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 Wednesday 4 May 2016:
(1) Zippy from Rainbow
I was about to use a rainbow as a daily key trigger (because I had seen several references to rainbows online today - plus the image of a cat I sourced for my Blog yesterday had a rainbow colour scheme on it). Then, as I was scrolling through Facebook I saw an image of Zippy from Rainbow (1972 - 1992). So I am using Zippy - the outspoken, loudmouthed and naughty character as my daily key trigger. Rainbow was an iconic TV programme for very young children, and I use to love it. Whenever I heard the theme tune start, I would get so excited I needed to pee! I have included a Youtube video of the theme tune for you to see - even better is the fact that the Thames TV ident is included at the start. I have mentioned this ident before - it is so reminiscent of my childhood and when I see/hear it now (it is no longer used) I get this semi-pleasurable/semi-uneasy feeling which I cannot describe. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
*Note that at 00:41 hours (4 May 2016) I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw a link to a news site revealing that on 1 May 2016, the last actor to play Bungle in Rainbow was found dead in his home in Cromer. Norfolk. Not only is this a coincidence, given my chosen daily key trigger, but also Cromer is 4 miles away from my family home and less than 20 miles away from my university house.
(2) A Clockwork Orange Tattoo
I have wanted to get a small tattoo in tribute to my favourite movie of all time A Clockwork Orange (1971) for ages, but haven't got round to it. I want to get 'Real Horrorshow' (a quote from the novel and movie in the font used in the Korova Milkbar scene - see below). The font which most resembles this is known as 'Synthemesc'. I have included an image from Bunny Meyer/Grav3yard Girl, one of my favourite Youtubers, who has this quote tattooed on her wrist. The images below were sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(3) Pyramids
(3) Pyramids
I have always been fascinated by pyramids and other relics of the ancient world (especially sphinxes) - I decided to include pyramids as my daily key trigger because I saw some online debate which argued that the pyramids should be destroyed because they symbolise slavery when scrolling through Facebook today. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(4) Wolf
Today I saw a dog outside my house which reminded me of a wolf. I then saw an online article about wolves which was shared on Facebook. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes.
(5) Jelly/Jello
A couple of days ago my housemate made jelly (or 'jello' if use American-English). I asked her how to make jelly/jello, as I have never done so before. When I was in the university shop today, I happened to see some jelly/jello while looking for coffee. The image below was sourced from the internet for illustrative purposes. I selected a rainbow version, because it ties in nicely to the theme of rainbows, above.
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