DREAM DICTIONARY

Tholey's Combined Technique - Lucid Dreaming - 2

I Have modified Tholey's combined technique in view of my own experience.

REFLECTION-INTENTION TECHNIQUE

1. Plan when you intend to test your state

Choose in advance certain occasions when you intend to remember to test your state. For example, decide to ask," Am I dreaming?" when you arrive home from work, at the beginning of each conversation you have, every hour on the hour, and so on. Choose a frequency of state testing that feel's comfortable.

Use imagery to help you remember to ask the question. For instance, if you intend to ask it when you arrive home, see yourself opening the door and remembering your intention.

Practice the exercise a dozen times more during the day at your selected times and also whenever you find yourself in a situation which is in any way dreamlike,for example, whenever something surprising or odd happens or you experience inappropriately strong emotions or find your mind (and especially memory) strangley unresponsive.

2.Test Your State

Ask yourself,"AmI dreaming or awake?"look around you for any oddities or inconsistencies that might indicate that you are dreaming. Think back to the events of the last several minutes. Do you have any trouble remembering what just happened? If so, you may be dreaming.
Read some text twice. Don't conclude that you are awake unless you have solid proof(for example, the writing stays the same every time you look at it).

3.Imagine yourself dreaming

After having satisfied yourself that you're awake, tell yourself,"Okay, I'm not dreaming, now, But if I were, what would it be like?" Imagine as vividly as possible that you are dreaming. Intently imagine that what you are

perceiving (hearing, feeling, smelling, or seeing) is a dream: the people, trees, sunshine, sky and eartth, and yourself-all a dream.

Observe your environment carefully for your target dreamsigns from chapter 2.Imagine what it would be like if a dreamsign from your target category was present. As soon as you are able to vividly experience

yourself as if in a dream, tell yourself, " The next time I'm dreaming , I will remember to recognize that I'm dreaming.

4. Imagine doing what you intend to do in your lucid dream
Decide in advance what you would like to do in your next lucid dream. You may wish to fly or talk to dream characters or try one of the applications suggested later in this book.

Now, continue the fantasy begun in step2 and imagine after having become lucid in your present environment, you now fulfill your wish: Experience yourself doing whatever you have chosen to do.
Firmly resolve that you will remember to recognise that you are dreaming and to do what you intend in your next lucid dream.

(Adapted from Tholey.)

Commentary

At first you may find it strange to question the very foundations of the reality you are experiencing, but you undoubtedly that taking a critical lool at the nature of reality a few times a day is an enjoyable habit to cultivate.

In our workshops we have distributed business cards with the words Am I Dreaming? printed on them.

You can write this question on the back of a business card and stick it in your pocket. Take it out and read it,and perform a reality test by looking awayfrom the card and then looking at it again very quickly. If the words scramble you are dreaming.

Once you establish a systematically critical attitude in your waking life, sooner or later you will decide to try a state test when you are actually dreaming. And then you will be awake in your dream.

Reference: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming: Stephen LaBerge, ph.D. & Howard Rheingold

Waking Up in the Dream World - Intention Technique - Lucid Dreaming

Resolve to recognize dreaming

1. In the early morning hours, or during an awakening in the latter part of your sleep period, clearly and confidently affirm your intion to remember and recognize the dream state.

Visualize yourself recognizing dreaming

2. Imagine as vividly as possible that you are in dream situations which would typically cause you to realize that you are dreaming. Incorporate several of your most frequently occuring or favourite dreamsigns in your visualizations.

Imagine carrying out an intended dream action

3.In addition to mentally practicing recognizing dreamsigns, resolve to carry out some particular chosen action in the dream. A good choice would be an action that is itself a dreamsign. For example, see yourself flying in your dream and recognizing that you are dreamin g. While doing this be sure to firmly resolve to recognize the next time you are dreaming.

Commentary

The reason for setting an intention to do a particular action in the dream is that dreamers sometimes remember to do the action without first having become lucid.

Then upon reflection, they remember : "This is what I wanted to do in my dream. Therefore, I must be dreaming !" The intended action should be a dreamsign, because you're more likely to become lucid if you find yourself doung your dream action.

Reference: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming: Stephen LaBerge, ph.D. & Howard Rheingold

Tholey's Combined Technique - Lucid Dreaming

Tholey has claimed that critical state testing has the single most effective technique for inducing lucid dreams out of several he has discussed ."His combined technique is based on critical state testing, and includes elements of his intention and autosuggestion techniques.

He doesn't make it clear whether or not the combined technique is superior to the reflection technique, but we believe that it is likely to be more effective. Tholey conjectures, apparently referring to the cpmbined technique.

....that whoever consistently follows the advice given can learn to dream lucidly. Subjects who have never previously experienced a lucid dream will have the first one after a median time of 4 to 5 (weeks) , with great interindividual deviation.

Under the most favourable circumstances the subject will experience his first lucid dream during the very first night, under unfavourable circumstances only after sevral months.

Practice in attaining the critical-reflective frame of mind is only necessary in the beginning phase, which may last a number of months.

Later on, lucid dreams will occur even if the subject has not asked himself the critical question during the day. The frequency of lucid dreams then depends to a large extent on the will of the subject. Most subjects who consistently follow the above advice experience at least one lucid dream every night."

I Have modified Tholey's combined technique in view of my own experience.

Reference: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming: Stephen LaBerge, ph.D. & Howard Rheingold

The Method of Dream Interpretation- 10 - Freud

This much is apparent at first sight.But many other details of the dream become intelligible when regarded from the stand-point of wish-fulfilment.

I take my reveng on Otto, not merely for to readily taking sides, against me, in that I accuse him of careless medical treatment (the injection), but I revenge myself also for the bad liquer which smells of fusel oil, and I find an expression in the dreamwhich unites both these reproaches;

The injection of a preparation of propyl.Still I am not satisfied , but continue to avenge myselfby comparing him with his more reliable colleage.

Thereby I seem to say:'I like him better than you.' But Otto is not the only person who must be made to feel the weight of anger. I take my revenge on the disobedient patient, by exchanging her for a more sencible and more docile one.

Nor do I passover Dr M.'s contradiction; for I express, in an obvious allusion, my opinion of him : namely, that his attitude in the ease is that of an ifnoramus. ('Dysentery will develop,etc.'). Indeed, it seems as though I were appealin g from him to someone better informed (my friend, who told me abouttrimethylamin), just as I have turned from Irma to her friend, and from Otto to Leopold.

It is as though I were to say: Rid me of these three persons, replace them by three others of my own choice, and I shall be rid of the reproaches which I am not willing to admit that I deserved!

In my dream the unreasonableness of these reproaches is demonstrated for me in the most elobarate manner. Irma's pains are not attributable to me, since she herself is to blame for them, in that she refuses to accept my solution.

They do not concern me, for being as they are of an organic nature, they cannot possibly be cured by psychic treatment - Irma's sufferings are satisfactorily explained by her widowhood (trimethylamin!); a state which I cannot alter. -

Irma's illness has been caused by in cautious injection administered by Otto, an injection of an unsuitable drug, such as I should never have administered. - irma's complaint is the result made with an unclean syringe, like the phlebitis of my old lady patient, where my injections have never caused any ill effects.

I am aware that these explanations of Irma's illness, which unite in acquitting me, do not agree with one another:that they even exclude one another. The whole plea - for this dream is nothing else - recalls vividly the defense offered by a man who was accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition.

In the first place, he, said, he had returned the kettle undamaged; in the second place, he had never borrowed it al all. A complicated defense, but so much the better: if only one of these three lines of defence is recognised as valid, the man must be acquitted.

Still other themes play a part in the dream, and their relation to my non-responsibility for Irma's illness is not so apparent my daughter's illness, and that of a patient with the same name; the harmfulness of cocaine; the affection of my patient, who was travelling in Egypt; concern about the health of my wife; my brother, and Dr. M; my own physical troubles, and anxiety concerning my absent friend, who is suffering suppurative rhinitis.

But if I keep all these things in view, they combine into a single train of thought, which might be labelled concern for the health of myself and others; professional conscientiousness. I recall a vaguely disagreeable feeling when Otto gave me the news of Irma's condition. Lastly, I am inclined, after the event, to find an expression of this fleeting sensationin the train of thoughts which forms part of the dream.

It is as though Otto had said to me; 'You do not take your medical duties seriously nough; you are not conscientious; you do not perform what you promise. ' there-upon this train of thought placed itself at my service, in order that I might give proof of my extreme conscientiousness, of my intimate concern about the health of my relatives, friends and patients.

Curiously enough, there are also some painful memories in the material, which confirm the blame attached to Otto rather than my own exculpation. The material is apparently impartial, but the connection between this broader material, on which the dream is based and the more limited theme from which emerges the wish to be innocent of Irma's illness, is, nervertheless un mistakable.

I do not wish to assert that I have entirely revealed the meaning of the dream, or that my interpretation is flawless.

I could still spend much time upon it; it could draw further explanations from it, and discuss further problems which it seems to propound. I can even perceive the points from which further mental associations might be traced;

But such considerations as a re always involved in every dream of one's own prevent me from interpreting it farther. Those who are over-ready to condemn such reserve , should make the experiment of trying to be more straighforward.

For the present I am content with the one fresh discovery which has just been made: If the method of dream interpretation here indicated is followed, it will be found that dreams do really possess a meaning, and by no means the expression of a disintegrated cerebral activity, as the writers on the subject would have us believe. When the work of interpretation has been completed the dream can be recognised as a wish-fulfilment.

Reference: Freud -The Interpretation of Dreams