KonchogTashi

I went to sleep at 10:40 and woke up a 4:00. I took 8mg galantamine and .75mg melatonin dissolved in water. I used this mixture to wash down 500mg choline bitartrate. I went back to bed, laid on my back and put my attention on my breath for about 15 minutes. I then rolled over onto my right side and slowly counted myself to sleep.. "1...i'm dreaming......2....i'm dreaming." I let this go after getting to about 25 and fell asleep.

1.I am in my paternal grandmothers kitchen. I am looking out of a window at a hummingbird feeder. There is a little ruby-throated hummingbird zooming around drinking from the little plastic flowers. I admire him for a little while. I turn and look around the kitchen, noting that it is my grandmother's. I look back out the window and the hummingbird is back. I reach up to the window for some reason and notice that my hand has only 4 fingers (including thumb). I check again and realize I am dreaming. I do a nose-pinch to confirm and it fails, I am certainly dreaming. The dream promptly fades.

2.Next I am standing in a blue tiled room. I am in front of a folding table at which a colleague is seated. I am telling her about the hummingbird dream I just had. I explain to her I realized i was dreaming when I noticed that my hand had only 3 fingers and a thumb. I hold up my hand to show her and it is again short fingers, this time I have 2 fingers and a thumb. I realize I am dreaming. I immediately thank her for all her hard work at our job. I turn and look around the room and see a man standing on the other side of the room. i instruct my colleague and the man "please observe this!" I walk up to the wall and push my hand cleanly through the blue ceramic tile. I fell no sensation, my hand just disappears up to the wrist as I push against the wall. I look at the two dcs and they have no reaction. I decide to go talk to the man and the space between us instantly closes. I am immediately standing right next to him. His face changes slowly into that of a woman. The dream fades.

I am completely in the dark, but I know that I am dreaming. I do a nose pinch test and confirm this. I rub my hands together and pat my body down to reinforce the embodied feeling, hoping for some visuals. I remember that I can take off the dark glasses, so i reach up to do so, but when I do this my real body's hand comes up and touches my forehead. I wake up.

3. I am sitting in a parked car with my wife. It is early morning or nighttime. we are in a parking lot near a rural intersection. There is a cornfield across the street. A car zooms past us on the road and fails to make a turn at the intersection. It speeds through the cornfield and plunges into a forest. I ask my wife if she saw it, and she replies 'yes that was crazy." I do a nose pinch and realize I am dreaming....details omitted.

Although Galantamine obviously works I am unsure how I feel about this method. It is somehow not as satisfying for me to get lucid in this manner when I compare it to non supplement induced LDs. I plan on giving it 5 more attempts (that will be 10 total) to see collect enough experience to enable me to reach an informed conclusion.

1. I am at teachings that are being given by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. I am in line with my wife waiting to enter the room that the teachings will be held in. I am very excited. I tell my wife that Khenpo is a really amazing lama. "I know" she says, "you keep telling me!" She seems annoyed with me. Later I am walking around the building that the teachings were given in. It appears to be alot like my high school, with metal panel walls. and windows every so often that break up the panels. I am looking for Khenpo's room so that I can ask him a question. I find his room, there are many attendants in the room, but they all look like hospital staff. There is a hospital bed in the room along with many medical monitoring devices such as IV drip lines.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche:


2. I am riding my bike across town at night. I am in an area of a town where there are many old warehouses and abandoned factories. I notice some "gutter punks" off in a field in front of an old warehouse. I cross some railroad tracks. I turn left in front of an old warehouse building. I am now in a large fenced in area in front of the warehouse. I notice a bum/gutter punk guy approaching me from the warehouse. I get nervous and speed up, but reach a point where i am stuck between the approaching bum and the fence. The bum catches up with me and I greet him nicely. I get a close up view of his face. His face is narrow, almost un-naturally, his skin is dark and sallow. He is wearing a mugger hat and his hair is poking out from underneath it. He tells me to give him my bike. "Come on man!, you aren't really going to take my bike!" I tell him. He insists and threatens to stab me if I do not comply. I give him the bike. He then asks me for my car keys. I tell him he took my bike and that should be enough. He insists on me giving him my keys. I tell him he is welcome to have them, but my car is back at my house and he does not know where that is. He seems satisfied with my answer. He rides off on my bike and I run ahead and cut through a building to get ahead of him. I end up standing on a little pile of dirt as he approaches. I kick him in the face and he falls off the bike. I jump down off the pile of dirt and bash his head a couple of times with a rock. I am worried that I seriously hurt him, but realize i just knocked him out. I take my bike back and ride off. I am then in a car with wife telling her that my bike got stolen. She seems disappointed as I must not have taken some of her advice to lock it up or something. Next I tell her how I retrieved the bike and she seems a bit relieved.

the following dream was non-lucid. However, it was very long and incredibly vivid. Lots of missed lucidity cues.

It's my birthday. I am outdoors laying in some grass, looking up into a nice blue sky. My oldest daughter is running around the yard "chasing blue jays." Someone arrives for the party. I go inside and it is a woman, a friend of my wife's. She arrived in a purple 1980s Volvo station wagon without a hood. They talk for awhile then two guys arrive and set up stereo equipment and amplifiers. The both have bass guitars and are going to play bass solos for the party. I'm not really excited about this. The guy on the left is plugged into a stereo. He complains that "his wifi won't work." And hands his phone to someone else.
A few more people arrive then we go to another location. On the way we have to stop and get some guy from Gar Drolma. We continue on at a Chinese/Indian restaurant where I am assuming the party is over. I look out a window and see a big silver Range Rover pull up. Ani Palmo ( western Buddhist nun/teacher) gets out. I am concerned because the party is really over and she arrived at the last minute. She comes in, her hair is now shoulder length, platinum blonde, she is wearing makeup. Weird I think. We hug and she doesn't want to let go, but it's just friendly so we end up re-hugging like 10 times. "Oh, we are going to do this i see." She says. Next she shows me a book that is a compendium of Bodhicharyaavatara materials, root text and several translated commentaries in a single volume. I look at it and can tell it's from Nanandabodhi. I tell her they have several of these huge sourcebooks, "one for Madhyamika, for example." Then I get in the food line. I get my arms all tangled?? With the arms of the woman behind me in line. She won't move back to let me get some of this dish I just passed up. "Ok, whatever." I say. Further down the line there is a dish that looks like rice with beef gravy on top. Gross. Next there is tis weird little Chinese man reaching into pots of hot noodle soup and pulling out bits of meat with his fingers. The heat lamp shines weirdly on his face. He reminds me of gollum and I think his behavior is gross.
Dream shifts and we arrive at Gar Drolma for a teaching. I am outside and jump up on the wall, back, hands, and palms to the walk like a spider. I think it's weird and impossible, but the way the wall feels under my hands reassures me it's ok. I just never realized I could jump/climb like this. I climb down the wall and climb into a restroom window. I pee and exit via the door. Abi Palmo is sitting at a cafeteria style table. I say "Hey! You gave me a lucid dream last night!! I saw you in a dream and your hair was long and you had makeup on!"reference to earlier stages if THIS dream!) she looks at me quizzically and says nothing.

I went to bed at 11:00, and woke at 4:00. I took 8mg galantamine, 500mg choline bitartrate, 600mg Alpha GPC, and .5 mg melatonin. I tried the WILD instructions from "Advanced Lucid Dreaming, The Power of Supplements", but after awhile gave it up and set my intention to recognize the dream state and let myself fall asleep.

honestly when I read that it seems ridiculous to take all those pills. I got lucd, but I have had lucids without supplements that were of higher quality. I also noticed a great intensification and increase in the vividness of my NLDs after taking the supplements. The melatonin made it very easy to fall asleep. I will experiment further, but am not terribly impressed. Total time lucid was about 1.5 minutes. Dream seemed sort of "washed out." I had an average level (for me) of lucidity, could not remember goals, could not remember to locate my sleeping body, etc. dream follows:

I wake up and it's completely dark. I suspect I may be dreaming so I do a nose pinch state test. I am dreaming. I test again because it feels so cool. I can't see, and can barely move. I rub my hands together, pat down my arms and chest. I say "more clarity! More ️lucid awareness!" Several times, I feel increasingly alert, but it's still dark. I feel "in" the dream so with great effort I get out of bed, there is a strange and distinct "peeling" sensation as I stand up, like I am a Sticker being removed from its backing. I stretch out my hands and feel my way around the room. I bump into a wall with a distinct noise and sensation. It's still dark. I wake up again, in the same room but now it's daylight. It a generic bed and breakfast room. I get out of bed and walk over to look at a brocade-ish tapestry hanging on the wall. "This is what I bumped into last night" I think. I walk out of the room into a sort of dimly lit lobby area. It looks like a foyer in someone's home. There is a pair of French doors to my left. I realize again I am dreaming and walk over and push both my hands through the glass pane, past my elbows. They move through as though the glass were water. I push through further moving my head and shoulders through the glass to mid chest. Then I rotate my body so my chest faces the ceiling and my back is facing the floor. I think I am going to grave the pane above me and pull my legs through the glass. I see a short old man in the lobby. He has in a hat and leather jacket and looks like a mildly elderly Italian gangster. I immediately have a strong desire to karate chop him?? I instantly dis-entangle from the door contortion and cross the room to him, preparing to chop. He looks at me somewhat blankly. I realize what I am doing and stop. I look at him and say loudly " I love you man! I love you!!" His face lights up and he looks so happy, he starts laughing and I wake up

I woke up and wrote it down, it was 6:05. i went back to sleep for a jumble of very very vivid fragments.

I woke up a 4, struggled with recall, got nothing. I got up for about 5 minutes, did some state tests and set my intent to recognize my next dream. I went back to bed and practiced MILD. I tossed and turned for what seemed like a very long time. I checked my phone and the time was 4:58. I realized I still had an hour to sleep so I rolled over and tried to get to sleep. Almost immediately i felt the "sleep onset body buzz" and started to see some mild HI, mostly lights and simple patterns. The dream follows:

i am at a run down strip mall. most of the storefronts are abandoned and on my left. there is an ice cream shop at the far end of the stores. i am on my bike riding slowly. i see a woman who i think i know (middle school girlfriend all grown up?) drive by as a passenger in a silver sedan. i keep riding and ahead i notice the silver car drive off, the woman is not in it. the driver is an overweight man with round glasses, wearing a faded red tshirt. i ride past the ice cream shop and see the woman seated at a little round cement table at the end of the row of stores. i ride past her and make a little left turn , headed up a concrete switchback ramp. The ramp looks like it would lead up to a second level of the strip mall. I see the first turn in the switchback and know that i am dreaming. "im dreaming, im dreaming." i say i decide to ride into the wall, everything gets bright and clear, very defined, i wake up.

I rolled over and checked my phone, it was now 5:05. The interval between falling asleep and recognizing the dream was probably about 3 minutes! Unfortunately the dream was very short.

This was a post by Sivason in a recent thread about memory and LD. I found it very clear and it opened a new perspective for me. great stuff!!!

Originally Posted by Travis E.

I think I'm learning something new today. But I reread this thread a few times and am still not 100% sure I'm clear on what is said, so just to be sure: In a LD, if I remember to try to remember, say, where my sleeping body is, I still get the benefit, even if I don't actually manage to recall for sure where it is, or I come to the wrong conclusion/have a false memory?

But if doing this reengages the link to my memory, shouldn't I be able to recall this (in the cases where I don't)? Or is this “link” you speak of not the same thing as actually being able to flawlessly recall things, consciously, from WL during the dream?

I will take a stab at simplifying this concept, although I may not say it exactly like Sageous would:


If you become lucid, in that you know it is a dream, there is still a large portion of your mind that feels you are actually experiencing this stuff.

In truth, this is 100% a virtual reality. Failing to honestly grasp the fact that it is 100% illusion seriously limits your control and ability to think rationally.

A method of making yourself truly grasp that nothing about the dream comes from any source other than your own mind, is to grasp the reality that you are in fact sleeping.

Simply saying "this is a dream" is not really enough. The act of remembering details about real life, such as the day or that you are asleep on the couch, removes most all belief that any part of this is real.

To do something as advanced as remembering the location of your body, you will need to scan your waking memory.

This act stimulates your rational mind, and enhances the ability to fully realize you are in a virtual reality, and therefore subject to no laws of physics.



That is how I would summarize it. Sageous may have a point or two to add, but that is the general method.






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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Just a thought, but has anyone ever tried to meditate in a LD?

Sure, you can meditate if that is what you want to do. It is a very good way to pass the time in states like delta. I would hold off on it unless the dream is very stable, as you could drift into non-lucidity.




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Originally Posted by Verre

A while ago I was trying some memory experiments along these lines. I had a hypothesis that it might be easier to remember past dreams while dreaming, but to my surprise that didn't work well at all. Memories of waking life were more reliable, but sometimes amusingly out-of-date like Sivason described earlier. I also noticed a remarkable degree of reluctance on the part of my dreaming mind to perform this task, like it didn't want to have to remember.

However, the real stumbling block came whenever I tried to think about my sleeping body... and woke up. This happens every time. The minute I let my thoughts stray to the fact that my physical body is actually lying in bed, the dream dissolves and there I am lying in bed, even if I had no desire or intention to wake up. At this point when I'm dreaming I'm careful not to think about my sleeping body, because I've never found a way to do it without ending the dream.

Any suggestions?

1) I have often had memories of other dreams only while in a lucid dream. I do not know why, but it is something I have noticed.

2) Try not to feel where your body is, it is possible, but risky. Instead keep it an intellectual scanning thing. It will work well enough to just ask if you are sleeping in your normal place (bed) or are you sleeping on your desk at school.

Recall: 35 dreams
Lucid 5 times

1.Riding in backseat with Wife. Rachel is driving. It's sunny prior to this wife had been out running errands now we are headed home. We have to stop the car at a tree in order to grab a branch and pull it into the car. The branch will give special properties to the car, of an unknown nature. I get out to get the branch and the tree is somewhat stripped. There is not a branch long enough for our needs. I pull one to try to bend it into the car, but no luck. wife says " hurry up I have to go soon" "Jesus Christ" I reply, "you have been gone all day" she says she is going to some bar by trader joes. I get back into the car and notice many curled up spiral shoes green inch worms in my legs. There is also a small translucent brown spider. I brush them all off and watch them squirm on the floor of the car.

2. At work talking to an administrator with someone else. I refer to an earlier dream in this dream and say in a deep, crazily- reverbey voice " hey lackey, make me a fucking martini!" This is to satirize some character in the dream. The administrator is worried about how loudly I said this and peers into another room to see if anyone heard, but we are good. Someone drops a small object onto the floor, it rolls across the room and comes to rest near a wastebasket. I walk over and take a look, but cannot find it.


3. I am at some dharma event in another city. It is the end of the teachings for the day . I am standing in some sort of grass quad area between 2-3 buildings. Several monks including one or two westerners come out of the left corner door at the junction of buildings. The buildings are laid out in a u shape. I see the monks then end up at the dharma center, looking for Khenpo Samdup to tell him about the teachings/ event. He is asleep and d1 wakes him up, he is laughing and mumbling. Also I am looking at a shelf of dharma books forgone that "is not just a bunch of meditation instructions" there are several shelves of books, one has a cover that is a very bright blue sky with wispy clouds.

4. There is some sort of sleepover at the farm. I am staying in one of the back rooms. There are several couples staying in the rooms they are there for an event. I start off alone in a bed then some brunette woman gets in bed with me. After a bit she gets out and goes to another room. I get up and go walking through some of the rooms. Daughter 1 is in another back room with wife, daughter 1 gets wound up and runs into the different rooms, I am worried she will wake people. I look into one of the other rooms and see a couple laying in the bed, just sheets, no blanket. Dream shifts and now it is New Year's Eve and I am walking along a covered sidewalk with my brother and several others. We are going to my uncle Marty's bar? And realize that it is 11:58. We hear a countdown and begin to run to make it to the bar by 12. I do a crazy dive/roll across a street and land in my feet at the entrance to the bar. My uncle comes out with some beers, we nod at him but refuse and make it into the bar, just in time!

fragments:
a. Looking for a shirt to impress a lady with. There are various band shirts, including a white bad brains shirt. I self consciously choose one and have some trouble changing out of my current one.

b. I am running across a large lawn, someone has just started to now so I am being mindful of them .

goal was 45 dreams recalled and 5 lucids. Start date was 1/2, end date was 2/2.

results: 31 dreams recalled
3 lucid dreams


I need to scale back my recall goal. Things were going really well at the outset of this tracking period, but really came off the rails for the last week or so. I think I have been too uptight and pushy with my practice. I will update goals in the next day or two.