[INTRO/DC-1] sisyphus

[sisyphus]

I also keep up with my DV DJ: Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource - one must imagine Sisyphus happy - Dream Journals

[sisyphus]

Assignment One Go through your dream journal and analyse where the content of your dreams comes from. Is it mostly day residue? Do you notice a lot of false memories or faulty logic in them? I observe that much of my dream content is false memories shaped by my current emotional state. I almost always dream of familiar places from my past, but on close inspection the details aren't actually the same as my waking memories. I don't see a lot of literal day residue though there are a few obvious examples in my recent dreams. Most of my day residue seems to be thoughts and emotions rather than people and things. There's also a lot of faulty logic. Two phrases I see often in my DJ are "suddenly..." and "...for some reason". On recalling the dream, I have vague sense that an action has reason in the dream or that a series of events was connected. But my waking logic can't see these connections. It just seems random and absurd.

[sisyphus]

Assignment Two Go through your dream journal and see if you can notice any reoccurring signs that are popping up. Make a list! Well, so most of my dreams are fairly realistic. I don't have any recurring dreams and I very rarely have nightmares. Usually I'm just plopped in a scene that is a random combination of familiar people, places, and activities. I've collected some of the more interesting dreamsigns in this first list. These are things that have made me lucid or at least pre-lucid multiple times in the past. Successful Dreamsigns clock with impossible time window blinds with wrong direction (horizontal in dreams, vertical IRL) sunlight wrong for the time of day falling or distorted gravity woman making a sexual advance false awakening not wearing my sleep mask saying something inappropriately sarcastic or offensive (that I would think of IRL but never say aloud) The remainder are common recurring things. I've bolded the ones that should almost always be dreams because they are from the past or because I rarely see/do them on a regular basis. Places former homes amusement parks former schools, usually outside rather than inside classrooms college campus my bedroom malls, usually indoor near a food court rather than inside stores bars People sister, mother, father former classmates cousins, familiar but unspecific roommate, Hugh friends, especially Dave co-workers, especially Lance and Chris women, especially blonde Objects cats marijuana (I don't smoke it IRL) laptop computers (I don't have one IRL) my cell phone Activities talking to people I don't know war scenes, usually with modern or futuristic theme waking up (FA) trying to fall asleep (INRALD) talking to people I do know using a computer sports, usually watching Feelings disinterested or confused in a conversation lost or hopeless fear of the law or debt being late or unreliable jealous

[Serenity]

All four assignments are now posted! If you would like to receive completion for the course, they must be completed in full by October 8, 2010!

[sisyphus]

Assignment Three Review your current sleep schedule. Taking what you know about DILDs and WILDs, which technique would best work for you for inducing lucid dreams? I'm a recovering insomniac. For me, "turning off my mind" to fall asleep has always been difficult so the time it takes me to fall asleep has always a problem for me. I tried just about every chemical to help. This year, I'm finally getting better sleep the natural way and lucid dreaming has been a big motivation helping me to do that. So because it still takes me a long time to fall asleep, WILD seems very challenging to me. I have been focusing on the various DILD techniques. Before finding DV, I read ETWOLD so I was following LaBerge's standard MILD technique. Over a few months, I developed pretty good recall. When my recall was 2-3 dreams per night, I started trying WBTB and this made my lucid rate jump. Since coming to DV, I've mixed in the general awareness heightening by doing random RC throughout the day and trying to squeeze more detail out of my dream recall. Now that my recall is up to 4-5, I'm finding more opportunities to do DEILD and to catch FAs and INRALDs. In the last week, I've looked back at MILD and realized I wasn't really doing the whole system right. I was focusing on awareness, dreamsigns, and reality checks. But I neglected the "prospective memory" part. So lately this is my main focus and I think it's working.

[Serenity]

Hmm... since you read ETWOLD, you already know about the target dream signs, and such. I have bouts of insomnia, too. Usually, what I do, even if I'm not going to WILDas a technique is... I WILD For me, the hardest part has always been the transition. I found though, that if I'm having troubles sleeping, that I can practice the same relaxation points, and de-tense any muscles and such... get into the heavy sleep paralysis feeling... and when I get that feeling like I want to roll over, I do, and WHAM, I'm out.

[sisyphus]

Assignment Four Think of 2-3 goals that you would like to accomplish. They could be anything! If you need some inspiration, check out some tasks from the Task of the Month forum. How would you attempt each goal? I have many small tasks but here I my three big goals. 1. meet my Dream Guide This seems like an interesting idea that people on DV talk about. At first I was tempted to choose a DG and try to summon them. Yoda from Star Wars or Sigmund Freud came to mind. But now I think I want to just let my subconscious choose. I plan to just ask random DCs for clues to who my DG is and follow the path until I find them. 2. develop a Dream Persona I first saw of this idea in the fourth tutorial when explaining about schemas. I don't have a specific purpose for lucid dreams, just for fun and fulfillment. So here again I want to let this develop naturally out of my subconscious. Am I an explorer? A hero? A ruler? A god? Over several dreams I will try to develop my persona and motivation from within the dream. 3. travel back in time and meet myself as a child I don't know what to expect from this encounter which makes it so intriguing. To build up to this, I'll probably have to work on time-traveling, teleporting, and summoning along the way.

[Serenity]

I plan to just ask random DCs for clues to who my DG is and follow the path until I find them. Good idea! Am I an explorer? A hero? A ruler? A god? Over several dreams I will try to develop my persona and motivation from within the dream. I actually still need to do this. I'm still borrowing the Sailor Moon persona, but I'd kind of like my own