side notes

Recall: 35 dreams
Lucid 5 times

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.

Recall Goal: 45 dreams (this is an 11% improvement over previous month).
LD Goal: 5 between 1/2 and 2/2.
Activity goal: complete task of the month for January.

My goal deadline is today. My goal was to log 30 dreams and 5 lucid dreams. I gave myself one month to do this. During this month I was able to exceed my recall goal, I logged 40 dreams. However, I did not meet my goal for Lucidity; I was only able to get lucid 3 times. However, the last lucid was easily my best ever, so I'll take the quality improvement over the quantity. I am revisiting my goals and will update them in the next day or so.

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.

Below is a graph depicting the results of my first 3 months of serious dream practice. Organizing the data has boosted my confidence and given me an objective way to evaluate progress.

Goals for March: 5 LD
40 Recalled dreams

#1
I am at a long dinner table eating with people from work. We are discussing new assessments. I express thinly veiled disdain at the idea of more testing. I am worried that they will think ill of me for holding such ideas. One colleague has a University of Northern Kentucky marching band costume on. A bottle of wine is produced.

#2
I step outside of my paternal grandparent's house. It is night. I walk down the driveway into the street. Everything is dim and shadowy. I recall my previous dream and realize that I am now dreaming. Lucid, I break into a run and leap into the sky. I remember mid jump that I should RC and stabilize the dream. I try to get my hands together. I am tumbling through space. I can't control my hands. I bring them up to my face and frantically try to rub them together. No dice. I wake up.

WBTB (5 min) + MILD produced this. Second in as many nights.

I have no aspirations to fly. I have no idea why this occurred. It was almost instinctual.