In terms of dreaming, schema refers to the mental frameworks that you use for day-to-day thinking. When you think of water, for example, your mind automatically assumes a mental framework of concepts (or schema) surrounding the idea of water. For example, you likely associate water with the color blue, reflectiveness, wetness, boats, oceans, sea creatures, and other things within the water schema.
For the purposes of this guide, we'll refer to the parts of a schema (like water, the color blue, or reflectiveness) as objects. Anything can be an object, and schemas (the mental framework these ideas fit into) are how these objects relate to one another.
Not all schematic associations are conscious, which is how dream formation works. Dream formation (the way dreams are created on the spot) is based on both conscious and subconscious factors, which include schemas. You may not consciously think of whales when you see a body of water, but if you dream of water, there's a higher chance you'll see whales swimming around than giraffes or other animals you wouldn't normally associate with water. That's because your mind (and therefore your dreams) is inclined to bring up concepts within the mental framework you are most used to seeing.
Other examples of schemas include:
- Dogs, the sound of barking, collars, tennis balls, slobber, cats
- Music, musicians, guitars, concerts, headphones
- Wood, trees, birds, leaves, nature, roads
- Books, libraries, bookmarks, school, ladies with glasses telling you to be quiet
Objects in a schema can be stronger or weaker depending on the closeness of the association you have between those objects (your mind organizes things by importance and relation). When an association is stronger (i.e. one object is more important in relation to another object), it's more likely to appear in your dreams. When weaker, it's still likely, but not as much as a strong association.
For example, the association between dogs and collars may be stronger than the association between dogs and cats, since dogs wear collars more frequently than they are accompanied by cats. Collars tend to be ranked at higher relevance to dogs in our minds than cats. Cats and dogs are often grouped together, resulting an overlap between schemas, but the dog schema has its own objects that are closer together than the cat schema. There's a clear hierarchy.
There are many factors that determine the strength of objects in schemas (and what objects exist in the schema altogether) including your individuality, culture, and life experiences. One size does not fit all. Overall, though, schemas tend to become stronger the more they are mentally engaged with. Like forming trenches in your mind, the more you engage with a schema (either through direct life experience, feelings, thoughts, or dreams), the more it will become etched into your mental framework.
Schemas are rarely experienced in a vacuum. As you dream, your mind will automatically pull up different objects from the countless mental frameworks that you've developed over the course of your life, which will mix together to form the dream. This mixing of schemas causes certain elements to become strengthened, weakened, or to lead into other connected frameworks. Using the dog example above, you might encounter a dog in your dream, which proceeds to chase after a ball. You're on a beach and the ball rolls into the ocean, engaging your schematic associations with water. Therefore, a whale slides out of the water to get the ball. This causes your mind to engage schemas centering around whales. If you watch a lot of science fiction, the whale might leap out of the water and dive into another dimension. Or, if aquatic theme parks are a stronger association for you, the whale might balance the ball on its nose. This is how dream formation evolves into new scenes, mixing schemas based on your personal associations between concepts.
But I have a pet giraffe who loves going for a swim, you say. Well, that's completely reasonable! Schemas differ widely between people. Although there's many ubiquitous schemas that you have in common with others (especially those who share your culture and life experiences), not all schemas are universal. If you have a dog (or a giraffe) who loves to swim in the water, you'll be more likely to encounter this in your dreams than someone who doesn't share the same experiences. Media (such as films, games, and other forms of entertainment) can also influence schemas just as effectively. If you were exposed to cartoon images of a worm hiding in a book as a kid, you may have a schematic association between books and worms that someone else (who never saw those cartoons) may not have at all. Someone who has never been exposed to the book worm motif will likely have no reason to think books and worms are at all related, and probably won't naturally dream about one leading to the other (though they can certainly use dream control to bring the two concepts together). The strengths and weaknesses of objects in schemas can also differ between people. Your schemas are your own, and they are part of what make your dreams unique.
Schemas are one of the most powerful tools for dream control, providing you with a way to use your unconscious thought patterns to your advantage, rather than being at the mercy of them. With schemas, you can use the natural mechanisms behind dream formation to control a dream from its root. You can use schemas to come up with creative ways for controlling dreams both from within the dream itself (assuming you are already lucid), or with incubation while awake.
From within dreams: In-dream schema manipulation is one of the most popular forms of dream control. Not only is it highly effective, but it trains your dream control skills. The more you practice influences your schemas in dreams, the more proficient you'll get. It's also handy to be able to improvise and come up with things on the spot so that you can change your dreams at any time without having to plan them out. This requires lucidity.
To use schema for dream control in dreams themselves, simply take a moment to look around at your surroundings in the dream, and find something you can use for the results you want. Think of it like a game—you're trying to use the objects in your environment to meet your goal. If you want to eat a dream sandwich, try looking for a restaurant that sells sandwiches. If you need money to pay for one, try looking in your pocket for a wallet. If one thing doesn't work, try another. Eventually (usually on the first try), you'll tap into one of your schemas and get the results you want.
From outside dreams:
The more you engage with a mental framework, the stronger it gets. You can influence the strength of your schematic associations while you're awake to influence the contents of your dreams. The best part is, doing this can cause permanent, long-lasting dream control. By altering the very framework of your thoughts on a deep level, you can forever change the patterns of dream formation in all of your future dreams (both lucid and non-lucid).
To do this, simply engage the schematic associations that you want, and disengage the ones you do not want. Engagement can be done simply by thinking, but you can also use emotional stimuli or create tangible experiences to help aid the process. Bonus points if you use mnemonics to incubate associations (similar to the MILD technique for lucid dreaming).
For example, let's say you want to swim faster in your dreams. One way to do this is to incubate schematic associations that help increase your swimming speed like imagining yourself with flippers or as an animal that naturally swims quickly. Imagine yourself swimming with flippers ir as a faster swimming animal in your mind before bed or at any other time to engage the schema mentally, or you can use media to boost your engagement, such as by watching a movie or playing video games in which your character can swim at fast speeds. Modding video games is a great way to do this, as it allows you to emulate the experiences you wish to have in dreams.
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