LD Dried Up

[Thesatellite]

Hello All, I used to be an avid lucid dreamer, I never had to use techniques, I was very fortunate that I could find myself in LD's at least once per week, but they have dried up. Weird things happened prior to them drying up. When Covid lock downs started I had some weird stuff happen through the night. I keep a journal and reading back though it, I had 3 nights on the bounce within week 2 of the first lockdowns in US where I woke up near my REM cycles and heard a lot of noise. I would hear whole conversations but couldn't remember what was said when I came to write them down but some of the things I could. I even heard my cat meowing and felt him jump up on the bed, he had passed away. I would hear numbers sometimes, I heard 1052 as someone saying the words Ten Fifty Two over and over. On another night I heard the word "Alchemy" over and over, I heard my own name over and over, I heard the phrase "father kingdom", then I heard clearly "listen for the nails". I had dreams of biblical flooding and bleeding coming from my hands. All of this seems somewhat religious to me but I am not a religious person, I don't go to church or follow any religion. I told a friend this and he sent me a bible, I have yet to take it out of the box, I have a feeling it's not for me. I went on to hear similar things like "Ready to meet thy maker" (not as a question, more like prepare for it), I heard "eye's to the skies", "Agenda21, catch 22", again all this is while I lay there half asleep/awake just listening. This activity slowly dwindled away, I had an experience last year through the day where I could not stop thinking about an old friend, I moved to US from the UK, he's there, anyway, the very next day a family member tells me he is in hospital fighting for his life, I did not know this, I am came off social media a while back, he passed fairly soon after and I dreamt about him the night he did. I have always had dreams of people who have passed too. Now my lucid dreaming is non-existent, I barely have a regular dream anymore or at least recall them. I am not concerned about it but it is weird that I went through lots of weird activities and for it to slowly all go away. I have been through and still are going through a lot of stresses as a lot of people are these days so that could obviously be a factor in the dreams drying up/ Has anyone else had similar things happen to them? Peace - Thesatellite.

[Hilary]

Yes. Like you, my dreams (and half sleep state) are filled with words. It's amazing the things you hear, especially when you start to be able to understand "dream lingo". I think that the source can be spiritual in nature, but that spirituality doesn't have to involve religion. Spirituality is beyond religion if you ask me. Sometimes the things you hear can be true things. Tips about people or situations, for example (we have one mind, after all, and it's connected at the roots). You may start communicating with your guides. And sometimes it's nothing important, or even some kind of psychological test from your guides within you. However, keep in mind that others out there might say that it's just goobledygook. And some of it may be. Explore for yourself and come to your own conclusions. Whatever you do, don't be afraid. It's helpful to have the belief that everything you experience in these states is ultimately to help you grow. I think the drying up is fairly normal. It waxes and wanes. You might want to examine any recent changes (suddenly consuming a lot of tea could mean a lot more fluoride intake, for example). Stress definitely plays a big role. Also, bedtime consistency is huge. If I were you, I would focus on journaling all scraps and fragments, and build from there. The act of writing down things is so powerful to the subconscious. You will increase your recall even by just writing down vague sensations you remember. If you want to boost things, you could try a little vitamin B6, or mugwort tea. About 6-12 mg of B6 a few times a week is great, I wouldn't go over that as B6 can be toxic in large amounts / over long periods of time. As to your friend.. I can share a similar story. One time, I don't know why, but I just felt the urge to call one of my old gamer friends from college. We hadn't spoken to him in years. I told my husband at the time that I wanted to call him that night. Something felt off. He agreed, but he wanted to wait for next day, so we did. However, the next day we were the ones to get a phone call. Another mutual friend called to tell us that our friend had taken his own life the night before. These things happen. Life is weird. Seems you have a gift.. good luck with it.

[Thesatellite]

Hello Moonagedaydream, I feel like saying "Ohh yeah" when I read your username, David Bowie song :-) Thank you kindly for your in depth response. Hearing the conversations and phrases etc. was a first for me at the time and I am as intrigued by it as I am with LD's, and whoever thinks it's gobbledygook doesn't bother me, water off a ducks back. Thank you for all your advice here, I woke up today with nothing to write down, I picked up my pen and journal and I remembered nothing, I will keep trying. I do use mugwart tea and I also drink black tea throughout the day, this has been my norm though even when I was LDing. I could cut back I guess but I love my tea :-) Originally from the UK we love our tea. I had another experience with a friend who passed recently too which was more intense. She passed and within a day or 2 I had a dream about her, she wanted to dance with me, it was not a lucid dream, I went on to have many like this and had 1 LD where she was sat at a table in a large dance hall or club, she was just smiling at me, I went up to her and said are you real or am I just manifesting you, she said she was real and wanted to dance again. I felt a very strong urge to tell someone about this so I reached out to her daughter. Trust me it took me many tines before I plucked up courage to hit send, I felt like a complete idiot telling her about my dreams but she was extremely grateful of the message and said her mom saw me as her work son (I forgot to mention we were colleagues for a few years). After I told her daughter, I felt so much relief and I have never seen her in my dreams since. This was probably a year or so ago. Thank you again :-) Peace - Thesatellite

[Tiktaalik]

Hi thesatellite, Sorry to hear of your recent LD trouble. I go through dry spells now and then as I’m sure everyone does. It’s completely normal and I’m sure in time you’re LDs will come back. Maybe you’ve developed a mental block and need to get your confidence back. Try re-reading your old lucid dreams for inspiration and try remember how good you used to be. I find it also helps to go over technique tutorials or re-read books on the subject too, anything to boost your enthusiasm and confidence. Other than that I would suggest easing off a little if you feel it’s becoming frustrating. Try to remain enthusiastic but also relaxed and care free. Don’t force it and just look forward to each night and hope for the best. Stress/ anxiety is a massive lucidity killer I have found and also affects recall. I’m not sure what your current circumstances are but it sounds like stress may have built up over time and was triggered by the pandemic. I heard a while back that people were having more restless sleep as a result of increased anxiety surrounding the pandemic and may be what caused your voice hearing which is a normal auditory hallucination we experience prior to falling asleep. Once you’d experienced it you probably started to expect and look out for it which maybe why it kept recurring. Just a theory. I don’t want to take any magic or intrigue out of the words you heard as it’s fascinating to speculate and dig for meaning in what these voices may mean or represent but I would also say that expectation and belief sometimes play a big part in it so if you start thinking these voices are religious in tone they may start appearing that way. Either way it’s fascinating and you should keep recalling and recording and see what comes of it. Best of luck, from a fellow English tea drinker

[Thesatellite]

Hi There Tiktaalik, Thank you kindly for the response. I think you hit the nail on the head with the stresses, we're in very strange times right now and it has changed my life completely. I work from home 100% now, I got used to it but it's not as easy as people may think mentally, a lot of things changed as they did for everyone. I bought a book on meditation by J. Krishnamurti and is helping quiet my mind. I hate the phrase "The new normal" but for me I think I have to let go of what life was like before the first lock downs, we're clearly not going back to that so in a way I really do need to find my own normal again and start over. I'm sure the lucid dreams will return. This morning I actually remembered part of last nights dream too so a little success there, ironically it was related to floods but to me it was connected to the terrible weather we had yesterday, I remember someone talking about the damage it had done. In reality it also caused us some damage to our house and flooded our basement. I really love how mother nature is sometimes too, our bathroom ceiling collapsed and when I cleared the debris away, the drips from the leak directly hit the drain in the shower :-) What tea do you drink? I drink Yorkshire Tea, very good stuff :-)

[Hilary]

Hello Moonagedaydream, I feel like saying "Ohh yeah" when I read your username, David Bowie song :-) Thank you kindly for your in depth response. Hearing the conversations and phrases etc. was a first for me at the time and I am as intrigued by it as I am with LD's, and whoever thinks it's gobbledygook doesn't bother me, water off a ducks back. Thank you for all your advice here, I woke up today with nothing to write down, I picked up my pen and journal and I remembered nothing, I will keep trying. I do use mugwart tea and I also drink black tea throughout the day, this has been my norm though even when I was LDing. I could cut back I guess but I love my tea :-) Originally from the UK we love our tea. I had another experience with a friend who passed recently too which was more intense. She passed and within a day or 2 I had a dream about her, she wanted to dance with me, it was not a lucid dream, I went on to have many like this and had 1 LD where she was sat at a table in a large dance hall or club, she was just smiling at me, I went up to her and said are you real or am I just manifesting you, she said she was real and wanted to dance again. I felt a very strong urge to tell someone about this so I reached out to her daughter. Trust me it took me many tines before I plucked up courage to hit send, I felt like a complete idiot telling her about my dreams but she was extremely grateful of the message and said her mom saw me as her work son (I forgot to mention we were colleagues for a few years). After I told her daughter, I felt so much relief and I have never seen her in my dreams since. This was probably a year or so ago. Thank you again :-) Peace - Thesatellite I love my tea too . I drink Japanese Sencha green tea because it has significantly lower fluoride levels than most black tea. It also has lots of good antioxidants, caffeine, and L-theanine - brain boosters. I don't know how much truth there is about the pineal gland and psychic abilities. What I do know, though, is that the pineal gland does get calcified with exposure to fluoride and calcium. I also know that the pineal gland is responsible for your circadian rhythm and the release of melatonin. It may release DMT (some study involving rats, I've heard, so possible) in certain circumstances. If it has more functions related to dreams, I would not be surprised. I overdid it on the tea over the summer, didn't watch my steep times at ALL, I'm sure I overdid my fluoride, and my recall has struggled. Before, I would get this "gushing" sensation upon waking and all dream memories would come rushing in at once, and I'd have full stories. Lately, I've been struggling with only recalling fragments, immediately forgetting upon waking, and no gushing feeling when I do recall dreams. Instead, I recall more scenes 5 minutes later, with great effort. Still, though, the dream stories are not nearly as clear. But.. I am getting lucid more often. The tea is great for memory boosting. I've since started watching my steep times (1 min. max) and the amount of tea I am drinking (I was having 2 pots a day). Edit: Whether this has anything to do with the tea, I don't really know. I've just been very frustrated with my non-lucid recall. Careful with the mugwort. You don't want the dried leaves from China. They can contain high levels of lead and other heavy metals. Amazing story!

[Thesatellite]

I have some green tea in a tin somewhere, I used to drink that sometimes, it was ok just not on par with a good cuppa from England but I will definitely introduce that again and reduce the black tea by a cup to balance it. Much appreciated advice on the mugwart, I do actually have the dried leaf and not sure where it came from , it's in a huge bag that may make people take a second glance if they saw it lol but I will not consume that then, is there any tests I can do to see if it is contaminated then? I was able to recall a small part of last nights dream, that's 2 on the bounce so I feel just coming in here more and sharing may subconsciously be helping? I recalled more than the previous night as well, it was the classic running away from someone and they are always on your tail. Thank you again :-)

[Hilary]

I have some green tea in a tin somewhere, I used to drink that sometimes, it was ok just not on par with a good cuppa from England but I will definitely introduce that again and reduce the black tea by a cup to balance it. Much appreciated advice on the mugwart, I do actually have the dried leaf and not sure where it came from , it's in a huge bag that may make people take a second glance if they saw it lol but I will not consume that then, is there any tests I can do to see if it is contaminated then? I was able to recall a small part of last nights dream, that's 2 on the bounce so I feel just coming in here more and sharing may subconsciously be helping? I recalled more than the previous night as well, it was the classic running away from someone and they are always on your tail. Thank you again :-) No problem. You're probably fine, if you're recalling dreams and all. Really, I just worry too much. And I have genuine phobia of lead (and other heavy metals, but especially lead). I'm not sure it would be worth it to have one bag tested. I used to buy whatever was cheapest, but then did some reading and found studies showing that mugwort loves to absorb heavy metals in its roots and leaves. Also, studies show some areas are cleaner than others for heavy metal absorbtion. Generally, China and India have higher levels (also for black and green tea, higher levels of fluoride). You can get good stuff from China (like Lion's Mane), but always make sure it's 3rd party tested for heavy metals. Japan has very low levels due to a natural lack of fluoride in their soils, and very strict regulations. I buy my mugwort from Europe or US, and my tea from Japan. As for mugwort, the good stuff will have a cottony feel, and should not have many twigs or stems in it. You do have to be careful, as herbs, teas, and supplements are not regulated as strictly as other food items by the FDA.

[Tiktaalik]

Hi There Tiktaalik, Thank you kindly for the response. I think you hit the nail on the head with the stresses, we're in very strange times right now and it has changed my life completely. I work from home 100% now, I got used to it but it's not as easy as people may think mentally, a lot of things changed as they did for everyone. I bought a book on meditation by J. Krishnamurti and is helping quiet my mind. I hate the phrase "The new normal" but for me I think I have to let go of what life was like before the first lock downs, we're clearly not going back to that so in a way I really do need to find my own normal again and start over. I'm sure the lucid dreams will return. This morning I actually remembered part of last nights dream too so a little success there, ironically it was related to floods but to me it was connected to the terrible weather we had yesterday, I remember someone talking about the damage it had done. In reality it also caused us some damage to our house and flooded our basement. I really love how mother nature is sometimes too, our bathroom ceiling collapsed and when I cleared the debris away, the drips from the leak directly hit the drain in the shower :-) What tea do you drink? I drink Yorkshire Tea, very good stuff :-) Yeah, I understand. Any change can be tough. We can only adapt as best we can and hope for the best. Sometimes a silver lining comes in an unexpected way. I’ve also been reading up on meditation and Buddhism and it’s helped massively with my lucid dreaming and general outlook on life. I love a good black tea. Tetleys and Yorkshire are my favourite. I really do want to get into drinking more green tea though. I know it’s meant to be great for health and sleep. I just miss the milk and sugar! That’s great about your recall. See every small bit of progress as a victory. Enthusiasm is a massive part of it and talking about subjects on this forum has always been a great way to boost my confidence and enthusiasm as well. Strong Enthusiasm leads to strong motivation which is what you need for recall and lucidity. I take it you’re quite experienced when it comes to recall but do you set your intent to recall your dreams before bed? Also, do you have a short wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep for recall? I find this brief wake up gives me a good boost of awareness and I’m able to re-set my intention for recall or lucidity and really improves my chances.

[Thesatellite]

Hi Tikaalik, I haven't set any intentions to be fair, I think I got lazy on that because I was very fortunate that I didn't have to try induce lucid dreams, I had them quite often with no real push. I have a dream journal and have documented a lot in the past and trying to get back into it again now things are different. Do you set an alarm then to wake up after a few hours? I sometimes struggle to nod off and when I wake up I find it hard to get back to sleep sometimes so it may have the opposite effect? Ironically my wife who is American loves Tetleys tea, she won't drink Yorkshire because she says it's too strong. :-)

[Thesatellite]

No problem. You're probably fine, if you're recalling dreams and all. Really, I just worry too much. And I have genuine phobia of lead (and other heavy metals, but especially lead). I'm not sure it would be worth it to have one bag tested. I used to buy whatever was cheapest, but then did some reading and found studies showing that mugwort loves to absorb heavy metals in its roots and leaves. Also, studies show some areas are cleaner than others for heavy metal absorbtion. Generally, China and India have higher levels (also for black and green tea, higher levels of fluoride). You can get good stuff from China (like Lion's Mane), but always make sure it's 3rd party tested for heavy metals. Japan has very low levels due to a natural lack of fluoride in their soils, and very strict regulations. I buy my mugwort from Europe or US, and my tea from Japan. As for mugwort, the good stuff will have a cottony feel, and should not have many twigs or stems in it. You do have to be careful, as herbs, teas, and supplements are not regulated as strictly as other food items by the FDA. My wife is the same with lead so I understand, I told her about the mugwart and it's gone in the trash now, at least the leafs that look as you describe. I always thought it was very bitter too but I don't get that with other mugwarts. Thanks you for the info much appreciated. :-)

[Tiktaalik]

Hi Tikaalik, I haven't set any intentions to be fair, I think I got lazy on that because I was very fortunate that I didn't have to try induce lucid dreams, I had them quite often with no real push. I have a dream journal and have documented a lot in the past and trying to get back into it again now things are different. Do you set an alarm then to wake up after a few hours? I sometimes struggle to nod off and when I wake up I find it hard to get back to sleep sometimes so it may have the opposite effect? I set my intent most nights. By this I mean I affirm my intentions for the night, make a plan about when I’m going to wake up and then remind myself of my dream signs and goals. It Just helps me get in in the right mindset before I fall asleep. Like you, sometimes I don’t need to do this and will have success without but I think that’s because subconsciously the intent and expectation is already set. It may just help you get back into the swing of it. I don’t set an alarm but again set an intent to wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep and usually do so. I then recall dreams, go to the toilet and fall back asleep whilst focusing back on my intent. (Basically, WBTB & MILD). I do struggle getting back to sleep sometimes as well and it can be a challenge. I find the less I worry the quicker I sleep but I know that’s easier said then done.