The Dream Journal Method.

The Dream Journal Method is something I have just started thinking about, inspired by a post from Griffon (http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15678) in a forum thread. He talks about using a dream journal as an actual means of obtaining lucidity, rather than simply improving dream recall. I decided that I would try and construct a thought-out method form it not only for my own benefit, but also for the benefit of others.

I have been trying for lucidity since about the start of this year, and so far I’ve had four lucid dreams, each one very short (5 seconds) and kind of random. I stopped trying for lucidity for a while to kind of give myself a break, but it only seemed to undo a lot of progress I had made. What I have just recently realised was that my lucid dreams occurred during a time at which I was entering into my dream journal regularly, and being very involved with my progress. Since reading Griffon’s suggestion, I have come to realise that using my dream journal as a method in itself may be very helpful to me.

The Method:

I only started this method yesterday, but this is the procedure I have outlined for myself. This method is not something that is one-off or immediate, but accumulative – for those people that are struggling despite their best efforts to lucid dream at all. It involves hard work and a fair bit of dedication, but I guess you’ve got to ask yourself how badly you want to lucid dream.

· I am dedicating myself to my dream journal by making sure that I enter into it every single day, and with as much detail as possible. Yes, it is just easier to go back to sleep again instead of struggling to write blurry-eyed, but the effort will hopefully pay off.
· Read over the night’s entry in your journal at least twice during the day, and try and think back to the dream and how it felt etc, using as much detail as possible.
· While going over the previous night’s dream, try and point out the things that indicate it was a dream. Don’t just go for the obvious (of course it’s unrealistic for you to be a millionaire drug lord etc), but go for the little things and triggers (this person is dead, this always happens in my dreams etc). This is doing more than just searching for dream symbols etc, as it is a way of training your mind to distinguish between a dream and reality based on your actual dreams.
· If you like, while you are reading the night’s dream you can thin to yourself “this is a dream” or whatever other mantra you use.
· Try and base your reality checks for the day on something out of your most recent dream eg in your dream you walked through a wall, so for the day your reality checks consist of testing walls with you hand etc.
· Try and make sure you read over your dream journal entry before going to bed, so it will be fresh in your mind as you go to sleep.
· Try and write small notes on your progress in your dream journal, anything you think that might help you. Slowly you might condition your mind to think of lucidity during your actual dreams.

I am going to try the above method for as long as possible; at least a month. I think that this method is based on an accumulative effect of increased awareness, which will be very useful to me because my dreams are so vivid that I simply do not think to question if it is a dream or not. During this time I will try and incorporate WBTB and WILD techniques, but underneath it all I will regard my dream journal as the actual method.

I think this will be helpful to those people that as soon as they fall asleep just switch off and the next thing they know they’re awake the next morning, remembering their dreams, but never becoming lucid. What’s new about this (I think) is that it is using a dream journal as an actual method, not simply a way to increase recall. By using your dream journal religiously, writing down dreams and your ideas on dreams you become more involved in the whole notion of lucid dreaming, rather then just doing the occasional half-hearted WILD or WBTB. Like I said before, doing this constantly would pay of the most, and maybe it could help those already achieving lucidity regularly by making them more involved.

Well this is kinda a work in progress, so feel free to suggest anything to me. I want to stress that Griffon was the one that suggested this all, and I’m merely adding and elaborating on it, and trying to turn it into an actual method to help others. I hope that it works well for me – I have a feeling that it might – and I’m interested in the way that dream journals can be actively used as a lucid method.

Tell me what you guys think.[/url]