Thread: balban's Dream Yoga Workbook

I've noticed something interesting with the Listening to a Noisy World Level 1 exercise. I began focusing on a specific sound, say a spinning fan. Within that sound, there are constituent sounds that make up the sound as a whole (the sound of the blades cutting the air, the sound of the fan motor, the slight clicking of the fan's rotation mechanism, the vibration of the fan cage, the sound the air makes blowing across my ears, etc...). I guess slowing down and focusing on something so minute revealed an entire world that I would have normally just taken for granted.

Since having that thought after my first attempt at this exercise, I've found myself searching for sounds within sounds and being aware of how they are working together to form one complete sound and holding that thought in my mind. Though I don't 100% understand what it has to do with LD just yet, I can see its advantages for just being aware and present in the moment. It seems a worthwhile exercise if for nothing but that specific revelation.

I think most "experts" around here will agree that increased awareness level in waking life is part of what makes becoming lucid more likely. It has many effects that help LDing.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of classical music. Along the lines of my constituent sound components observation, I found music be to a pretty simple move toward Level 2 of the Listen to a Noisy World exercise. Classical music, in particular, has many individual parts and I try to focus on as many of these parts as I can. If I focus, 4 is about the maximum number of parts I can follow without losing one of them to other parts or some passing thought.

I've been working with the Level 2 - Listening to a Noisy World (LtaNW) exercise for a little over two weeks now. Here is my progress and what I've noticed as a result.

I've gotten myself to consistently hold 5 individual sounds in my mind at any one time. There are moments of 6 and sometimes 7 sounds, but those moments are fleeting. I am still working with classical music as the sound source. I find the more complex it is the better I am able to do this. While practicing this exercise a few nights back, I had wondered if this is what meditation feels like. I have attempted meditation in the past, but I never reaped much benefit from it. It was the "clear your mind" type of meditation I had been working with, but I couldn't clear my thoughts enough. I kept getting frustrated by the random thoughts that kept popping up incessantly. I noticed, with the LtaNW technique, the random thoughts do occur, but occur less frequently. When the thoughts bubble to the surface I am able to just let them go and continue, similar to the suggested method of dealing with random thoughts while doing a "traditional meditation". I discovered that I am not frustrated by the random thoughts and as a result I am able to practice this technique much longer and with more confidence.

As I mentioned, I realize that focus is probably a weakness that I have in consistently achieving LD. But what I didn't mention is that I feel like I rarely dream. Probably better said, I rarely recall my dreams. I've had a few impactful dreams throughout my life, but I would suggest that they probably had to be really relevant and I had to immediately wake from the dream in order for me to remember it (a Keanu Reeves style "whoa!" type of dream to penetrate my consciousness). I still vividly remember those dreams to this day. However, since working with this exercise, what I have noticed is that I can now recall 3 to 4 dreams per week. What I can't say, with any degree of confidence, is if the act of the improving focus is causing this or if the fact that I am oddly setting up the intention to recall via these exercises. Perhaps it's a little of both?

FYI... the only other things I am doing is the mantra "I will remember my dreams" before I go to sleep and when I am trying to recall after I wake up, and dream journaling. I am not doing RC or the other standard stuff that is suggested elsewhere. At this point, I think I'll get farther if I just stick to my attempts at mastering my dream recall rather than trying to become lucid.

Either way, I still see a real benefit to your techniques and I will continue to slowly progress through each exercise and see where it leads.

Do practice dream recall. It is the best starting point. Good observations on meditation and I agree with them. Clearing your mind without a focal point is way to advanced, yet that is what so many teachers say. "Just clear your mind." Not only is it silly, it is not helpful and people leave meditation behind. All of my lessons here are forms of meditation. They are just specialized towards developing dream skills.

I've started with Lesson #2 and I find that I can do this pretty naturally. I don't know if it comes from years of driving where I use this techniques without really even thinking about it (I realized this driving home from work after reading the lesson, BTW). I can pretty easily focus on a television show while watching it in my periphery. I also notice that I use my peripheral vision quite a bit since thinking about it.

As an aside... I've noticed an issue with my dream recall. I haven't been doing anything differently and I believe my dreams to be longer and more detailed than I have ever had -- at least consistently. However, when I wake up, I know that I've dreamed something, I can get fragments of the dream (not really images, but more a sense of what it was about, if that makes sense), but I can't remember must passed that. I am kind of mystified by it. Any suggestions as to the cause or what I can do about it? I was doing really good as far as recall and it seems to have crashed pretty quickly.

FYI... pretty much what I do is your DY exercises a few times a day. I recite the "I will remember my dreams" matra while going to sleep. When I wake from a dream, I lay as still as possible and try to recall the dream (about 5 to 10 minutes). When done, I record the relevant tag words for the dream until I can get to a place to write the detail. I've notice that it's in the "lay as still as possible for recall" phase that I am having the biggest difficulty. I fight feelings of frustration when nothing comes but a feeling that I just had a dream and it was about X, but I can't f'ing remember it! Additionally, when I go to write the detail, I just stare at a blank page, even having difficulty writing out just the fragments.

Skill in recall will develop with time and practice just like learning to draw. Keep it up. You are doing it right. Also, any intoxicants can reduce recall.