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[ ODE @ Lucidní snění / Láska ]
Focus of attention
Interestingly, I had a lot of trouble sustaining lucidity when I just started to learn lucid dreaming. I often experienced that I woke up, or dreamt I woke up, after just simply orientating in the dream world. Somehow it felt like I could not use many cognitive resources/thinking to prevent myself from waking up. Every time I tried to reflect on my attained lucidity, reflect on what I wanted to do in the lucid dream, or even thought about my lucid dream plan, I felt like loosing "touch" with dream reality ... which led to waking up. Very frustrating, because reflection is an integral part of lucid dreaming! Recognize these symptoms? Well, here's the solution.
After some experimentation in my own lucid dreams, I discovered the golden principle of the dream world.
Anything you pay attention to, will grow. This means that your focus of attention is a crucial factor in establishing an enjoybale stable dream world. If you pay more attention to yourself ("reflecting on MY attained lucidity, reflecting on what I wanted to do in the lucid dream, or even thought about MY lucid dream plan"), you as yourself will grow ... resulting in the dissolvement of the dream world ... because you don't pay any attention to it anymore. Hence, the trick for longer lucid dreams, is to pay more attention to your experience of the DREAM WORLD, instead of paying attention to what YOU are experiencing. Doesn't that sound natural? Keep your interaction with the dream world alive as much as possible.
This is why many novice lucid dreamers who are experiencing their first lucid dreams, have trouble sustaining lucidity. They are (obviously) more concerned with THEIR (first) experience of lucid dreaming ... than the experience of the DREAM WORLD itself. This lack of attention leads naturally to the dissolvement of the dream. They are more interested in themselves than they are to the dream world.
For advanced lucid dreamers, notice how The Spinning Technique would not solve this inherent problem. Although the Spinning Technique stimulates the generation of REM-sleep, it does not guarantee stability. It's a tool for prolonging dream sleep, not inducing dream stability. At least that is what I'm experiencing.
The big challenge is therefore to maintain a balance between your involvement in the dream world (doing things, interacting, etc) to keep the dream "alive", and reflecting on your experience of the lucid dream state. I would recommend, to seriously PLAN your lucid dream prior to inducing the lucid dream itself (revisit my learning program on the site!), so you don't have to reflect on your lucid dream intentions WHILE dreaming lucid. Seriously rehearse your lucid dream plan before you go to bed! Then, while you are having your lucid dream, don't pay too much attention to your lucid dream plan anymore, but most of all stick to the flow of the dreamplot. Integrate your lucid dream plan with the dreamplot that you are experiencing... don't interrupt it and induce your own lucid dream from the start. This will most likely lead to waking up. Keep paying attention to the dream (by walking, interacting and doing stuff; keep yourself busy) and naturally implement your lucid dream plan step by step when possible.
If you don't pay any attention to your dreams, your dreams won't pay any attention to you!
Have fun!
Tim
http://www.lucidipedia.com/blog/wrapper.php?/archives/52-Focus-of-attention.html