Forming a Relationship with your Subconscious

Quest for Lucidity
1

**Updated Thread Here

After posting about the subconscious in Darxide’s ‘Willing yourself to do it’ thread, I have been asked about a bunch of things having to do with the subconscious. So, I decided to just write a thread about it.

Whether you like it or not, your subconscious plays a very important role in your lucid dreaming life. In fact, the subconscious is the thing that decides whether or not you will even have one! Think of it as a super computer, with only one operator. Whatever the operator tells the subconscious to do, the subconscious will register that command, and will execute it at the time the operator tells it to. This is the process that constantly happens in your head. And guess what…the operator I am talking about, is you.

So, I bet now you are thinking about why you can’t LD at will because all you would technically have to do is say “I want to have a lucid dream!”. Well, there are two very important reasons why that most of the time does not work. I’ll start with the first reason.

Doubt. Doubt is your enemy. Even though you say “I want to have a lucid dream”, part of you (admit it now!) doesn’t believe it. You probably go, yeah yeah sure sure, this is a bunch of crap…but you still say it nonetheless because of curiosity. Now, if you don’t think that, then good! Otherwise, you’ve set some sort of mind block. And even though you give orders to your subconscious, part of you is still going to be iffy and will extend your orders saying “Yeah…I’m not so sure about this…this probably isn’t possible”, which most of the time, cancels your command all together. So how do you get rid of this doubt? It’s simple, and is also what reason two of this conflict of ours is.

Your subconscious is like a computer, as suggested earlier in here. With all computers, comes a language that the computer must understand. And you must learn that language by getting to better know your subconscious. You can’t just say what you want, because all that will do is corrupt commands being sent. So…how do you properly send a command so that you can be able to do ANYTHING that you want? Simple, you must have clear, intention filled statements. They have to be specific, not vague. They have to be backed up by your feelings, they can’t just mean nothing to you. You can achieve this confident state by just relaxing and trying to clear your mind. Once cleared, you are ready to state what you are looking for.

As just said, commands have to be specific. They also have to be what you want, not what you hate. For instance, do NOT say “I don’t want to have a normal dream”. Your subconscious will see that as “Have a normal dream.” Instead, you need to say in some form that you want to have a lucid dream. Think of it as a restaurant menu. You don’t want to choose the bad things on there, just the good yummy things!

Now that you know what exactly you want to happen, you need to say it in a specific command. This is the tricky part, because a lot of things can be used against you. As said many times, you MUST be specific. To show exactly what you do and don’t want, I am going to make a list:
[color=darkred]
The Bad Statements

  1. I want to have a lucid dream tonight
  2. I will be lucid at (insert time here)
  3. In (insert amount of time here) I will have a lucid dream
  4. I will have become lucid every time I dream
    [/color][color=green]
    The Good Statements
  5. In (insert amount of time here), I will realize I’m dreaming
  6. At (insert AM time here) tomorrow, I will realize I’m dreaming
    [/color]
    Ok…lot’s of things to point out here. First of all, NEVER use the word “want”. Always use “will” or some other confident word. You want your statements to be concrete! Not iffy. To show a lot more, I will be refering to the “Bad Statements”.

On 1, that is bad because of two things. First, it is using the word “want” instead of “will”; secondly, it uses the word tonight. Tonight is a very vague word. Your mind doesn’t know exactly when to do it, so it gets confused. ALSO, most people do not dream in the night time. They dream in the morning (the AMs)…which pretty much makes that statement completely void.

On 2, that is bad because let’s say you put 4:00 AM to replace the (insert time here) area. Even though it is a time, your mind still doesn’t know which 4:00 AM you are talking about! For all it knows, it could say you are talking about the 4:00 AM that will occur in 498 days from now! Remember, you have to be specific!

On 3, this is bad because of the words “lucid dream”. What if in that amount of time, that you specified, you are having a normal dream? In that case, that will void this statement because you are already in the process of having a dream. Instead, you should say “become lucid” or “realize I am dreaming”. Those are specific and taken without question by your subconscious.

On 4, this is bad because you are trying to accomplish a HUGE task, that your subconscious might not be ready for. By saying this, it puts a lot of pressure on yourself. Because if it doesn’t work out, then you will become less motivated and more frustrated. It’s kind of like having an unrealistic goal in life, all it does is make you feel worse. So please, do not attempt big statements like this. That way, if one time your statement doesn’t work, you can just say “Well…it must’ve been the way I said it”, and you can go on and try it again the next night with confidence!

Now that you know some of the things not to say, make sure you have seen the things that are good to say (shown above in the list). In my personal opinion, I think the first one on the good list is the best (if you set the right time). I personally use somewhere around 5-7 hours in that statement, because most likely I will be dreaming at that time (if I send this message to my subconscious right before bed). So that way, my subconscious knows that it must make me aware of my dream state at a specific time. I like to think of it as when I say the statement, a timer starts in my brain…and when that timer gets to my selected time, it buzzes and that’s when my lucid dreaming command is executed.

So…now you know your statement and you know how to start… BUT…how do you end?

When you say your statement over and over, keep saying it until you feel confident that it will work. DON’T try to fall asleep while saying this statement…as that will just make you start slurring your command and start confusing your subconscious. So after you say it a few times, and you feel somewhat confident, just stop saying it. Afterwards, don’t think about the statement. Just start thinking about what you enjoy…like about girls/guys or video games or movies or anything. Whatever it is that you usually think about when going to sleep, think about it. Then just fall asleep like it was a regular night.

Well, that’s pretty much the basic stuff about the subconscious. Hopefully this informed you and further allows you to accomplish methods such as Autosuggestion. Not only that, but I also hope it allowed you to see that you can do anything in life, just as long as you set your mind to it :content: .

Your subconscious is the thing that makes everything possible in dreamland…so you might as well make good friends with it. After all, you are stuck with it for the rest of your life. :tongue:

Enjoy!

-ben

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What you just said hit the money with what I’ve tried to tell people. Next time someone ask me about the SC then I’ll direct them here. Great Job Ben. Great job.

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I would just add one point here:
There are a lot of “programs” in your SC. This means that you may have to do some reprograming, instead of just adding a new program.
An example: You have heard the statment “If you fall from something high in your dream, you will die if you hit the ground before you wake up.” lots and lots of times, or if you heard it as the reason why someone importatnt in your life died, then it could keep you from flying in a LD, or from getting lucid in a ND.
This is because your SC is like a really big computer that not only runs the different programs, it also checks them out in relation to other programs. So it might say, “OK. here is a program to become aware of dreaming in 6 hours, however I have a program here that says if I hit the ground while falling in a dream I will die, and here I have a program that says when I am lucid in a dream, I want to fly, so if I become lucid and fly in my dream, I might fall and die so I will not run the program to become lucid”.
This is the third problem with programing your SC to do something. It is what Darxide means when he says "As long as you understand that if you believe the suggestion 100%, you will have 100% chances of having a lucid dream, then why not believe it 100%? It’s might seem like a difficult concept to grasp, but I’m trying my hardest to explain it. " If there are other programs in your SC that hold you back, then you are not 100% sure, and your SC can pull the program you set up.
The point is that you may need to do some reprograming as I said before, that means reading up on LD’s and working to convince yourself that they are not only something you want, but also don’t have any negative effects. You can also use autosuggestion statments like “lucid dreaming will improve my life” or “being lucid will only make my dreams better”.
Rember also that some of the programs that are getting in the way maybe deep in your SC so it may take a while before you get them changed, but if you keep working at it, you will succeed.
don

4

I’ve just read an article about “deprogramming” brain here.
It may be interesting especially the point about hypnosis, cause autosuggestion (autohypnosis) works in the same way. Now, it’s unclear to me if it’s deprogramming/reprogramming or adding a new and faster program.

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Wow Ben! Really informative and useful! Now i know what i have been doing wrong! although i still have one question!

How often should i say “I will recognise that i am dreaming at 5.am tonight” ?

Once in the day or more than once? Before i sleep or any time?

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I think this should be in the Library. :cool:

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Yes, this is a really useful topic! I might try this out sometime soon. :smile:

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Definently a method worth trying tonight! :ok:

According to this, I’ve been doing Autosuggestion wrong every single night XD I always say “want,” “have a lucid dream,” and give the exact time I want this to happen. Looks like I have a bit of restrategizing to do. :wink:

Thanks for the topic! It’ll help a lot of people, for sure!

9

That is definately worth the lucid library!

Thank you very much for this information ben, I think it was the most useful thing I’ve read about LDing yet. :grin:

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Thankyou everybody for the positive feedback! :grin:

/me blushes

Heh…your statement isn’t the strongest to begin with. Depending on how you look at it, your SC may think of it as a bad statement because you say tonight AND 5:00 AM, which 5:00 AM is not at night, it is morning. But, if you see 5:00 AM as nighttime, it will work for you!

As for how often you should say that… Say it as many times as you’d like, whenever you’d like. It really just takes some trial and error to see what works out and what doesn’t. I personally like to say my statement right before bed, so that the command is fresh in my mind. I also like to just repeat it until I feel good about it being registered.

This way of “programming” your mind is very open and very closed at the same time. You do have your boundaries, but other than those, you can do things however you’d like. You may find your way the first night, or you may take a month to finally find the way to send a command. Just takes motivation and patience :smile:

Don, I really never researched about re-programming my mind, because I think of commands as a one time thing. It’s probably different for everybody, but for me, once my SC accomplishes something that I have told it to do, it just basically puts that already executed command in the recycle bin. But it does bring up a good point for many people, and does show exactly why you may not have a LD. Those “programs” could also be called doubts, and the de-programming process would be the way to get rid of them. Very interesting stuff…thankyou for the link :cool:

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I want to add that I’ve read numerous times that it’s best to make suggestions when your mind is in an alpha state, which occurs when you’re in a relaxed or thoughtful state of mind. Your brainwaves gradually become slower, eventually turning into alpha brainwaves. We enter this state when we daydream, as we fall asleep, and during meditation. In fact, some people call it the “meditative state.” It’s in the alpha state that you can establish a closer connection with your subconscious, and your subconscious will in turn become more suggestible.

When BenDrummin says, “DON’T try to fall asleep while saying this statement,” I don’t know if he means you should never perform autosuggestion while you’re in bed falling asleep, but in case anyone is wondering, I want to clarify that the few minutes prior to sleep onset is actually an opportune time for autosuggestion or self-hypnosis. Of course, if you’re afraid of falling asleep prematurely, you can also just take a moment before going to bed and try to enter this state through meditation or something similar. It’s up to you.

Oh yeah, and good information, Ben. :content:

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When I said “DON’T try to fall asleep saying this statement”, I did infact mean don’t keep saying the statement over and over and over until you fall asleep (like you would with MILD). Tride is right about doing it right before sleep though. In fact that is exactly when I do it.

Also thanks for the tips on the alpha state :smile:

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I’ve been using the statement “The next time I have a dream, I will realize that I’m dreaming.” with WBTB for about two months now. It works great. Anyways, good post Benny boy :smile:

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good thing this was the last thing i read before bed. definately giving it a shot!

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Thank you!! points at #1 on the bad list thats the one I’ve been doing.

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Hi,
Basilus West said
“Now, it’s unclear to me if it’s deprogramming/reprogramming or adding a new and faster program.”

Well yes it is. :grin:
Actualy, it depends on where you are. If you have a program that directly interferes with the program that you want to make, you may have to deprogram it, or reprogram it. The difference is more in your head, but I would say something like going from “If I LD I will try to fly, If I try to fly I might fall, If I fall I might die” to “If I LD I will try to fly, flying in an LD is lots of fun” is reprograming, and trying to get rid of “If I fall I might die” with something like “Dreams are a safe, fun pastime” is deprogramming. I think it is more semantics in this case.

For a lot of the other questions, it depends a lot on the person. It is always a program from you for your SC. what you and your SC understand is what is important. In the western world there are a lot of similaritys between people, so what works for one generaly works for others. This is an international forum however, so there will be differences between people from different cultures. There are also personal differences. For some people “I will have a lucid dream at 5AM” might work. For most people it will not because it is to vague for the SC. What I am trying to say here is “You need to get to know your SC”. You can get a lot of help here, but you need to take the with your SC to get to know how it deals with your “programs” and what other programs it already has that are blocking your “programs”. This is true for lots of things, not just LD’ing. If you don’t know your SC very well, you might have problems with autosuggestion or autohypnose.
don

17

Helpful! :slight_smile: Always had the willpower, but have to know where to direct it…Very very very very (x10^10) useful. =P

:slight_smile:

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Sometimes even the best approach to your SC is to imagine it. Influence yourself like your programming yourself. If you tell yourself something over and over influencing yourself (like ego theories) you’ll find it has overcomed your conscious to your subconscious.

Easy way- imagine the layout of your mind in any way you want then picture what you want to be in the mind. Tell yourself over and over to program it. If something is blocking you from doing so, clear you conscious first.

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Didn’t work for me. I suggested it right I think, but I couldn’t sleep. I fell asleep without knowing it some time then and that spoiled everything, had a terrible dream recall.

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why is doing it WHILE falling asleep ineffective?

this is a direct access between you and the subconscious, where you can receive feedback back.

while it is true, that trying to speak logical sentence in this state my result with a garbled and confusing string of words, ideas, pictures, or sounds that may not have a direct inherent meaning, and you may develop amnesia as to what you were doing in the first place…

if you can maintain an intent and take it into theta like that, isn’t it more powerful than saying it 20 times in beta/alpha ?

like for instance imagine that the next sentence I type is my mantra. I am approaching sleep and will retain lucidity throughout the night when ever applicable.

I am approaching sleep and will retain lucidity throughout the night -----------drifts off and comes back awake-------when ever applicable.

I am approaching sle---------------------
drifts off----------------------------------
gradually comes back----------------------
I am… ? I am…
-------------------------drifts off even deeper ------------
comes back more alert this time
Oh yeah… I am going to be lucid…drifts off

doesn’t it seem like that imprints it more, even if it churns back gibberish? Isn’t it like placing your conscious into an entry point into the subconscious?

do you have experience playing around down there in the semi-amnesia of approaching sleep, when sleep carries more momentum than conscious volition, and takes you on a brief journey downards.

or maybe everything just gets deleted during delta if you can’t store it to long term memory? that could be.