Thread: HanZartaC's Workbook

Further down is one of the most under-utilized threads on DV, IMHO.

Originally Posted by HanZartaC

fogelbise, I cannot thank you enough. You are clearly meant to teach.
...
I am sorry for making you read that wall of text. But I want you to know that I appreciate you teaching me!
May 5th-9th was teacher appreciation week, I'm a little late, but I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to share knowledge and wisdom and guiding a dreamer.

Thank you!
-Hans

That was some of the nicest comments I have ever read about me here at DV! Thank you Hans!

Originally Posted by HanZartaC

The RRC's don't really work with me, what do you advise? Should I replace it? With what?

Well, perhaps you can come back to it later and work with something else that will help with the same things, namely self-awareness and memory. What lucid dreaming practices do you enjoy the most? For memory, you can work on prospective memory with several daily targets that when you see them you remember to RC. For self-awareness, I think that "seeing" yourself from different viewpoints is very useful. In the following thread examples are given of you driving a car and seeing a bird sitting on a fence and imagine seeing yourself driving by from that bird's point of view. Or from the point of view of the driver passing in another car...or the kid looking out the back window of her parents car. Here is a link to one of the posts and feel free to peruse the thread as well. Link: http://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dre...ml#post1782695 You will see great praise about the idea from Sageous and others.

Anyway last night was when I got my interest back.
...
I got lucid!!

That sounded like a very interesting dream! Write down as much as you can if you haven't already...it should provide for some good motivation in the future! You'll always have what you included here, but perhaps you can copy and paste what is here into your DV DJ and add some other details for your future reading pleasure (and other's).

Hello, fogelbise!
I have returned from the dead and non-lucid. I apologize for just leaving like that, and I guess what happened was that I started losing interest. I felt it coming for a few weeks, but I tried to keep my interest in lucid dreaming. I was going to write a "goodbye" post until I returned, but I guess with exams and other things keeping me busy, it got postponed until it would just be awkward. Anyway, you may be wondering why I have returned...

So I quit lucid dreaming in May-June, because I wasn't showing a lot of progress, nor interest. I decided to not dwell on it, and just take a break from lucid dreaming. I felt a lot better after that, because I didn't have to keep worrying about losing my interest in it. My heart has always been with lucid dreaming, and from time to time I considered returning to it, but I decided to wait till the moment was right and I was ready. Well that moment has arrived! By the way, my sleep pattern has been a monster, but I'll fix that when school starts.

So I went to bed around 1AM last night, and I fell asleep right away. I woke up at around 9:40AM and stayed half-awake until I dozed off at around 10:40-11AM. I fell asleep.

I woke up, realized it was late, and Wednesday. The day I had to go to the city and pick up some things. I looked at the watch, 11AM it said. I got up and I went to a friends house, seeing as I had time for it. I believe I went to the beach first and my friend lived under that beach, in a basement. Somehow, at some point so far, I lost my pants. When I knew I had to go home, I was struggling to find my pants. I looked everywhere, and I started to wonder when I even took them off! I didn't have time to look for them though, so I just went home. My sister was saying something, and then I looked back on everything, how weird some of it was. I did the unthinkable, and nose plugged. In one ecstatic whiff of dream air, I triumphantly ran towards the window, jumped through the solid window glass, and started flying! I later returned to the same house, trying to turn the living room into another room. I could not for the love of God! I got very close, but decided to go somewhere where it was more likely to have a place like this. I tried to fly to New York. I flew up under the clouds, and it was the most amazing experience I have ever had. I saw the sunset, and the horizon and the clouds. I tried to fly up above the clouds, but it saw a pixelated vision, and went under the clouds. I flew maybe 30 seconds in dream time, which I thought was enough to get to New York, but I wound up in a familiar place, not New York. I tried teleporting instead, I went on top of a flat roof top, and placed down a teleporter, and went straight to New York. It wasn't authentic New York though. I tried teleporting again, but I got to the same place, but just with a more cartoony NY effect. I jumped and grabbed a lamp post and grabbed a lady with my legs, asking her if I could do 10 pull-ups, she would teleport me to New York. I did the 10 pull-ups, but then I got lost in the lady's lips! I closed my eyes, and I woke up.

This...was my definite lucid dream. It was the most clear, aware, and lucid dream I have ever experienced. And I've experienced five! I want to continue with these dreams, and I guess I'll start with random RC's, writing dreams, and getting a good sleep pattern. I think, when I have a good sleep pattern, I'll start practicing WILD, or those mantra writing memory exercises I used to do. Those helped me remember dreams, and get lucid. I think it will be a smoother journey to lucidity this time, seeing how it is my third.

I hope you would like to be my teacher again, it helped a lot before, and I could always use help!

tl;dr
I got lucid, and I'm back!

Congrats on your lucid dream! Welcome back as well. I would be glad to help again. Let me know when you have questions and I encourage you to track what you are trying here in the workbook.

Hello fogelbise.

I apologize for leaving after just coming back to DV and lucid dreaming. I guess it was because I just moved to another country and I had a lot of things on my mind. I am sorry, but as I explained the second time coming back to DV, I have a hard time keeping several interests/hobbies. I don't like it, because now I lost interest in another hobby because I got back to lucid dreaming. Oh yeah, I got back to lucid dreaming! I recently read an article about dreams and I got my interest back. Anyway, I have forgotten a lot of things, but I will focus on WILDs, DILDs and a little MILD. I'm out of the country at the moment, and not in the best sleeping arrangements, so I won't be able to attempt WILD or WBTB until I get back to my sleeping pattern after jet lag. Anyway, I will read this workbook and try to re-learn what I was doing before I quit. I remember doing prospective memory, it helped out with recall and a LDs I think. In my next lucid I will ask my subconscious why I can't keep several interests/how to keep several interests. Because the other hobby I just had was what I was dreaming about doing for a living (no pun intended). Anyway, I hope you will help me (again). I'm really sorry for leaving, and I hope I won't leave again. In the meantime, I remember not enjoying RC/RRC that much, but I try to pretend I'm dreaming and imagine what I would do in a dream to get the dreaming sense and wonder, then I RC. I will brush up on my previous MILD techniques and do them for recall and lucids. I hope all is well with you and that we can continue this teaching/learning relationship.

Thank you, stay lucid

- HanZartaC

Sorry for the wall of text btw, you'd think I would be good at writing return letters by now.

Welcome back Hans! You are doing better than most younger students and you keep coming back to lucid dreaming so I think it is meant to be one of your life long hobbies. Remember that you can use LD's to practice any other hobbies, so they can go hand in hand. You are definitely facing a challenge while traveling and the jet lag when you come back but try to keep some dreaming practices going through that and check in here once a week if you can. Do at least your favorite practice(s).

Let's brainstorm some ideas on some fun way(s) for you to do RC's (and maybe RRC's later on.) Since you weren't enjoying them we shouldn't push that in the wrong way or it may push you away from any practices at all for a while again. Do you enjoy pretending that you are lucid during the day?..or considering for a moment several times a day that this object is a dream object...she is a DC...this is all a dream.?

Since that article about dreams brought back your interest you might consider automatic news updates on "lucid dream" or "lucid dreaming." I use Google News for this (search and then ask for email updates when new articles come up). "Dreams" may provide too many search results but you could also try "dream recall."

Originally Posted by fogelbise

Welcome back Hans! You are doing better than most younger students and you keep coming back to lucid dreaming so I think it is meant to be one of your life long hobbies. Remember that you can use LD's to practice any other hobbies, so they can go hand in hand. You are definitely facing a challenge while traveling and the jet lag when you come back but try to keep some dreaming practices going through that and check in here once a week if you can. Do at least your favorite practice(s).

Thank you so much, that really means a lot to me! If you believe I can keep this as a lifelong hobby, so do I. In fact lucid dreaming would compliment my other hobby very much because it relies heavily on creativity and I could use lucid dreaming to my advantage. Yes I try to RC often but I won't be able to truly dedicate myself to it until I return. And I agree with you about the once a week thing. I put a lot of pressure on myself before when trying to do lucid dreaming fulltime. I would try several techniques at once and write everyday. I think from now on I will do the same thing, but on a weekly basis and not a daily basis. I will continue with the MILD/DILD/WBTB and not change or tweak it until I've tried it for a week. I will also probably only post once a week and collect questions for this so that I will have time to experience it myself. I hope this works out.

Let's brainstorm some ideas on some fun way(s) for you to do RC's (and maybe RRC's later on.) Since you weren't enjoying them we shouldn't push that in the wrong way or it may push you away from any practices at all for a while again. Do you enjoy pretending that you are lucid during the day?..or considering for a moment several times a day that this object is a dream object...she is a DC...this is all a dream.

You're right, RRC's didn't help me and I had a hard time doing them. I can revisit them later though. I noseplug often, though. Yes! I love pretending to be dreaming and being lucid! I do it often and I really believe that I'm dreaming. I then imagine what I would be doing next if it was a lucid dream. Is this useful? Does it help for DILD?

Since that article about dreams brought back your interest you might consider automatic news updates on "lucid dream" or "lucid dreaming." I use Google News for this (search and then ask for email updates when new articles come up). "Dreams" may provide too many search results but you could also try "dream recall."

Wow. That never popped into my head! I will try that. Thanks!

Just so you know, when I return to my regular sleeping pattern, I will attempt WILDs again. WILD fascinates me and motivates me. What I want to try is something I read about visualization. I'll give you a link to it, but it consists of the anchor being visualization. I haven't gotten to try it for real yet, but it sounds promising. I think the biggest challenge for me considering WILD is finding when to wake up. I've heard 3-8 hours, I've heard 4-6 hours and 5-6 hours. How do I find my WBTB time?

Besides this, I will continue with my prospective memory mantra thing where I write "I remember to remember my dreams" and "I remember to remember that I'm dreaming when I'm dreaming" Then I say it out loud on my bedside, then I think it internally in bed. Then I will start WILD. But this will have to wait for jet lag to calm down. DILD doesn't have to wait though! What should I do for DILD? Pretend I'm dreaming? Dream Journaling?

Thank you!

EDIT:
I remember saying somewhere that I would give you a link to the WILD technique I wanted to attempt: http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ore-sleep.html
However, I found another technique that I wanted to try more because 1. I have to do it during a WBTB. 2. It requires less visualization skills. Here it is: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...technique.html When my visualization skills are higher I will attempt the one above, because I like the idea of visualizing as an anchor. How would you recommend increasing visualization skills? I can't keep an image for long, and it is not very clear.

Also, what I said about only posting once a week, I want to take that back. I think I will post questions and progress reports frequently because it will help me stay more engaged and motivated. However I meant what I said about trying a technique for a week or so. I hope all of this works out.

EDIT EDIT:
Sorry for all of the questions and edits, but I don't feel like editing, just adding. The questions will calm down and be more concentrated once I get more into lucid dreaming. I just wanted to add that most of my lucid dreams have been triggered by me noticing something weird. Ex. Being shirtless (twice I think), weird letters and unfamiliar place, etc. I don't know if this was because of the RRC's, or just my P-MILD exercises. Was it awareness? How can I harness this to my advantage and develop a technique?

Thank you, again!

Originally Posted by HanZartaC

I noseplug often, though. Yes! I love pretending to be dreaming and being lucid! I do it often and I really believe that I'm dreaming. I then imagine what I would be doing next if it was a lucid dream. Is this useful? Does it help for DILD?

RC's are a tried and true method but pretending to be lucid is believed to help induce DILD's. I think that pretending helps to induce and I know that it helps with remembering what you want to do and how you want to act when you do become lucid.

I've heard 3-8 hours, I've heard 4-6 hours and 5-6 hours. How do I find my WBTB time?

Several factors come into play here. Too late and some people have trouble getting back to sleep. Too early and you may not be rested and not be able to get your awareness "in the zone." I like waking up "naturally" by drinking water before bed which reduces the chances of a groggy wake up and interrupting a sleep cycle like alarms can do. When I wake up 4.5 to 6 hours after bedtime (almost every night) then I will make that my WBTB. Beyond 6 hours, micro-WBTB works better for me. Experiment and keep record of when you go to bed and when you get up for WBTB.

What should I do for DILD? Pretend I'm dreaming? Dream Journaling?

Yes and the other things that you mentioned elsewhere including WBTB, RC's, MILD, mantras, prospective memory and more. Don't let the list overwhelm you though. These are just tools in your bag of tricks. The more that you are able to use effectively, the more I feel that you are increasing your odds of becoming lucid and doing so more frequently. Later on you may settle on a smaller set of favored practices that do the trick for you often enough.

When my visualization skills are higher I will attempt the one above, because I like the idea of visualizing as an anchor. How would you recommend increasing visualization skills? I can't keep an image for long, and it is not very clear.

Sit quietly and pick and object study it briefly and close you eyes and reproduce the image as best as you can. Open them again and see what you missed, especially any strong colors? Shiny features? Shadows? Interestin Close them again and repeat until you are happy or want to rest. If happy move on to another object. Can you draw the basic lines of the object in your mind? Basic shapes are easier and may be best to start with (squares, circles, square ottoman, rectangular TV).

Also, what I said about only posting once a week, I want to take that back. I think I will post questions and progress reports frequently because it will help me stay more engaged and motivated. However I meant what I said about trying a technique for a week or so. I hope all of this works out.

Sounds good.

I just wanted to add that most of my lucid dreams have been triggered by me noticing something weird. Ex. Being shirtless (twice I think), weird letters and unfamiliar place, etc. I don't know if this was because of the RRC's, or just my P-MILD exercises. Was it awareness? How can I harness this to my advantage and develop a technique?

I think it was awareness which is aided by the DILD practices discussed earlier. If you have no awareness you will miss the weirdest signs. If you have a little awareness then you have a chance to catch some weirdness when you have other tools working for you like mantras and prospective memory to watch out for a recurring dream sign. Either way you need some awareness and day practices and WBTB are huge here.

Originally Posted by fogelbise

RC's are a tried and true method but pretending to be lucid is believed to help induce DILD's. I think that pretending helps to induce and I know that it helps with remembering what you want to do and how you want to act when you do become lucid.

Okay, so I'll continue with this. It always ends with an RC or two so that's good.

Several factors come into play here. Too late and some people have trouble getting back to sleep. Too early and you may not be rested and not be able to get your awareness "in the zone." I like waking up "naturally" by drinking water before bed which reduces the chances of a groggy wake up and interrupting a sleep cycle like alarms can do. When I wake up 4.5 to 6 hours after bedtime (almost every night) then I will make that my WBTB. Beyond 6 hours, micro-WBTB works better for me. Experiment and keep record of when you go to bed and when you get up for WBTB.

I tried somewhere between 5-6 hours last night. I ended up just lying there for an hour for my WILD attempt. I was too tired to do the P-MILD exercises, but I did them earlier on the day for a nap. Anyway, my jet lag and sleep deprivation will calm down this week, then my WBTB will make more sense and work, I hope. I forgot about drinking a lot of water, but I'll try that tonight. I've tried it before and it works, but only in the later cycles, like around 6 hours. I've had trouble with 6 hours before, but recently (two attempts), it's been okay. When I have a normal sleeping pattern I'm gonna experiment with trial and failure to find the sweet spot!
When I attempted WILD, it went better than ever. I came up with my own "mantra" when I started. I am a very musical person, I play a few instruments and I've played since 1st grade. That other hobby I was talking about was music-production. I often have music "on" in my brain. When I'm not thinking about anything special, I usually just hear music. I thought I could use this to my advantage. I imagined playing a small riff, not visualize, just hear and imagine. It worked out beautifully. I was able to drift off but I always came back, that's what's supposed to happen, right? anyway I don't think I was close to REM, but I think I experienced a little hypnagogia and delta sleep. I'll try again later with a natural awakening.

Yes and the other things that you mentioned elsewhere including WBTB, RC's, MILD, mantras, prospective memory and more. Don't let the list overwhelm you though. These are just tools in your bag of tricks. The more that you are able to use effectively, the more I feel that you are increasing your odds of becoming lucid and doing so more frequently. Later on you may settle on a smaller set of favored practices that do the trick for you often enough.

Sit quietly and pick and object study it briefly and close you eyes and reproduce the image as best as you can. Open them again and see what you missed, especially any strong colors? Shiny features? Shadows? Interestin Close them again and repeat until you are happy or want to rest. If happy move on to another object. Can you draw the basic lines of the object in your mind? Basic shapes are easier and may be best to start with (squares, circles, square ottoman, rectangular TV).

Okay, I will try this. This can help with MILD and dream incubation also, right? Visualizing a dream scene when I'm better?

I think it was awareness which is aided by the DILD practices discussed earlier. If you have no awareness you will miss the weirdest signs. If you have a little awareness then you have a chance to catch some weirdness when you have other tools working for you like mantras and prospective memory to watch out for a recurring dream sign. Either way you need some awareness and day practices and WBTB are huge here.

Okay, is pretending to be dreaming (which to me is looking around and looking at things as if my brain produced them, noticing more things) enough for awareness? I am also contemplating going back to dream yoga, but I want to start easy. I think I should make a list of things I want to do:

1. PM exercises (I RC when I hit a target, 4-5 active at all times, thanks to FryingMan )
2. Pretending to be dreaming, finish with 1-2 RC's
3. Dream Yoga (Start off easy)
4. WBTB + P-MILD (Natural WBTB, writing the sentences, reciting them, then thinking them)
5. WILD (Music mantra, need to practice visualization for dream forming)
6. Dream Journaling

Phew! What do you think? Next stop, Lucid-Town? I hope I'll have success with this, but I will probably cut some things out depending on what works on what doesn't. Oh, almost forgot! I remember a short, vivid non-lucid dream! It was quite creepy, involving spawning flying bugs everywhere, like millions , but it ended with indoor fake snowing!

I imagined playing a small riff, not visualize, just hear and imagine. It worked out beautifully. I was able to drift off but I always came back, that's what's supposed to happen, right?

I am not a WILD expert but I believe what you describe helps maintain awareness...but eventually you have to get to sleep and to REM of course. As you are working towards these WILD's you also increase your chances for a DILD even if you lose awareness before falling asleep. By the way, I know you've played with SSILD before...what about making your own version using your musical base? You already have the sound component set up. Perhaps you could start by visualizing the instrument briefly or more significantly, move to the sound of the music or the riff, and then move to the feeling of yourself playing the instrument - your fingers on the cords of the guitar or whatever instrument you are playing. SSILD (or your own version) can give you WILD's or DILD's.

Okay, I will try this. This can help with MILD and dream incubation also, right? Visualizing a dream scene when I'm better?

I believe it helps in many different ways but I would only focus on it now if you enjoy it since I don't believe it is essential. Go with your gut feeling on this though.

Okay, is pretending to be dreaming (which to me is looking around and looking at things as if my brain produced them, noticing more things) enough for awareness?

It may be enough for an occasional LD but continuing to work on RC's (at the end of pretending as you are doing seems fine) and WBTB's are also adding to your awareness.

Yes, next stop Lucid-Town indeed!

Hi Fogelbise, and Happy New Year! I hope you have a great 2015! This brings me back to last New Year's Eve, where I quit LD'ing a couple of days afterwards. That won't happen this time!

Originally Posted by fogelbise

I am not a WILD expert but I believe what you describe helps maintain awareness...but eventually you have to get to sleep and to REM of course. As you are working towards these WILD's you also increase your chances for a DILD even if you lose awareness before falling asleep. By the way, I know you've played with SSILD before...what about making your own version using your musical base? You already have the sound component set up. Perhaps you could start by visualizing the instrument briefly or more significantly, move to the sound of the music or the riff, and then move to the feeling of yourself playing the instrument - your fingers on the cords of the guitar or whatever instrument you are playing. SSILD (or your own version) can give you WILD's or DILD's.

Wow! That's brilliant! I will try that! I think I will wait a little while because, as I said, I want to give a technique a try before I move on. But that sounds promising.

I believe it helps in many different ways but I would only focus on it now if you enjoy it since I don't believe it is essential. Go with your gut feeling on this though.

Yeah you're probably right, I'll focus on what I already have going for me. I'll just get back to it later if I want to.

It may be enough for an occasional LD but continuing to work on RC's (at the end of pretending as you are doing seems fine) and WBTB's are also adding to your awareness.

Okay I'll do this. I'm also trying to set prospective memory targets for RC's as well. I talked to FryingMan about a post he wrote about prospective memory, and he taught me useful exercises that could lead to LD's. The idea is that I would have 4-5 active targets going on at all times, being certain that I would encounter one of them during the day. He told me that the days he hit all of his targets, he would have a lucid dream. It was motivating and it sounded simple. I tried it a couple of days ago. I started out with basics; every time I drink something, eat something, feel cold, and hear fireworks (New Year's Eve). In the beginning, I would get a delayed reaction, but later on, when I heard fireworks (they were "spaced apart" and this was before 00:00) I reacted instantly! I haven't done any lately, but seeing as how prospective memory helped me before, I think flexing this muscle will give my WBTB P-MILD mantras a greater chance of effect. So for RC's: 1. Pretending to be dreaming at random intervals during the day, finished with two RC's 2. RC every time I see a target, 4-5 during a day for now, switch out targets as I go as I get better. As for dream recall, I remembered a very long vivid dream the night of New Year's Eve. I slept for quite a while as you can imagine, and I remembered a dream just as vivid as the one before, but a lot longer, with several dream scenes. I even remembered dialogue and sounds! Which I rarely do. I will continue with WBTB+MILD (mantra writing) followed by WILD as well. Today I remembered no dreams because I only slept for five hours. The jet lag hit me after sleeping for so long the day before.

When I went to bed yesterday, I was hoping of getting eight hours of sleep, so I set an intention of waking myself at 8AM (six hours after going to sleep) for my WBTB things. As I didn't get to sleep, I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep eight hours, only six or five, so I decided not to WBTB after all because there would be no use. But I didn't "erase" my intention I still woke up at 8AM (3 hours after falling asleep). I didn't need water or an alarm. So I'm confident that from now on, I will be able to find my natural WBTB time simply with an intention. I have had success with this before, but I'm still surprised because I'm such a heavy and deep sleeper.

Yes, next stop Lucid-Town indeed!

I hope so too ...No...I know so too! Gotta keep that confidence up!

Happy New Year to you as well! I agree, this year will be better and we can all make it a great one! Keep posting as you are doing here to help avoid any slackening into the new year.

Originally Posted by fogelbise

Happy New Year to you as well! I agree, this year will be better and we can all make it a great one! Keep posting as you are doing here to help avoid any slackening into the new year.

Yes I agree, and I definitely will! It's just that I don't get a lot of sleep because of jet lag, so no progress will be made yet, I think. Yesterday I didn't get a lot of sleep, so I didn't remember any dreams. Today I didn't get a lot of sleep, but when I woke up, I feel asleep. This gave me awareness, and I remembered a looooong, somewhat vivid (at some times, sometimes it was very foggy and sometimes it was incredibly vivid). I can't remember all of it, because it was so long. But this is progress, which I thought couldn't have been made! It's so long, so I'll just give you a highlight:

"I dreamt I woke up, and I decided to WILD immediately, I closed my eyes, images were coming, and it surrounded me! I made it! But I only dreamt about being lucid, sadly. Then I lost "lucidity" later, and the dream kept on going."

So my vacation ends tomorrow, which means I have to get a normal sleep schedule, once this is up and my jet lag is gone, I can start doing the WBTB+MILD+WILD again! I think I'm gonna get lucid this week. I can feel it! My dreams are increasing in awareness and clarity, however today it increased and decreased throughout the dream, but I feel like I always knew I was dreaming though. Strange.

This sounds like good progress! Did you get to do anything before you "lost lucidity later?"

Hello DILD class member,
I'm making a one-time announcement to individual recently active workbooks to let you know about the new DILD class announcement thread. Please subscribe to the announcement thread to see notifications of activities and other threads of particular interest/importance to DILD class members!

The first announcement is about the upcoming Sensei dreaming competition (starting on Thursday [in 2 days!], look for the official rules and scoring post on Wednesday).

http://www.dreamviews.com/dild/15591...uncements.html

Well hello!

To be honest, this was expected. However, this time it's different! As you probably remember, I had just gotten back to lucid dreaming, and was afraid of not having time for LD'ing when school started again. The week school started again was the most stressful week of my life, and I didn't have time for anything LD related. However, I'm back, after only a little over a month! I always kept my interest, but I haven't practiced LD'ing though. Anyway, I want to start anew! I think the reason I have been slacking off after a while after starting LD'ing, is because there are so many different techniques and combinations, I wanted to do them all! Having so much on my plate in addition to my waking life plate stressed me out. So this time, I will rely on the wisdom of the, well, wiser. You guys, that is, the teachers!

I think you guys know what suits me best better than me. I like WILDing, and I will continue trying that, but besides that, what should I do? I really need help here. What I need is a detailed "workout-plan" that I can stick to easily. I think you know what I like and don't like. RRC's didn't pay off, but prospective memory did for a while. To be honest I've forgotten myself what I liked to do or what payed off. I just need a combination of daytime and nighttime practices tailored to me. I know this is a lot to ask for, but I feel like this is something we could do together.

I have always been interested in dream yoga and meditation, I just never had the time to try it out. Dream recall has always been up and down, mostly down, but when I have a nice sleeping schedule that will improve. Mantras sometimes worked I think, I am good at intentions at least. I could set an intention to wake myself up at "that time", and it would work almost to the minute if my sleep schedule was consistent. I know you guys are knowledgeable, and I really hope you can help me. What I was hoping for is that we could work out a detailed plan that I could try for a while (a month?) and then tailor it to perfection! Also, there are a lot of techniques and combinations I don't know about, so please, throw them at my face if they are worth a shot!

I am happy to be back, and I hope you feel the same way. I really hope I can keep practicing LD'ing uninterrupted now, but I know for sure that I will always return. But how will I ever get good if I can't do it consistently? I guess I'll learn from experience, and that I can always pick my technique up once I have a plan down.

Thank you very much,
-Hans

I for a long time too was searching for the perfect "LD workout program." There are a bewildering set of options. sivason recently posted the following summary of how to get good at lucid dreaming that I really like:

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ml#post2147464

Also this:

Originally Posted by sivason

1) Think about lucid dreaming all the time.
2) Develop super high levels of waking awareness
3) Work very hard on dream recall
4) Use a mantra every night as you fall asleep [and every time you fall asleep -- FryingMan]
5) Question reality non stop, all day long

I think this pretty much says it all.

Now, how to turn that into a LD workout?

Two main things: 1) daytime: awareness, 2) nighttime: dream recall Of course there are more but those are the fundamentals. Work really diligently on these and you'll go far.

Awareness work is generally straightforward to describe: just start paying attention, all the time. Do not live life on auto-pilot, really try to focus and live in your present moment. Realize also in the back of your mind that you are doing this with the ultimate goal of recognizing the dream state. There are options like meditation, etc., and there are more links in the you can follow the DILD class's "important links" thread to keep you busy reading for a long time if you're interested in pursuring those approaches:

important-informative-links

Go into each night of sleep with the understanding that night time is for *dreaming* (and rest), but not just blanking out and waking up in the morning with all that time gone from your life. Expect that you will live great adventures in your dreams and look forward to them every night!

Finally, never give up. Going on and off with lucid dreaming and dream recall will definitely stall progress.

You know dreaming is awesome, so just dedicate yourself to it. Don't worry if it takes a long time: the time will pass anyway!