SCPantera's Dream Journal

Looking at the last entry, you'll notice I'd long since abandoned my dreamwalking efforts. This was due to a combination of my (then) frustrating lack of success and the arduous business of last year's school work which made the preparation for sleep and dreams and the upkeep of a dream journal seem somewhat chorelike at a time when I didn't have the mental focus to spare. Now, having graduated and finished my PharmD, I find myself in a limbo between having graduated, obtaining licensure, and finding a job which leaves me with a lot of free time. I've been enjoying several fun, adventurous, and pleasant dreams the past few nights (the four quadrant pillars, the middle settlement, and being alarmed that the middle people do not actively defend themselves from the dangerous creatures from the pillars!), which remind me of my old lucid dreaming efforts. Being that my mental obligations are quite sparing and free time abound nowadays, I feel that it is my duty to return to pursuing mastery of my nocturnal subconscious, so starting tonight (or this morning I guess, I've been rolling into a 4AM-noonish sleep pattern) I'll be once more laying the groundwork starting with good-old simple dream recall.

I don't know if I'll get around to finishing my last summary post or if I'll continue that practice going forward, but I'm going to take it easy and play things by ear for now.

The following recently occurred to me:
A) This dream journal contains absolutely no privacy options.
B) This dream journal now comes up as the second entry when you Google search for "SCPantera".
C) Several of my dreams contain fairly dicey information that, while I have no mind towards anonymous people on the internet reading them, would rather not have people I know stumbling across this journal.

Though regrettable, here's my plan as an alternative: I'm going to backup my dream journal entries on Word documents in my personal files on my computer and simply cross index the entries I'd rather not have public.

Edit: And done. I elected to leave a few racier bits that I don't mind being public too much and stuck with only removing a couple sequences I thought were downright embarrassing. Hopefully this will allow my dream journal to retain some entertainment value without being too risky.
I'm trying to decide if I want to put forth the effort to backup every entry. It would be a good idea, but may be time consuming.

When my thoughts turn to last night's virgin lucid dream, I'm filled with a hungry excitement. It was an unspeakably amazing experience, so unique that I find myself regularly questioning whether it truly occurred but its my memory and my journal documentation of the event that are able to confidently quash such thoughts.

I'm ravenously reading up on techniques on this site related to improving dream recall and methodology for dream signs and reality checks. I'll admit that my initial interest in lucid dreaming was casual and my effort thus far had been less than perfect, however these quick results have convinced me that the outcome is more than worth the effort.

I leave tabs up with sections highlighted for quick review before I head to bed. These include:
Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource - Dream Recall
Focus your intent to wake from your dreams and remember them just before you lie down, and continue to repeat your intent to yourself as you approach sleep. Repeat to yourself over and over, “I will wake from my dreams and completely remember them.” If you find your thoughts wandering as you slip into sleep, reaffirm your intent. You want your last thought before drifting off to sleep to be of your intent to awaken from your dreams and remember them.
http://www.dreamviews.com/f74/dild-d...id-dream-9423/
(I AM GOING TO REMEMBER TO RECOGNIZE THAT I AM DREAMING.)
http://www.dreamviews.com/f74/lucid-...tutorial-1518/

Based on recommendations in the last link, on the 1st of each month I'm going to conglomerate a summary of the previous month's dreams to analyze for dream signs.

Although I used to consider myself heavily stoic and secular, with a certain amount of pride in how firmly attached to reality (I thought) I was, I'm finding it thus quite ironic how easy it is to question reality. I'm finding that (improved) dream recall is helping a lot with this; it hasn't gone unnoticed how there was some heavy "dream-bleeding" into reality I experienced a few nights back with the oh-crap-I-cheated-on-my-wife dream--I seemed to think the events of the dream had actually occurred for several minutes into my waking life.

I'd also like to remark on how easy I found dream control once lucid. I'm delighted that I was able to transition into it very naturally, though I imagine this was helped along by a confidence that this would be true. Another effort that I need to make going forward is to have something of a plan for each following lucid dream; last night I demonstrated a solid level of object control, next LD's focus will be more on environmental control. I was quite unprepared for what to do with my first LD. In my initial excitement, I neglected to pin down my environment and as a result there were some negative interaction between my environment and myself that served to shake my focus and concentration.

In closing, I wonder if this is what drug abuse is like. Being a stoic pharmacy practitioner, the last thing on my mind is using external substances to achieve euphoria or non-reality states. It's crude, irresponsible, uncivilized, and pathetic. Lucid dreaming not only falls well outside this dogma, appearing considerably more transcendent, but additionally it seems to have virtually no adverse effects.

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you long to return.” - Leonardo Da Vinci