My workbook for the class.
Printable View
My workbook for the class.
Assignment 1:
First entry for my workbook. I keep a dream journal offline, and since it's rather private (has names of people in my waking life) I will keep it offline. I will post significant findings here, however.
I realized that most of my dreams are spill-overs from experiences that happened during the day. It doesn't seem to be volume of experience, but in fact significance on an emotional and mental level. For instance, most of the day yesterday was spent reading about lucid dreaming. While I am excited to lucid dream, this reading wasn't very stimulating.
However, when I came across a website for the game "Runescape" things changed. I had played that game for over 4 years, and it had a huge significance over my life as a child. Even though I just looked at the website and went "oh, remember that?!" and was only there for perhaps a minute, that minute was more important than the rest of my day because it triggered an emotional response that caused me to have a very vivid dream about it.
I will keep in mind emotional responses during the day and see if anything big happens that would trigger a dream.
Assignment 2:
Thank goodness for dream journals. I have been doing this on and off for the last year and a half, and came across my journal from the beginning of that time. I never realized how many lucid dreams I had! My record was 3 in one night. All of them seemed to be DILD after attempting to WILD.
Here was the timeline for sleep:
11:15 pm – 05:15 am -- sleep for 6 hours (first lucid)
05:15 am – 06:15 am -- awake for an hour
06:15 am – 07:30 am -- sleep for 1 hour 15 minutes (second lucid)
07:40 am – 08:15 am -- sleep for 35 minutes (third lucid)
I had a note in that journal stating: "WOW! I never realized how 'doing it the right way' could have such an impact on success. You can try and fail so many times while ignoring the facts. The facts are: WILDs work! It is so much easier to do this during a nap! Keep it up!"
It's amazing how we forget things that once worked when we try to bend the rules. It seems that bending the rules leads to more bending, and finally we don't know what works and what doesn't. Stick to the basics!
After looking over several journals, I noticed specific dream-signs that I originally thought I didn't have. They are:
1. Dreams are usually dark and gloomy.
2. They often take place outside.
3. There is usually some sort of gun/weapon/killing involved.
4. Often times I dream about what was going on during that previous day (and what's on my mind).
5. Hotels are usually in the dream (each lucid was in a hotel).
6. I have had lucids only when napping. The DILD lucid dreams must have been from being awake for some time before trying to attempt lucidity. Although I never had a successful WILD, I realized I was dreaming when things didn't add up.
7. IF I APPLY THESE TECHNIQUES THERE IS NO REASON NOT TO LUCID DREAM EVERY NIGHT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!
The best position to sleep in for me is to lay on my stomach, put my arms over my head, and tuck them under the pillow. This is the most comfortable and the most successful when trying to lucid dream.
Haha, the failed WILD->Successful DILD is actually my current technique :P Not intentionally, I AM trying to WILD, but it's an added bonus :)