In my case this is not true at all…
If i get lucid i just know i am lucid, without questioning the environment, its like an automated switch that goes in my head.
I don’t ask myself questions, not in real life neither in my dreams.
Hi, do you use any tecnhique at all ? i am very interested in non- effort techniques 
for instance, i wonder how a simple removal of assumptions can turn around
i think we have to put more effort on how we see reality and less on how we practice induction tecnhiques. we have to cure the disease ( non lucidity, illusion), not just the symptoms…if the goal is to achieve natural lucidity i think we have to refresh our minds. a simple « am i dreaming» question is not enough.
we must say, ofc i am dreaming and i am gonna live this dream the best i can and we have to demand the same while sleeping
wow amazing post!
I fit into the second category, although I sometimes question “what did I just do?” this is more just to remember where I put my car keys or cigarette lighter. When I do this I usually make a quick mental hook (mentally commit it to short-term memory).
What I very commonly do however is over-analyze my environment constantly. Like you said this could be due to a naturally formed habit in order to distinguish if any monsters are around - to determine if the area is safe. When I notice something odd, something out of place or something that seems to good to be true that in turn causes me to think twice about it and question my reality. I am also one of these people that discovered lucid dreaming naturally at the age of around 4 years old through recurring nightmares.
It is in a way paranoid thinking which could explain why I was more susceptible to drug-induced psychosis but that’s a whole 'nother story. It also explains why I am so interested in conspiracy theories and a believer in spirituality and the supernatural. The latter due to a tendency to attribute unusual and unexplainable things as proof there is more to reality than physicality. If I didn’t have this questioning mindset I most likely wouldn’t be the same person I am today.
thx robert for this interesting post, love your book!! 
I am a lucid dreamer (and OBE´ler) since childhood; I am a yoga acharya, lifed quite a while in india, africa, all over europe and now australia …I studied all sort of mystical teachings, science and raja yoga …
in my case - asolutely NO reality check, no affirmation and absolutely NO technique - whatsoever - usually work; NOTHING:
I have spontaneous lucid dreams, and I consider OBEs as different from lucid dreams as the feeling is fundamentaly different, I dont have a body but a “cloud” which moves different than in a lucid dream; Very often I have a lucid dream which transforms into an OBE … for example:
Dream: I fly over a beach with people having fun, children playing, 
hear the sound of waves … I get lucid in the dream - until all of a sudden - I spot some kind of carpet borts - between the waterline / beach … 
my feeling completly changes, the dream view slowly fades away … I cant move and float very slowly - 5 centimeters - with my face down … over the carpet 2 meters away from my physical body: 
the feeling very often completly changes, and my dream reality turns into a quite boring/scary feeling to float around close to my sleeping physical body …
Robert - very often I experienced - that we DO NOT have one consciousness, but many, and they all record different dream / OBE / waking life memories; we seem to switch between more than one - individual experiences forward and backward!!!
THIS seems to be the reason why so many people CAN NOT 
lucid dream very often… because in fact … they CAN … but cant remember / download the extremly complex lucid dream / OBE memory into the physical brain!! ( a bit like robert bruce describes it in his book …)
The truth: ALL techniques work brilliant in my case BUT - the download of the momories only sometimes happens; So sometimes I wake up, I dont have ANY memory - keep lying in bed until - all of a sudden - I feel something in my spine / head and all of a sudden a complete memory appears out of nothing …
Regulary I try wild technique but only sometimes succeed - and always in some kind of unexpected way - it may turn into a “mild” experience, OBE or it works the next day when I didnt even try …
My explanation in combination to your post - there seem to be - more than one - consciousness within us: even during falling asleep, I always observe that the moment I mentally “let go/relax” … my mind starts weird thoughts about apples, beatles, childhood memories, not so much hypagogic lpictures than “unorganised, semiconscious” … dreamlike THOUGHTS - like the script for a dream, but not a dream …
the key to understand how to dream lucid is NOT some kind of technique, but the ability to have a lucid attitude (like tibetan BÖN tradition/zen awareness) AND the ability to “switch” into several other “selfes” / cooperate with unconsciousness itself; if one cannot do that - what is left is always the physical version of the memory - this means NO memory of the lucid dream / OBE at all - and being dissapointed because the technique didnt seem to work …
I had quite awesome experiences - one time I lifed a paralell life - I was just a little bit poorer, my father didnt study and we have been driving in a cheap car AND: I wasnt able to wake up!!! it was a 100% physical reality and I lived it for a few weeks - my memory cant exactly tell but I might have lived a paralell life till the end!
Another time I got lucid in a cube - went through a glass door and entered a time and formless realm where I knew absolutley everything! I was one with everything and knew all experiences the big “one” has ever made!! when I got back through the door into the 3 dimensional cube - I forgot everything, the only thing I took with me (into my physical brain) is that this state of consciousness exists …
serapis 
Robert, the reason why this woman was able to dream lucid was not the “objective” consciousness - asking herself the same question - it is the SUBcosnciousness - making her ask this question … this is why it wont work if we try to “consciously” use this technique?!
here s my big TOE (theory of everything):
humans in the ordinary every day consciousness seem to not understand - that they are the tale, not the dog;
they dont understand that its not “them” being incarnated to learn and use the “subconsciousness” - it is the higher - unconscious - aspects of ourself - who is dreaming “us” - to learn; it just hurts our ego to realise - that “we” (little objective me … ) are a software, the tale, the ant - not the master …
yes we are some kind of sim character in a virtual data world - like tom campbell write is his book - but the final hint to understand is - that the physical objective personality is like a little 10cm puppy - dog on a rope:
when we try to dream lucid, we try to make our owner move another way - trying some techniques to get lucid within the dream; and yes - for a moment the supplement, the dreaminduction / OBE technique works … we jump with all our power in one direction and the owner slips . and makes one step back … until he comes back with a stronger line, a rubber line or puts us in a cage or dog school …
we are the ants, not the anthill …
kundalini experience just means that “you” become united with your real “self” - which is split into uncountable little “selfes” - it is slowly learning through us, not “us” - learning;
the chances to be lucid in a dream increase massively - if we work together with the higher aspects of ourself - then our “owner” might give us a bone every now and then …
ok I just noticed that i didnt point out the key so - sorry for all my posts - but here it is (plz read my other to posts - it is one big message)
do you find yourself reading 100+ OBE / lucid dream books and dont have lucid dreams? are you doing hemi sync, gateway experience e.g. since 1 year without significant success?? are you still thinking - is the subject we are talking about here a LD or an OBE? are you thinking of re reading all your 100+ OBE books or doing 3 instead of 2 daily hemi sync sessions???
what is the problem???
the problem is - you are identified with the dog, you want a bone, you bark, you jump up and down - you run around in the house, wee in the corner to get what you want … the owner might give you a meatball, but he will watch the footy game first and you might get the meatball later, and if you are too annoying you end up in your dogbox - locked out … not having an OBE for years …giving up;
the technique im most cases is NOT the problem:
robert monroe mentions fear … maybe
robert bruce talks about memory problems … indeed a good chance you do have OBEs / lucid dreams - but cant remember
but ask yourself - how are you feeling with all of this?
did you read “the secret” - euphorically trying to wish your beachhouse … only to realise that after 5 years you still live in a shoebox in ratrace city … you still do tapes and books, you try out OBE technique 117
Most likeley you are identified with being the little puppy dog; with your lower self;
the key is - to realise how you are feeling when you meditate, try to dream lucid or visualise your dream beach house, 
realise that YOU are the dog, the owner, the rope, the house and the garden; as long as you identify with the lower self - most likeley you will get stuck in trying thousands of reality checks, wild, mild, vild … techniques, you read monroe, bruce, buhlman and still nothing happens …you do zazen, “try” to live in here and now …
I found myself having dozens of lucid dreams, OBEs and many other experiences - like having foresight, an incredible intuition and above all - I enjoyed my life to the maximum - whenever I managed to REALISE the bigger self and little “me” being within this bigger self;
the owner of the dog is a nice guy owning 10 millions of dogs - once you are aware that the real YOU is … the owner - you have control about all the meatballs instead of being the little “you” basking, jumping, running … and finally being totally exhausted …
a good sign that you are doing meditation (or any other technique) right is this kind of “feeling” connected, lucid, aware - happy; then effortless you can ask for experience and without technique it will come - or if you do “wild” technique - it might work at least sometimes …
when I finally realised this - I found myself travelling the world, lived in india, africa, all over europe and now on the most beautiful island in australia … AND I had at least quite a few amazing lucid dreams …without any effort …
Very interesting ill be sure to start trying this out thanks
I find this a great article since no method is working for me. I started doing RC’s 1 week ago and i’m doing them already without telling myself to do one. I just randomly get the urge to do a RC. The question how ever doesn’t work for me since i remember almost everything of the whole day. Thank you for the article
I like this! A simple question: what was I just doing? Ive done a similar question before: what was i just thinking about? Combined, this might just work out without having to wake up in the mid of the night! damn 1500 lucid dreams per year? thats like 4 lucid dreams per night! Does she never have normal dreams?
This question and a dream journal when I wake up in the morning or night is hopefully what will work for me.
Fantastic thread! Thanks for the tips. c:
I really enjoyed this article and I’ll certainly be trying out these excellent tips. Thanks!
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the interesting comments and observations about this technique of Developing a Lucid Mindset. 
Obviously, it is not for everyone – but some people will discover that it works for them when practiced thoughtfully.
their frequent lucid dreaming could be traced back to persistent childhood nightmares where they learned how to achieve lucidity to deal with nightmare scenarios. In other cases, their frequent lucid dreaming seemed connected to certain waking mental habits.
He is dead on…
Fantastic post, I’m in the middle of trying to achieve this.
I’d be curious to hear if any of the earlier posters on this thread had any luck forming their “Lucid Mindset”?
Amazing stuff Robert! I have only recently begun to ask myself the same question, why do some people seem to naturally become lucid in their dreams?
This seems to be a more than fitting answer and I have been doing my best to adopt this mindset. To over analyze my entire day, throughout my entire day. It also seems to have a positive effect on my short and long term memory as well as my dream recall. Since I have been trying this I find myself not just going through my day but really experiencing each moment so that I have more information to go over when I do ask the question, What was I just doing?
Wishing all you dreamers out there the best of luck in your endeavours
So the key is THE CRITICAL QUESTION.
I get the feeling that, “What was I just doing?” wouldn’t work for me. But I do like Wyvern’s
“Is this realistic? Why? What was I doing before to get to this point?”
since it brings the thought of a possible dream to mind first instead of the tedious review of the last hour.
Indeed, I thing THE critical question is different from a people to another, each of us has to find the one that corresponds to his personality.
As far as I’m concerned I feel frustrated because on the four LD I had (I wish I had more ! ) i jus’t don’t know with three of them how I became lucid ! For two, I was in a corridor I didn’t know and it came to my mind that I was lucid, and another one I was in my job, during a meeting, and then I just realized, without knowing why, that it was a dream (how wonderfull was this one, I jumped on the table and shouted what I thought about my colleagues 
)
And I said in a previous post, in the last LD, I did my RC and it didn’t work ! I realized then because the room in which I was had another wall.
To me, I think I have to be aware of the place I am and the people I am with.
Thank you for this very intersting article.
many thanks from germany
Such an awesome post, thanks it was a good read
Hello!
This is my first time here and i just want to say that I’m very happy to be here and to share my opinion.
Thanks!