Creating artificial dream sign?

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

I'm finding my dream signs in my journal consistent but not very outstanding. For example, I think it's highly likely that I'll have a dream that features someone I used to work with, but I can't see how that's remarkable enough to make me RC in a dream. So I've been wondering if it's possible to condition yourself to dream about a specific person? My dad used to have a friend called Johnny Powell. He always wore black trousers and black shirt, black sunglasses (like Jack Nicholson) and a black hat. What I've been trying to to is think about Johnny Powell lots, and think about him as I'm going to sleep, and using the affirmation, "Tonight I'll dream about Johnny Powell and realise I'm dreaming, then RC etc." I'm even imagining dreams in my head where Johnny Powell features, and during the day I link what I'm doing to Johnny Powell in some way: for example, if I'm doing the washing up I'll think something like, "I wish Johnny Powell would knock on the door and help me with this." Do you think this could work? I'm thinking that one specific dream sign would be better than using lots of ambiguous ones.

[Ethereal]

First off, hilarious, and sort of bizarre, but hey, it could work. If you think about the person enough, logically, you'd have a higher chance of seeing them in a dream and thus doing a reality check. Just make sure you directly link him to a reality check, or else you could just see him in a dream and think 'Aw, this is great, now I might dream about him later!'

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

Am I right in saying that it makes sense to RC only some of the time when I see Johnny Powell, rather than every time? Think I picked that up somewhere. I'm just wondering if I should make him a giant too, so he's more obvious in dreams. Hmmm...decisions. I had a dream the other night where I started discussing LD with someone in a shop. And I demonstrated my RC to them, and didn't become lucid!

[Elucive]

Lol, things like that happen. =/ I've also thought about "artificial dream signs", but never really took the time to try anything out. Hey, whatever works man, keep up updated.

[Grod]

Am I right in saying that it makes sense to RC only some of the time when I see Johnny Powell, rather than every time? Think I picked that up somewhere. I've never heard of that... I would reality check every time. I'm just wondering if I should make him a giant too, so he's more obvious in dreams. Hmmm...decisions. I had a dream the other night where I started discussing LD with someone in a shop. And I demonstrated my RC to them, and didn't become lucid! I don't want to discourage you, but it might be really difficult to try to give yourself a dreamsign like this. It might work if you think about him every night until it sticks, but it could work. Anyway, good luck with this, let us know how it works. I've never heard of someone inserting a dreamsign into their dreams before.

[Kordan]

Interesting idea. Keep us posted, because if it works, I'd like to try it.

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

My dreams were interesting last night. Many of the things I'd considered as only long-shot dreamsigns turned up. Also, I've made a list of random words to train my prospective memory (dogs, adverts, taxis, flowers, doors) and all but flowers appeared in my dreams last night. My dreams also utilised some elements of dreams I've had lately (Naturally, I'm paying my dreams more attention now I'm DJing them.) So I think that a degree of conditioning is going on here. As for Johnny Powell, he's been close to appearing in dreams. One dream had an elusive character dressed in black we were trying to find, and at the end of my first deliberate lucid, a character in black arrived and asked if I wanted to socialise.

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

I think I got it wrong with Johnny Powell. The person - and scene - I chose to appear in a dream is too specific - the result is, it makes me do all-or-nothing thinking: either Johnny Powell appears in a dream (success) or Johnny Powell doesn't appear in a dream (failure). I think it would be better to condition myself to try to increase the amount of times I do a certain action in a dream. The key thing is, the action must be something I'm doing in every dream (lucid or non-lucid) to some degree already. And it must be an action that, when I look at my dreams in my DJ, I can easily imagine doing more of. What you focus on, expands The idea is: 1) You look at past dreams and spot where you did the action 2) You ask, "How could I have done more of that action in the dream?" 3) You ask, "How can I do more of that action in real life?" Which action? My theory is, you choose an action that stimulates your (sleeping) logical brain which eventually should help to make you lucid. Actions I'm thinking of: Action one: Prediction. If you look through your DJ dreams you'll find that you do make predictions in dreams. You can note these and put them in your DJ. You can look back at dreams and say, "What predictions could I have made at that point?" You can ask, "If the events of the dream were occurring in real life, what predictions could I make?" You can ask, "How can I make more predictions in real life?" With the "What you focus on, expands" mentality, the idea is that you will reinforce the behaviour of predicting in dreams (and in real life) until you use more and more predictions in dreams until it activates your logical brain and you LD. Action two: counting Similarly, I think the action of counting could be increased in dreams. Just as with prediction, you can highlight times when you've counted in dreams, think about how you could've counted more (or just had a general awareness of quantities), what you could've counted if the dream events were real life, how you can count more in RL.

[Chance Lee]

I am trying something similar to what you did in the original post. Lately I became interested in crows, and started noticing them around more(probably because I was thinking about them more, ahha) and decided to try and make them a dream sign plus some. So I started reality checking anytime I saw crows, and before going to sleep I would repeat to myself that I would see a crow and remember I am dreaming. Also, the first time I became lucid, my goal was to find a crow that would act as sort of a dream guide for me and I would ask him to appear in all my dreams and help me become lucid. I also plan on having the crow be with me and whenever I wanted to try to exert control and couldn't I could ask him to teach me how to(and since he is my all powerful dream buddy he would know and I would trust it to work and it would work hopefully!) or if I just wanted to ask him questions(as I would also consider him a direct link to my subconscious/unconscious/whateverrrrrrr). Last night was the first time telling myself that I would see a crow, and I did! I saw several! But I didn't become lucid. I even remember seeing one that seemed to get bigger(but in a getting closer to me kind of way) and thinking "Is this my dream guide crow? Is he going to talk to me?" but I still didn't become lucid, ahaha, grrrrrrrrrr, and he didn't talk to me either, he just started trying to peck my toes, hahaha. I'm still going to try more though as I am taking this as a good sign, haha. I haven't had a lucid dream yet either, except the first random one that got me re-interested in lucid dreaming.

[TheWeirdnessSymposium]

Yes, that's the most frustrating part of LD - for me, and I guess for many others: dreaming about LD and even seeing dreamsigns and then your brain not making the transition from non-LD to LD.

[Chance Lee]

Yeah, I've had several dreams about lucid dreaming so far too and didn't become lucid, haha.