[MILD-1] CrimsonStorm's Workbook

[CrimsonStorm]

Here's my workbook for the MILD-1 course, to record assignments and progress. I'll update more as the course proceeds. My Dream Journal is here, I keep it fairly updated.

[CrimsonStorm]

Recall for me as of late has been, to say the least, sporadic. I'm thinking it's because, during the school week, I'm probably not getting quite enough sleep, or maybe not steady enough, but I'm not sure what I can do about that. Last night in particular, I remembered two dream fragments. In the first fragment, I'm in a huge city, walking around with a gang of kids. (Think the beginning of Ender's Shadow.) The buildings tower over us, and I don't think I can see the tops of them. This is kind of interesting, because as I fell asleep, I tried to visualize a building that I could take an elevator in; I wonder if that affected this dream. Anyways, there are six or seven other kids along with me, and all of us are young-ish; I think the oldest one was about 10 years old. I'm also pretty sure we walked under an overpass at some point. The second was less of a full-fledged dream and more of just an image: when my alarm went off, I dreamed that the beeping was actually my computer, and that the screen of the computer was actually melting. Or maybe melting isn't quite the right word; it was oozing an orange goo. After a few seconds, though, I woke up. For the first few seconds when I awoke, things looked weird (my clock looked wrong, things were blurry), and I was sort of confused and thought I might still be dreaming, but I wasn't and on second glance things looked normal. During the last ten or so minutes before going to sleep, I was reading about lucid dreaming. This, combined with the lesson last night, put me in a fairly focused mindset. I didn't watch any television, and after turning my lights out, only had to redirect my thoughts from daily worries a couple of times. I repeated "I lucid dream" to myself until I lost the train of thought and fell asleep. That's about it for the first night; I hope I start remembering more dreams, because I have a feeling I've had more lucids than I actually remember. Also, here's a link to my dream journal, though I didn't say anything today in it that I didn't also say here. Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource - CrimsonStorm - Dream Journals

[Zelgius]

I feel for ya when you suffer recall cause of school! I actually chose like two weeks ago to prioritize sleeping over anything else, even homework. I have aimed for at least 8-9 hours of sleep every night, and I really think it's not only helped me recall a lot more dreams, but it's also made me a much happier person! I was always a 6 hour sleeper, but since I've added a couple hours to that, I actually find every day to be really enjoyable. I actually go around telling people that I've found the secret to happiness: a lot of sleep. Try out it, it should help with recall and improve your life

[CrimsonStorm]

Yeah, I'm sure that getting more sleep would help, but I'm not really able to drop everything else to get that sleep. It might make me more motivated to get my work and stuff done earlier in the afternoon, though. On to the assignment: Yesterday during the day, I felt fairly normal physically, and maybe a little more awake in the morning than normal. I had a few worries and stuff that I was thinking about, but I was able to lay that aside once I was ready to sleep. However, last night was really worse with recall than the previous. I can't even really remember any fragments, and I only have a vague sense of what my last dream might have been about. Here's how the evening went: I was working on homework and stuff until close to 11:00. By the time I was ready to sleep, it was 11:15, and I didn't really spend any time focusing on lucid dreaming. I said my mantra ("I lucid dream") and watched the images behind my eyes until I fell asleep, which only took a few minutes. Next thing I remember, my alarm was going off at 5:30. I hit snooze, to see if I could remember any dreams, but no luck. The only thing I realized a few minutes later was that I think the dream may have had to do with math, which was what I was doing right before bed, and that I was thinking about first thing when I woke up (thinking about the subject itself, not really any particular facet of it.) It's Friday now, so I'm sure tonight's recall will be much better.

[CrimsonStorm]

So here's a couple of questions I've been wondering about, that I also put into the chat thread: First of all, how exactly can you use meditation to aid with MILDing? And second, how can you use WBTB with MILDs? Tonight should be much more conductive to Lucid Dreaming, because I actually get to sleep in! Should be good.

[PercyLucid]

I am glad you are such an avid student Those questions will be covered over class 2 and 3 You go so fast!!! Keep up the good work, make sure you repeat your mantra and try to focus on LDing, specially before going to bed.

[CrimsonStorm]

Well, last night didn't quite get into lucid territory, although it was much better for non-lucid dreaming - I actually had a dream of decent length, for once. It's sad that one somewhat long dream is exciting, but oh well. Anyways, I got to bed last night fairly tired already. I thought and read about lucid dreaming for about 15 minutes, until turning off the light. At that point, I said (thought) my mantra to myself until I fell asleep. I set an alarm to wake me up about 4 and a half hours after I fell asleep, to WBTB and possibly WILD depending on how I felt, but I didn't even wake up. When I did wake up this morning, I laid there until I couldn't remember any more of my dream. That's about it, other than my dream itself, which I'm going to post in my dream journal.

[CrimsonStorm]

Last night was kind of crazy, because it was the night of my homecoming dance - which kind of sucked, but that's beside the point. Basically, I didn't get home until midnight, and was still completely awake, so I read and used the computer until I was tired enough to sleep (at about 1:30 in the morning.) I went to bed and turned off my light, and said my mantra with an addition: "I have and remember lucid dreams." Or something to that extent, at least. I fell asleep a lot faster than I anticipated, and slept hard until my mom woke me up at about 10:00 for church. I didn't remember many dreams, but I do think I dreamed about the books I've been reading recently, Garth Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy. There was a huge Free Magic being, which appeared as a column of white fire, but that's all I remember. That's it for last night, really!

[CrimsonStorm]

Nothing tonight. I feel like I'm going backwards rather than forwards, particularly concerning recall. I've continued to say my mantra every night, but I don't seem to be having much luck with it. Anyways, last night, I went to bed, and said my mantra, "I lucid dream and remember my dreams." It seems a little long to write out, and maybe it is, but it's easy enough to remember and say. One semi-interesting side effect of saying the mantra is that I've actually been falling asleep much more quickly than usual. Not quite sure why, but it's kind of nice. Back to the topic at hand: I've been trying to figure out a good time to set an alarm so that I can remember a dream in the middle of the night, but I haven't quite figured out when, so far. I tried about 4:00 last night, and woke up and turned off my alarm, but didn't remember anything, so I went back to sleep. Then, when I woke up this morning, I didn't remember anything at first, and I was kind of in a rush, so I gave up. That's about it. Let's hope tonight is a little better, recall wise. Though, at least it can't get any worse.

[CrimsonStorm]

Well, I'd consider last night a relative success, even though I didn't achieve lucidity. I remembered four fairly distinct dreams, which is a personal record for myself, even if none of them were especially long. That was pretty exciting - I logged them in my dream journal. As for what I've been doing before bed, it's not changing a lot. I think I could probably say my mantra to myself more before I actually turn of the light, so I think about it more and get myself in the proper mindset, but I haven't watched TV and have somewhat succeeded in not thinking about things in my daily life. At this point, I'm feeling pretty good... now just to have a lucid. It would be great to have one in the next couple of days and achieve the task(s) of the month, so I'll make that a goal. If I don't achieve it... well, that's alright, too! There's always next month.

[CrimsonStorm]

To be honest, I don't have a lot to say about last night. I've established a good routine with my mantra, and am off and on achieving more recall- last night happened to be an 'off' night, hence not having much to say. One interesting thing that I've noticed, not exactly about MILDing, but spending so much time concerning recall: I've been re-remembering dreams and RL events from a good time ago that are even barely related to a dream I had- I think. This morning, for example, I remembered a time when I was visiting an architecture college while taking a course on architecture at a summer program. I'm pretty sure this was something that happened in real life, but the memory is just fuzzy enough that it might have been a dream. Has anyone else had any experience with trying to remember dreams jogging other memories?

[CrimsonStorm]

Alright, I've not been exactly diligent in keeping this updated the past week. Part of that is that I haven't had much to write, but on the other hand, I know that the more you write about your dreams, the more you have to write, so I really have no excuse. I'll get back to recording dreams in the morning, since I can't remember any at the moment, but I will go over how I have been incubating dreams: And yes, I have been! Honest! Anyways, two or three times a day, when I get bored or think of it, I make it a point to incubate a dream for five minutes or so. In specific, I'm incubating the desert dream we discussed last class. I imagine, of course, all of the sights: the rolling dunes, the blowing sands, possibly an oasis, cacti, and anything else I can think of with my mind's eye. I imagine the sounds of the desert: the wind, mostly, blowing against me as I fly, and blowing the sand around. I know the feeling of the sand blowing against my face, not sharply, though; and the feeling of the hot, dry sun beating down on me. I know the smell of dry air, and the sense of stickiness in my mouth. I imagine all of this as I incubate dreams, sometimes incorporating different sights or actions. When I fall asleep, I also visualize this, though only statically. I'm still working on focusing completely, because I often find my mind drifting.

[CrimsonStorm]

Last night made me very, very happy. I had four dreams, three of which were of pretty good length, one of which was fully lucid, and another that was partially so. I'll just list out my dreams one by one, then copy them into my DJ: Cute Pet This was the least interesting dream, but still not bad. I was in a room, somewhat like a pet store, but much more open and empty. There was a cage in the room, with lots of small, furry animals in them. They were somewhat like kittens, though smaller, and with shorter tails. I knew that they were the young of whatever animal they were, though. I looked at all of them, then picked the cutest one up and petted it. Caught in the Act I dreamed that my dad had caught me asleep with a bottle of lotion. (Yeah, I'm confused too.) I wasn't sure that he knew, so I put it back where I got it and went about my day. Later that afternoon, he confronts me. For some reason, the fact that there was a bottle of lotion in my bed meant that I was looking at porn. He was telling me how disappointed he was, because we had already had a discussion about this before. Icescape I'm in a relatively enclosed area, maybe four acres total, and open to the sky. All of the ground is covered in ice and snow, and there are lots of hills and crags. Everything has a bluish tint. I enter into a small cave; I'm pretty sure I'm crawling. There's a block of ice blocking a side passage next to me, so I push it through and climb over it. I crawl upwards, until I come to another ice block, which I set on fire until it melts. I crawl through, back into the open air. At this point, I think to myself, "I really need to remember this dream!" However, I don't really become lucid, or at least don't act on it. I then slide down a hill, and start jumping around on pillars of ice, opening chests. For some reason, this reminds me of the Legend of Zelda series. Failed Summoning (LUCID) I wake up in my bed, and without even trying a reality check, I know that I'm lucid. However, I must not be very conscious, or at least I don't remember to do anything that I wanted to or should have done: no stabilization, no attempts for tasks, nothing. I went into the master bathroom of my house, and tried to summon a girl from my school for some reason. I remembered that trying to force your dream to do something will make it unstable, and as soon as I thought that, it did. Of course. Everything got dark, and I don't remember anything else. Like I said, very cool. Let's hope for even better tonight!

[CrimsonStorm]

As far as recall goes, last night wasn't great. I did remember several fragments, which is better than nothing, but no full dreams, and certainly no lucids that I remember. I'll post the fragments in my journal. It was kind of a weird night; I was really tired from a friend's party, but also having a hard time breathing because of allergies. It seemed like my sleep was sketchy, but when I did fall asleep, it was a deep sleep. So... not much dreaming. Last night I also had the chance to practice Percy's WBTB. I set my alarm for 6:00 in the morning, which was about 6 hours after I went to bed. I might try 7 tomorrow morning, because that seemed to work better a couple of mornings ago. Anyways, my alarm woke me up fine, and I hit snooze just to make sure I didn't fall asleep again. I didn't, and after I thought I remembered all I could, I wrote down the fragments in my journal. I then got up, forgetting to sit down and try and think some more. I went to the bathroom, then went downstairs to get some water, all the while trying to remember as much as I could. While I was downstairs, my alarm went off again. (>_<) I ran upstairs to turn it off before it woke my parents up. Next, I got back in bed, sitting up so I wouldn't fall asleep. I did the chest technique for a few minutes, then visualized the desert dream for a few more. I then laid back down and fell asleep after fifteen minutes or so. Like I said, when I woke up again, I only remembered one more fragment. Also, I meditated for the first time in a while during the day today. It was hard getting my mind to clear, but when I did, it was really relaxing. It was somewhat easier than I thought it would be, though. Well, let's hope that all of this helps my dreaming tonight!