some of my LD-related issues

Quest for Lucidity
1

Hi,
I’ve tried having LDs for some time, but all of my attempts failed pretty spectacullary so far. It’s not problem with dream recall, I pride myself I am able to update my dream journal night after night, with at least one new entry. The point is it’s not very rewarding to me - since I’ve started focusing more intensively on LDs (on “invoking” them) I’ve as well started to have nightmares i.e. about man-eater spiders or skeletal wights. You’ll say “do RC”, but that’s really last of things that was coming to my mind when such thing were getting closer and closer to my face. I usually end up waking up, screaming like hell unleashed after that. I’m also a bit scared about the bare fact itself, that I’ve not encountered any mention of such “sensations” in any of guides I’ve followed.

Now, I do believe though that the reason for not being able to even consider RCs is problem with fitting them into my waking life. That brings me here, with - I hope - rather inferior problem. I mostly forget about RCs. I’ve made myself some memos, but they’re not very helpfull, especially when I’m busy (seems I just tend to ignore them). Is there a way to increase my “awareness” of them? And won’t it limit my RC-performing ability while dreaming, that I use my phone on-screen memos to remind me of RCs?

Another point, mostly when I remember I should do RC, it’s not the “time and place” (like in a bus, those priceless face expresions of other passengers when you pinch your nose - by some considered as the best RC there is). So the question is - can you combine efficiency and discrecy in one, or these are RC traits that exclude one another?

Third question - I’ve read that doing more than one RC is more efficient (hence better). Now, some guides recommend performing text-reading RC and clock-reading RC. As far as I know they work on the same basis, which is the behavior of the text being read (that it shifts constantly). So will the combination of two “pretty much the same” RCs (like mentioned text-reding and clock-reading or pushing fingers through one hand then through another) work, or should I alter them? If the latter, which ones you feel are best to combine?

I thank you in advance for your help and time (and sorry if my english is terrible, it’s just not my main language).

2

Hi, and welcome to LD4all! :welcome:

It is difficult to reply with a clear answer to this, because different techniques work for different people, in different ways. The purpose of regular RCs is to get ourselves used to thinking about lucid dreaming regularly. It isn’t the physical act itself that matters, it is the intent behind it. You need to really consider the fact that this could be a dream for a moment.

I have found that “mental” RCs are just as effective as “physical” ones. My regular, physical RC is to try to draw in the air. This isn’t something I would do at work or on a full bus, so in those public situations, I do a more mental RC instead: “If this is a dream, there will be a flying cat around the next corner/a roaring lion on my phone screen/the next passenger will speak Klingon/insert your own highly unlikely scene here” I have actually gotten lucid from seeing the lion on my screen once.

It can be more efficient to do several RCs together. I see that you keep a DJ. Have you tried to do your RCs in situations that often come up in your dreams? For example, I dream a lot about trains and the roads next to my parents’ house. It has been effective to RC when I see a train, or walk on those roads. For people who have a lot of false awakenings, it has worked to RC as soon as they wake up.

I hope that this will help a bit. :cool: Remember that different ways are effective for different people. There are many techniques described on this forum, and many, such as WILD, don’t involve RCs at all.

3

Thanks for your reply, it cleared some of those for me. Yet what would the world be if in place of one cleared doubt just another wouldn’t spring in? :happy:

You said that to perform RC when I come up on situation that keeps repeating itself in my journal. The point here is they do not really repeat themselves (not clearly at least). I do notice however some of the dreamsigns, like malfunctioning lights, or dynamic perspective shifts, like from first person perspective directly into top-down birdlike one. Most of them, though, are not suitable to perform RC in “real” life. Also, should I consider a trigger for RC any given situation, or should those be short, point-like moments (like looking through a window as the former opposed to phone started to ring as the latter)?
Also, I once tried to perform RC each time when I hear someone calls me, for that happened pretty often in my dreams. That however wasn’t good idea, for situations like this require quick attention and focus shifts, and very rarely leave place for RC. Sometimes even in my dreams I was someone else. I’ll try however to perform RC each time I step through a door, that shoud do the trick, as it’s the situation that repeat itself in my dreams and waking life alike.

As for mental RC you mentioned - how do you feel, would backtracking (like thinking what do I do here, what’s my purpose in here, and how did I get here) be good mental RC, or should it be something more like MILD mantra?

Also, I noticed something funny. In MILD FAQ here on forum, there is a quick and easy excercise for prospective memory. The thing is, after telling myself that “something will happen” I am unable to stop thinking about it, it keeps recurring in the background of other thoughts for whole time, so when the trigger event happens, there is no “click” in my memory, for the memory, and the thought are still there, being unable to be muffled. I’m not sure if that’s what the goal of the excercise is, but…

Also last night I had strange situation. After seeing something “absurdly stupid” I performed RC and, to my surprize, it succeeded. I recognized I was dreaming, but that would be about it. Here starts the old, good “was it really LD?” thing. I’d like to believe I became lucid there, but I have my doubts, for right after that I found myself in drastically different situation (place, time, perspective and feelings) and forgot I already realized I am dreaming.

On a side note: to your last suggestion, I tried WILD for some time, but I realized I’m unable to stay “up” and aware long enough. After some time, like 1-1.5h, my mind just drifts away, and with it, my lucidity. Then I started combining techniques, like FILD and MILD, WILD and MILD. The fruit of the former was the spider nightmare.

EDIT: Also I see I abuse the word “also”.

4

The point of this exercise is to train your prospective memory. Sometimes is annoying because you constantly think about the tasks and it kinda kills the purpose of them. You should try to pick the situations that are more independent from you (better “next time I hear/see …” than “next time I do…”) and that likely occur no more than twice per hour.

Aww, thats happen sometimes. Wether it was (semi) LD depends rather on the awareness than actions. Everytime you do RC you should pay attention to it. You should really ask the question “Is this dream?” and not know it until you perform test, review past few minutes and review nearest future. You may combine multiple RCs. If you are sure you are not dreaming, play a little and think that after all everything is a dream. What would you do in that situation then?

5

Thank you for your reply and advices, I’ll try to follow them as close as possible. As for the little prospective memory excericise, I see where are yoy coming from ,and I have to agree. I thought situations like writing a report are good enough, maybe because of “eating an apple” example in FAQ. Thanks for clearing it up for me.