Thread: CanisLucidus' Workbook

I swear, before I die, I will make a ChocolatePeanutbutterCuptini.

I'll serve them at the next DV Convention.

I ended up taking 200mg B6 with my PB WBTB. My dreams got very vivid but no lucid. I did dream of another dream views member which is always interesting.

I'm really digging the fart spray. I've been getting really mild vibrations lately too, that just fizzle into sleep and nonlucids. But I admit I've been naughty and going to bed between 2-3am for no other reason than to stay up and play. How about you? You sleeping enough? I'd imagine so since it said you went to bed at 10:15. What time did you actually get out of bed, 6? Just curious.

Originally Posted by Xanous

I did dream of another dream views member which is always interesting.

Technically two, if you count the Oreo

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Yeah, I really agree on the lucid aids. After all, what's really getting us lucid is our mad skillz. I'm just going to admit that I'm looking for any excuse to eat peanut butter right from the spoon like a barbarian and tell Wife that it's "For science!"

By the way, I love that graphic, as it appears to combine my peanut butter with Xanous' favorite lucid aid (namely, his wife's "vodka-filled slushie drinks".) Oh, and chocolate. Truly, it does not get any better than this.

LMAO you kill me!

Originally Posted by "OpheliaBlue

I'm really digging the fart spray. I've been getting really mild vibrations lately too, that just fizzle into sleep and nonlucids. But I admit I've been naughty and going to bed between 2-3am for no other reason than to stay up and play. How about you? You sleeping enough? I'd imagine so since it said you went to bed at 10:15. What time did you actually get out of bed, 6? Just curious.

The fart spray is something from my childhood. These things keep popping up. Yeah mine just fizzle out sometimes idk why. I have bee striving for 9pm bed time and I have to get up at 6am. Im still really tired though. I have to start getting up at 5 now to take Riley, my son, to my moms. Actually Alysha and I are taking turns with that... or at least that's the plan.

LOL. I totally missed the transition from this:

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

I'm not a big advocate for lucid aids myself, but I'll totally join you two in the PB before bed challenge for the heck of it!

To this:

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

I'm really digging the fart spray.

I see that we're skipping the peanut butter, B6, and 5-HTP and going straight to the hard stuff! Laberge did plenty of research into substances like galantamine, but even he has not as yet ventured down the dark, smelly road of "fart spray" as a lucid aid. You are on the bleeding edge here.

And yes, it eventually dawned on me that I probably need to read Xanous' dream journal.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

LOL. I totally missed the transition from this:



To this:



I see that we're skipping the peanut butter, B6, and 5-HTP and going straight to the hard stuff! Laberge did plenty of research into substances like galantamine, but even he has not as yet ventured down the dark, smelly road of "fart spray" as a lucid aid. You are on the bleeding edge here.

And yes, it eventually dawned on me that I probably need to read Xanous' dream journal.

OMG yes you should, funny man!

DID SOMEONE SAY FART?



Count me in.

Folks, I may need to check myself into peanut butter rehab. I had 4 tablespoons last night before bed, which was pretty decadent and awesome. I don't know whether there's any relation, but I had a very strange night of dream recall and was kind of sweaty after every waking. (It's unusual for me to get sweaty when I sleep.)

Every single dream that I recalled (there were three) involved frantic, jumpy conversations about dreaming or lucid dreaming. No Technicolor Thomas Jefferson but lots of frenetic activity and jump cuts between scenes. What I wrote for dream #2 is so weird that I can't even interpret it. It involves milking cows during holidays, "super storms" and someone named "Miss Lara" peeling me off the ceiling with her "values". (And yes, lucid dreaming talk as well.)

Additionally, I felt hot, restless, and busy-minded during my WBTB. This led to a vivid, engaging MILD practice but made falling back asleep really difficult.

For the rest of my PB nights, I think that I will dial it back down to two tablespoons.

I had my first "lucid nap" yesterday for lucid dream #22! Losing a fight to a little kid wasn't exactly one of my dream goals, but I'm always happy to rack up a lucid dream no matter what the circumstances are.

An interesting thing that happened in this one is that I allowed my mind to wander a bit too much from what was happening in the dream scene and this caused one of the DCs to turn on me pretty viciously. Lesson learned! This is the DJ entry: Unwelcome Houseguests - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

For this nap, I tried a new technique where I try to combine a MILD mantra with my actual falling asleep ritual. My goal is to continue doing my mantra as close to the point of sleep as possible without keeping myself awake. It's a fine line, but recently, I've done this by combining my usual "go to sleep fast" technique of deep breathing with a MILD mantra and counting ideas from KamilV's technique for falling asleep.

New Combined Falling Asleep / MILD Ritual:
-Begin at the number 100 and begin to count backwards.
-Deep breath in (6-8 seconds.) Say the next number. (In my head.)
-Slowly breathe out (6-8 seconds.) Say "I'm dreaming."
-Next breath, now at 99.

At night, I've been sticking with my two tablespoons of peanut butter a bit before bed. My dreams have calmed down a great deal from the "Technicolor Thomas Jefferson" phase of ultra-trippiness. Recall had ticked down to 2-3 dreams recently but last night was 4, all of them fairly memorable. That'll do nicely, but I'll keep an eye on things.

Ahahaa that was an awesome trippy dream. And I love your sleeping ritual! I might try that out tonight muhaahahahAHAHA

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Ahahaa that was an awesome trippy dream. And I love your sleeping ritual! I might try that out tonight muhaahahahAHAHA

Hey, sweet! If you do try it, let me know how it goes! The thing puts me right to sleep when I've always had a bit of trouble sleeping with my mantra still going.

Oh, that reminds me! Don't you somehow incorporate counting into your... WILD technique? Xanous mentioned a counting idea that he got from you but I failed to find it poking around in either your workbook or his.

Edit: And talking to paigeyemps reminds me of yet another thing... my October goals!

Spoiler for October Goals:

Goals for October:
-Have 6 more lucid dreams
-Complete one of the October Tasks of the Month
-Stable, sustained flight in at least one lucid dream. Not just jumping or getting blown away by the wind! The Unprepared Astronaut - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Lucid Count for October: 4

I think it was mentioned in chat.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Hey, sweet! If you do try it, let me know how it goes! The thing puts me right to sleep when I've always had a bit of trouble sleeping with my mantra still going.

Oh, that reminds me! Don't you somehow incorporate counting into your... WILD technique? Xanous mentioned a counting idea that he got from you but I failed to find it poking around in either your workbook or his.

Edit: And talking to paigeyemps reminds me of yet another thing... my October goals!

Hmm do you mean the thing where I count backwards during WILD for my anchor? Or the thing where I imagine yelling out my counting during DEILDs?

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Hmm do you mean the thing where I count backwards during WILD for my anchor? Or the thing where I imagine yelling out my counting during DEILDs?

Oh yeah should have been more specific! This was something that you do during WILDs.

I've actually done the DEILD trick (thanks to you!) where I try to shout out a count with my dream voice.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Oh yeah should have been more specific! This was something that you do during WILDs.

I've actually done the DEILD trick (thanks to you!) where I try to shout out a count with my dream voice.

Ahh now I remember! I wasn't quite sure if it was Xanous or you, haha

Well, I was weak and fell back into the arms of an old flame last night: my first LD tech, the ever-controversial SSILD! In the past I'd had problems with SSILD keeping me awake but I was tempted to see whether my new "combined falling asleep / MILD ritual" could solve this.

Luckily, it worked! I had lucid dream #23 last night plus an additional lucid dream fragment. SSILD left me feeling very awake but the ritual afterward managed to settle me down to sleep.

This was my lucid dream (a failed Task of the Month): Halloween in the Sky Fortress - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I'll probably also post the lucid fragment up in the snippets thread.

Pre-bed food: 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 200mg ubiquinol (CoQ10), 3 grams fish oil
Technique: SSILD w/ MILD sleep ritual
Sleep: 8 hours+

Spoiler for October Goals:

Goals for October:
-Have 6 more lucid dreams
-Complete one of the October Tasks of the Month
-Stable, sustained flight in at least one lucid dream. Not just jumping or getting blown away by the wind! The Unprepared Astronaut - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Lucid Count for October: 5

Oh wow pretty cool dream! And I love how you worked with the opposing wind by thinking it was "guiding you" instead of just fighting against it. That was very well done indeed

Congrats on the lucid! Maybe you should come trick or treating at my DV house. I gots da candies in the bowl x)

Sleep Habits
The first thing that I'm forced to admit in this update is that my sleep habits have not been very good the past few days. (I've only gotten 7 hours or more of sleep once since my last LD.) And last night one of our mischievous dogs managed to set off the glass break sensor on our house alarm so I had the pleasure of a "surprise WBTB" at 1:30 AM. I'd be amazed if I got a full six.

That's the bad news, and I plan to fix it tonight. I'll be shooting for 8 or more hours of sleep if at all possible. If I can do that, I feel really good about my chances of lucidity.

Dream Recall and "Daydream Waking Journal"
The good news is that recall has been mostly consistent in spite of poor sleep. I mentioned to Xanous that in times when daytime journaling feels too cumbersome, I instead practice a "daydream waking journal". It seems that this practice has helped keep my recall steady while being much easier than keeping a waking journal.

Every 1-3 hours, I take a moment to quickly daydream everything that I've done from the last time that I performed the ritual. I find that I can daydream these fresh memories with surprising vividness and the entire process takes literally seconds. This has seemed to really help my recall not only of dreams but also of events that took place earlier in the week. It's far less time-consuming than the waking journal but is also kind of fun.

Text in Dreams
Lately I've noticed that text stays remarkably stable for me in dreams. I've known for a long time that I often read in dreams, both lucid and non-lucid. But I find that if a piece of text is on my mind, it will not tend to change contents. During one of last night's dreams where I was reading an investing forum, a very long, detailed post stayed stable no matter how much I scrolled my dream-mouse around the page, everything stayed the same -- the contents of the post, the poster's sig, even the replies. I've had issues in the past where alarm clocks freeze at a particular time, but this was by far the largest chunk of "permanent" text that I've seen.

I'm noting this down in case it's of interest to anyone else and to remind myself that unfortunately I just can't rely 100% on textual reality checks. It's funny, too, because my 13th LD actually came by way of noticing textual malfunction. Interesting stuff.

I'm noting this down in case it's of interest to anyone else and to remind myself that unfortunately I just can't rely 100% on textual reality checks. It's funny, too, because my 13th LD actually came by way of noticing textual malfunction. Interesting stuff.

My dreams are the same way. Although, there usually isnt much text, when there is it is very stable. One idea that I have been putting into practice is basically the same reality check with a twist. When I see text, I will do the look away and look back thing. Then I will attempt to change the text. Attempting to fly is another reality check i try to use along the same lines. It brings in the dream awareness while testing perception at the same time. I just recently began reality checking in my dreams so Im not totally familiar with the mechanics but perhaps that technique will be an efficient work around.

I got lucid dream #24 last night. I had a blast with this one in spite of screwing up in so many ways. Yet again I encounter strong winds in outdoor flying! I'll have to ruminate on ways that I might control this. What I tried (conjuring a counter-wind) was awesomely fun but simply isn't the right solution to this problem.

This is the DJ entry: Pants Gone with the Wind - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Lessons (re)learned:
-When the dream throws strong resistance in your way, try to flow with it when possible. (I did a better job of this in the "Sky Fortress" dream, and the results were much better.)
-Try to avoid meeting force with force.

In addition to the full lucid dream, I had an additional lucid fragment, also with Wife in it. I'll probably put that in "dream snippets".

My son was coughing over the baby monitor and Wife had to awaken for an early morning run. Both of these led to lighter sleep this morning. I wouldn't be surprised if this made lucidity a bit easier to attain.

Pre-bed food: 1 ounce unsalted peanuts, 200mg ubiquinol (CoQ10), 3 grams fish oil
Technique: MILD visualization, MILD counting sleep ritual
Sleep: 7 hours+

Aww great job Canis!

HAHAHAHAAHA FLYING BUTTNAKED FTW! I really am hoping to be able to try the wind thing, where if it blows against you, imagine that you're going the wrong way and it's leading you.

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Aww great job Canis!

HAHAHAHAAHA FLYING BUTTNAKED FTW! I really am hoping to be able to try the wind thing, where if it blows against you, imagine that you're going the wrong way and it's leading you.

Thanks Paige!!

And talking to you reminds me of something! Would Avatar: The Last Airbender contain good source material for air and wind control? I mean, it's got "Airbender" right there in the title. I know that you've pulled off loads of waterbending in your LDs, but do you have any luck with air?

Anyway, in the meantime I'll save my delusions of grandeur for later and more go with the flow like you're describing. Assuming I don't get caught up in the moment in the next LD, which I do tend to let happen, heh heh heh...

Perhaps speaking to the wind may work? Or u could imagine yourself as so aerodynamic that u slice through the wind like butter. One more idea, lol...you could produce a wind eliminating forcefield...just some thoughts, sounds like you are having a great time despite that! :-)

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Thanks Paige!!

And talking to you reminds me of something! Would Avatar: The Last Airbender contain good source material for air and wind control? I mean, it's got "Airbender" right there in the title. I know that you've pulled off loads of waterbending in your LDs, but do you have any luck with air?

Anyway, in the meantime I'll save my delusions of grandeur for later and more go with the flow like you're describing. Assuming I don't get caught up in the moment in the next LD, which I do tend to let happen, heh heh heh...

Oh for sure!! It's got awesome air control concepts. And the best thing about it is that controlling it requires movement of your body, making it an extension of you – rather than controlling it with your mind. So that, imo, adds awesomeness and an overall realistic feel. And I have airbended (airbent?) a few times, though i really do suck at it, haha. I've tried airbending the air in the lungs of a dream character, totally felt legit!