I've noticed that All Day Awareness (ADA) has been gaining in popularity lately, and one tutorial and advisory thread after another has come to accept it as given that ADA is an important, if not essential, tool for achieving lucidity.  I have been familiar with ADA for a long time, and understand its value as a tool for meditation, but I for probably one have never considered ADA a useful tool for developing LD'ing skills.  Indeed, I have been wondering lately if the rise of ADA's popularity might be moving people away from, rather than toward, consistent lucidity.

So, at the risk of the slings and arrows that accompany contradiction, and at the suggestion of a couple of interested dreamers on another thread, I thought I'd start a thread to discuss ADA, and maybe determine whether practicing it clears or clutters the path to lucidity. I hope everyone will bear with me through this post so we can get a good baseline for healthy discussion. Here we go:

First, what is ADA?  Here is the definition from DV's Wiki, which seems pretty straightforward and more than acceptable:

ADA is all about developing a habit of paying attention to details of your surroundings and yourself (awareness) while awake, with the intention of being more aware in your dreams. You can focus on things like the objects in the room around you, your muscles as you walk down the street, people's faces, your own breathing, the sound of the wind, or the pressure you use to hit a key in your keyboard. Everything in your surroundings, including any sensation, can be used to practice ADA.

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Now, this thread is for discussion of ADA, where hopefully LD'er's will offer their opinions about why ADA works or why they think it is not very helpful.  Regardless of my stated personal (and still quite flexible) opinion, this is not an OP announcing that ADA doesn't work, so please let's not get into an “Is too, because I said so!” “Is not, because I said so!” sort of argument, because that doesn't help anyone.

It would be great to hear from both experienced LDer's and novices alike.  From the experienced dreamers we can get opinions from dreamers who have had more than a couple of successful dreams using ADA, or have found it unhelpful.  Plus, because all techniques, no matter how useful, tend to work well a couple of times thanks to the placebo effect, and then are “inexplicably” rendered useless after the placebo effect wears off, it would be nice to hear from novices (aka newbies)  who practiced ADA but have seen little to no ongoing success with LD'ing.

Basically there are just two questions to consider:

1. Has ADA worked for you? If so, how and why?

2. Regardless of your success, what is your take on ADA?

If you have any questions about this, or my way-too-brief opinion below, please ask.

So I hope we'll have a good discussion among lots of dreamers, experienced and novice alike, that everyone stays calm and open, and I also hope that I don't get dragged into some electronic public square to be punished for my heresy!

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Here is my take on ADA:

On paper, ADA seems ideal to LD'ing, because it exercises your awareness.  On paper. In reality, though, I think it exercises the wrong awareness necessary to successfully LD.

Huh, you ask?

Yeah, that does sound strange, but in truth it is not.  And be assured I am not playing some silly semantics game. The sort of awareness we want to develop and have on hand for LD'ing is self-awareness, whose definition and practice lies at the other end of the consciousness spectrum from the awareness practiced in ADA.

Self-awareness is nothing more -- or less -- than being aware that you are here, that you have an effect on everything around you, and everything around you has an effect on you.  Self-awareness is the sense that “I am here, and I am interacting with reality” which is also the sense you want to have during a dream. In other words, it is the most “unnatural” state of consciousness, in that we only invented sentience a short time ago, evolutionarily-speaking.  

Mastering self-awareness allows a dreamer to know that the universe she is in is a dream, and that universe is of her own making, a part of her consciousness... fairly important things to know for successful LD'ing, I think!

Awareness in this context is the condition of being on one's guard, conscious of your surroundings, or simply knowing that there is stuff going on around you. Awareness is the sense that “the world is here, and I am a small part of it.” Awareness is a primordial function that exists to some degree in every living thing, and always has.

As opposed to self-awareness, which is drawn from biologically unique sentient consciousness (which is the basis for a whole other thread, I think, but ask if you want more about that), awareness is a universally common natural function: all living things practice awareness, with most of them being truly adept at ADA. A mouse, for instance, practices  ADA far better than we do, so as not to get eaten.  Awareness at this level is fine, and ought to be practiced; we all need to pay attention!  But awareness at this level -- which by the way is already built, naturally, into dreams -- is anathema to lucidity.  This is so because natural awareness causes a dreamer to believe that the world of his dream is the world that is here, and that the dreamer is but a part of it.  ADA, I think, would only amplify that feeling:

ADA teaches you to pay attention to everything around you, every physical impulse you can comfortably absorb.  Doing this all day, every day, might eventually lead you to believe that the world is huge, complex, and you are just a small unwitting participant in it “all.” That may all be true, I suppose, but I think it might not be the best cognitive place a budding LD'er necessarily wants to go.  

That is because, come dreamtime, though your ADA training will have helped you to notice lots of details in your dream, and possibly has increased your chances of spotting a dream sign or two, there is a better chance that you will believe, from all that daytime observation, that this dream world you are in is much bigger than you, and you are only an insignificant player in it… the dream is not yours.

In other words, ADA might embed in you a sense that the dream world is real, that all these details you are observing have to be there, were always there, and did not spring from your own unconscious imagination.  

Self-awareness, on the other hand, allows you to remember that this dream world, complex and enormous as it may be, is simply an extension of your own mind and everything that happens here is a result of your presence.  From that comes lucidity, control, and adventures of your own conscious invention.

Tl;dr: ADA is fine, but you must have self-awareness in order to achieve and sustain lucidity. Enhanced natural awareness may actually diminish your chances of LD'ing because it makes the dream world too important, and it would be especially damaging if you practiced it in place of working on your self-awareness.

That's what I have so far... anyone care to discuss?  

so how would one practice self awareness?  would observing your thoughts and generally observing your self count? literally just be aware of every aspect of ones self?

thanks for bringing this up btw, as a novice just getting into this I'm sure I will learn a lot and possibly shave time off my learning curve.  

Great topic Sageous, one that I wanted to discuss a long time ago.

I'll be brief (at work) in this initial post, but let expose my main view on ADA:

ADA's success is not on the attention payed to sensory input. Now, everyone might disagree with me here, but nowhere paying attention to sensory input gives you a higher degree of awareness. How could it? The fact that you're aware of sensory input gives you, at most, a biggest degree of attention to details, but as we know it, attention to details doesn't necessarily mean lucidity: as alert as we might be in the dream, we seem to lack meta-consciousness to assess our state. You might say "but it goes along other things like reality checks, we simply just need to add them", but reality checks are a thing in their own. If the questioning and the reality checks are the ones responsible for lucidity, then it's not the technique that is effective.

I must say (I know this is anecdotal evidence, but the OP did ask for experiences) that the best thing I get out of ADA is dream recall. It really improves after several weeks of intense ADA. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I for sure would recommend a few exercises of ADA during the day for a person trying to recall more dreams. Anyway...

So what makes ADA work?

One word: mindfulness. Mindfulness refers to living the moment, to pause your mind from the constant monologues it's running, and to focus it in the present moment. Mindfulness has many attested effects on mental health: it reduces stress, it makes people more aware (and importantly self-aware!), and this self-awareness also relates to feelings, just like meditation does. You might even seen the expression "mindfulness meditation": it refers  to the specific practice of focusing your mind in only one stimuli, and ignoring all the rest. I think I still have some article around that talks about these advantages in a tested way.

That being said, it seems to me that ADA is an incomplete technique. It does start off great: be more aware. But awareness without questioning, is the same as learning without thinking critically (which is actually a wide spread phenomenon in the majority of our education system!). I agree ly with Sageous in this point: the mere attention to sensory input won't help you with lucidity: in fact, it may immerse you so deeply in the roots of the dream that you actually might forget the most important thing: to question that same reality you're paying to much attention to.

Also, don't forget one big principle of maintaining lucidity: keep a balance between attachment and detachment with the dream world. Too detached, and you might end waking up. Too attached, you might end up getting caught on the plot and loose lucidity. So giving this amount of relevance to sensory input seems to me a bit counter-productive.

This is why I state ADA is not a "wrong technique", it's only an incomplete one. Wording aside, you can actually see some core similarities with other advocates of awareness, like Sageous itself. But where the line is draw, is how exactly you face your reality: do you embrace it like you do in ADA, or do you close in yourself as the agent in it?

In the bigger picture, awareness is one of the hardest concepts regarding lucidity. And that's because, like Sageous said, every living thing has a degree of awareness. But it's clear that it's not that awareness that gives you lucidity: the answers lies more on the side of an awareness towards that same awareness: the meta-consciousness, evaluating your own awareness.

PS: no one mentions the word mindfulness in their posts, but just by reading the few above, you actually notice several people mentioning the concept. All-day mindfulness would be a more appropriate name I'd give to ADA (just kidding kingyoshi ^^).  

I believe it is safe to assume that I back ADA 100% when it comes to achieving lucidity. Its not for promotional reasons or any other nonsense. I have practiced ADA for a long time and at this point, I practice pretty much nothing else aside from DJing. ADA has increased my natural level of awareness within the dream state and led to more and better quality lucid dreams. Not only this, but it has provided me with a massive level of control within the dream state. I don't only think ADA should be looked at as a quality technique, I believe to be the absolute best practice for lucid dreaming and I have tried everything. Again, I didn't create this, I just compiled it into a tutorial because I was repeatedly asked about it back in the day. I can't imagine how many new dreamers have pm'd me or posted in the ADA thread and came away with their first lucid experiences soon after.:

Edit after rereading the posts in this thread: I

f you are in a dream and you are aware of your surroundings in the dream, that IS self-awareness. Everything in your dream is yourSELF. That is all you and your creation. Your in your own mind. If you guys are going BD and you think the dream state is actually another "realm" (for lack of a better word) or there are beings and all these other unproven aspects, then yeah, ADA might not be for you. This is not a BD technique (in the way I wrote it anyway). The tutorial/compilation was written by me in a manner that directly correlates to lucid dreaming. I left out any form of spirituality aspects that Buddhists Monks use dreaming for. There is no spiritual, yoga, or any sort of religious aspects to the way it is written. Its only for awareness and only used to increase the lucid experience and frequency. I lucid dream for entertainment. I'll the leave all the BD stuff to everyone else. I could explain in great detail how and why it works, but it is described in great detail in my tutorial. Its not like I just said the technique, I explained how and why it works.

I didn't call it mindfulness because that is more along the yoga, Buddhist, meditation type of term. I have no interest in any of those things. My ADA, is for lucid dreaming and lucid dreaming only. If someone wants to take it to the spiritual level, then cool. I can and will still help them practice the technique without any form of bias, but the spiritual side is not in my area of expertise.  

Originally Posted by Sageous:
King Yoshi: First, rest assured that I had no idea you had an ADA tutorial, and this is in no way an attack on your work or your opinion.  Indeed, your input here is most valued!

I think you and I have very different views of what self-awareness is, as I believe it is not just awareness of your surroundings in a dream (or waking life); it is awareness of your presence in those surroundings and an awareness of the interaction of your presence with the surroundings, and they with you.  That difference, I think, is significant.  Also, dreamers are generally quite aware of their surroundings in any dream, whether lucid or not.  If they weren't, then NLD's would effectively not exist because, since if non-lucid dreamers are unaware of their dreams' surroundings, those dreams would never be recalled (that sounded better in my head).

I hope you'll share more, especially with regard to how ADA increases control, how it can be used as the only tool for inducing lucidity, and perhaps how, without self-awareness (as I've defined it above) in the dream, you are able to differentiate between actual LD's and NLD's about LD's.:

That's all I dare say for now, guys, and feel free to ignore me if I got in the way of the conversation.  Thanks again for posting, and I look forward to more...

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No worries. I just assumed you knew I had wrote the tutorial. I wrote the one that initially coined the acronym, ADA, and brought the idea of using it for lucid dreaming to DreamViews. Your talk of self-awareness is exactly how I describe performing ADA. Being aware of your surroundings and how their presence feels and effects the dreamer. Our views are the same. What ADA does, is train yourself to recognize that you are within a dream, simply because you ARE within a dream. The awareness you build in waking life helps you differentiate the natural feeling of being awake as opposed to being asleep. I become lucid in my dreams because I "feel" it is a dream. I just know its a dream because I have trained myself to recognize the difference between the two states without resorting to any sort of ques or direct methods. If you want to know how ADA was initially introduce here, give my tutorial a read . I have been gone for a long time, so I have no doubts that some have altered the views and see ADA a bit differently from what was initially intended.

ADA not only helps with achieving lucidity, but with recall, dream control, clarity, and nearly every aspect of lucid dreaming.  

Lol, mindfulness and the basis of ADA (the background and its extensive usage in every day life for spiritual, yoga and other reasons) have indeed been around for a long time. Buddhist Monks are one known practitioner for using this basis to gain lucidity. ADA, the acronym, the title All Day Awareness, and the initial written technique used specifically for recreational lucid dreaming is all me .

The DV wiki definition came after and was created from my tutorial, btw.  

King Yoshi:

Hmm.  I'd swear I'd been bumping into the practice of ADA, and the specific term, for decades now; I guess I was mistaken.  Regardless, I hope that you will allow this thread to move on, based on the idea that the premise set by the OP is ADA as it seems to be understood now -- just observing everything around you -- with the assumption that we are discussing a concept and not a King Yoshi product.  

If you can't allow that, and continue to claim ownership of a practice (as I described in the OP) that has been around for centuries, well, then, I guess this thread simply cannot proceed.  Too bad, too; it felt like we were on to something.

That would explain, I suppose, why this subject is never brought up -- it would have been nice if a moderator had chimed in that I was stepping on someone's proprietary product; Since I was asked by other members to start this thread, I suddenly feel like the butt of a practical joke.
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^^ Why does everyone always think I'm getting "worked up?" I think I need to change my writing style.  In truth I have no emotional ties to this term or its use, and am happy to go back to defining and defending self-awareness in its own right. Elsewhere.

That said, I don't think further input on my part will be helpful, because I've clearly misunderstood ADA as it is used on these forums, and also because I have no interest in commenting on the efficacy of someone else's technique (just as I would never comment on CosmicIron's SSILD technique).  That was not my point, but apparently it will be the only direction this thread can go in.  Which sucks.

Again, too bad; it's a good subject that may be very misunderstood on these forums.

And again, be assured that I am not "worked up," "angry," "excited," or any other sort of thing. At worst I'm disappointed, and at best relieved that I no longer have to deal with a thread which I really didn't want to start in the first place.  

Okay.  Maybe it was disgust.  And, given that there will be an explanatory note from you regardless of what I say, no doubt starting with a condescending "LOL," I think you're making my point for me while eliminating any chance of useful conversation on this thread, and only making participation here that much less pleasant.

This thread was a mistake, and I offer my deepest thanks to those who (knowingly?) asked me to start it.  I really don't have time for this.

Enjoy, King Yoshi.  

^^ Nice.  

Apparently the disgust was justified.

All apologies to the earlier, less pompous participants of this thread; it was good while it lasted, and I am truly sorry for my own hand in helping trash it.  All I can say is I tried.  

^^ AND I tried, more than once, to back away from "your" technique (I thought you said it was DV's, BTW?) and talk about that on which it is based.  This thread may have been doomed, but it was your childish arrogance that buried it.  Thanks.

So much for trying.  I'm out.  

Boys, calm down please, I would like to continue to be able to respect both of you.

Yes, I believe ADA is a great tool for lucidity. Yes, I think it can be and often has been misunderstood. Yes, just like reality checks, if misunderstood, it can be self defeating by falling into auto-pilot mode, which is ironic given how it is about leaving auto-pilot mode. I personally do not care whether it is called ADA or Shmuples, but since a lot of people on this site know it as ADA now, and noone knows it as Schmuples, could we please continue to call it ADA. I am glad you coined the term, KingYoshi, and popularized this important technique on DV. I am glad you started this thread to clarify misunderstandings about ADA, Sageous. Peace?  

so what I'm getting from this is that the trick is to involve your self in the awareness work, and not just focus on your surroundings but instead combine the two and be aware of how one is interacting with the world, and that both yoshi and sageous are on the same page there...  seems only cosmic iron is questioning the importance of awareness to lucid dreaming altogether which is a little out there for me and will likely stay there without some further input and explanation  

Originally Posted by JoannaB:
Boys, calm down please, I would like to continue to be able to respect both of you.
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I'm always at peace, JoannaB, thank you!  I do get stubborn on occasion, but I'll try to shake it off.  Sorry, again, for my contribution to the annoying disruption.

I hope the conversation can continue, somehow.  

For what it's worth:

I just read the OP of King Yoshi's ADA/DILD tutorial and it seems it lines up nicely with the ADA as noted in my OP here. Also it pretty much parallels with "ADA" as its been practiced in the form of mindfulness and other meditative practices for centuries; no difference whatsoever, except that it is attached as a technique to LD'ing. So yeah, I guess we were debating, specifically, a portion of King Yoshi's DILD technique... had I known,  I would have not done the thread or at least warned you (king Yoshi) of its posting.  But here we are, regardless, and after a night's sleep I still think there is much to be discussed...

So your defenses are quite welcome, as they ever were.  Only now in my opinion they are directly on topic -- whether I was aware that you coined ADA or not, since it seems I knew exactly what I was talking about in the OP, regardless of my ignorance of the DV-specific history.  

As it turns out, we never needed to have that exchange last night ... I should have taken the high road and stopped to read your tutorial then, I guess.  My bad; it was late and I was very tired. Water under the bridge?  

Originally Posted by Meskhetyw:
Well, I had a part in dragging you into this, so I'll give it a shot.

Perhaps a change in terminology is in order. It has been proposed that "mindfulness" could be used, but this is also a blanket term. Many are familiar with the Buddhist Vipassana meditation and "mindfulness throughout daily activities", but there is a much older and more complete system (5,000 years old) of Yoga (not the exercise), which teaches mindfulness of the environment, the ten senses, the body, the breath, and ever more inward to thoughts, the subconscious, Dream Yoga, and Yoga Nidra. The idea is similar, the moment is observed ever more precisely and things are set aside as being "not self".

I was under the impression that the majority of people here are using a form of awareness that is merely environmental with perhaps some thought observing mixed in, as many posts seem to suggest, so all day awareness seemed an appropriate term for this and for other reasons. Regardless however, I suppose we should be clear in each case which form of awareness or mindfulness we are referring to. Perhaps using the addition "mindfulness of ....." will suffice.

The potential of this thread is to understand the mechanisms which allow for certain of these practices to bring about lucidity or to hinder it, and because of this I hope that people will share their views on any or all of these. I have had most success with Dream Yoga, but I have read Sageous's self awareness method and it seems to work without the need for a constant emphasis on dreaming. Zoth has mentioned mindfulness and seems to think that it has a positive impact on lucidity. I'd be interested in hearing more of this. Why these things work is worth exploring, so that we can as lucid dreamers make our practices more efficient.

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That would be an interesting change of subject, I think, and actually it might help, in that in describing other forms of awareness in a positive vein, we might open make some headway.  That said:

As I developed simple practices to build self-awareness, I came up with a sort of reverse-RC (as noted in my WILD class as a RRC). Instead of taking the RC path of asking yourself if you are dreaming, you ask yourself where you just were, where you are, and where you will be shortly, and you do so with a real sense of wonder about your interaction with your local reality as you did/will do these things.  I go into greater detail on the exercise here, if you're curious.

Why does this help?  Because it establishes a sense of your involvement in reality, that you have an effect on it, and it on you.  If you can develop this sense into a sort of intuition, come dream time that sense will help you to intuitively accept the nature of your dream as a part of your self, and from that will come an easier path to lucidity and control without confusing preconceptions.  I go into much more detail on this in the class, but essentially I'm saying that if you become intuitively aware of your interaction with reality, and are able to honestly ponder your interaction with it, you will have no trouble recognizing your presence in a dream, and remembering that the dream is you ... the rest is sheer lucidity. That's extremely brief, I know, but I'm pressed for time right now ... hopefully others will chime in?

Regarding changing the term: I think for the sake of argument that King Yoshi pretty much nailed what we were describing with ADA; it would be difficult to use something else, even when discussing the "merely environmental" ADA that seems to be prevalent on these forums.  Though mindfulness is a good term, it does have a religious ring to it, I think, and it also encompasses so many different types -- and grades -- of practice, we might do more harm than good using it.  Can't think of another term other than MEADA, though!  

Originally Posted by Sageous:
Water under the bridge?
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I hope so   I know Sageous has spent considerable time answering my questions and numerous other's questions and I see that KingYoshi has answered numerous questions as well over the years. They have that in common: attempting to help others on their quest for regular lucidity. I have not practiced ADA or at least not as described in the OP but I would like to add that further debate on this could potentially come to a consensus on what will help those seeking regular lucid dreams. Most methods related to ADA, awareness, mindfulness, etc, require a good amount of time and dedication and it would be good to know if they are beneficial to lucid dreaming if that is all that someone is looking for in practicing the methods.  

Originally Posted by KingYoshi:
It IS very beneficial. Like I previously stated, I have yet to go 1 on 1 with a dreamer who has not had success with ADA. If you have any problems while practicing the technique, come to me, and I guarantee you we will hammer out success. This thing works. I've proven it with my own success as well as the success of the countless dreamers in my thread and in my PM box. Its not like something that is on the fence about whether it works or not, which is why I see no point in this thread. It works. Period.

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Okay, then let's try to give the thread a point.  Assuming that we all accept that your ADA technique works, can you, per Meskhetyw's suggestion above, tell us why you think it works?  Maybe then we can get to the core of what works/what doesn't work, and what mental processes are involved... okay, we might at least head for that core!  

Ok, quickly before the Braves game starts. I'm going to include excerpts from the written technique as well. Simply because it is faster. I'll go ahead and go into in-depth, "guru" mode since you guys are twisting my arm . I usually don't got this in-depth outside of a PM question/assistance or my actual thread. You bastards j/k .

ADA for achieving lucidity:
"If you don't have good awareness in waking life, how do you expect to have good awareness in your dreams?"

"At first, you will have to force yourself to be completely aware of your surroundings. The idea, is to try and become aware of absolutely EVERYTHING around you. After practicing ADA for a while, you will start to become aware of theses subtleties without forcing yourself. As you practice more and more, you will notice the subtleties being noticed quite naturally with little effort. Eventually, you will get to where you are no longer practicing All Day Awareness, you are actually living it. It will become natural for you. Once you have reached this level of awareness, the dream itself becomes your dream sign. Every thing you notice within the dream will become your RC."

Building awareness of your surroundings in waking life carries over into the dream state. So, once you get to the point that you are practicing ADA regularly and naturally, the same is going to happen in your dreams. Sageous, you stated earlier that everyone already has awareness in their dreams. While that is partially true, their level of awareness is the same in their dreams as in waking life. In waking life, if you look at a wall and simply see the wall in the "take it for granted" sense, then you are going to do the same in your dream. In an actual dream, however, that wall is nothing more than a creation of your mind. It can be solid, liquid, gas, or nothing at all, because it is truly nothing but a thought. With ADA, you get out of this "day walking" by increasing your awareness in waking life. You are noticing everything and recognizing that wall for what it truly is. Your mind learns "this wall is a wall BECAUSE I am in reality right now" without even thinking specifically about. Your entire environment is becoming your RC. Not just walls, but everything around you. In a dream, once you increase that awareness, your environment is not going to "feel" the same. Nothing around you is grounded in reality and you are training yourself to notice this difference. This isn't something that can be found in books or even in the knowledge of your average genius. Its something that only a lucid dreamer can understand. Its abstract and needs to be experienced to fully understand what I mean when I say "it feels like a dream." ADA provides that ability. I've been at this for a long time and not in the same sense as most, as I have been using this in the specialty format (recreational lucid dreaming only). I don't doubt there are other benefits for mindfulness and awareness, but I'm purposely not allowing my body or mind to take advantage of these benefits or even acknowledge them for that matter. This, I 100% believe, is the key to being permanently lucid.

Day walking excerpt for those who don't know/understand my terminology:
"Lets take for instance, you are walking your dog down the street. Be aware of everything around you. Hear your footsteps against the pavement, feel the cushion in the sole of your shoes contract with each step. Feel the muscles working in your legs as you stroll along, see your eyelids blinking, hear the sound of your breathing, feel your lungs expanding and your chest moving as you breath in and out. Smell the air as you travel through the neighborhood. Does it change? Does every breeze smell the exact same? Feel your tongue as it casually rests on the bottom of your mouth. Every structure around you has a shadow...do you notice them? Hear the pitter patter of the dogs feet, do you hear him panting? Most people hold the leash and walk down the sidewalk completely lost in their thoughts. Most don't even notice the control they are using to power their own legs.

You are sitting at the computer doing math homework. Feel the keys below your fingertips, notice how effortlessly your fingers fly from one key to the next without even having to think about the upcoming letter/keystroke. While you were reading the previous two sentences, did you take for granted the blinking process. What all sounds have you heard while you have been reading this tutorial? What does the air smell like? You shouldn't have to smell right now to answer the question. Have you noticed the shadows of everything around you? How about your lungs? Have you noticed them expanding and your chest moving. Have you noticed the air traveling up through your windpipe, across your tongue and passed your lips?

These are just a few of the millions of small details that the average person takes for granted or doesn't even bother to notice. It is almost like everyone is sleep walking while they are awake. If you don't have good awareness in waking life, how do you expect to have good awareness in your dreams?"

ADA for Recall:
"Not only does awareness help strive toward lucidity, but it also helps with recall. As you continue to practice ADA, it will start to carry over in your dreams. Even if you aren't getting lucid yet, you will start paying more attention to the dream environment. Making mental notes of what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. This will help make dreams much easier to recall upon waking up from sleep. It will also help you recall more details from your dream. Soon you will be having detailed journal entries that read almost like a story as opposed to a scattered series of events that jump around from place to place."

Increasing awareness in waking life increases awareness in your dream, we have established that. If you are naturally paying more attention to the dream and noticing things around you, you are implanting those memories and things you notice more firmly into your mind. Upon waking up, your increased awareness in that previous dream has provided you with enhanced recall. Think about it like this, you are at a bar, drunk, and sleepy. Your awareness is going to be shit. As soon as you walk outside you write down everything you remember about the table of people right beside you who didn't interact with. You are going to remember almost nothing. Now, the same thing happens to a sober guy who is a normal human and "day walking" like the rest of the population. He is probably going to recall a bit more than the drunk guy, but maybe not. Now, take a guy who was in the bar practicing ADA the entire time. He is going to have an enormous advantage in recall of that table if he was, in fact, practicing ADA correctly. Ridiculous amounts of detail are possible. The brain is powerful enough to have photographic memory and store those memories. Not saying ADA is going to give you photographic memory, but it is, 100%, going to enhance recall.

ADA for Dream Control:

Take everything you have read and keep it in mind as I speak here. Your awareness has increased from ADA practice, therefore your mind understands much better than a typical dreamer that these things in your dreams, all of these things around you are nothing but creations of your mind. The better you get at ADA the more your mind naturally understands and accepts these things. This allows the success rate of your techniques for dream manipulation to blast through the roof. Most dreamers look at something and say, "Its a dream so I can control this with my mind." Saying it and even thinking it, is not the same as truly 100% believing it and expecting it. So, while at times it does work to say something out loud and use another similar trick to get dream control to work, ADA improves the root of why these tricks work. With ADA, instead of saying these things, your training your brain to know and 100% understand these things at all times. It helps boost those little tips and tricks that we all use to manipulate the dream (without us even noticing why things are working better and more frequently). ADA doesn't help provide better tricks, it helps increase the effectiveness of ALL tricks. My dream control and recall and at a much higher level these days than before I started ADA. You can see the impact that ADA made on my dreams by looking through my old dream journal from beginning to end (not recommended, it is A LOT of dreams, but you can take my word for it ).

ADA for prolonging the dream experience, staying lucid & stabilization:

The number one way to prolong a lucid dream (aside from time dilation/manipulation if you believe in that), is staying immersed within the dream state and keeping "disconnected" from your actual body. If you have advanced awareness, you are always going to be more locked-in to the dream environment than someone who doesn't. Your awareness and ADA carries into this dream state and keeps you constantly involved in dream activity, because noticing your environment better IS dream activity. On top of that, your awareness boost allows you to keep a much firmer grip on your lucidity. If you have great awareness from ADA practice, you are going to be "feeling" the dream at all times. You are "resonating" with your environment and experience as you are exploring your dream. Its much harder to forget you are lucid even while playing into the "dreams hands." By this, I am referring to my own style of dream exploration. I'm always playing along with my dream plots and treating the dream world as if it is another alternate, true life (even though I don't believe this or get into BD aspects). This allows for my dreams to play out as more coherent adventures and create consistencies from dream to dream. Making it possible to continue dream plots and overarching stories from dream to dream. Its why my DJ is set-up in dream series' (kind of like tv series') and I'm able to create an epic that s across many dreams.

Stabilization is nothing more than a form of dream control. So, see dream control for why it also helps boost stabilization.

Now, you aren't going to start ADA and immediately become a dream master, but you WILL notice results soon. The better you get at ADA and the more natural you become at performing it, the better it will help in all of these areas. If you can get to the point that you are in a constant All Day Awareness state of mind, you will become forever lucid. That is my goal, but I'm a long way from that.

Edit: @tofur - even for someone who doesn't practice ADA, they can randomly "feel" that dream state. It just feels like they are in a dream, so they realize they are. You don't even notice this most of the time, your mind has experience the waking state and dream state your whole life. You are walking around and, BAM your lucid for no reason. Well, whether you realize it or not, your mind figured out it was a dream simply because it knew it wasn't reality. ADA and awareness helps to make this a regular thing. Almost all of my DILDs are because I just suddenly know I'm in a dream for no other apparent reason than that "this feels like a dream." Everyone has the ability to just randomly become lucid, its how many of us became lucid without prior knowledge to what lucid dreaming even was.  

Originally Posted by Zoth:
You should try doing some research before stating things like that. They couldn't be more far than the truth.

Besides, let's clear one thing here:

It's not quite simple to determine the cause for lucidity in a DILD. In fact, it can be many times impossible. Spontaneous lucidity  isn't something random: it actually refers to things like insight, some memory or event altering your perspective, and this doesn't need to happen in a conscious level. The areas of the brain active during a lucid dream don't turn themselves "on" just because.

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See, I don't need to do the research because it has already been done. Its already up here (points at head). Long before these new age lucid dreamers. I've been here for a long time and been doing this for a long time, so slow down young one. THE definition of mindfulness' first line = "Mindfulness (Pali: sati,[1] Sanskrit: smti; also translated as awareness) is a spiritual or psychological faculty (indriya) that, according to the teaching of the Buddha, is considered to be of great importance in the path to enlightenment ."

Its a Buddhist practice that I am SUPER familiar with. Whether your view of mindfulness is different from this, is none of my concern. Do not tell me I'm wrong because your version of mindfulness is different from the definition, lol. I don't believe in enlightenment, beings, or any spiritual things so I'm not going to go into mindfulness with you. I know what it is, and to me, everything except for its basic awareness is crap. Not saying its impossible, but I'm not into. I don't judge anyone who is and I still hold respect for them. I'm into things that other aren't so I understand.

As for your second part, WTF are you talking about? Of course it isn't random. Are you even reading my posts? Your mind is not randomly becoming lucid, it is feeling that you are in a dream as opposed to lucidity, whether you realize it or not. Your mind can distinguish reality from a dream, naturally. ADA helps you do this even more often. Its not random and nothing I ever said implied that I thought it was. C'mon Dream Guide.

Edit: Look Zoth, if you want to know what kind of awareness I'm talking about, GO READ MY TUTORIAL. It is explained in great detail. I just explained in great detail why and how ADA helps with recall and it IS awareness. Have you been practicing testing and experimenting with ADA in direct correlation to lucid dreaming for years? Do you have 100s and 100s of lucid dreams from using no other technique but ADA? This isn't nonsense I'm spitting, dude. This is research and experience.

No one knows why these techniques work? LOL. Sorry, bro, YOU don't know why they work. DOn't speak for everyone else. I get people lucid because I don't just tell them what to do, I explain why these things work. I don't lucid dream blindly, I figure out why something works and test it over and over and over again. No offense to the other DGs, but how in the fuck did you become a Dream Guide? This is coming from a former Dream Guide Leader. Sad.

Also, you discredited my statements that had backing and didn't even provide a reason. You said, "The fact that you don't remember your dreams is not because you aren't aware of them." And that is it, LMAO. Because you say it makes it true, even without explaining why? Who do you think you are? You are in the most important position on the site, as a Dream Guide, and you are sitting here spitting ridiculous nonsense as if you are a random noob troll? Wow, dude. Wow.  

Should I mention that I'm in my 50's, and have been actively LD'ing -- and researching it from more sources than my head -- for probably longer than you've been alive, King Yoshi?  And I swear Zoth is older than me sometimes!  We're not all kids here, and to me the "New Age" happened in the late '70's, so you might want to grab another term, so as not to confuse us old farts...

Sorry, Zoth; just sayin'  

Originally Posted by Zoth:
Don't take this personally, but let's abstain from these particular comments, either directed to me, any other member, or even you. This is valid for everyone in this thread to make sure the discussion doesn't turn into a flaming war. Thanks

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You're linking wikipedia as an argument for research? When I say research, I actually mean going beyond googling mindfulness. It isn't necessarily linked to spirituality. But you seem to only know the concept of mindfulness related to it. Once again, I encourage you to do some research

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So you know it in an unconscious level? How do you backup this claim of yours? What is this feeling? Your mind knows it is a dream, but you don't? Then how do you know it knows?

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I know my mind knows because I have felt it. I have been living and breathing ADA and everything about it in regard to lucid dreaming for years. You haven't so you clearly do not understand the feeling of being in a completely normal dream when your mind begins to "feel" the dream and you become lucid. The dream state feels different in every sense than waking life once you get deep into ADA. How do I know? Because I am doing it and have been doing. Ask the 100s of dreamers that have become lucid from ADA. Everything I know about lucid dreaming including mindfulness aspects, come from experience. As in, I, personally, explore and researched these things from WITHIN THE DREAM. I didn't READ IT and assume it to be true. Do some research? How about you do some REAL research. As in, field research. As in, becoming lucid and explore these things from the source. Not reading what everyone else has written and suddenly claiming it to be true. Dreaming is not fact. There is NO written material from anyone that I will believe until lI prove it myself from with the dream world. Go do some REAL research rookie.

I love how you are trying to act responsible now that you are called out on your incompetence as a Dream Guide. This is no flame, its actually very disheartening to me.

Originally Posted by Sageous:
Should I mention that I'm in my 50's, and have been actively LD'ing -- and researching it from more sources than my head -- for probably longer than you've been alive, King Yoshi?  And I swear Zoth is older than me sometimes!  We're not all kids here, and to me the "New Age" happened in the late '70's, so you might want to grab another term, so as not to confuse us old farts...

Sorry, Zoth; just sayin'
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I'm clearly not talking to or about you. I know how old you are and how experienced you are. So, save these useless comments for the birds. New Age for lucid dreaming was not in the 70's in my eyes. Yours maybe, but not mine. So, I stand by it. And Zoth, is ignorant. Period. Not unintelligent, not stupid, but ignorant by its intended definition. Not by the insult.

How is a source other than your own experience within the dream, even valid to you? You seriously listen to someone talk about lucid dreaming and believe them without testing their knowledge or at the very least, testing how their knowledge could be true? Sorry, but my head is all I need for sources on lucid dreaming. If you think that is wrong, tell that to the 100s of dreamers who have used my experience along the way.  

I think this thread suffers from the too many egos in one place problem, which is a shame because the topic is of great interest, and we have some smart people here who are deeply committed to helping others and getting it right. And the egos get in the way. Sigh.  

Originally Posted by Sageous:
Should I mention that I'm in my 50's, and have been actively LD'ing -- and researching it from more sources than my head -- for probably longer than you've been alive, King Yoshi?  And I swear Zoth is older than me sometimes!  We're not all kids here, and to me the "New Age" happened in the late '70's, so you might want to grab another term, so as not to confuse us old farts...

Sorry, Zoth; just sayin'
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Originally Posted by tofur:
see but what I don't get is, what is that "you" that hasn't added it all up yet, the "you" that is noticing stuff?  I feel like were talking about two different aspects of consciousness here, the part that is witnessing everything, and the other part that wakes up because of the witnessing.  So maybe what were doing with the awareness training is stabilizing ourselves more and more as that witness, the observer rather than the doer.

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More like bringing them together as one. The mind is complex and very abstract. Its hard to describe these things with words. Its more of a feeling.  

Originally Posted by JoannaB:
I think this thread suffers from the too many egos in one place problem, which is a shame because the topic is of great interest, and we have some smart people here who are deeply committed to helping others and getting it right. And the egos get in the way. Sigh.

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I think the thread got back on the right track and is currently only slightly limping. Discussion of Tofur's question could also further right the ship. This is where I felt Zoth was coming from:

  Originally Posted by Zoth:
I hope you don't view this reply as a personal attack King Yoshi, because the only interest I have in this thread is healthy discussion (even if it means you and I are going to disagree fiercely), but your position seems to rely on assumptions based on your experience.
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