Thread: Dream Won't Answer Back

Might want to wait until you are better at LDing or create a DC and put a name tag "subconscious" on there. Dunno where you are in dream control.

Well in Robert Waggoner's book Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, he says to not summon a DC, but that there is an awareness behind the dream to talk to directly. He even says to clear out all DCs.

I'm decent at control, just depends on the dream and level of lucidity. I'll give that a shot next time though and see if I get a different response.

Robert Waggoner is going by only his experience and he really didn't have any more experience than I do now when he wrote that book. You should work with your own unconscious. Technically everything in your mind when sleeping is your unconscious, so everything is what you are looking for. If you want a part of it that you can work with and ask questions, I recommend a DC or an item. I personally don't think of the unconscious more than a computer. The only being is you. A lot of people come up with books about LDing or esoteric things and they have like 100 LDs. Lol.

I am not saying that I am right, but I am saying that there is more than one way to do things in a LD, especially if that way is Robert Waggoner. Interesting ideas, but I wouldn't put him up there with laberge.

Great advice, Sensei. Thanks

I almost wonder if those actions that happened were “responses” to the questions, in a sense. I once (years ago) tried having a conversation with a LD. I was alone in a room and asked a question, and the “response” was that music that I had been listening to the previous day started playing—it sounded like it was coming invisibly from a corner of the room. I asked another question, and the music changed to a different song. Then I had to explain that I don't know how to interpret music. So I got a woman's voice that said “Find them”, and when I asked how I would know where to find “them” (whatever “them” was), the answer began “Well, if you're…” and then the dream ended.

I never could make any meaning out of that experience, but it was pretty interesting.

Hunterkiss, though I think Sensei already answered your question quite well, I just wanted to add another thing to consider:

It is a very good idea, I think, to do your own exploring when you dream. If you read folks like Waggoner (and me, and anyone else, for that matter), I suggest that you take their advice with a grain of salt, or at least with the consideration that their experience is not yours, and your experience does not need to match theirs.

You might simply not be ready yet to communicate with your unconscious, or perhaps to realize that you are always communicating with your unconscious, given that it is integral to the greater "You," regardless of its mystery. So keep exploring, keep asking DC's questions, and don't worry about creating a DC that represents your unconscious (Sensei's nametag suggestion is more reasonable than it sounds at a glance, BTW); there are no rules about this, and people who say there are rules when it comes to exploring your own mind might be offering incorrect advice, no matter how many books they've sold.

This is just a suggestion; I could be wrong, but when lucidly navigating the ocean of dreams it is best when you're at the helm, following the stars of your own intuition and imagination rather than following instructions or rules imagined by someone else.

Whenever I didn't get a response from a question in a dream, I always felt like it was hesitation.

It's 5:00 AM here, so I might be talking out of my ass here, but it always seemed to be I was holding back, or didn't have enough confidence to hear an answer?

^^ Sure. Or maybe:

* Your unconscious didn't have an answer. Some things -- like "what is the meaning of life? or "Why can't I lucid dream every night?" -- might simply not be important enough for your unconscious to consider, much less offer a response. After all, you are asking an esoteric question to a system of mind whose primary job during sleep, among the many other things it is always doing, is to maintain the mundane stuff like organizing memories, handling the baselines of your perception and movement, and keeping the dream schemata flowing. It may simply not be in sync with deeper or identity-centered stuff (i.e., who am I?), or it simply might not care, in a metaphysical sort of way.

* Your unconscious doesn't speak English. Asking a question to a brain function might seem to make sense (because that brain function in this case represents a very huge chunk of "You") at the time, but you might just be tossing words into the wind. If you really want to ask a question -- and understand the answer -- try to think metaphorically. Phrase your question in imagery, perhaps even in imagery that corresponds with whatever is going on in the current dream. This is not easy, but not impossible: for instance, a simple way to "ask" your unconscious for deeper meaning is to literally take a dive into the nearest, blackest pool of water you can find (black meaning depth, not danger or evil) and then simply pause and be open to what you see under the surface. Keep the questions general, though, and be prepared to do some serious interpretation of what you might be presented. Since the unconscious is unimaginably complex, so too will its answers be difficult to decipher or even gather... this is not because your unconscious is being secretive or coy, but simply that it is not programmed to speak to a self-aware You in a dream. Be patient, and learn its language.

* You are not hesitating, but instead doubting, both your question and the possibility of an answer. If you feel during the dream that you are hesitating, or perhaps sensing a waning of your confidence, I suggest that you pause even longer. Let the dream take over again (since you must have set it aside to ask your question), remain aware, and above all remain open. And yes, restore some confidence that you will be "told" something shortly, or perhaps are already being told something, but simply haven't absorbed it yet.

These things are all geared toward communicating with your own unconscious and its DC's, but I think they would apply just as well to DC's that might be from another dreamer.

Originally Posted by Sageous

^^ Sure. Or maybe:

* Your unconscious didn't have an answer. Some things -- like "what is the meaning of life? or "Why can't I lucid dream every night?" -- might simply not be important enough for your unconscious to consider, much less offer a response. After all, you are asking an esoteric question to a system of mind whose primary job during sleep, among the many other things it is always doing, is to maintain the mundane stuff like organizing memories, handling the baselines of your perception and movement, and keeping the dream schemata flowing. It may simply not be in sync with deeper or identity-centered stuff (i.e., who am I?), or it simply might not care, in a metaphysical sort of way.

* Your unconscious doesn't speak English. Asking a question to a brain function might seem to make sense (because that brain function in this case represents a very huge chunk of "You") at the time, but you might just be tossing words into the wind. If you really want to ask a question -- and understand the answer -- try to think metaphorically. Phrase your question in imagery, perhaps even in imagery that corresponds with whatever is going on in the current dream. This is not easy, but not impossible: for instance, a simple way to "ask" your unconscious for deeper meaning is to literally take a dive into the nearest, blackest pool of water you can find (black meaning depth, not danger or evil) and then simply pause and be open to what you see under the surface. Keep the questions general, though, and be prepared to do some serious interpretation of what you might be presented. Since the unconscious is unimaginably complex, so too will its answers be difficult to decipher or even gather... this is not because your unconscious is being secretive or coy, but simply that it is not programmed to speak to a self-aware You in a dream. Be patient, and learn its language.

* You are not hesitating, but instead doubting, both your question and the possibility of an answer. If you feel during the dream that you are hesitating, or perhaps sensing a waning of your confidence, I suggest that you pause even longer. Let the dream take over again (since you must have set it aside to ask your question), remain aware, and above all remain open. And yes, restore some confidence that you will be "told" something shortly, or perhaps are already being told something, but simply haven't absorbed it yet.

These things are all geared toward communicating with your own unconscious and its DC's, but I think they would apply just as well to DC's that might be from another dreamer.

I always love your posts. They enlighten me!

Thanks for the response, and it made a lot of sense.

Originally Posted by Travis E.

I almost wonder if those actions that happened were “responses” to the questions, in a sense.

After analyzing the dream, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it was telling me something about being playful of some sort? The time before this, I asked for advice and was told to own my owls before they own me (strange and senseless, I know). I had no idea what to make of this and still don't haha

Originally Posted by Sageous

Hunterkiss, though I think Sensei already answered your question quite well, I just wanted to add another thing to consider:

It is a very good idea, I think, to do your own exploring when you dream. If you read folks like Waggoner (and me, and anyone else, for that matter), I suggest that you take their advice with a grain of salt, or at least with the consideration that their experience is not yours, and your experience does not need to match theirs.

You might simply not be ready yet to communicate with your unconscious, or perhaps to realize that you are always communicating with your unconscious, given that it is integral to the greater "You," regardless of its mystery. So keep exploring, keep asking DC's questions, and don't worry about creating a DC that represents your unconscious (Sensei's nametag suggestion is more reasonable than it sounds at a glance, BTW); there are no rules about this, and people who say there are rules when it comes to exploring your own mind might be offering incorrect advice, no matter how many books they've sold.

This is just a suggestion; I could be wrong, but when lucidly navigating the ocean of dreams it is best when you're at the helm, following the stars of your own intuition and imagination rather than following instructions or rules imagined by someone else.

Yea I will just have to keep at it and go from my own experience I like the no rule thing better anyway.

I can only remember one time that my subconscious answered me, it was to the question "Where am I?". There could have been more times but I haven't been keeping a dream journal for very long. I also don't ask it questions as often as I want to irl, I've been putting most of my focus recently into prolonging the LD, stabilizing, and actually writing them down when I wake up

Also agree with Sageous about the doubting thing. When I did get an answer, I was demanding and confident, the other few times I remember being more humble and unsure.