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 3 May 2016:
(1) Rabbits
My university campus - so where I live - is home to hundreds (possibly thousands) of wild rabbits, who live on the grass outside the buildings. It's a very popular feature of the campus and you can't go more than a few seconds without seeing the rabbits hopping around. As it is Spring, there are baby bunnies being born! The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes - it shows my actual university campus and the rabbits which live here!
(2) Work Meeting with Boss
Today (3 May 2016) I have an annual appraisal meeting with my boss, where I find out if I will maintain my part-time job for another year. I am confident that my appraisal will be fault-free and I will keep my job, but having to discuss future prospects with an employer can always induce some degree of anxiety or anticipation. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(3) Rollercoaster
I hate rollercoasters! However, today I have seen multiple references to them online - one article was about how Alton Towers (a UK-based theme park) has suffered another rollercoaster accident (in June 2015, there was a rollercoaster collision, resulting in a number of severe and minor injuries to passengers - 2 females had to have limbs amputated); and another was about a British woman who discovered she was pregnant with triplets after feeling sick following a ride on a rollercoaster at Disney World (it was not really a newsworthy story). The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(4) Skateboarding
I have been a huge skateboarding fan since I was a young teenager - I used to skate myself, and even wrote my first undergraduate thesis on the subculture of skateboarding. Today, I have seen a number of references to skateboarding online (given I follow many skateboard-focused Facebook pages and many of my friends are skaters). The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(5) Cats
You cannot escape the significance of cats on social media - every other post seems to be related to cats in some way. Today, a man tried to 'passify' a debate I was involved in online by suggesting I might want to want to look at cat videos instead. I am not the biggest fan of cats - I am somewhat allergic to their fur and I find them unpredictable and not as much fun as dogs. However, DL says I have a very 'feline' personality and if I were to be any animal, it would be a cat! The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
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