Salvoa's Workbook

Hello fellow dreamers,
My name is Ari im 23 and ive been dreaming and lucid dreaming for about 4 years now. for about the last year or so i have not been very active in lucid dreaming although i continue to write in my dream journal to keep up my recall. i recently have a spark to dive back in deeper then i ever have before. at one point in my intense practices ive been able to have LDs about 5 times a week and sometime 2 in a night. my goal is to get to a point where i can have a lucid dream a night or 7 in a week. ive tried multiple techniques and been successful but the best is a DILD for me which is why i want to join this class.

ive been doing RCs everyday multiple times a day using the nose plug, this necklace i have and the fingers though the hand as well as remembering where ive been, where im going, the day and time etc. i had a lucid dream the other night caused my me realizing that it was too bright outside for the time of the day that it was but thats the first lucid dream ive had in a while. as far as going to bed i do a tense/relax technique and then think about the dreams i had the night before and planning what i want to do during that time i will have some mental images floating around and have bodily sensation of weightlessness and movement, then i will fall asleep.

one problem that ive been facing is when i wake up i dont always get up all the way and ill almost fall back asleep before i actually get up to write it down and this is causing me to forget some of the dream so ill only end up with a short scene instead of a whole adventure.

so heres my intro and im ready to get educated :D

Welcome to the DILD workbooks Ari! :) It sounds like you have your own unique set of practices so definitely take any advice we give you, consider it's value and use what fits with your own unique path.

You have mentioned one challenge so far, getting up "all the way." You can try intention before bed that you will fully get up in your quest for recall and your lucid dreaming frequency goals. You can also try the "water method" separately or combined with intention. Drink enough water before bed to ensure the need to get up during the night to urinate.

Again, welcome and let us know if you have any questions. :)

Welcome, Salvoa! To echo what fogelbise wrote, it sounds like you have a fairly developed practice that yields results for you, which is fantastic! Taking it to the next level might be just a matter of increased dedication, and paying attention to day/night work. I find that regular lucids come with regular day AND night work. It's hard to say which is the more important of the two, if I had to pick, I'd say perhaps night work (but that depends on you having already built a firm base of self-awareness via day work).

Something I've been working on for a while now is running over the dreams in my head so that I build up a complete set of key words that cover each scene that I want to record. I find that doing this helps me maintain the entire list before I move and reach for my phone. I use voice recording for taking dream notes, and then transcribe to computer files / dreamviews DJ online. How do you take notes for recall? And how long to you review dreams before moving to record them?

I'll echo fogelbise's advice to set intention to notice the wakings during the night, recall our dream, and record it (if you like). I record many more dreams in much higher detail when I wake up a lot during the night. Waking up a lot is also a great time to do a quick WBTB, re-set your intention to become aware in your dreams, and perform MILD or WILD (or DEILD).

Something else that you may want to consider to bring your dreaming and your self-awareness to higher levels is developing a practice of mindfulness meditation, and practicing mindfulness all through the day. It's good to RC throughout the day like you're doing, but being mindful all through the day is almost like an all-day continuous RC.

In your dreams, do you feel very "present"? Like it is *you* actually there, experiencing and responding? That's a goal also to strive for, and being mindful during the waking state helps you become more present/mindful in the dreaming state.

If you have any questions, fogelbise and I would be happy to do our best to answer them!

You both have good information for me. So with the journal I open up a word doc before bed and put tomorrow's date on it and close my laptop so it's easily excessable. I already have a glass of water next to my bed and I drink throughout the night usually having to go to the bathroom when I wake.

I think your idea fogelbise of the affirmation that I will fully get up and write it down is what I need.

As for all day awareness fryingman I'm glad you mentioned that, i have practiced that and have meditated in the past some which gives me some more motivation to make time for that again. And as for pressence in the dream I'd say I'm about the middle of the road, sometimes I'm not all there and it's just pictures and feelings but other times I'm getting sensations and whatnot.

One other problem I didn't mention is my roommates, they like to stay up real late so they will either wake me up or once I get up from a cycle they will keep me up for hours sometimes, so once I do fall asleep I'm so tired once I get up from that or don't have a lot of time and have to rush to get to work. Any ideas that could help that out?

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Originally Posted by Salvoa

One other problem I didn't mention is my roommates, they like to stay up real late so they will either wake me up or once I get up from a cycle they will keep me up for hours sometimes, so once I do fall asleep I'm so tired once I get up from that or don't have a lot of time and have to rush to get to work. Any ideas that could help that out?

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Hmm. Half-joking: move out? Other than that, 1) adjust your schedule so that your key dreaming times are in the middle of their quiet time (if there is one?); 2) invest in high quality ear plugs. Are you in a room by yourself or a shared room? If a room by yourself then maybe you can put up sound insulation. You could perhaps try to get them to understand? Ah, maybe the best thing would be to get them into lucid dreaming then they'll be going to bed early :)

Ear plugs do the trick for me. I can hear enough for my morning alarm and drown out enough to sleep easy. Experiment with how far to stick them in (while following the instructions on the package. Many come with a free storage case to keep them soft.

HahA I thought about moving out. In the last few months I have gotten them to understand more so they have quieted down and do respect my sleep more, it's usually the people they have over that keep me up.

You make me laugh frying man cause you say sound insulation and I have a music studio with tons of sound insulation in there, it makes me think what it would look like in my room. I'd feel like a mental patient lol. Ear plugs is probably the best idea although I've never really like sleeping with them in. Maybe I'll just have to adapt to it.
I also thought about changing my sleep schedule so I'm up most of the time when their awake. Not sure what I'm going to do maybe a little of all of them. I'll let you know how it goes

Heh! Yeah I can easily see myself like Martin Freeman's character in The Good Night (any LDer who has not seen that movie MUST watch it), covering my windows, walls, etc. with black-out sound insulation if I were single....haha

But like I said: *half*-joking. If one is serious about LDing, one may have to make life changes if there are serious obstacles in your way. Best of luck! And yes let us know how it goes and if you have any questions.

hello again, its been a while, I meant to post earlier but the holidays got me out of the groove.

anyways, since I last posted my recall has gotten a lot better, im recalling 2 or 3 dreams a night depending on how much sleep I get and I decided to put tissue earplugs in my ears until my roommates go to sleep which is helping a lot.

one problem I just noticed today that is preventing me from getting up right away and writing is that my computer is on one side of my bed and im on the other when I wake so I have to crawl over the freezing part of my bed to get there which I dread heh, so im going to move my shit around so I can have the computer right next to me.

I also had 2 lucid dreams since I posted, both were short lived because I couldnt maintain lucidity but at least im getting them now. and even though the other nights are not lucid im noticing that their either really vivid or have a lot of detail. and some im either talking to people about lucid dreaming or doing things that I know I could only do in a dream and get away with it.

and now a question which im pretty sure it will work but I always like another opinion. I was at a party in another state in a dream and im talking to this girl and I was about to leave and she was saying that she wanted to see me again. i asked the friend i was with if we were going to be around and he said for a couple days. so i figure i could use her as a dream sign to help me get lucid. i don't remember what she looked like very well but i remember the jewelry and her piercing distinctly and her name was maddie. i figure ill focus on the name and jewelry before bed and in between cycles to get her to show up.

any advise will be sweet and ill talk to you soon. :lol:

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Originally Posted by Salvoa

any advise will be sweet and ill talk to you soon. :lol:

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Sounds like you're doing great. Yes, change your stuff around so that you definitely get up for WBTB and can do some dream recording more conveniently.

What's your day (awareness, RCs, meditation, etc) and night practice (WBTB, MILD/WILD/etc.) looking like these days?

alright so my daily awareness still consists of the nose plug and the check of the necklace i have on, its a spherical stone with 2 cones on each end and i squeeze it to see if i can flatten it. along with that ill take a look around and check out the people and objects nearby and then ill turn away and observe whats behind me then look back again since ive notice my dreams tend to change alot when i look away and look back. im noticing that im having a easier time just being aware in general, like when im doing something, out of nowhere ill notice myself just being aware of where i am if you know what i mean. As far as meditation goes i plan to spend 10-30 minutes a day (which i dont always get to) focusing on my breath mainly while taking note of the sounds around me, i notice some grey moving around in my eyes after about 10 or more minutes which im guessing its just my mental visualization kicking in or something.

and for the night attempts before bed im reviewing the dreams from the morning and the signs within them and replaying them in my head while thinking about what i want to do in the dream once lucid, my goal at this point is to converse with my dream characters just to get a feel for my world again and to see where im at before i start digging into more abstract things. once i wake i write down the dream, go to the bathroom most likely, then i think about the signs i could have caught in the dream i just wrote down and play that out, reestablish my goal and fall asleep again. once again write the dream and usually at this point i have a good chance of a WILD, but for some reason always have difficulty getting in consciously either because ill loose consciousness or once the sensations and visuals start i pay to much attention to them and kick myself out. i definitely could use some advice to improve that method. for instance the attempt this morning, i was feeling myself touching table top surfaces with little visual and i noticed my thoughts towards the experience were ones of loosing consciousness and once i noticed that i kicked myself out while reminding myself it was me going into a dream. i feel like the reminder was too quick or alarming which caused that to happen, how can i gracefully remind myself im falling into it instead of it being soo abrupt.

Hi Salvoa, you have a nice set of day and night practices there. For your WILD questions Sageous is the go to guy and he is great about answering questions. I have some WILD experience but my strength is in DILDs currently. Sageous has decades worth of experience. People post their experiences and questions here: http://www.dreamviews.com/wild/13309...-bad-here.html
There is another WILD thread that gets less activity but has a lot of great info too including from Sageous and Sivason.

thnx for the link definitely some good information there. soo back to the DILD questions, ive been having dreams now where im either a very low level lucidity where im doing things knowing I can manipulate and perform certain things in the dream without having that ah ha moment that I know im dreaming. or I come across something that is unusual and question it a bit but never get to the thought or the question of whether im dreaming or not. idk if this is because im not doing my daily RCs correctly cause I know sometimes I half ass it and don't get through the full check, but most of the time I do, or maybe im not doing it enough during the day cause some days ill get about 15-20 in and others ill only get about 5-8.

My $0.02: in order to have more "ah ha!" moments in dreams, you need to have a lot of them in the waking state, on a regular basis. It's not the RC that gets you lucid, it's the raised self-awareness that precedes the RC. The RC is just a quick check to confirm what your state is. Definitely, when you feel an "aware moment" in the waking state, pay attention to it and don't just do a quick nose pinch and move on. You want your awareness to be maintained at higher levels in the waking state for longer periods of time, not just a quick "AHA!" spike that immediately returns to "zombie mode."

Some questions to keep always on the back of your mind are: 1) "How odd is this?" and 2) "Why do I think I'm awake?"

Some questions to keep always on the back of your mind are: 1) "How odd is this?" and 2) "Why do I think I'm awake?"[/QUOTE]

i really like the questions i definitely feel they will help me a lot. but another question for you that is in line with how you were saying stay aware for longer periods instead of just doing real quick and back to it. how can i remain aware when im involved in a task that takes a good amount of mental computing such as reading or making sure im doing my job correctly. im a chef and when i do a check at work ill do the check and be aware when im traveling to a form places but then i notice i lose my awareness once i get into a task such as making sure i have all the ingredient in the dish or figuring out what i could be doing while im waiting for something to finish. it can get very hectic causing me to fall out of awareness pretty quickly.

FryingMan may have some additional ideas but my thought in the meantime on your latest question is to continue to do it when your moving between places as you have been but then also try to tell yourself that you will stay more aware and mindful of what you are doing when you get to the task at least for a little while. You may notice things you have never really paid much attention to before...perhaps like how good fresh dough feels in your hand or the beauty of bubbles in your mixes or whatever. Don't stress over maintaining it though. It takes a lot of practice apparently. Start small and build it up.

To add on to your previous question...daytime rehearsal, of what you will do when you start doing dream control in your next lucid without that aha moment, can help. This can be combined with MILD or reminders to yourself pre-bed or during WBTB: "I am flying..aha!" Or whatever your most common dream controls are. This can be a significant dream sign for you. I use this too.

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Originally Posted by Salvoa

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

Some questions to keep always on the back of your mind are: 1) "How odd is this?" and 2) "Why do I think I'm awake?"

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i really like the questions i definitely feel they will help me a lot. but another question for you that is in line with how you were saying stay aware for longer periods instead of just doing real quick and back to it. how can i remain aware when im involved in a task that takes a good amount of mental computing such as reading or making sure im doing my job correctly. im a chef and when i do a check at work ill do the check and be aware when im traveling to a form places but then i notice i lose my awareness once i get into a task such as making sure i have all the ingredient in the dish or figuring out what i could be doing while im waiting for something to finish. it can get very hectic causing me to fall out of awareness pretty quickly.

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Well, you do it…. by just doing it! Set firm resolve to notice during those especially hectic times to just take a deep "mindfulness breath," appreciate and become present in the moment. It's possible to be mindfully busy, being aware of your business and that you choose to be busy and revel in your busy-ness!

Start with moments in-between the hectic times, and work up to noticing more. The more you do it, the more you'll want to do it more, and pretty soon you'll be having moments all the time!

I still zone out deep in my own work, and in interpersonal communication, but the big thing is that I've *noticed* this, and am working on it.

Kudos to you for noticing when you tend to zone out, that's the first step, simply acknowledging the loss of the awareness and gently bringing it back, again, and again.

Don't be frustrated if this happens a lot. After all, each "becoming lucid" in the waking state is like a rehearsal for getting lucid in a dream as well!

and id say boths of your suggestions have helped wildly I had 2 lucid dreams last night one ill post here.

im in my house talking with a friend of mine and I was telling her about the dream I had in my last cycle and how even though a dream character had told me I was dreaming and there were all these signs telling me it was a dream i still failed to notice I was dreaming. at that point I remembered to do a check and the person I was talking to lived in Pittsburgh so I knew I was dreaming. I went out my front door to check further and it was grey and wet outside. I took notice to how real everything looked and how it was basically the same as it would be in waking reality but then I noticed these purple flowers on the hill that I only get in the spring. the DC was following me around I feel to make sure I was noticing I was dreaming and I told her I was good now since I was lucid and I told her to leave me and thanked her. I then remembered my intention to meet with this Ent I met in a dream the night before so I called out loud and I could hear my voice travel far distances through the trees on my road. I then heard a lord of the rings type horn that I knew was coming from the Ent. I ran down the road towards where I thought I heard it. I go down the road and called again and I heard it closer and looked where I thought it was. I see a tree move among the others and run to it. it was the Ent and I told him to take me to where we were going before and he spreads wings and flies away. I figured he wanted me to follow him but I wasn't feeling confidence with my flying skills ATM. I climb this rock face behind a house to see where he was and once I get to the top I see him perched on a floating platform. he looks like an ancient bird now and he reaches out his tail which was purple and bluish. I grab hold and he lifts me up and we begin to fly. once we gain some altitude I see a giant drum set with a lot more symbols then the one I have and I was thinking how I would like to play it sometime. as we fly the bird does all kinds of acrobatic maneuvers. I was thinking how I would eventually be able to do all these flying techniques once I learned more. my hearts starts racing partially from some fear and the thrill and I wake with the feeling of still holding onto the bird.

Wow, congrats, that's one awesome dream there! I'd love to meet an Ent (as a friend!)! Somehow I've never worked in LOTR themes to dreams, yet I'm such a huge fan. Well done, again, keep it up!

Hello DILD class member,
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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).

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