Thread: Steph´s DILD Workbook

Just checking in with really good news - I had a nice lucid with attempting Maxis' dare to transform into a cat and/or survive suicide - I chickened out from getting struck by my lighting storm, woke up - and had a DEILD. When I posted this early in the day, I didn't remember any more, that I had also played darts lucidly in the DEILD. I had a further night with other dreams after this, and seems I had forgotten it, not that it was much, and it was what lead to losing lucidity. Only standing at my real board and throwing brought it back. Very pleased! But I couldn't get the board re-fixed at a bit higher, it was too low, but I threw some arrows at it - yay!! Without incubation I knew, what would be a good idea!

I was about to listen to my recorded session for the first time - doesn't work - my accent nerves me now on top of all else, I stopped in the intro.
But then I did really invest energy in trying to WILD at bedtime and with self-suggestions - I think, that did it. Like - when I see this, then...
Different from the comp - it was a dream-sign and an RC what made me lucid, and still I was unsure, funny.
And I didn't even mention the sign, I noticed in the end..

Edit: Too Cowardly for Suicide Mission on Maxis Behalf - Lightning Bolts and Half-Cattiness - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Congrats Steph!!! I had an idea while reading your post. If you really want to be struck by lightning in an LD, perhaps an idea to consider would be to think of the lightning as energizing you...or perhaps an attraction of two forces: you and the lightning bolt. Another idea is to welcome the rebirth..."strike me down and I will become one with the earth and sky" for example. How about a "bring it on...give me what you got!" attitude?

I love these explorations you are going after! Keep up the great work!

Thank you!
Yeah - I will do that - imagine something like a cleansing energetic lift-up - but they were so huge, and I was so small. Might be easier to do that in human standing - beckoning them on, feeling a bit more prepared than as a small, half translucent critter on all fours. I guess, if I wouldn't know so well, how it feels, looks and sounds, when lightning strikes a few meters off, it would be way easier.
But on the other hand - this promises to get really intense, if I manage!
Thing is - to fulfil the dare, I need stay in the same dream - prove my cattiness by surviving death!
The sounds were completely missing in my attempt by the way and thank goodness for that. It's strangely no wonder for me intuitively, that loud things can happen silently in dreams, it seems to be normal or lets say quite common? My meteors were also eerily silent, maybe so are real ones, but not their impacts!

As a kid, long before my own experience, I thought that would be a good way to go - say you are very old and very sick, bound to end up on intensive care to badly and hopelessly suffer along till you die - getting on a mountain in a thunderstorm and that's it. Very unrealistic in many respects, but I thought of it as a dignified way to die as a child - grand gesture of a wise old witch... I think, that's maybe why I chose it. I wasn't overly intensely considering back then, how a sick old woman should get up a mountain in time, neither the poor souls having to scrape her remains off the rocks...
Enough morbid talk - I'll report about further attempts!

Anyway - edit - a clever cat has a back-up plan - so I'll prepare for summoning a sword to fall into and call it fall-back option!

Even later edit: Idea! I let the lightning bolt transform me into a cat!! pawprint.gif

I wonder what it is about certain sounds. I definitely hear sounds like interactions with DCs and more, but you have a point with your thunder and meteor impact examples. It leaves me stretching to think of how many examples of less ordinary sounds I have heard in dreams. Visuals and sensations seem to be what I remember very well long after the dreams.

The morbid part of your post did sound a little like a "romantic" death.

I like that idea at the end for the transformation!

Yeah - sure, romantic little girl thinking!

Ha - maybe I even have an answer to the loud noises thing - goes the same for smell and intense haptics. I read a fascinating book a Darwinian perspective on Medicine, but for laywomen, too, "Why We Get Sick" Randolph M. Nesse. And he has the idea, that it is so, in order for loud noises, predator-smells and, for example your baby grabbing you viciously, to be able to reach through to the dreaming mind and warn and wake you up, when there's something in real life to attend to. Makes sense - just speculation - but makes sense!

Yeah - wish me luck with transformation by lightning strike - maybe I trod off a fashion, if it works!

Most definitely! Good luck! You got this!

I like that theory you mentioned. It definitely makes a lot of sense.

Hi there!
Been totally neglecting LDing practice, but I still get lucid from time to time, maybe once a week or so.
There was even a little string of them last week/weekend and it's got me motivated. So maybe I'll be around and working again - they were way too short and lacking preparation and a goal, I just slipped back into normal dreaming while marvelling at my state and dream-scenery.
I feel like trying some TOTMs, lets see if I get something dreamt together!

It's great to see you around here again!! Did you have any partial practices going that helped you to continue to get lucid? Definitely putting some more work in should yield better lucid length and the ability to complete goals or tasks. I really like the bonus task this month but have only attempted it once. I plan to try it again with a different strategy.

Thank you!

Nope - I did absolutely nothing to induce them, didn't give them much thought either. I just sometimes "break through". Sometimes I notice incoherency, but mostly I just feel myself mentally surfacing seemingly out of the blue. I'm very grateful for that, feels like I can always take up the practice again and be relatively sure it's going to work.

Buut - quality, control and duration have never been really satisfying, that's where I need to put in the work, not to lose interest again.

Hey StephL! It takes time to build up the awareness that results in lucidity: it doesn't come instantly, and it doesn't go instantly, which is why you can experience lucidity without doing much work. But like any muscle or skill, if you don't exercise it the ability will atrophy eventually. Perhaps you could look for opportunities during the day for critical reflection/intention. I've been working on mindfulness for going on a year now and over time it has drastically improved the vividness and presence of dreams. While full lucidity is still a challenge, I get semi-lucid much more now. I'd personally recommend mindfulness as it is not only benefits dreaming, but all conscious moments, and helps one to appreciate waking life more as well.

Thank you Fryingman!
Yeah, I believe what I need is indeed the awareness work/meditation in order to hold on to that little bit awareness which shines through from time to time.
Since my last post again twice lucid and twice lost it in short order, without remembering what or even that I have plans.
I should also start to journal again - oh well - at least I have the intention to get to work again, and that's better than the last months...