Thread: HeWhoShapes's workbook! :)

So yeah I wrote alot and it's a bit messy but I will log in every weekend to record my progress.

I apologize for the slow response, I was on vacation from work and wasn't able to come on DV either. Definitely feel free to record your progress here and you are welcome to post any questions that you have along the way and I will do my best to answer them. I hear you on being lazy to do certain things. The only thing I can advise there is when you do feel too lazy to do all that you want to do towards lucid dreaming, try to at least continue to do some of your day practices so you don't stop completely...and then build up from there when you can.

Well i got one DILD during these 2 weeks, it was a nice FA which is weird for DILDS (even though pretty much all of my lucids were FA's for some reason).

I started to read and now i hopefully understand that what i need is more of intent and mindset than using techniques alot since i used to depend on them but after looking through catharlie's intent post and some other places i decided to stop trying so hard on techs, and instead realize that they are just tools to help me study LD, but i am the only one who can LD and the techs are just there to help me achive it rather than the other way around!


So i will focus more on the mindset but still practice techs, but without stress or pressure, just when i feel like it...

No DILDS yet i've mainly been doing RC's and working on awareness. My practice isn't very stable and i change it alot, for example i've been trying new mindfulness techniques and i'm trying a type that is similar to hukif's gravity RC, except by focusing on my breath.

i don't know why my RC's and awareness aren't working more but i assume it has to do with the fact that my sleep schedules change alot. Like this week i slept for only 5-7 hours with each day in varying length.

so my practice is a bit messy and unstable, but i hope to chnge it soon!

Also, to combat my dryspells, i'm gonna try and do SSILD again. This tech got me to LDing a bit so using it should definately get me on the right track!

Hi HeWhoShapes,
The summary is: be patient, it takes time to overcome a life lived on auto-pilot, and to build up sufficient background-levels of self-awareness that can penetrate the very strong fog and dullness of the dream state. It really helps to think of lucid dreaming practice as a journey and not a destination. Dream recall can always be improved, self-awareness can always be improved. I think the self-awareness we cultivate has to be quite keen and sharp in order to counter the dull fog of the dream state.

The difficulty with lucid dreaming is to get all the contributing factors to come together during any particular night. I myself am terrible historically at sleep schedule. Even when I know that (having done it before in a spurt of high motivation) maintaining a regular sleep schedule gives very good results.

But really try on some nights to bring it all together: cultivate expectation all during the day, do lots of self-awareness time-outs, many lucid moments during the day, get really excited about the night, at bedtime set strong intention to remember dreams and to be lucid in your dreams. It helps to WBTB, even briefly, even if you just "wake up and grab some awareness" and go back to sleep (but experiment with longer times, too). And if you wake with no lucids, that's OK, know that there's always another night, and be grateful for any recall you do have (and try to write it up every day).

It's natural to cast about a while looking for a practice that feels right to you. But there is value in sticking with something for a long time, too. I am also looking to base more of my self-awareness in my breath (I'm reading mindfulness meditation literature now and that is the thing to do they say).

What I like to do sometimes, during the day in a moment of awareness, is to raise my hands held together in front of my chest, and pull them apart, like you're separating a curtain in front of you, and imagine that I'm tearing through the "fog of the dream state" into pure clarity and lucidity. I haven't kept that up but I just thought of that again this morning. Don't worry about people thinking you're crazy (ignoring these inhibitions can be quite helpful in getting lucid, by the way!), try doing it throughout your day.

Good stuff fryingman!

I think the only real problem here it's that it's definately easier said than done, but if i work on it i think i can succeed!

Originally Posted by HeWhoShapes

Good stuff fryingman!

I think the only real problem here it's that it's definately easier said than done, but if i work on it i think i can succeed!

Well said! And *know* you will succeed...

Well guys i got a DILD! what happened was i did a wbtb and i really wanted to get into SSILD so i just did it for awhile and my thoughts disturbed the practice a bit but it doesn't matter since i suddenly found something odd video while looking at a computer at my room and BAM! i'm lucid

It was during a non lucid so that means i got a DILD!

I think the best thing for me now is to continue with SSILD and perfect it and my other methods and add new ones!
But i'm getting ahead of myself. shame it was a pretty short lucid but a bit of lucidity is better than none!

also i really want to get into collecting dreamsigns but i'm too scared lol. i think it's because i don't really write my dreams fully anymore and i think you need that(at least i got that impression from ETWOLD), i write mostly alot of phrases and tags that remind me of my dreams and it workes fine so far(i usually recall 1-2 dreams, at least one of them in alot of detail).

i do feel happy now


One more note: my daytime practice is still virtually the same: meditation(breathing and vipassana), SAT\ADA awareness and RC's(with SAT obviously).

Congrats, HeWhoShapes! I would encourage you to spend some time to write out fully at least some of your dreams, maybe once per week. Because memory that seems clear now may not be so clear in a year, or two, or more. Sageous I think experimented with journaling only keywords and years later looked back at them and had absolutely no idea what they were about. Luckily he also has stacks of detailed journals to be able to look back and remember. Really digging deeply to pull out all the details helps with dream recall, and helps with lucidity by keeping your dreams more closely on your mind.

Congrats on the DILD! Nice work!!

Well here is something a bit wierd: for the 3 or so weeks i didn't update this workbook, i didn't get any lucids, slacked off a bit with my practice and became sad i didn't get lucids. Then i began to think more and more that something is missing, something i'm not doing right. I think today i found out what: dream incuabtion.
I decided to try it out after reading a tutorial here on the site explaining it and i intended on doing it. i only did the intention part of an incubation tutorial on the site and viola! i had a wierd and short lucid, which is better than none!!

here is the tut i used: http://www.dreamviews.com/general-dr...-tutorial.html

Now that i know what was missing i have motivation again!

Congrats on the lucid! Sometime's it's challenging keeping up the excitement and intent levels. Finding new motivational materials is always helpful, as is changing up what you're doing from time to time.

Hello DILD class member,
I'm making a one-time announcement to individual recently active workbooks to let you know about the new DILD class announcement thread. Please subscribe to the announcement thread to see notifications of activities and other threads of particular interest/importance to DILD class members!

The first announcement is about the upcoming Sensei dreaming competition (starting on Thursday [in 2 days!], look for the official rules and scoring post on Wednesday).

http://www.dreamviews.com/dild/15591...uncements.html