I just thought of a new lucid dreaming technique...
It's actually probably not new, but it is to me.... I've never tried it that is.
Do you ever write yourself notes to help you remember to do something? I don't have to. A blank sheet of paper is all I need and I leave it in an odd place that I know I will walk past eventually like a hallway or a flight of steps. Then when I see it I think, "Why is that there? Oh yea!" And it doesn't have to be paper, it could be the pen or anything. There is no need to write on the paper; just seeing it will trigger the memory. (Like a string tied on your finger.)
Then I started to wonder if I can plant a seed in my mind, like a mental note to remind me to ask myself if I am dreaming and do a reality check whenever I see it. It would have to be something that I see on a constant basis no matter what the dream.
The first thing I thought of was the color, yellow. So I am going to try an experiment. Whenever I see the color yellow while awake I will ask myself if I am dreaming and do some reality checks. This should cross over into dreams out of habit.
I guess this is pretty much the same as reality checking during the day, however instead of doing it randomly it will be triggered by something I see. And it has to be something that almost every dream will contain no matter what. All sounds and objects may be different each dream so they are not sufficient reminders. However, the color yellow should be in most of them.
I am curious to see what this will lead to and will write about my experience whether it works or not. And it may take a few days to plant the seed....
This is interesting...I will watch this thread
I used to do stuff like this, when walking to university I would pick out some landmarks along the way so when I pass them, I become aware and do a reality check. After doing a reality check I would then think of the next landmark in my day and chain together the whole day so I dont forget to do reality checks.
I think this is the whole point of finding dreamsigns and such, you can learn the dreamsigns and then do reality checks when you see them irl.
For me this is way too tedious and gets boring after a while when you realise it doesnt really work, or rather it just doesnt work enough for it to be worth doing.
Yea I think it will be tedious too. And it may ruin the color yellow for me. I will never see a banana the same way again....
Plus, when I am watching t.v. and see the color yellow I am so absorbed in the show that I forget. The same happens in dreams and happened to me last night. I had dreams, but were so absorbed I didn't even consider my 'yellow experiment'. I think the color yellow is just too ubiquitous to be of any help being a dream sign. It is never amiss.
I think I would be better off getting into the habit of looking at clocks regularly and determining if they are real or dream-clocks.
HAGART wrote: It's actually probably not new, but it is to me.... I've never tried it that is.
The first thing I thought of was the color, yellow. So I am going to try an experiment. Whenever I see the color yellow while awake I will ask myself if I am dreaming and do some reality checks. This should cross over into dreams out of habit.
Sounds like you are going to mentally manufacture a dream sign.
Isn't that the so famous memory anchor of NLP (or sort of)? In writing a dream journal, Rebecca recommended putting something on your room (like the picture of the moon) and then you say 'Oh, the picture, I must write my diary!' I haven't used that 'memory relations' for dreams, but it's very useful for me when I study (I only need to read once something or attend in class, get relations and I know it) or for remembering useless things (when I wrote 'moon' in the post the piano song of the game To The Moon started playing). At least, I think that's what you do
HAGART wrote: I think the color yellow is just too ubiquitous to be of any help being a dream sign.
You, sir, just helped me finish my scavenger hunt.
#22 - The word "ubiquitous" used properly in an internet forum post...Check!
:mrgreen:
Your welcome. And you helped me with #265.2 with the word: oneironaut. (However it was in a quotation, so that may not count.)
Another good idea for becoming lucid is through habits or activities you do every day. Example: Reading a book, biting nails, humming a tune, facebook, etc. Every time you do this, do a reality check. Since you do the activity/habit everyday, your brain converts it into your dreams. Do your reality check and...BOOM! Lucid.
When you step immediately into a dream, you have to wake up after 4-6 hours of sleep, depending on your cycle, than keep on saying to yourself that you're dreaming as you re-enter your 5th stage of sleep where you dream. Well, I had a really long day and was really tired, so I immediately fell asleep as my head touched the pillow, literally! I did say to myself I was dreaming, and when I went into my dream world I became lucid. The strange thing was that it felt like I had skipped the first 4 stages and stepped right into the last one, how can that be?