As regular readers of my Blog will know, I enjoy conducting casual dream experiments and then recording my progress in a honest and thorough way so that my fellow oneironauts can monitor my methodology, successes and failures. My most recent experiment was a Dream Incubation Experiment - Serial Killer Dream, but despite a few instances where the theme emerged in my dreams, I have not had much luck in incubating the desired dream.
Therefore, although I intend to return to this dream incubation experiment, I decided to try something new in order to practice my skills of influencing the content of my dreams. I thought an inventive way of doing this, would be to use day residue - the events of our waking day (the day(s) prior to the dream) which appear in, or influence, our dreams. This is because, through analysis of each of my recorded dreams, I constantly notice the significance of day residue and how it affects the narrative content, themes and symbolism of my dreams. Hopefully, this experiment will also lead to me being able to identify day residue within the dream in order to hopefully use it as a 'dreamsign' (and trigger a reality check) which could help induce lucidity.
Methodology
- In addition to analysing the day residue which surfaces in my dreams by chance, I am going to try and 'foreshadow' or influence my dreams by identifying 5 key events/experiences which happen during my waking hours (I don't always sleep at night). I will refer to these key events/experiences as 'Key Triggers' (my own term) before I go to sleep.
- I will record the 5 Key Triggers in detail, so it is clear how I experienced them and in what context.
- I am not going to use any particular cognitive technique with regard to the Key Triggers during my waking hours prior to the dream - I am relying on the fact that I am consciously selecting them in advance and recording them. I am not trying to incubate a particular dream - I am simply experimenting with 'predicting' day residue or analysing whether identifying potential sources of day residue in advance can affect the dreams I spontaneously have the following night. This experiment is not about control, simply influence.
- I will hopefully recognise any of the Key Triggers which appear in my dream whilst I am dreaming. I hope that this might work as a dreamsign, leading to a reality check and a lucid dream by way of a DILD (Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream).
- I will then record the dream as usual and then analyse my results.
KEY TRIGGERS
My Key Triggers for Tuesday 26 April 2016:
(1) My American Friend, SS
My friend in America, SS, mentioned in a Facebook chat that he would like to appear in another one of my dreams, so I decided to use him as a Key Trigger. The image below is a photograph of him yesterday (sent via Facebook Messenger) while he was working. It has been blurred to protect his identity as I don't post images of my family and friends on my Blog without prior permission.
(2) Red Fiat 500 Car
There is a red Fiat 500 car which is always parked directly outside my house, so I see it several times a day, every day. The image below is one which I sourced from the internet to illustrate.
(3) Nutella
Today, there was a strong (delicious) smell of Nutella in my house during the evening. I found that my housemate had baked a cake. Coincidentally, I had also been discussing 'olfactory dreams' with a Facebook friend, which may be worth noting at this stage. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(4) Inuit People
The Inuit People (often referred to as 'Eskimos') are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples, inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada and Alaska. I had a conversation about Inuit people with one of my online friends. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(5) 'Underboob Bra'
Yesterday, a number of online media sources were posting articles about a new trend for 'underboob bras' - I decided that I would like to buy an 'underboob bra'! The image below is sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
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