en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is used in a lot of different contexts these days…new age affirmation type stuff, hypnosis, psychotherapy, the list goes on…
What do you guys think about using it to induce lucidity?
Personally, I’ve repeated intentions to myself while falling asleep, telling myself I will wake up after an important dream and write it down.
I think that possibilities are endless, though–what experiences or different uses of autosuggestion are out there?
You are right about using autosuggestion in various things and lucidity too. I used it for dream recall, focus, vividness and such things but for lucidity itself doesn’t work very well for me. I mean I can tell myself to have a lucid dream, maybe not with this words but it’s just not enough to become lucid.
Maybe when I will have more experience in waking life and in dream life then maybe autosuggestion will be enough, for now it’s not.
But it’s a very powerful tool, indeed!
Something that confuses me…
I’ve used autosuggestion to tell myself to wake up at a certain time and it works like a charm. But when I tell myself to realize I’m dreaming the next time I’m dreaming it doesn’t work (performing MILD). Why is this? Why does it work so well for waking up but not for lucid dreaming?
Well I don’t know. There were some studies that proved that saying word lucid in autosuggestion/mantra like: I will become lucid this night - has worse results then saying I will realize that I am dreaming…
So it can be that but that still doesn’t change the amount of unsuccessful tries in some bigger manner!
So my answer is: I don’t know!
Somewhere on this forum there’s a guide explaining the subconscious in detail and how to communicate with it. It’s the most relevant part of autosuggestion since that’s what your programming by using the tool of autosuggestion. Basically the author explained how your subconscious doesn’t exactly recognize the words “lucid”. Waking up, that’s a natural trait every human has. Obtaining lucidity is a skill. So for your subconscious to understand what your programming it for you have to break down your meaning in very simple terms, while putting very strong resolution into each of them.
But for your original question, I know one of the greatest uses of autosuggestion was in the placebo effect; in medical terms. The man who discovered that phenomenon became a renowned alchemist (or pharmacist, cant remember what time period he lived in) just by discovering that putting the notion of a wonder cure attached to his cold remedies when distributing them personally to patients, the positive results increased dramatically. Thanks the auto-suggestion, medical testing and pharmacological sciences have been influenced forever.
I agree with myechta_rudovodstva. If you use autosuggestion, use simple words and short sentences like you are talking to a little child. Rule-of-thumb could be: if it is not grasped by a five-year old, it is probably not the right thing to suggest.
Also do not use the word “not”.
That’s what I learned as a hypnotist.