Thread: Ctharlhie's Oneirinomicon

Bedtime: 01:13
Rise time: 06:51
Sleep quality: 59%
Supplements: none
WBTB: 7-8:30
Nap: 8:30-11:30
Natural Awakenings: 0
WILD Attempt: 8:30
Recall -
- LDs: 0
- NLDs: 4
Tasks: create a storm advanced TotM
Notes: I felt like I was struggling to sleep while WILDing, the sleep waves weren't coming but I was getting slight hypnagogic thoughts. I tried switching to tigle visualisation after one of these attention lapses. After some time I rolled onto my side and fell into unconscious sleep.
Commentary: I *didn't roll over* during my successful WILD. Keep doing yoga nidra relaxation until sleep waves, and don't roll over. once the sleep waves come, switch to brow chakra or will have already transitioned.

Work on general dream awareness first
Don't worry about going lucid until achieving epics
First aim is to be making fulfilling DJ entries
Foster a *dreaming life*
2 microWBTBs a night in the week
A micro and a full WBTB at the weekend
Leading to nightly epics
Epics get full DJ entries
Alarms at first
As recall/general dream awareness builds (w/aid of pisswater) awakenings will become spontaneous
Only try for lucids on Friday, Saturday, Sunday (maybe monday and thursday also) at first
WILD attempts
Otherwise rely on day work
When epics are happening nightly try to LD four nights a week
Then let it happen

Meditation and CRIT (Tholey's combined reflection intention technique) day work
Day journalling
Mahamudra metta
Lucid day recall
Recall priming w/SSILD
Dream yoga
MicroWBTB 3 dream seed recall
SSILD
Dream yoga
Pre-determined WILD attempts with wbtb naps

Mon-thurs: 11-4, 4-6:00, 6:00-7:30
Fri-Sun: 12-5, 5-7:00, 8:00-10

NLDs: 20
- of which epics: 0
LDs: 1
- of which WILD: 1
WILD attempts: 1
Natural microawakenings: 2
MicroWBTBs: 2
WBTBs: 2
Naps: 3
Tasks completed: 1

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

When epics are happening nightly try to LD four nights a week
Then let it happen

It's good to set aggressive goals, but I wouldn't entirely put off any focus on lucidity until "nightly epics." I think focusing on recall is good, but I'd also not leave out intention to be lucid entirely. Epics, like recall, come and go (at least for me) in waves: there are peaks, and there are troughs. But what I've noticed in the last 1/2 year is that the rate of epics has picked up a lot, corresponding with my efforts to be mindful during the day. They're not nightly, but they are occurring more and more frequently.

My plan wasn't very clear. Basically I'm not going to try for DILDs until I'm having epics. Try. I'm still doing daywork and going to bed with the attitude that I've already done enough to achieve a DILD. But I'm still going to be trying for WILD on 4 out of 7 nights of the week. I'm considering making WILD my main focus and just working on recall and mindfulness otherwise. But there's a lot of truth in what you're saying

You could always use autosuggestion before bed to cultivate DILDs. Would be more or less effortless and could result in some activity. You seem to be having luck with WILD so I wish you more of the same.

Yes by all means if you're getting a feel for WILD you should push in that direction to cement any gains made there. Solid daytime awareness together with dream recall effort should result in more regular epics in short order.

Uh, so, on some reflection, I have realised that I have once again slipped into my mind's clever trap of trying too hard. I think I'd do well to remember this post:

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

So I think you were right, Fogelbise, and I'm doing *too much*, considering I've had many successful nights with this as my practice:

Bedtime: 2:45am-3:00am
Risetime: 12pm
WBTB: Awakenings from alarm at 8 and 10
Daytime technique: 10 mins Shamatha/Shikantaza meditation (not really sure what it is I do now), 2 RCs (laziness)
Supplements: None
Recall:
LDs: 2

09/06/13
Bedtime: 02:45
Risetime: 13:00
WBTB: 6am
Daytime technique: 10mins meditation, 5 RCs/SAT
Nighttime tech: WBTB, SSILD
Supplements: none
Recall
LDs: 2
Task(s): 2 LDs go to work naked, talk nonsense to a DC

Sometimes I think we'd rather not lucid dream when we have all these alluring tips and tricks and techniques. Why am I obsessing and attaching to recalling epics when I could have a lucid dream tonight?
2 LDs in a night from 10 minutes of meditation and 5 SAT sessions, and WBTB SSILD? Yes please! How do I get back there? Where is that sweet spot of awareness and intent?
It's here and now.

Don't forget balance….another more subtle trap is thinking that "what I did yesterday got me lucid last night." Lucidity is the sum total of your experiences and practices over time. I think some effortful days are appropriate from time to time. This "delay factor" makes figuring out "what works" tremendously tricky, which is why taking the long view is really important.

^^This got me thinking but did not bring me to a conclusion. If that is a trap, and it very well may be, I fall into it a lot! My guess is that some of what I do on a particular day can translate into results that night but there are definitely practices that need to be done long term to achieve consistent results. The other trap that I know I fall into is relying on the past work and coasting which always affects my consistency.

So I'm back on DV, again. Long story short: university blindsided me when I went on exchange to Australia. Also I couldn't access my account for months until a couple of days ago. So here I am again.

I did learn some things from my brief period of activity in 2015. Firstly that simplicity in practice is pivotal. Secondly, you don't just "crack" WILD and then get to LD at will: as many lders have found before me (and even warned of) each WILD remains difficult for many attempts after the first success. Thirdly, mindfulness is absolutely the most sustainable and rewarding foundation for lucid dreaming.

There are other things I gained. Not least my posts in this thread should perform the purpose I intended for them of providing a roadmap for getting back into lucid dreaming if I found myself returning after another extended interruption as a I am now.

Over the next couple of days I will be laying out a plan for 2016 as well as some short and long term goals.

For now, hola to anyone who may be reading this, it's good to be back.

Awesome, welcome back, missed you around these parts! Can't wait to see the 2016 plan...

Thanks, Fryingman. I'm particularly looking forward to discussions with you.

Every year since I started university I've ended up going on these extended breaks. I'm really hoping 2016 will be the year when I manage to integrate LDing into my life. Then again we always say "this year". Still I feel confident.

2016 plan is forthcoming.

Year Goals:
- Have 100 LDs in 2016
Long Term Goals:
- At the beginning of every lucid dream, look at my hands
- And carry out the 'controlling the view of the dream' technique from Art of Dreaming
- Practise stabilisation ("controlling the view")
- Perfect teleportation
- Perfect active dream control (transforming the emanations)
- Go to my persistent realm
- Make DEILD/WILD main induction technique

Awareness:
- Zazen meditation: 10-30 minutes daily
- Body awareness mindfulness
- Quidditas mindfulness
-Dream yoga red lotus throat chakra meditation while falling asleep

Memory:
-Building dream recall
-Dream pegging during micro-awakenings
- 3 Dream Seeds tag journalling
- Full prose DJ entry later in the day
- Dream Recall "stretching" ala lucidability, visualising dreams throughout the day
- "Breaking down the wall" practice from*Advanced Lucid Dreaming*upon becoming lucid
- Update my DV DJ and workbook as a goal journal, weekly

Induction:
-Dream control affirmation
- Dream yoga visualisation falling asleep
-Auto-alarm DEILD
- SSILD based WILD

This year I am going to try to distil everything I have learned about lucid dreaming into a practice that is sustainable with my current lifestyle, and will benefit my waking life.
My practice will integrate ideas from these threads http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...-tutorial.html http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...awareness.html http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...wbtb-more.html as well as Fryingman's unified induction theory. A la Fryingman's theory, I will maintain bodily awareness as much as possible during the day, and then continue that at night. I will try to feel my body as vividly as possible, whilst also being aware of sight and sound, as well as attending to what in phenomenology is sometimes called the "quidditas", or essence of the moment. After a period of distraction I will use the phrase "hear and now" to return to awareness and feel as much as possible my presence in that moment. A quote from Naiya basically sums up what I'm going for: "
The easy way to LD is a state of constant awareness. Make your day one big long reality check. Only instead of a specific RC, begin to question everything around you at once. Quiet your mind, and simply be aware of your state of consciousness. Be aware of the FEELING of LIVING and being AWAKE. It's a much different feeling than being asleep*".
I have already had vivid LDs from spontaneously practising this in dream.
The nighttime section of my practice will consist of a combination of SSILD and DEILD. I will set an auto shut off alarm at irregular intervals during the night and then fall asleep practising SSILD. Upon awakening from the auto alarm I will attempt to DEILD if I have been woken from a dream, if not I will attempt a SSILD based WILD. I almost transitioned doing this this morning at the beginning of my last sleep cycle. I have found that using this method dramatically increases dream recall. This however poses a problem in not wanting to move, and thus not to get up and record my dreams. I will therefore be attempting to use Daniel Love's "Dream Peg" mnemonic system which does not require writing in order to recall dreams.
The method of auto-shut-off alarms has several advantages. Like WBTB it introduces a period of wakefulness in during sleep, one of the crucial factors in lucidity. However, unlike WBTB it does not majorly disrupt sleep as a whole and therefore should be suitable to be used every night. Moreover, it allows for multiple opportunities during the night like microWBTB, but without requiring intent or water based awakening. Lastly it offers direct Lding attempts, either through DEILD WILD, without the need for the relaxation phase. If these fail, lucidity is still likely through SSILD and heightened awareness.
The only things I will actively work on building are my awareness/mindfulness and my dream recall. Every day I will practise 10 minutes of zazen meditation, possibly building to 30 mins daily. Then, throughout the day I will return as much as I can to an awareness of my body. Then at night I will extend this awareness through SSILD and multiple DEILD/WILD attempts.

Awesome, great set of plans!
I've had reasonably good results with mental-only recall all night long. But the way I do it can leave me too wakeful: I generally just go over and over and over the dreams in my mind on every waking, giving each one a key phrase together with visualizing a main scene. Using an official mnemonic system may help earlier recall survive with more detail after going through a couple more sleep cycles. On big dreaming nights, though, I frequently reach saturation once I hit somewhere around 12-16 scenes, and newer, stronger recall from the latter cycles tend to dominate.

1st - 3rd
1 LD
Task: look at hands, and then from hands to a series of 4 objects and back to build stabilisation
4th - 10th
1 LD
Task: hands stabilisation
11th - 17th
1< LDs (competition week)
Tasks: competition
18th - 24th
1< LDs (competition week)
Tasks: competition
25th - 31st
2 LDs
Tasks:
hand stabilisation
Basic TotM i
Advanced TotM ii

Total LDs wanted for January:
8<
Goals for January:
8 alarm assisted (AA?)DEILDs/WILDs
Look at hands at the beginning of every lucid dream
Competition tasks
Basic and advanced TotM

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Awesome, great set of plans!
I've had reasonably good results with mental-only recall all night long. But the way I do it can leave me too wakeful: I generally just go over and over and over the dreams in my mind on every waking, giving each one a key phrase together with visualizing a main scene. Using an official mnemonic system may help earlier recall survive with more detail after going through a couple more sleep cycles. On big dreaming nights, though, I frequently reach saturation once I hit somewhere around 12-16 scenes, and newer, stronger recall from the latter cycles tend to dominate.

Still, pretty impressive! I can tell you about Daniel Love's mnemonic system in a pm if you like?

Three fragmentary dreams recalled.

One was straightforward anxiety dream.

One was more of an epic (though I don't recall much apart from one key visual). A beautiful dreamscape of palaces which I would like to return to.

One sub-lucid which started out as an anxiety dream about having to pack and leave for somewhere. I attempted to wake myself though I didn't fully realise I was dreaming. I have no recall of the dream past my attempt to wake up.

One dream and 7 fragments recalled.

As I've overwhelmingly found so far experimenting with alarm assisted DEILD, I was already awake when the alarm sounded. In fact I have found that setting these random interval alarms has led to the 'vigilance effect'; I am sleeping more lightly and aware of more of my micro-awakenings. Correspondingly, my recall has improved dramatically compared to what it was before starting this AA-DEILD experiment.

I was even somewhat aware of the transition from dreaming to waking for the last dream of the night, suggesting that even if this alarm technique is unsuccessful in its intended aim, I am building dream awareness that would allow me to have natural DEILDS - an even better result!

I again got pretty close to WILDing practising SSILD from one of my awakenings.

No lucidity events, but the last dream of the night may be termed an epic because I was fully present and in control of my actions.

Today when I was walking to campus I felt the most lucid and aware I've felt since the last time I was heavily immersed in my lucid dreaming practice. The music I was listening to on my headphones completely melded with my mood and the atmosphere of my surroundings. Then later I was in a supermarket and still managing to feel mindful, which is very rare for me. My meditation practice also feels like it's in a really good place. I had an epiphany in regards of not controlling the breath when counting it. In between breaths I simply rested in an awareness of my body and any ambient sound, and simply let breathing arise whilst counting breaths. I'm going to try meditating for my WILD attempts tonight, as SSILD is simply putting me to sleep too quickly without maintaining awareness.

I'm feeling confident

So far I've achieved 3 LDs, all DILDs. I've also had many near-WILDs. So far the alarm method has failed to yield any DEILDs or WILDs, but I feel like I'm getting closer every night, and the sporadic alarms are still causing me to be aware of natural awakenings - often I'm already awake when an alarm goes off.

The time it takes until transition seems to be getting shorter, only I've fallen fully asleep every time so far.

Interestingly I'm starting to get the impression of dreaming of similar places which nonetheless do not exist in waking life. My goal for tonight is therefore to dream of the location of an epic dream from last night.

So February was a complete write-off, far too busy with uni to afford lucidity. I did, however, exceed my January target! March has been a slow start, but I have been able to keep my meditation practice near-daily through it all.

Spoiler for January Retrospective:

1st-3rd:
4th-10th: 2 LDs
11th-17th: 1 LD
18th-24th: 5 LDs
25th-31st: 2 LDs
Total: 10 LDs
Goal 8 LDs

March 2016 Prospective
7th-13th: 2 LDs
14th-20th: 2 LDs
21st-27th: 3 LDs
28th-31st: 2 LDs
Goal: 9 LDs

This month I will trial the vibrate alarm assisted DEILD described by Sivason alongside the techniques from Michael Raduga's SOOBE ebook.

Feb was a really good month for me, and March is shaping up to be a poor one, it just started slow, and now I'm spending the rest of it on a business trip and dreaming always suffers on those. Good luck with your March dreaming goals!

7th-13th: 0 LDs
14th-20th: 0 LDs
21st-27th: 5 LDs
28th-31st: 1 LDs
Total: 6 LDs

March was a really slow month in the end, and I didn't hit my LD targets. I did, however, achieve 6 LDs in the space of a week!

My technique has been using vibrate alarms for a kind of quasi-DEILD, which I'm going to elaborate below.