KonchogTashi

Upon recognizing the dream state, I will perform item #1 followed by any of the subsequent items.

1. Look around and repeat "this is a dream"
2. Recite the Vajrasattva mantra.
3. Make offerings to the Buddhas
4. Listen to the grateful dead
5. Explore my surroundings
6. Walk through a mirror

Progress update nights of 12/17-18

Daytime:
keeping up with the state testing and intention setting. I have been doing more tests involving digital clocks and text. Text is never a big component in my dreams, but I think the more I use the test, the more text will appear in dreamland. Getting in 10-15 tests for each of these two days.

Nightime:
Wednesday night was a bust. I had a later than normal bedtime which gave me only 5 hours total sleep. I woke in the middle of it with no recall. I woke in the morning for the final time and struggled, but came up with nothing. This was a bit frustrating honestly.

Thursday went better. I had some difficulty falling asleep so I probably only got 6 hours total sleep. I woke in the middle of the night for recall but had nothing. I got frustrated by this, but looking back it was needless as typically I don't have any recall in the middle of the night. I think this was just "sleep confusion" playing dirty tricks on my rational mind. It was difficult to fall back asleep, but I managed to and had a weird short lucid which kind of straddled the line between WILD and DILD.

I am aware, but there is just blackness. I "look" down and see my hands, they are pale and translucent, and my arms vanish just before the elbows. I instantly know that I am now dreaming. I clap my hands together and vigirously rub them, feeling the "friction." I do this for a few seconds, then pat down my dream body, waiting for visual elements to develop. I start to move around, feeling the motion of my dream body, but still without visual elements developing. Lucidity fades and a detailed dream develops (I think).

I think the dream I recalled (it was long and recall was very good with many clear details and dialogue). arose immediately after this brief lucidity as I was only asleep for about an hour. I am not counting as as an LD, but still is is encouraging!

I will probably update somewhat sporadically over the next two weeks as I will be off work and finding time to sit down at a computer will be more of a challenge. Don't think I've thrown in the towel though as I will be practicing carefully each night with WBTB and MILD as I will have the ability to sleep in and rack up 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Many LDs await!!

I have never had much luck with recognizing dreamsigns, even after noting them and consciously resolving to do so. Most of my few lucids seem to spontaneously arise or occur after some random thing triggers a suspicious state of mind. However, I thought that perhaps there might be some profit to putting the effort into writing down a list. Perhaps the extra effort involved in writing them down might trigger recognition in the dream state.

The following are reliable dreamsigns, that is, barring extremely unlikely situations they would only appear in dreams, or would be impossible in waking life.

_High school girlfriend
_High school home (the farm)
_Impossible skateboarding tricks
_Extreme Acrobatics
_Haunted house

The following could appear either in the dream state or waking life.I try to to a state test whenever I encounter them. This has yet to transfer into the dream state.

_Bodies of water (lakes, rivers and especially the ocean)
_City streets
_Tibetan Lamas
_traveling
_forests
_mountaintops

May we all reliably recognize the dream state and use it to train in virtue!

In the last 30 days I logged 20 "dreams", 17 "fragments", and 2 LDS.

A measurable, month long goal related to this recall data:

"between 12/2 and 1/2 I will log at least 30 dreams and 5 Lucid dreams"

That allows for a 10% increase in "dream" recall and a 150% increase in the number of lucid dreams. I feel this is achievable as with "auto-pilot" LD practice and almost no effort being put into recall I was still getting an LD about once every 30 days. During this time I will also have more than a week of time during which I will be able to sleep longer than is typical and therefore be more courageous with my WBTB and MILD practice. I will re-read the sections of ETWOLD you mentioned as well.