a moment to realize that you are present in reality, and involved in it... and yes, done correctly, waking-life RRC's will reward you with such an understanding pretty much every time, even when done at times that nothing seems to be happening.

A waking-life example? Hmm. I'm not sure if what I share will seem as significant to you as it does to me (RRC's are truly "you gotta be there" moments), but here is a recent one that I remember, when I took a pause standing at my front door, recently returned from the local market:

- I think about where I am right now, cold metal key in the door's lock, and wonder about my presence at the entrance to my house. I feel the key, listen to the deadbolt click loudly as I turn it, and think about that sound as something newly created that will last far longer than the short time it spends with me. I think of my feet crushing the welcome mat, and wonder if I'm disturbing the lives of any bugs making a home under it. I feel a gentle puff of a breeze, and think about how it's only gotten to me after passing through a nearby tree that is still moving, and how its very shape has been changed by my blocking its passage.

- I remember my recent visit to the market, where I needed to pick up a few things like milk and eggs, and think about how those simple things are what keep me alive. I remember a moment with the cashier that I barely noticed at time: she had given me back too much change, and I quickly let her know and handed back the extra cash. She seemed pleased, and the next customer in line sort of sighed, though I'm not sure what that meant. I wonder for a moment whether I made the cashier's day a little easier, because her register draw won't come up short, and she won't get into trouble, and wonder if I had some positive effect on that next customer, perhaps letting him know that other people do the right thing, rather than keep the free money. I finally wonder that I barely noticed any of that at the time, given that my mind and body were in autopilot, just waiting quietly for the marketing chore to end.

- I think about where I will be in a few minutes. After I put away my purchases, I will grab the coffee I bought at the market and park myself in front of the computer, presumably to do some writing, but knowing that I will likely spend time on DV writing posts and answering questions. I think about my impact there, spreading my thoughts into the ether of the Web, possibly impacting other minds, possibly having my own mind changed by real live people I will likely never meet.

Originally Posted by Nove13

About RC, i almost never do RC in my lucid dream, i realize im dreaming suddenly, no weird thing or do RC, i just know im dreaming with no reason. So i thought it bcoz i train my awareness during waking life, thats why i asked about RRC.

Sorry; I didn't notice the little "rv" in front of "RC" in your post, and thought you were talking about RC's. But that doesn't really matter, because you can certainly replace "RC" with "RRC" in the post above; in fact, I think I tried to point out that I was talking about both RC's and RRC's, so my response would have been the same had I noticed the "rv." Regardless, though, sorry for the confusion.

All that aside: Yes, you very likely might be becoming suddenly lucid in your dreams because of your daywork, which includes RRC's. RRC's are far more valuable for developing your self-awareness during waking-life than they are for triggering lucidity during a LD; if you can bring some of that self-awareness with you into the dream, then you will indeed find yourself suddenly lucid thanks to RRC's you did during the day.

Thx to you for shared it too. I will learn WILD after i have at least 1 LD in one week. I think WILD is higher lvl then DILD coz need more awareness to do. I will continue work with my awareness, n hope i can learn WILD soon.

Lil problem with RRC is, i stay on my chair in my store almost 12 hours a day. I just go out for lunch. So sometimes i think , where am i view minutes ago? i still here, in my chair. LOL. But its cool, i still try to think what did i do and whats interaction has happened between me and things n workers arround me.

This may have been asked before but I'm not entirely sure if I would like to sift through hundreds of posts to see if it has ... so I apologize in advance.

What if the majority of my waking day is spent in the same environment, at a computer? How do I make each self-awareness session that I do every hour meaningful, when I'll probably be asking my self the same questions and providing the same routine answers as before in my ever unchanging environment?

Edit: I also wanted to ask you, what exactly do you mean by focusing on local things? Would local be considered the mailman arriving and dropping of mail when I go to check hours later?

^^ Yes, this has been asked a few times, but I'm happy to answer it again!

When you are sitting at your computer, especially (but not only) if you are on the internet, you may well be having more interactions with your local reality than you might think. If you are working, then your local reality is changing constantly due to your influence... even the exact same space has different things happening to it all the time, because you are there; you need only notice them.

Include in your considerations not just where you were or where you will be physically (especially if it isn't changing), but what you were doing, who you were talking to, perhaps the significance of the work you just did on those who will use it, etc -- these things are variables that are always in flux, and will alter even the most stable of environments. RRC's are ultimately about asserting your presence in your local reality, and that presence is never exactly the same as it was an hour earlier...and if you think it is, then you might need to do a bit more digging.

By local reality I mean that it is not a good idea to imagine grandiose things like your place in the entire universe, as that tends to diminish your presence. Keep your survey to your immediate reality (i.e., if you're doing a RRC while sitting on your couch in front of the TV, think about things like the dent you are making in the couch right now, and how you might be warming a spot that the next person might notice later when they sit in it, and maybe about the influence the TV show is having on you -- or how you can change the TV's very nature just by flipping a channel). And yes, I would consider that mailman example a good one.

Would it be better to practise self awareness during the day with the mindset of staying self-aware for as long as possible and not straying away from it at all. I imagine this idea as being, 'self-aware without resistance'.

Or contrary would it be better to dive in and out of self-awareness, doing things which I know will zone me out, (lose myself) as a form of resistance training? To lose self awareness, so only to bring myself back into self awareness??

Im thinking the later method might be more valuable to lucid dreaming since whilst i am dreaming(nld), i am totally not-self aware, so would need the strength similar to that pulling me out of when im zoned out rather than being self aware because i already was.

I hope i make enough sense.



Also :

When performing the WILD, when you are lieing down still, should you have your mind in a self-aware mindset? Like how it feels after performing a RRC? Is that required? or only the mantra required?

Originally Posted by d3nd3

Would it be better to practise self awareness during the day with the mindset of staying self-aware for as long as possible and not straying away from it at all. I imagine this idea as being, 'self-aware without resistance'.

Or contrary would it be better to dive in and out of self-awareness, doing things which I know will zone me out, (lose myself) as a form of resistance training? To lose self awareness, so only to bring myself back into self awareness??

Im thinking the later method might be more valuable to lucid dreaming since whilst i am dreaming(nld), i am totally not-self aware, so would need the strength similar to that pulling me out of when im zoned out rather than being self aware because i already was.

It sounds like you already answered your question, which makes it one of my favorite variety!

Yes, the latter is probably the best choice, primarily for the reason you suggest, but also because it is much easier to summon self-awareness when needed or desired than it is to try to maintain it constantly... in a sense, constant self-awareness might be a path of greater resistance in practice (if not on paper) in the long run, because you would be swimming upstream against the strong natural currents to avoid self-awareness for a very long time while developing the ability to maintain that "resistance-free" self-awareness. Developing an ability to occasionally summon self-awareness is much easier, and is really all that is required to successfully LD... and I do like the idea that this ability would be most helpful when facing the presence of extreme auto-pilot in a NLD.

So, though it would be a great thing to achieve self-awareness and then not stray from it at all, indefinitely, reaching that level of achievement would ultimately require more effort than would summoning self-awareness when you desire it. And, as you correctly guessed, that ability to summon does come in very handy during a dream.

All that said, let me make something else clear: if you've already done the upstream swim, and are capable of being self-aware all the time, then forget everything I said. If you are fully self-aware all day, then you will very likely be fully (or at least somewhat) self-aware in your dreams as well. In other words, if self-awareness is your default state of consciousness, then lucidity will probably be a given, rather than a goal.

tl;dr: The second choice is correct, for the reason you state ... though if you are able to maintain self-awareness constantly, WILD's will be a snap.

Also :
When performing the WILD, when you are lieing down still, should you have your mind in a self-aware mindset? Like how it feels after performing a RRC? Is that required? or only the mantra required?

I've never really thought about this, to tell you the truth; you may be pointing out something I've always taken for granted.

I think that, during a successful WILD, you will, like it or not, always have your self-awareness on hand, because that self-awareness sort of defines or dictates your state of mind while attempting a WILD. In other words, you must be self-aware in order to maintain waking-life self-awareness throughout a WILD dive; if you lack self-awareness and allow auto-pilot to switch on, then you will exit your WILD and fall asleep normally.

The feeling doesn't need to be just like that provided by a RRC, though that would certainly help; all you need is a grasp, even a tenuous one, on your sense of self during a WILD -- just enough to be able to remember that everything going on is your passage into your dream, and that the things going on around you (as well as the dream you enter) are all a part of you. The mantra, I think, is a requirement, because it can provide the necessary handhold you need to maintain that sense of self throughout the WILD dive.

All is not totally lost if you lose self-awareness during a WILD, though, because your focus (and that mantra) can help you retrieve it when the dream begins, and you can enjoy a DILD instead. I personally think this may happen more often than WILD's do, BTW, as so many accounts of WILDs include a moment of "blankness" followed by the sudden appearance of the dream.

tl;dr: Yes. Not necessarily, but it would be nice. No. Yes.

Okay thanks for that elaborate answer, just what i needed.

Sageous, if self awareness == lucidity doesnt that mean that practising/increasing self awareness leads to difficulty going to sleep? And if so, how does one temporarily decrease self awareness?

^^ No, I don't think that the presence of self-awareness would impede falling asleep at all. Self-awareness may equal lucidity, but it does not equal being physically awake.

I know that sounds odd, but it is true; it actually must be true in our context, or else WILD's would likely be virtually impossible.

Self-awareness is merely the awareness of your presence in the moment and of your interaction with your local reality. If the moment you happen to be in is one where your physical body is falling asleep, and "You" are present in it, your physical body will still fall asleep just as it normally would -- except of course that you are there to consciously witness the transition from wake to sleep. In a sense, your physical state (awake/asleep, in this case) is operating as it always would, but when your conscious state includes self-awareness, you are able to transcend the normal mental functions that accompany falling asleep, allowing you to be present throughout the transition to sleep while your brain and body do their things.

Hmm...This seemed a lot simpler in my head; let me try a different tack:

I often say that the paradox of lucid dreaming is that you are awake while you are asleep, and I wonder now if that is a wise thing to say. This is because in a physical sense you are definitely not awake when lucid; you are enjoying the presence of your waking-life self-awareness in the dream. Your mind and body really are asleep by every definition, except that "You" have stepped above the rules of sleep by being self-aware in the dream -- by knowing you are dreaming, and that the entire dream is "You." So being awake while you are asleep is more of a metaphor than a description, I guess. Also, including "waking-life" in the phrase "waking-life self-awareness" denotes that you are the same "You," consciously speaking, that you are during waking-life, and shouldn't imply that you are awake... maybe I'll need to dump the "waking-life" bit in the future as well, because it might be more confusing than useful.

So there is no need to worry about decreasing your self-awareness in order to fall asleep...in fact, I highly recommend that you do everything you can to maintain as high a level of waking-life self-awareness as possible throughout your WILD dive, because the process of falling asleep has a tendency to decrease your self-awareness for you, given that your natural state, especially when falling asleep, is one that does not include self-awareness.

That didn't work either; how about a "tl;dr:" then:

tl;dr:The presence of your waking-life self-awareness during a WILD should not interfere with falling asleep, because it does not interact with the regular process of falling asleep -- it witnesses it. So there is no need to worry about decreasing your self-awareness in order to fall asleep.



All that said: I can see how you might have come to the conclusion that you reached, and I have a feeling it might represent a real problem for many WILDers. It has become common to assume that possessing waking-life self-awareness is the same thing as being awake; but it is not. After all, we can spend our days wide awake but never self-aware, right? In fact, the default setting for waking-life consciousness is one of auto-pilot, without a hint of self-awareness. But because we make that assumption, we try as hard as we can to stay awake during a WILD dive, rather than simply letting our bodies fall asleep naturally while we remain self-aware/lucid throughout the transition. Ironically, this struggle to stay awake tempts/leads us to abandon self-awareness and either fall asleep normally or wake up fully, depending on how hard we tried to stay awake (or how tired we were). This assumption also explains why I find myself so often telling dreamers that they must fall asleep in order to WILD (or lucid dream at all), because, by assuming they must be awake, dreamers leave out the most important component of dreaming: sleep.

Okay, I'm more rambling and thinking aloud than I am answering your question at this point, so I'll leave it at that. The entire answer to your question, I think, rests in the "tl;dr:" sentences above; the rest, I suppose, is fluff.

I get ya. What i really meant with my question though , is, :
Does self-awareness make it more difficult to experience 'normal sleep' ( the sleep without being an observer ). Because although yes, later in the night when we are practising our WBTB, WILDS we certainly do not mind being an observer, in the first few hours of the night it can be a dim, dull experience often with aches, pains, itches, heat sweats etc and to be honest with you, i never know if i am really asleep or not during that time.

I dont know if i am asleep-with-awareness or awake-with-awareness. I actually did this for well over an hour last night, because i was in a crazy mood thinking i could observe the entire night just for the fun of it. Ah yes, another major reason i was doing this is because i wanted to learn to sleep on my back, since i've been having lower back pain from sleeping on my front. Yet as i thought would happen, i wasn't able to get to 'normal-sleep' on my back, and entered this 'dont know if im asleep state'. And btw my stamina didnt last as long as i thought it would, at 1.5 hour i simply rolled over went to sleep, my mind thought sleeping on back was impossible and a bad idea and wanted the 'quick fix'. But I kinda wish i might had persevered, surely its possible i can sleep on my back?

Yea so i hope you understand the real context of my question now, that I dont think everyone always wants to be lucid at any given moment of sleep?(eg. the first few hours) And would practising self-awareness interfere with being able to do this 'normal sleep'?

EDIT: and a further question about your RRC's.. Do you apply the 'how do i effect world , and world effects me' question to each point in time? or only the present? the 5 mins ago and 5 mins in future can be easier questions?

I have another idea for increasing self awareness, looking in a mirror. If i do that often enough through-out the day, do you think it might benefit my lucidity rate?

Originally Posted by d3nd3

I get ya. What i really meant with my question though , is, :
Does self-awareness make it more difficult to experience 'normal sleep' ( the sleep without being an observer ). Because although yes, later in the night when we are practising our WBTB, WILDS we certainly do not mind being an observer, in the first few hours of the night it can be a dim, dull experience often with aches, pains, itches, heat sweats etc and to be honest with you, i never know if i am really asleep or not during that time.

I dont know if i am asleep-with-awareness or awake-with-awareness. I actually did this for well over an hour last night, because i was in a crazy mood thinking i could observe the entire night just for the fun of it. Ah yes, another major reason i was doing this is because i wanted to learn to sleep on my back, since i've been having lower back pain from sleeping on my front. Yet as i thought would happen, i wasn't able to get to 'normal-sleep' on my back, and entered this 'dont know if im asleep state'. And btw my stamina didnt last as long as i thought it would, at 1.5 hour i simply rolled over went to sleep, my mind thought sleeping on back was impossible and a bad idea and wanted the 'quick fix'. But I kinda wish i might had persevered, surely its possible i can sleep on my back?

Yea so i hope you understand the real context of my question now, that I dont think everyone always wants to be lucid at any given moment of sleep?(eg. the first few hours) And would practising self-awareness interfere with being able to do this 'normal sleep'?

In spite of the new context (which, yes, it would have been nice to know about in the first place, because I would have been able to say a lot less), my answer is pretty much the same: self-awareness will not interfere with the sleep process, at any time during the night. Self-awareness still doesn't equal wakefulness, even during the early stages of sleep. So pretty much everything I said above still stands, still applies, and I hope you don't mind if I don't bother repeating it.

If you wish to maintain your self-awareness throughout a night's sleep, be advised that it is not that easy, is something that could take years to properly achieve, and is very likely not going to happen if you try it on a whim, or with some other goal (like sleeping on your back) in mind. If you are truly interested in doing this, you might start by looking into Sivason's DVA Dream Yoga class, which is the first step toward the world of sleep yoga, which is the best system I know of for staying self-aware all night available. I personally find sleep yoga practice an outstanding goal, so I hope you stay interested, and are willing to be patient.

Though it sounds like the early stages of your night's sleep are very busy, what with all those "aches, pains, itches, heat sweats etc," you shouldn't have had much difficulty telling the difference between being awake or asleep -- once you're in, it is pretty obvious. Also, once you are asleep, all those physical issues are left behind, and you wouldn't notice them. So I have a feeling you were never quite asleep throughout your effort.

Yes, you can certainly learn to sleep on your back... but I would recommend doing so on nights when you are not also trying to maintain self-awareness. Get your body accustomed to the new processes involved with sleeping on your back before you try other things at the same time. In other words, hold off on the self-awareness practice until after you are able to fall asleep on your back without difficulty.

EDIT: and a further question about your RRC's.. Do you apply the 'how do i effect world , and world effects me' question to each point in time? or only the present? the 5 mins ago and 5 mins in future can be easier questions?

Yes, it's best to ask at each point in time. Also, I've since revised that "5 minutes" to a "short time," or maybe 15 minutes. Look back and forward far enough that there is a reasonable difference between where you were, where you are, and where you will be.

Originally Posted by d3nd3

I have another idea for increasing self awareness, looking in a mirror. If i do that often enough through-out the day, do you think it might benefit my lucidity rate?

I doubt it.

Perhaps paradoxically, self-awareness has very little to do with things like your physical appearance. When you look in a mirror, all you see is a reflection of your face, and not "You." You can -- and probably do, all the time -- look into a mirror without any self-awareness present or generated. In fact, I would guess that looking into a mirror might distract you from becoming self-aware, because your reflection heightens the priority of the things from which you are trying to step away. I suppose you could use looking in the mirror as a reality check, but I don't think that is what you were asking.

I thought that if I'm pracitising increasing my self-awareness during the day then my self-awareness is 'higher' whether I like it or not? Do you think this is true or not?

If its true then even if I don't try to maintain awareness, it will still be high. Am I looking at the self-awareness incorrectly? Is it not possible to raise it up that much and will the default state always be low awareness so that you can easily go to sleep without being aware?

Maybe I'm wanting to know if having strong self-awareness at any given time requires intention? And so then void of intention would equal normal self-awareness(or none). I'm worried that I can't turn it off if i practise too hard... sorry if im dragging this on too much.

EDIT:
Sageous i'm just really interested and eager to know more about what self-awareness is. For so long i have been lost as to what could be the cause of lucidity, without knowing a cause i could not hone in anything in order to increase the liklyhood. Then i found your guide and the task of achieving lucidity feels completely different, I feel like i know what im chasing, abit. Thats why i want to know more about the self-awareness because then i know more about what i am chasing.

Is there a feeling to knowing if you are self-aware enough to be lucid whilst going to sleep, albeit an indescribable one?

How does practise of self-awareness pay off? I sound really obsessed with self-awareness and I think its because i like to be in control... only with this chasing self-awareness thing it feels still like the thing i'm chasing is invisible. Its real, but invisible.. so I'm having trouble giving myself feedback on my progress, you know what I mean? How do i stay committed whilst knowing so little about how self-awareness practise is affecting me and my chances of lucidity?

Yea so i hope you understand the real context of my question now, that I dont think everyone always wants to be lucid at any given moment of sleep?(eg. the first few hours) And would practising self-awareness interfere with being able to do this 'normal sleep'?

I think this remains unanswered btw, when i type normal sleep, I actually meant 'sleep without enough self-awareness'. So i rephrase the question now : Would practising self-awareness during the day affect your chances of being able to fall off to sleep at night time in a non-aware fashion? (My prediction is that it might, depending on if practising of self-awareness builds up an inner strength which is always on, or whether self-awareness always requires intent/thought and can be controlled easily at will)

^^ Though I admire your enthusiasm, d3nd3, I think you might be looking for too much in all this.

Self-awareness is a state of mind, and not a magic bullet. Though, at least in my opinion, self-awareness is equal to lucidity, it is not a commodity that you can get or have that fuels lucid dreams. Nor is it an energy of some sort that you can have with you to induce lucidity. It is simply a sense of your presence in the moment, with an understanding that you have an effect on everything around you, and everything around you has an effect on you. Developing that sense can take years; developing that sense to a point that it stays on constantly can take a lifetime. Please try not to look at it as a shortcut, or a cause of lucidity that can be harnessed. And, again, please don't look at self-awareness as an impediment to sleep, because it isn't.

That said, I'll go around one more time with this, though I hope you'll understand if my responses pretty much match what I've already said:

Originally Posted by d3nd3

I thought that if I'm pracitising increasing my self-awareness during the day then my self-awareness is 'higher' whether I like it or not? Do you think this is true or not?

No, this is not true. Self-awareness will tend to be a state of mind that you must always summon, unless you manage to change your permanent state of consciousness to one of constant self-awareness. The funny thing is that, if after years of practice you reach that state, there will not be a "like it or not" situation, ever, because the permanent presence of your self-awareness will be a good thing, a transcendental improvement, and not something you will not want to have around.

If its true then even if I don't try to maintain awareness, it will still be high. Am I looking at the self-awareness incorrectly? Is it not possible to raise it up that much and will the default state always be low awareness so that you can easily go to sleep without being aware?

Yes, I believe you are looking at the self-awareness incorrectly. Let me try one more time by repeating what I've already said at least twice: Self-awareness does not equal being awake. It also does not equal being alert, or even aware, in the natural sense (i.e., being aware of your surroundings). Even if you one day manage to achieve a high, consistent level of self-awareness, this state will not effect your body's ability to fall asleep. Sleep and self-awareness have nothing to do with each other, and you will be able to go to sleep will self-awareness active. This of course counts for any residual or weak self-awareness you might have from practicing it during the day.

Maybe I'm wanting to know if having strong self-awareness at any given time requires intention? And so then void of intention would equal normal self-awareness(or none). I'm worried that I can't turn it off if i practise too hard... sorry if im dragging this on too much.

For now, and probably for a pretty long time ahead, yes, strong (or weak, for that matter) self-awareness will require intention -- and attention, and focus. If you must worry, and you shouldn't, you should be more concerned about maintaining self-awareness than about whether you can turn it off. And yes, if you lose self-awareness you will return to your normal state.

EDIT:
Sageous i'm just really interested and eager to know more about what self-awareness is. For so long i have been lost as to what could be the cause of lucidity, without knowing a cause i could not hone in anything in order to increase the liklyhood. Then i found your guide and the task of achieving lucidity feels completely different, I feel like i know what im chasing, abit. Thats why i want to know more about the self-awareness because then i know more about what i am chasing.

That's all fine, but instead of chasing a cause, why not seek a goal? If you can come to understand that self-awareness is lucidity, and also come to understand that self-awareness is a state of mind, and not some sort of lucidity trigger or technique, you might be better able to set a goal of being able to gather your self-awareness as easily as you can.

I urge you to try not to look too deeply into this stuff. Knowing specifically how lucidity works would be a great thing, but spending your time spinning your wheels chasing its absolute cause will only clog your mind. Instead, simply understand that a strong sense of self, an ability to summon self-awareness, is instrumental to successful LD'ing. There really is no more to it. Stop chasing, and do.

Is there a feeling to knowing if you are self-aware enough to be lucid whilst going to sleep, albeit an indescribable one?

None that I've ever been aware of.

But it doesn't matter, because if you are self-aware enough to be lucid while going to sleep, then you will likely be lucid in your dream.

How does practise of self-awareness pay off?

The payoff, again, is that self-awareness equals lucidity. Period.

I sound really obsessed with self-awareness and I think its because i like to be in control... only with this chasing self-awareness thing it feels still like the thing i'm chasing is invisible. Its real, but invisible.. so I'm having trouble giving myself feedback on my progress, you know what I mean? How do i stay committed whilst knowing so little about how self-awareness practise is affecting me and my chances of lucidity?

You probably already know everything you need to know about self-awareness, d3nd3, but want there to be something more. There is no self-awareness "thing," invisible or not, and no reward (like tangible feedback) for your progress. You are fully capable of being self-aware right now; the only feedback you will need are the moments of "presence" that you allow yourself to have, and your commitment should be focused on achieving your goals (i.e., becoming lucid in your dreams), and not on knowing about the bits along the way to those goals.

I think this remains unanswered btw, when i type normal sleep, I actually meant 'sleep without enough self-awareness'. So i rephrase the question now : Would practising self-awareness during the day affect your chances of being able to fall off to sleep at night time in a non-aware fashion? (My prediction is that it might, depending on if practising of self-awareness builds up an inner strength which is always on, or whether self-awareness always requires intent/thought and can be controlled easily at will)

You can rephrase this question as many times as you like, d3nd3, and my answer will still be the same: No.

Self-awareness is not the same as being awake, and has nothing to do with the falling asleep process. You can be fully self-aware and totally sleepy at the same time... if you couldn't then WILD would not work, and you would wake up every time you become lucid. This is true whether you've summoned self-awareness or have managed to maintain it constantly. I hope that you'll take a moment to try to understand this.

I hope all this made sense to you, this time. I'm not sure if I can explain it all any other way.

Alrite Sageous. I will humbly go and "do".
Btw, do you know anything about how DILD's work, i'm a bit confused about them... Like if memory is turned off in dream, how can you do critical thinking to realise something is odd? And I don't think i ever do reality checks in dreams, even if i practise them in waking, I'm just a different person in my dreams, a person of my past most often, reliving old situations, old friends with my old mindset.
Cheers again Sageous, i really appreciate the amount of time you are giving me!

^^ If you want a thorough explanation of how DILD works, you might read (or re-read, as it were) LaBerge's Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, as much of that book covers the theory and mechanics of DILD, including extensive discussion of MILD, which is the technique that makes DILD work. That said, here are a couple of my thoughts on this that might stray a bit from LaBerge's work:

First, I do not believe that you can realize that something is odd in a NLD. As you already noted, nothing in a dream can be odd, because during a NLD you cannot remember that some things cannot exist in the reality of your dream. For instance, you might dream that you are driving your car underwater, and have no problem with it: driving on the seabed seems just fine to you, because doing so has been presented as fact by your dreaming mind, and that fact is backed up, if necessary, by a fictitious history and false memories that confirm the sense in underwater driving. The only ways that you can spot the odd is by already being slightly lucid, perhaps slightly suspicious, of the "reality" of the dream, or by responding to a prospective memory (remembering to remember) thanks to your MILD practice.

The same goes for RC's: I don't believe that RC's can make you lucid. Instead, when they work properly in a dream, they are doing so as tools for confirming that you are dreaming, meaning that you already had a notion that you were dreaming, that you were already slightly lucid. On the other hand, doing a RC when you are not already slightly lucid will result in either a negative result that implies that you are not dreaming, or in a positive result that leads you into a false lucid dream, wherein you dream about being lucid without ever being self-aware at all.

In all honesty, I think that the myth that RC's "make" you lucid has done some real damage to the efforts of beginning LD'ers. It has become almost a given that if you do a RC in a dream you will become lucid, so people just do RC's, usually by rote, during the day assuming that's all they have to do to have DILDs. What they're missing is the mindset necessary to be lucid enough already to question whether they are dreaming. That mindset -- that ability to do a little accurate critical thinking in a dream -- is brought about by doing things like buiding expectation, setting intention, and generating prospective memory in the dream, all of which require more day work than just doing RC's or observing the odd. [On a side note, we do critical thinking all the time in dreams when we're not lucid; the trouble is, that thinking is clouded by the fraudulent information generated by our dreaming mind, a lack of access to memory, and a generally pure here&now perspective in the dream.]

Dreamsigns fall into this category as well, BTW. If you are not at all lucid in a dream, you will not recognize dreamsigns. You must already be suspicious that you are dreaming before you can be suspicious of a dreamsign.

tl;dr: So I guess the bottom line here is that your questions about DILD are valid; RC's and spotting the odd can only work after you are slightly lucid. So the trick with DILD is to have a lucid mindset in place when you go to sleep, and the only truly effective technique for DILD is MILD, because it involves planting prospective memories in your dream that will help you to remember to remember. That mindset and MILD technique are both established by daywork that involves more than just doing RC's or questioning the odd.

Hey Sageous, thanks for all the elaborate input you been giving! I have a few fairly technical questions regarding WILD attempts: I can relax, focus on my intent, put my body to sleep, but I've only gotten to REM stage a couple of times (I feel my eyes moving rapidly and a vibratory sensation in my body). The thing is, when I'm attempting WILDs, I keep waiting for this transition to happen, and it demoralizes me quite a bit when I don't get it. Is it truly necessary for me to 'feel' in my body these sensations of REM in order to have a WILD?

Another quick question: sometimes, I start to have dreams/fragments of dreams in 'the back of my mind' so to speak, but never in my first person vision. I try to connect both, but it seems I can only choose to stare at empty darkness, or get lost in these imagethoughts without it trully become a dream. I feel that there are two reasons for that: 1) I do not feel disconected enough from my body, it always seems as if I'm having a more profound daydream and 2) To see images in my eyes from a WILD attempt seems like something I cannot mentally trespass, like a block or sticking point (a perfect analogy would be the four-minute mile: until 1954 nobody could run 1 mile in 4 minutes, but when Roger Bannister managed to do it, suddenly EVERYBODY could do it). Any comments on that?

Thanks in advance!