An increase in symbolic dreams when writing them down?

I read somewhere, (maybe here on ATS ?) that a good way to achieve the lucid dreaming state is to start a practice of writing down your dreams.
For a few weeks now I've been writing down all I can remember from the most significant/memorable dreams I have.
It's a slow process, as I always had a bad time recalling dreams as I wake, but the amount of info I can recall is becoming greater I think.
I haven't totally 'woken up' during a dream yet , but I have noticed more vivid dreams, and an increase in vey symbolic imagery.
Just wanted to share a few, and maybe get some insight?
(Yeah I hate the term dream journal, it sounds too much like a new agey thing, but hey that's what it is I guess )

I was standing in the backyard of my old childhood home, there were two old chained dogs with me I was playing with.
I threw a stick and unleashed one of the dogs to go and fetch it.
The dog disappears for a long time, (running towards the woods behind the house)
I get really upset after a while, but notice a crow or raven flying and swooping down near me with something on its beak.
It drops it, and I find it's a yellowish dull metal key (I don't think its gold, although that's what I would have preferred)
(I think) the bird picks it up again as if beckoning me, so I follow it for quite a while through the woods until I reach a little hut.
I find the dog had been taken and hidden in the hut (I couldn't remember if someone had kidnapped it or how it got inside the hut)
But it wasn't very well, in fact I think it was dying as I got there, lying sickly on the floor.
That's all I remember and it left me quite shaken and sad when I remembered it and wrote it down, to be honest.
The symbolism of the old dogs and the yellow key left me scratching my head.

In another one, I was out having lunch with a woman (It could have been my girlfriend or just a friend) in a hot sunny place, (the open air restaurant I think it was a mexican food joint?)
She was dark, (I can still clearly see her face, of somali/east african features) and beautiful, but very skinny and frail.
I think I loved her, and we were very close.
In one scene we were ordering the food. I ordered first, some food and water.
But then we were told there was only a set amount of water to be given, and there was not enough left for her.
So I gave her my water instead.
Some people came by, and I think they started to comment on her, maliciously, maybe on how skinny she was, or that I was with her.
As we got the food I kept telling her she looked so frail and that she needed to eat more, but she said she was fine, and not that hungry. Throughout it felt like she was slowly pulling away from me, retreating to some kind of internal loneliness toward the end.
This dream felt like s**t when I woke up, obviously. (an underlying sense of dread and sadness to it)

Another one. I was on a top of a cliff or a sandy ravine overlooking the ocean, with my brother.
Somehow we fell and slid all the way down to the sea.
We see this really long white structure over the water, made of tubes of some hard white material and white rope, reaching over to the other side of the sea, and realise its our only way out the water
We climbed on it all the way to the top, where a kind of rope bridge was, and started navigating it.
I have great difficulty going across, whilst my brother is so agile.
After a while some of the ropes start giving in under our weight, I panic but my brother is unfazed and smiling. There are also some other people coming, going through the opposite way.
Here I black out, falling a long way down to the water.
But I wake to find myself safe at a beach, (my brother had saved me, and had carried me to safety, swimming)

I don't know if maybe I'm attaching more importance to them, just because I'm writing them down, but man are they starting to feel more vivid and 'meaningful' when I wake up.
Has anybody here experienced the same?


peace

I have been trying all the methods to induce lucid dreams with no luck. Somewhere I read that if you constantly ask yourself if you're dreaming every time you walk through a doorway you will start doing the same when you dream, I tried the journal, still no luck. So I found these pills online called Dream leaf and they have good reviews. They have compounds that allegedly help lucid dreaming, you have to take a blue pill when you go to sleep and a red pill at about 3 or 4 AM and the go back to sleep. The red pill has something in it that makes me sweat profusely, have hot flashes and feel nauseous. The pills had no effect on my dreams. I am thinking of trying the device that wakes you up when in your dream, anyone ever tried one of those?

It's entirely possible that because you're actively attempting to make sense of your dreams, supernal intelligences are starting to use them as methods of communication to reach you.

Just remember that not everything trying to contact you through dreams is benevolent.

Wow, if you remember that much details of your dreams, you're doing good. Now, keep re-reading your journaled dreams and eventually you're going to realize, in one of your dreams, that you've done this particular thing before. You'll freak out and say to yourself "I'm dreaming !!!!!" Then, all you would have to do is keep yourself from exciting yourself right out of the dream....It's tricky but your on your way. Wait til you fly !

reply to: athousandlives

a reply to: athousandlives

I've made good progress by keeping a journal as well. Something that may help you to keep a better record is to have a voice activated recorder within reach when you awake. This will allow you to keep your eyes closed while dictating into the microphone.

Often times, when we open our eyes much is forgotten.

You can then go back and write them down at your convenience.

originally posted by: bananashooter
I have been trying all the methods to induce lucid dreams with no luck. Somewhere I read that if you constantly ask yourself if you're dreaming every time you walk through a doorway you will start doing the same when you dream, I tried the journal, still no luck. So I found these pills online called Dream leaf and they have good reviews. They have compounds that allegedly help lucid dreaming, you have to take a blue pill when you go to sleep and a red pill at about 3 or 4 AM and the go back to sleep. The red pill has something in it that makes me sweat profusely, have hot flashes and feel nauseous. The pills had no effect on my dreams. I am thinking of trying the device that wakes you up when in your dream, anyone ever tried one of those?

That stuff isn't needed. One less complicated way to achieve lucidity is to wake up from a dream, don't move and keep thinking of the very last thing you remember about the dream. As you lie still and think about the end of the dream, continue your thoughts as to how you think the dream would have progressed. Keep going over it, again and again. Good Luck

a reply to: bananashooter

A blue pill to sleep and a red pill that supposedly 'wakes you up'?
I wonder where they got that from, lol
Joking aside, that reminds me that I've had quite a few crazy vivid dreams the times when I woke up sweating during the night.
It happens every now and again.

a reply to: donktheclown

That used to be so easy when I was a kid!
I remember being able to wake up mid dream and then close my eyes and it would all start again.
I guess nowadays I just have so many thoughts on my mind, 'how long do I have before my alarm goes off'?', 'am I going to be late for work?' etc.

a reply to: athousandlives

I know, that was a rip right from the Matrix right?

a reply to: donktheclown

Thanks for the kind words.
And yes, a flying dream where I'm not afraid and in actual control is one of my goals.
It seems like I'm always being pulled against my will when I have one of those!

Try meditation, to calm the chatter in your head. Another reality awaits, one you've been living in your whole life.


a reply to: athousandlives

And yes, a flying dream where I'm not afraid and in actual control is one of my goals.

a reply to: athousandlives
Oh oh, don't restrict yourself with requirements, though. Just know that you're indestructible and infallible.

I've lost control a few times - but when I do, I go head first into something.....full throttle. WooHoo

The dreams I'm meant to remember are more vivid and memorable, the rest I quickly forget.

However, writing them down seems to give your Subconscious the clue that you are will to remember, and have found when I did that, my dreams intensified like yours did. Am waiting for summer, so I can try the alarm, then go back to sleep, and see if I can achieve a more lucid state. Currently waking at 5 30 to get coffeed up to get kids to school.

originally posted by: bananashooter
I have been trying all the methods to induce lucid dreams with no luck. Somewhere I read that if you constantly ask yourself if you're dreaming every time you walk through a doorway you will start doing the same when you dream, I tried the journal, still no luck. So I found these pills online called Dream leaf and they have good reviews. They have compounds that allegedly help lucid dreaming, you have to take a blue pill when you go to sleep and a red pill at about 3 or 4 AM and the go back to sleep. The red pill has something in it that makes me sweat profusely, have hot flashes and feel nauseous. The pills had no effect on my dreams. I am thinking of trying the device that wakes you up when in your dream, anyone ever tried one of those?

Here is what you do,

everyday for the next 60 days, three times a day ask your self where am I?

If you know where you are and how you got there you are not dreaming.

If you don't know where you are and how you got there you are in a dream.

if you know where you are but don't know how you got there you are still in a dream.

by repeating this often in real life you will repeat it in sleep, I guarantee that this will eventually trigger a lucid dream for you as it has worked very well for me.

a reply to: athousandlives

I do hope you manage to achieve your goal. Every dream I have is lucid, vivid. It's such a huge help. Especially during nightmares if they are long. Maybe try some melatonin? I just read about that today. It was limited to help lucid dreaming and astral projection.