smouse's workbook

[smouse]

hello im smouse. 18 years old from Canada. Used to become lucid when I was a kid when i would have nightmares and realize i was dreaming but i would instantly wake myself up instead of exploring the dream world. Now I really want to achieve lucidity again. I've been practicing all day awareness and keeping a dream journal for about a month. As of now I can usually remember atleast one dream a night, but some nights i dont remember any. Cant wait to make some progress the closest I've been to getting lucid is earlier this week when i randomly did a nose plug reality check in a dream and i could breathe and was so excited but for some reason it didnt make me lucid, i was just happy that i could breathe through my plugged nose.

[gab]

Hi smouse, welcome! I think we should get your dream recall to at least 1 dream every day. You can try saying mantras as you falling asleep. Something like "I remember my dreams", "I wake up after each dream and remember it". You can also drink some water before bed and each time you wake up. There is a good chance you wake up right after a dream (at the end of REM) and you can write your dream down then. Write every fragment, feeling and short dream in your DJ. Nose plug RC in a dream is a good sign. It means, that your daily practice is transfering into your dreams. If you not doing other RCs, I can recommend looking at hands, counting fingers, thumb through palm and gravity RC. Try this awareness + RC technique: Ask yourself a question 'wow, am I dreaming?' that jolts your attention and makes you stop doing whatever you doing. For a moment, entertain the idea, that you are sure this is a dream or false awakening and feel the excitement in the pit of your stomach. Just pretend, that you have had a lucid dream that was indistinguishable from waking reality, so any waking moment is possible to actually be a dream and you don't know for sure untill you RC. Then, look at your hands. Are the any different? Count your fingers. Do you have the right amont? If you sure you are awake, say mantra "Next time I'm dreaming, I look at my hands and realize I'm dreaming". Repeat a few times, while looking at your hands. I believe, that this startling moment, when you first ask yourself, is very important, as this is what will start happening in your reg. dreams and get you lucid. Please post your progress and any questions. Happy dreams

[smouse]

Thanks for the advice gab. I'm definitely going to incorporate more mantra's throughout my day especially while falling asleep. I'm more concerned with my general dream recall than actually attaining lucidity right now because I know recall is very important. I will post again when I feel like I'm making good progress

[smouse]

yay something cool happened this morning. I woke up in sleep paralysis for the 2nd time ever. I had a dream where at the end i fell into the ocean but instead of waking up instantly everything kind of went black. and then there was a really loud buzzing...like reaalllly loud as if there was literally a bee in my ear so i got all confused and tried to open my eyes but i was frozen I knew instantly it was sleep paralysis. for about 10 seconds i was struggling trying to move and wake up and it felt like my eyes were twitching but eventually i woke up completely and could move again. Now i wonder if i maybe should have tried to relax and make another dream appear. Hope this means i'm getting better at dreaming or something :p

[gab]

I believe that the loud buzzing meant you were in SP as you say you were. Next time don't fight it. You are in SP when you ready to dream so just keep yourself aware and pay attention to images starting to appear behind your closed eyelids. Once the images turn into movie (dream), you can pick a spot in the movie and say deliberatly and slowly "I am there". That should transfer you to that spot and when you land, you are in the dream. What I just described is a WILD method. And yes, getting all kinds of new experiences means that you are more aware and getting better. Keep practicing. Happy dreams

[Hukif]

Wonderful, ADA is working for you! As gab/you said that was SP so yeah going back to a lucid should be relatively easy in that state. And for recall, do you take notes during the night or just journal at the morning?

[smouse]

I mostly just write my dream journal entries in the morning, but if I do wake up during the night and recall a dream I will still write it down. Im so excited now that I feel so close thanks for the replies I'll be sure to post my progress.

[gab]

Good job with yur DJ, that's how I do it, too. Keep your excitement up, read threads about what to do in LD, that will help. Make your own plan, write it down and daydream about it. Happy dreams

[Arch]

I love your name! gabs pretty much said everything, so I'll set you some tasks! - keep at that DJ, I want you to reach at least one dream a night - get your own routine started, if your dreams are similar to that of real life do awareness techniques, if they are crazy and mystical try reality checking when odd stuff happens or when you are very busy - try out lots of techniques - try out a MILD (WBTB) see if that works for you - write your progress here

[smouse]

Thanks My dream recall has improved immensely since I started trying about a month ago. I used to only remember a couple dreams a month haha. The odd night I randomly might not be able to remember any dream whatsoever, but usually I recall atleast one per night. I'm going to start researching and trying WBTB MILDS each morning now, and will keep practising ADA, RC's, and Mantras. The tips have been very helpful and greatly appreciated ill keep everyone posted.

[smouse]

Yaaaay! I got sleep paralysis this morning again with much better results. I woke up around 10:30 and attempted a mild wbtb around 11. I had to shift positions a few times while repeating the mantra " The next thing I see will be a dream." Eventually i kind of slipped away into a light sleep and had a short dream from which i woke up. i remained still and lied there for what felt like maybe 30 seconds before drifting into a light sleep mode again, accompanied by sleep paralysis. Rather then hearing a really loud buzzing like last time, it was a loud high pitch ring and i felt my body freeze up. It was weird I relaxed and had good consciousness. I'm not sure if my real eyes were open or if i was just in a dream and could see my dream body in bed, but i saw and felt my legs hanging half way off the bed and twitching. I closed my eyes and tried to remain calm and i imagined a grassy field on a sunny day and it started to appear before my eyes! The exact scene I imagined, it was really cool. It faded to blackness and I kept getting it to re appear but it would fade again. Then I tried to imagine a new scene on a mountain with the same results. Eventually I felt s.p go away and i felt awake so I opened my eyes. I saw that my legs were in fact not hanging off of my bed which makes me think that I was dreaming when i saw them twitching. Anyway as i woke up I didnt move and tried a wbtb again (or maybe deild,) and within like 5 seconds i was back in s.p but this time imagining scenes didnt make them appear and i woke up. I think I'm getting really close to becoming lucid this was really exciting I tried not to get too excited while in SP but I felt so happy haha. Next time I get SP should I wait for images to randomly appear and just go with them? or should i try to imagine my own scene?

[smouse]

YAAAAAAAAAA i had my first lucid dream this morning!!!!!! I attempted a wbtb mild cause the last couple i tried got me into sleep parlaysis. This time I fell asleep and went into a regular long, vivid dream. At the end, I didnt do a RC or anything, i guess it was just awareness that made me realize I was in a dream all of the sudden. I was SOOOO excited haha I didnt try any stabilization techniques or anything, I climbed up a light post, jumped off and started flying while screaming IM LUCID! haha I guess all the excitement made me wake up cause right when I landed on a nearby roof I woke up. it was so awesome though YAYY. Ive made so much progress in like a week since I came here for help I cant thank Arch, Gab, and Hukif enough! Now I just have to keep at it

[gab]

Yeeeyyy! I'm so happy for you Congratulations! Now it's gonna be only easier, since you know how to go about it and what to expect. Here is a few ideas: 1. When you see a scene, go ahead and enter, you can change it later. Pick a point and say "I....am....there' very calmly and deliberately. 2. You can try and imagine a scene - it works best if you imagine something you know really well, including, how it feels, smells.... Use it just as an entry point, you can change your dream scene later, if you want to, once you are safely in a lucid. But don't force it. You can also wait for a random scene and enter that. 3. If you feel any part of your body floating, or turning, try to continue in that movement, untill your whole body is 'out' floating. Some people call it WILD, some OBE. You pick. Then you can say to yourself: "stand up", or "to the door" and continue with your lucid/obe. 4. When you saw your legs hanging - it was probably your dream/astral eyes. 5. Remember that feeling of happines you got when you realized. Recall it every time, when you ask yourself 'am I dreaming?" and you do your RCs. Your mind will associate you being happy with lucid dreaming and will help you achieve both. 6. Now is time to re-read some stabilization tuts and make a list of things to do in a lucid and write it down, daydream about it. So congrats again. Happy dreams

[smouse]

thanks gab I'll start looking more into stabilization, and keep doing what I'm doing

[Hukif]

Well, something else I think you should try is RCing when you wake up or when being in SP, like last time you described where you were in SP and maybe dreaming, if you had done a RC and that was indeed a dream, free lucid! Good luck and glad you had your first lucid already!

[smouse]

Since my first LD I began to lose my recall. I only remembered like 2 or 3 dreams all week but I read that some people worry so much about lucid dreaming that it kind of stresses them out and makes them lose recall. So yesterday I just tried ADA throughout the day and didnt think to much about dreaming, and before I went to bed I didnt do mantras or anything I just got comfy and fell asleep and I had like 3 or 4 good dreams (non lucid.) Although I can really only recall 2 of them. I've been re reading some dream recall tutorials, and am going to resume ADA and Mantra's plus my dream journal of course. Any suggestions for getting my recall back up? I don't really feel stressed out or anything, and I'm confident as ever but I'd like to get back on track as soon as possible :p Is it maybe a common thing for lucid dreamers to sometimes go into slumps and lose recall?

[gab]

Sure, recall can flactuate. Sometimes I feel bad for not having good recall, then I check my DJ and it acctually is not so bad. I can see it goes up and down, so I don't stress about it anymore. DJ can also help you identify why is your recall fluctuating, in cases when its influenced by something - like not enough sleep, big test at school, stress at work. If you write some points like this in DJ, it may help.

[smouse]

alright in the last couple weeks Ive had a few good long vivid dreams, but I noticed I'm becoming more consistent at managing to get into SP.(sometimes from waking state, sometimes while Im sleeping.) I might start looking into WILDing cause I can never figure out what to do while in SP. Like last night I woke up in SP and tried to just relax and see what happens. I got the sudden urge to try to step out of bed so i did. I remember having my eyes closed still but I could like imagine my room and I felt my wall and walked along to my door to get to the hallway. I cant remember anything after that really. I dont think I woke up after SP and went to the bathroom, I remember getting up while in SP so I think i may have achieved getting out of my body or whatever and was dreaming haha. any pointers or opinions on whether or not I managed to pull my dream body out of SP?

[gab]

I remember getting up while in SP so I think i may have achieved getting out of my body or whatever and was dreaming haha. any pointers or opinions on whether or not I managed to pull my dream body out of SP? It could have been false awakening, or OBE. Can't really tell, sorry. By all means, try WILDs. They are tons of fun. I'll reply here anyway, but feel free to join the WILD class. When you in SP - do you see images behind your closed eyelids that later turn into dreams? If yes, that's your ticket. Happy dreams

[smouse]

ya I think it was a false awakening/OBE. A couple times I've been able to see dream scenes appear but never really actually went into them, could only observe them. Sometimes I see my bedroom and theres sometimes shadowy figures which I hear is common for people. (it doesnt really scare me, its intriguing.) in the last couple weeks I've found myself in SP several times a week, its actually crazy. I'm gonna start trying WILD a bit more seeing as how I've had alot of success with getting to SP lately. I'll keep practising ADA/MILD etc so I can have DILDs too, cause thats the way I had my first LD. Thanks for the input gab I guess its time for me to join the WILD class aswell and see what I can get from there

[gab]

The beauty of it is, when you do WBTB for a WILD, and even if you don't achieve WILD, you will have a lot better chance to get a DILD that night. That's because, you woke up your mind at the time when it usually sleeps, so it will be easier to become aware in a DILD. Good luck to you with WILDs

[smouse]

YAY had my 2nd lucid this morning It was a WILD, so wild is working for me it seems :p I got in SP, just relaxed and waited for it to go away, opened my eyes to find i was in my room, then did a nose plug RC and realized it was a dream it didnt last too long cause I didnt do any stabilization, I was too excited haha. It was sooo easy though, I cant even imagine how many times I came out of SP in the past to think i was awake, but was actually dreaming haha. Now I feel like I'm on the right track and its only gonna get more consistent and easier just gotta work on stablization and making them last longer

[gab]

Nice job! And congrats on your WILD Consider yourself lucky, that they are easy for your. Keep doing what you doing, it's working for you

[smouse]

had another WILD this morning my 3rd lucid dream. I'm feeling pretty confident with the whole transitioning from SP to a lucid dream now. Any tips on how to stabilize? In this last lucid, I shouted out clarity now and my vision did seem to enhance slightly, It also lasted longer then my last 2. It was about a minute long but i woke up before I could do any real exploring of any kind.

[smouse]

never mind just had2 more WILDS this morning which puts my count at5 they still weren't very long and I haven't made much progress on dream control or stabilization but getting to SP is coming really easy to me now. 3 LDs in 2 days For stabilization I do all the hand rubbing and stuff but doesnt really work. I try to balance my thoughts on the fact that I am dreaming and am in control of everything, and half of my attention also goes towards interacting with everything in the dream.