Thread: Xanous' Workbook

That actually doesn't seem the least bit silly, particularly considering how informative this was for you. You really do seem to cluster around weekends and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if, like you said, it's largely down to just getting plenty of sleep.

Those eleven lucids in October were a sweet rebound after September! Looking back on September, did you go dry right after hitting that epic Task of the Month entry in the Cretaceous? Did you ever come up with a final theory on what was fouling you up?

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

That actually doesn't seem the least bit silly, particularly considering how informative this was for you. You really do seem to cluster around weekends and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if, like you said, it's largely down to just getting plenty of sleep.

Those eleven lucids in October were a sweet rebound after September! Looking back on September, did you go dry right after hitting that epic Task of the Month entry in the Cretaceous? Did you ever come up with a final theory on what was fouling you up?

Thanks it does help I will probably do that every month but wont post it.

Yes, right after the Cretaceous dream I went dry. I thought about it and I think there are a few reasons for going dry. A small part of it was that I got over confiedent and relaxed a lot on my daily awareness. The main though, was I had that dream right at the end of being off work for 12 days straight. I took off when my son was born and though my sleep patterns got a little crazy, I didn't have to get up early for work. So I was still well rested. Then, if I remember correctly, when work started I had to adjust to lack of sleep and having to work plus all the other things that go along with having an infant in the house.

Bottom line: It's my sons fault. I blame it all on him. HAHA! But he's so worth it.


BTW I had Lucid #96 this morning. It was brief and uneventful but still a great experience in mastering certain techniques. I think for now on I will probably only post lucid dreams and keep the non-lucids offline. Unless they are funny or worth sharing I'll keep them to myself.

Gratz, Xan! (and yeah, totally blame the baby! )

Well the DJ went down again sometime between the time I started typing and the time I hit submit. All that typing gone forever! Bullocks! I guess I will just enter a short version here. This is a good lesson to do it all offline first and then copy/paste. You never know what might happen.

On a happier note, I had Lucid #97 DEILD CHAIN OBE from a NLD this morning. It was an unsuccessful/successful lucid as it was short and mostly blind but I got to try some new things like phasing and different uses of expectation. (I couldn't phase through a door but was able to use expectation to make it disappear.)

I had some really interesting and new things happen with sound as well. During my DEILD I heard a buzzing sound and then the alarm clock. I kept in mind that it could be fake and found out that I only had to concentrate just a little to make it stop for a few seconds. That turned out to be a great reality test and told me it was go time. At a later point I could hear the fan like it was centered the living room. This was an odd experience as the sound changed as I walked around it but I knew that in reality the fan was in the bed room with me and I wasn't really walking around it.

Also, my transitions from physical to dream body seem to be getting quick and effortless so that's a plus. I probably would have continued my chain but I think it was the baby that woke me. Oh well that's life.

The last few days have been sort of uneventful for dreaming. I have had to really work on my dream recall with mantras and I have had to really step up efforts for daytime awareness. For some reason I have just been sleeping so heavy during the night and haven't had a DILD in a long time. There were a few nights that I was almost certain that I was lucid but I just could not remember it no matter how hard I tried. Lucky for me I can still DEILD and WILD.

Well done, Xan!

And NOUUUUUU!! The baby AGAIN?! Tsk tsk. Time to get rid of it. MuhahaHAHAHAHAHA

Jk, we <3 your baby too

Haha very funny paigey. LOL.

BTW am I the only one with forum issues? I am barely functioning here!

Great job not getting fooled by the fake alarm clock!! I totally fell for this once and woke myself up from a perfectly good LD. It's good that you didn't caught the way that I did.

And I'm glad to hear that your DEILD roll is getting so smooth now. My failure to DEILD this month in spite of my best intentions has been humbling, so I have an extra appreciation for your skills and progress here.

Nope, you're not the only one with problems Been having a hard time trying to find ways around things that are not working for me.

:'(

Nope, you're not the only one with problems Been having a hard time trying to find ways around things that are not working for me.

:'(

I didn't get to update over the weekend so here's a quickie.

Recall Issues
I guess I am in the same boat as some of you others with the recall. For whatever reason its been relatively low. A few nights have been nothing at all and other have been 2 or 3 during the last REM cycle or two. It seems like the first of the night is a blank. I know a few reasons for this. It was a busy holiday with my side of the family and yesterday we had my wife's family for Thanksgiving. So much cooking and cleaning bleh. Other issues have been lack of sleep and it seems that my favorite lucid aid (alcohol) has been decided not to do anything for me but make me forget my dreams. Also I just haven't kept up with my DJ like I should. I recorded them on my phone but never really typed anything up.

Aids
I plan to start up a mango experiment instead of the B6 (thanks RC via CL). I don't know if it matters but I got a fresh mango as well at mango juice. I will test the two separately and see which is better assuming it does anything for me at all. (Apple juice had little effect). Other than that I plan to purge my system of all supplements including the day time ones.

Techniques
SSILD. I think SSILD either just stopped working or I am too tired or I have lost interest. I'm not sure which. Maybe all the above. I think the answer is to forget about it until another time. I do plan to continue my tweak version just with less SSILDness. I will probably just go straight into visual,hearing,feeling simultaneously with concentrating on maintaining awareness.

Another thing I want to start doing is setting an alarm to go off every 2 hours in order to increase my recall and induction opportunities. I tested this the other night and it didn't seem to disrupt my sleep to the point that I feel deprived.

DILDs are almost non-existent. I am not sure why. I keep up with awareness as much as I can in the daytime. That's all you can really do.

MILDs have always been mildly successful. Rarely do I see any effect. I should look in it more.

Mantra's see to help me remember things after waking. Like recall, DEILDing, ect.

WILDs are my favorite. I think it is because I feel more in control of my success rather than leaving it up to chance. Maybe that's just my personality. I do have more success with it and I am slowly getting better at DEILDing from NLDs. My transitions always begin like OBEs. Its great but I usually struggle with getting out of my house. It sometimes becomes a huge battle to leave the house. I also struggle with blindness but I can usually use it to my advantage and just feel my way out. Once I lose focus on the fact that I am blind I usually gain sight. I plan to work on these issues thank to a few ideas I go from Paigey. Thanks Paigeyemps!

Most recent dream signs:

Trying to sleep in public places
Talking to DJ members
Being at the old building from work

Lucid goals:
Phasing
Creating light or wiping away darkness
Conversing with the dream consciousness
Precognitive information
Begin having 3/week verses the average of 2/week

By the way. I'll probably not be on much until the forum issues are fixed. I love dreamviews and everything they are tying to do but its barely functional for me right now.

Great thoughts and analysis as usual. It sounds like you are heading in exactly the right direction -- keep what works, discard what doesn't, and keep your mind open.

I started reading Robert Waggoner's book over the Thanksgiving break, so I'm also getting excited about the idea of conversing with the dream consciousness.

The only additional thing that I might suggest for DILDs is consistently performing what Sageous calls "reverse reality checks". That term never quite clicks for me but the concept is amazing. More than anything, it's like an internal reality check. Am I me? Does my place in this world make sense? Those sorts of doubt lead to many (most?) of my DILDs. Basically, throughout the day, part of my awareness practice is to ponder whether I (what I'm doing, my emotional state, etc.) make sense.

I have been trying to ramp up my awareness. I guess I get lazy with it a lot and really find it a chore. Last night I was barely lucid in a DILD (yay DILD) and exhibited some dream control. I am not adding it to my count because I never had that AH HA moment but on a very low level I knew I was dreaming. I didn't have enough awareness to even begin to think of my goals. I just went around trying to show off my summoning skills to my co-workers until the alarm clock got me. I'll post a brief DJ entry here since I am locked out of mine still. I should also note my pre-bed food was buttermilk and hour prior and then coconut juice just before laying down. I focused on dream recall and remember I am dreaming with a mantra: "I will remember my dreams and remember I am dreaming." The effect: I woke up every 1 hour to every 2 hours with a dream fresh on my mind.

dreams
1. fragment about minecraft. I was breaking down blocks of the dream world reality
2. fragment about CanisLucidis. We talked about how there was no more dream views and told each other our lucid dreams. I dont really remember the conversation. Then he bought me "blocks" for minecraft. (I've been addicted to minecraft lately)
3. A longer dream about zombies. I was getting picked up from a place. I am with Glenn from walking dead. Maggie was turned into a zombie. We hide in a dumpster. I made too much noise getting. Glenn yells at me about it and then a zombie comes. He sees me and says, "How YOU doin?" He sounds like Joey from friends.

Friends - Joey&#39;s "How You Doin&#39;..?" - YouTube

4. This dream was actually pretty long and it started out in a bowling alley. There was some strange things going on here. The set up was all off with only 3 lanes and there was a huge audience watching me and some other play. I would go sit in the audience when it wasn't my turn. I feel nervous and think I should have bowled elsewhere. I only get 3 turns. first was 2 pins. Second 8 pins. My sister gets a spare so I have to show her up. I get a strike on the next one. The crowd cheers and I strut around. Then there is a semi parked next to the lane and I run around it on the far side.

I see a roller coaster call the twister from when I went to Astro World when I lived in TX

[IMG]http://cache.rcdb.com/bhe402s000106pobh9o00t.jpg[IMG]

I hope I typed the code right there if not well theres the link LOL

Anyway there was some people stuck in the twisted part. There coaster had just stopped on them (This briefly happened to me in RL) I comment and they say they have been there all night. Then I fell my body lay down.

I am on the long "lay" table at work. I see my lead and hes telling me to hold still. Then a spiral thing comes at me and under my shirt. It almost catches my face and I feel pinned.

Now I am standing and my lead is upset about a screw driver. It looks like the handle had been pinched off. He tells me me that I have a bad track record. I take this meaning how I never stay true to my religious teachings from my childhood. He tells me I need to fix the screwdriver. I say nah man don't worry. I have one at home I can bring. He says ok thats fine and relaxes now.

I see a metal ingot on the floor and pick it up. I summon a second one in my other hand. This is were I become slightly aware. I laugh and decide I want show of my dream control to my lead and S at work. I walk around to different desks and workstations. I wave my hand at the first one and a third metal ingot thing appears. I smile at S and gesture. He seems slightly amused. I try it again but it only see a wavy spot light heat vapor and then nothing. I say ok I will just use expectation. That still doesn't work. I make my way to the other side when I am suddenly woken by the alarm clock.

Sorry for the crummy post. All I can use is the "Quick Reply"

Hey, good night of dreaming. LOL at the zombie giving you the ol' "How YOU doin?"

Oh God. Is anything from Friends an "old man" reference now?

That's hilarious that I was into Minecraft. I played that game for like 15 minutes and I think it must have gone over my head. Every other lucid dreamer in the world is way into it but me. I can also relate to having dreams that contain signs of stress about this rather painful DreamViews upgrade that we're currently enjoying.

And aww, RIP AstroWorld. A friend of mine lost his wallet on The Twister! Cool little ride.

Originally Posted by Xanous

I have been trying to ramp up my awareness. I guess I get lazy with it a lot and really find it a chore. Last night I was barely lucid in a DILD (yay DILD) and exhibited some dream control. I am not adding it to my count because I never had that AH HA moment but on a very low level I knew I was dreaming. I didn't have enough awareness to even begin to think of my goals. I just went around trying to show off my summoning skills to my co-workers until the alarm clock got me. I'll post a brief DJ entry here since I am locked out of mine still. I should also note my pre-bed food was buttermilk and hour prior and then coconut juice just before laying down. I focused on dream recall and remember I am dreaming with a mantra: "I will remember my dreams and remember I am dreaming." The effect: I woke up every 1 hour to every 2 hours with a dream fresh on my mind.

dreams
1. fragment about minecraft. I was breaking down blocks of the dream world reality
2. fragment about CanisLucidis. We talked about how there was no more dream views and told each other our lucid dreams. I dont really remember the conversation. Then he bought me "blocks" for minecraft. (I've been addicted to minecraft lately)
3. A longer dream about zombies. I was getting picked up from a place. I am with Glenn from walking dead. Maggie was turned into a zombie. We hide in a dumpster. I made too much noise getting. Glenn yells at me about it and then a zombie comes. He sees me and says, "How YOU doin?" He sounds like Joey from friends.

Friends - Joey's "How You Doin'..?" - YouTube

4. This dream was actually pretty long and it started out in a bowling alley. There was some strange things going on here. The set up was all off with only 3 lanes and there was a huge audience watching me and some other play. I would go sit in the audience when it wasn't my turn. I feel nervous and think I should have bowled elsewhere. I only get 3 turns. first was 2 pins. Second 8 pins. My sister gets a spare so I have to show her up. I get a strike on the next one. The crowd cheers and I strut around. Then there is a semi parked next to the lane and I run around it on the far side.

I see a roller coaster call the twister from when I went to Astro World when I lived in TX

[IMG]http://cache.rcdb.com/bhe402s000106pobh9o00t.jpg[IMG]

I hope I typed the code right there if not well theres the link LOL

Anyway there was some people stuck in the twisted part. There coaster had just stopped on them (This briefly happened to me in RL) I comment and they say they have been there all night. Then I fell my body lay down.

I am on the long "lay" table at work. I see my lead and hes telling me to hold still. Then a spiral thing comes at me and under my shirt. It almost catches my face and I feel pinned.

Now I am standing and my lead is upset about a screw driver. It looks like the handle had been pinched off. He tells me me that I have a bad track record. I take this meaning how I never stay true to my religious teachings from my childhood. He tells me I need to fix the screwdriver. I say nah man don't worry. I have one at home I can bring. He says ok thats fine and relaxes now.

I see a metal ingot on the floor and pick it up. I summon a second one in my other hand. This is were I become slightly aware. I laugh and decide I want show of my dream control to my lead and S at work. I walk around to different desks and workstations. I wave my hand at the first one and a third metal ingot thing appears. I smile at S and gesture. He seems slightly amused. I try it again but it only see a wavy spot light heat vapor and then nothing. I say ok I will just use expectation. That still doesn't work. I make my way to the other side when I am suddenly woken by the alarm clock.

Sorry for the crummy post. All I can use is the "Quick Reply"

Wow! now that's an update.I can never bring myself to write a post like this but it's certinaly good, as it help you track your progress.
About the awareness being a shore, I sometimes feel that way but I quickly remember the awesome things this little exercise can do, it's benefits really worth the effort that you put to it.
It seems your DR is doing well, which is always good. I laughed so hard when I read the "How YOU doin?" part from your zombie dream.
Keep on dreaming !

tl;dr - 1) Sleep schedule is still a little whacked. 2) I still want to continue with SSILD and I need to review my tweaked posted (3) Caffeine, black coffee to be exact, helps increase my dreams and recall much like B6 used to. Like any lucid aid, I will refrain from doing it every night or the effect will stop and/or I will become dependent on it.

I didn't have any more lucids yet. I'm a little bummed. I think a lot of it is still my sleep schedule. Some nights will be ideal nights and others we will only get 6hrs. I need 8 - 10! Ah well that's life.

I had an interesting night last night. I did a mini WBTB. I thought about stay up later but just didn't want to. (I think tonight I will put at least 30min in) I tried something a little different. I know I was giving up caffeine but I soon gave up. I didn't cut my intake way back though. So that was good. I have experimented with caffeine before since I tend to be a heavy sleeper. It has been a nice lucid aid in the past but the results were just a hit and miss as the B6. So I got to thinking. I know caffeine does things to REM cycles but the B6 seems to act like caffeine for me. Well during my WBTB I had a cup of coffee made. It was cold so I chugged it and went back to bed. I gave SSILD try but feel a sleep fast.

My recall boomed after that. 6 dreams and 1 fragment. That still doesn't beat my record of 11 dreams but it was way better than the 1 - 2 dreams and fragments I have been having. I tried WILDing after every awakening but even with the coffee I quickly lost awareness and entered a NLD. Later I was able to hold it longer and had some interesting half dreams but was too awake and rested to go any further.

One half dream I was trying to interact and make it more real by doing a simple action. I rubbed my hands together like the stabilizing technique. My hands were skeletal and when I looked them over and wiggled my fingers I could hear a hollow bones knocking sound. I enjoyed it almost as any LD which woke me up some. I find these half dreams so interesting. In my mind I am vividly lucid dreaming but I am just as aware of my physical body and I am now. It get me excited because it only takes one step further and I am fully dreaming but sometimes that one step is so difficult. I hope that the more I do this the easier it gets. This whole half dream thing is relatively new to me.

BTW I log on everyday and try to post in my DJ to avail. How long has it been now? A week almost? I find this incredibly unacceptable. I don't understand why there was no back up system in place in case the upgrade went to shit. There, I had to complain now it's out of my system. Lollipops and rainbows.

Yeah, I think it's like you say -- it's all about the sleep. You just don't pull down nearly as many or as long periods of REM if you're getting only barely enough sleep to recover. Without all of that nice REM, you can still succeed, but you're just playing with way worse odds.

To some degree, lucid dreaming is a numbers game. The more skills and awareness you can bring in, the more consecutive, rich REM you can experience, and the more dialed in your brain chemistry is at the right moment, the better chance you'll have to recognize that you're dreaming or slip directly into a dream. I know that LD is still possible with bad sleep, of course, but it's kind of like drawing an inside straight. IMO.

Cool experiment with the caffeine! This probably worked so well because you've spent quite a lot of time in caffeine withdrawal. I feel like I heard about a strategy like this at some point in the past... something about habitual coffee drinkers stopping for a while, then suddenly reintroducing it...? If I run across it again I'll let you know.

Like you, I'm bummed about the DV difficulties that we've been having lately! Stranger still is how everyone seems to be having different problems. Some people can't post to Dream Journals but can comment (you, Ophelia?) Some people can post to DJ but can't comment (me.) Some people can't PM. (You and Ophelia?) Anyway, I do see them fixing things in some places, so I'm hoping for the best!

I agree with all you said. And I have read a thread about caffiene withdrawl inducing lucid dreams. Im not sure it was so much withdrawl because I only went a few days totally without but I did cut back so maybe.

Only 6 LDs for November

I feel like a dry spell is forming but lets hope not.

I am experimenting with caffeine and melatonin for a few nights. I will post if anything comes of it.

Still having recall issues. Its like all I can remember are vague images and emotions like I was just stuck in HI/HH the first half. I have been getting better dreams of course later in the morning but I rarely get to enjoy long mornings anymore.

I have been focusing on DILD hopefully pre WBTB. It used to happen to me regularly. After WBTB I focus on WILD/DEILD
SSILD less frequently

Last night I over did the caffeine and I have been up since 3:30AM. HA! REM rebound?

December Goals:
TOTMs - Make it snow is first, Then Aurora Borealis or both at the same time!
Phasing
Element Control - Mostly fire
Speak to the dream AND get a coherent response.
10 LDs

Helps:
Review past LDs - confidence!
Awareness
Various aids
Review basics
Be on DV more!
Day/night time affirmations/mantras


BTW I cleared as many settings as I could in my control panel including avatar and profile pic. For some strange reason I now have DJ posts and DJ comments, and I can PM. I'm super happy about that! Maybe that will help some of you as well!

I barely remember a DILD from last night. I think I was on some sand blocks like in minecraft. I was doing something with my hands. Manipulating the environment. That's all I can remember. I know I didn't remember any goals and I must have just barely been lucid. I had more in my mind about it when I woke up but I was super tired at that moment and just thought I would remember. The thought of having to wake up enough to write it down was too much for me. I hate it when that happens.

BTW this was after I WBTB when I gulped a mouthful of strong cold coffee. I was trying SSILD but I pass out after one or two rounds. It looks like I need to work on memory skills. How many LDs have I forgotten? I did happen to recall 7 dreams last night. It seems like the more I recall the more difficult it gets to write stuff down. I think a lot of it during the week it that I know there is an alarm clock set and I only have so much time to sleep so I tend to rush things. I can't wait for the weekend!

Congratulations on the DILD! That Minecraft sure does infiltrate a lot of lucid dreamer's brains.

If you pulled down six LDs in November, you can't be too dry. From what I see, the biggest headwind for you right now is your sleep schedule. I've gotten into this mode before where recall is a little rough and I'm always kind of tired, never waking up before the alarm, etc. The thing that always seems to fix it is getting to bed really early one night. Basically as soon as the kids go down, get chores done as fast as possible then get straight to bed. Man on a mission. I seem to have great recall either that night or the next, especially when I fuel it with some kind of lucid aid like a couple cups of apple juice.

Definitely review those past LDs. If it were me, I'd be reviewing that September Task of the Month pretty often and reflect on how awesome I am. Remind yourself what you can do with a little sleep in the tank.

If you do choose to use any SSILD, one thing I've done lately that helped me is that I do the first two rounds quite fast. Perhaps 3-4 seconds per sense. That way I usually get through at least those two and I kind of get primed for the forthcoming rounds and tend not to just zonk out instantly. After the first two fast rounds, I've done three "normal" rounds, then try to get to sleep ASAP. Of course, I'm strictly using it for DILDs so you might need to approach it differently.

That's good advice buts its not so always so easy getting to bed early. I guess I should try. I still like SSILD its just the zonking out too fast that gets me. I think we talked about this before but I always forget the important stuff. I'll keep in mind the quick rounds before I do longer ones. I think my issue is that I get too caught up in the imagery and think that I can visualize a WILD but it doesn't always work out that way.I am actually trying to increase my DILD and not work on WILD so much because WILD can take a lot of time. Time that I don't have during the week. Knowing that I don't have the time almost always makes me fail because I want to rush things along so much.

I forgot to mention a few other significant dreams this morning. One was I that my desceesed grandparents where Back and living at my house. They were thinking about renting a house across the street from me. At the end I realized they are actually dead and became semi lucid but got caught up in all the emotional bull crap and woke up.

The other I almost DEILD. I remember all of the slipping back into the dream and actively engaging it. Its strange to recall a non lucid waking to dream DEID. It was a fun an vivid dream but I'll save it for my DJ.

I think it was the small amount of caffeine that kept my awareness up after my WBTB. I won't do it every night though because I am not sure what it does to my sleep quality. It may actually be wise to take a few nights off from all of it and just sleep.

Got lucid #98 between snooze alarms this morning. Finally a proper DILD! And I sort of accomplished a lucid goal: Speak to the dream AND get a coherent response.
I asked a woman to tell me somthing important. It was garbage at first but I was persistent. She ended up telling me that there was nothing because I was perfect already. BAHAHAHAHA! Thanks SubC I love you too!

Lucid #98 The Woman in Pink Scrubs - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

LOL. Nice dream! I'm glad that you finally coaxed your subconscious into saying something to you. And who knew it'd be something so flattering??

I am really trying with this whole "Garguyal" thing, but I don't have any idea what that could mean. Your subconscious telling you that you're perfect sounds pretty darn good to me. If there's one entity in the world you'd want to sure likes you, it's your subconscious.

Maybe her dad was Gandolf? She did say I had it wrong. Haha!

This dream set a great mood for me today. I feel on top of the world. :-) I think if I were to find a message here it would be to love myself. It's a good reminder. I have been struggling with problems at work and have been kind of down about it. Maybe this is what it was all about?