ViolettaWilde

This was my second time testing out the Galantamine/Choline combo. The first time, a week ago, I took 500 mg Choline and 4 mg Galantamine. I definitely noticed a difference in the vividness and memory retention of my dreams, and I had a short DILD after being inside a dream for some time. I woke almost as soon as I got lucid, though.

This morning, when I did my WBTB at 6 a.m., I decided to try 8 mg. of Galantamine, keeping the Choline dose the same.

I had a pretty long and vivid non-lucid dream, which I won't go into because it's superfluous.

I woke in bed and immediately tried a nose pinch reality check. Nope, couldn't breathe through my nose. But somehow I was sure that this was a false awakening, so I got up and tried a finger-stretching reality check. It didn't stretch. This was rather odd, because I was certain I was dreaming, but my reality checks kept trying to tell me I was awake. So I tried my third usual reality check, which never fails if I'm really paying attention-- a gravity check. I jumped up and down a few times, feeling the buoyancy of a dream, and finally confirmed that I was definitely not awake.

I had been wanting to do some sensory observation exercises when I became lucid, but I really, really wanted to leave the house first, so I went downstairs and out the front door. It was quiet in the house, nobody up yet.

Once outside, I decided to try to find an object that I could use as a sensory focus. "I will find a beautiful rock over there," I said, and pointed to the far corner of my front yard, near the street. On my hands and knees, I felt around in the grass where I had intended the rock, and found it quickly. It was a chunk of rock threaded with red quartz-- not very pretty, but visually and texturally interesting enough that I decided to use it. Standing up, I held it in my hand and studied it, touching it. It was smooth in places and had a rough, coarse, almost spiky texture in others. After I finished looking at it, I put it in my pocket.

I began to levitate in preparation to fly, and decided to continue my sensory exercises by engaging my sense of taste. I searched my pockets for a piece of candy, and felt around a bunch of different objects until I found a mint. I unwrapped it and put it in my mouth, but then decided that something fruity might be a better choice, so I decided that I would find a Jolly Rancher in my pocket. I did so, unwrapped it, and popped it in my mouth along with the mint. Then I realized that the two of them didn't really work together, so I spit out the mint. The Jolly Rancher was slightly fruity, but was kind of small and thin, as if it had already been shrunk down. I began to fly.

I began to wake up, my vision going dark. I could still vaguely feel myself flying through the air, rather like a vivid daydream, and I wanted to stay in the dream so I focused on the sensation of soaring through the air. I gained altitude as I flew down my street, and my vision slowly faded back in.

Ahead of me, hovering in the sky, I saw something remarkable: an enormous, antique book, its pages yellowing vellum, filled with elegant lettering and gold leaf illumination. The book gave off a sense that reminded me of the Arabian Nights, though I wasn't sure what the actual book was. It was as big as a small house.

I decided to try flying into its pages as a way to enter its world.

I flew forward, reached the book, and there was a sort of soft, golden sensation as I passed into the page. I found myself in a labyrinthine, walled garden, flying low over a cobbled walkway, peering through tiny, open-air windows set in ancient stone walls. Around me grew an Eden of green, luscious plants. By this time, I forgot to really engage my senses, and was caught up in the idea that if I got out of this enclosure, I'd be in the book's world. But I couldn't find a window large enough to pass through.

I flew around the labyrinth for several minutes until I woke up, discovering my right arm was hurting from lying on it. I rolled over and tried to re-enter the dream again, but by then I was too far awake, so I got up.

It has been ages since I've posted here, but I figured I'd do so since I had a lucid dream this morning and have been lurking around the forum again recently. November has actually been a fairly productive lucid dreaming month for me so far, with 5 WILDs (4 of which all happened in one morning) and 2 DILDs, including this morning's. I've been doing fairly well with my various clarity, focus, and awareness exercises for the most part this month, until this morning, when I completely spaced on doing them in-dream.

I'll just do a copy/paste from my private Lucid Dreaming journal on Dreamwidth. It's pretty long because I'm trying to get in as much detail as I can, as well as gauging my progress.

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This one was a semi-accidental (I'm actually not going to call this accidental, since I did induce it with a MILD technique) lucid dream. I say semi because before I went to bed, I decided to try something with my melatonin by holding it in my hand and telling it that it was a lucid dreaming aid, that it would give me intensely vivid dreams, that it would make me remember my dreams, and that it would make me become lucid. I essentially created a placebo from it, though melatonin also has been known to give me vivid dreams anyway. I did this for a few moments before taking it, then went to bed normally, reading a novel for awhile before turning out the light. I think I may have done an affirmation before going to sleep, but I don't really remember. My intention was to use WBTB in the morning, which I ended up doing anyway after I woke from this DILD, but didn't have a lucid dream after-- although I nearly became lucid in one of my later-morning dreams, actually trying (unsuccessfully) to WILD from a dream in which I was sitting in a cafe with a friend. So it was still on my mind.

Anyway, around six a.m. or so, I had a DILD. I don't remember when or how I got lucid in it, but it started out in a hospital. I left and flew to the street my current house is on. It was nighttime. I was lucid by this time, and I decided I wanted to try some horseback riding in my dream. I wasn't sure how I could find a horse and get it saddled up in time to actually ride it, so I contemplated this for a moment before deciding on a strategy. I reached into my pocket with the expectation of finding a cell phone, and when I found it, I dialed with the expectation of speaking to a stable hand, who I named on the spot (I don't remember what I named him). He answered, and I said, "Hello, ______! Can you get Mystic saddled up and ready to go for me?" I also named the horse on the spot. The stable hand was amenable, so I hung up the phone and proceeded to attempt a teleportation to the stable. I was quite proud of how I had created the scenario.

Here's where I went wrong, though-- I didn't have a clear image of the stable in my mind. When I just sort of half-ass the visualizations, they don't work. I closed my eyes and tried to visualize to teleport, but I wound up back in the hospital I'd been in during the beginning of my dream. I decided to try to find out why my subconscious was taking me there instead of where I wanted to go, so I walked around a bit, looking for dream characters who might be able to tell me.

I came on an elderly man sitting in a chair. A red-haired nurse, a little plump and maybe in her late thirties, was standing next to him. The man looked very familiar, to I took that as a sign that I should speak to him.

I asked him if he was a dream guide. "Of a sort," he said. The nurse acted a bit huffy, but in a lighthearted, teasing sort of way, that I was ignoring her.

I apologized to her and asked their names. The man's name was Agnus, and the red-haired nurse gave her name too but I don't remember it. It *might* have been Cora or Carol or something starting with a C. Agnus explained that in real life, they were tied to a chair.

"Tied...to...a... chair..." I echoed, bemused. He didn't elaborate, though. I woke soon after.

Overall clarity/awareness/mindfulness: 4 or 5. I didn't do any of my clarity exercises, having not prepared properly beforehand. However, I was lucid enough to do some problem-solving, working out a way to create a horse saddled and ready to ride, which worked until I failed at the teleportation.

Vividness: Between 5 and 7. It wasn't exceptionally vivid, in the hyper-realistic sense, partly because my lucidity was fairly low-level. But it was pretty sharp and realistic.


Real life memory within dream: 3, only because I remembered that I lived on my current street rather than the one I grew up on, which has a tendency to recur in my dreams. I didn't remember any of my exercises or goals, with the exception of a passing thought about a dream guide when I was talking to Agnus.


Situational awareness ("this doesn't usually happen in reality"): 7 maybe. I knew I was dreaming, knew everything I was experiencing and everyone I was talking to were generated by my dreaming mind. But I didn't really do any compare/contrast work.


Control: I'd say it was at 9 during the cell phone call, but it dropped to a 1 when I tried to teleport. I seem to have mixed results with teleportation still, and it depends on how vividly I can visualize something.

Dream length: 6. A bit longer since I was more deeply asleep.

Dream memory when waking: Between 6 and 7. My memory was patchy at first as I lay in bed trying to recall it, but when I started writing it down in my bedside dream journal more details surfaced.

Additional notes: With the exception of forgetting to do any clarity exercises at all, I'd consider this a pretty successful and interesting DILD. I didn't work on any of my pre-ordained goals, but I just wanted to have a little fun, so that was okay. I'll be working on visualizing things while awake more often. I'll also more firmly set my goals before I go to bed at night (including my clarity exercises) so I can work with them if I go lucid without WBTB. Also, one of my ultimate goals is to succeed with traveling to persistent realms. (That link is amazing and so inspiring!) I really need to work on my clarity though.