Thread: Iarpo's Workbook MILD-1

Hi to everyone on the course - can't wait to get under way, starting to get really excited. Had a few successful MILDs in the past but I really want to get more control.

Follow the signature for my Dream Journal (it's not been updated since I took a break a year back, I'm working through the hard copy of my current dream journal so I can post them all up)

Catch you guys in the class

Well here's the first DJ entry for the course.

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Generally fuzzy recall

Zebra Parrot

A Macaw parrot, with patterns like a zebra, was stood inside a small circle of pebbles. It had a ritual of going round each pebble and rubbing the each side of it's beak on each pebble. I had the notion of MILDs floating around but quite how the two went together was beyond me.




Salt

I'm a detective in special branch. I've been on Salt's case for a while now, otherwise kown as Angelina Jolie. She's working as an assassin, in partnership with another unknown party. I've tracked her down to a warehouse, dispatching the guards along the way.

When I get to her she calmy offers me a deal to become her partner. I guess she's pretty compelling because I accept immediately, however, I have to take out her current ally.

I go to his warehouse (I guess assassins like warehouses). It's a large building with a second floor walkway suspended on high tension wires with a steel grill floor. The assassins henchmen come in two types, each stationed in pairs. The grunts wear yellow overalls and are pretty easy to kill from cover. The better trained commandos wear green overalls and require flanking manouevers, sometimes I need to get up close and personal. At the end is a tall dark store room, shelves packed to the rafters 15 metres above. It's here that the fighting gets fierce and I find the assassin, larger and dressed in blue overalls and holding Salt hostage. After killing him she reveals she's been playing me against a third person she might recruit. She's already leaked to him what I'm doing and where I am. The shouts outside start to echo through the building, his men are moving in, he hasn't come himself. More fighting, more killing, and I'm still standing.

I have a plan, I arrest Salt and throw her into the back of an armoured police van, much to her displeasure. If he won't show up in person I need to lure him out, present a target he can't resist. In the driver's seat I put out an open channel police call that I'm bringing in Salt, all units to assist, knowing he'll pick up the message on a scanner. With most of his men dispatched he'd have to come do this himself.

Barreling along a dark, industrial city street it turns out he does have some men left. Kicking open the back door of the van we have a high speed gun fight, flames everywhere. I've taken out the first assassin and his men, most of the second's men. He appears in a car, right in my sights. Everything is going to plan.
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I didn't manage a lucid, but had the vague impression of MILDs floating in the back of my mind. Woke up pretty grumpy as a result.

Before I went to bed (straight after the lesson) I was really excited about becoming lucid, I was pretty convinced it was happening tonight.
I settled into bed, after RCing between toilet, etc and settled down, trying only to think about becoming lucid. I really wanted fly, having only realised recently I've never had a flying dream!

I woke up four hours later with the zebra parrot the only thing I remembered. I settled down again and tried to focus on MILD, assuring myself I would become lucid. Slept for another 4 hours before my housemates busted in and made themselves at home. I quickly said whatever I could remember into a dictaphone on my mobile and reviewed it later.

Pretty disappointed I didn't get lucid after being so psyched about it, I was grinning as I went to bed. I'm gonna review everything today and post my assignments later.

This isn't for MILDs but I went over my DJ (present and archived) and decided on a few of my dream signs:

- Fighting (from gunfire to fist fights)
- Zombies/monsters (zombie's crop up far too often in my dreams)
- Red light (most dreams I remember have a red ambience, I've started to pay more attention location and lighting in my DJ)

That's all for now, I'll try figure out some more. I know there's different types of dream signs so I need to read up on it first.

Very good attempts. Do not feel disappointed, ever!!! That will kill all your efforts. Going to bed so psyched about turning lucid is not gone to waste. That will remain in your subconscious, for sure. What you did is the clue, but it takes a few days to start to work efficiently. Keep positive during waking as well, keep focused on lucid dreaming and look forward for that feeling you will get when you come here and post in this workbook you turned lucid, that does a lot. I will go more in detail on the second class for this!.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks Percy, I kept the LDing on my mind today by watching Inception at the cinema:



Not exactly what LDing does but quite appropriate at the moment and well worth a watch. It had a great little idea called totems. I've not come across this before but it's keeping something on your person that is a surefire way to see if you're dreaming or awake. I know there are other ways to RC but these are very personal and specific, for example:




I love the loaded dice, lots of variables for dreams, plus Joseph Gordon Levitt's a bit of a legend.

Today I've been trying to keep LDing in mind, I've been mving a little slower today, making sure everything feels right. From the smell of an old book I bought today to walk home. Again trying to stay focussed and positive. I'm currently trying hard to put aside the day's worries and clear my mind. Also going to be making more of an effort to do my mantra during the day rather than just before bed.

Today I tried to explain lucid dreaming to my housemate, how perception is integral to everything, whether it be grounded in reality or dreaming, as far as someone as Descartes argues it's all the same. Your brain still makes the same physical connections (being a biologist helps my cause). The frustration of not being able to convey the wonder of LDing...agh, I want to teach the world to dream, in perfect harmony....etc.

Either way, I've been drinking, won't help my own cause but hey, needs must.

Last night's dream Journal: 05/08

Very little recall apart from one specific dream:

I was stood outside my room. Inside my room was a wood panelled room, Godfather-esque. Various shady dealings went on inside. Outside however I was left to my own devices with a mirror. My teeth kept falling out, the entire left side of my mouth collapsed and I was left, vividly, with a handful of broken teeth. I'd look in the mirror and was able to open my mouth as wide as a cat to see the damage. I was terrified, showing people the handful of broken teeth, looking at the carnage in my mouth. It felt so real. I woke up petrified about my teeth and went straight to the supermarket and spent a tenner on toothpaste, mouthwash and toothbrushes.

Not a great day for dreaming but I tried to introduce my LD mantra throughout the day.

Good job keeping up your mantra during the entire day. Do not get discouraged of not getting lucid. The mantras are small seeds planted in your subconscious that will sprout into a lucid dream sooner or later.

(Hmm, just typed all this out when Chrome decided to close - fantastic)

08/08

Well I have nothing to report these past two nights, I can't remember a single dream. I'm cutting myself some slack though, on Friday night I was pretty drunk and on Saturday I was full of Cocodemol to cure a blistering hangover.

I'm cutting myself some slack because I seem to have integrated LDing with waking life. Not to an obsessive degree, but I RC regularly, really checking my surroundings, thinking about MILD a lot. I've also been trying to visualise myself becoming lucid, failing an RC and what I'd like to do when I AM lucid. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself but my main sticking point in LDs is maintaing a dream scene. I've had maybe 4 fully blown lucids (I don't count half lucids) and each time the dream has disintegrated around me. So keep calm, focus (rubbing hands together, touching the floor, testing all 5 senses) and enjoy. I'm getting really excited thinking about LDing again, it's been so long - but it's only a matter of time now.

I also managed to stay fairly focussed while falling asleep, trying to make sure MILD was my last thought. I even remembered to focus on it when I woke up a few times as opposed to groggily turning over.

I've also decided that I need to get more sleep. Before the course I averaged 6 hours sleep a night (I always work to 90min slots plus 30 min to get to sleep). When I was becoming lucid a year ot two back I was averaging a lot more (probably too much) and then I went the other way and started the Everyman Sleep Schedule (polyphasic) which had surprising results for dreaming and vividness. Either way I'm endeavouring to get more sleep now, nice and simple, but I should see results.

This post is very me me me. To hell with it, this is the second time I've written this post - I'm going to go dream

Good job and keep positive, you will turn lucid very soon!!!!

~Write your posts on a doc and when its done, copy it to your browser, will save a bad time.

Cheers Percy! I'm looking forward to it. I've made some progress towards it.

DJ 08/08 Managed to get more sleep last night and I'm definitely getting closer to LDing. Last night I had a familar feeling:

When I first joined DV in 2008 I was experiencing low levels of lucidity (see DJ archive). For example, something would happen in a dream that seemed hyper real or wasn't quite right and a disembodied feeling in the back of my mind would flag it up. In the dream this usually translated as, "Huh, that's strange" but I'd just carry on. It got to the point where it felt like there were two of me dreaming: the one in the dream/behind the camera and the one behind all that watching from afar. A nagging feeling crept into most dreams that all was not quite right. Eventually this came through as full LDs (as brief as they were).

Nice, improving sleep is also a clue for lucidity! I am glad you are more rested now.

How is it going? Need info to help!