I’ve read several DJs and posts, and noticed that people always seem to have the same issues about dreams and LDs. When it comes to dream content and things to do in an LD, it’s the same… So here I am to tell you to BE CREATIVE.
Nothing personal, guys, but I really think a lot of us need a change of mind here.
(This first part is a bit of a rant, so sorry about it. The cooler part is the one after, which involves my new creativity theory)
First, about recall/LD issues: Most people have the same kind of issues. However, every single day I see new posts regarding the same old problems. It’s not really the case of using the search function, and I’m not telling you not to post. It’s just that it’s time to learn with other people’s mistakes. When you post something along the lines of “I CAN’T DO IT HELP ME!” you are telling your brain, SC, whatever you want to call it, exactly that - that you can’t do it by yourself and need help! Sure, we all may need help, but really, try to think more before posting something like this. The adverse results of this “programming” can end up in making whatever the problem is to get worse. Besides, this creates a wall to newcomers! What would you think if you had just started LDing and you get into a forum and BAM! there’s 30 topics of people in trouble. Kinda disappointing, if you ask me. So let’s start with a change of mind!
Now, about dream content, and “What to do in an LD”. People have really common dreams. A lot of us do, at least. We dream about our daily lives, we dream about work or school, and that is pretty much okay. But if you ask me, it’s the interesting dreams that get me going with LDing and working on my recall and typing my DJ. So my suggestion is: get more interesting dreams! How do you do it? First of all, the simplest way, the magic spell that solves all dream-related problems: resolve to have more interesting dreams. Do not DEMAND. Work together with you SC. You’ll get used to doing it, and your dreams will get nicer.
The second way (which is equally easy, though a little more time-demanding), is to make your life more interesting! Things in your dreams come, even if indirectly, from your daily life. If you only think about work, that’s probably what you’ll dream about. If you are only depressed and angsty, guess what’ll show up in your dreams? So change your attitude! If your life is boring, try to change it. If you can’t, try to change your state of mind! Open your mind, think about different things. Get some time to read, watch a movie. I’ll use myself as an example here. I love reading. I read a lot. I’ve been working more, though, so I hadn’t had the time to read as much. Still, my dreams are interesting - I read only when I have time, but it’s not just this. It seems to me, and I’m talking out of experience here, with no scientific data to prove it, that the more about a subject you get in your head, even if you are not actively thinking about it, the more “material” you have for your dreams.
Again, I’ll be the example here. I used to watch cartoons a lot. However, since I started college the cartoon-watching time slowly decreased to 0. I still love cartoons, but I just have more interesting or important stuff to do. Occasionally, I may watch a little, but that’d be the exception. Now, does watching less cartoons remove them from my dreams? Of course not! It’s rare for me NOT to have a cartoon character in my dreams. At least once a month I’ll have one. The lesson learned here is that the time I spent watching cartoons, in my mind, wasn’t “wasted”. It’s still all there, registered somewhere. So, according to this theory, the kinds of things you do repeatedly will mark you even when you don’t do them anymore.
This explains a lot why many of us still have dreams about school after we’ve left it (me included). Now think about it - we have an awesome tool. If we managed to unknowingly train our brains to dream about certain stuff because, simply, we lived it more than other stuff… We can teach it to dream about more interesting stuff, certain subjects, if we spent more time IRL thinking or doing something related to it! In a way, the rule is “Make your life more interesting to make your dreams more interesting”, but not quite I hope I didn’t confuse anyone.