Thread: Chris's notebook

Dream recall went way up last night; I remember one dream from the middle of the night, and another from right before I woke up. I've noticed my awareness has increased in dreams too, I thought much more about where I was.. not enough to become lucid, but it's a clear sign of progression. I've discovered a dream sign that has surfaced again from many years ago: my room. At least half my dreams involve me being in my room at some point. (Is this the kind of stuff I should be writing here?)

Recall is still steadily increasing. I'm DJing every day, and it is making a huge difference
As to awareness and lucidity, I don't see much of a difference yet. I am naturally a fairly aware person, but do get lost in thought/go into 'zombie mode' too frequently. I find it extremely difficult to maintain constant awareness without thinking about it, so this is going to be my number one focus from now on, since recall is on its way back.

I apologize for the delay in responding. I am often AWOL on the weekend. Congrats on ramping up your recall.

Originally Posted by ThAtaInTmE

(Is this the kind of stuff I should be writing here?)

Absolutely. I would track things that you are trying so that you can refer back to them in the future. Additionally you can list any questions you have and I will do my best to answer them. May I ask what drew you away about a year ago?

No recall last night :\, probably because I didn't have time to focus on dream practice the day before.

Originally Posted by fogelbise

May I ask what drew you away about a year ago?

Forgetfulness and lack of motivation. It was more like 2 years ago, and it tailed off until 1 year when it kind of just ended.

As to questions I have:
How can I maintain a total awareness for a long(ish) period of time? It's not that it's too stressful, but I just forget to pay attention to being aware when I occupy myself with other things. It's likely just a matter of practice, but if there are any techs to facilitate this, I'd love to know.

If you could put a number on the importance of awareness in waking like (say... 1-10), what would you rank it at? I only ask this because it seems to be my greatest obstacle so far. However, before this, I never paid attention to awareness, and still could lucid dream so it makes me wonder.

Originally Posted by CJC

No recall last night :\, probably because I didn't have time to focus on dream practice the day before.

Do you have any little awakenings during the night typically? I'm now using a memory list system so I don't have to roll over and note anything during the night unless I really want to.

Forgetfulness and lack of motivation. It was more like 2 years ago, and it tailed off until 1 year when it kind of just ended.

That's common for the younger folks, but doesn't have to be the case for you. Mainly, I would suggest to just take things slowly considering that at your age a lot of things come up with school, tests, assignment, possibly applying for college or transitioning to the next stage in your life. If you can maintain even a minimal practice through all that, then great. If not, don't stay away from lucid dreaming for too long (like I did).

As to questions I have:
How can I maintain a total awareness for a long(ish) period of time? It's not that it's too stressful, but I just forget to pay attention to being aware when I occupy myself with other things. It's likely just a matter of practice, but if there are any techs to facilitate this, I'd love to know.

I really like Lidybug's thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dre...rspective.html
I think being able to see myself from beyond me took me the next step in self-awareness. I also like reminding myself that I am "here" when doing RC's and with any day time practices by sometimes placing my hand or fingers on my face as I look around doing my RC or RRC...putting a little of myself into view and putting a little more self awarness into the process. I am not really aiming for constant awareness at this point, but maybe down the road I can get to that point. Meditation is also great for maintaining awareness.

If you could put a number on the importance of awareness in waking like (say... 1-10), what would you rank it at? I only ask this because it seems to be my greatest obstacle so far. However, before this, I never paid attention to awareness, and still could lucid dream so it makes me wonder.

My take is that in the shorter term you can become lucid without a lot of awareness but awareness work can improve the quality of your lucid dreams and your memory of your goals for your lucid dreams. In the intermediate to longer term it helps with the above but also should increase the frequency of lucid dreams.

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Dream recall is waivering a little, some days a full dream, others, none. I don't really have much to say about the last few days, but I don't see any progress

Originally Posted by CJC

Dream recall is waivering a little, some days a full dream, others, none. I don't really have much to say about the last few days, but I don't see any progress

If you can think about the kind of things you were doing when your recall was ramping up when you started this workbook, that should help if nothing else is interfering - like lack of sleep. Did you have any questions or any other specific challenges that you wanted to discuss?

Well, I know I've been slacking off recently, but I somehow managed to become lucid last night. I was very stable, but very short because I was stupid enough to close my eyes
I don't know if it was dumb luck, or if it was due to the fact that I used a mantra I had never used before, but either way it was a small step forward. Basically what happened was that I found something important to me, but it had broken about a month ago, and I went "no wayyyyyyyy", and BAM lucid. Didn't even need to RC

I had lots of fun conjuring up stuff in the 2 or 3 minutes I had, so I guess I haven't lost my dream control skills which is nice to know

Congrats on the LD! Definitely a step forward and you got some dream control practice in as well!

Last night I have two vague recollections of slight lucidity, or at the very least thinking about it. In both cases it lasted for a very short time. My recall was awful so it was hard to tell, but it happened so soon after the first, so I think my awareness practice is finally coming through!

Hi CJC,
Just a quick note -- you'd asked about the importance of maintaining awareness through the day. I note in your signature you have a great quote:

"Lucid dreaming is nothing more than a state of mind."
-Sageous

Lucidity is a state of mind -- the state of being self-aware. Working towards more and more moments of self-awareness during the day thus should result in more and more lucidity during dreams at night.

Here's a great thread on mindfulness, lots of great references to read.

http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...roach-ada.html

Mindfulness (which is basically a fancy way of saying "paying attention to yourself," your thoughts/emotions/reactions/situations/location/etc) is the focus of my day work and I credit a big surge in both quality and quantity of my LDs to this practice. So I give it a pretty solid "10" in importance. A lot of very successful lucid dreamers practice some form of mindfulness during the day.

Also important are the basics: being well-rested, a regular sleep schedule, enough sleep, being key.

Also of key importance is setting strong intention ("I remember my dreams", "I become lucid in dreams", and so on) and having strong positive expectation ("I'm a lucid dreamer, I can't wait for tonight, I love my dreams and I will be lucid frequently in my dreams").

Good luck!

Last night was the most successful night I have ever had. It was like I was hyper aware through the entire night. Every time I saw something illogical, I immediately RC'ed. Things that would usually pass right over me, like a horse in my kitchen, or gravity turning sideways. I think I had 5 separate lucid dreams at least. I don't know what clicked or was different, but it was amazing! There is just one small blip though: because of my moderate to low recall, I didn't remember the feeling completely in all of them, some could have been those 'false LD's'. Other than that, WOW

That is an awesome achievement Chris!! I don't have many nights where I feel awareness through most of the night, so I would recommend to try some more to figure out if there was anything that you did that day before you went to bed that was any different. It may just be that your brain chemistry was just right or perhaps you were connecting with some day practice in a strong way that day. Very cool!

Congrats on the awesome night, Chris! Wow those sorts of nights are really amazing. I say: just keep doing what you're doing!