side notes

Adding this link to my DJ for reference. Very interesting so far. I was able to focus on about 3 sounds at once before losing focus on one or more of them. These are fun and give me a goal to aim for during meditation.

https://www.dreamviews.com/dream-yog...esson-1-a.html

Original post taken from Howie in the Articles Section (https://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/The-...tion-Technique). Copying it here for my reference to improve meditation and WILD capabilities.

1. 61 point relaxation technique


This figure illustrates 61 points on the body. To do this exercise, you need to memorize the sequence of points. (This is not difficult, because the points are arranged in a simple pattern) They begin at the forehead, travel down and up your right arm, then across to your left arm, down to your torso, down and up your right legs, then back up your torso to the forehead.

2. Focus your attention on one point at a time
Begin at your forehead, focus your attention between your eyebrows and think of the number one. Keep your attention fixed at point one for several seconds until you feel that your awareness of the location is clear and distinct. Think of yourself being located at this point. Before moving on to the next point, you should feel a sense of warmth and heaviness at this spot.

3. Move through each point in sequence
In the same manner, successively focus your attention on each of the first thirty-one points. Proceed slowly, and imagine you self being located at each point as you reach it. Feel the sense of warmth and heaviness before moving on. Do not allow your mind to wander. At first you may find this difficult to do: you will find that at times you suddenly will forget that you are doing the exercise and start daydreaming or thinking about something else. IF you lose your place, return to the beginning or the last numbered point you attended to, and continue. Practice with thirty-one points until you can attend to them all in sequence without daydreaming or losing track.

4.Extend your practice to include all sixty-one points
When you can attend to thirty -one points in sequence, repeat steps 1 and 2 with all sixty-one points. Practice this until you can do all points without losing your focus. Now you are ready to use this exercise with lucid dreaming induction techniques.


This technique was acquired from Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen Laberge and Howard Rheingold. ( Figure was adopted by Exercise without movement by Swami Rama [Himalyan Institute, Honesdale, PA.])

I came across a 2015 post by Sensei about active versus passive control:
https://www.dreamviews.com/dream-con...esson-1-a.html

In there, he makes an analogy about walking to the fridge and how that is a simple learned behavior for us, but challenging to his son who was taking his first steps. In a similar way, confidence and skill to achieve lucid dreaming goals can be attained.

Memory control is a similar idea, but has an obvious flaw: when one is doing something new there is no memory to pull on. Sensei suggests (if I am understanding correctly) to essentially pretend there is a memory of yourself achieving whatever goal that is.

My idea to execute on that is to visualize myself practicing something like Firebending from Avatar: The Last Airbender while meditating normally. This can then serve as the memory needed to achieve actual dream control in a lucid dream.

Thanks Sensei!

Woods Mansion Nightmare
I'm walking in a heavily wooded area at night. Grass is above my ankles and wet. I come across my best friend D. He has a bed just outside the window of a mansion with lights shining on the grass below. We talk for a bit and then decide to go into the mansion.

I'm running sideways and side jump through an open window in the mansion. It is well-lit and makes me think an older person might live there. Meticulously clean, lots of furniture we wouldn't be allowed to sit on, bookshelves all over. Then a woman with big 80's hair appears. It is blonde and straight up. Her face reminds me of older photos of my Mom (rest in peace). The woman runs into the room frantically.

"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!?!" the woman yells at me.

I don't reply. At this point I'm in fight or flight mode. I'm running sideways again, and I do a side jump out a window. I fell as if I'm being chased but I don't look back to check. My escape route takes me back into the mansion. I'm running inside it again. I tried to change my path and leave through a window I previously came in from, but now there is a wall there.

I had a thought as I stared at the ceiling, since I couldn't sleep after this dream. The way she said "Do you remember me?" was aggresive in the context of the dream (nightmare) but the actual content of what she said wasn't. I was thinking that if my mom was actually in some kind of collective unconscious in the afterlife, maybe she was trying to reach out and the message got scrambled by the context of the dream? I'm not normally so much the "hand wavy" type of guy. But I still find stuff like this interesting to think about.

Fragment
I'm in a more casual setting now. It reminds me of Grandma P's bathroom from a few houses ago. My mom is there, but her skin looks older. I don't recognize/recall that she passed some years ago. We spent some time together but I can't recall much.

I've had some similar dreams with her showing up like this. We were close when she was alive, so I like to think she is just dropping by to say hi.

Adding this to my DJ as a reference. Found it in a 2016 post in the attaining lucidity section. Below is from FryingMan. Thanks for putting this info out there FryingMan! I've been trying to connect meditation to my lucid dreaming practice and this helped me understand a bit more:

I think the best meditation for lucid dreaming is maintaining mindfulness during everyday, complex waking life experiences. In dreams, we do not sit or lie quietly in a room with only our thoughts for company. We are usually active in the dream world, interacting with objects and beings, noticing things moving into and out of our visual field, feeling emotions and reacting to our experiences. We are "living" just like (or similar to) we do in the waking state. In "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep," Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes:

"This is the sequence: awareness in the first moment of experience, in response, in dream, ..."
In other words, in order to get lucid in dreams (regularly), we must first master awareness in the first moment of experience and response to experience! We must practice this while awake.

Rinpoche continues:

"One cannot just start at the end. You can determine for yourself how mature your practice is: as you encounter the phenomena of experience, examine your feelings and your reactions to the feelings. Are you controlled by your interactions with the objects of experience or do you control your reaction to them? ... can you remain in steady presence in diverse situations?"

I believe this, right here, is the crux of lucid dreaming practice.

Sitting mindfulness meditation (I prefer open eyed, with visual input, not sitting stock still or focusing only on a single object, but looking around experiencing my environment) can be helpful to get started. Start in a quiet location, like on a bench in park (there's still usually plenty of activity if you open yourself to experiencing it!) Then gradually move up to more and more complex, hustling & bustling environments as you master remaining mindful in relatively quiet situations.

Starting the competition off strong by having zero recall day 1! Guess I shouldn't have had that energy drink at 6PM! It was darn good though...oh well. Sorry Team Rabbit!

Edit: Just kidding. Competition doesn't start 'till 8PM tonight. I'm good!

Adding this to my journal for the weekend when I try my next WBTB. Last time I just barely missed a successful WILD because I didn't enter the dream when it formed. The dream I saw was pretty small (did not encompass my vision), but I imagine it would have grown or I could have willed myself to enter it. This seems to cover the gap in knowledge I had.

Found this in the WILD section from 2012. Thanks Gab! I hope I'm not breaking a rule by posting this here

Here is Gab's post:

TYPES OF ENTRY INTO LUCID DREAM
These are some of the different ways to enter a lucid dream. You normally don't have a choice in which one will happen.

1. Dream images
First type of entry involves looking at the back of your closed eyelids. At first, you will see black and grey fog swirling around. Maybe you see some colors. Then you start seeing simple objects and geometric shapes. These will evolve into more complex pictures and dreams. You may see movie like scenes. When these scenes change into one big movie screen covering your whole field of vision, the dream is ready for you. But so far you are just an outside observer.

You may either wait for it to envelop you and you suddenly find yourself inside of a dream, or you may look at the dream scene, pick a spot on the ground and say slowly and deliberately something like "I am there". This should transport you inside a dream.

2. Floating or seeing your room
This is entry with help of one of the sensations mentioned above. If you feel like you are floating above your bed, or you see your room with your eyes closed, your dream body has separated. All you need to do is stand up or roll out of the bed.

This may not work on your first try. But more you think about it, you will start noticing when this happens and believe it or not, you will remember this article and you will give it a try and stand up, although you will be 100% sure, you are awake.

So if you see your room, try a motionless RC - "If I was in a dream, I could levitate" and watch yourself lift up in the air. If this happens, you are in a dream. Stand up or roll out and go have fun.

Sometimes instead of your room you see darkness. Do the same RC to find out if you are in a dream.

3. Acceleration/falling/sinking
These are also some of the sensations described above.

Acceleration - feels as if you were flying at incredible speed, head first. Sometimes you even feel, as if you were touching some kind of a rough surface with stones and pebbles, so it can be really bumpy. Doesn't hurt at all, it's actually more fun than Disneyland. After you stop, get out of the bed and do RC, or try a motionless RC first.

Falling/sinking - feels as if you were sinking through your mattress for a long time. RC when movement stops.

4. Vibrations
You feel your body parts or whole body vibrating, something like when you put your hand on purring cat (mild), or chainsaw (strong). RC when it stops.

You can have more than one wave of vibrations. So after first ones are over, you may want to wait a few minutes to see if you get more of them.

After the last two transition types, you may not see anything. It's possible, that your dream eyes are still closed. Go ahead and pry them open with your dream hands. Or, perhaps you are wearing dark glasses, or your hood is covering your eyes. Simply remove them with your dream hands.

And my experience for comparison:

Laid in bed for a long time. GF's regular weekday alarm went off by mistake a couple times and messed up my rhythm. Eventually I relaxed enough to start feeling WILD vibrations. I got all the way through the process of "going through the wormhole", and I could see a dream in a tiny pinhole at the end. It was my childhood home. I could see my old PC monitor with Runescape on it, but the dream was black around the edges. I forgot that I needed to 'grab' the dream and I missed my opportunity.

Edit 2: I just went ahead and put updated goals on main Spring 2023 thread.

Edit: Just realized the goals might be different for Spring 2023 compared to Winter 2022. Will update when new instructions are out.

Wanted to decide on some goals for next week:

Dream Control Tasks
Eat/Drink Something - 5 points
Super Speed - 5 points
Basic Summoning - 5 points
Teleport - 10 points

Challenge Tasks
Walk on a wall (success if you manage to keep both of your feet attached to the wall simultaneously)