Focusing does negative effect, why?

This is my first post on this forum. So first of all, hi everyone.

I’ve been trying to induce lucid dreaming with DILD technique for nearly 1 month now. And there is a thing worth mentioning that I have noticed. When I do reality checks, I really put a great deal of energy on it. And suprisingly after 1 month with all those RCs, I haven’t been able to recognize even one of them in my dreams. However I noticed that events, talks or people that I least pay attention to gets in my dreams. It can be a friend that I haven’t seen for some years suddenly comes to mind or a small impression that comes and goes in a split second in daily life. Now the question is: Why the RCs that I put most attention to doesn’t appear in my dreams and but other things do?

That being the case I thought to myself. Hey, if things work just the opposite maybe I have to do my RCs without paying attention for a while and see what happens.

Any comment about this strategy is appriciated.

I wouldn't agree that focusing on something results in your paying less attention to it, however yeah, sometimes there can be difficulties noticing dreamsigns even though they are obvious. A nice cure for this is, before falling asleep, to re-enact those dreams where you missed the dreamsign and instead imagine you didn't miss it- do this with as many dreams as possible and also say some MILD mantras and you'll be fine.

Heya,

There's many ways to lucidity. Reality checks don't work for everyone. Also, there's different types of reality checks (personally I don't check for specific cues, so much as I check for the general "feel" of being a dream versus how it "feels" like to be awake).

Perhaps rather then focussing too much on the reality checks, you might want to try a different approach, find one that works best for you. (Don't stop doing the reality checks though, cause for some reason I can't explain, its often when you stop focussing too much that the results suddenly appear :))

-Redrivertears-

Good question!

I think the answer might be that those other random things you focus on that appear in your dreams are much more clearly defined concepts or archetypes.

For instance with your old friend, you have a huge assortment of experiences you associate with them, places, people. You know those things very well.

The concept of LDing of reality checks however are somewhat vague and very ill defined. There is nothing real of concrete you can associate with it, so there isn't much to work with in your dreams.

In my opinion, that's what determines the probability of success for anything you attempt in dreams. The better you know it, the better the odds it will work. A carpenter is going to be much more successful at carpentry than at brain surgery.

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Originally Posted by The Cusp

For instance with your old friend, you have a huge assortment of experiences you associate with them, places, people. You know those things very well.

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That must be it! Thank you Cusp. Now it makes lots of sense. When I was RC'ing forcefully it has a feeling that it is like a duty to do, not associated with the rest of my life, no associations with anything. I was doing it with force and clarity but nature of that focus somehow feels like the whole RC experience is seperated. I don't know how to put it but it's something like the times when you step in an elevator while talking and that uneasy elevator silence comes in. That kind of being focused.

I guess I'll have to find a way to make my RCs more personalized and friendly.