Recent DJ Posts

Adding this to my DJ as a reference. Found it in a 2016 post in the attaining lucidity section. Below is from FryingMan. Thanks for putting this info out there FryingMan! I've been trying to connect meditation to my lucid dreaming practice and this helped me understand a bit more:

I think the best meditation for lucid dreaming is maintaining mindfulness during everyday, complex waking life experiences. In dreams, we do not sit or lie quietly in a room with only our thoughts for company. We are usually active in the dream world, interacting with objects and beings, noticing things moving into and out of our visual field, feeling emotions and reacting to our experiences. We are "living" just like (or similar to) we do in the waking state. In "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep," Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes:

"This is the sequence: awareness in the first moment of experience, in response, in dream, ..."
In other words, in order to get lucid in dreams (regularly), we must first master awareness in the first moment of experience and response to experience! We must practice this while awake.

Rinpoche continues:

"One cannot just start at the end. You can determine for yourself how mature your practice is: as you encounter the phenomena of experience, examine your feelings and your reactions to the feelings. Are you controlled by your interactions with the objects of experience or do you control your reaction to them? ... can you remain in steady presence in diverse situations?"

I believe this, right here, is the crux of lucid dreaming practice.

Sitting mindfulness meditation (I prefer open eyed, with visual input, not sitting stock still or focusing only on a single object, but looking around experiencing my environment) can be helpful to get started. Start in a quiet location, like on a bench in park (there's still usually plenty of activity if you open yourself to experiencing it!) Then gradually move up to more and more complex, hustling & bustling environments as you master remaining mindful in relatively quiet situations.

3.8.2023

12:08 – bedtime, 50mg vitamin b6

1:55 – WBTB (failed) [+2]

3:15 –

(from notes) Tom and Einstein. Excrement.


I don’t recall what the Tom and Einstein dream was. I remember a dream in which there was a bucket of feces. I might have been adding to it with my own. [One remembered fragment – 0.5 points]

4:58 –

(from notes) Looking for private (?) bathroom; Princess in trouble, broken slide, baby crying, “zombies”, “zombie” dogs

The Princess and the Zombies [+1]

This might have all been one dream, but I’m having trouble remembering - There was a dream in which I was in a large building. I was looking for a bathroom, possibly one that had some privacy. Or else I was trying to hide from someone or something. Not sure if it was the same dream, but at one point I went to a “Dad’s bathroom”, which seemed to be a sort of comedic take on bathrooms. Some kinds of silly decorations.

There was a princess in a room (might have been the same dream as above). I forget exactly what was going on. She got in trouble for something.

There was a slide that had a large crack on one side. I think it was my nephew, but much younger, that cried when he saw this. I held him and tried to soothe him.

I think the “zombies” were more like an army. This might have been related to the princess. They might have been her army, but then they might have been going to arrest her. I don’t quite remember the zombie dogs.

8:45 –

(from notes) Elevator up to chase someone (lucid?), trains shut down. Cattle, woman protecting us, kissing, taking dog to vet(?), buckets of water and gold pan in my room, Dad gives me something, trying to draw

Fragment 2 [+0.5]

I was taking an elevator up to chase someone. I had the feeling that I was lucid at some point, but I don’t have enough recall to count it as a lucid dream...

Trains, cattle, and dogs [+1]

The trains were shut down. I was with someone, commenting on how much of a problem that could be. For one thing, there were all those businesses that count on the trains. And what about the people that commute by train? Now they’re stuck. We go into a cattle barn. It seems that we are riding on some kind of open vehicle now. A woman is hanging off the side, acting as a guard of some kind. She is supposed to be defending us from cattle, I think. It seems to me that she wasn’t doing that great of a job, and as we go along I see pictures of anime superheroes. Eventually we get where we were going. The woman (?) and I kiss. Meanwhile, the maintenance guys get a piece of equipment and take it with them with a “let’s get back to work” attitude that I think is funny because it seems that we just survived a big crisis...I’m walking a dog, going to a vet. They are trying to make us line up the dogs properly. I take mine back to its proper spot.

Fragment 3 [+0.5]

...I seem to be standing on or near a bucket of water, on a set of stairs. There is a gold pan too, I guess. Something about trying to move the bucket without spilling the water...My Dad gives me a round piece of something that looks like a cross between jewelry and a coin...Trying to draw. In a class maybe? Someone seems to be having trouble, and me too...Not sure if these were different fragments.

3-9-23 Comp Day 8 (WBTB Failed ughhhh)

DF#1 - The planting of seeds; they have begun to grow 🙂

DF#2 - There was a guy named Mike who handed us something. I was with a FCD, he had an incredibly good vibe and he remembered my name.

D#3 - The Island - I was in a kayak paddling through the water between a couple islands to get access to this other island that I would be camping on later that night. I was checking it out ahead of time so I was a little more prepared and would know what to expect for camping. There was one patch of seaweed that I came across but it wasn’t stopping me from moving forward. There was a hint of a thought that a storm was on the way that evening. But in the dream it did not appear. I ended up going around to the backside and found the beach side of this island. Nice stripe of clean bright sand. I remember looking up into the sky wondering how the sunset and or sunrise would be from here. I was with someone else and we were talking about what we might need to sleep outside during the night here. I really only recall a screen to go over our heads, or mosquito net and something about my clothes. There seemed to be some kind of house on the island as well. And we’d have access to the house if we needed it to cook and to have coffee. There was a box with a key for us to use.


WBTB = 2
2 DF = 1
1D = 1

Total 4

3-8-23 Comp Day 7

DF#1 - I was with a few other DC’s and we were going to order some food. As I walked past one table, I saw a FDC sitting there alone with a platter of three very large tacos. They looked so good that’s what I was going to order

DF#2 - I was with a MDC and it seemed like he might have liked me. He wanted to know where I got my bra’s? (I think) and I said Macy’s.

DF#3 - I was in a dark room, maybe a living room and suddenly the door slid open all by itself. That scared me and I believe I screamed in the dream. Then I looked closer and saw a shadow of a regular sized cat. It was a cat that wanted in. So I got up and went to let the cat in, then made sure I closed the door tight and locked it.

DF#4 - I was at a work environment and the FDC was in a colored dress, she was freezing.


D#5 - We were standing in line to get a ticket for some type of a huge event, maybe it was a concert or something bigger. The line was moving at first, then as we got closer to the registration area it stopped. I wandered up front to see what was going on. It appeared that they ran out of registration papers. Someone was on it and looked to get some more. Suddenly my sister and Mom showed up out of nowhere. I hugged each of them and asked are you guys really here? I even asked them what day it was. And I believe the date was correct, March 8th. They decided to come for a surprise visit. I was already thinking oh no, the house is not ready for company. They might have to spend the first night in a hotel. The new bed isn’t put together and the other bed needs the sheets washed and to be remade. I thought about how much work that I’d need to do to get the rooms ready. Then I asked how long they were staying, it seemed like I had a vacation planned and it was coming up soon. I wondered if they were going to leave before I had to leave for my vacation. A bit later, I remember being handed a small piece of paper and I had to write my name on it, the ink wasn’t coming out, I scribbled on a blank white piece of paper till I saw a mark, then I attempted to sign my name on a piece of torn paper with colored pattern on it. Tried to find a light colored spot so you could actually see my name when I signed it. I think that was the registration part. Then it had taken so long, that when we went into where we were supposed to sit, we’d never find any seats together.

4 DF = 2
1 D = 1

Total 3

I'm at a house reminiscent of my girlfriend S' parents' house and my friend V's house. I'm hanging out with my friend J. There is a surprise visit from my friend D and my brother. A They are out on the patio. D is wearing a disguise, but I recognize him easily. It wasn't a particularly good disguise and it wasn't intended to be. More like a joke. D has a Galaxy Fold and is showing it off. He has a thin black cloth case on it. He has some gacha-games on it.

I'm driving and something like a check-engine light came on. Genuinely unclear on whether this was reality or not because this type of thing happens all the time. My car was fine this morning so I think this was a dream...

I was chaperoning the kids I work with on a field trip to an ancient Korean colony in western Asia. I can only remember hazy snippets of the map, one of the kids asking me something on the plane, and us looking around at the interesting landscape and architecture.

.....

While there I found Y and he told me he was sorry for abandoning me, that he wants to make things right, and asked me to take him home. Next, we were in a taxi to the airport and I gave him a hug.

.....

My mom wanted me to teach her to sing Ponta de Areia, but she kept getting the words wrong.

I was in the back of a wagon. For some reason I was thinking about 9/11, and all the people who got engulfed in a cloud of toxic dust, and felt a wave of sadness over it.

I saw a bunch of teens training to be in the army. Two young guys in the wagon saluted. I first I thought this odd, until I realized they were in the army too, just messing with their buddies. Two of the soldiers smiled and saluted back.

We were going up a dirt hill. I felt we were going too fast to be led by a horse, and that it was strange that it didn't slow down on hills. Another man came riding on a horse near the wagon. I recalled seeing him the previous day. He asked if he could ride with us, he said his ribs hurt from riding all day. I reached out and let him on (no clue what happened to the horse).

I saw a bunny rabbit with its head in a red party cup. There were multiple cups tied together and the bunny was all tangled up and running about. I wanted to help it, but shortly it figured it all out, and ate a cookie from a bag that was now tied to the cups. I chuckled thinking about how many calories one cookie is to a bunny.

I drank from a shallow bag of water. My dad said we were stopping for more. I looked up and saw we had pulled up to a wide lake.

This guy's singing, "You can't stop the beat!" What's that from? Uh Grease right??? Whatever.
Damn, I tell my friend, he's even better than you!

Now there's this woman, a woman from a video game. Here she is finding herself "IRL". She has no idea what the real world is like. She tries to flush herself down the toilet. How silly. She takes a shit. She eats the shit.

Everyone around me gasps in shock.

"Is that taboo?" asks the woman.

"The biggest taboo," answers another.

"Do they not have poo in your game?" I ask.

Now the woman is Velma from Scooby Doo.

And now I am lucid, because even for me this is too fucking stupid.

I wander about, semi-lucid. I'm disappointed I got lucid, sucked all the fun out of this dream. I believe here I meet a man. I mentally flag him as a bad entity. He gives me lucid dreaming advice but I ignore it.

Now I'm back in a room, chatting with a young woman. She is very excited, since "all of us dreamt the same thing." And she recounts how her dream started with someone singing, and I'm kind of excited too now because, yes, indeed, that's how my dream started. But then the dreams start to diverge.

I'm semi-lucid now. The dream is vague again. I'm in Italy, somewhere that looks like Venice. I decide to go along with it.

I get on a motorized gondola. Our captain says he is going to break the speed record set by Napoleon prior to his death; 200mph! We speed through the canals, but it's nowhere near 200. We go through a little tunnel underwater. Wheee!

I was standing by a pond, when I noticed a sickly looking duck under the surface. Its eyes were half closed, and it looked nearly dead. I contemplating saving it, but I felt it was beyond hope.

I recalled reading somewhere that the end stage of drowning can be almost calm. Was would be the point of saving the poor thing? It would only suffer another minute before dying anyway.

Suddenly the duck seemed to come to life again, and it kicked away a stone then swam to the surface. It had only gotten one of its feet stuck under a rock! I felt bad for standing by idly.

I looked back at the duck, and it was now a cute little mammalian creature, with fur and a tiny blowhole. It seemed happy. I was glad it had no resentment toward me. Some water had flooded over a nearby sidewalk, and I followed as it swam up. I remembered what this creature was now, this was a bear cub. All bear cubs are aquatic in their youth.

But... if this was a bear. Oh god. I turned around, and found myself staring straight at Momma Bear. She was not pleased. Yep this was it, time to die.

I think I've figured out why my dry spell is occurring. I've had to adapt my schedule a bit so I actually get novel writing done (in addition to working full-time, exercising, doing art, working on my master's thesis, and having a little bit of time to relax after work, aargh...) and that's all dandy BUT I keep getting to bed too late. I might have to switch things around and do the writing block earlier so I can have a better meditation session and then sleep more. Because the LDs are not happening. D:

Anyway.

- I used a sketchbook to draw bananas. (Fragment = 0.5 pts)
- I realized something wasn't the most efficient. (I can't remember what though?) I was lost in some indoor labyrinth and kept getting turned around. At one point I thought I got out but ended up in a really sketchy neighborhood filled with people who looked like they wanted to hurt me. (Full NLD = 1 point)
- I bought rainbow parts at some store because everyone in the group said we should buy in Texas or whatever we were. (???? I have no idea what this means xD) (Fragment = 0.5 pts)
- One kid said that he thought we were annoying (Fragment = 0.5 pts)
- I was arguing with my brother over which bed we got at some hotel. I have no idea why I was so ticked but I was. (Fragment = 0.5 pts)

Total: 4 fragments = 2 points. 1 NLD = 1 point. So 3 points.

Competition total: 50 + 3 = 53 points

Tonight will be better! Just got to get ready for bed fast and have a nice, smooth meditation session.

There was a woman who put 3 bombs in our house and I had to find them. unfortunately I only found two. Well turns out, she actually placed 5, and our house was on a train underwater, naturally. So everyone drowned expect for me.

+.5 Non Lucid Fragment