Hi Robert,
I have been enjoying your book and diligently following your recommended techniques and practices for several months. Due to the journal, my dream recall has become very good. However I continue to have no critical awareness (or lucidity) during the dream state despite numerous reality checks during the day and a statement of intent that I am consistent with repeating throughout the day, before sleep and in the middle of the night.
Any suggestions?
Thank you
Hi Aron,
Thanks for writing. First, I’m glad to hear that your dream recall has risen to “very good” status. 😉 That’s great!
When it comes to lucid dreaming and beginner challenges, there can be a number of issues (so here’s some of the top ones):
- Reality checks. Personally, my books don’t really encourage this as a method for beginners to have a lucid dream (even though there are lots of people on the internet who suggest this).
- If reality checks are your main approach, and you have not had a lucid dream within a few weeks — then Try a New Approach! 😉
- After we do any approach for a few weeks, it often begins to become ‘habitual’ and loses its potency. For this reason, I also suggest that you select one of the approaches from my book Lucid Dreaming – Plain and Simple — and try it instead.
- One approach that I like for beginners involves my version of the Hands technique (which you can read about in the book). When you begin to associate the stimulus (your hands) with the response (hey, this is a dream), then your hands become a powerful dream sign to prompt lucidity! It is cool when your hands pop right in front of your face, and you think, “Whoa, this is a dream!” (because you saw your hands). This is called “conditioned response” and is a psychological technique used by Ivan Pavlov.
- Goals…. If you became lucid tonight, what would be your goal? Some beginners (who have little success) tell me they have no goal or can’t think of one. If we don’t have a goal, then often we don’t have a reason to do it (get lucid). So it helps to have a worthy goal — something that makes you curious, makes your heart sing, emotionally engages you.
- Doubts, concerns and fear. Occasionally, I will meet someone who wants to lucid dream, but secretly has doubts, concerns and fears. This is like having one foot on the brake — and one foot on the accelerator at the same time! You just don’t go anywhere. So sometimes we have to examine our ‘dream history’ and see if we have issues or concerns that we need to resolve.
Hopefully one of the above points will appeal to you, and help you consider a new approach that really works!