Haven't been doing it for a couple of days, I've been waking up writing down my dreams, takes 10-15 minutes maybe 20, by the time I've wrote them in too awake to perform ssild.
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Me Hannah, Jacko and some other person was in some bedroom, that person I didn't really known, ended up in another dimension and I wondered how I could get there, like running across the walls like there is no gravity, it partly worked but something was missing so I stopped, and seen some type of teleported so as I got up to it, I put my finger on the green button and I teleport! I'm back in the same room and I feel like I've done this before. Hannah and Jack suddenly get here, I realise that we are all asleep since we can into here, I noticed how it felt weird to be awake in a dream, it felt like wasn't asleep at all. I was assuming to myself whether it was a lucid dream or not then Hannah asked if I have been practising lucid dreaming, I thought about it for a second and said no because I kinda got embarrassed. To test that it was a lucid I tried to do some dream control, I knew that it probably wouldn't of worked on the first to but I done it anyway, I seen the bear put my hands out and imagined that it will start floating up, it started floating up! I threw the bear at the door and thought I should probably get make it stay in the air and bring it back to myself. It never happened. I decided that I wanted to try and fly, I literally just doing the dimming stroke and I am up on the air. I hear Hannah's mum outside the door ( in the dream) and I don't want to wake up.
Lucid dream?or dream about lucid dreaming?
Sounds like a lucid dream or very very close - looks like you kinda knew you are dreaming from the way you were questioning and playing things out! Weldone Habba - this is very good :dancingcow:
Because of your embarrassment when Hannah asked you the question about ur lucid dreaming practice ...it's possible you were low level lucid at this moment because when your lucidity is strong you just don't care what folk say coz your so sure ' It's a dream!'
Do you feel you were truly aware you were dreaming? Even just for a moment or two?
(I think the site ate my first reply).
Generally lucidity is pretty obvious, especially when you think "This is a dream" or "I am dreaming." But there are certainly subtle, low-levels of lucidity where you're just not sure afterwards.
Dreams about lucid dreaming usually are where the subject of lucid dreaming comes up but not in relation to you directly, like, "I heard Joe is a lucid dreamer!", or (like what happened to me right before my first LD) where you observe someone else having a lucid dream. When you're thinking thoughts like "is this a dream or not?" you're just on the very verge of lucidity.
When you have your first solid LD, you'll know, through and through, that it's a LD.
What I find so beautiful about this is your connection to your friends and family. It is because your connection to them has always been so wholesome that them turning into a dream is so natural. It is starting to make me cry. What a pure and awesome but simple day to day experience. Most of your dreams are about day to day events that are closely related to your day time life. I would encourage you stronger to keep your actions pure in dreams and translate them to everyday life. If you start doing whatever you want in dreams and not care so much about your friends and family then you won't be able to transfer the knowledge of the dream into everyday life. Dreams will just be dreams and life well that will just be life. Seeing how people are in dreams even though they are short automatically demands kindness to them otherwise you will be on your own in dream and daily life and that is not much point. To finally connect with your family and friends like this is a miracle. It might not seem that way now but start being aware of them more and then naturally you will find more and more happiness. The following is from Tenzin Wangal "Dream Yoga" book. It is the Four Foundational Pracitces of Tibetan Dream Yoga this teaching goes back in an unbroken pure transmission to Tibet and then to India and the Buddha. Ask ThreeCat more about this if you are interested she has been to his talks herself. The second foundational practice is the important one where you work with negative emotions and find more happiness in life for yourself and your family and friends.
ONE: CHANGING THE KARMIC TRACES
A version of the first foundational practice is rather well known in the West,
because dream researchers and others interested in dream have found that it
helps to generate lucid dreaming. It is as follows: throughout the day, practice
the recognition of the dream-like nature of life until the same recognition begins
to manifest in dream.
Upon waking in the morning, think to yourself, "I am awake in a dream."
When you enter the kitchen, recognize it as a dream kitchen. Pour dream milk
into dream coffee. "It's all a dream," you think to yourself, "this is a dream."
Remind yourself of this constantly throughout the day.
The emphasis should actually be on you, the dreamer, more than on the
objects of your experience. Keep reminding yourself that you are dreaming up
your experiences: the anger you feel, the happiness, the fatigue, the anxiety it
is all part of the dream. The oak tree you appreciate, the car you drive, the
person to whom you are talking, are all part of the dream. In this way a new
tendency is created in the mind, that of looking at experience as insubstantial,
transient, and intimately related to the mind's projections. As phenomena are
seen to be fleeting and without essence, grasping decreases. Every sensory
encounter and mental event becomes a reminder of the dream-like nature of
experience. Eventually this understanding will arise in dream and lead to the
recognition of the dream state and the development of lucidity.
There are two ways to understand the declaration that everything is a dream.
The first is to look upon it as a method to change the karmic traces. Doing this
practice, like all practices, changes the way one engages the world. By
changing habitual and largely unconscious reactions to phenomena, the
qualities of life and dream change. When we think of an experience as "only a
dream" it is less "real" to us. It loses power over us power that it only had
because we gave it power and can no longer disturb us and drive us into
negative emotional states. Instead, we begin to encounter all experience with
greater calm and increased clarity, and even with greater appreciation. In this
sense, the practice works psychologically by altering the meaning that we
project onto what is beyond conceptual meaning. As we view experience
differently, we change our reaction to it, which changes the karmic remnants of
actions, and the root of dreaming changes.
The second way of understanding the practice is to realize that waking life is
actually the same as dream, that the entirety of normal experience is made up of
the mind's projections, that all meaning is imputed, and that whatever we
experience is due to the influence of karma. Here we are talking about the
subtle and pervasive work of karma, the endless cycle of cause and effect that
creates the present from the traces of the past, which it does through the
continual conditioning that results from every action. This is one way of
articulating the realization that all phenomena are empty and that the apparent
self-nature of beings and objects is illusory. There is not an actual "thing"
anywhere in waking life just as in a dream but only transient, essenceless
appearances, arising and self-liberating in the empty, luminous base of
existence. Fully realizing the truth of the statement, "This is a dream," we are
freed of the habits of erroneous conception and therefore freed from the
diminished life of samsara in which fantasy is mistaken for reality. We are
necessarily present when this realization comes, as it is then true that there is no
place else to be. And there is no stronger method of bringing consistent lucidity
to dream than by abiding continuously in lucid presence during the day.
As stated above, an important part of this practice is to experience yourself
as a dream. Imagine yourself as an illusion, as a dream figure, with a body that
lacks solidity. Imagine your personality and various identities as projections of
mind. Maintain presence, the same lucidity you are trying to cultivate in dream,
while sensing yourself as insubstantial and transient, made only of light. This
creates a very different relationship with yourself that is comfortable, flexible,
and expansive.
In doing these practices, it is not enough to simply repeat again and again
that you are in a dream. The truth of the statement must be felt and experienced
beyond the words. Use the imagination, senses, and awareness in fully
integrating the practice with felt experience. When you do the practice properly,
each time you think that you are in a dream, presence becomes stronger and
experience more vivid. If there is not this kind of immediate qualitative change,
make certain that the practice has not become only the mechanical repetition of
a phrase, which is of little benefit. There is no magic in just thinking a formula;
the words should be used to remind yourself to bring greater awareness and
calm to the moment. When practicing the recognition, "wake" yourself by
increasing clarity and presence again and again. until just remembering the
thought, "This is a dream," brings a simultaneous strengthening and brightening
of awareness
This is the first preparation, to see all life as a dream. It is to be applied in the
moment of perception and before a reaction arises. It is a potent practice in
itself and greatly affects the practitioner. Remain in this awareness and you will
experience lucidity both while awake and during dream.
There is one warning regarding this practice: it is important to take care of
responsibilities and to respect the logic and limitations of conventional life.
When you tell yourself that your waking life is a dream, this is true, but if you
leap from a building you will still fall, not fly.
If you do not go to work, bills will go unpaid. Plunge your hand in a fire and
you will be burned. It is important to remain grounded in the realities of the
relative world, because as long as there is a "you" and "me," there is a relative
world in which we live, other sentient beings who are suffering, and
consequences from the decisions we make.
TWO: REMOVING GRASPING AND AVERSION
The second foundational practice works to further decrease grasping and
aversion. Whereas the first preparation is applied in the moment of
encountering phenomena and before a reaction occurs, the second practice is
engaged after a reaction has arisen. Essentially they are the same practice,
distinguished only by the situation in which the practice is applied and by the
object of attention. The first practice directs lucid awareness and the recognition
of phenomena as a dream toward everything that is encountered: sense objects,
internal events, one's own body, and so forth. The second preparation
specifically directs the same lucid awareness to emotionally shaded reactions
that occur in response to the elements of experience.
Ideally the practice should be applied as soon as any grasping or aversion
arises in response to an object or situation. The grasping mind may manifest its
reaction as desire, anger, jealousy, pride, envy, grief, despair, joy, anxiety,
depression, fear, boredom, or any other emotional reaction.
When a reaction arises, remind yourself that you, the object, and your
reaction to the object are all dream. Think to yourself, "This anger is a dream.
This desire is a dream. This indignation, grief, exuberance, is a dream." The
truth in this statement becomes clear when you pay attention to the inner
processes that produce emotional states: you literally dream them up through a
complex interaction of thoughts, images, bodily states, and sensations.
Emotional reactivity does not originate "out there" in objects. It arises, is
experienced, and ceases in you.
There is an infinite variety of stimuli to which you may react: attraction may
arise at the sight of a beautiful man or woman, anger at a driver that cuts in
front of you, disgust or sorrow at a ruined environment, anxiety and worry
about a situation or person, and so on. Every situation and reaction should be
recognized as a dream. Do not just slap the sentence onto a piece of your
experience; try to actually feel the dream-like quality of your inner life. When
this assertion is actually felt, not just thought, the relationship to the situation
changes, and the tight, emotional grip on phenomena relaxes. The situation
becomes clearer and more spacious, and grasping and aversion are directly
recognized as the uncomfortable constrictions that they truly are. This is a
powerful antidote to the state of near possession and obsession that negative
emotional states create. Direct and certain experience of using this practice to
untie the knot of negative emotion is the beginning of the real practice of
lucidity and flexibility that leads to consequent freedom. With consistent
practice, even strong states of anger, depression, and other states of unhappiness
can be released. When they are, they dissolve.
The teachings generally refer to this particular practice as a method to give
up attachments. There are healthy and unhealthy ways to give these up. It does
one little good to suppress desires; they are then transformed into internal
turmoil or external condemnations and intolerance. And it also works against
spiritual development to attempt to flee from pain through distraction or by
tightening the body in order to choke off experience. It can be healthy to give
up worldly life and become a monk or a nun or it can be an unhealthy attempt
to escape difficult experiences through suppression and avoidance.
Dream yoga cuts attachment by reorganizing the perception and
understanding of the object or situation, by altering the view and thus allowing
the practitioner to see through the illusory appearance of an object to its radiant,
light-like reality. As the practice progresses, objects and situations are not only
experienced with greater clarity and vividness but are also recognized as
ephemeral, insubstantial, and fleeting. This levels the relative importance of
phenomena and diminishes the grasping and aversion based on preference.
THREE: STRENGTHENING INTENTION
The third preparation involves reviewing the day before going to sleep, and
strengthening the intention to practice during the night. As you prepare for
sleep, allow the memories of the day to arise. Whatever comes to mind
recognize as a dream. The memories most likely to arise are of those
experiences strong enough to affect the coming dreams. During this review,
attempt to experience the memories that arise as memories of dreams. Memory
is actually very similar to dream. Again, this is not about automatic labeling, a
ritual of repeating "It was a dream," over and over. Try to truly comprehend the
dream-like nature of your experience, the projections that sustain it, and feel the
difference of relating to experience as a dream.
Then develop the strong determination to recognize the dreams of the night
for what they are. Make the strongest intention possible to know directly and
vividly, while dreaming, that you are dreaming. The intention is like an arrow
that awareness can follow during the night, an arrow directed at lucidity in
dream. The Tibetan phrase we use for generating intention translates as
"sending a wish." We should have that sense here, that we are making prayers
and intentions and sending them to our teachers and to the buddhas and deities,
promising to try to remain in awareness and asking for their help. There are
other practices that can be done before falling asleep, but this one is available to
all.
FOUR: CULTIVATING MEMORY AND JOYFUL EFFORT
The fourth foundational practice is engaged upon awaking in the morning. It
further cultivates strong intention and also strengthens the capacity to remember
the events of the night.
Begin by reviewing the night. The Tibetan term for this preparation is
literally "remembering." Did you dream? Were you aware that you were in a
dream? If you dreamed but did not attain lucidity, you should reflect, "I
dreamed but did not recognize the dream as a dream. But it was a dream."
Resolve that next time you enter a dream you will become aware of its true
nature while still in the dream.
If you find it difficult to remember dreams, it can be helpful, throughout the
day and particularly before sleep, to generate a strong intention to remember
dreams. You can also record dreams in a notepad or with a tape recorder, as this
will reinforce the habit of treating your dreams as something valuable. The very
act of preparing the notebook or recorder at night serves to support the intention
to recall the dream upon waking. It is not difficult for anyone to remember
dreams once the intention to do so is generated and sustained, even over just a
few days.
If you did have a lucid dream, feel joy at the accomplishment. Develop
happiness relative to the practice and resolve to continue to develop the lucidity
the following night. Keep building intention, using both successes and failures
as occasions to develop ever stronger intent to accomplish the practice. And
know that even your intention is a dream.
Finally, during the morning period, generate a strong intention to remain
consistent in the practice throughout the day. And pray with your full heart for
success; prayer is like a magical power that we all have and forget to use.
This practice merges into the first foundational practice, recognizing all
experience as a dream. In this fashion the practice becomes uninterrupted
around the wheel of day and night.
Thank you, the three of you for your input.
I've took some time to examine this dream, sometimes the smallest things are what matters most. That being said, it was a dream within a dream. You know how we go around in dreams thinking as if it's reality? That's what the first dream was and when I teleported, it was another dream and then that's where the question of being of lucidity sparked. I would say it was a false lucid as I thought dream one was reality when it was not.
Hi Habba/Josh :) I am sorry I have been away from your workbook for over a week. I barely popped onto dreamviews but for a few quick posts over the last couple of days due to being very busy.
As someone striving for your first LD, I think you should be very encouraged by the dream you had! :) Whatever your dream was can come down to interpretation, and your own interpretation is the most important since you were the only one who experienced it, but I wanted to chime in. I see in your last post that you are leaning towards it being a false lucid. This tells me that you have been reading about false lucids and I personally think that you should put thoughts of false lucids out of your mind *until after you have had a good high level lucid dream*. This is the type FryingMan related as: "When you have your first solid LD, you'll know, through and through, that it's a LD." That is referring to a solid LD and you can see his other notes about lower level LDs. I think knowing what a false lucid is, is very important, just that it is not something that you personally should give much contemplation until after you've had a strong lucid dream to fall back on. Doubt can be powerful and we see examples everywhere. Sometimes doubt makes some ostensibly smart people truly question things as possibly being false that have huge levels of scientific consensus (earth being more than 5k years old, climate change).
My interpretation after reading your dream post is that you had a low level lucid dream, above the semi-lucid level. Though I am not saying "Jackpot! You got it!", I am saying that I think that you took a very important step up on the path to high level lucid dreams. Most all of us have a non-lucid dream or segment before the lucid segment, so just because you were not aware that you were dreaming in the previous segment before you teleported doesn't mean that your lucidity wasn't bumped up above semi-lucid once you performed that dream-only action. I sometimes question how to categorize a dream within a dream like your describe. An example is laying down in a dream to induce a lucid dream, perhaps a false awakening, having no clue you are already dreaming but as you start your induction technique crazy stuff starts happening or your find yourself in a new scene and then you know you are dreaming. Though not a WILD since you were not actually awake when starting the attempt, I would argue against anyone that would not call it a DILD and thus a valid lucid dream from the point of realization forward. Dream actions like your teleporting are sometimes what bump me up from semi-lucid to lucid since I don't regularly dream about dream only actions since adulthood unless I am semi-lucid, and I am not a video gamer. An example: I am in a crowd trying to get through it faster and I start getting semi-lucid ideas "If I were dreaming…wait…I can float up over this crowd and fly, aha!!" Other times in those scenarios I might stay semi-lucid and not get that strong aha type realization or yet other times I understand I am dreaming but more on the hazy side of awareness which I might characterize a low level lucid.
Several components need to be in place for higher level lucid dreams. I don't want to formulate my own outline for this so I will defer to author Daniel Love who speaks of them as the 3 pillars of lucidity (check out his book) -
- Psychological preparation (everything we do while awake to prepare, RC's etc.)
- Timing - attempting induction after ~4.5 to 5 hours of sleep and, when possible, timing falling back to sleep to when REM is imminent.
- Brain Chemistry - from more simple things like not consuming counterproductive substances and consuming natural foods that aid in memory, to considerations (perhaps in the future of your practice) of whether or not to take a supplement like Galantamine to aid brain chemistry.
^^ And the importance of timing is not to be underestimated, same as WBTB (which is included in the "brain chemistry" category). In many of my higher level LDs, I have spent (sometimes a LOT) of time awake beforehand.
I'm back, went through a recent break up with so now I'm back and can focus fully on my lucid dreaming goals.
Last night's dream - I was with Hannah and some other girl I don't know, we was walking by a forest, there where some tress and stones about, it was very vivid. The dream lead to me giving the other girl a ciggarette and everytime I done this she gave me a blowjob, Hannah was walking ahead and couldn't see us. Very vivid dream.
I wouldn't of dream of cheating in reality though.
Time to go buy up cigarettes! Haha just kidding. Welcome back!
Great to see you back Josh! :) ^Yeah, two kinds of smoking!
Been thinking about lucid dreaming lately, been making the intention to remember my dreams.
Since I haven't spoke to my family or seen them in years it felt great to see them in my dream last night.
Hi Josh, I hope all is well! Maybe it would be a good time to reach out and make contact with your family. :) I hope to see you around more!
I've been looking through my workbook and was taking note of the progress I had made, apart of my practice was consistant at the time I believe, practising day in day out despite having my doubts of what I was doing.
Trying to catch up on on my recall, another dream about my family, should of wrote this dream down but kind of let it slipped so it's from the top of my head, it was my birthday and for some reason everything felt so colourful and vibrant, we was planning somewhere to go for my birthday but its slopes my mind, it turned out family through me a surprise party.
Getting recall back up is a must! Barely even remember 1 dream per night, but that's okay, 1 is better than none, Right?
Reality checks is another must
I'm quite interested in DEIlD so I'm going to practice that also!
Yes, you are correct. Consistency with the fundamentals is important. Good catch!
One recalled is absolutely better than none it's getting you back on track. :) I remember when I hardly ever remembered a dream in a night and still speak to people on a regular basis who think that they don't dream anymore.
If you are motivated for DEILD, it can be fun and useful to add to your practice. If it is going to work, it will work rather quickly after waking and going back to sleep.
Recall is the basis of all dreaming practice: set some goals, get excited about increasing your recall, stay consistent in your practice, and it will return and keep building higher!
thinking I've found my WBTB time, I've got to get up early in the morning, and stay up for a few hours then have a little power nap around 12ish in the afternoon, the reason for this being is when I go back to sleep I have the most vivid, stable, realistic dreams, which almost feel like reality. I wake up from these dreams feeling abit sad but they feel so real I actually wish they where reality haha, so I'm on my way to finding when my dreams are most vivid and work with it from there
Great! Keep working on finding what work for you and then practice it!
And I was right! I took a power nap and had yet another realistic dream, everything was so in detail! I found my WBTB :D although I wasn't lucid, I'm so proud that I've find something that I can finally work with! These dream feels as if it's reality? It's crazy, I actually feel as if I'm there!
Currently on my WBTB, I had a really restless night, but this is what I've got.
I had my own flat, like I do in reality but it's much different, we was smoking weed in there and the I was worried of your tenant was going to come up so I had to get rid of it and spray my room and lock the door. I went over to the shop to buy a new pair of trainers, ordered them but seemed to go to lane to actually pay for them, I realise this after walking out and ask my friend to pretend to be me and go and get them, I'm back at my flat with this awesome girl? I get the impression she wants sex, so o try to make a move but she's having none of it lol. Again, smoking weed in the apartment, i start to wonder where my friend is and when be actually got back he said they didn't have the shoes there so we forgot about it, I remember that we went back out and left the door unlocked and seem that the tenant had come out of my block of flats so I rushed up to see if she had been in my flat but she hasn't because as we walked up we seen that there had been new carpet put down and it looked really nice.
This bit was kind of weird. There was a girl that I thought was really nice looking, I called her gorgeous upon social media them next minute I see her outside, they where 3 girls outside but I'm trying to make out which one is her, as I walk out I finally find out which one it is but she never said anything to me.
Smoking weed again in my flat, I'm with a good friend of mine Chris, and we go outside on the wall, and we are having a little drink to celebrate, whatever reason it may be, I see another friend sitting on the wall but he's fails to recognise me because he's with a few other people that I do not know, a girl in reality I like has turned it and then everyone gets mad because I'm making some weird sound and it's echoing like its on a big speaker so I have a little tantrum and tell them to calm down as I feel like I haven't done anything wrong so I've snapped at Chris, which I would never do in reality and go upstairs and he follows me, we smoke some weed together and go back down, the girl I like hasn't even spoke to me since and I have a sense that she's cheating and speaking to someone other dude and I felt upset by that, boom, I wake up!
Browsing around the forum, and I see most beginners are setting dream goals, for when they become lucid, I believe this to very important but most
Members fail to mention the goal of becoming lucid and it makes me wonder.....
I'm awake now.
I was back facing my enemy, he kept snarling me so we went face to face, my old head teacher was there, it was in an empty room, normally I always attack him with my first but I tried a different approach, I went full found at him, and spared him, lifting him up, feeling the weight of his body and slamming him to the ground, it was as if we was back in school as I told th head teacher so expell him so she did, I was surprised and so was he because she just agreed straight away. The fighting stopped but everything was uneasy between me and him, but things seemed to go my way. There was some weird clothes store, like on Harry Potter where you go up the stairs and your took to different locations, basically a way to teleport :D as I was walking around the stairs I'm brought to a bunch of shops and meet and old friend called Jamie, he gave me a bike that I use to place on all the time as I kid so I took it and got off with it, time flew by and don't remember what happened, but I text him mentioning that I was alright and that I would be back soon, he read the message but I didn't get a reply. As time went by I got on the bike, It was asif I've never used it before, I didn't know how to ride to properly, it was a bycicle but it was operating like it was a motorbike and it was going fast, I had some control over the driving but not all, I entered a tight gap
And swerved around a couple of people ( one with a girl that was walking with a pram) as I leave this area and enter an open space I fall of it and see that a bunch of police officers are looking at me? I carry on and end up in the park I'm sitting down all muddy basically just relaxing, I check my phone and it's on 1% battery! I make my way back to the house, this time it's a different house, my old carers house actually? No one is in, there is money everywhere, I just wanted to take it but I knew that it weren't mine to take but it was hard for me, I was texting a friend If I could buy a certain amount of weed off him because I was seriously was going to take it, I'm searching everywhere for more money, but I leave it, everyone else comes in so I felt relieved that I didn't touch anything. I reach in my pocket to find that lots of tobacco had felt out so my friend helped me put it back in.
It is normally recommended to use a recent dream and one that you remember well and even better if you really felt present in the dream. If you want to try making one up I would suggest that it is a scenario that you can vividly visualize and also a scenario that you connect with strongly and emotionally. It's good to see you posting your dreams. :)
I'm awake really early because this dream really startled me, just going to have a ciggie then head back to sleep for a couple more hours, so looks like 2 wbtbs is on the cards for tonight! Gives me 2 chances to perform a mild :D yay
This dream I awoke from, I've had the dream before, I knew the plane driver, I knew his gave from somewhere, I knew where we was going on the plane, I knew the direction to where we was going, we was flying to turkey, I tried to confirm this to a DC but he was having none of it trying to prove me wrong but I stood by my thoughts and feeling and knew which location we was going, only if I would of put more though into it! Damn! If I would of asked the question "where have I seen his face before?" Then something could of clicked. Maybe next time ay
Back to sleep for me!