Hello! Glad to finally have started a workbook, I like the 3 versions so far, all of them sound tempting to do!
I don't think I'll have the luxury of doing Version 3, seeing as I can't think of something consistent I can use to taste.
I think I can do Versions 1 and Version 2
Version 1 seems to be something I can do during the day, since I know I can really practice various sounds my mind ignores.
Version 2 is something I can do during the evening, and even during WBTBs when attempting WILDs (I apologize for mentioning WILDing here, but this is the perfect preset to potentially develop an anchor for WILDing if I happen to wake up before the alarm I have set.
I have one question, for each level for each version, what is the recommended time for each?
I'm assuming as each level increases, devotion to them increases as well, meaning more time? Or is time not an essential factor to create greater efficacy in said awareness?
Version 1: Noisy World
Level 1
I decided to take 5-10 minutes closing my eyes, with some periods of covering both my mouth and eyes, so that I could hopefully hear my breathing as well.
Some obvious sounds that I ignored:
Since I'm sitting at the small dining table in the kitchen at home, I noticed that the Refrigerator's humming was the main noise that eventually became white noise until distant sounds such as a few motorcycles accelerating to the right of me starts to fade away. Since it's night time right now, listening to the few sounds of traffic through the window inside of a house was something I wanted to take advantage of.
I heard a second motorcycle, and I find my perspective focuses on it rather than the refrigerator humming. I paid close attention to the fading noise of the motorcycle/vehicle with a large humming, and found that I could hear a little bit more past the typical point where I would normally ignore.
After a few seconds, I couldn't really pay attention too much to the humming of the vehicle, since I had the thought that maybe my mind would be associating a predictable hum after a while, and then I started to listen to the noise occurring from the T.V
I know that the objective of this first level is to feeling yourself moving through your sense of hearing, but it tempted me to create a visual camera of the environment around me, and when I heard the noises on the T.V. I tried to create this mini-sound vortex that would amplify my awareness of the noises on the T.V. a little bit.
I hope that this method I'm doing is acceptable. I feel that even though there's some visual involved, the sensation of hearing the sounds being amplified might make it worthwhile.
Even as I'm typing now, I realized how much I ignore myself typing on the laptop, and now I'm still paying attention to the Refrigerator humming.
Conclusion: It seems I'll have more fun doing this version than the latter, since the second version involves self-focusing rather than external focusing.
I think the external focusing is imperative to me hopefully transcending it towards dreaming, because whenever I recall my non-lucid dreams, I don't really remember hearing a lot of noises, just your generic noises like close conversations with random dream characters, and small swooshing sounds.
But I'm still interested in Version 2, because I feel that this is another important aspect with awareness both in dreaming and waking life.
Sorry for the long report there, but my opinions on Version 2.
In waking life, I feel....like I have to do something productive, I'll think about the objectives that comes into my mind, and let them drift for a moment, and then forget it, and then hopefully trace it back to my mind again.
In dreaming life, ESPECIALLY when I attain those rare lucids, I feel this....calmness, extreme calmness.
No one is out to interact with me, I do not feel obligated to feel alive. By that, making myself look presentable towards others.
I also feel a slight augmentation in my footsteps and movements sometimes, but most of the time, I see that I even ignore those sensations.
I feel that working on those will definitely help with stability in staying in the dream longer. Because whenever I remind myself of an objective in lucid state, it usually crumbles after I start getting impatient or irritated
Might do Version 2 tomorrow, but I plan to do Version 1 for this evening and tonight.
The reason being is that I'm setting up an ALARM to ring once since I'm utilizing the CANWILD technique. And doing Version 1 as a priority will help with me remembering the custom sound I extended, so that I can enter the dream state through a WILD, or a DEILD.
And I've had moments where I probably didn't hear the alarm at times, or probably did, but was unconscious a few seconds after. I believe this will help me retain consciousness after a few hours sleep when the alarm initiates.
Thank you for these lessons, life is going to get a little interesting listening to these small noises, etc.
[/B]I know that the objective of this first level is to feeling yourself moving through your sense of hearing, but it tempted me to create a visual camera of the environment around me, and when I heard the noises on the T.V. I tried to create this mini-sound vortex that would amplify my awareness of the noises on the T.V. a little bit.
I hope that this method I'm doing is acceptable. I feel that even though there's some visual involved, the sensation of hearing the sounds being amplified might make it worthwhile.
Thank you for these lessons, life is going to get a little interesting listening to these small noises, etc.
Hi Link! Thanks for being one of the first to start a notebook! I wonder how often you will now hear that refridgerator hum? Thanks for making a great first post, very cool.
Feel free to alter the meditations as you see fit. If you do any energy work, I find it can be added to most meditations, so anyways, be creative and do this whole thing your way.
As far as time to stay in meditation. I believe you should make it fun and light hearted at first, so people do not burn themselves out. I, for instance, can keep myself very very amused, and I mean fully engaged emotional and spiritually pleasent stuff. If you observed me in a meditation class, you would not know, why I can stay in a deep meditation so long. Here it is,,, it can be really mind-alteringly intense and pleasurable. In contrast if you take a beginner and make them sit board then even 5 minutes will seem very long. I would suggest that you find a few meditative skills that seem fun to you and practice doing the fun ones, until 10 minutes of a fun meitation seems like a short amount of time. You are not looking to be able to stick something out for ten minutes. You are looking to explore a mind so cool, that 10 minutes passes and you choose to keep going, for fun.
Yes, Life is going to get interesting!- Eric
When I recorded my Dream Journal on one program I use before posting on this site's system, I was aware of sounds being altered in a dream when I moved away from a person talking. Usually, I'm not cognizant of this, and it's mostly ignored.
A small observation, but worth mentioning.
I think I might use Version 1 for now, and do Version 2 in later weeks.
Today's results, I haven't been so active with Version 1 Level 1, whenever things do get quiet, I have nothing else to do but to actually listen.
I didn't pay attention to traffic outside of the house, but I guess it's because there isn't much traffic going on anyway, just a few cars breezing in. Probably might be different tomorrow since it's a workday.
Yesterday's results (I posted the previous post around midnight, which is why it'll look funny posting results on the same day, but that was for the day before).
Anyway, during the afternoon, I decided to do the Version 1 Level 1 by hearing the alarm I set out to wake me up for a CANWILD attempt. I put the sound on repeat, so that I would get used to it, and listened to it through my headphones on my laptop. I turned it down a little bit, because it is LOUD.
As I'm browsing through the internet, I'm trying to pay attention to the refrigerator humming, and I could hear some slight hums, but the noise of the alarm itself was kind of a challenge to fade away from. I also told myself as more practice that I would listen to this alarm, keep my eyes closed, remain still, and enter a lucid dream several times.
The initial moments of having the alarm repeat over and over, I could hear the slight skips since I set it for 7 seconds, meaning it would be cut off (since the whole alarm sound is 2 seconds, so 1 second is shaved off from it being an even amount of seconds obviously).
It started to get a little annoying hearing those skips because of the cut off, but I started to get used to it, and saw that the sound become less and less annoying, and it literally was just a part of the environment now. I heard the TV sounds as well, but I didn't pay too much attention to that.
I also tried listening to the sounds of my fingers pressing the keyboard buttons. I could hear them just fine, but not to the point where I went hardcore and hearing the fingers slide off and being mid-air for a few seconds though.
I think I'm going to work on that for today, and try to devote some time in listening to the alarm song I have so that I'm used to it....anyway, that's not something that needs to be addressed for this class.
Another thing I'm going to be focusing on, IF I remember to devote some time to it, is to daydream, because with the CANWILD technique, adding visualization to the WILD attempt can help TREMENDOUSLY, because most of the time, when I wake up, the back of my eyes portray a void like atmosphere, loose, free, misty, etc....and that's when I have to take advantage to use my creativity and form an environment.
I read some old posts in CrazyInsane's CANWILD technique, and one DV User from 2010 I believe said that he practiced the technique for over 2 months, and had it down to perfection, and what kept him from having a lot of lucids is the fact that he didn't set out to create a dream environment, because like with myself, I'm in the "limbo" or "twilight" state of being when I wake up from the alarm and keep my eyes closed.
And I had a lucid this morning as well, so I'm going to try and daydream myself inside that environment with skyscrapers, which means that I'll try to focus on the sounds of the air rushing from the echoing bouncing off the walls of the skyscraper.
Even as I'm typing this now, I can just imagine, I'm so excited just thinking about the sounds I can hear, because sounds haven't been something I paid attention to in my dreams.
And as for the visualization aspect, this may be off topic, but reading one of your posts on how to connect those small dots of light to train your brain to associate that with creating a dream environment (forgot which thread it was unfortunately), I'm going to try and do that sometime this late afternoon or 30 minutes to an hour before I go to bed.
Will post results tomorrow!
And hear I thought Dream Yoga was something I should do AFTER I get used to lucidity, but this is proving to be a good supplement in enhancing it! I'm glad I'm taking the WILD course and this course simultaneously, I just know it's going to help, and with knowing someone like yourself with plenty of experience, I hope I'll gain a lot of progress with being considerate of my dream senses (I've always been able to feel the emotions of myself and dream characters in my dream, explore their behaviors, indulge in them to the point where I could go on and on, but thanks to this class, I can see that I'll start focusing more on how I feel.
Ugh, it's hard to restrain myself from rambling and going into "too long didn't read it" mode, so I'll just leave it at that.
EDIT:
Here's the mp3 link of the alarm I'm practicing to get used to
Okay so for last night, I took 3mg of Melatonin. After 30 minutes or so, I decided to do some meditation. I get on my bed, form my feet in a lotus position, sort....I just let my feet touch each other.
I set a timer to activate after 35-40 minutes, and would devote that time to meditate.
Things were going good the first three minutes....LOL
Then I started to get a little sleepy, probably the slight effects from the Melatonin, even though I know its full effect only starts after several sleeping hours.
Man, you were right about the time feeling like forever! I only spent a few minutes, and by then, I was so tired and even got impatient! But in those few minutes, I saw some swirls at the back of my eye, and tried to passively be aware of them.
Guess that patience thing is something I'll have to work on, and maybe I should do it before I decide to take Melatonin.
Hi Link. Wow, that alarm sounds like it goes on a sub-marine! That sure would wake someone up. You seem to be focusing on increasing your awareness, and doing just fine. If I can help, let me know. Most of this takes time and practice, so keep it up. Play with these exercises for now, I will release another lesson as sone as tonight, but it is going to be information rather than skill based. More cool skill based stuff to come,,, for the moment make sure you do this in a fun light manner. This stuff gets so damn cool, that spending 30 minutes in meditation is not only easy for me, but exciting. Until you get to a point that longer sessions are fun and easy, just a few minutes at a time, or as part of a WILD. Have fun.
I feel that I should mention something about how I try to define waking life and dreaming life. I know this may not be related to Dream Yoga, but I think acknowledging these possibilities can help anyone who may have conflicting goals with finding their dream guide, because there's so many ideologies to follow in defining that a dream guide is or not. And taking this into consideration is more of understanding how I think, so I guess that relates to Dream Yoga, self awareness and all.
Spoiler for Dreaming Life, Waking Life, and Dream Guides:
This is something that's been really irritating me lately. With the billions of people in this world, it's so easily to be saturated with the thought that people now have a greater chance of being "disposable."
Dream characters. People with a practical sense of lucid dreaming, they believe they represent some element of themselves, some kind insecurity, weakness, strength, stereotype, ideal figure, etc. They want to believe their subconscious is other collaborating with the unconscious mind to create an experience that seems meaningful, or that dreams are only just random processing in our brain.
Then you have the people who are subjective, they believe dream characters can be several stages of a certain person, that they have more meaning, that the subconscious isn't trying to collaborate with the unconscious to create a random experience.
These people introducing abstract reasoning rather than logical and practical means and methods clearly get the most out of lucid dreaming.
Think about it, do people who believe in practical senses would be able to take the burden of possibly experiencing things that may cause a huge shift in what they believe is reality or an illusion?
Are people this weak in being open to many possibilities? Are people this weak to rely on preconceptions of life to sustain a decent reality?
Your reality may not be the same as other people, and yet, there's always a universal medium for people to agree upon. Excluding common sense with biological processes such as sustainability of genes being passed on to the future, protecting family members, etc., I feel these people who utilize practical competence with lucid dreaming can only go so far.
People with subjectivity, they have greater potential, it grows more and more they start to believe in more and more possibilities, they don't constrain themselves.
They don't weaken their potential, they seek to improve it as much as possible. Of course, one does have to have some sense of this reality, even if it may be broken into several pieces, but as long as it keeps them alive, they're okay with it....right?
Body and soul, being trapped in this mortal body, trying to find inner peace in a body that will soon rot and become part of this Earth, and who knows what happens to our soul, if we even have one.
People say they have a good grasp about reality, but is it because you're just preventing yourself from accepting the possibility that you could be nothing?
Instead of using "people say" as a horrible means to create some merit here, let's shift it around a bit. If dreaming can be fulfilling and fun as long as you know how to moderate it, what if it starts to become too much?
What if you start to moderate it more? What if you start to limit that potential to where your dreams start to become boring, and recalling them becomes a chore?
What if you can't get the feelings of excitement and passion anymore? What if you think that dreaming more might make you try to escape waking life?
Is waking life really all it seems to be? We have obligations, liabilities that must be sustained, otherwise, it can jeopardize the lives of those who consider us important....those who are dear to us deserve the right to live life as much as they can before they die...right?
And when a person tries to accomplish a goal in their dreams, like finding a dream guide, because who wouldn't want to feel the added security that there's a part of yourself, the subconscious, that you can interact with.
This is if you believe dream guides of course. If not, then just don't believe it.
Dream guides, there's so much about them, there's so many meanings to them.
In the practical sense, the most reliable and logical and reasonable sense, they are just there to help you with anything related to the dreams, and if it's the subjective sense, they could possibly help you find your spirit guide, astral guide, guides beyond what we think are there.
It would be nice to have that added sense of security when you can know that when you dream, someone is there to be with you, to make sure that you don't feel alone right?
You want to respect that person, to have fantasies with them, to do things that aren't acceptable to society, at least in a moral and "pure" manner.
Now when someone mocks the other person and their belief with dream guides, and declare that it's just nonsense, without realizing that they are in fact praising other people finding their own dream guide....it's just hypocrisy at it's finest.
There have been many events of people finding their dream guide, and most of the time, it's finding that added security....the desire that could not be achieve in waking life that turns into pain as result, it's finally out there, the potential for it to be slowly eradicated....it's there.
These people deserve that, everyone does. But again, people outlook on dream guides and people finding their own depends on the bias and what they know about the person looking for them beforehand.
There are some people who respect someone more for finding their dream guide/spirit guide/astral guide/ whatever the hell you want to fucking call it to make you feel good insde.
There are some people who hate a person more for finding their dream guide.
Do you see what's wrong with that logic? The latter either has a very ignorant view that prevents them from understanding, especially if they themselves are looking for their own guides, someone they can have a bond with, (again this is only if you believe in dream guides)....and for other people, it's time for them to mock them for trying to find their dream guide.
It's hypocrisy, all humans have to utilize hypocrisy, it's very hard to avoid it. And those who do avoid using it have shallow lives. They don't know what it's like to have a few scars....a few painful events...things that make them stronger.
Now tell me, when these people who try to find their dream guide make fun of people trying to find their own, is it really logical to do that? It doesn't really make sense to do that to people?
If the person's endeavors isn't hurting anything, if it's not affecting the lives of others, should it really be something for people to bitch about and make fun of?
Is it because the people mocking a person's endeavors proof that they have troubled minds, and are insecure with their own beliefs? Is it because a person is trying to experiment with so many ideologies that makes them look crazy?
Sometimes I wonder if people on this forum really think about this. I've seen a growing number of people believing that finding our dream guide is absolute nonsense, and that it's just all an illusion, that it's a fabrication, that we're stupid and and crazy to try and do that.
It's as if they're on this forum to mock dreamers, and ignore the fact that they could be experiencing these things as well. It really irritates me seeing these people.
I mean, you have your own beliefs, stick with them, don't let anyone try to make you change it too much unless you know it's for you own benefit, because there's no point in living if you're being swayed into people schemata of life and dreaming constantly.
It's cute and acceptable to do that when you're a child, because you have no direction in this life, because you have to rely on your family, or some kind of adult figure to sustain the potential that you have in succeeding and surviving.
But clearly, as people grow older, the more ignorant they are sometimes. Sometimes I feel that when people disagree with the potential for dream guides, and the potential that everyone deserves to find their own happiness, they just want a person to be deprived of that.
They laugh at the things they want to do with their dream guides, they mock at them for trying to use them as a sublimation of the pain in waking life that prevented them from being happy.
As long as the person is happy, as long as no one else is being hurt or affected, what is the use to mock with the potential of dream guides?
As long as you're happy with it, and can literally feel it without it being false or fake, people have no right to mock you, no matter how perverted, how insane, how abstract, how illogical it may be.
If you want to deprive a person of their happiness with dreaming, and not pay attention that you are seeking the same goal as well, then you obviously are just out there to ridicule that person for the hell of it, or maybe you're just insecure with your own feelings.
If a person makes fun of you trying to find someone who could be your dream guide, and if they have their own negative thoughts on said dream guide, then let them.
Who cares about these people? They're only trying to bring you down because they can't, or do not want to understand the sense of fulfillment and inner peace that comes with finding your dream guide(s).
If you praise a person for finding their dream guide and love the experiences they have when they post their recall of them, and yet mock or discourage another person for trying to find theirs, you're only making yourself look silly
You clearly are not paying attention on how "equal" or "fair" you're being towards people. To encourage a person's experience with their dream guide, and then to discourage another for doing so....sometimes I wonder if people really think.
Maybe I'm just being surrounded by idiots.
And if this was too long for you to read, oh well, deal with it. And if you find it annoying, oh well, deal with it.
People never really think before they dream...do they?
But hey...it's your life, if you want to be clouded with practical reasoning, go for it! But you're only doing it because you're afraid of going beyond the scope of this world.
You have every right to constrain yourself like that, because honestly, it's the most logical and sane reason. No person would want to continue finding something that will inevitably create tensions and conflicts with their schemata.
But for those people seeking happiness and subjectivity, abstract reasoning, infinite possibilities, or whatever, stop using your logical reasoning to try and define why they're trying to be subjective.
Never think that dreaming can be defined that quickly, that it can be constrained to limited science. Humans will never understand the potential dreaming can provide until they experience it themselves.
It's one of those things that you can't rely on the scientific method. And if you use the scientific method to rely on defining this to be part of this reality, then you will be limited only to that, and will never find what your scientific procedures could never verify.
If you define life based ONLY on the scientific method, it just shows you're a human being...without creativity.
Just know the method was created and collaborated by humans, so it's easy to think someone who doesn't follow that type of procedure is an idiot right? But really, who has the right to think a person is incompetent because they don't follow a method that will always have to be updated and replaced with new discoveries?
This is why I hate humans in general. Some people are just ignorant, and rely on what humans created, instead of creating something for their own benefit.
And with that, have a good night's rest.
And yeah, that alarm HAS to wake someone up, otherwise they're a really really REALLY heavy sleeper.
I'm getting a little better at being aware when I listen to the alarm, which ties in to Version 1 Level 1 of a noisy world. Being able to pick out a certain sound out of so many sounds is really something useful in regards of practicing anchors to become lucid.
Last edited by Linkzelda; 05-18-2012 at 07:11 AM.
Reason: Had to change some things.
I didn't have the luxury to spend time doing the Version 1 Level 1, but I have made a dream interpretation of some key elements and dream signs, along with elements of what some people see in my in their dreams as well
Hi everyone! It has been almost two weeks. I hope everyone got a chance to practice. The thread Dream Yoga Basic Skills: Lesson 1, has been updated. I have shared a few ways these skills will be useful in LDs, and the thread is now open to Q & A.
All right, today was interesting. I was mowing the lawn, without eating breakfast and lunch....smart move Link...
After finishing that, I felt tired, and it was hot outside, so I took the time to drink some water, and once I was done drinking a big gulp, I closed my eyes, and I have this "PEW" moment with flashing white light....loool. That's what I get for sleeping at 3-4 AM in the morning, waking up, not eating anything, and working in the hot sun.
So I quickly went to my room, and crashed ANYTHING that was in my way of resting on the floor, because I didn't want my sweat to saturate the bed.
I was in that state where your body just needs to chill down, like seriously.
The reason why I'm saying all this is because I was really tired, and had to take a few deep breaths, and I had my eyes closed the whole time.
I focused on the sound of the T.V., the A/C humming, focusing more on the A/C rather than the T.V.
It made sense to focus on the A/C, because it was very hot outside, and I just let myself get caught with the nice humming from it, felt so good, and seeing the back of my eyes having this diluted mystical feel to it was relaxing.
I started to feel better in 5-10 minutes of laying on the floor, trying not to move too much, because I already did too much damage on my body working without eating.
After that, I felt alive again! Weird.....normally, you'd think that you would need to get more help, or possibly go to the hospital for things like that, but after "loving" the pain that was surging in my body, it forced me to focus ONLY on my mind....
Although the event I had was a little too harsh due to my mistake of not eating before working, shifting my focus towards my mind alone, I felt like the stress and everything was taken care of by my body. I literally felt myself charging up for a while, really was a nice experience, even if it did hurt a lot before resting.
Now I'm going to eat
Lesson from that: When things get too hectic with my body stressing out, just shift my consciousness to my mind only, and everything will be all right. Hope this habit can pass on with WILD attempts.
I've done a few things that distracted me from even trying to lucid dream, but my recall is decent. Lots of cleaning in the house in real life, and then me just getting into other things a lot. Man, it's been way too long since I posted and results.
I'll try to post some Tuesday night, because Monday is going to be another cleaning day.
Wow, really distracted lately. But I did a little bit of the exercise where you try to look at peripheral vision instead of what's in the center when I was at the gym running on the treadmill.
There were three cars perfectly aligned. I looked at the one on the center, then gradually tried to see the license plate for the ones on the side. I did an okay job focusing at least on one side, but it was hard to see both except the one in the center at the same time.
I kept doing this for about 2 minutes, and eventually gave up.
I don't know what's killing the passion in me right now, maybe it's just trying to resolve the negative thoughts I had with dreaming in general distracted me.
I haven't shown any progress at all, and it's frankly due to me trying to balance out all of these thoughts I'm trying to let out so that they don't build up and make me even more anxious than I need to be.
I've been keeping in the shadows of my interest in things beyond Dreaming like the Akashic Records and practicing the mechanisms to potentially have fairly frequent AP because of the huge benefit that prior sleep is not a big importance, but is still a good supplement.
Honestly, as much as I want to become lucid often, and disciplining myself to recall my dreams daily (I've been half-heartedly attempting to records notes when I wake up without an alarm lately....mostly because the dreams I recall do not have enough substance and consolation with anything that can be beneficial in waking life....at least in non-vague way.)
Going through those random dreams, despite their usefulness being dependent on me trying to be VERY subjective about them dying off slowly, I know I have to bear with it to sustain my ability to recall, and push it much further. I know I can do fairly well in recalling my rare lucids when I get adequate amount of sleep, and I know that if I only have 3-4 hours to sleep, it's either no dream recall or just the usual N-REM nonsense dreams.
If I want to experiment and get my feet into the mechanisms of AP and beyond, I plan to reread some guidelines you've set out, which I heavily am grateful for you offering them to us.
Let's just say that based on the situations that I'm in in waking life, and just on a deeper level on finding out who I really am, things like APing and Akashic Records (the idea behind it as using it as a progressive basis of seeing outcomes that are most likely to occur based on my current state) are two enticing mediums.
The Akashic Records has been of interest ever since I happened to glance over the Wiki in DV months ago, and I'm all about using the potential of sleeping that gets me into other levels of consciousness to help me with this life. To be honest, ever since I came to this forum and read through many threads and guides, dreaming in general has made me speculate more on life, and even before, I was very engaged in how people behaved, and questioning morale, religion, etc., and I still am.
Anyway, I know this class is a progressive thing that its effectiveness is dependent on the student's effort, and from your last post, I hope to see that at least some of your knowledge in this will be added to my schemata in various things both in dreaming and waking life.
Last night I tried to meditate for maybe an hour or so, and it's starting to get easier staying conscious, especially since I'm just sitting half lotus position with my hands together. I can feel my body getting at rest, but it seem I need to have an enduring mind that can cope with those irresistible urges to just move my body parts.
It's hard, but I really need to see this as challenge that must be climbed over if I want to get into the really good stuff with deep state meditation. It's amazing how I'm just a few patient levels away from getting a certain aspect of higher knowledge......but I hope that I'll be able to master this before I have to do anything too serious in my current situation right now. Other than that, I still am tempted just lie down on the bed and pass out into deep sleep. Maybe I need to make the environment a bit colder, because I noticed I love the warmth a bit too much.
I don't know, it could be just me having to build up endurance while remaining passive. I do notice that my body feels a lot better when I let stay dormant for a while, and when I shift back into moving it, it's like
"wooooooooooooooooah."
I think I'm going to read over the lessons you put up, and see if I can utilize them as anchors to be distracted from those strong urges to move while being dormant for so long. I know I have the mentality to just stay aware, now I just need the will to get used to these sensations I'm usually unaware of before sleep.
I tried my hardest to reinforce positive thinking into my meditation, but realized that doing so means fixating my mindset to one aspect, which I know would be a detriment to my progress.
So I'm going to just be neutral of my thoughts, since if I focus on them too long, I'll get distracted, and might get tempted to fall asleep faster because I would get lost in the thoughts, literally.
Other than that, I can keep my body straight with a pillows behind me, maintain the pose with ease. All I have to do now is conquer those feelings of trying to rest, and to be in the state of neutrality; because I do get the habit of strong feelings just screaming to me, "sleep! sleep! sleep!"
I think you should expirement with meditating in a couple different positions. Try doing it flat on your back in bed, with one leg slightly bent off to the side. Just a semi-comfortable rrepose on your back. If you end up falling asleep and stay in that position, then so be it. Just do not role onto a side until you are ready to stop. Also try sitting cross legged in a normal indian style pose, which is my favorite. I see little value in lotus or even half lotus.
This is a bit like the issue of moving during WILD attempts. Do not fight yourself to stay still. The effort it takes to not move distaracts you. If you have an itch it is ok to scratch, or if you need to adjust how your sitting, it is ok. Being comfortable is good, and I would not worry too much about falling asleep. If you do fall asleep in meditation you may hhave an LD.
Thank you for your response sviason. I've been doing the Normal Indian Style for about a week or so. I think my main challenge is whenever I let go and just focus on my breathing while passively acknowledging random thought forms fading away.
I've also done the position where I would sit at a 130 angle with my legs on the bed. What I would do is get a rolling chair and put it near the end of the bed as close as possible, sit down on it, extend my legs on the bed, and rest on the pillows for my back and neck for support.
- Sometimes I find myself extending my face upwards, making my neck exposed while I aim my eyes upwards for the "third eye" if you will.
- Sometimes I find myself just keeping the head stationary, sometimes feeling my jaws loosen and opening my mouth....when this happens, I try not to focus on how I could activate the swallow reflex, but it does get irritating sometimes. But I'll make sure that I focus on not worrying about being too strict with my movements.
I mostly just do the Indian style sitting while resting my back and head on two pillows against the wall.
Again, thank you for your input sivason, means a lot.
I've noticed that when I get a loss in perception of time, I can utilize that to my advantage for some personal endeavors I'm going for that requires a deep meditative state. I try to devote 1 hour per day at least for meditation during the day, and I do whatever I can to meditate at night.
I usually use meditation to the point where my body strongly wants to sleep, so I transition from sitting to lying down on the bed. I guess I have to conquer awareness when I'm lying down, because sitting is where I'm obviously more alert but passive in the surroundings and thoughts around me.
So I'm doing this breathing concentration exercise where I count the inhales and the exhales. I find this to be very relieving, and I'm actually getting a little better at easing my mind. I'm getting to the point where the mind goes scatterbrain mode, and it's easy to go into one thought or the other.
What I'm doing is counting up from 1-100 and my concentration is pretty well at not getting side tracked. I'm starting to realize that out of all things to use as a constant and yet still have passive awareness is in the breathing. Also, I was experimenting different sitting positions and even laying down as well.
I find that the ideal position is to sit, but to just rest at an angle about 130 degrees or so. This way, I can open my legs, and still be in a position that's easy to fall asleep in. Of course, I'm not aiming to fall asleep, I'm aiming for the right moment when I'm just about to sleep so I can go into a trance state.
It's challenging, but I'm going to keep attempting this, and hopefully do some abstract things when I can start shifting consciousness to a higher awareness.
So for the past few days, it's getting easier to get relaxed, at least that's what I think.
I managed to count up until 1,000 (counting inhaling and exhaling), and I find when I stop there, the moment I rest my head on a pillow, it's like someone gave me a whiff of chloroform and I'm knocked out .
I'm now trying to get into a trance state, so I've been doing some research (not hardcore as I thought), so that I can use this state of being for many things.
Other than that, I guess I'm now focused on just being relaxed and just being receptive to whatever happens. As long as I sit Indian style or just regular sitting, I'll be awake for as long as I want.
As for the visualization, still working on that.
Shockwave helped me get into a trance state (thanks by the way), and I'm like, "WHAT IS THIS SORCERY!?" But it really helped me a lot, which definitely motivated me to learn self-hypnosis and trances.
To go into a true trance you will need to kind of fall asleep. It is harder then normal WILDs, because you bring a huge amount of awareness along, and can observe long states of altered brainwave, that happen normally only during sleep. Good luck, it is awesome, but will take time.
I've been reading a few pdfs and videos related to self-hypnosis, and from this, I've made a presumption that simply getting into the simplicity of it and being able to be positive despite failed attempts if the best way to go for me.
I'm planning to do one before I go to sleep to get ready for the first day of the fourth semester here in college, and I'm taking quick notes off of a pdf I'm reading, which I find to be really useful. This one is one that just completely breaks things down to what I really want out of the self-hypnosis: which is to simply set a conditioned response that I can be utilized for consistent and successful self-hypnosis attempts.
I've noticed it pretty passively before, from the first time my friend mentioned to me about dream views, and how I tried autosuggestion for the first time to wake me up....and then those random moments where my mind complied with my desires...really amazing and has a lot of potential for getting me into the right mindset in many endeavors.
I've been focusing more on getting connected with the subconscious mind, acknowledging any mistakes and frustrations I had and using them to get better gradually by the day. The anecdotes of people who can get into self-hypnosis faster than the average person is definitely enticing, and I hope to get better at it. There's so much potential here, and I just can't let that opportunity go to waste.
Anyway, I'll post results eventually, don't know when, but eventually.
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