Thread: Spellbee's Workbook

A lot of those things are true for me as well:
1) I'm also a software engineer, and of similar age (20 years).
2) I started lucid dreaming ~2012, and have had ~300 so far. (I'm currently recording entries, but not counting them, so don't know the exact number atm)
3) Most of my lucids last year were also under 5 minutes. (this really bugged me as I only got ~1 a week)
4) Similar dream goals: remembering to stabilize (I'm really negligent on this), summoning my/a dream guide (only had one recurrent dc, but I want to make one my dream guide), creating more persistent dcs, and creating a persistent realm. (and of course, the one everyone wants, of nightly lucids)

However, I do not have a job, live on the opposite side of the country (Seattle), and don't do any ADA/mindfulness or the like (well, other than when specifically prompted by suspicious events) -- so there are also some clear differences. (oh, and I don't have a cat avatar)

Spellbee! A warm welcome to you! You're also known as the creator of the new wings…I love them!

You probably know all this already, but I find reminders are helpful many times...

Originally Posted by spellbee2

Short Term Goals:
- Practice ADA/Mindfulness regularly during the day
- Remember to stabilize in every lucid
- Summon my DG more often
- Get back to my old lucidity rate (1 every 2-3 nights)

-There seem to be so many benefits to mindfulness that you can't go wrong with it.
-I really like rehearsing the moment of becoming lucid during the day and then going through what I want to do next, like stabilization, goals etc. Personally, I feel that simulating an RC showing that I'm dreaming intensifies the effect of really feeling that moment. I like rising up on my toes while looking up or to the side and up which gives a slight sensation of floating. I also sometimes stick out a 6th finger from my other hand since I commonly have 6 fingers when I look at my hands in a dream.
-You can work this in to the above daytime rehearsal if that is a practice that fits for you and just say if you want more ideas.
-Since you've done it before, you know you can do it again!

Long Term Goals:
- Summon/create more persistent DCs
- Create and populate a persistent realm
- Get lucid every night

-I am at the stage where I have to summon my favorite DC - again the daytime rehearsal is great for remembering to do this or remembering anything you want to do in your LDs.
-Not my strength or focus yet. I am guessing you've seen Sensei's thread on this. I am guessing it is very handy for this.
-I believe this is achievable. I think the most I have done is 6 nights in a row but it didn't feel like I was overdoing anything, but rather that I was overconfident thinking that I didn't need to put in the same effort. I think that was what kept the streak from going to 7 nights and possibly beyond.
-I am a big proponent of WBTB if you can fit them in.

Alright you are looking for some accountability so I expect to see regular posts in your workbook friend!

Thanks for the welcome! I don't mind the pointers - it's always nice to get back to basics every now and then. I've seen Sensei's thread about persistent realms around, but I haven't fully read it yet - might be good to check it out. And I try to WBTB whenever I can, but this last week I've been working on a programming project with a buddy of mine, and it's kinda pushed back my bedtime later than I'd like.

Exhibit A: Last night's atrocity. Despite trying to go to bed at 11pm, I ended up not going until 1am. Plus, I went to bed angry, since the reason I was up so late was my programming buddy being super nitpicky with my code and making me make little changes that ended up piling up for 2 hours... All that to say, hardly any recall last night, but I'm hoping for some good REM rebound tonight.

This fantastic. I am so encouraged by Spellbee2 and fogelbise. It makes me feel like not so much of a failure lol. I, like Spellbee2 have also hit a lull. I know I can do it again, but the question is when. Perhaps the lull is due to the fact I've been sick, and/or my company is about to go national and there's some subconscious stress factor involved -- who knows lol. We can all encourage each other though. So appreciate the camaraderie here in DV. More lucid dreams for us are coming soon!

I picture scenes from the Silicon Valley comedy when you talk about staying up late coding (I love that show). Between you and AD it sounds like we have some movers and shakers here in the workbooks, awesome! CanisLucidus, another good lucid dreamer, took leave from DV to develop a VR game, I think for the Occulus Rift platform and I know of quite a few talented people here in the forums…very inspiring! I would not be surprised if lucid dreaming attracts talented people and I definitely believe that lucid dream inspires people to become more talented!

Originally Posted by fogelbise

I picture scenes from the Silicon Valley comedy when you talk about staying up late coding (I love that show).

Haha, well trust me, it's not nearly that glamorous - mainly just me sitting on the couch with my laptop listening to music and plugging away on the keyboard.

I did really good with awareness yesterday, mainly focusing on the sensation of gravity on my body. I went to bed a little after midnight last night, which was okay because I could actually sleep in for the weekend. Interestingly enough, I maintained that gravity awareness as I was trying to fall asleep, and had some auditory HH right away. Because of that, I thought I might try to stick with it and maybe get an early-night WILD, but I fell asleep anyway.

I woke up several times during the night with some incredibly vivid dreams, including one nightmare-turned-lucid. It wasn't very long, but it's at least reassuring since I know it's a product of all the extra effort I've been putting in, and not just some lucky random lucid. I procrastinated all day on typing it up from my notes, so I forgot some details, but at least it's something.

2/11/17 - Rains, Trains, Rings and Things - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

The last week of going to bed late has finally caught up to me. I went to bed at the decent time of 11, but I couldn't fall asleep until 1, after taking some melatonin. It wasn't the best day awareness-wise anyway.

I had some random dream where I was fixing stuff around the house and trying to install a new sound system in the backyard. There was a lot more dreams than that, but because of the rough night of sleep and early wake up time, I didn't remember them very well.

Hi spellbee, and welcome! Great to have you here!

Well let's dive right in. You've come to the right place: and I don't mean because of us teachers, but because of *you*. You've acknowledged a plateau and you're actively working to break through it -- that's half the battle right there. You've demonstrated willpower and are focusing intent, all good things. Progress comes only with effortful practice which includes introspection and feedback. In order to advance in any discipline, you must blend study and practice, and aim to add positives and subtract negatives.

Many of the below topics are inter-related.

Lucidity in dreams is a result of preparation and favorable conditions. Preparation includes awareness and memory work (fundamentals!), RCs, intention/reflection moments (ala LaBerge in ETWOLD), goal planning, propective memory exercises, rehearsing/planning an "I just got lucid" ritual, etc.. Conditions include mindset, mind and body health, being well-rested, having a regular sleep schedule, WBTB, supplements (optional) and night-time practice approaches (all the *ILDs), etc.. Mindfulness meditation is sort of a blend of both preparation and conditions.

I've said it before but I'll keep on repeating it: lucidity in dreams is the result of a "perfect storm" of all these factors coming together, the preparation and conditions. The more of them we can cultivate and focus on and bring together in a particular night, the better our chances of LDs on that night.

Mindset
If I've learned anything it is that dreaming and particularly lucidity in dreams is tightly and intricately dependent on our general mindset and life outlook/attitude. Positive, happy, relaxed mood makes for amazing dreams. Stress, anxiety, fatigue, frustration, including self-imposed dreaming performance anxiety (I'm not lucid enough! My recall is terrible! This dryspell sucks! I didn't get lucid last night so the night was a failure!) all seriously detract from dreaming. Appreciating and loving and being thankful for all your dreams, non-lucid and lucid alike, helps to create the proper mindset. Also, as Marc VanDeKeere [see bibliography] writes, "Take care of your waking life." I take this not only to mean participating fully in the present moment, but also making sure your waking life responsibilities are well-tended, so as to avoid looping on worries about things you have to do.

Motivation
What motivates you? WHY do you want to lucid dream? Think of all of those awesome dreaming experiences you've had, both lucid and non-lucid. Watch general motivational videos on youtube, and LD-inducing videos like "superman with a go-pro" (and I like this one as well, the reaction of someone watching it for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea0AHTUP6G0. I find any sort of first-person flying or fantasy situation really exciting and motivating. I love lucid dreams, but what really keeps me going is waking up in the morning with a mind full of amazing new adventures and experiences. So I love all my dreams, and am thankful for them, I think this helps produce the proper mindset for lucid dreaming. I also find that I get lucid a *lot* more when I have *specific, concrete* goals I want to achieve in a LD. "Getting lucid a lot/every night" just doesn't seem to do it for me, it's too vague for the mind to do something specific with. Visualizing being lucid in a dream performing the tasks you want to achieve can also help to produce those specific dreams and getting lucid moments.

Goal Setting
Closely related to motivation. LaBerge says that goal setting and tracking significantly enhances performance. Your goals should be constantly monitored so that they are realistic, yet slightly push you out of your comfort zone, so they should be slightly "stretch" goals. This is one thing I have not managed to do, but I think it would be incredibly helpful. Daily or weekly review of goals should help to keep dreaming on your mind, which is also really important for sustained success.

Study
Review the great literature. Every time I go back to ETWOLD and the books in my main bibliography below, I find something new and inspiring/motivating. Reading an excerpt of the dream yoga books before bed has yielded fantastic results. Check out the posts in the bibliography section below.

Practice
Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals! Self-awareness, memory. I like to frame them as "attention/awareness, reflection, recall" as in my Unified Theory of lucid dreaming. Let me make my pitch for mindfulness practice. Aiming for general mindfulness helps both waking and dreaming life. Until we learn to be present in the moment, to act consciously instead of reacting by reflex, we will always be tossed about in both our waking and dreaming experiences by the waves of grasping for pleasure and aversion to unpleasant/painful experiences. When we can see through to the truth of every present experience, we will be lucid 24x7 both waking and dreaming. Not a quick or easy goal, but well worth it. As Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes in "The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep," when we "develop stability in awareness [our] dreams will change in extraordinary ways!"

Practice is where the rubber hits the road. Day work was discussed above. For night work, I suggest continually trying a little bit of everything. Designate a couple nights per week to work on one specific thing. WILD, DEILD (including CANWILD [alarm]), MILD, SSILD. The best lucid dreamers have all of these in their back pockets and can choose based on the situation of the moment which approach to take, based on how they're feeling. But to gain this knowledge, one must experiment and work on each of these approaches. If your schedule precludes WILD, maybe try DEILD for a while. If long WBTB doesn't work, try micro-WBTB. You mention not much success with WILD (me, neither!), but I think that indicates a block, or that something's missing. The ability to completely relax your mind and body and to slip into a WILD is amazingly useful in producing lucid dreams. We should embrace what is difficult for us and try to learn them. Every little percentage boost we can give to our chances for lucidity is worth it!

Bibliography
I just went ahead and made this post since I repeat these a lot. I suggest reading all of these. Not everything will be applicable, but there are enough nuggets of incredible wisdom and insight and suggestions and approaches in these that every dreamer can take something from each one and adapt to their own practice. Daily review of sections of these will help strengthen intent and will keep LDing on your mind, and can help .

Also, have a look through this list of posts. Some are short some are long, but each one is very valuable.

Conclusion
There's a lot here, but there's a lot to this practice. In summary, I believe the best and most fruitful path forwards for dreaming and lucid dreaming is a holistic approach where we work in mindfulness to our everyday lives. When we learn to continually wake up to the present moment during the day, we'll begin doing the same in dreams. Your task is to find out just what way this will work best for you. That, plus a relaxed, non-stressed mindset, will give you the dreams you (we all!) yearn for. Best of luck! Keep us informed of your journey and let us know any other questions or insights you come across!

Thanks for all the helpful advice, FryingMan.

Last night was interesting. It was again another night where bed time (11pm) and sleep time (1am) were several agonizing hours apart, even after taking a usually helpful melatonin supplement at 11:30. However, despite the rough sleep, I had an incredibly long vivid dream that I remembered fairly well upon waking (though I don't currently have access to my notes at the moment to type it here). Plus, even though I had to get up much earlier than usual, I felt incredibly awake and well-rested - probably for the first time in a long time.

Anyway, I think first priority at the moment should be to get my sleep schedule back on track. Then I think I'm gonna try focusing on SSILD for a bit. I had some good success with it a long time ago, and it might be helpful to go back to it for a while.

Originally Posted by spellbee2

I woke up several times during the night with some incredibly vivid dreams, including one nightmare-turned-lucid. It wasn't very long, but it's at least reassuring since I know it's a product of all the extra effort I've been putting in, and not just some lucky random lucid. I procrastinated all day on typing it up from my notes, so I forgot some details, but at least it's something.

Congratulations on the lucidity!

Originally Posted by spellbee2

Thanks for all the helpful advice, FryingMan.

What a great post FryingMan!

Anyway, I think first priority at the moment should be to get my sleep schedule back on track. Then I think I'm gonna try focusing on SSILD for a bit. I had some good success with it a long time ago, and it might be helpful to go back to it for a while.

Yes, sleep schedule is a big factor and I've always been a fan of SSILD and still use it frequently. Since it's worked for you in the past, you can make it work for you again. If it feels "old hat" at all, you can try changing it up slightly.

Nothing much positive to report over the past 2 days. I managed to actually fall asleep at 11pm last night, which I guess is good.

I've been trying to WBTB, but I apparently keep turning off my alarm without realizing it. Last night I could've sworn I turned it off while still in a dream, since I remember the buttons on my Amazon Echo (which I've been using for WBTB alarms) were in all weird places. Plus, whenever I've been waking up naturally, I've been completely forgetting all about SSILD and instead just falling back asleep almost immediately...

My dream last night was kinda neat - I was running from bad guys in an Assassin's Creed style, and the scene kept jumping from a futuristic space station of sorts to American Revolutionary War era.

Maybe add some water or extra intention to notice the wakings and provide that extra impetus to get up. Over the years I've gotten away from recording during the night but I may try to get back to it now: maybe you could try that, just quick voice notes or scribbling down some key words.

Originally Posted by spellbee2

I've been trying to WBTB, but I apparently keep turning off my alarm without realizing it.

Any nights that you want to make sure that you get up and don't just shut off the alarm, you might consider placing your alarm across the room. I only use the water method that FM mentioned. It sounds like you probably had some level of awareness to notice the weird button locations.

I should probably start putting a little more detail here about bed/wake times, awareness, etc.

2/16/17
Daytime Awareness - 2/10
Bed Time - 11:15p-ish
WBTB - 3:00a
Wake - 7:20a (3 Snoozes)

WBTB went sort of better last night - I actually awoke naturally and stayed up for several minutes. I even remembered that I wanted to SSILD, but I fell back asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, before I even finished the first cycle.

2/17/17
Daytime Awareness - 6/10
Bed Time - 11:30p
WBTB - 3:00a
Wake - 9:30a

Seemed like yesterday was gonna be the perfect storm - I had good awareness during the day, got to sleep in because I had the day off of work, and even got a proper SSILD practice done during my WBTB. Still, nothing good to report. I even dreamed that I was at work on my day off and thought "wow, this seems like something that would happen in a dream" - yet still no lucid.

Originally Posted by spellbee2

I even dreamed that I was at work on my day off and thought "wow, this seems like something that would happen in a dream"

That is a great sign that you were very close, so try to take heart in that. If everything else seemed to be in line for "the perfect storm" it could have been one of the components of lucidity that Daniel Love talks about - brain chemistry. Perhaps something like choline levels weren't very good that night. I don't know if it has anything to do with choline levels or plays a factor in the production of acetylcholine, but lucidity seems to be an uphill battle for me when I have processed sweets in the evening (apple juice seems helpful, in moderation)…I don't mind if it is a wrong-headed belief because I figure that it is also healthier to avoid sweets in the evening. Changes in diet can effect brain chemistry negatively or positively.

2/18/17
Daytime Awareness - 1/10
Bed Time - 12:15a
WBTB - 4:30a
Wake - 10:00a

I spent most of the day super depressed, so awareness and RCs were the last thing on my mind. I still managed to get some good SSILD cycles in during my WBTB, but still no results. Weirdest dream I had - I was training to be a space fighter, and on my first mission I must've been swallowed by a space monster or something, as I was floating through incredibly cramped tunnels with the walls made of disgusting pink flesh. Eventually, the claustrophobia set in, and I woke up with my heart racing, about 15 minutes before my WBTB alarm was going to go off.

2/19/17 - Nothing to report.

2/20/17
Daytime Awareness - 3/10
Bed Time - 11:15p (Sleep Time - 12:15a)
WBTB - 3:30a
Wake - 7:00a

Did some pre-bed meditation and intention setting, which I felt helped a lot. WBTB went perfect - I got up and did some SSILD cycles and fell back asleep relatively easily. I had 4 pretty long and vivid dreams, but nothing even close to lucidity. This is starting to get more aggravating than trying to get my first lucid - I know from experience what needs to be done, and I do it, but nothing happens.

Originally Posted by spellbee2

This is starting to get more aggravating than trying to get my first lucid - I know from experience what needs to be done, and I do it, but nothing happens.

Long and vivid dreams are a good sign! Did you feel a sense of presence in those dreams, like it was really *you* there, having that experience? I find that when really starting to focus on lucidity during a dry spell, it can take a week or two for lucidity in dreams to show up. Patience! As always, I advise to avoid the aggravation: having happy, positive thoughts about dreaming I find tends to bring on lucidity sooner!

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Did you feel a sense of presence in those dreams, like it was really *you* there, having that experience?

I suppose so, though I rarely have experiences where I'm dissociated from the dream like that. But overall yeah, even though a lot of it didn't make sense, it felt fairly realistic. Especially the part where my friend was having a seizure and was barfing on me while I tried to give him CPR - that unfortunately felt quite realistic.

I guess at least one good thing about the current length and vividness of my dreams is that when I finally do hit lucidity, I'm gonna hit it big.

2/21/17
Daytime Awareness - 4/10
Bed Time - 11:00p
WBTB - 3:30a
Wake - 7:30a

Fell asleep fairly easily at bed time, but my WBTB was a different story. I tried reading some Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, since in the past just reading a chapter or two during my WBTB was enough to get me lucid. Unfortunately, all it seemed to do was make it harder for me to fall back asleep.

I'm thinking I'm gonna abandon SSILD for now. I know I've only been using it for about a week straight, but when I used it several years ago I got almost immediate and consistent results when I started using it (like within the first day or two), so I seem to think it's lost its effectiveness on me. Instead, I'm going to be doubling down on my daytime awareness, trying a technique in LD:GttIS of focusing on your hands with the intention that you will see your hands in a dream and become lucid. It worked pretty well when I first read it a few months back, so we'll definitely see.

How about WBTB with MILD?

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, this week has been absolutely nuts with work and a ton of personal stuff, so I haven't even really had the time or energy to devote to dreaming stuff.

I took fogelbise's advice last night and tried MILD with WBTB. I woke up and read through Naiya's MILD guide before falling back asleep, and the very next sleep cycle I had a very long and stable lucid - one of the longest I've had in a long time. I woke up a bit later and had another shorter lucid. Unfortunately I don't remember a whole lot of the details of them since I didn't write them down between wakings, but for being so long without a lucid it felt pretty great.

On a side note, I had to order some more melatonin gummies since I was running out, and so I went ahead and ordered some choline to try out while I was at it. I was getting it as a bit of a last-ditch effort to kick-start my lucidity, but I guess I don't need it as much as I thought. Still, I'll probably take it every now and then to keep from falling back into another dry spell.

Very nice! A double...2 LDs, including a long one, congratulations spellbee!

While things are still busy, perhaps you can work in some WBTBs with MILD on nights when you can sleep in. Perhaps later, when you are ready to, working in DEILDs can be helpful if you've got it to work in the past…but even if you don't get a straight DEILD, the focus with lucidity on your mind during brief wakings can raise awareness enough for some extra DILDs here and there.