Lucid Dream Goals

These were my dream goals in 2013

"My Dream Goals
- Form persistent realities (Meet a recurring dream character)
- Improve my dream recall
- Complete the Task of the Month
- Have Fun! And enjoy learning to dream again!"

As I review them I was able to actually complete 3 of them. My dream recall was actually very good then, and in the 6 years since it has persisted very well. Right now I am able to remember 5 good dreams on any given night when trying, and when not specifically trying to remember dreams I always expect to be able to remember at least one or two.

I was able to complete several task of the month challenges. I looked at the TOTM challenge thread yesterday and was disappointed that it seemed a little dead. There were still challenges posted but no one had responded to it at all. I liked the posted challenge to take over a ship with a pirate crew, so for now that will be one of my dream goals.

I always enjoy practicing lucid dreaming techniques, and of course the dreams themselves are freaking amazing! I recently read a forum post by Hukif talking about what a natural process it is that we dream, and that just like I would like to know more about myself in waking life it is just as natural to want to explore and know my dreaming life, as the two are intimately connected!

Unfortunately I have not been able up to this point to have the kind of consistent lucidity necessary to form persistent realities. They are still my major long term goal though. I have decided that for now to help progress towards that goal I am just going to imagine that all of my dreams are happening in the same reality, even if that reality is that they in some way relate to me. I am sort of hoping this attitude will help create persistent dream characters and plot lines. Maybe those characters are some sort of janitorial or spiritual staff tasked with the maintenance of my dreams behind the scenes or something?

I would like to add a fifth goal of performing the gravity RC for 60 days. As I get more experience with my own lucid dreams I hope to be able to customize this RC to me more, but for now I am practicing it as explained by Hukif.

So my Dream Goals:
- Form persistent realities (Meet a recurring dream character)
- Maintain my dream recall (DJ and remembering in morning)
- Complete the Task of the Month (become a pirate lol)
- Practice gravity RC for 60 days starting 8-25-2019
- Enjoy dreaming and have fun!

Right now I have 1 goal: To get lucid. :)

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Originally Posted by Sangfoot

just like I would like to know more about myself in waking life it is just as natural to want to explore and know my dreaming life, as the two are intimately connected!

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An excellent goal in and of itself.......to establish an unbroken continuity of consciousness and awareness between our days and our nights. We all have lots to learn about ourselves......why waste all that precious time just sleeping our nights away? :)

My biggest goals at the moment is to get more high level lucids and to practice control more. I havent been doing much for a month or so due to family stuff. But hopefully I can get back on track

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Originally Posted by lenscaper

to establish an unbroken continuity of consciousness and awareness between our days and our nights. We all have lots to learn about ourselves

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I am realizing more and more how important and beneficial this is!

Right now I am really banking hard on the idea that greater self-awareness and lucidity in waking life will translate in to more self-awareness and lucidity in my dreams.

Wow I have learned a lot the last couple of days by reading many of Sageous' posts on the forums. I feel like enough has changed that I need to update my dream goals.

Rather than forming persistent realities and meeting recurring dream characters, I would rather practice having waking life meta self-awareness in my lucid dreams. I want to meet and talk to my DC's and learn to interpret from them what I can learn about myself.

In addition to maintaining dream recall I would like to add the goal of turning on memory when in my dreams. Sageous talks about 3 legs to the lucid dreaming stool. Self-awareness, memory, and sleeping (not sure about last one hmm). I realize I have never tried to access or turn on memory in my dreams, which changes everything. One specific thing I want to "notice" and change about my dreams is that I almost never remember who my dream DC's are representing in the dream from waking life.

Complete Task of the Month is fine.

Lol I only was able to practice gravity RC for 2 days from 8-25-2019 to 8-27-2019. I am switching up this goal more towards the practice of the reverse reality check. To practice being self-aware in the present throughout the day, focusing on a non-dual perspective. I would like to do this for 90 days starting 8-27-2019.

And finally to have fun and enjoy dreaming!

updated Dream Goals:
- Meet and talk to my DC's and learn to interpret from them what I can learn about myself. Identify dream archetypes that are present and what I can learn through them about myself.
- Maintain my dream recall (DJ and remembering in morning)
- Practice "turning on" memory in dream. "My body is sleeping (here), this is not my waking body, I am dreaming". Practice remembering "who I am" in dream.
- Complete the Task of the Month (become a pirate lol)
- Practice Reverse Reality Check, meta self-awareness, non-dual perspective, for 90 days starting 8-27-2019
- Enjoy dreaming and have fun!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sangfoot

Right now I am really banking hard on the idea that greater self-awareness and lucidity in waking life will translate in to more self-awareness and lucidity in my dreams.

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This is what has been working for me. This approach may not yield immediate and fantastical results, though. What it will do, in my experience, is to slowly and steadily build within you a strong lucid foundation.

I awoke smiling this morning and told myself to rise into the moment and abide in pure presence. :)

This morning on the way to work I caught myself paying attention to little details (like the music on the radio, my weight against the car seat or the highway lights in the distance [it was still dark out]) in a way that made me smile at the ability to enjoy my senses. It could be that this was just because I'd gotten a good amount of sleep recently, but even then I wouldn't have done so if it hadn't been for the desire to get back into LDing.

That there is a feedback loop between improving one's waking life and one's dreaming life should hardly be considered contradictory... they are both part of your life after all.

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Originally Posted by Emerald Wolf

that made me smile at the ability to enjoy my senses.

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I have been feeling this also!

This joy of living in the moment, of being more present and more aware than you otherwise would be, is becoming my favorite thing about practicing reality checks. I feel like I am getting so much benefit from increased awareness in my waking life, the fact that they can lead to lucid dreams is just icing on the cake at this point.

For example my favorite time to RC has become when I am talking with someone. I have noticed how often I am just king of zoned out and not paying attention. But when I RC I have been having a sense of wonder and excitement that "I", my presence, my words/emotions/actions are having an effect on someone else, on the world! When that effect seems to be positive it has brought me a sense of joy.

After saying that I can really see how this RC is helping me move towards lucidity in my dreams. One of my main complaints is how passive I am towards events and people in dreams, like I don't really engage with them usually, or remember who they are representing in waking life. I hope this growing sense of "self" that interacts with and senses the world translates into my dreams!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sangfoot

But when I RC I have been having a sense of wonder and excitement that "I", my presence, my words/emotions/actions are having an effect on someone else, on the world!

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Try to also remember that the world has an effect on you. This is also part of self-awareness.

From FryingMan on another thread

"Developing a consistent pattern that you run through when you find yourself awake in between sleep cycles could be something like:
+ immediately try to DEILD -- 1-2 minutes max
+ [optionally, not every waking, not every night, best for when you plan to try] try for a full WILD with a time limit -- maybe
+ if the DEILD/WILD don't work out, aim for sleep with MILD

For me by far the most important factors affecting dreaming and having great recall and vivid dreams (precursors to LDs IMO) are:
+ having dreaming and recall be very important -- daily DJ, always recall dreams first thing after waking, spend time after waking recalling dreams and fortifying them in your memory
+ practice mindfulness: active attention to and self-awareness, awareness of life experiences
+ exercise memory of (life) experiences: day review in the evening, dreams review in the morning
+ treating the practice as a joy, something you deeply value and enjoy -- love all your dreams, not just the lucid ones

Specifically for lucidity:
+ for me, it takes maintaining very strong intention to be lucid in dreams
+ have specific LD-goals that I'm excited about and want to achieve in-dream: "I want to be lucid every night" is too vague for me. TOTMs and TOTYs here are excellent ways to maintain interest in specific goals that come with a reward (those cool images you get for the remainder of the month/year)."

I saw this and it resonated with me.

Specifically I wanted to talk about developing a goal around night-awakenings and get more specific with my dream goals.

Since I have started being intentional about my dreams at night I have started having minny awakening during the night between sleep cycles. I really like this because it gives me a moment to commit the latest dream to memory. I have also been using these awakenings to try and DEILD and practicing a WBTB later in the night after one of my natural awakenings.

I like what FryingMan has to say about developing a plan for these awakenings. First (commit last dream to memory) also first try to DEILD, maybe WBTB WILD, then MILD.

I also liked what he had to say concerning needing a more specific goal for each night to want to become lucid. One of my main goals has been to try and talk to my DC's, meet my subconscious or whatever, and see what I non-dual perspective "feels like" in a dream. However I have noticed that the DC I am excited to meet changes almost daily, depending on what show I'm watching, book I'm reading, or whatever. I am wondering if having one important DC I want to meet as a goal every night until it happens might help build my lucid intentions and expectation.

Updated Dream Goals:

- Meet and talk to my DC's and learn to interpret from them what I can learn about myself. Identify dream archetypes that are present and what I can learn through them about myself. (Focus on one DC at a time to build intention and expectation, focus on meeting myself for now?)
- Maintain my dream recall (DJ and remembering in morning, and during night-awakenings)
- Practice "turning on" memory in dream. "My body is sleeping (here), this is not my waking body, I am dreaming". Practice remembering "who I am" in dream.
- Complete the Task of the Month (become a pirate lol)
- Practice Reverse Reality Check, meta self-awareness, non-dual perspective, for 90 days starting 8-27-2019
- Have a plan for night-awakenings. First (commit last dream to memory) also first try to DEILD, maybe WBTB WILD, then MILD.
- Enjoy dreaming and have fun!