Thread: Emnition's workbook

Instead of making a new schedule every week I've decided to make a schedule that I will follow every week.

SSILD: tuesday, friday, saturday
posting here: wednesday, sunday

Furthermore the app I've installed on my phone isn't really working for me. Due to a bug either in the app or in my phone I receive so many notifications within a minute that the app just annoys me instead of truly raising my awareness. I do want to try to set the interval lower (maybe 30 minutes), volume low and let the sound play during the night. Perhaps the sound of a gong will reach me in my dreams and raise my awareness.

Edit: I'm working on the last section of basic skills #1 of Sivason's Dream Yoga class. As I mentiond briefly before I'm still doing one of his tasks several times throughout the day for a short period of time.

Another edit!: Lately I've found it harder to focus while attempting SSILD. Could this be because my brain is not awake enough yet before going back to bed?

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Cool, I'm looking forward to reading what you come up with. I've always wanted to experiment playing brain train games during a wbtb but am rarely in the mood, so it in the end never try it.

Last night I stayed up for roughly 25 minutes and one of the things I did was solve a small crossword puzzle, which took me maybe 5 minutes. Right now I'm wondering whether it would be better to do something that challenges the brain or something more active, such as a short workout. Though I guess the best thing to do is probably to read about SSILD during this period to focus my mind in that direction.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

That's still a good sign of progress! Keep up the RCs!

I didn't see it that way at first, but you're right, thanks!

Another edit!: Lately I've found it harder to focus while attempting SSILD. Could this be because my brain is not awake enough yet before going back to bed?

Yes, this is quite possible.

Originally Posted by Emnition

Last night I stayed up for roughly 25 minutes and one of the things I did was solve a small crossword puzzle, which took me maybe 5 minutes. Right now I'm wondering whether it would be better to do something that challenges the brain or something more active, such as a short workout. Though I guess the best thing to do is probably to read about SSILD during this period to focus my mind in that direction.

All these activities ought to have some effect, I think the best way to find out which one works the most is to try them all. You can try some basic math or reading about lucid dreaming and SSILD, that's a good idea. I know one guy used to cycle (workout during his wbtb), but that may not be everyone's piece of cake.

It's my updateday but unfortunately I don't have that much to report. I did what I said I'd do, though without success.
Right now I feel like I'm just 'going through the motions', without too much spirit in it. I need to find something to get me really motivated again.

Originally Posted by Emnition

It's my updateday but unfortunately I don't have that much to report. I did what I said I'd do, though without success.
Right now I feel like I'm just 'going through the motions', without too much spirit in it. I need to find something to get me really motivated again.

May I tempt you with this month's tasks for an extra inspiration:

http://www.dreamviews.com/tasks-mont...ch-2015-a.html

Originally Posted by NyxCC

May I tempt you with this month's tasks for an extra inspiration:

http://www.dreamviews.com/tasks-mont...ch-2015-a.html

Yes you may certainly!

As for my attempts: I was supposed to SSILD last night / this morning. I failed to do so (didn't set my alarm). I will make up for it by doing it this night instead. During the waking period early in the morning I will read about SSILD, which will hopefully get me in the right state of mind. Also, in an attempt to be more productive I've made a morning and an evening routine for myself, which also include dream related tasks. Hopefully this will get me more structured in what I'm doing.

Edit: I've already been practicing with Sivason's Dream Yoga a bit, but I've just created a workbook for it to make it more official and get myself into it.

I had to change my schedule a bit this week to accomodate for other plans. I've attempted SSILD on wednesday and thursday and was supposed to do it on friday as well, but I unexpectedly ended up sleeping at a friends place. I haven't had any lucids, but 3 nights in a row I had for my doing quite detailed dreams. Wednesday night I even had a moment where I experienced touch so vividly that I still felt a tingling sensation after waking up. Also that dream was an absolutely great experience!

I'll continue what I'm doing right now and hopefully my dreams will continue to be as detailed.

Note to self: if you need to wake up early in the morning for SSILD, make sure your alarm is not within arm's reach. I either turned it off in my sleep or just slept right through it. Also I feel like I should update this again:


Reality Checks:
- Reading the word 'Awake', which I've written on my left index finger
- Pushing my fingers through my palm
- If on the motorcycle: blink multiple times, as my eyes can be very stubborn in my dreams

Dream Signs:
- Being somewhere I've never been before or locations looking different from the real world (e.g. the interior of my room being moved around)
- Being with people who I shouldn't be with (e.g. people from back home)

Short-Term Goals:
- Having a LD once a week
- Increasing the length of my LDs (I always wake up within a minute)
- Being aware of my own body more often during the day

Long-Term Goals:
- Having a LD several times per week
- Having enough control over my LDs to decide my own actions

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- Every once in a while I have trouble remembering a dream, but most of the time I can remember at least 1 dream per night.
- I'm not sure how many LDs I've had, but my best guess would be around 10.

Current Technique:
- I'll still be trying SSILD this week, after that I feel like I should move on to a new technique (unless of course I achieve some amazing results this week). Any suggestions for techniques?

Current Technique:
- I'll still be trying SSILD this week, after that I feel like I should move on to a new technique (unless of course I achieve some amazing results this week). Any suggestions for techniques?

So, to summarize, how many times do you think you have done the technique? Would you say you manage to do a few cycles and then quickly fall asleep, etc? Do you expect to have a lucid dream when going back to bed? I know this may sound like it's obvious, but often we fail to project this intention of having a lucid dream forward. And this makes all the techniques work.

If you want to try something different, maybe you can go for MILD. Do your wbtb, get up, stay a bit and think about your dreams and what you want to do next. Then go back to sleep and think about it a bit more as you fall asleep. You may remember a dream you had and imagine yourself become lucid or just come up with a desired scenario and imagine and try to feel the excitement of becoming lucid. You may also add some mantras like 'I know I'm dreaming" or similar along with your thoughts or visualizations.

The other tech you could try is wilding.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

So, to summarize, how many times do you think you have done the technique? Would you say you manage to do a few cycles and then quickly fall asleep, etc?

Good question, I'm not sure actually. For the last couple of weeks I've mostly done it 3 times a week, not to sure about the period before that. I know I've had a period where I was struggling. I can definitely manage to fall back asleep quite easily. On some occasions I even fell asleep too fast again.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Do you expect to have a lucid dream when going back to bed? I know this may sound like it's obvious, but often we fail to project this intention of having a lucid dream forward. And this makes all the techniques work.

This is so obvious and yet so stupid of me to overlook. Indeed, I rarely created the right mindset for myself. Very good pointer.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

If you want to try something different, maybe you can go for MILD. Do your wbtb, get up, stay a bit and think about your dreams and what you want to do next. Then go back to sleep and think about it a bit more as you fall asleep. You may remember a dream you had and imagine yourself become lucid or just come up with a desired scenario and imagine and try to feel the excitement of becoming lucid. You may also add some mantras like 'I know I'm dreaming" or similar along with your thoughts or visualizations.

The other tech you could try is wilding.

I've read and attempted both techniques a long time ago. I'll read up on them and see which one I prefer.

I've been less busy with LDing this week because I've been sick. Now that I think about it it's actually a waste, because you sleep so much when you're sick! Anyways, I've looked into MILD on the beginners thread here, found several posts and have tried to integrate them.

I've tweaked my routine so that right before bed I will start with Dream Yoga to relax my body. After that I start my dream incubation. I think of a scenery I wish to dream about and start visualising myself in it. I try not to only think about how the scenery will look, but also how my other senses will be involved. Last night i tried this for the first time and it was quite challenging. After visualising the scenery I tried to visualise how my sense of touch would be affected. In this case I knew that walking on water barefooted should make my feet feel wet, but I had trouble going beyond the knowing. What I forgot to do last night was to tell myself every few seconds that this is a dream.

I didn't become lucid last night, but the technique did work a bit. For those who've been there, I imagined Sanur, Bali. I wanted to have a serene setting and thought that the small pagoda like construction at the ocean would be excellent. I didn't dream about this place, but did dream about being in a forest/jungle, standing in the middle of a shallow river. I found the scenery to be calm.

I'm actually quite excited about this. I guess what I really needed was a change of pace to get me motivated again. I've made a schedule of when I should do my MILD attempts and I was actually quite disappointed when I realised I 'have' to wait until Tuesday. Hopefully this will get me so hyped up though that it will lead to some great things.

Hope you are feeling better.

Your new approach with the dream yoga and visualization is great. I can see many benefits there, from dream incubation to potential lds. The dream you had sounds very nice. Happy you found back your motivation. The new schedule with mild is very inspiring!

Last night it was finally time for the MILD attempt. I somewhat unexpectedly slept together with my girlfriend, which made it way more difficult. During Dream Yoga I focus on touch, which is much harder to do systematically if someone is laying next/half over you. I did manage to get a new insight into Dream Yoga right before she also came to bed, so that was good. I wasn't sufficiently relaxed so it was very difficult for me to focus. I did manage to do the MILD exercise, but I feel like I could've done a better job at it if I slept alone.

Last night it was time for another MILD attempt. I was pretty sleepy and went to bed on time. I started out with Dream Yoga as usual, but I had some trouble focussing on it properly. I kept trying at some intervals and... fell asleep before I had incubated any dreams. Important lesson learned: Dream Yoga is not an essential part of the routine. If the body is already relaxed, carry on to the next part.

Two nights ago I had an unexpected LD though, finally! I went to bed just before midnight, woke up around 4 or 5 in the morning (coincidence) and it then took me quite a while to fall back asleep again. One of the dreams that followed was the LD. My surroundings were entirely black. The only thing that was present was a large stone bowl, similar to a fruit bowl, but filled with water. I took my contact lenses out and put them into the bowl. The first was fine, but the second contact lens was about as big as my eyeball. I immediately realised that it would be impossible for me to put a lens of this size in my eye, and I realised I was dreaming. I already told myself with full conviction that I was lucid before I even attempted to push my fingers through the palm of my other hand, which worked. Immediately after I made an effort to stay calm and not wake myself up by becoming too excited. This worked and the next thing I remember was me sitting on a stool and a girl walking by. The scenery was still entirely black for as far as I can remember. The dream turned sexual, which I didn't want. I think my negative thoughts may have triggered the false awakening that followed. I was in my bed and afraid to open my eyes, because I thought I might open my real eyes if I did so. I slowly opened one of my eyes just a little bit and confirmed that I had been tossed out of the dream and was now 'awake'.

Also, a friend of mine made a comment a few days ago saying that she was certain I would dream about her (drunk people, eh?), so I thought it would be fun to see if I'm able to summon her. I've once before attempted to summon someone and that worked, so there should be no reason why I can't summon my friend. When I told her about my idea she asked me if I could make her fly, so my intent is to fly off together. To keep some consistency I'll try to make this happen at Sanur, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Good catch with the contact lens! Congrats!

I don't really have much to report about the last couple of nights. Last weekend went just bad because I was feeling extra sick. Last night went horrible because someone in my dorm was hellbend on keeping me awake until atleast 3am. I'll spare you the list of all the methods I devised of making that person be silent... forever(!)

Sorry to hear about that. I don't even want to imagine what you did...

Woehoe! I went to bed around 23.15 yesterday and set my alarm for 05.20. I got up and stayed awake for 10 minutes, though I was really tired. I sat up on the edge of my bed and started visualising Sanur. I noticed my floor was quite cold so I lifted and put down my feet to mimick the idea of walking over water. I then put a bandana over my eyes to keep the light out because the sun was about to rise and went back to bed and had a lucid somewhere in the morning. The timeline of what happened is quite messed up in my mind.

In this lucid my bed was in the bathroom, which apparently was normal. The thing that was strange was that it was positioned on the other side of the bathroom (my bed doesn't even fit in my bathroom). I sit down somewhere and feel/see my teeth. It feels strange somehow. After a while I notice an extra tooth in between my lower frontteeth. It has a weird shape and there's a hole in it. I then pull a large piece of fried coleslaw (Indonesians really fry everything) out of my mouth. I'm surprised as hell and conclude that I'm dreaming. I do the fingers through palm RC and I have success. I let my hands stay like that for a second and focus on it to stabilise the dream. Throughout the dream I do this maybe 3 times in total. I also feel a loose tooth in my mouth at some point, which has happened quite often in my dreams in the past, so another reason for me to RC. It also happened that the bandana on my head shifted downwards and caused me to close my eyes. Damn! I'm always afraid to open my eyes because I fear I might wake up. I hoped for the best and opened my eyes.. still in the dream. I realise I haven't done anything interesting yet with my lucidity, so I try to think of something. My first thought was to make spiders appear out of my mouth (I played a game with spiders in it yesterday), but luckily I quickly decided that would be an absolute nightmare and decided I wanted to fly instead. I wanted to go tell Bill Clinton about this (I don't know where this thought came from, I certainly didn't consciously put it there). I walk towards the door and see that it's raining. For 1 second I give up, before deciding I can attempt to manipulate the weather. I then have a false awakening.

Some of my other dreams this night/morning were quite... dark. In one my kids (I don't have kids) and I were captured by nazi's. My wife (don't have a wife either) turned out to secretly be a nazi. We were being psychologically tortured to the point were I wanted to escape so desperately I contemplated biting through my own tongue. In another one I woke up in a limousine. Someone asked me and 1 or 2 other persons if we knew where we were, but none of us had any clue. The person asking the question told us that 5 of us got on a plane and it crashed. Rachel (no clue who that is) didn't survive the crash and we're on the way to her funeral now.

Anyways; lucidity. Whoopwhoop!
Before my next MILD I'll make sure to read up on stabilisation after becoming lucid.

Yay! Congrats on the ld!

Lol, that fried coleslaw made me laugh. Good job bringing the dream back after the bandana challenge.

So lazy today! Maybe because I don't have something very exciting to share. Yesterday I did a Dream Yoga exercise and WBTB, but other than that I was a total mess. My mind was all over the place, so no lucids to report Lately I've also noticed that I write down my dreams less often because I sleep at my girlfriend's place more and have to leave early for classes. I'll make sure to atleast make a few quick notes from now on, so that I can write my dream down fully at a later moment.

Last night I managed to recall 5 dreams over a ~9 hour sleep period. Just now I realised that most of the dreams I normally have seem to be quite short, or maybe I just only remember a fraction of my dream. I guess that's the reason why my lucids have been very short so far.

I intend to read up a bit more on WILD today, because I also realised last time that I may have in fact more been attempting to MILD. I've discovered a precious little gem in the DV Academy about WILD and I also have LaBerge's Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming which I haven't looked at in a long time.

I think I had something else to share, but I forgot what

edit: I remember! There is a stabilisation thread in the DV Academy which comes with some tasks. They seem very interesting and since they are designed to help stabilise dreams I will give them a go. First task: pass through a wall. Bring it on wall!

^^ Cool! I can already imagine you plunging into stabilization mischief tasks.

Whoops! Been a little inactive here. Lately I've been sleeping together with my girlfriend more often, making me totally forget about doing Dream Yoga, since I normally do that right before sleep. I've also become a bit less consistent in attempting WILD, though I am finally actually attempting WILD instead of accidentally another technique. The last few nights I've managed to recall quite a number of dreams (3 - 5 per night).

Last night I also became lucid, though for a very short moment only and not through WILD. In my dream I was in class and was using my tongue to play with one of my teeth. It felt kinda wobbly and after a while it fell out. I immediately recognised this as a dreamsign because this has happened quite a lot to me in the past. I told myself I was dreaming and then took 2 seconds to calm the excitement before attempting the finger through palm technique to make sure I was dreaming. The technique failed, which confused me for a moment, because I was pretty sure I was dreaming. A few seconds after I heard a sound coming from the 'real world' which disrupted my focus and caused me to lose the dream. I'm not sure if I actually woke up, but I'm pretty sure I only imagined the sound, as this has happened to me before quickly after becoming lucid.

Last night I also had a dream about using the train back home, which I did quite frequently and have done only 1 time in Indonesia. This dream used to occur more often when I was still at home, but now still pops up every once in a while. The trainstations are never the same, but the general story of the dream is always similar: I'm travelling to a location and manage to get on the wrong train.

I remember reading once that losing teeth in your dream is a sign of feeling powerless in real life and using transport is because there are changes occurring in your life.... and I'm always on the wrong train. Lets hope there is no truth in it

Just woke up about an hour ago and writing this from my girlfriend's laptop (priorities!). I remember 3 (and a half) dreams. I didn't become lucid but I think (not sure) that at one point I said to myself that I should do the finger through palm technique because something was too good to be true. Immediately after that thought I figured it would be no use because the technique fails me anyway (see last post).

I'm not sure whats causing me to have my improved recall lately. Perhaps because I haven't had any alcohol in a while..? Guess I'll find out about that soon enough, because tomorrow is a national holiday for me! Also I've been trying something different from performing RCs during the day. Instead I try to just focus on my body, especially sense of touch. The feeling of the laptopkeys a I write this, the light pain in my back from sitting a bit hunched like I'm some sort of Quasimodo, the pa... you get the idea. I have an app on my phone which rings every 30 minutes, though I don't alway activate this app. I try to become aware at different moments, which works, but having my phone vibrate or play a sound also helps to remind me. I do the same when my phone goes off because I've received a message or whatever.