Thread: Tony's Workbook

Last night I got 2 dreams recorded, one of which was an epic with multiple locations that was probably 3 dreams strung together. I woke up in the middle of the long one at about 4:30 and tried to do the DILD or wake induced where i remembered the dream, set intention and go back to sleep. I didn't get lucid but I think that was partly because I didn't have a real clear sense of what i was going to do if i became lucid in the moment. Lately I have been waking up clearly in the middle of the night and I've made it a point to journal.

My big goal here is to be slow and steady with the effort I make and not get to hell bent on the end result. That's how i get frustrated and take long breaks. I think the biggest challenge for me will be handling the dry spell when i get up and lucid dreaming again. but slow, steady and consistant will be the goal here.

that and I really want to make a go of becoming a cartographer of my dreamspace. I want to know what my dreams are like in good detail. before I would just journal and cruize on and not pay much attention to what was happening rather pushing forward to the next milestone.

Nice! I love long epics, I think I like them even more than LDs!

Your goals sound spot on. Adjusting your motivation and goals so that you stay engaged in your dreams, feeling very positive about them, and keep up day practice of awareness. Really diving in deep to your dreams and getting very close to them like you mention is probably one of the best things you can do IMO. Go for it and let us know how it goes!

^Ditto! I like your approach for getting back on the saddle! Welcome back Tony!

Let us know how we can help and we look forward to seeing your notes here in your workbook.

I'm having better recall in the middle of the night when I wake up than I do in the morning. Or I just lay there and ruminate on my dream for so long that when I finally move to write it down it's mostly gone and all I have left is a sentence without context. I'm a little distracted today but that's ok. I'll do a couple of reverse reality checks and not stress too much about it. I was looking back through my journal and remembering that I was actually pulling off a couple of real deal WILDs before I hiatused. being able to DILD and WILD, the dream. no pun intended. for now all I want to do is go flying. or hulk jumping, that's really how I get down in the LD world. good starter pack.

Long wild attempt this morning. Got to get into some serious hypnagogic imagery more than one but I kept tasting my nasty mouth. And feeling the back of my neck. I am better at holding still but not pulling myself into to that next stage of the dream yet.

If you don't feel the dive is going well you can always do some MILD during the hypnagogic stage when I think MILD is most effective. That way if you decide to roll over and go for a WILD next time, you will increase your chances of a DILD.

Building my Prospective Memory, Getting more regular with dream checks, got 5 dreams remembered from last night, I can feel the energy in my chest that comes with the sense that it's coming. I am a citizen of the dreamscape. It's time for me to wake up.

Woohoo I love that feeling! I've had some days recently where I'm absolutely bursting with excitement for the dream adventures of the coming night. Dream on!

So i'm laying in bed after waking up, I've gotten pretty good at the expectation to wake up a little bit before the alarm goes off. the dream elements are shifting around in my head. How do you guys hold onto them and organize as you are preparing to write them down? I feel like my dream journal lately has been a jumbled mess of images and places and sensations and characters and not so much the play by play stories or set ups that make a great journal? do I need to adjust my expectations? is there a tactic i'm missing out on?

Also, while i'm still preparing for that first lucid dream to peirce the film of dreamworld, can someone try to describe what lucidity feels like and how it differs from ordinary dreaming?

For recall: it just takes practice. I used to use a voice recorder on every waking (and when I'm sleeping alone still do sometimes). Now I go over the dreams mentally, making a list of key words or quick "feelings" like a mental snapshot of each major scene. I try to build this list all night long, and when I come to the computer to write them down I get out quickly all the summary/keywords, then I go about filling them in.

I spend quite a bit of time going over the dreams so that they're cemented in my waking memory. Some nights there's endless detail, some nights it's just "I was in a place with some people." It even varies per dream within one night: some dreams are epic, some revert to vague impressions. It depends how calm you are, how well rested you are, stress-free, etc.

It also depends how much in your life you pay attention to your present moment experiences, moment to moment. Make a habit of always paying attention, reflecting upon, and recalling later your experiences, both waking experiences and dreaming. Do this consistently over time, and waking and dream recall will flourish.

Because if you live on autopilot during the day, you can't expect to have amazing detailed memories of dreams at night, especially considering that dream memories are more fragile.

Sometimes if I can't get anything, I'll just start associating through a list of common dream themes, and see if I get an "AHA" moment or not, and then pursue that line for a while.

But Tony, I thought you've had lucid dreams before, so wouldn't you know how they feel to you?

went through my dream journal this weekend for signs, categorizing them according to the ewold. putting a couple of examples in each category

25 dreams cataloged

Awareness - 5 marveling at this crazy pie technology, Crazy urgency in a flooding house,
Action - 20 "I take my shoes off to tour an abandoned warehouse" "calling 911 at work"
form - 12 "i'm a superhero working the valet in heaven's parking lot" "the hotel fridge was cavernous and filled with folded white towels"
context - 17 "I'm in Shreveport on UL Campus" "my friend won big brother" "i'm backstage at an arena"

now what lol

I would keep going through etwold since there is so much of value in there. As far as the dream signs, you might need to mine the data you gathered and look for the most common signs that are a little more specific than just "action" for example. When I was focusing on dream signs a lot I had some specific ones like seeing a deceased loved one or weird stars in the sky but over time I have moved on to general dream signs that cue me in that I am dreaming, like taking a dream only action. I think that you may also want to start off more specific before focusing on general dream signs, but go with your gut instinct here…that could prove more productive than what I think will work for you.

I built the list of specific recurring elements and I'm hitting the reality checks in moments of weirdness hard now. still no crack but with 3-4 dreams remembered a night and a general sense of wonder about my daily life, i'm on the edge. We are creating an evolutionary life change here.

Yes, very good! You sound like you are close to getting to the next level! The trick is to realize when you get there that you need to keep up the practices that got you there, some maybe more than others…finding which ones those are but not laying back and resting on your laurels lest you lose the progress you have made.

When I started this journey again well into adulthood I would have had much doubt about that last statement of yours, but now I really think there is something to that idea.

Interesting night of dreaming last night. Usually I've been waking up after dreams to record, but last night I woke up held still and went back to sleep. At the end of the night I was able to remember 3 dreams in good detail including one where I achieved my current lucid dream goal in a non-lucid state. I was explaining to a friend in a park how you can use magic to fly and then i went flying. DUH lol. Interesting magical dreams, better recall, tangental recall. Loving this progress. Still no true lucid breakthrough tho.

I did sign up for the contest.

That's a good step! Keep it up! Congrats on the dream recall! And have fun in the competition. I signed up, too. Hopefully waking life won't get in the way too much

3 step task

RC
Fly
Teleport

Personal goals

new
Eat a hamburger
Ask a dream character about their inner life
Shoot fire from my hands

Old
take a drug to increase lucidity
create a portal to another universe


My recall is in a slump from earlier this week. I think my allergies must be keeping me from great quality sleep. I'm keeping up the attention and reality checks. The best thing about the question reality/RC process is that I notice heightened emotion in my dreams, so if i'm getting worked up or sucked in in a situation in real life. I'm starting to pull my self out and check for other dreamsigns, keeping me from acting in an overly emotional way. IT's pretty cool

Now on with the lucidity dammit

Reading about the brain chemistry element of the WBTB. How you need to get your thinking brain moving to a certain degree so you don't just zzz back out when you go in for the dive. What techniques do you use after the wbtb?

It's fucking hard but I don't ever want to give up again.

I feel ya, bro! My future self would never forgive me if I gave up, I know it. Dial the practice up and down as needed to adjust to waking life pressures, but never let it go to zero, that's my promise to myself. And reach for dream memories every single time upon waking up. Work on the fundamentals as you can. Find the joy in everyday life in mindfulness. There's lots of good stuff out there even in the waking world, if you quiet the inner voice and let yourself experience it!

What I do after WBTB is set intention to lucid dream, like, "the very next thing I see will be a dream", "I will fall asleep now and have a lucid dream." Then I will relax and do some dream yoga visualizations, maybe an all-body relaxation scan (which I almost never finish, I usually fall asleep before the end, starting with toes and ending with top of head, just relax each body area with each several exhales), then maybe watch myself falling asleep. Trying various visualizations to try to move my awareness away from being locked into my head.

The best stuff is worth the effort. And dreaming is some of the best stuff there is, period!

p.s. post 4500

Originally Posted by tblanco

Reading about the brain chemistry element of the WBTB. How you need to get your thinking brain moving to a certain degree so you don't just zzz back out when you go in for the dive. What techniques do you use after the wbtb?

For me, I have to avoid knocking out too quickly by staying up longer and doing something to wake up my brain during the WBTB, before laying back down. I like looking at images on my phone during WBTB that inspire lucid dreaming ideas.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Dial the practice up and down as needed to adjust to waking life pressures, but never let it go to zero...

I love the dial analogy! These adjustments are crucial to keeping up practices for me.

Not sure what's holding me back here. I listened to that, "thing i wish somebody had told me before i started" blog and it was just ok for me. I"m at that 50 LD mark and this round of trying to get back into it has been tough. I can feel my recall getting more detailed, my day work more consistant and i can start to generate that feeling of tightness/excitement in my chest when I start using my imagination to put stuff together. Seems like i was better at it before and I can't figure out what's different now.

Can you tell us more about what you are feeling? I looked back over page 2 of your workbook. I do think that if you continue to enjoy your regular dreams and some of these epics and continue to put in the work while dialing the intensity of the work up and down as needed to not feel burned out, that you will get to the point of having regular lucid dreams…that it is just a matter of time. If you like listening to audio in general there are some fun podcasts on DV: DreamViews Podcast