An Early Morning Lesson In Awareness

Despite showering, the dream fog still hasn't completely dissipated when I take toothbrush in hand... "Turn off the heater", an inner voice reminds me and I put down the brush, spin round to flip the appropriate switch. But wait, it's already off. Funny, I don't recall turning it off earlier. Must have done it out of habit. Without thinking. Reaching once again for my toothbrush, I'm momentarily startled to not find it in its customary location. Instead, it's on the counter -- right where I'd left it. Ah, now I remember. I'd interrupted my usual routine only a moment ago. Or am I simply telling myself that "I remember" in order to quickly justify the surprises encountered? Would I be again surprised to wake up from this episode and have to record a couple of suddenly obvious dream signs? Okay, time for a reality check!

Well, it appears I'm not dreaming (a slight pause to imagine what I'd choose to do if this were a dream). Still, those moments, when I concluded a logical reason for what occurred, are haunting. Where was my awareness? I did, at least for a split second, find it odd, both times, in quick succession -- a definite nudge to examine reality. And now I see how easy it is to invent excuses for such seeming, little inconsistencies in the waking world and it leaves me to wonder: If I don't hone my awareness skills in this realm, how much harder will it be to attain lucidity in the dream world?

The question of what it might take to sharpen these skills puts me in mind of Scott and Les's dialogue about concentration and intention (see "Insomnia and Sleep Deprivation" thread) and how they might relate to lucidity. Actually, I've been thinking about it for days and it does seem to me that developing concentration (the ability to focus on one thing) would surely lead to an enhancement of intention skills. In both waking and dream realms, I believe intending is far more effective than wishin' and hopin'.

Having said all of this, I do intend to sleep on it as well! Keelin

PS: Scott also briefly mentioned "desires". On this I do have a theory regarding manifestation... Below, my personal "Recipe For Conjuring":

If birthed intentionally in the dream, then held gently in the heart, it will take but a whisper for that which is desired to manifest.

Hi Keelin,

As always, thanks for the lessons. A natural follow on to the is-intention-concentration question, or perhaps more rightly, to the assertion that it is, is this question: do meditation exercises strengthen this capability?

Apparently, many devotees of Tibetan spiritual traditions are dreamers extraordinaire. Some who write about this indicate that certain exercises are essential to success. I've loosely called these "meditation exercises" above, though they need not be described this way.

Does anyone have any comment on this?

Scott

Hi Friends!

Well, I will include a couple of things here that seem on the topic, though they might need to get rearranged at some later point! (BTW, I like the idea of rearranging discussion threads! It helps find the topics you're looking for!)

First I want to share an interesting "Am I dreaming?!" experience I had the other day. (So perhaps this goes in the dream signs thread...) I was trying to find a parking space, and located one at my favorite spot. I parallel parked, put my sunshade on the windshield, got out, and put my money in the meter. But the meter wouldn't take it. I looked at the meter, which read "Violation." The dial wouldn't turn, and banging a bit on the meter didn't help. After a moment of frustration, I relaxed and thought "Oh well, I'll just have to park somewhere else." I got back in the car, took down the sunshade, and noticed that the space in front of the car ahead of me was open. I moved the car there, parallel parked, etc., and repeated all the steps listed above. But, the meter wouldn't take the coin. The meter said "Violation," and the dial wouldn't turn. As my frustration level rose, the surreality of it struck me and I said to myself, almost out loud, "Am I dreaming?!" I did a quick reality test using my wristwatch and found that, no, I wasn't. But this reinforced a realization that has recently been growing. That is, one of my most dominant dream sign patterns, the "continual aggravation" dream, is actually based on real life situations! That was an important realization for me in at least two senses. First, recognizing such aggravations are present in my waking life, and how surreal they are, is probably good practice for recognizing them during dreams. Second, and more importantly, recognizing such aggravations is the first step towards changing my responses to them--to temper the degree of frustration I feel, and reduce the stress level in my daily life.

BTW, in response to Keelin's own lesson in awareness, I think it is a perfect example of the interaction of two of my pet topics in cognitive psychology: attention, and short-term/working memory. Both "attention" and "working memory" have been associated with "awareness" and "the eternal present" in more philosophical discussions within cognitive psychology. I think they are intimately related to each other. Working memory is your memory for some mental contents that just went through your mind only a moment or two ago. In order to remember what you just did only a moment ago (e.g., putting your toothbrush down on the sink) requires, first, attention to what you did when you did it. We cannot usually afford to pay attention to everything we do, since we do so many things, and those that are deemed unimportant (in terms of their details) are handled without attention, in an automatic fashion (i.e., "autopilot mode"). This is reasonable. It doesn't make sense to carefully attend to every minute action one performs (e.g.,while tying one's shoes) if one has performed the action a million times before. Indeed being overly attentive to such details can lead us to miss more important things in our environment (such as a car about to hit you while you are tying your shoe!). Second, even if we attended to the action only a moment before when we performed it, in order to maintain it in our mind, so that it isn't replaced with new contents (e.g., new actions), requires that we continue to attend to it. Thus, you would have to pay attention to the idea that you wanted to remember, in order to hold it in working memory (e.g., repeating a new phone number long enough to dial it requires one to pay attention to the number during the entire process, in order to repeat it). Since our sense of "now" inevitably includes more than the current millisecond (or microsecond, or...), the recent past gets included. That recent past is held in working memory. Yet the contents of working memory seem to be quite limited, and thus we are frequently surprised at our inability to remember something that we just encountered only a moment ago.

I think that this helps explain why dreams so often morph when we repeatedly check them (e.g., Dr. LaBerge's digital watch reality test). Since a dream image is not "aided" by a physical stimulus which serves as an external "memory" to be checked, in order for a dream image not to change, we would have to hold the image in working memory. And, it turns out that visual working memory is notoriously poor in terms of holding physical details of an image. So, to sum up, Keelin's example is a perfect illustration of what we all face constantly in our daily waking lives and in our dreaming, but we are just not usually as aware of it as she was. In fact, I think experience with this phenomena (poor working memory) in lucid dreaming would tend to make one more aware of it during waking life, though it doesn't make it any easier!

In reply to Scott's posting, my guess is that you are correct in guessing that meditation would help lucid dreaming, for precisely the reasons we have been discussing. Namely, meditation develops the ability to concentrate, i.e., to focus attention, and maintain it. On a personal note, I find it interesting that in the last few months I have been working on both lucid dreaming and meditation, after having toyed with both for years, but never working consistently at either for an extended period of time. Now that I am making a bit of progress on lucid dreaming, I am also doing so for meditation! (Or is it the other way around?!)

And now, I would like to pose a question related to all of the above. What do folks on the list think about the prospects of using biofeedback to develop self regulation of the mind? Actually, the Dreamlight/NovaDreamer is, of course, a form of biofeedback applied to dreaming. It takes a physiological measure (rapid eye movements) which is strongly correlated with a given mental state (dreaming) and provides a physical feedback signal to the user (light flashes or beeps) in order to make the user aware of his/her mental state. But what about the various other types of biofeedback devices available on the market today to be used while awake, in order to develop concentration, relaxation, focus, etc.? In particular, I wonder about the EEG devices (though they are probably all far too expensive for me to consider--I just checked into the "Mind Mirror" and it is roughly $3200!!). Are EEG biofeedback devices really effective in developing control of one's mind? If so, are there any more affordable devices that are worth trying? Or should I stick to the ancient form of biofeedback, namely attention to breath in meditation?

Best regards, and lucid dreams!

Les

Dear Les,

Thanks for your informed elucidation regarding memory! I'll always remember you for that. ;->

Your comment "in order for a dream image not to change, we would have to hold the image in working memory" reminded me of a lucid dream years ago in which my sister was flying alongside me. I recall thinking that if I really wanted to keep her (image) there, I'd have to be sure to give her a fair portion of my on-going attention. And indeed, when I shifted focus to take in the beautiful Sea below, she completely disappeared from the scene. Indeed, what continues to surprise me is that there is ever any consistency to speak of in Dreamland!

Your reflections about changing waking life responses in aggravated situations really struck a chord. This, I feel, is one of the greatest gifts lucid dreaming has to offer. Recently, the following NON-lucid dream gave me even further encouragement in this direction:

... a woman standing next to me at the counter tries to steal the money I've set there. I catch her in the act and angrily confront her. Then suddenly, I become aware that this is exactly the type of situation in which I strive to respond "lucidly" in waking life (ie: more mindfully than in habitual reaction). I acknowledge that this is something learned from lucid dreaming, yet don't become aware that this is a dream. The moment I feel the shift in my attitude and drop the confrontational tone, we begin to converse amiably and eventually leave the caf" together. I wake feeling very good about how the dream ended, elated with the thought that what I've been learning through lucid dreaming has not only made an impact on my waking life, but is now also influencing my non-lucid dreams -- and those often seem to be my most "unaware" occasions.

Wishing you all memorable, lucid adventures, Keelin

Ever since I began trying to lucid dream, I have felt a total shift in my awareness of awareness and what awareness is. I now understand what various sages meant by the statement "humans are asleep". Although my actual lucid dreams are infrequent, the benefits of practicing reality checks and other lucid dreaming exercises has enriched my life enormously.

As memorable as my first lucid dream was and that feeling of realizing "I'm REALLY dreaming!!!!", I also remember how great it felt the first time I awoke during the day. I had been practicing LaBerge's "prospective memory training" exercise (the first time I see a red car, the first time I feel cold.... etc) without much success. In fact I had pretty much stopped after a week of barely remembering any of the targets.

Then one afternoon as I was driving home from work, deeply caught up in thoughts of my job, I noticed an airplane flying low over the horizon, and at that very moment I had that "realization". I guess that was my first really successful "lucid waking" during the day, and it felt great. I now have a basketful of "waking" dream signs that help me at various times throughout the day to shift my awareness into the present moment, for at least a moment, enough to pull me out of the "waking sleep" in order to assess my state. I guess it is somewhat of a variation of LaBerge's exercise.

My favorite waking dream signs are crows. I can generally count on several crow "encounters" during the day to wake me out of my waking dream. Sometimes in the morning when I am meditating, my mind will have wandered, and I will hear a crow outside, and it is a great reminder, "ooops, my mind has wandered". Sometimes I will be walking out to my car, deep in thought, and then suddenly I will become aware that a crow has been "cawing" at me, just like it was trying to get my attention. Or sometimes while driving I will spot one in a tree....

Whatever the case, it is my cue to wake up, pause in my thoughts, and in full awareness consider "Well? Am I?"