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.
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