Thread: Pickman's DILD course workbook

No luck on the lucidity front last night, but I did at least manage to recall much of my dreams. Nothing interesting to report tonight unfortunately. Will get on to reading those Open Beta threads now.

I didn't have much time to update for the past three nights, so here is an update to cover them:

Last night, not much to report - I partially remember a dream I had and that was it.

The previous two nights were a bit better. My dreams were vivid, and I recalled them easily. I woke up on both nights at around 5am to attempt WBTB but there was no luck.

I read Day 0 of the Open Beta threads, but I still haven't got around to doing the first exercise - I'd better do that tonight.

For the past couple of nights, I have had pretty good dream recall, especially after waking up at around 6am and going back to bed. No lucidity yet though. And I still haven't done that exercise. Putting it on my to-do list for this weekend.

There were no updates over the weekend because there was nothing interesting to report. I turned in at around 1am every night (which probably wasn't such a good idea) and slept through, with pretty good dream recall but no lucidity.

Last night I attempted the Day 0 exercise of the Open Beta threads, where I have to spend at least 15 minutes staring at something like I've never seen it before. I did it at midnight, and I performed it for 20 minutes.

It didn't work. I had reasonably good dream recall that night, and I nearly DEILDed into a dream at around 6am, but it never turned lucid. I'll have to see what the Chapter 1 exercises have in store.

Glad to hear that you tried the first one! Each one builds towards the next one for the most part and I encourage you to continue on.

Thanks fogelbise - I'm about to read the next part now.

Last night was nothing special - I turned in at 1am, but only because I spent some time in meditation before, which I hoped would improve my sleep. While I did sleep well, I barely recalled my dreams and there was no lucidity.

I had a lucid dream success last night, so I'm writing this down now before the details get too hazy. The details are hazy enough already, as I think I lapsed into a non-lucid dream afterwards, but I do remember being lucid.

Last night I turned in at around midnight. I was going to perform the 'super-reality checks' from the Open Beta threads, but I was too tired to carry them out for the full 20-30 minutes. I didn't expect to get a lucid dream going so I just hoped to get a good night's sleep.

I woke up at 6am, needing the toilet. When I came back I went back to bed and I was slightly restless - I thought this was going to be one of times when I wasn't going to get back to sleep and end up feeling rubbish the next day.

Then I found myself unintentionally DEILDing into a dream image. I was crossing a road near my house, and there was an old man walking nearby. As I crossed the road, he just stopped and stood in front of oncoming traffic. I felt my body go numb in certain places - in my extremities and part of my head. I thought it was the onset of sleep paralysis, which I still don't like. Also, I did not want to DEILD into a dream about an old man trying to kill himself.

I shook myself out of it, fell back to sleep, going into a non-lucid dream. I know I was in a strange house, with a few people from my job. I know I was lucid, because near the end I tried to stabilize the dream by rubbing my hands together. I was walking up a spiral staircase, exploring this building, when my dream vision went hazy and I knew I was going to wake up. I do also have vague recollections of interacting with DC's in the conscious way I do when I am lucid.

After this, I went back to sleep and lapsed back into a non-lucid dream before waking up at 8am.

I only regret that I forgot to accomplish the TOTM. Hopefully if I can carry out the Open Beta exercises and keep this going, I might just be able to do it before the end of the month.

I only regret that I forgot to accomplish the TOTM. Hopefully if I can carry out the Open Beta exercises and keep this going, I might just be able to do it before the end of the month.

You got this! Nice results last night...keep up the good work! There is one exercise that sounds backwards but just go with it and there are some very nice experiences to be had doing all of the exercises, I found.

Thanks fogelbise - I have been sort of doing the super-reality checks over the past couple of nights, but not for the recommended 20-30 minutes. That could change tonight though.

Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few nights. There was nothing much to report - fairly fragmented dream recall but good sleep. That's it. Hopefully, I can engage more with the exercises over the following week.

Again, not much to report on over the last couple of days, but then I haven't been sleeping too well. Once that changes, I'm sure I can get back into the swing of things. I did perform the super-reality checks, but that didn't work - probably because of the quality of my sleep.

I'll try again tonight and see how well it goes.

Oh, by the way, you can do that exercise once for the recommended 20-30 minutes and then you should have a good feel for it and be able to do it for much shorter amounts of time or move on to the next exercise and can just keep it in mind as one of the things you do during day practices. Each exercise build upon the previous one so it doesn't hurt to move on...and I think it actually helps.

Last night I had another short-lived success: my dream recall was pretty good up until I woke up at around 5am. I went back to bed after going to the toilet and in the following dream there was a bit where I walked downstairs in my house to see a young pony curled up asleep at the foot of the stairs below. It was black with white markings on its face. As soon as I saw this, I thought "this has to be a dream". The dream I was having before was weird enough, but this was weird enough to make me wonder if I was dreaming.

I went downstairs and patted the pony on the head. Then I knew, "yes, this is definitely a dream". I went to walk into the kitchen to figure out what to do next, when I started to wake up. I tried to stabilize the dream by rubbing my hands together but it didn't work. Then I tried to DEILD back into the dream after waking, but that didn't work either.

I guess this counts as a success, even if it was short-lived.

Definitely counts! Congrats! I like the image of a pony curled up asleep at the foot of the stairs! It sounds like you were doing the right things to try to save the dream or re-enter another one and you may have just been at the end of your REM cycle.

Thanks fogelbise - I learned a lot from the lucid dreaming intro course.

It seems I have fallen off the wagon since my last post. I was a bit stressed out and I couldn't sleep for a few nights. On Saturday night I couldn't sleep at all. It was only just last night that I was able to get a proper night's sleep.

I will have to get back into the super-reality checks from the Open Beta threads.

Originally Posted by Pickman

Thanks fogelbise - I learned a lot from the lucid dreaming intro course.

It seems I have fallen off the wagon since my last post. I was a bit stressed out and I couldn't sleep for a few nights. On Saturday night I couldn't sleep at all. It was only just last night that I was able to get a proper night's sleep.

I will have to get back into the super-reality checks from the Open Beta threads.

I am sorry to hear about the sleeplessness! Glad to hear that you were back to proper sleep last night. Yeah, the super reality checks were the one exercise that I had the hardest time accepting the premise of but it seems to have some good effects. There are some great exercises ahead.

Have we talked about self-awareness yet...do you have a day time practice that works on self-awareness?

My day time self-awareness practice is pretty sporadic - sometimes as I'm going about my business during the day I might stop and do the super-reality checks I mentioned above, but for a few minutes. Perhaps I need to do something a little more in depth and regular.

Last night was not particularly successful. I think I'm still recovering from last week. I slept pretty deeply, but my dream recall was fragmented.

Yesterday at work I overheard a strange conversation between two coworkers about lucid dreaming - not something I would expect to hear talked about. Someone was telling someone else that a good way to induce lucidity is to create an image in your mind of an object that is totally unique to your imagination and probably doesn't exist in the waking world, and try to visualize it in as much detail as possible while drifting off to sleep. That way, if you see it, you know that you are dreaming.

That sounds like dream incubation to me. I might try it.

Originally Posted by Pickman

Yesterday at work I overheard a strange conversation between two coworkers about lucid dreaming - not something I would expect to hear talked about. Someone was telling someone else that a good way to induce lucidity is to create an image in your mind of an object that is totally unique to your imagination and probably doesn't exist in the waking world, and try to visualize it in as much detail as possible while drifting off to sleep. That way, if you see it, you know that you are dreaming.

That sounds like dream incubation to me. I might try it.

That sounds very interesting! Hearing that might have prompted me to do an RC as I would never expect to hear two different people (not counting me) talking about lucid dreaming at my work. Thank you for sharing that! I think I will do a search on DV for similar threads.

It's been a few days since I updated. As usual, there's been nothing much to update, but my dream recall has gone from patchy to being able to recall whole dreams. It might have something to do with feeling less stressed. My sleep routine is undergoing changes - I have decided to take up a morning meditation regime, which involves getting up earlier, which will involve having to turn in earlier. Maybe this could help things along in the lucidity department too.

Improvement in dream recall is always great. The morning meditation should help start your day off right and is also beneficial to lucid dreaming, I feel.

So far, I have only managed to do the morning meditation once this week. I haven't given up on it though. There have been a few days where my sleep routine has lapsed, where I haven't been able to turn in as early as I hoped, and as a result I wake up later. I think this just needs a little discipline.

Dream recall over the past few days has ranged from good to patchy. Hopefully once this morning routine gets going I can rectify this.

I think you are right on target with the sleep routine. Often we know the best answers for ourselves though it may take some time to think them through. Sometimes I answer my own questions just by starting to write them out.

Dream recall has still been pretty good over the past days, but no lucidity. The morning routine was continually sidetracked by having early morning appointments, so hopefully next week will be better. I'm still doing the Open Beta super-reality checks, but no luck. I should head over and read the next chapter's exercises.

Yes, I would definitely suggest moving on to the next ones. I am becoming more and more convinced that they are terrific for sleeping and waking lucidity. Recent reviewing of the exercises and a nice LD led me to some awesome waking life sensations that kept going for quite a while. It felt like I could recreate the joy of a good lucid dream in waking life (more info in my latest online DJ entry).

No lucidity, but I did have a near-WILD experience last night. As I drifted off to sleep, I experienced some hypnagogic imagery where I was reliving a bus trip I took earlier that day. It started at a stop where woman gets on and stands in front of me. Then the bus pulled away and I could feel the forward movement of the bus as it travelled down a hill. I was still a little distant from this image, but I knew that if I tried to hard to interact and "enter" the dream it would just dissipate. Unfortunately, my relaxed state was broken by noise outside my bedroom and I couldn't re-enter that state. Better luck next time.