Thread: FryingMan's DILD course workbook

I had an important dream ephiphany on my dream walk today in the dream park with lots of dream ducks: I'm dreaming! I'm always dreaming. There are dreams with sensory input, and dreams without them. By working on becoming lucid in sensory dreams, we can also learn how to become lucid in our non-sensory dreams. By doing the nose-pinch dream-check we can determine whether we are in a sensory dream or a non-sensory dream. By working on accessing memory in sensory dreams we can get better at accessing memory in non-sensory dreams.

I saw lots of dream things on my dream walk: dream trees, dream people, the cute blue eyed dyed auburn short haired dream cashier in the dream store who wears a snake ring among others, and a wide studded dog-collar watch band (almost three inches wide!). She also, despite being quite young, has a very discernible mustache. Dreams are awesome. I'm dreaming, I'm always dreaming!

Damn, Scarlett, was that YOU last night?

Sounds like my kind of dream!

I had an important dream epiphany on my dream walk today in the dream park with lots of dream ducks: I'm dreaming! I'm always dreaming.

I just wanted to make sure that I was following you correctly...this was a waking life event with normal 'sensory' input, unlike the dream world where most sensory input from the waking world is shut out (though there is sensory simulation that often feels very real). Either way, life is but a dream as well. Become lucid in life, become lucid in your dreams. Is that what you meant?

Originally Posted by fogelbise

Sounds like my kind of dream!

I just wanted to make sure that I was following you correctly...this was a waking life event with normal 'sensory' input, unlike the dream world where most sensory input from the waking world is shut out (though there is sensory simulation that often feels very real). Either way, life is but a dream as well. Become lucid in life, become lucid in your dreams. Is that what you meant?

Yes!

And I realized that I can't force things. They'll come when they come, I know that. For whatever reason, I'm on another lucid dry spell. Despite the end of Feb. TOTM lucid and the high amount of good recall, and the day work. The only explanation I can come up with is that (other than, well, it takes time sometimes, be patient), is that my fairly large ingestion of supplements the last time has desensitized my lucid dreaming receptors, and I have to wait for them to return to normal. They are I suppose (except for melatonin) all destined for the toilet. Expensive experiment, but a learning experience and a decent warning I suppose. Hopefully it won't take long to get my natural ability back.

Well the situation is moving beyond the no-lucid grumpies to being downright pissed. Two solid weeks, no lucids. Recall is OK but backing off from awesome levels a week ago.

One absolutely bizarre LSD-trip dream of billiard tables on the ceiling and billiard balls chasing each other on tracks turning in to dogs last night. (edit: I should note it's what I *think* and LSD trip is like, no actual experience )

And I'm sorry, but WTF, I spend 30 seconds encountering that cute cashier with the light moustache, and THAT'S WHAT I GET in my dreams instead of "I'm dreaming" which I tell myself who knows how many dozens or hundreds of times through the day?

Need to make some changes, something's not right, I've fallen somehow off of my increasing frequency path, it feels like I"m starting all over again.

1) exercise in the morning, not the evenings. I've been getting too close to bed time with my exercise, it may be messing with my sleep

2) exercise more. 30 minutes not good enough, now I'm doing a full hour so I'm swimming 2km instead of 1km. Not sure if I can keep that up every day may need to take it easier on alternate days

3) re-instate prospective memory exercises.

4) ???? I'm somewhat loathe to return to "I wake up after every dream" mantra because I think I don't get enough sleep with it since I'm not getting back to bed quickly enough. And recall is holding at "good" levels for now, at least for the late morning waking. After about 6-7 am it takes huge effort to get back to sleep and only if the surrounding noise/movement allows which is hit or miss. Maybe increase exercise will help.

5) fix sleep schedule, I"m working on it seriously now, mixed success so far. Have to keep it up.

6) get the heck out of the city. We have only one car and it's a multi-hour trek to our cabin on public transportation but it may be worth it to spend a few days a week there since the snow is gone. Unfortunately I may not be able to make the about 1km+ walk after the train as I have some tendonitis going on in one foot.

AAAAAAAAAAA!

Yes I know they'll come when they're ready. Patience. Bah.

All this day work and recall is going to explode into stunning LD frequency any day now. Then I won't be able to stop. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Yes!

And I realized that I can't force things. They'll come when they come, I know that.

I 100% agree and I have no doubt that they will come.

4) ???? I'm somewhat loathe to return to "I wake up after every dream" mantra because I think I don't get enough sleep with it since I'm not getting back to bed quickly enough. And recall is holding at "good" levels for now, at least for the late morning waking. After about 6-7 am it takes huge effort to get back to sleep and only if the surrounding noise/movement allows which is hit or miss.

I don't know if I mentioned it to you but during my first 30 LDs or so I had sleep issues and a good deal of tiredness so I reserved most attempts for the weekends and similar. Somehow I mostly resolved the sleep issues but I still don't try every night since I frequently just feel like resting. Everyone is different so this may not be the answer for you but it is one way to consider bringing back an earlier WBTB once or twice a week.

Decent night! To bed a bit after 23:00, out of bed at 08:00 (woke around 07:00), woke about 3 times before final waking, twice taking time for quick record, managed to get back to sleep at all times. Drank a lot of water during the day yesterday and think the first waking was a BrandonBoss water technique as I woke immediately from the end of the dream having "to go" fairly urgently, but I had *the whole dream* in my head when I woke up, very rare for that time (04:00), scene after scene after scene. Got a lot of them recorded. Pretty vivid, detailed, too, random wacky stuff. I think I saw new colors and gave them a name with some others.

Later morning dreams had some of my dream body in them, indicating increased self-awareness. I looked at my arms and they weren't right (looking back while awake) and commented on my skin. Non-lucid dream body sightings are fairly rare, hopefully that's a sign that lucidity is imminent.

Nice! This sounds like something you could make work for you. I must have gotten the water idea from BB also. Last night I set an intention to realize that I was dreaming in 4 hours 15 minutes and repeated it as 255 minutes. It appears that the timer in my brain went off but it seemed to wake me up physically instead of in the dream...or it was just coincidence that I woke up at right about the 255 minute mark. I thought it was interesting. May just need to "re-word" the intent.

^^ Great I'll have to try that. Amazing clock we have up there in our heads! Also something like "in 5 hours I will lucid dream" perhaps.

Sleep schedule stabilizing. Converging on the goal of 23:00-09:00 limits. FINALLY my wife has realized she needs to join me on the regular sleep schedule, early to bed and early up in the morning, this will help.

A number of wakings, lots of recall, started thinking about work at 06:00 and that kept me awake until about 07:41, at which point I did the full court press on relaxation, and there was enough drowsiness there still to work with, I hung there hovering over the abyss for a while, just held it, started dreaming once and startled myself awake, congratulated myself about making it that far, decided if I can do it once I can do it again and stay asleep, and I did! Eventually slept until about 09:30, about one more cycle. Allowed myself a little longer in bed due to the 1.5 - 2 hours of awake time.

^^This really seems like you are starting to hit your stride and you are pulling together the last few pieces of the puzzle (sleep schedule and getting back to sleep)!

As always, fogelbise, you have a profound predictive ability. LD #23 last night! And it was led up to by the longest NDs I've ever recalled I think. 20-30 minutes easily. 3-4 interweaving, reoccuring themes. I commanded my SC last night to make me lucid, and it obliged by throwing dreamsign after dreamsign at me, and when that wasn't enough, it SHOCKED me lucid with a startling event and semi-nightmare combined with my #1 dream sign. Short, 15-20 seconds, but I was really startled and was very very surprised to find myself dreaming.

And I got to bed fairly easily, deeeeep drowsiness to sink into, didn't wake up as much as I wanted, only 2 middle-of-night wakings (5.5 hrs and 7.5 hrs, LD @ 7.5 hours). Got back to sleep after the LD, too, fairly unusual for me, it some while to calm down with the awe of all the recall, not knowing if I could hold it all in my head to record it.

Overslept unfortunately, to 11th hour, little recall despite some more dreaming, forgot most of it except the very last. I'll have to exercise extra hard today to make sure I'm sleepy at the planned bedtime tonight.

I think the new sleep schedule is really starting to show fruit, and moving exercise to morning is great as well for getting to sleep and getting back to sleep.

Oh and I also did the BrandonBoss "combo breaker" meditation last night before bed, it must have helped!

Awesome FryingMan!! I am so happy for your new progress! This could really launch you to the next level! Can you tell me or point me to info on the combo breaker meditation?

3-part meditation: 1) "forget" your body, part by part, including your head. You should be pretty relaxed and feel "floaty" by now. Then 2) auto-suggestion: "i'm a master lucid dreamer, no one's better than me, I'm lucid all night ever night", every dream is lucid, etc.. 3) (MILD-like) visualization of last night's dreams, tell yourself "I'm dreaming" during them, see yourself becoming lucid in the dream.

Oh a couple other things I did yesterday day:

1) took a lucid walk in the late afternoon, people were giving me funny looks as I was constantly talking to myself "I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming!" and making gestures to pump myself up . Oh, and the moon was beaming infinite lucid dreaming power into my brain.

2) had two heaping spoonfuls of a ground flax seed & lecithin mixture. Not sure of the relative amounts, mostly flax I think. I've been having large helpings of ground flax for a couple days now in the daytime. And drinking a lot of water, and glucking down fish oil as well, all brain-friendly stuff, including regular fairly intense exercise. Exercise also helps tremendously with sleep!

Oh, also a first:

1) first daytime LD in my #1 dream sign: parent's (my childhood) house.

I'm there all the time in dreams. I usually only notice it however upon waking up. I guess my brain has a hard time thinking up "places." That's fine with me! Reliable routine = lucidity!

Thank you for the info on the 3 part meditation.

1) took a lucid walk in the late afternoon, people were giving me funny looks as I was constantly talking to myself

I could really picture this and it made me smile.

And you are still finding firsts which I really like!

LD #24 but I'm not super stoked about it, it was a short FA and woke as I realized I was dreaming. Better than nothing! Otherwise a fairly discouraging night, only short recall at 6 hrs, then no sleep, then fitful dozing, and finally some real sleep (I guess because my wife got up) and I got up super late at about noon. Crap.

I was dozing on the border of sleep, and I kept seeing a lot of images forming that were most likely dream beginnings, but they faded away, I tried to pull my attention away from them into just sleep to let them form properly, I saw what looked like a wall of bathroom tile patterns, so I tried to imagine myself in the shower or in the bathroom, happened several times but it didn't seem to be working.

Then I was in the bathroom at the toiliet, turned towards the other wall, and my head felt really heavy/drowsy/dizzy, I thought I should get right back to bed I'd probably lucid dream right away. This isn't my bathroom, this is a FA, I'm dreaming...and I'm awake in bed.

Oh and good for me: I got up and looked out the window and WTF, the world is covered in snow, I did a noise pinch right away! When I went to bed the ground was entirely dry, not a hint of snow left except thin ice on a few park ponds. It hasn't snowed in over 6 weeks here and it seemed that winter was really over. But as my wife says, March is the month when Winter battles with Spring. In fact it's snowing right now.

Hey, it goes in your bank of experience and definitely counts as catching an FA and becoming lucid! And good job remembering to RC upon the snowy scene! Congrats!

LD #25 And a good one it was. Not a point-fest for the competition but better than nothing. I achieved a goal! Sensory involvement in the dream! *really* looked around, and touched and felt something on the wall. Wow how rewarding to finally really look at a dream scene. It was weird, and totally vivid and clear! In a hallway, walls/ceiling/floor all painted a pea-soup green color mottled with lots of big streaks and blobs of white and blue and other colors, like marble but weirder, dreamier, "gooey-er," like wet paint.

I resolved to hold the dream and to observe for as long as I could.

Thought I should summon a cookie in my pocket and eat it, turned around and started walking, forgot the cookie instantly, darn.

Right away came on a bend in the corridor where there was located a snack stand. With cute attendants. Double darn.

Quick internal debate. "I can risk a quick kiss." Check 'em out, choose one, eye contact, "come here!". Shy smile, she starts moving towards me, POOF fast buzz fade to awake. "No!" Lol....

Next goal: achieve body awareness pat-down AND sensory engagement. Hold the sensory engagement, hold the feeling of location.

This was BTW totally an ADA/RC-location lucid, I believe. I noticed the location changing, former available paths became sealed off, I felt I couldn't find my way back to where I started, and then I was just lucid.

This was BTW totally an ADA/RC-location lucid, I believe. I noticed the location changing, former available paths became sealed off, I felt I couldn't find my way back to where I started, and then I was just lucid.

This is awesome FryingMan! Just imagine how many people give up on an ADA/RC technique without giving it the proper time and effort. It is coming together for you! Was that something like lucid 3 of the last 4 nights? You are motivating me.

Originally Posted by fogelbise

This is awesome FryingMan! Just imagine how many people give up on an ADA/RC technique without giving it the proper time and effort. It is coming together for you! Was that something like lucid 3 of the last 4 nights? You are motivating me.

No, that's now 4 of the last 5 nights! LD #26

Firsts:

• lucid 3 days in a row
• lucid 4 out of 5 consecutive LD nights
• don't lose dream with kiss (this is huge)
• hold close-up face-to-face after-kiss view for a good 30 seconds. Adorable brown eyes...
• remember to do a goal while in close quarters with cutie, and *do* it, not just remember it.

I'm doing a lot of things. I did pre-bed meditation again last night. I'm holding my ADA/RC as long as I can. I even got clarification of what I notice in dreams: paths and orientation, not just "where I am." Which I always sort of knew but interpreted as "location." I'll mix in path and orientation to "where I am" now. I'm repeating "I'm dreaming" all throughout the day and imagining becoming lucid wherever I am (after a while that gets harder to believe so I don't do it constantly).

And regular sleep schedule I think is really starting to show it's power. And I'm not 100% regular yet, but am definitely reducing variability. I got up at 8.5 hours even though I probably spent 1 hour awake (well, drifting mostly actually), even though I could have perhaps slept and LDed again, but I schedule made me get up, yay.

Chugged down more ground flax/lecithin mixture yesterday. Had some dark chocolate (both days actually, yesterday and today) in the afternoon/evening. Relaxed on diet and had some pizza, cake, and a few cookies for "dinner." I've also been taking Ginko Biloba this last week. Brain function is my new thing. Gotta go get some blueberries and make smoothies.

edit: here's the DJ:

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/fryi...or-totm-56368/

edit: more firsts:

• first time two TOTMs in a row
• first time TOTM with 2 solid weeks to go in the month

Congrats again!

I'm ... imagining becoming lucid wherever I am

I've found that to be the most effective way to get lucid for me ATM. On the other hand, sometimes I feel like I'm "dream incubating lucidity" and wonder if that is cheating... and I keep forgetting to do it anyways

Keep up the good work Fryingman! Eventually I want to try some kind of All-Day-Something, and people like Naiya, KingYoshi, Hukif, Azul, Mylenes or you, may prove to be the pioneers that others (like me) will be able to follow.

PS:That's the people I know have seriously done the All Day thing, there's probably more, I guess, and I would not mind be pointed who they are

Another thing about this sort of day practice (ADA-style): how can we expect to consistently closely observe and engage in the dream environment if we don't do it when waking (or as I prefer, "in sensory dreams" )? Just realized this today. And the location experience of 2 nights ago was revelatory: it wasn't *where* I was that made me lucid [consciously at least], but realizing that paths that I had thought were open to me before were now closed, and that I did not know the way back to where I started. So it may be that the accent for my location work should be on paths and orientation, which are normally stronger for me anyway and feel natural in dream-land. We'll see!

No, that's now 4 of the last 5 nights! LD #26

Firsts:
•lucid 3 days in a row
•lucid 4 out of 5 consecutive LD nights
•don't lose dream with kiss (this is huge)
•hold close-up face-to-face after-kiss view for a good 30 seconds. Adorable brown eyes...
•remember to do a goal while in close quarters with cutie, and *do* it, not just remember it.
...
edit: more firsts:
•first time two TOTMs in a row
•first time TOTM with 2 solid weeks to go in the month

Awesome, awesome!! I am so happy for your FryingMan!! And 7 firsts! Whoa! This goes to show that dedication and perseverance pays off! We may be at that stage that I was predicting where your lucid frequency overtakes mine! I would need to put in more daytime work to keep up with you I feel. I am not afraid to be honest here. I do feel that you motivated me to buckle down and put in a little more daytime work yesterday and it paid off last night. Next up for you: watch out LD veterans! This kind of frequency will allow you to get more practice with dream control and stability and beyond!

Thanks! Yeah, was hoping to coming and say I continued the streak, but all streaks must end sometime. Ah, so close, too. I'm starting to get some sort of "lucid-y" feeling while falling asleep in the late mornings where I'm sure I'll get lucid. And I may have today but just as a waking moment, but I'm not sure so I'm not going to count it. Oh, and I "woke" to another FA I believe (in a fake bed/room, I have yet to get a FA in my "real" bed). I was wondering how people got so many FAs, and I think the answer is that once you start getting more of what BB calls GDA (general dream awareness) and SA (state awareness) that's when they start happening because you "remember" that you were just in bed and it's sort of an incubation of sorts.

As for catching up...well, we'll see. To make 100 LDs by the end of August will be a feat, it will require either getting mulitple per night or maintaining more than a 1 LD / 2 days average.

No doubt though, it's been a fabulous week -- longest ND, of the 4 LDs, 3 were very vivid LDs, one with nice stabilization and engagement, 2 with very good memory/awareness. One definitely location based, and this morning almost a location based during the FA where I was examining my location, but false memories and "reasoning" about what I saw distracted me.

Oh and I got to bed just after 23:00 last night, and so when I was "volunteered" to get up for breakfast duty at 07:40, I had already passed my peak LDing time so I wasn't frustrated! I had had my chance with the last dream/FA combo. There's some lingering drowsiness so I may experiment with one more sleep cycle, perhaps bad judgement, but we'll see, as I'll have the house to myself so it will be totally quiet. That's fairly rare so I may risk it. I've been feeling depe wells of drowsiness at bed time, like how taking melatonin feels, so I think my body is really getting in to the rhythm of the new schedule, yay!

I've been feeling depe wells of drowsiness at bed time, like how taking melatonin feels, so I think my body is really getting in to the rhythm of the new schedule, yay!

That has to feel good!

And the location experience of 2 nights ago was revelatory: it wasn't *where* I was that made me lucid [consciously at least], but realizing that paths that I had thought were open to me before were now closed, and that I did not know the way back to where I started.

On this post before last of yours...I was thinking about your post when I was reviewing my dream signs yesterday. One of my minor dream signs I have noted has been losing my way or taking a wrong turn. In my cult compound/Chase Bank security fighting lucid I had actually found my way back to where I was originally heading and I found my way just before I became lucid. Not sure if that had any part in becoming lucid, but I have been retracing my steps in the sort of classic "how did I get here" RC.

Hmm several days now with fairly "blah" dreams, no vivid long recall, I wonder why? Do "lucid dreaming" batteries need to be recharged sometimes? I haven't changed my schedule, everything's the same, yet it seems I'm back (temporarily I'm sure) to "zombie-like" dreaming for several nights. Not waking up, sleeping fairly well, maintaining the schedule, which is good, because I like getting up and feeling fairly well rested in the morning. I have started setting intention to wake up after dreams because I'm now almost sleeping through all the way to get-up time, which I think is not good for dreaming and LDing. A little waking around 5th-6th hour to grab some awareness, say some mantras, and head back to sleep are good for LDing I'm sure. I'm loathe to use an alarm (and can't really unless I try the vibrate alarm under my pillow or something). Hrm.

Why does recall come and go?
What causes the ebb and flow?
Tell me for I'd like to know!