broth

Normal Dreams Recalled - 2
LD Induction Method - MILD, WBTB + MILD

1. Forest and Cops
My memory begins at a supply store where I am shopping with my parents. I do not remember what supplies we were buying, nor why we were buying them. My next memory is in a forest, where my parents and I are laying out those supplies to build something. We happened to be located near an access road and a public restroom. During the set up process, I looked over to the restroom and I saw 3 police officers in the blue uniforms of a city police department getting ready to enter and 'clear' the women's restroom, with guns drawn. After clearing the restroom, they came over to talk to me. I remember there were two seats across from each other, and I sat down across from a short haired, mean-looking female police officer. She said I "looked young" and asked how old I was. (side note: in waking life I had been told the same thing at a bar when I was buying a drink earlier last night. I have a baby face so this happens frequently and is frustrating). I responded by telling her how much I hate that question and being told that I look young, and she told me that "I was being smart with her" and she got angry. (Blank memory). I left in a hurry and drove off from the forest area via the access road. (Blank memory). I woke up for real and wrote down a few key phrases/words to jog my memory of this event.

Awake, I looked at my phone. The time was 6:04, so I canceled my alarm which was set for 6:15 for a WBTB + MILD induction. My significant other, T, got up at the same time to let our cats out and we both used the restroom. Then I laid down. I was very awake, probably since I woke up 6 hours after going to sleep at the end of a cycle. I had trouble relaxing and getting tired, so I meditated on my breathing for a while. Eventually, I began my mantras/intention and I visualized the forest dream. I visualized becoming aware of how weird the scene was (context dreamsign) and I that I must be lucid and performed a nose-plug RC to verify. I continued to visualize myself performing my lucid dream goals, which were to stabilize the dream, fly, and look at myself in a mirror. At this point, I still wasn't tired so I turned over on my side and continued my breathing meditation while occasionally "renewing my mantra". Eventually, I fell asleep.

2. My memory begins with myself, T, her parents, and some friends all eating at Hooters. I ordered wings and pasta and the wings were delicious with a very distinct flavor that I cannot place. At one point, I was walking with my pasta bowl and it slipped out of my hand. The girl working there, who I think I must have known, heard it happen. I cleaned it up really quick and tried to pretend like nothing happened as there wasn't much pasta left. Nevertheless, she brought me more food without charge. Strangely, they were also doing car washes at this hooters? When leaving the restaurant, I got in the driver's seat of T's clean car with her in the passenger seat. But the car "felt wrong". First, I had my foot on the gas instead of the brake when attempting to start the car. Then, when I went to turn the car on using the ignition, I came to the crazy realization that the ignition "was installed backwards". (In real life, this car is a push-to-start button ignition so I'm not sure what this really means). In the dream, the ignition was a rod/stick much like the gear shifter in mini-vans and trucks. I had to twist this ignition system "backwards" (relative to my apparent dream expectation) to get the car to start. Additionally, we realized the "seats were also installed backwards". (I have no idea what that means outside the context of this dream). But we exited the vehicle and began to "flip/rotate" the seats. Then I woke up.

Notes - I did a MILD attempt at the beginning of the night and during the middle of the night at 6:00am. Despite not having a lucid, I feel successful in that I know I am 1 day closer to succeeding with MILD. However, I have areas for improvement. First, I would like to wake up naturally at the end of every sleep cycle for more and better MILD attempts. When my alarm goes off, if T wakes up, she is very noisy and makes returning to sleep difficult. Also, I have trouble going back to sleep occasionally if I am up for more than a few minutes, so my WBTB attempts usually need to be quick. Also, my visualization was sub par and I got distracted frequently. I need to continue on a specific visualization and do so right before falling asleep instead of completing my mantra and visualization and then lying in bed for a while before sleeping. Overall, I'm happy with my dream recall. Despite only remembering 2 dreams, I got more detail from these two dreams than any of the previous 5 days that I have been keeping a journal.

For tomorrow, I will use intention while falling asleep to remember all dreams and to wake up at the end of every sleep cycle. I think these are important first steps in succeeding with MILD.

Dreamsigns -
Set up in forest with parents - Context Dreamsign
Drove off leaving cop - Action Dreamsign
Carwash at Hooters - Context Dreamsign
Car Felt wrong - Inner Awareness / Form Dreamsigns
Ignition Installation - Form Dreamsign
Car seats - Form Dreamsign