wRembrandt

All I did was lay down after WBTB and just stare through my eyelids. For anyone that is curious:

You look into the distance at anything more than several meters away from you; the farther the better. Then you close your eyes and continue to look at that object and others as if your eyelids are not closed. Visualization is allowed here BUT BUT BUT priority is to be aware of the object in the distance AS IF YOUR EYES WERE OPENED. For example, I lay on my right side and stare at my window across the room as if I were seeing it with my eyes opened. I will start to feel the dream forming and just go with the flow.

This morning I had three lucid dreams. One visiting my old high school. Another where I had very clear hypnagogic imagery and saw sentences that made no sense. I noticed the misspelled words and tried to read the sentence but since my dream recall is garbage, I don't remember what that sentence was. The third was a standard one of me walking through my neighborhood looking for a special someone. I found another woman who then transformed into a reflection of me, then a monster, then attacked me. I wasn't afraid since I was lucid.

Each of these lucid dreams had to be induced after I briefly woke up. Each time, I went back to sleep using the same method explained above.

Became lucid where I left my bed. Couldn't see anything so I had to use my mind to bring some visuals and get out the house. I saw Naomi again....for like the 10th time or something. Starting next week I am going to move on from 'trying to find Naomi' and start trying to control and solidify the dream length. I just really really really really really wanted a dream companion/character. Maybe I am doing this backwards.

Did WBTB.

Meditated for 20 minutes.

Lied back down in bed and focused on a point on the other side of my bedroom. This is what I mean by being outside of my head. I made no thoughts distracted me from this. At some point in time I fell asleep and I realized I was dreaming. Went outside my house and saw some people walking about. That's all I remember from my 30 second encounter. Somewhere along the line I lost lucidity because I usually sleep for two hours every morning.

Lost focus on my mantra wall falling asleep. Meaning, I could not even form a complete sentence in my mind. Damn. Had a vivid dream about football. I was on varsity. Not something I wanted to dream about. Visited old weight room.

So. MILD DOES work. It's just that it takes a tad bit more effort than I originally envisioned. I decided to try my hand at MILD again considering that the common denominator between this and meditation(my most successful technique) is concentration. Active concentration and not daydreaming which is what both MILD and meditation demand during a WBTB period. All I did was wake up 4-6 hours and use the restroom. Then I just lied back down, visualized and repeated the mantra: The next time that I am dreaming, I will find Naomi. The visualization was of me standing in front of Naomi outside of my house. Of course, other thoughts arose but I immediately brought my focus back to my mantra+visualization. Easier said than done.

I met Naomi at least twice this morning. Her form was shapeshifting since I have ballpark idea of what she should look like and I am no master of visualization. Sometimes, she average-woman height. Another time she is basketball-player height. She said, "what's up?" and we shook hands. I don't remember much afterwards. My dream recall needs serious work. Heck I didn't even realize I had SEVERAL lucid dreams until I woke up this morning and thought about what happened.

Woke up, did my meditation. Tried to fall asleep while staying present to the moment. Had a hard time falling asleep. So I let go of the mindfulness and let daydreaming take over. The sleep paralysis came in gently. I quickly started affirming, "I am dreaming, I will be dreaming." At some point I fell asleep. So I one lucid dream at my old high school. Then, I had another lucid dream while walking down in my neighborhood. Found Naomi(Dream Law of Expectation), and this time she looked a bit more how I imagine her to look. Sort of grey skin, boxbraids, biracial, tomboyish. We took a little stroll down the street. I tried to initiate a conversation with her and she said some basic things like: "What's up?", "Nothin Much." For the most part, she was silent.

As I looked down the street, I saw the most beautiful scene to date. I am a big sucker for scenic skies. Wallpaper-worthy displays. Overall the sky was overcast and it was night time. In the distance, the clouds started to part and show off a beautiful starry night sky. There were some green hues.

Had another lucid dream this morning. My sense of touch shifted into the dream world before sight did. I knew I was in a dream when I could feel my way out of my bed as if it were an out-of-body experience. Seriously, in the beginning stage of the dream, I could feel my body start to shift. As I was standing next to my bed in total darkness, I tried to visualize to get some sight going. Got it working. Of course, like most of my previous WILDs, they start with me exiting my bedroom, down the hallway, through the hallway and out the front door into the street. The sky was overcast. I think I tried reading the stove clock before leaving. Naturally, it was blurry and distorted in the dream world.


Found Naomi, the dream character. Sadly, I don't have any better dream tasks to do other than search for this particular dream character over and over again. Why? I lack stability and dream control so I try to reach for low hanging fruit.

The mindfulness tweak I did was simply visualize the space outside of my head as if I was looking through my eyelids while also snapping my awareness to the present moment. I am trying to figure why I can only WILD after a 20-30 minute WBTB using mindfulness and not directly after waking up in the middle of the night as part of a DEILD. They were vivid non-lucid dreams, though.

Heck yeah. Did a mindfulness meditation and got a short lucid dream. Woke up and tried to get back into the dream. Had vivid non-lucid dreams afterwards about playing bass guitar and hanging out at a mansion with Drake. Saw some old friends as we rode buses around the city. Tried to work on my car. Was also hanging out with some co-workers.

RANT

I think I had a semi-lucid when I realized that no, this bitch didn't really just snap brand my brand-new music CD in half. But that is not the point. The point is I am another step closer to mastering lucid dream induction.

I have a seriously had habit of honing in a technique that yields consistent results but then due to excitement, I try to hard to make that technique work again and it doesn't. My number one principle of lucid dreaming is this:

You can not 'brute force' your way into a lucid dream. It doesn't matter if you say a mantra 10,000 times in one day or if you listen to the loudest binaural audio before sleep. Lucid dreaming - at least WILD - is a delicate craft that must be approached with a delicate mindset.

Last night, I dead set on having a DEILD. Long story short, it didn't work out the way I planned. I missed two attempts to get lucid which led to me frantically scouring the internet for tutorials on how to MILD. BAD. So I went back to dream journal and carefully reviewed what worked the first time:

MINDFULNESS.

It was that simple. Mindfulness is simply, and gently, being in the present moment. Watching the now; watching the breath. So that's what I did, I sat in meditation for 30 minutes. JUST RELAX and MEDITATE.

Then I went back to bed for a morning nap. The focus? RELAX AND STAY PRESENT. THATS IT. There is no trying for anything. There is no watching for anything. Let go of the desperate need to lucid dream and just relax and be present. Mind wandering? Bring it back to presence. After a while those distracting thoughts were actually Hypnagogia in both the visual form and the auditory form. I knew that much but I did not know how to transition them into a lucid dream. From here on out, I need to work on catching myself to notice I am entering a dream without the disturbing the hypnagogia.

I had a vivid non-lucid dream nevertheless.

Had two lucid dreams this morning. After today, I am taking my lucid dreaming technique to the next level. What I have changed over the last couple of weeks is that I am meditating 30 minutes before bed as outlined in Tipharot's video. I am also meditating for 30 minutes during my WBTB period in the early morning. However, I have been noticing the connection between the minds eye - the faculty used for visualization - and lucid dreaming in general. I was fortunate enough to wake up 2 hours earlier than I would have normally liked to for my WBTB session. I immediately went back to sleep. Whilst doing so, I Visualized that I was standing in my kitchen. The visualization pulled me in after about a minute and I began my lucid dream. Found the dream character, Naomi, and went on an adventure with her. I found her through sure expectation that she would be where I was going. In other words, when I am lucid, I am still visualizing.

I woke up later at my normal time for the actual WBTB. I meditated for 20 minutes when lie back down. This time around, I visualized that I was standing my bedroom beside my bed. This was a bit tricky because it's hard to visualize yourself in another orientation when lying down to sleep. Can't just visualize sight, must visualize touch and body orientation. I had trouble falling asleep which meant I was trying too hard so I relaxed a little. When I felt relaxed enough so I could feel myself falling asleep, I went back to the visualization of me standing in my bedroom with my eyes opened. It was working because, I started feeling hypnagogia that was pulling me in to the dream world. The feeling of being immersed into the visualization is a sure sign that it is working.

I knew I was in a dream when I could feel my dream body get out of bed yet still sort of feel my real body. Therefore, I was moving my legs around with my eyes closed trying to feel my way out of my bed room. Once again, Visualization is key. Eventually, the visuals will come together once you expect them.

All I was meditate 30 minutes before bed and 30 minutes during WBTB and had a short lucid this morning. Found dream character. It was alright.

Had a lucid dream this morning about being in a car lot.

Did my WBTB meditation thing. Went to sleep and found myself able to move in a dream with no visuals. I just felt my way around by touch and the visuals came in by themselves. And like most of my lucid dreams, they start with me getting out my bed. I got outside my front door and found Naomi, but I was too caught up on trying to close the door behind me and the dream ended.

Coming in and out of sleep: Had three lucid dreams. One I was exploring a favela in Brazil. The second, I was in my neighborhood and the third I don't quiet remember the details but I remember counting it as lucid.

Had two lucid dreams this morning via MILD.