FryingMan's DILD course workbook

Yes timer methods are interesting but at this point I'm not going back to sleep after 5-6 hours if awakened so I'm back to trying to fix my sleep again, sigh.

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Another following the pattern last night: some brief wakings with recall which I ignored and went back to sleep (I think), followed by a waking at about 6 hours with decent recall (somewhat fragmented this time), and I can't get back to sleep after even just fast keyword recording. Tried for a early afternoon nap, and within about 20 minutes I started getting HI, the "falling" feeling, and some WILD 'noise' (ragged breathing mostly). But despite attempts to "sink into it" the sensations subsided and I was then wide awake. Argh. WILD seems beyond me for some reason.

I guess WILD might be something to put on the back burner until it feels like a good time to revisit the technique.

Yeah, mostly these days I do "drive by" WILDs rather than planned ones, where I notice the noise while simply trying to fall back asleep. Happened again just now when I went back to bed for a stubborn "I want to dream more" period after morning breakfast duty (and after a pretty weird wakeful night). Hit the pillows approx 9am, woke up just now at 1pm, probably at least one hour falling asleep. Somewhere in that first hour (or two? didn't check the time) I got very strong rocking motion body hallucinations, but no accompanying visuals, and didn't end up in a dream, like always.

Some usual late nap dreams: low awareness, zombie-ish following along with the flow. Lots of scenes though, each one short like a fragment.

I hear you :( I have been relying on DILDs for a while now so it's been about a month since I had any true WILDs but have had moments like you recount above where I start to get sensations that often come before a WILD but I don't end up WILDing.

Well YAY back in the saddle! Lucid #20 (DILD) last night. Some notable firsts about it:

+ earliest LD yet: about 4-4.5 hours after bedtime.
+ first LD flying -- it was short (and indoors, but multi-level home so there was an elevation change while flying (and spinning!)) but awesome
+ first time I lost lucidity and kept on dreaming -- didn't wake up directly while being lucid.

It's interesting: I went to bed WAY late (2am instead of the target 11pm), so it is possible this was a "cycle adjustment" assisted LD perhaps? Since the actual time of the dream was 06:20 which is close to when I've been waking up recently in the morning normally around my 5-6 hour waking or a bit later than that.

Felt excited but it was still quite early and I had some sort of "lucid" feeling about me so I made an effort to get back to sleep thinking I'd probably get another lucid later in the morning. I almost took my prepared cocktail of galantamine + choline, but I was afraid I might not get back to sleep. In retrospect perhaps I should have, I might have had a super epic LD, then again I may not have made it back to sleep.

It took some mental discipline to get back to sleep: ("you have to want it like you want to breathe!") to keep relaxing (I kept remembering more about the non-lucid parts of the previous dream before and kept recording them) but I made it back asleep perhaps about an hour or 1.5 later and had quite an awesome dream. Mostly just walking around with funny stuff happening, but it ended up with 3 young ladies on the grass at a mansion party and me exercising "dream control" to convince them to "party" with me. I woke up at the critical moment with an adrenaline rush feeling. Argh! That second one was so close to lucidity it practically was an LD especially with the "DC control" technique which I don't ever recall doing non-lucidly before.

On the lucid, I had to sort of "pull" myself into lucidity. I was walking in a house and saw somebody and what I most remember is thinking "he doesn't belong here" and then realizing I'm dreaming. Lucidity quite low (which is why I lost it, that together with the novelty of flying around).

Great night lots of dreams and a quite cool night-time flying/gliding episode at high altitude over the city lights. Except I decided I had to turn back because I didn't want to end up in the flat-lands having left my truck parked in the hills, doh!

And what's interesting is that I sort of took yesterday "off" from the intense daytime practice -- not completely, but just a bit less intense...... I know people say this a lot how relaxing just a bit can bring on the lucids.... a combination of factors probably.

^^ Here's the DJ entry for that great night last night! MORE MORE MORE! Nights like that make the effort worthwhile, even if I didn't quite "convert" on the "ladies time" at the last one.

edit: oops here's the link: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/fryi...4-02-14-55360/

Nice FM!! :D It may have been helped along by a cycle adjustment. Congrats on #20! LD flying!!! Early in sleep cycles! Nice firsts!! :D I am very happy for you!!!

Thanks! Yay, another GOOD SLEEP NIGHT. That's two in a row. Hopefully that early waking junk was the jet lag and it is behind me again. Nine hours from bedtime to final getting out of bed (with some early morning awake time rolling around but that's always figured in I suppose). I exhausted myself in the pool doing 1km which I hadn't done in a while, I've gotten a bit out of shape, it was pretty difficult, but I did it. That may have helped.

I did an experiment last night: did not record using the voice recording app, I just ran through the dreams mentally once I realized I had dreamed, making mental short, key notes about them then just getting right back to sleep. Certainly some amount of detail probably suffered and I may have forgotten some recall entirely, but I do remember a number of scenes.

MAJOR FACEPALM! Wow, a huge one! Early morning dream, I was standing in a beautiful quiet outdoor scene, like at a retreat, looking out over a nature area between buildings. I draped my arms forwards over the shoulder-high fence of slightly wet, cool wood and just stood there observing. I *never* just stand and observe in dreams I'm always on the move, always engaged in plot, but not this. It may actually have been a new dream beginning as sometimes I do find myself just observing some visuals at the very start of a dream before getting carried away by the action.

I'm looking, noticing the features of a fence and flowery bushes across the nature area between the buildings. I *notice that I feel light on my feet*, like I could float up, IF THIS WERE A DREAM. That was a gravity feeling, I've been paying a bit of attention to the feel of gravity while standing in waking life practice. Hooray, a good sign that more lucids are near I think. Both location and gravity awareness....! Next time...pull myself into lucidity when this happens!

Yay indeed!! This sounds like nice progress! I love the gravity awareness!

Well I"m on a roll now :banana: !! LD #21 last night. And at least one more memorable very near miss later on.

Firsts:

• first outdoor lucid flying (daytime)
• first time watching a DC materialize in front of me during a summon
• first time a RC cemented the lucidity at the beginning

I was on the deck of my childhood house (primary dreamsign), looking out over the water, when I realized that there were islands in the water (or they appeared while I was watching), like it had become a very low tide[*], but that never happens because it's so deep. I thought I must be dreaming, and right away did the nose pinch/breathe, and VOILA, Yes! I'm dreaming. I took off flying immediately! Flew superman style, trying to go faster and faster through will, I also did the "there's an infinitely powerful endless source of energy in my head" propelling me forwards as fast as I want to go. I think I heard the sound of a jet engine at that point.

Landed and was among suburban houses on a sidewalk downtown, tried a DC "around that bush" summon which didn't work (I'm not good at those, my attitude is too much like "I wish" instead of *knowing* the DC will be there. Went for behind the back summon of same DC immediately, and as I brought my hand around there wasn't anyone there, but I kept looking and expecting, and all of a sudden a bright solid red person-shaped form appeared in front of me, and slowly the red subsided (like it was melting away getting sucked into little drains all over the form), leaving the "fully rendered" DC standing in front of me! After interacting with the DC a bit I woke up.

And later on, I was floating down a suburban street, causing the ground/street to warp into a perfect hemispherical shape about 1 meter in diameter a few meters to my left. And I think "It's too bad this isn't enough to get me lucid..." !!!!!! I think I win the prize for that one.

Yay I'm back and recovered and am keeping the daytime practice at high intensity, DREAM ON!
[*] Was in a museum yesterday and saw a memorable painting of a beautiful ocean scene at low tide. Must have been residue from that. I'm making it a point to get out on the weekends and go places with a lot of people and lots of different things to see -- for one thing, to actually enjoy waking life :), another, to get practice of ADA/RC with lots of distractions around me, and just to gather lots of day residue, and IT WORKED!

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

Well I"m on a roll now :banana: !! LD #21 last night. And at least one more memorable very near miss later on.

Firsts:

• first outdoor lucid flying (daytime)
• first time watching a DC materialize in front of me during a summon
• first time a RC cemented the lucidity at the beginning

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An awesome list of firsts for you!!! You are rollin'!!! Whoohooo!!! :D

And I like your idea for going out into big crowds, enjoying waking life and finding good challenges for your ADA/RC work!

Well no lucids last night but some OK recall and a good night's sleep, and some sleep intertia taking me into 11.5 hours after initial bedtime with little short dreams during the dozing moments. Most importantly, kept getting back to sleep. I did record in bed the major recall for the night at about 8 hrs.

Fought with snakes, watched a corpse reanimate and start singing, took shelter from a tornado (which I watched, it was tiny about 10 feet tall and 1 foot wide) which entered to our shelter, talked with children about where to find food, "follow the path of the bears" they said.

Well a couple nights of no lucids but pretty good recall.

Getting back to sleep victory this morning! To bed late (01:30, again!!!! argh!!!!!), 6th hour waking, wife did breakfast duty, I couldn't get comfortable, wife got back in bed, decided to think happy warm comfortable thoughts. Daydreaming of "stimulating" subjects kept me awake, I felt very alert, almost gave up and got up, decided I had to really focus, "you have to want it like you want to breathe," gathered my discipline/will, emptied my mind, relaxed, and *poof* I slept again and dreamed some more!

Long, super wild, near-nightmare levels of creepiness adventure dream last night (before 6th hour, not exactly sure when as I did not journal immediately after). My memory of dreams going back to earlier wakings seems to be improving. I'd much rather journal just in the mornings. Maybe that means they were near-lucid levels of awareness and so going in to waking memory banks not just dreaming memory banks?

edit: dj entry for last night:

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/fryi...4-02-08-55466/

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

gathered my discipline/will, emptied my mind, relaxed, and *poof* I slept again and dreamed some more!

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Nice perseverance!

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Maybe that means they were near-lucid levels of awareness and so going in to waking memory banks not just dreaming memory banks?

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Possibly...that would be a great result! Fingers crossed for you!

Last night: fair amount of dreams, mostly late morning, mostly low awareness, other than I'm kind of shocked that the teacher went postal and was beating the crap out of a couple of other students in class who weren't paying attention! Late bed time.

Were you shocked by it during the dream or only in hindsight after waking up? That would be an awareness indicator. Even in non-lucid dreams I think there is a gradient of awareness, and most of my non-lucid dreams alas are no awareness whatsoever, and in such I only feel shocked after the fact.

Another thought, maybe your teacher beating students up for lack of attention is your subconscious trying to get your attention in an effort to get you to be lucid. :)

I was pretty shocked in the dream, it was a surprising and way over-the-top reaction from the teacher -- I recall half-rising from my seat to put a stop to it but the teacher stopped. It sure made me "pay attention" to "class," however!

I don't really go in for interpretation, but yes perhaps, the teacher was definitely trying to get the class to pay attention to the subject, and it sort of worked (I followed along the text that was being read out loud...and the teacher was also criticizing students in their lack of feeling in their reading).

Wild and wacky and pretty detailed recall again but not lucid. To bed late (after 2am, sigh), recall mostly came in around 6 hrs, lots on my mind big meeting today so got up at around 8am. Took nap at 12:30pm until 2pm, no recall, got close to WILD noise after about 30 mins but gave up and just slept.

Strong location awareness in one dream: standing observing a beautiful scene, wondering where exactly I was, asked a DC if the location was near (some landmark I knew in waking life), good sign for my ADA/RC-location I think!

DJ:

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/fryi...4-02-20-55543/

Congrats on the location awareness! It is great to hear that your recall is back and strong as well! I think you are knocking on the doorstep of some more lucids.

Late to bed and up early for breakfast duty meant only 1 recalled dream at morning waking. Well not only that but I was pretty wakeful due to eating a lot of chocolates late in the day (I'm very caffeine sensitive since I'm not a coffee/tea drinker), and a big meal immediately before bedtime. Bad, bad, bad! Will get out for exercise today and good solid ADA/RC sessions. Another museum trip planned this weekend :).

But I did make it back to sleep for approx 2 sleep cycles, woke with some more recall but very low awareness as per usual with this scenario, even though I spent about 30 minutes on mantras & visualisations before getting down to sleeping.

Usual battle to sleep at the back-to-bed moment: thoughts, daydreams, visualizations, I had to force myself to stop it all and empty my head and hold it empty and just relax (but not "try to sleep" :) ), and another success, yay. I appreciate every time I'm able to get back to sleep from wakefulness as a big victory.

Good attitude :) Celebrate the successes, while keeping an eye toward improving the rest.

LD #22! :banana:

Today is the 6-month anniversary, exactly, of my start down the path of lucid dreaming practice! What better way to celebrate than a night full of interesting dream recall, a near lucid, and an actual late morning lucid that completes a TOTM!

Awesome firsts:

+ first actual conversation with a DC (I spoke to her nicely! I got 2 responses out of her! Her name was Susannah! Her soulmate was her husband...heh)
+ first TOTM
+ (maybe?) first lucid at the end of really late morning sleep inertia dreams

Again I recorded only twice, at about the 6-7 hour mark where I seem to usually have the bulk of my recall, and then when I got up after the LD. I was dozing on and off with recall after the 6-7 hour waking. Again it took discipline to empty my mind and get back to sleep. I was uncomfortable on both sides so I "brought out the nukes" and turned on to my stomach, I slept and dreamed some more but lucid was later back on the right side.

I spent a LOT of effort last night on recall. I woke at first around 6-7 hours thinking I had no recall. But slowly it came in, and the more I played the dreams over and over, again and again, to make sure I remembered them without physical journaling, the more the recall came in. I even remembered dream scenes from long ago (years?). I think all our thoughts and dreams are stored up in our heads just waiting for the trigger to remember them. Thus the "life review" people experience -- it's probably just one big sudden burst of "dream/life" recall.

I was probably going over the dreams for at least for 30 minutes. And that really thoroughly woke me up. Probably counter-productive for getting back to sleep but I was remembering so much I wanted to get it all if I could.

edit: here's the full DJ entry. It turns out to have been a rather epic night of recall!

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/fryi...4-02-22-55619/

Woohoo FM!!! Excellent job!!! :D Your hard work is paying off! That is really interesting that you kept recalling dream new and past during that super recall session!

Thanks! ^^ Love the new sig!

Hey FryingMan! Congratulations on your #22 LD and also of your first TOTM! Our first TOTM is always memorable ^^

I have to say that you're making great efforts on recalling! And they are indeed giving results! Have you thought on trying some kind of meditation? A basic one maybe. That may help you even more on your recall!