Hey, this is my workbook. For the whole of 2014 I was on something of an extended hiatus and, in lieu of a 2015 "resolucid" thread, this workbook will serve to track my progress towards attaining regular lucidity.
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Hey, this is my workbook. For the whole of 2014 I was on something of an extended hiatus and, in lieu of a 2015 "resolucid" thread, this workbook will serve to track my progress towards attaining regular lucidity.
Welcome, Ctharlhie! Using a workbook is a great way to remain true to your goals. If you have any questions for us, let us know!
Just a quick couple of queries: how's your dream recall these days? What does a typical day and night look like in your practice?
The more detail you give the more opportunities for fine tuning we may be able to suggest.
Looking forward to following your progress!
Hey Ctharlhie! I feel like we can learn at least as much from you as well. Sometimes while discussing strategies and viewpoints we can all come to some kind of breakthrough so I would encourage plenty of open discussion while also logging your progress.
Absolutely!Quote:
Originally Posted by fogelbise
It's varying, since I got back to practising at the beginning of the month it's varied from no recall at all to a solid dream a night and up to 8 fragments. This week I started recognising my natural awakenings, though, which I'm pretty excited about.Quote:
Originally Posted by FryingMan
Here's my current plan/dream journal format:
Spoiler for Plan/DJ Format:
I hope so! Ideally this workbook will serve as a kind of roadmap for the future, should I ever find myself on another extended break, I should be able to pick straight up from where I left off (I made the mistake of not recording anything in my early days, so I had no idea what worked when I hit a dry spell) as well as generating some interesting discussion in its own right :)Quote:
Hey Ctharlhie! I feel like we can learn at least as much from you as well. Sometimes while discussing strategies and viewpoints we can all come to some kind of breakthrough so I would encourage plenty of open discussion while also logging your progress.
Wow. I love the detail of your plan/DJ format! You are so much better organized than I am. There were a number of things in there that piqued my interest and they all sound like very good practices. Everyone is different of course, but personally I wouldn't be able to sustain doing all of that daily but I would probably end up picking a few core daily practices and do the others on some kind of schedule less often than daily. That may be how you intended to do it as well...I just wanted to caution not wearing yourself out since I feel that sustained practices are better than stopping practices for long periods. I overdid it during the last competition.
Thanks, the credit goes to Sensei, really - it's just a variation of his "how to DJ" tute that I've tailored to what I want to record.Quote:
Originally Posted by fogelbise
It's not actually much daily practice, really. The meditation is as much for my wellbeing as for LDing and has been integrated into my daily life for pretty much a year anyway. As for the SAT, it probably takes 10-20 minutes out of my day (I had a VERY interesting/vivid dream related to this last night that I'm going to share here soon) I've started experimenting with a vibrating alarm at irregular intervals that is working very well. The 'Day-SSILD' is basically a variation of ADA wherein you cycle through objects of awareness much in the way you do in SSILD, and I do this in a relaxed manner as much as I can remember to in between the SAT sessions. In fact, mindfulness seems to help in not thinking about LD all day and burning out.
Completely agree that sustained practices trump short term intense activity. I may scale back based on my experience in the rest of the month.
Thanks. :) I like what you have done with it, very specific to you, which is what everything needs to be. You need to take all things in LDing and morph it to yourself.
These are the dream logs for January so far. These are not the full journal entries, the aim here is to basically show the results of varying daytime and nighttime practices. I will only share eventful nights and dream content will only be included if it is of particular interest -
Spoiler for 04/01/15 - 2015 LD #1 (217) - Superman Flying Over Town + 4 frags, 1 Natural Awakening:
Spoiler for 07/01/15 - 1 Semi-lucid + 1 Fragment, 1 Natural Awakening:
Spoiler for 08/01/15 - 1 Epic resulting in lucidity + 1 dream and 3 fragments, 1 natural/micro awakening (MA):
Spoiler for 19/01/15 - 3 Natural Awakenings, 7 fragments:
Spoiler for 20/01/15 - 2 Natural Awakenings, 9 fragments:
Spoiler for 21/01/15 - 1 Semi-lucid, 1 NLD:
Spoiler for 22-23/01/15 - most vivid prelucid ever, 6 dreams:
Spoiler for 23-24/01/15 - (Epic) Deja vu in a dream:
26-27/01/15
Bedtime: 11
Rise time: 8
Sleep quality: 62%
Supplements: multivit, peppermint tea
WBTB: 3:15-4
Natural Awakenings: 2, 3:15 and unrecorded
Nap: 9:30-11:30
Daytime practice:
- Mindfulness meditation (5mins) [x]
- 5+ RDAT []
Nighttime practice:
- Mahamudra metta meditation 10mins [x]
- Waking life recall [x]
- Read DJ, relive old dreams [x]
- MILD goal incubation "I want to remember I am dreaming, look at my hands and carry out my task of..." [x]
- "I wake after every dream and remember the dream", "wake up, remember" natural awakening priming [x]
- Yoga Nidra [x]
- Middle of the night meditation (5 mins, 8:30) [x]
- MILD "The next scene is a dream", "Here and now, dream, hands"[x]
- WILD attempt []
- SSILD [x]
Recall:
LDs: 0
NLDs: 3, 1 full dream, 2 fragments
Goals:
- Catch 2 natural awakenings nightly [x]
- Recall at least 1 epic nightly []
- Become aware of waking from a dream []
- Induce an LD []
Task:
- control the view of the dream
- basic and advanced TotM
- Sensei's competition
-- Go to the RR Cafe from Twin Peaks
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
Having said that. Really gone all out today. Vibrate alarm every 90 minutes for SAT, ADA, multiple seated mediation sessions. Gonna rack up some points in Sensei's competition tonight methinks.
I'm gonna start trying for WILDs on nights when I don't have work in the morning. Even though this is a DILD class (Sageous' class isn't based on workbooks), here's my tentative self-made technique:
WIP WILD Tech - Seeing through closed eyelids
Set up natural awakenings
3 Dream Seed Recall
Piss if needed
MILD
Natural awakening priming again
Lie down on back and do flex-freeze relaxation
Then focus on the feeling of sinking into mattress
Judge it by ear when to start mantra
"Wake up, Remember" (for further natural awakenings) "Here and now, dream, hands" (for possible MILD if WILD fails) "Emptiness" (for maximum zen)
When the first sleep wave comes roll onto side
Start mantra now if not already
Start seed visualising bedroom
Maintain until transition
I've always had seeing through my closed lids HH, and even transitioned from it on one ocassion, and I feel like this approach is best suited to me based on my experience from previous attempts.
Bedtime: 11:30
Rise time: 9:30
Sleep quality: 76%
Attachment 8137
Supplements: camomile tea, multivit
WBTB: 5:30-6
Natural Awakenings: 3:15, 5:30, 8:00
Recall -
- LDs: 1
- NLDs: 3
Tasks: Look at my hands, practice self awareness, teleport to RR Diner, eat a slice of cherry pie, talk to Dale Cooper
Daytime practice:
- Mindfulness meditation (10 mins) [x]
- 5+ SAT/RDAT [x]
Nighttime practice:
- Read dream journal/waking life recall [x]
- MicroWBTB priming, 500-1000ml of water + "I wake up after every dream and remember my dreams - wake up remember" mantras [x]
LD Entry: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/ctha...tempt-1-63892/
Having read this great post by Memm: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ml#post2145285 I decided to reduce my practice to the core fundamentals: meditation, SAT, microWBTB and recall: with the attitude that I wouldn't even think about trying to induce lucidity I had my 2 micros and dream recall work for the night done; and that I had already done everything I could to make myself lucid, now all I had to do was sleep. I was rewarded with breaking my dry spell and the highest level lucid of the year so far, fully remembering my goals.
I have also realised that my waking life recall practice before bedtime is getting so vivid and detailed that I'll need to start writing stuff down. My dream recall and day memory is starting to get crazy good, and all of a sudden I'm vividly recalling life events from years ago while I'm meditating.
Bedtime: 11:40
Rise time: 8:27
Sleep quality: 80%
Supplements: half a 330ml beer, peppermint tea, liquorice allsorts, multivit
WBTB: no
Natural Awakenings: 0:38, ~1:50, ~4:40, ~6:30
Recall -
- LDs: 1
- NLDs: 1
Daytime practice:
- Mindfulness meditation (15mins) [x]
- 5+ SAT/RDAT []
Nighttime practice:
- Read dream journal/waking life recall []
- MicroWBTB priming, 500-1000ml of water + "I wake up *throughout the night* and remember my dreams - wake up remember" mantras [x]
*****
I tried out a mantra for microWBTB priming that I remembered was effective a while back and it triggered hella natural awakenings! I drank nearly a pint of water before sleep and then woke an hour later to piss it away! Unfortunately a mixture of exhaustion from work and weird dietry choices seemed to prevent me from capitalising on the awakenings for recall.
http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/ctha...-mirror-64033/
Bedtime: 00:23
Rise time: 6:30
Nap: 7:30- 9:30
Sleep quality: 68%
Supplements: multivit
WBTB: 6:30-7:30
Natural Awakenings: 0
Recall -
- LDs: 1
- NLDs: 0
Daytime practice:
- Mindfulness meditation (stage 1 samadhi, 10mins) [x]
- 5+ SAT/RDAT [x]
Nighttime practice:
- Mahamudra metta meditation [x]
- Read dream journal/waking life recall [x]
- MicroWBTB priming, 500-1000ml of water + "I wake up throughout the night and remember my dreams - wake up remember" mantras [x]
Commentary: After a string of stressful days at work my recall has hit rock bottom again and is pretty much as it was at the beginning of the month. What's worse, my efforts at inducing microWBTB seem to be failing, I'll sleep through whatever urination urge, no matter how much water I drink. On the plus side, the LDs are coming easily now. This one resulted like most of the others so far this year, returning to bed after walking the dog early in the morning :)
I attempted WILD but ended up getting tired of not falling asleep on my back. I rolled over and fell asleep fairly quickly. I think I need a stronger anchor that requires less effort (if that makes sense). Simply imagining my mantra being spoken to me kept me too awake for too long, and was difficult to maintain when I was starting to properly fall asleep.
I find that both noticing middle of the night wakings and high levels of recall depend on being well-rested, stress-free, and free of any important early morning appointments. Otherwise the mind is just pulled away immediately to waking life troubles/to-do lists.
Recall can come back, suddenly. I had a few low recall nights, followed this morning by a late morning back to sleep after a broken WBTB culminating in a lot of non-lucid dream scenes a quick LD at the end. Just keep trying for recall and don't stress if it doesn't come. When you have the opportunity, spend more time on recall. When you can't, just record what you have and start getting excited about the upcoming night.
03/04/2015 - no recall, WILD attempt
Bedtime: 00:24
Rise time: 06:58
Sleep quality: 73%
Supplements: 3 espressos during the day
WBTB: 7-8:30
Natural Awakenings: 6:00
WILD attempt: yes
Recall -
- LDs: 0
- NLDs: 0
Tasks: connect with waking memory
Daytime practice:
- Zhine meditation (10 minutes sustained attention of the present moment) [x]
- 5+ SAT/RDAT ("catch the dream"/changing the karmic traces practice) [x]
- Lucid living
Nighttime practice:
- Mahamudra metta meditation [x]
- Strengthening intention [x]
- MicroWBTB priming, 500-1000ml of water + "I wake up throughout the night and remember my dreams - wake up remember" mantras []
- Dream yoga []
- Cultivating memory []
Waking Recall:
-Listening to Sauna with Jack
-The superb bagel lunch I ate
-Teaching Jack the method of loci
-The transcendental dog walk listening to Sauna and looking at the full moon
-Listening to Sauna with Dad
WILD Attempt: 8:30
-I lie down and flex freeze, try a few reverse blinks but stop pretty quickly due to lack of effectiveness.
-I started carrying out a simplified version of the yoga nidra exercise on youtube. This swiftly led to lots of sleep waves
-timing my mantra or counting with the breath, or focusing on breath seemed to prevent falling asleep
-paying passive attention with a free floating state of mind to my body or looking towards my brow seemed to strike the right balance with falling asleep - visualising the moon at my brow
-once or twice actually saw the moon - HH
-or through my closed lids
-couldn't strike the right balance between mantra and observing breath, not controlling it
-emptiness mantra doesn't seem to be working
-a lot of tossing and turning, couldn't fall asleep on back?
-staying awake too long?
-roll onto side after first sleep wave and start chakra visualisation, then stay like that?
@FryingMan: I burnt out and I'll try not to force it from now on. I was reading the Tibetan Yogas just now and it was saying in one bit that if you fall asleep with your presence and intent on a red Ah syllable and lotus or dot at your throat you will be present when waking from dreams.
But here's my log for today!
04-05/01/15
Bedtime: 23:59
Rise time: 06:57
Sleep quality: 73%
Supplements: peppermint tea
WBTB: no
muWBTB: no
Natural Awakenings:
WILD Attempt: yes
Recall -
- LDs: 0
- NLDs: 0
Tasks: connect to waking life memory
Daytime practice:
- Mindfulness meditation (10mins sustained attention on the present moment) [x]
- 5+ SAT/RDAT (changing the karmic traces/removing grasping and aversion) [x]
Nighttime practice:
- Mahamudra metta meditation [x]
- Strengthening intention [x]
- MicroWBTB priming, 500-1000ml of water + "I wake up throughout the night and remember my dreams - wake up remember" mantras or auto-dismiss alarm [x]
- Hand flex muWBTB []
- Dream Yoga []
- Cultivating memory []
Waking Recall:
Listening to sauna on headphones
-Jack getting home from school, did well in his test
-receiving sauna lp in the post
-Listening to clear moon while dog walking
-Lentil soup for dinner
-Watching wolf hall on TV
WILD attempt:
- I feel very numb quite quickly from doing flex freeze
-however, the sleep waves do not start coming for a while
-when it does, the vibrations are weak
-I feel I have been on the yoga nidra stage for a long time and just decide to roll on to my side and start the WISP (Ryan Hurd technique, focus eyes on brow, listen for HI) stage
-But i feel like I am straining my eyes too much, this does not feel like an effective anchor and focussing on my eyes along with not wanting to let myself go because I don't trust the anchor keeps me awake
-I get uncomfortable and roll onto my back again
-but I realise i won't fall asleep this way and roll onto my side
-after a while i get uncomfortable again and draw my legs up to my body in foetal position, I now resolve to fall asleep no matter what
-and switch from WISP to third eye chakra meditation
-i'm drawn into sleep very quickly
-get HH of looking at a mirror image of myself (again, lol)
-and then HH of sliding/rotating around, incl. off my bed, around my room
-I'm excited and trying to regulate my breathing which is going faster, trying to control it makes it laboured and uncomfortable
-I also try thinking about my desired scene, (the ball in Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet for Sensei's competition) I feel like my mind might be responding, but nothing comes of it
-after the sliding sensations subside I RC but I am awake
Notes: do third eye meditation instead of WISP.
Stop rolling over,
once I'm done with relaxing my body, roll onto side and start third eye meditating and commit to it.
keep meditating throughout the HH, it is not SP and I still need to keep falling asleep for the dream to form
Commentary: I don't know what happened here; I seemed to do everything right, thought I'd transitioned, only to be left lying in bed, still awake!
I've tried that dream yoga visualization of the dot in the throat and I never was able to fall asleep doing that. I think for me it requires long (multi-hour) WBTB doing something quiet and boring after only 4-5 hours of sleep in order to get REALLY tired with very strong drowsiness, before something like that can work for me. Or I need to just get a whole lot better at relaxation and turning off (but only partially!) my mind.
I would have thought that with all your current breath work, the more meditative techs would be the ideal way into WILD for you. I think relaxing your body insufficiently might be the biggest impediment to WILD. I use this technique https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkx88_3cD-s to relax my body until i feel like I'm on the brink of sleep, then I switch to my anchor
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. 1.5 years into my LDing journey and I'm pretty sure I've never pulled off what I understand to be a "real" WILD, starting from full wakefulness eventually transititioning into a dream with no lapse of continuity/consciousness before the dream starts. The few times I've actually entered a dream, there's always been a discontinuity as far as I can tell.
Took me 2 years to WILD by accident, and I'm still waiting for a deliberate WILD ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by FryingMan
11/02/15 - LD #226 WILD no. 4 (first intentional)
Bedtime: 01:28
Rise time: 06:57
Sleep quality: 65%
Supplements: none
WBTB: 7-9
Natural Awakenings: none
WILD Attempt: yes
Recall -
- LDs: 1
- NLDs: 0
Tasks: receive a valentine's note
Daytime practice:
- Mindfulness meditation []
- 5+ SAT/RDAT (changing the karmic traces/removing grasping and aversion) []
Nighttime practice:
- Mahamudra metta meditation []
- Strengthening intention []
- MicroWBTB priming, 500-1000ml of water + "I wake up throughout the night and remember my dreams - wake up remember" mantras []
-Auto dismiss alarm and fist flex muWBTB []
- Dream Yoga []
- Cultivating memory []
LD: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/ctha...ntional-64223/
Congratulations Ctharlhie!! Awesome to have your first intentional one!! What do you think was the key here?
Uh, sheer bloody-minded stubborness? In all seriousness, near 4 years of unsuccessful attempts under my belt which have made me uniquely familiar with how I fall asleep. WILD is truly different for each individual. While you may have the fundamentals pointed out to you, you won't have an effective technique until you have learned to navigate your own hypnagogic process (after which technique becomes near irrelevant, ironically).
Having said that, I think that the best way to teach WILD is a mixture of Mzzkc's theory, Sageous' practice, and Gab's technique. The method I settled on was to progressively relax my body while letting my mind wander (the importance of letting your brain fall asleep is overlooked) and then switching to my anchor only when the hypnagogic state has been reached. I think too many newbies start out with the anchor from the beginning of their dive when they are not already far enough along to falling asleep, which leads to dives of an hour or more (although I didn't mention it in my DJ the whole WILD - dive and LD - took less than 45 minutes).
So there's my thoughts on WILD. Maybe if I start having hundreds of WILDs I'll write up "the ultimate anti-technique WILD" guide.
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
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ctharlhie
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:
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?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ctharlhie
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
Still, pretty impressive! I can tell you about Daniel Love's mnemonic system in a pm if you like?Quote:
Originally Posted by FryingMan
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 :D
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:
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.
1st-3rd: 1 LD
4th-10th: 2 LDs
11th-17th: 2LDs
18th-24th: 2 LDs
25th-30th: 3 LDs
Total: 10 LDs
Goals:
Look at hands at the beginning of every LD
Teleport every LD
Do something to change the 'dream script' every LD (ie. don't just wander aimlessly, interrupting the narrative)
For the 30 days of April I'm going to carry dream yoga as my induction methodology.
I'm mainly drawing this from a simplification of The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Dreaming Yourself Awake by B. Allan Wallace.
This is going to be used in tandem with what I've learned from vibrate alarm DEILD.
The idea is simple: fall asleep doing a dream yoga visualisation, every time I am woken by an alarm, resume the visualisation.
The theory is that by the end of the month this should begin to foster awareness throughout the night.
Good luck. :) I can't wait to see how this works for you. If I focus too much on visualization, I often have amnesia, too little and I have no control in my incubation. :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Ctharlhie
Interesting. Could you elaborate on how visualisation causes you to have amnesia?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sensei
No lucids, but I remembered four dreams. Tonight I'm going to switch from the Tibetan A (ཨ) to the Latin A as my object of visualisation. The Tibetan character was just too unfamiliar to call to mind and visualise vividly during such a brief and shallow awakening.
To summarise, this is my methodology for the month:
- Daily meditation
- Lucid living/mindfulness
- Dream yoga (visualisation at the throat)
- Vibrate alarms for brief awakening, resuming visualisation each time
For some reason, probably lack of repetition, I have trouble visualizing things in my throat :). If I find I'm spending too much effort on that, I switch to visualizing it in front of my eyes, or in the "3rd eye" region in the middle of the forehead.
For example, the lotus flower is a pretty challenging visualization to begin with, but trying to also place it in my throat area is even more challenging. I keep finding my physical eyes trying to "look down".
Vowing to "pay attention to the night" can also really help. Specific intention not just to "black out until morning."
So much for "30 days of Dream Yoga", eh. That month I also happened to be entering the last phase of writing my dissertation. No surprises LDing promptly fell off a cliff. The good news is that I'm now going weeks rather than months of losing focus, and lucidity is still regular (1-2 a week), but I'm not aiming for regular, I want nightly lucidity - isn't that the dream? ;)
I've been steadily building my dream yoga practice over the last couple of weeks, the new book by Andrew Holecek being the catalyst, resulting in a the development of a nice "hot streak". Last week I had 4 nights w/ lucidity. I also had a very vivid LD from a lengthy "epic" (ala Sensei's categorisation) after a WBTB this morning. Here is the log for the dream:
Bedtime: 11:30(ish)
Rise time: 10:00
WBTB: 6:30-8:00; micro-wbtb at 2:44; 05:03, other spontaneous awakenings
Daytime practice:
- Zazen (15mins) [x]
- Mindfulness/illusory form practice
Nighttime practice:
- MILD (at the end of wbtb) [x]
- Red lotus dream yoga
Technique:
sleep cycle alarms with 90 minute margin for micro-wbtb and dream yoga
WBTB - affirmation “Very soon, when I am dreaming, I want to remember to realise I’m dreaming”, then visualised becoming lucid
Went back to bed doing body scan WILD technique without intent to actually WILD
Notes:
Dream yoga/illusory form + microwbtb alarms resulting in higher clarity, more recall and more spontaneous awakenings after dreams
The body scan returning to sleep from WBTB seems to crucial, with far more successful WBTB's w/body scan - even if it does not result in a WILD.
It's always good to see you around Ctharlhie :) Congrats on the 4 night week and getting back into your practices and finishing your dissertation it sounds like! I should have kept better records of my practices over the years like you are doing here in your workbook. I started one late in another spot, but better late than never. Your format of record keeping (your post above as an example) is a good one to copy for any others out there reading this.
Yes, welcome back! I hit quite a hot streak as well from the Holecek book, it really reinvigorated me! I'm also doing the Ah/Lotus visualizations and I like them a lot.
