Dream Recall Technique: Creating A Sleep Temple

[Baron Samedi]

"Make thou space of sacred slumber a temple, and in thee temple, create a shrine unto Dream. -Xaphor The Sacred Ritual Paradigm Paradigm, Perspective, view, science, magick, spirit. We combine these ideas to tune our brainwave frequencies to ones most conducive to dreaming and living the Big Dream Life. This technique involves creating simple to complex rituals for oneself upon going to sleep, and upon waking in order to dream more vividly, and remember more dreams. Meditation alters one's brainwave frequencies from Beta (awake) to Alpha (Meditation/Hypnogogic Hallucinations/Half-Asleep.) In this state, one remembers one dreams which happened in the Theta (REM/Light Sleep) frequencies. Whether you are religious, spiritual, scientific, atheistic, these techniques will alter your brainwave patterns no matter what you believe. We make our sleeping space a temple, we make our sleeping place peaceful, a place we feel safe, sleep well, and remember many dreams from the mundane to amazing. Creating the Temple The Temple is wherever you sleep. These are the attributes of a Sleep Temple. 1) Clean. Firstly, clean your sleeping area, completely. 2) Beautiful. The Temple should be free of clutter, and gently pleasing to the eye, giving a calming effect when entering. 3) Quiet. The Temple should be as quiet as possible. Reduce noise with thick curtains, and soft furniture. Use peaceful music (on the 432hz scale, if you can) to negate the effects of noise. Experiment with earplugs. 5) Dark. The Temple should be very dark while the Dreamer is in sacred slumber. Use dark curtains (or dark sheets) over windows, and experiment using a blindfold or sleep mask. 6) Warm. Experiment with different layers of coverings, and see how temperature affects your recall. 7) Lovely Scents. The Dream Temple should be free of chemical scents. Use fresh flowers, burn sage or incense, or organic essential oils. Experiment with using a certain scents with different rituals. 8)Comfortable. The bed and pillow should be as supportive and comfortable as possible. 9) The Shrine. The Shrine is a focus of the Temple. The energy of the Temple guides one toward a simple shrine. The Shrine is a thing of simple beauty which the Dreamer sits in front of to meditate. Creating The Shrine The Shrine can be made of anything, and have anything the Dreamer desires. A statue, a mirror, a sacred scroll, a painting, a poster, or a single candle may be the central focus of the shrine. Start simply with a small table. Place a cloth over the table and a pillow for sitting in front of the shrine. Place one simple central object that you enjoy looking at on the table. Thus your shrine is complete. Slowly add other optional elements to the shrine as time and money permits, if you so desire. Candles Candles, an offering of light, give us the element of fire, and staring into a flame calms the mind. Chalice A Chalice, or sacred cup, is filled with the element of water, and aids in purifying the air. If water is left standing over night, the chalice should be emptied. Flowers Fresh flowers fill the room with lovely natural scents, and emit a beautiful energy of sacred geometry. Flowering potted plants are even better than cut flowers. Greens Evergreen branches or small houseplants filter the air, exhale oxygen, and are pleasing to the eye. Incense Incense or dried herbs burning such as rosemary or sage create a lovely scented smoke which cleanses the air. Crystals Crystals emit a simple geometric energy. Charge crystals in the sun, and cleanse them in saltwater. If you have no crystals, you can use a small bowl of sea salt. Bell A Buddhist ritual bell, a Tibetan singing bowl, offerings of sound, emit peaceful vibrational frequencies when struck and played. Add or subtract elements whenever you see fit. Keep the shrine simple, clean, and free of clutter. Entering Sacred Slumber Ritual As you prepare for bed, embark on a journey of habitual rituals which ease one into a most peaceful sleep. 1) Clean the body. 2) Clean the Temple and The Shrine. 3) Play music, if you desire, and light one or more candles. 4) Sit in front of your shrine and do a Reality Check. Meditate. You may chant if you wish. 5) Meditate until your mind is calm. Release worries, fears, and thoughts of the day, and thoughts of tomorrow. Allow yourself to think about those things. Write down anything you need to remember for your waking life in a waking life journal, planner, calendar, or notepad. (You may find as you drift off to sleep, you remember some important thing about tomorrow. Make sure you write that down so you can forget about it until the morning.) You can chant anything, as long as it's a simple repeating phrase. Think about your dreams, what kind of dream you want to have. Tell yourself you remember your dreams. You love dreams, and you love remembering your dreams. Imagine yourself waking up, and writing many dreams down. Imagine you are dreaming. Do a Reality Check. Blow out the candle. 6) Lie in bed, and tell yourself, I love my dreams, I love remembering my dreams. Do one more Reality Check, and go to sleep. Dream Recall Ritual 1) Upon Waking, lie still, and leave eyes closed. 2) Move eyes as if you were in REM. 3) Jot important notes down on a notepad. 4) Use the bathroom, drink water, return to the Temple. 5) Light a candle and complete DJ. Record effects of various stimuli to your body on your sleep. (For example: Slept with just one sheet. I remember more dreams when my body is cool while I sleep, it seems. The polyester sleep mask was uncomfortable, and woke me up.) Wake-Back-To-Bed/Nap Ritual 1) Do the Dream Recall Ritual. (Unless you are taking a nap, of course.) 2) Light some incense or diffuse a scent you use only for early morning and naps. 3) Play soft music reserved for early morning and naps. 4) Do a Reality Check, and go back to bed. The purpose of the scent and music is this: Dream Signs. Play the music and create the scents when you are most likely to be in REM, which is around 4am til we wake up, and during naps. Hopefully you hear the music and smell the scents in dreams, and this makes you lucid which will help you remember your dreams. In summary, anyone can use this Sleep Temple technique to create a peaceful space for Dreaming no matter what religion, spiritual view, or scientific belief system one operates in. The benefits are obvious from a scientific point of view, but can still be tailored to any spiritual memeplex.

[saltyseedog]

Cool. I'm all for the temple thing. I need to clean my room also. I have a stack of boxes at the end of my bed and paintings and other things laying around. It does give off an incomplete feeling. I just moved recently. I burn frankincense when I meditate but not always. And sometimes I'll burn white sage that I've picked myself. I burn it when the vibe feels polluted by others negative thoughts, or whatever feeling they left makes me uncomfortable. I'm not a person that likes routine very much. Yet I'm sure if you did all those things you say then your recall would be much better. Also another weird thing is I've kind of have been encouraging myself to be able to sleep well and keep still even in less than ideal comfort sleep situations. I think it's just really really important that when you wake up you are not disturbed and sucked into the affairs of the world, or by other people. You need time to dwell on your dreams and wake up slowly not so suddenly. It always seems so stressful to me to be forced awake quickly. And it kills recall. It's like the part of you that lives in reams is tossed back where it came from and you put on your waking life part of you. Also obviously will is the single most important thing for becoming lucid and remembering dreams. Without it you can care less, and become careless.

[Lahzo]

I'm digging this. I've been doing this, to a lesser extent, for awhile now. Definitely feel the effects on recall if my "temple" is clean, dark, and maintained.

[Darkmatters]

Great post Nomad!! I've been sleeping in a storage room piled high with boxes and junk since moving into my new house, waiting until I figure out how to install the bookcase from the old house into my actual bedroom, which sits empty now. I need to get it done and create my temple of sleep!

[Shrek]

Sounds like a great idea, I doubt anybody will follow the entire list but It definitley lets people remember some things that may be obvious to someone else but not to them what may help them get a lucid dream better. The smell idea reminds me of this one guys house that just reeks with air fresheners, lysol, and all these other "fresh" odors that cover the entire apartment so much you just get a headache when you walk in. The place was a mess and I just don't know how he lived there. Good thread

[Baron Samedi]

Sounds like a great idea, I doubt anybody will follow the entire list but It definitley lets people remember some things that may be obvious to someone else but not to them what may help them get a lucid dream better. The smell idea reminds me of this one guys house that just reeks with air fresheners, lysol, and all these other "fresh" odors that cover the entire apartment so much you just get a headache when you walk in. The place was a mess and I just don't know how he lived there. Good thread The list is just a list of ideas. I am in no way trying to create a dogma! Instead, I hope to inspire people to look at their bedroom as a kind of sacred space whether one believes in spirituality or not.

[LouaiB]

I love the idea! It really boosts the intention, and sounds great for a nice bedroom!

[Darkmatters]

Nomad, you actually had a huge influence on my new bedroom with this thread. I was getting ready to move into the room ,had just painted it, but had no ideas about how to set it up. The view from the hall. My dad made the little vase I use as a doorstop. The decorations make pleasing sounds for meditation or relaxing. Sometimes if I'm having a hard time falling asleep Ill get up and mess with some Tibetan singing bowls or one of the native flutes. There's a didgeridoo you can't see just off the right side leaning in the corner. Oh, and the candle lanterns are going to be hanging from little black chains at different heights, if I can ever get the bookcase installed. My dad, who was an architect, designed and built the bookcase and the matching table you see here.

[StephL]

This is a wonderful post, Nomad - very, very inspiring! thank-you.gif

[FryingMan]

Great stuff! For me: cool/cold room is important. Too warm and I don't sleep well. Oh yeah the head pillow is of utmost importance, too! Buckwheat pillows are great if you like firm pillows, they have GREAT airflow and never get hot/stifling.

[Nightspren]

You nuked up, man.

[StephL]

Naa - this makes perfect sense basically - my other main hobby - darting - I want to have everything just right - build myself a raised oche with red carpet, constructed the lightning myself - my darts must be beautiful - battle scars - okay, but anyway. I am firmly convinced, that loving one's tools and environment is very beneficial. Especially so, when it comes to something, which is "mental" anyway like LD. I would even say this is a topic, which makes sense under Lucid Induction - not "only" recall/signs.

[Sageous]

Though I'm a bit late to acknowledge so, that was an excellent OP, Nomad, and I think Steph is right -- setting up your room, and your self -- as per your OP, goes a long way toward putting your mind in just the right place for dreaming and LD'ing; there's more value here than "just" helping recall!

[insideout]

I was just thinking the other day of trying to do something similar to what this thread suggests. I already have a little altar next to my bed. I should use it more with this purpose in mind.

[Nightspren]

Ok, I rescind my "nuked up" comment. The mysticism just kind of fried my brain for a bit. Less mystic Dream-Friendly Environment (DFE): Comfy bed Comfy covers Side table with: Candle/incense burner Pencil Dream Journal WL journal Pre-Sleep Ritual: Brush teeth Wash face Take shower Put on PJs Light candle Meditate on: Poetry Holy Book Dream you want to have

[Baron Samedi]

Nomad, you actually had a huge influence on my new bedroom with this thread. I was getting ready to move into the room ,had just painted it, but had no ideas about how to set it up. The view from the hall. My dad made the little vase I use as a doorstop. The decorations make pleasing sounds for meditation or relaxing. Sometimes if I'm having a hard time falling asleep Ill get up and mess with some Tibetan singing bowls or one of the native flutes. There's a didgeridoo you can't see just off the right side leaning in the corner. Oh, and the candle lanterns are going to be hanging from little black chains at different heights, if I can ever get the bookcase installed. My dad, who was an architect, designed and built the bookcase and the matching table you see here. That's really cool! Thank you for sharing these photos with us. I am reminded of when I was very sick in bed for months, too weak to hold up a book for more than five minutes. I would light candles and stare at my shrine. It was beautiful enough to me to stare at for hours without being bored. I think I was trancing out.

[StephL]

Yeeh - Nightspren - I am known, I believe - for decided non-mysticism, too. But as you also found - there's value in here - inspiration - I'll sort out the mysticism in my stride, if I find something so valuable and lovingly presented! It was even so, that I felt stupid, for not having come up with a strategy like this myself - seeing as I do it and fully consciously for darts. I didn't do it yet - I did change my bed - but I even put up a "shrine" myself. There are very many small beautiful things I have collected together over the years - and I used to have a table, with changing decoration - where my husband and me - just having met - kept changing little things and so we communicated. It's a bit hard to describe - I might dig out photos of that.. I'm very much into reduced visual onslaught in my sleeping room - white/broken white surfaces, fabrics, only some dots of colour - relaxing for the eyes in all directions. But such a little shrine would find a perfect setting like that.

[Sibyline]

Nomad, you actually had a huge influence on my new bedroom with this thread. I was getting ready to move into the room ,had just painted it, but had no ideas about how to set it up. Darkmatters, you made my head spin for a minute there. Did you realize that you posted this exactly one year after writing that you had an empty bedroom and were sleeping among moving boxes? I didn't notice the year on the first post so it looked like you did all of this in one day.

[Darkmatters]

^^ Hahaha!! No, I had no idea!! Ironic, ain't it?

[Baron Samedi]

^^ Hahaha!! No, I had no idea!! Ironic, ain't it? Wow, crazy. When I was practicing AP for a year, 20 hours a week, I was in a room full of frickin' boxes! The clutter probably made it hard for me to AP.