wiyosaya's Greetings from Dream Yoga Land

[wiyosaya]

Greetings, I have had roughly 20 LDs some spontaneous, some with the help of supplements. I have an addictive tendency, so I would like to further develop my lucid dreaming skills without the use of supplements - at least - without using them on a regular basis. Therefore, I decided to take Sivason's Dream Yoga course. I have read the book "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep" and I think I am incorporating at least some of it in my waking life; beyond that, since my LDs have not yet been frequent, I have not practiced any of the Yoga while dreaming aspect of the book - unless you can count personal, physical healing as one of those practices.

[Hilary]

Keep up the good work! I gave up supplements, too. Who knows the long term results of using them? I don't know. Kinda freaked myself out about them to be honest. Plus, it's such a better feeling when you get lucid naturally.

[Sivason]

Hi there Maple! I also do not use any kind of supplement aimed at helping dreaming. It is completely unnecessary. I can not say one way or the other if they work as I never got into that. I hope you find the material here interesting.

[wiyosaya]

I have not yet integrated basic skills lesson 1 into my meditation/bedtime routine, however, after reading over the posts in the thread for basic skills lesson 1, I decided to try something. In a past meditation retreat, we were instructed to concentrate on taking in as much of the information that was in our sense sphere as possible. This included sights, sounds, and the feel of things. So, I figured I would give it a shot to listen to as many sounds as I could while walking around the workplace. What I did was Shift into a state where I vew all around me as if it were a dream Then I paid attention to the sounds of my footsteps. Then I added in listening to the various sounds around me, and attempted to maintain awareness of all of this. I then went home for the weekend. That night, I had two non-lucid dreams that seemed longer than usual and I remembered almost all of each dream in detail. At the workplace, there is a shared bathroom that has a rather noisy vent that turn on when the light is on in the bathroom. Usually, the signs of the bathroom being occupied are the sounds of the vent on, and water running. Went I went to use that bathroom, I could hear the vent, and I thought I could also hear water running. Later on in the day, I went back to the bathroom, and the vent was on again and I also thought I heard water running, however, this time, the door was ajar so I decided to try to go in anyway. The bathroom was empty, however, I discovered that what I thought was the sound of water running was actually the sound of the vent running, only this time, I was hearing an aspect of the sound of the vent that I had not perceived before. I think it was interesting that even with what seems like a minimal effort at this exercise that I perceived a sound differently than any way that I had perceived that same sound prior to this. It seems like a subtle difference, yet that same sound was different. I can only imagine that what I perceived was in part because I had some practice at actually listening to the sounds around me. I am not entirely sure how this would translate to becoming lucid in a dream, however, it seems to make sense to me that paying close attention to what sounds are around me, if that were to come into a/any dream(s) of mine, may be enough to help me become lucid.

[Sivason]

I am not entirely sure how this would translate to becoming lucid in a dream, however, it seems to make sense to me that paying close attention to what sounds are around me, if that were to come into a/any dream(s) of mine, may be enough to help me become lucid. It comes into this in a few ways. Dreams do not sound like waking life. For instance there will be extra noises outside of what you are focused on in waking life. In dreams, often traffic will make no noise, unless you focus on it, then traffic will be the only noise. Make a habit of taking in as much noise as you can and you will definitely notice something is off if you try this while dreaming. Another aspect is that awareness is very key to getting lucid. You must evolve into a hyper aware person. This training helps. Finally, the portion where you attempt to hear many distinct sounds at one time teaches you about how you filter out much of the available stimuli and trains you to take in far more stimuli at one time. I am glad you got something out of your first go at this. Remember that this stuff is also the foundations for mind expansion while awake, and will be interesting outside of lucid dreaming.

[wiyosaya]

It comes into this in a few ways. Dreams do not sound like waking life. For instance there will be extra noises outside of what you are focused on in waking life. In dreams, often traffic will make no noise, unless you focus on it, then traffic will be the only noise. Make a habit of taking in as much noise as you can and you will definitely notice something is off if you try this while dreaming. Another aspect is that awareness is very key to getting lucid. You must evolve into a hyper aware person. This training helps. Finally, the portion where you attempt to hear many distinct sounds at one time teaches you about how you filter out much of the available stimuli and trains you to take in far more stimuli at one time. I am glad you got something out of your first go at this. Remember that this stuff is also the foundations for mind expansion while awake, and will be interesting outside of lucid dreaming. Thank you for your reply, and for the information on sounds in dreams. I would not have known this information without your reply. I relate to the world at least partly as visual person, and at least partly as a auditory person, so I feel like I may have an advantage with this exercise. I sometimes hear things that others do not. For instance, I live not too far from a county water treatment facility, and I often hear noises that sound like they are being made by the pumps at this plant. I have not traced them as when I get closer to the plant, there is more high-frequency noise that is not there in what I hear at my home. Visually, I often see detail that others do not see, too. At this point, I do not consider myself super-aware, however, I do seem to be more aware than others - if I do say so myself. In several dreams I have had over the past few years, I have noted that there is something strange in what is happening; however, so far, I have not gotten to the point where I recognize that I am dreaming. I am continuing practicing listening to sounds in my daily life, and integrating listening to as many sounds at a time as is possible for me. In general, it is something that I have been able to do, although, I had not looked at it as helping me to lucid dream before this. I also plan on integrating the other lessons, too. Thanks again for your response, and thank you for all the effort you are putting into this. So far, I think it is helping me get closer to my goal of having regular lucid dreams.

[wiyosaya]

I've been thinking the past few days about the basic lessons and that their goal is to become hyper aware. Then I remember that I had not been doing the exercises as much as I would like to. For me, it has never been a practice that has been part of my daily life. On that note, I have decided to congratulate myself when I remember to do these exercises rather than be hard on myself for not doing them. Also, part of my thinking is that it would likely be helpful to combine parts of the exercises into a practice during my normal daily routine. To this end, I thought that as well as incorporating listening, why not incorporate feeling and sight along with that? Speaking for myself, I know that virtually all of the time when I walk, for instance, I only know that I am walking. I never pay attention to the sensation of gravity while I am walking. So, I have decided to integrate paying attention to what I feel in my body as well as the sights and sounds, too, during my daily life. To me, it seems to make sense that paying attention to all these at the same time would help me practice becoming hyper aware.

[Sivason]

100% correct. Gravity is important. Eventually you can use gravity as an easy RC, it basically does not exist in the normal way in a dream. Also, this stuff is to be incorporated into your life over months or years so certainly do not be hard on yourself.