Quote Originally Posted by FryingMan View Post
This is why I like the term "vigilance" -- vigilance has the connotation of "looking for something" or "being aware with a purpose": you're on the lookout for the dream state.
Vigilance is something that is definitely stressed in the Zen tradition (in which there has always been more of a martial flavour to buddhism), I've read a Zen metaphor of zazen meditation as being like sitting in a jungle clearing while knowing that a tiger is nearby!

Terms like vigilance and particularly "critical faculty" that Memm adressed were also central to the original source of reality checking, the "critical state test" in Laberge's ETWOLD.

I can't link to it due to forum rules, but on LD4All there is a an article by Robert Wagonner in which he discusses interviewing naturals and their constant state of critical skepticism towards their current state of awareness. There you have it, perhaps your very state of awareness is an object in itself of which to be critical.



[*]I can safely say that not once have I ever noticed a shadow or wind or other small environmental factors in about a thousand recalled dreams/scenes this last year.
Agreed.
[*]Lighting I'm usually at least peripherally aware of in the background, fairly frequently (producing the sense of nighttime/daytime/dusk/levels of darkness).
I wouldn't claim that dreams lack lighting, obviously they do, but that the lightsource is often unverifiable - unlike IWL in which you can always locate the lightsource of whatever location you find yourself in, be it the sun or a flourescent lamp
[*]Gravity I've noticed, but less than a handful of times.
Usually only noticeable when it is distorted ala Hukif.
[*]Text I've noticed perhaps a dozen times (and a few times very closely considering it) but not once getting lucid from checking it. [*]I've never once touched an electrical switch.
Classic RCs both.
[*]I've seen myself in mirrors about 3-4 times (but never getting lucid despite sometimes strong confusion from what I see).
For me mirrors rarely present dynamic reflections (ie. changing as I move my position), instead reflecting a static image like in a poor video game, as if simply to designate them as a mirror at all.
Also, look out for other reflective surfaces like bodies of water, windows, cars, anything metallic. Like Lacan said, 'many things in this world behave like mirrors'
[*]Locations of course are *always* there, awareness of location and really thinking about it probably a dozen times. My dream locations are either one place (my childhood home) or non-waking-world locations. Location frequently has played a factor in becoming lucid for me.[*]Location transitions are always there, but I've actively noticed them only once or twice.
Some dreamers report 'jump cuts' as indicative of dreaming.
[*]emotional response: fear, joy, anger, frustration: very common
Often inappropriate responses for the situation
[*]people: always present, interacting with them. Sometimes they are distorted. Cause of lucidity: fairly frequent.
I find faces to often to be blurry unless the DC is someone I know well.
[*]the "dream feeling" -- harder to asses, but I think this is also a fairly frequent, if not the majority, of the triggers of lucidity for me. I suppose this is at its root "self-awareness + memory" combining.
This is central to Yoshi's, and Naiya's, original idea of ADA - that dreams simply 'feel' different - and why the critical faculty is perhaps not as crucial with ADA as with other techs (such as RC) because through ADA you are making yourself intimately mindful of both dream and waking, and how they differ.
[*]thoughts -- in dreams I will frequently ponder ideas or visualize games or think about objects and how they work, sometimes with a very close-up visual of the object.[*]bizarre/strange/shocking/impossible-in-waking people or objects or events: medium frequency, in fact over time my dreams seem to becoming more and more "life-like" focusing on interacting with people in locations, but occasionally a really strange object or person will pop up.[/list]
These things often get justified by the narrative, making it difficult to become lucid by the traditional means of logical questioning - hence where mindfulness enters.

So for me, people, interacting with people, and the location+transitions are the really big ticket items, plus just general self-awareness ("dream feeling").

In waking life, my mindfulness is at its lowest while interacting with people (or concentrating on mental activities like working). Work I've always recognized as a low mindfulness time, but low mindfulness while interacting with people I have recently realized this and am now working diligently on rectifying it, I think it will result in a big boost to lucidity, that's my hope at least!
Doing a menial activity such as a 9-5 job is actually one of the best opportunities to practice mindfulness