Thread: the lucid progress log of cygnus

how about the mindfulness?
how about the night practice?
what happened cyg?

Mariano! i'm trying to take the things from dream yoga that worked for me and make my practice a bit more personalized. i would be doing the night practice but my quality of sleep hasn't been very supportive of it. i moved back home recently and i wasn't able to keep a dream journal for a while, so i'm trying to get back into doing that and keeping track of my sleep patterns more. i need to work on my mindfulness too... thanks for stopping by!

I hope all works out for you! Remember the key is confidence. RIght before you go to bed tell your brain to have a Lucid Dream.

thanks, man!

realized i was dreaming this morning, but the transition to wakefulness made it hard to remember anything besides the fact that i was lucid for a short time. i didn't stabilize (which is partly why i don't remember detail), but i did go up to a DC and said "who are you!!??" haha.

almost three lucids this morning. once i was lucid in the second dream i lost control and at some point entered another one, forgetting most of what happened previously (but i do think i remembered to stabilize somewhat). in the first one i'm walking on a sandy beach in the evening. i say to myself "i am dreaming" but it's as if i'm saying it in real life and i'm not really lucid or 'there'. but this is good because i'm starting to reinforce my technique again.

in the third dream i'm overlooking a room with several cats in it. i get them to follow me and i walk into a street and look at my hands to stabilize - i focus on awareness less than i should and mainly think about how the elements of the dream are a bit alien, but i can go along with it and immerse myself in its content.

i see two unfriendly looking men with shaved heads and try to use telekinesis to knock them over but nothing happens. then i start to operate on dream control alone and the quality fades as i begin to fight (not something i normally care to do). i am unarmed and a guy with a sword attacks me - i really should have used my cat friends to fight with me. i jump up and put my feet around his grip and twist the sword out of his hands. i grab it and carve some words on his chest, probably to warn his friends. i wake up feeling positive about my life (haha).

Paint in your dreams!

I love the raven. The raven is my sister's totem, the bird walks between worlds.

thanks, man. one of my goals is to familiarize myself with birds in dreams: become one of them socially and physically, and spend some time as a crow to the point where that form is comfortable to me. non-human intelligence fascinates me.

so. this morning i was lucid a bit, but it was kinda weird - like i wasn't myself and something different than usual caused me to change my relationship with the dream. i was in what seemed to be a back yard with some vegetation, and someone was there. i told him i didn't think i would be in the dream for much longer and told him my last name as if to confirm our meeting (my last name is rare so it differentiates myself well). i wouldn't really count this as a lucid - for me a lucid is more... in 'real time' and has a clean transition from sleep to wakefulness where i have a stronger feeling of having been there.

there was this other semi-lucid where i was mainly running on what i would call 'dream control without consideration.' really random. i try to summon a shotgun, but nothing appears and the *pow* in my head doesn't do anything. then i turn and see a handgun on a table and find that it works, so of course i shoot a lemur. fuck you, lemur. just kidding, lemurs are alright. but still, weird because i'm anti-gun, anti-lemur violence.

i'm feeling confident with what i'm doing now (dream habitat). it suits me well. i've been reinforcing it when i go to the beach; when i road bike there i can stop before turning back and review in my head that i will go there in my dreams and stabilize my sight of things before doing anything. the association between that location and dreams and lucidity gains momentum nicely.


some new plans...


i really want to interact more with people in my dreams. if anyone wants to go for some shared dreams let me know. i'm mainly trying to master the basics now, though haha. i've practiced enough dream control for now, and i'd like to focus more on quality.


i want to have a few dream allies who i meet up with regularly. not necessarily RL people, just dream characters. i seem to be attacked every so often when unarmed and outnumbered so...

how about this: two man-sized river otters and a red-tailed hawk. all of them can speak. the hawk would be a good guide, and the otters would be adept on land and in the water. i used to read a lot of the Redwall series of books, haha. so... the hawk obviously has some rad talons and a beak. the otters, i'd like them to each have a long bow and a nice broadsword.

Originally Posted by cygnus

thanks, man. one of my goals is to familiarize myself with birds in dreams: become one of them socially and physically, and spend some time as a crow to the point where that form is comfortable to me. non-human intelligence fascinates me.

so. this morning i was lucid a bit, but it was kinda weird - like i wasn't myself and something different than usual caused me to change my relationship with the dream. i was in what seemed to be a back yard with some vegetation, and someone was there. i told him i didn't think i would be in the dream for much longer and told him my last name as if to confirm our meeting (my last name is rare so it differentiates myself well). i wouldn't really count this as a lucid - for me a lucid is more... in 'real time' and has a clean transition from sleep to wakefulness where i have a stronger feeling of having been there.

there was this other semi-lucid where i was mainly running on what i would call 'dream control without consideration.' really random. i try to summon a shotgun, but nothing appears and the *pow* in my head doesn't do anything. then i turn and see a handgun on a table and find that it works, so of course i shoot a lemur. fuck you, lemur. just kidding, lemurs are alright. but still, weird because i'm anti-gun, anti-lemur violence.

I would like to hear your dreams in greater detail. Where were you? Where was the lemur? What kind of lemur was it?

Originally Posted by cygnus

i'm feeling confident with what i'm doing now (dream habitat). it suits me well. i've been reinforcing it when i go to the beach; when i road bike there i can stop before turning back and review in my head that i will go there in my dreams and stabilize my sight of things before doing anything. the association between that location and dreams and lucidity gains momentum nicely.


some new plans...


i really want to interact more with people in my dreams. if anyone wants to go for some shared dreams let me know. i'm mainly trying to master the basics now, though haha. i've practiced enough dream control for now, and i'd like to focus more on quality.


i want to have a few dream allies who i meet up with regularly. not necessarily RL people, just dream characters. i seem to be attacked every so often when unarmed and outnumbered so...

how about this: two man-sized river otters and a red-tailed hawk. all of them can speak. the hawk would be a good guide, and the otters would be adept on land and in the water. i used to read a lot of the Redwall series of books, haha. so... the hawk obviously has some rad talons and a beak. the otters, i'd like them to each have a long bow and a nice broadsword.

Well, you know that Raven Knight and I share dreams. I give you permission to enter The Tower.

If you want to have those dream allies, just visualize them in waking life. Meditate, and think about what they look like, what they would say to you. Next time you LD, ask to see the King of Hawks.

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this morning i didn't actually go to the beach and become lucid, but i did talk to some people about going to torrey pines beach. i'm pretty happy, i wasn't expecting to have these dreams so consistently until after a month or so - i'm definitely thinking about this stuff more often. i think the first time i tested out my technique (for only a month) i had 6 lucids, most of them at lakes. my location is more specific now. i road biked to the beach again this morning and spent some time reinforcing becoming lucid there. i think i'll be spending even more time there next year once i can get a surfboard rack for my mountain bike.

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Awesome. This will be a great way to incubate this. I have a theory that we are naturally drawn to archetypes of our dream guides, spirit guides, and spirit allies, but we don't actually create them.

dream goal achieved: try a bit of tibetan sound healing


this was a great dream, though not completely controlled because i was mainly following a sequence of events that was apparently a memory of when i was a year old. i didn't stabilize.

semi-lucid
lucid

A new aquatic friend

i'm floating offshore - maybe 50 ft. out. the beach has certain qualities i've seen before in special dreams: there are no waves, just gentle swells. the water has no sediment but is still partly opaque. at depth light is being reflected back, but in a textured, undulating way that is definitely alien. the sky is beautiful - it's cloudy, but it's perfect because the softly muted light adds to the effect the water gives.

a few giant bubbles form near me. the bubbles are red around the outside and don't noticeably break at the surface. one forms beneath me and shoots me out far into the ocean. i'm submerged and see a giant black fish approaching me - it has a long head, maybe 15 ft. from top to bottom. at first i'm startled but remember it's a dream as the fish lightly pushes me back towards the shore. i stroke the space between its eyes - it's soft and feels like it's covered in algae.

we get back to the sandy beach, which the fish is somehow perched upon. i want to thank it. i put my head against its head and sing a tibetan mantra - it ends with a 'hung' and i draw out its sound for several moments.

huuunnnnnngggggggggg-----

our heads are resonating together. it's as if what separated myself from the dream is dissolved, and i have a non-dual experience for several moments.

i wake up in a non-lucid. i'm in a workplace. there are a couple pretty girls there and i tell them i was saved by a fish in a dream. they couldn't care less - perfect. i wake up.

-------

this means i have partly accomplished my dream goal of doing tibetan sound healing. it was so effective... this dream has made me want to experiment more with meditation in dreams, and to do the entire sound healing session.

.

didn't stabilize in this one... basically was just using dream control.

semi-lucid
lucid

a gay guy starts fighting me because i don't want to touch him... something weird like that. i realize i'm dreaming and the fight becomes sorta comical. i'm holding onto a soda can - i release it and it flies like a little rocket and bonks into him. then i turn into a giant and smash him with my hand. then somehow i realize he has a daughter and i make friends with him and shake hands so that i can go into his house. i walk in and a pretty girl is descending a flight of dark brown wooden stairs. i whisk her up to a loft where there is a large bed/couch thing with other girls on it. i start doing her doggy style. i'm still going after a while but i lose lucidity from looking at a distracting tv screen.


in the same area are some guys that i know somehow. i get the feeling that one is tommo from the forums. there's another guy on a computer but i can't place who he is. then down the street there's a huge commotion about something like furries or catgirls being fully legalized. we celebrate. funny.

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there was also something to do with swimming around and a boat at sea, but i didn't become lucid then. i just need to have more dreams specifically about my beach, then i'll really be able to ingrain that location.

Originally Posted by cygnus

today i'm going to work more on my metaprogramming video that i use to help me reinforce my dream habitat technique. basically i have a stream of random pictures of beaches with text appearing throughout (my mantra/autosuggestion). there's also a short video clip of me looking at my hands to remind myself of my stabilization routine. i'm going to try to match this with some music that helps me focus on where i want to go.

i've been visualizing dream goals and skills/healing, but i think i need to be patient... right now i believe that the main thing i need to do is make my beach (the one i visit sometimes, such as the one in the above post) my place of power.

i'll need to connect with my place of power on an elemental and energetic level. i'll focus on the details of the water, its flow and the way it feels. i'll also connect with the wind, the sound of the water, and generally embed the energy of the location into myself. before i do anything in a lucid i'll center myself in this place and stabilize completely.

i've been reviewing forms of pagan magick and how i'll use this in future dreams. i like the freedom it gives me because i can incorporate my tibetan buddhist inclination. it's entirely open to your own path to spiritual development.

Originally Posted by cygnus

didn't stabilize in this one... basically was just using dream control.

semi-lucid
lucid

a gay guy starts fighting me because i don't want to touch him... something weird like that. i realize i'm dreaming and the fight becomes sorta comical. i'm holding onto a soda can - i release it and it flies like a little rocket and bonks into him. then i turn into a giant and smash him with my hand. then somehow i realize he has a daughter and i make friends with him and shake hands so that i can go into his house. i walk in and a pretty girl is descending a flight of dark brown wooden stairs. i whisk her up to a loft where there is a large bed/couch thing with other girls on it. i start doing her doggy style. i'm still going after a while but i lose lucidity from looking at a distracting tv screen.


in the same area are some guys that i know somehow. i get the feeling that one is tommo from the forums. there's another guy on a computer but i can't place who he is. then down the street there's a huge commotion about something like furries or catgirls being fully legalized. we celebrate. funny.

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there was also something to do with swimming around and a boat at sea, but i didn't become lucid then. i just need to have more dreams specifically about my beach, then i'll really be able to ingrain that location.

Last night dreamed of bodysurfing. I caught a wave all the way into the mouth of a river, then I started going downhill!

I also had a NLD of beating up a gay dude.

synchronicity? haha. and good thing i didn't start that fight, that would've been messed up.

surfing or bodysurfing in dreams is amazing - the ocean takes on a different kind of power.

semi-lucid
lucid

i become lucid in a pool. i'm in the middle of teaching some young children about thinking freely - something i've done before in dreams and i enjoy. my vision gets distorted (it's already late in my sleep cycle) and i'm fully aware i'm dreaming but my dream body is sort of wandering around. i let myself sink into the pool - the kids freak out and are afraid i'm going to drown. when i surface my vision is better. there's an image of an old woman who is obviously irritated that i'm teaching children things she doesn't approve of. i'm standing on a walkway over the pool and i think about stabilizing. i look at my hands - i see them clearly. but... then some strange shape appears, which i manipulate somehow... weird. the kids say odd things like "where are your tickets!?" and i wake up.

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it's kinda tricky when i'm lucid in places with water besides my beach. there are normally several people in those locations who distract me - my beach is more private and supportive. i'm mainly happy i was thinking about stabilizing despite the distractions.

That sounds like a shared dream to me. Interesting.

hm really?

in the last dream i had that was similar to this i was teaching some kids a buddhist concept. they seemed really interested and happy. but in this one they seemed anxious about something - possibly the old woman i saw.

kinda cool because i'll probably end up being a professor at the university near where i live. maybe i can develop my teaching skills this way. i should meet more younger people in dreams and mentor them a bit.

.

Originally Posted by cygnus

hm really?

in the last dream i had that was similar to this i was teaching some kids a buddhist concept. they seemed really interested and happy. but in this one they seemed anxious about something - possibly the old woman i saw.

kinda cool because i'll probably end up being a professor at the university near where i live. maybe i can develop my teaching skills this way. i should meet more younger people in dreams and mentor them a bit.

Interesting. Children are natural dreamers. I feel that old woman is a real person, but non-lucid. She probably thought you were teaching the children to drown.

What you wrote about Lithuanian paganism is fascinating. It's the Roman Catholic archetype that makes us see Pan as the Devil.

I had a dream about a beach recently, because I bodysurf. Have you ever been to Makapu'u?