The Tales of Brother Goose

Recall begins as I give up attempting to WILD in some sort of sports complex (this is typical of my failed WILD attempts. I start the dream somewhere else discouraged that I'm unable to WILD...). Head to the gymnasium to look for something to do. My friends are in a corner taking part in some sort of calisthenics program and the opposite side of the gym in being taken up by people throat chanting. I can't find a quite place to sit and meditate/try to WILD again so I decide to leave.

I get in my car, texting my friends that I'm leaving, and begin to drive away. However I have very poor control over the car! Accelerating/braking isn't working as it should and I keep accidentally swerving into wrong lanes. This has been a common dream sign for me lately. I become lucid and RC to confirm.

First order of business? Joy ride. I speed around for 5-10 seconds before realizing that my ability to drive has not improved. I notice trees lining the road, remember the TOTM, and walk towards the tallest of them.

I begin to climb (feels very realistic!!). Soon, however, I am climbing the tree in a house (as if the house were built around the tree), and then I'm at the top (much sooner than expected). I try to get to the very very top but the branches are too weak and the tree breaks. I make a racket and run away before anyone can investigate.

Across the street I notice a much bigger tree and walk over to try and climb it. I'm somewhat surprised to notice that my car is right where I left it. As I approach the tree I intend to change gravity to climb it (as there are no branches until much higher up the tree) as ~Dreamer mentioned doing. As I arrive though I notice the base of the tree fenced off with a single opening. Going through the opening and there are perfectly shaped hand/footholds available to climb the tree!

I climb about 15 feet (hard to tell because the tree is much less steep than I would have thought. I don't even need my hands to climb at the start) before my vision starts to fade to black and ultimately disappear. I briefly have what I interpret as a conversation with my subconscious asking whether I would like to attempt to DEILD or wake up and write it down. I chose the later.

I'll keep this brief because last time I typed out a DJ it took me like 2 hours...

Recall began with me parked out front of a construction site. Asked to move car and comply. Leave car noticing that it is a dusty grey mini van with my cousins' last night written in the dust. See my cousins and they remind me that they need to grab things from the van. "Lets do it right now". Turn and they follow me.

Dream transitions to a bed room. At some point in the transition my cousins become my roommate, I take some shrooms, I check the time and see that it is 5:30 (I wake up at 6:30 and had just WBTB at about 5:00)

Roommate: "Man, you always forget how long shrooms last. How are you going to go to work?". I think to myself "oh well, I'll just talk a half day. Let's see what my eyes look like and if I can pull this off". Head over to look at myself in a mirror that is in the closet, bringing a table lamp with me as it is dark. I can barely reach due to the length of the cord but as I'm standing there (still) trying to get a good look at my eyes my reflection begins to move on its own to make it easier for me! Immediately lucid. May or may not have RC.

Begin current lucid goal which is to find and smell some food. Walk out room, down stairs, and through hallway. Notice a set of doors and tell myself "there are women through there when for after you find something to smell". Walk through another doorway and into the kitchen of my childhood home.

Begin looking for food. Most cupboards are empty or filled with pots/pans. Fridge is full of shoes (should have tried to smell them..). Find some peanut butter. Smells fairly realistic. Check fridge again. Beer and orange juice. Decide to avoid the beer as I believe that being drunk will destabilize me. Smell the OJ. Nothing.

Notice delicious looking dessert on the counter and try a piece. Is some sort of mixture of peanut butter, custard, and Graham cracker crust. It is absolutely delicious.

As I gorge the dream changes to a less visual dream where I am internally debating the way in which sound works and is processed in dreams (different frequencies occurring at different times..?) using some sort of camp ground visual metaphor. Slowly loose lucidity and wake.

MILD: Behind the technique

MILD refers as most people know to as Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, and it’s been said to be a very effective technique. According to a recent study, chances are that people with better prospective memory would become better at MILD. The point I’m trying to make it is that MILD is just a name given to the exercise of remembering you want to become lucid. The work behind it, is prospective memory, or the kind of memory that allows you to remember things in the future.
In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge posted several exercises to improve prospective memory, but in my opinion, a bigger list taking some aspects into account that make the appearance of each object more likely would be more effective. Also, in a very recent study about the effectiveness of several lucid dreaming techniques, it was demonstrated that MILD is not by itself so that effective as many of us would think. But the same study itself questions what would happen if "those with good prospective
memory skills might benefit from MILD (source: Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence 2012).
So, here’s a list of nearly 100 items designed to improve your prospective memory in a course of 1 month. This will increase your prospective memory and thus increasing the chances of a MILD. The task is basic: you pick 3 actions, and try to spot them as much as possible during the day. In the next day, you pick again 3 actions and try to spot them.

Tutorial: how to set up your list: Step 1

This is the list you will be working with. If you want, you can add more tasks yourself, or if possible, reply in this post, so that we could increase the number of tasks. This would help because even though there’s nothing wrong on getting the same task twice, it would allow for a bigger diversity.

Spoiler for List of Tasks:

- Spotting someone with a corf
- Spotting someone with gloves
- Spotting someone with a hat
- Spotting someone with a purse/bag/suitcase
- Spotting someone with a tie
- Hearing the words "hello/goodbye and any variations"
- Hearing or reading a word in a foreign language
- Hearing the words "I'm sorry, wait, okay and any variations"
- Spotting a motocycle or a bycicle
- Spotting someone (including yourself) yawn or frown
- Spotting someone (including yourself) laugh or smile
- Spotting someone (including yourself) complimenting someone (with gestures or a hand-shake)
- Spotting an attractive female/male
- Spotting a very elderly male/female or a crippled person
- Spotting a baby or a very young child
- Openning any fridge, drawer or closet
- Entering in any elevator
- Climbing any stairs or ramps
- Spotting someone grab their wallet (including yourself)
- Grabbing food
- Grabbing any piece of clothing (including removing and placing it in somewhere)
- Spotting someone (including yourself) picking their keys
- Spotting a reference to a recent movie or book
- Spotting a commercial add related to food
- Spotting a comercial add related to clothing and cosmetics
- Spotting any reference to medicine pills
- Hearing someone (including yourself) engaging in a sexual/erotic topic
- Spotting someone (including yourself) visibly worried or stressed
- Spotting someone (including yourself) visibly happy or exuberant
- Recalling a very negative moment that happened recently or in the far past
- Recalling a very positive moment that happened recently or in the far past
- Touching in an animal (including human beings) or plant
- Spotting a comercial add about cars
- Feeling yourself ansious about something (either good or bad)
- Meeting a known but not too close person
- Experiencing a weird situation or scenario
- Observing a situation of injustice (towards you or others)
- Observing a situation of violence
- Observing or enganging in a discussion
- Reading/watching/hearing a reference to a supernatural concept
- Reading/watching/hearing a reference to dreaming or the brain
- Feeling noticeably pain or pleasure
- Feeling noticeably cold or hot
- Spotting a bug
- Spotting/using a trash can
- Grabbing paper towell
- Engaging in personal higiene
- Noticing your forgot something recently
- Making a mental note for the recent future
- Leaving/entering in a building or in a vehicle
- Spotting someone (including yourself) sneezing or spitting to the ground
- Turning your computer on/off, or leaving it inactive for more than a few minutes
- Feeling sexually aroused
- Inserting your username/password on a website
- Opening google,facebook,twitter or youtube
- Spotting any internet publicity about a virtual game
- Leaving/arriving at home or work
- Crossing a street crosswalk
- Watching a movie trailer
- Watching a educational video
- Reading a scientifical article
- Waitting at a bus stop
- Lying to someone
- Make a nice action towards someone you don't know
- Hearing someone (including yourself) mentioning the weather
- Spotting someone (including yourself) picking or dropping an object
- Making a question to someone or to yourself

These tasks are meant to last you for a month, but there's absolutely no harm to do one task several times. Like I said above you can add more items yourself. The goal is that you'll be improving your prospective memory, which then will lead to easier MILDs.

Tutorial: how to set up your list: Step 2

Now, we want a easy and fast way to randomize those items, so you can use this excellent website called http://www.random.org/lists/. Just copy the list in the spoilers, and then click on the button "Randomize", like you see in the picture below:



After that, you just pick the first 3 items on a list (or 2 if you want to take it a bit lighter) and perform a reality check every time that queue pops up in front of you.

My problem at the moment is to organize a way to test people's prospective memory, but if you do these exercises, you will increase your chances of having a MILD. Not because of the tasks themselves, but because you will be able to pick a trigger (like a dream sign) and thanks to your improved prospective memory, become lucid just by spotting it. So if you think you are prepared, start to choose a small number of small tasks to perform everyday that may lead you to lucidity, since it's the trigger more than the intention that seems to work.

Many people perceive MILD as something like "I will remember I'm dreaming", but this leaves no trigger to activate your lucidity, leaves nothing to the brain to retrieve that intention. To do MILD properly, you need grab some mnemonic to aid you. And that good thing is that if you choose a recurrent dream sign, you can apply something like "Whenever I see X person/animal/place/situation/feeling, I will do a reality check". The thing is, if you pratice your prospective memory before-hand, then you will a increased chance of succeeding at spotting the queue.

** I finally went back through my dream journal and actually counted the number of times that I got lucid. 12 over 3 months almost exactly, this one being the only one I actually accomplished something I set out to do. Will backlog only those and another day as this takes too long haha.

150104 1:00AM Lucid # 12 - Task of the Month

8:32AM

Myself and a roommate arrive in a parking lot in a former roommate's car. I immediately begin to question my reality (it feels like a dream).Tell him to do a reality check and do the same. Confirmed.

"What should we do?" I ask. "I dunno," he replies. Typical. (He is one of my best friends and the closest to my interest level in lucid dreaming. He's been in my dreams before and is never any help at all.)

"We can do anything, here, check it out." Remembering the task of the month I make a crate appear in front of me next to the car. I open it, remove a firework (8" classic looking rocket), stick it into a nearby patch of grass, and light it. In hindsight I never had a lighter or even considered that I might need a lighter. The daytime sky lights up even more with a massive explosion as I say "BOOM" and make an explosion gesture with my arms.

Not able to remember any other tasks I turn to him and say, "lets drive to the moon." "Yes!" He replies immediately. At least he isn't working against me. I get into the car, making sure to sit in the drivers seat (my first lucid with any amount of control, #7 when I get around to posting it, he was a getaway driver for me and was absolutely terrible).

Start the car. The former roommate's (whose car it is) girlfriend is standing in the middle of the parking lot. RC. Still dreaming. I'm excited and want to get to the moon so I just mow her over. My companion is upset about this. I tell him that since it's a dream she is completely fine. I swing the car around to prove it and she is standing right where she was before. I hit another car on the way out of the parking lot and onto the road.

At this point my companion has changed from my roommate to the former roommate whose car it is. I tell him to upgrade the car. He does nothing (this is basically exactly the same as what happened in lucid #7). I continue driving. We are driving down a hill on the side of a peninsula with an incredible view of my current city across a bay. And I mean incredible. I can see everything.

"I'm pretty sure that we aren't going to be able to drive to the moon..." I tell my companion as we drive. At this point I remember the task of the month with the crystal ball but decide that it wouldn't be safe for me to attempt that while driving. I tell him to upgrade the car again, and again nothing.

"Just push a button and say 'Upgrade'." He complies. As he does the car is thrown into the air and we are very airborne over the bay. Mid air the car switches into a helicopter and I begin to fly towards the city. After about 10 seconds, however, the helicopter disappears and we plunge into the water below.

I try to stay calm and remind myself that this is a dream but eventually succumb to panic and wake up.

150106 11:00PM

6:25AM Rather vague

Side of road waiting to get into Minivan. Monarch butterfly migratory event. Nearby trees are full of colour (I grew up near Point Pelee national park which has a similar event every year). Mom is driving. Car is full, I shotty bucket seat. MP3 player.

Arrive at waterfront marin/terminal to pick up drugs. Attendant says that the guy who sells isn't in today. Asks us to clean flood/boat for him. "Definitely not". Go check if guy is there. Family (5 people) at cash register instead of dealer. Go back and ask why they don't help him clean. Grab backpack with cousin. Ask about plan.

Porn scene. Girl is acting strange because she wants to finish. Beach house. Girl leaves and then comes back at night. I exit the room and enter a classroom. Kids are dressed as if for Halloween. Teacher tells me that I shouldn't be there. Say that I should and demonstrate knowledge of class through observation.

150105 10:45PM

1:46AM Missed dream sign (confusion)

Am on a house tour with my mother and grandmother. The house is painted completely white except with very colourful borders and drawings (like children might paint). One drawing is of iPods. Painting incomplete. Owners upstairs. I;m looking for a washroom. Done tour. Given keys and directions and told to get car to pick people up. Leave house.

Start following directions and arrive at a building and try to go through. Is an old hotel/church that has been converted into a pool party. Get through rooms by walking through holes in the walls. The maids are dancing around in swim suits but are still cleaning. Eventually manage to get out of building. Was given bad directions and have to change where I am going to find car.

4:25AM

Dark souls II type dream. I am running around trying not to get killed. I'm not as strong as my roommate so I have to just run through while being followed by lots of bad guys.

Mr. Noodle/Instant soup discussion. The pros/cons of keeping the steam trapped.

6:23AM Strangest dream for me in a while...

We have arrived at Pemberton (a music festival). I am walking around to try and get a feel for the grounds. 1st encounter is with a very drunk girl from Calgary. I can barely understand her. I make fun of newfies with her for a bit then dump her with a mutual friend.

Need to go to washroom. Toilets are nasty and full of people doing drugs (cocaine, oxy). Go to washroom. Person jumps into the stall just as I finish but before I leave and starts snorting MDMA.

Go into the hallway. Person throws volleyball at me. Wants me to spin it. Person w/ kid drops sunscreen. Try to catch it.Slide it back to him.

Run into roommate and tell him what I am up to (getting a feel for the grounds). He confirms that the date is June 31st. He is poiing (which he can do IRL) and is amazing.

There is a kids concert going on during the day. They are playing EDM but with people singing covers of the vocal tracks. Needless to say it's terrible.

Go around back towards washrooms. Very dark. See someone as say we should put some lights up her tomorrow for people's safety. Guy jokes about rats. I look around and notice 3 orphaned lambs wandering from bush to bush. I follow them and arrive at a decaying sheep carcass. There are worm/flies/slugs scattered around. Flies begin to touch my head and I begin to feel maggots growing in my scalp. Disgusted. Wake up.

Fall back asleep into cut scene of myself as an old man arriving at a shore in a canoe and collapsing. Hear tiger sounds. A huge animatronic tiger with robotic spider legs appears from over a ledge (it's legs are taller than me, torso about eye level) that first tries to intimidate then welcomes me. End.

I have a paper DJ. Have been meaning to put some here for a while so I;ll just start at the most recent and work backwards.

150109 11:45PM

7:20AM Very vague dream fragments. Went to the washroom before focusing on recall (this happens way too often)


- Boating in a canal. Water feels higher than normal, possibly flooding.

- In a hotel room with my cousin. I hand him a bong-key chain that was supplied to me by my rugby team.

- Bunch of tulips and a single rose on the ground in front of me. Under an underpass (recognize the area from past dreams). Am texting my father and sister about an electronic drum set. Also talking about an event that I missed because I thought that it was tomorrow.

150108 10:30PM No Recall

150107 11PM

6:20AM Very hectic, disorganized but detailed dream

I am in a hotel room with some coworkers who are trying to get me to listen to a guided meditation that one of them has recorded. I listen to it for a bit (there were either cartoons on the TV or the person's voice was cartoonish) but then call it quits and take a nap. I need to head a few blocks away for my half sister's birthday party but decide to leave my change of clothes at the hotel room knowing that I have to do something later but that I'll be able to get back in time to change.

I arrive at the birthday party and enjoy it for what seems like seconds before I realize that I need to leave and that I'm going to be late for something! But first I need keys!

I head outside to look for them. My friend's car is blocked into an awkward parking spot but it's small and we can lift it out with ease. We are surrounded by cats as we do so. I get the keys from him and begin to walk home.

I arrive in a building and observe so dream characters being administered a set of math based logic problems. One keeps trying to answer the question using triangles while the tester keeps hinting that he should be using circles. I go upstairs with them where I explain that the test proves that we are 9x smarter than the previous generation and that the generation that follows will be 27x smarter than us. We play video games but soon I am late again and need to leave.

I start walking towards home but realize that I will never make it in time and need to take a car2go (this is a ride share program in parts of Canada and the US). The first 3 that I find are all taken. I finally manage to spot one that hasn't been claimed on a side street, sprint over to it, and sign in.

I get into the car and the road in front of me is immediately blocked by a mother unloading her car. I reverse to the main street. Start driving again. Someone is pouring asphalt into a pothole. Swerve around. The next block a group of people are crossing the street with a fully erect fence. Swerve around that also. Finally make it out of the neighbourhood into where there is more traffic flow and...... I can't remember where I am going. I am extremely frustrated (my #1 dream sign, damn) and call in sick to work since I will be late anyways. I calm down and then begin to drive again. Brief awakening.

I am a low key house party with some of my friends and decide that I would like to go for a walk. There is roomba on the curb by the house playing music to indicate where the party is. As I near it I notice some more people coming to the party. I duck behind a tree because I don't really want to talk to anyone and thinking that they will be disappointed with the quality of the party that they are arriving at.

I walk into a random house a few doors down. There are large men cheering loudly around a pool table. My in dream guess was that they were kiwis and rugby players. I grab a rather expensive pool cue and wait for my turn to shoot but get bored and decide to leave with it as well as a cowboy hat.

I return home to hide my loot. Everyone is gearing down to watch a boring movie. I decide to leave again and walk over to a nearby apartment building. As I enter the building I sense that the big guys I've stolen from are following me however both the people and what I have stolen has changed. I have the loot on me so I leave it by the entrance with an apology note and begin to climb the stairs. They don't accept the note and want to catch and punish and begin the climb the stairs after me. I eventually reach the top and am soon cornered. I don't want them to catch me so just as they arrive I burst out from where I am hiding out of a window. As I do so I pull the shoot and base jump (stolen) to safety while peppering them with yellow paintballs (also stolen). I land safely and begin to run away while a DC girl from the party earlier chases after me and tries to get me to stop. Wake

*Phew. That took a while to translate from my shorthand into something that was readable (almost an hour). I'm gonna continue transferring these over as they're written (shorthand) to save some time. I'll have to work on my storytelling at a later date...