My two latest long lucid dreams got me to wondering why they were so light compared to other lucid dreams and especially to my non-lucid dreams. In thinking about that, I thought back on every lucid I could remember. I saw a correlation between effortlessness and dream quality. It seems that my best lucid moments happen when I am a spectator and not pushing hard or at all to control the dream. Every time I get really concerned with what I am going to make the dream do and then start putting out strong effort to make things happen, the dream environment is cartoonish or just relatively dull.

Transcendental mediation teachers say that the proper method for TM is near effortless repeating of the mantra. Strain reduces the quality of transcendental consciousness. I am thinking lucid dreaming probably works the same way. Pushes to change the dream should be either completely effortless or nearly effortless. In other words, all or nearly all of the "effort" should be subconscious. Leo Volont talked recently about experiencing a lucid dream without ever putting up effort, just letting the dream happen while you experience it so that you can have the full benefits of dreaming in terms of the neurological/psychological purposes of dreaming. It seems that that might be the way to experience the ultimate lucid dream consciousness.

Does anybody know anything about how this might work?