Thread: CanisLucidus' Workbook

Originally Posted by areyoume

Congartulations CanisLucidus on that lucid,must of been really fun.I will read it when I have some time.
About increasing your WBTB time,I unintentionaly did a WBTB that lasted and hour and guess what,3 lucid dreams that day.

Thanks, dude. It really turned out to be a nice dream! I love coming out of nightmares this way because instead of waking up with that icky, worried post-nightmare feeling, you greet the day in the afterglow of an LD. Love that.

Your story about the one-hour WBTB is amazing. Gosh, I may just have to try that at some point. It's probably something that I could only experiment with on the most perfect of sleep days but at some point hopefully I can try. Or maybe it'll be one of those involuntary hour-long WBTBs like yours where the kids wake up in the middle of the night or my crazy dogs set off the house alarm again.

Lucid Dream #31
I was happy to have a much-needed lucid dream last night. Prior to last night, I'd not been getting enough sleep. Felt dog tired by the end of the day. Even basic awareness practices were a struggle, so last night I got to bed as early as I could manage.

The dream itself was fairly short but extremely vivid and sharply detailed. Beautiful scenery and lots of active dream characters. I was surprised by how abruptly it ended since there was no particular cause for it to fall apart. Hopefully just unlucky timing. I felt fantastic upon waking, as is typical after a lucid. Anyway, since the DJ is down, I'll leave the dream description in handwritten form for later transcription.

During this LD, I had a slight problem turning the way that I wanted while flying. I could make small turns fairly easily but doing something like a 90 degree turn felt very hard, like I was struggling against the dream. I'll note that down as something to work on. My guess is that a slight tweak in technique will do it. Something as simple as slowly rolling my focus to the right or left side of the dream scene will "turn the camera" just fine. I'll see how that goes. If anyone else has ever experienced this, I'm interested in hearing your experiences.

Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 25 minute WBTB

DEILD Difficulties
I tried to chain back into this dream but it just wouldn't happen. After the lucid, my mind was fairly quiet and I felt an incredible sense of well-being. What I didn't feel, unfortunately, was sleepy! I just kind of laid there, eyes closed, feeling good, but going nowhere. I checked the time on the clock later and I'd only been asleep for about an hour. I'd have expected to have more juice left in that REM cycle, so I was a little surprised?

Does this ever happen to anybody else?

The Power of Sleep
I feel much, much better today after getting both an LD and a good night's sleep. While it could be last night's B6, I think it's just down to getting some rest and the charge I always get out of an LD. Today, awareness practices that required immense effort and concentration feel pleasant, even natural.

Every now and then I find myself getting overconfident and thinking that I can get away without proper sleep or proper awareness. It's just not true. I'll keep this firmly in mind until the next time that I forget it.

Spoiler for November Goals Update:

-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD

Lucid dreams this month:6

Congrats on the lucid!

I have experienced directional problems when flying too, though rarely. It's a bit different in a way though. I could feel myself turning, but the view never changes. It's still the one I see in front of me, and I never really see myself turn, though I can feel it. If that makes sense. What I do when I experience that is I go at a lower altitude while slowly turning. So it's kind of like if I wanted to go left, I'd be curving to the left as I'm going down as well. Give it a try! It might work for you too

I've had those DEILD awakenings keep me up too I haven't really found a way around it besides turn it into a WBTB.

The awareness thing is so true! At times I go like "maybe I won't do as much awareness today" and it always reflects poorly that same night. The good thing is I'm getting used to doing ADA so it's not as hard and tiring as it used to be when I first started.

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Congrats on the lucid!

I have experienced directional problems when flying too, though rarely. It's a bit different in a way though. I could feel myself turning, but the view never changes. It's still the one I see in front of me, and I never really see myself turn, though I can feel it. If that makes sense. What I do when I experience that is I go at a lower altitude while slowly turning. So it's kind of like if I wanted to go left, I'd be curving to the left as I'm going down as well. Give it a try! It might work for you too

Thank you kindly, Paige!

You know what? Your description of the problem sounds more accurate than my own was. That's very much what it was like. I really felt like I should have been doing the turn but it didn't look like I was doing the turn. Your idea about lowering altitude sounds like a good one to try! If that works, I wonder if climbing higher could do it too. Good idea.

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

The awareness thing is so true! At times I go like "maybe I won't do as much awareness today" and it always reflects poorly that same night. The good thing is I'm getting used to doing ADA so it's not as hard and tiring as it used to be when I first started.

I'm still at the phase where I simply do not maintain awareness in a true "ADA" sense. I still can't quite fathom what that's like. Mine is more of a "Oops! I'm supposed to be all 'aware' right now but instead I am thinking some frivolous thought about some unimportant subject. Okay, be aware! Aware!!"

I think that the "sporadic awareness technique" winds up being more descriptive of what I manage to do in practice. I just have to hope that one of those "sporadic" times is in a dream. Trouble is, my brain doesn't even come close to working properly in my non-lucids.

I'm still at the phase where I simply do not maintain awareness in a true "ADA" sense. I still can't quite fathom what that's like. Mine is more of a "Oops! I'm supposed to be all 'aware' right now but instead I am thinking some frivolous thought about some unimportant subject. Okay, be aware! Aware!!"

I think that the "sporadic awareness technique" winds up being more descriptive of what I manage to do in practice. I just have to hope that one of those "sporadic" times is in a dream. Trouble is, my brain doesn't even come close to working properly in my non-lucids.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Is ADA even possible? I also get so mentally tired some days that I can't even begin to care about awareness. Plus, my job requires a lot of concentration. So, it's tough. I feel ya man.

Agreed. i ALWAYS forget and be like "PAY ATTENTION PAIGE! AWARENESS AWARENESS!"

I try to not think about it too much, because I don't want it to feel like something I have to do just so I could get lucid more often. You know what I mean? I want it to be something I can learn to do naturally and gradually because I can and it has a lot of other benefits.

Oh, and a little side note: It helps me with the awareness if I think that I'm in a dream all the time in waking life (I don't jump off buildings though!). In a sense, being in that mindset kind of helps me pay attention more to myself and my surroundings without putting too much pressure on myself to do it. That way, it's like I'm lucid the entire time and continue the lucidity when I start to dream at night

Great way of looking at awareness paigey. Im going to use that

Originally Posted by Xanous

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Is ADA even possible? I also get so mentally tired some days that I can't even begin to care about awareness. Plus, my job requires a lot of concentration. So, it's tough. I feel ya man.

Glad to hear that I'm not alone. I think (or at least tell myself) that this process of suddenly remembering that I am supposed to be working awareness is useful in its own right. That prospective memory of "Wait, what was I supposed to be doing?" is a powerful way to awaken the conscious mind. Looking back, that is how I hit my very first LD. (I was afraid I'd forgotten to turn off the house alarm and suddenly remembered it.)

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Oh, and a little side note: It helps me with the awareness if I think that I'm in a dream all the time in waking life (I don't jump off buildings though!). In a sense, being in that mindset kind of helps me pay attention more to myself and my surroundings without putting too much pressure on myself to do it. That way, it's like I'm lucid the entire time and continue the lucidity when I start to dream at night

Yes, this is a great way to look at it, I think! Dream yoga operates on a similar idea. It is, in the end, an accurate way to look at the world as it actually is. We never experience "the world" directly. All we ever experience or can ever experience is a dream that we construct from the world as our senses perceive it. Having said all that, I am still blown away every single time by how vivid and realistic some dreams can be.

Lucid Fragments
I had two lucid fragments this morning that were too brief for me to classify them as LDs. Xanous popped up in one. I'm not sure how I knew this was Xanous, since I only know what Xanous looks like in zombie makeup.

Lucid fragment #1: I'm at an outdoor barbecue picnic lunch. I'm feeling really hungry so I start piling beans and brisket onto my plate. Once I've got a heaping serving on my plate, I look up and see that Xanous is standing a few feet away. "What a coincidence!" I think. I walk up to him to say hey and briefly think to wonder where I am. When I realize this all makes no sense, I become lucid. I try to speak to Xanous but nothing comes out -- the dream is ending.

Lucid fragment #2: I'm sparring with my nephew, who appears to be about 13. I'm trying to set him up for some kind of throw when I realize that in real life he's 2 years old, not 13, and that it's been years since I've done any grappling. I'm about to make some comment about my lucidity when the dream ends.

Pre-bed food: 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 15 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7 hours total

Edit: I also got around to posting LD #31: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/cani...-venice-40934/

Canis, your structured approach is awesome! Your motivation is rubbing off on me

So, that awareness thing is definitely something I struggle with as well. However, I believe Ive been able to experience the awareness in small doses which seems to tell me that it is indeed possible.

My meditation practices really help me with this. Honestly, I don't think we are really training our conscious mind to be awake, rather, it seems that we are training the conscious mind to be aware of the unconscious.

Once that happens, we enter this entirely separate mind set wherein all experience is accepted as a singularity. That is to say, it is all a dream.
On the one hand, you have what seems to be a division between sleep and waking life. And on the other, your unconscious mind perceives all this reality as one.
I'll leave it there before I lose myself in my own rabbit hole, lol...

Originally Posted by Chimpertainment

Canis, your structured approach is awesome! Your motivation is rubbing off on me

Thanks, man! That's a great thing to hear.

I'm right there with you on this idea that the real endgame is moving toward awareness at a fundamental level of what unites dream life and waking life. Figuring this out is a process that I expect to take a great deal of time, given the fact that earlier this year I still thought I "hardly ever dream"! But hey, we all have to start somewhere.

Lucid Dream #32
I had my 32nd lucid dream last night, and it was a nice, fairly long one. I managed to complete the "writing REBMEVON" Advanced Task of the Month, which was exciting for me. I'd had trouble with writing in my previous attempt so this was a good confidence booster.

Here's the full entry: Rollercoasters and REBMEVON - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

A couple of superpower opportunities came up. I had success asking the dream to light up the city and to help me locate things, both of which should continue to be useful for me going forward. If you ever need to find anything, asking for the dream to show it to you and expecting it to glow seems to be an effective approach.

Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7.5 hours

Spoiler for November Goals Update:

-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD

Lucid dreams this month:7

Lucid Dream #33
I had a short but inspiring lucid dream last night where I saw the Great Pyramid for the first time. What blew me away is that it looked so much more amazing than the highly literal picture of it that I had in my mind. When I incubated a trip to the Great Pyramid, I imagined it as it is today, chipped and worn by time. But in the dream it looked as if it had been built last week!

Beyond that, my mind threw in other structures and details that had never occurred to me. Where does all of this come from? How does my subconscious come up with something better than what I had intended for myself?

I think I'd viewed creativity mostly as an act of will. But it seems that it's really more an act of listening to what the subconscious has already crafted for us.

This is the entry in the DJ: The Poolside Pyramid - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 514g mango, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7 hours

Mangoes!
I tried RareCola's mango experiment and had great results! I hit last night's lucid and recalled 7 dreams in total, which is on the high end for me.

Recall Rough Spot
I had a real rough patch in my dream recall over part of the weekend. On Friday night I only recalled 2 fragments and on Saturday night remembered basically nothing. It's worth nothing, I think, what I did wrong. First, I went to bed very late and couldn't get relaxed during the later phase of sleep (as light had started to creep into the room, thanks to the daylight savings time change.)

It's also worth mentioning that my diet was pretty lousy during these few days. Blame Thanksgiving. Anyway, Future Self, if you are reading this, go to bed. And put down that chocolate-covered Oreo, for God's sake. Go carve yourself a mango instead!

First, congratulations on that lucid.It must've been amazing. It's really wonderful what the subconscious mind is capable of doing, isn't it?
I was thinking of visiting mind blowing landscapes recently, and after your experience, I might just yell out for an amazing scene and see what my subconscious has to offer me.
Second, I've noticed that your WorkBook is well-orgnaized and every thing is in order, and that certainly helps when you try to go back and check your progress. I like my things to be in perfect order but I fail at that miserably, and you can check my Workbook to be sure of what I'am talking about.
Keep on dreaming!

First, congratulations on that lucid.It must've been amazing. It's really wonderful what the subconscious mind is capable of doing, isn't it?
I was thinking of visiting mind blowing landscapes recently, and after your experience, I might just yell out for an amazing scene and see what my subconscious has to offer me.
Second, I've noticed that your WorkBook is well-orgnaized and every thing is in order, and that certainly helps when you try to go back and check your progress. I like my things to be in perfect order but I fail at that miserably, and you can check my Workbook to be sure of what I'am talking about.

Thanks for the kind words, my friend! And yes, the subconscious really is amazing.

Also, I highly recommend making a request like this of your subconscious! It's timely that you mention this since in last night's LD I made a request of my subconscious. I was pleased and intrigued with the (cryptic but relevant) results. If you try this, definitely let me know how it goes!

Lucid Dream #34 (Speaking to the subconscious)
Since I've been reading Robert Waggoner the past few days, I decided to make a request of my subconscious. In this case, "Tell me something important." And it actually worked! (Although I did have to find a DC to harass when the sky didn't respond.)

The reply was cryptic but after waking up, recording it just about word-for-word, and studying it, I felt like the message actually made a lot of sense. Why my subconscious chose the metaphor of a "dinosaur petting zoo", I'll never know! Here's the DJ entry: The Dinosaur Petting Zoo - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Quite an awesome experience. My list of things to try grows ever longer...

Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7.5 hours

Lucid Fragment
I had another lucid fragment, and Xanous popped up yet again in this one. "I'm in a restaurant with Wife, getting water from the soda fountain. I see that Xanous is sitting at a nearby table. I'm immediately aware that this is off, and I'm lucid. He stands up and we shake hands. I say, "Good to see you, man. This is my wife..." but wake up before the plot can proceed any further."

Youre welcome. Its funny we keep showing up in eachothers dreams. Im glad you saw it for a dream sign. Im usually just like oh its CL cool. Maybe there are some incubation opportunites here.

Count yourself lucky you got any reply from your subC on the first try. Mine has been way more stubborn. Of course so is my wakung consciouness!

Hey CanisLucidus!

Nice workbook u got there
And u got some very very cool lucids! Gratz bro!

I just got to read your latest lucid. It wouldn't let me post a comment there so I am here.

That's really awesome. I can see how there would be a HUGE message there. I am really envious of you right now Hopefully I'll get a response in mine other that shushing. HA!

Mango Mouth!
So I have a rather unfortunate update on my mango experiment from a few nights ago! Although mangoes worked great as a lucid aid (I had good dream recall and a short lucid dream), you have to be really, really careful with them if you're sensitive to poison ivy. The trouble is that mangoes are a close relative to poison ivy, and mango skins contain an oil called urushiol. Urushiol is what causes the itchiness, swelling, and general unpleasantness of poison ivy.

Unfortunately for me, I'm very sensitive to poison ivy, so diving into a mango (and coming into contact with the skin) has given me what is essentially a faceful (mostly mouthful) of poison ivy! My lips are quite swollen and very, very itchy. This has been going on for days and I'm really eager for it to be over. On the plus side, this makes me feel like such a hardcore lucid dreamer.

So, mangoes are still awesome, but be really careful with those skins! Not everyone is susceptible, but believe me when I say that mango mouth is best avoided.

Involuntary Benadryl "Experiment"
I've been taking Benadryl the last couple of nights in order to keep the itching under control and let myself get a good night's sleep. I in no way consider Benadryl to be any kind of lucid aid. I'm just taking this stuff for itch control. Still, I thought that I might as well record the effect that it has had on dreaming.

The active ingredient in Benadryl is diphenhydramine, and apart from reducing itching, acts as a sedative (makes you sleepy) and an anticholinergic (blocks acetylcholine.) My personal experience was that it zonked me out, left me with a dry mouth, and made me too lazy to properly get up for WBTB. Also, both nights that I took the standard dose (25mg in a Benadryl, I believe), I had no dream recall at all. I still woke around the usual WBTB time but just kind of laid there for a bit before giving up and going back to sleep. After this awakening, I would have 2-3 fairly vivid dreams, sort of like REM rebound.

All in all, I felt that it acted like sort of an REM suppressor that made me dry-mouthed and too groggy to WBTB. Not a great deal of fun. I think that the itch is getting a little better so I am going to really try to get by without taking one tonight!

Goals for December:
-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Spoiler for November Goals:

-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD

Lucid dreams this month:9

Mango an poison ivy!? I had no idea. I actually ate the skins one night last week. Im not alergic to poison ivy so though. Not and effective lucid aid for me btw.

Sorry you are broke out! Thats got to be the worst. I feel ya on the benedryl. I HATE that stuff.

Wohao..Canislucidus I hope you're okay. I hope you get well soon and get back to the lucid track as soon as possible..... That's some nice goals you got there for decemeber. I hope you acheive all of them and most importantly that you have FUN acheiving them, and as always, Keep on dreaming!

Thanks, gents, I appreciate it! Fortunately I am doing a great deal better. I'm still pretty swollen but the itching is getting better rapidly. Happily, I didn't even need Benadryl yesterday, which opened the door for a great night of dreaming.

Lucid Dream #35
With a less itchy face and no Benadryl in my system, I was eager to get a night of serious dreaming in. I wanted a lucid pretty bad, so I chowed down on a bag of popcorn and 2 cups of apple juice right before bed. Did I overdo it? I'll leave that question to the philosophers.

I recalled 6 dreams and had a lucid where I think that I pulled off a basic Task of the Month (by the skin of my teeth.) I controlled the weather, kind of without meaning to do it quite so early. I was so determined to remember that I was going to make it snow that this caused it to be snowing outside. I didn't get to actually play with it, though, so I would like to circle back to this one if I have an opportunity.

Here's the DJ entry: The Blizzard - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 1 bag popcorn, 2 cups apple juice, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~7.5 hours

Lucid Fragment
I also had an additional lucid fragment (extremely short lucid dream) that reflected how serious I was about getting an LD. I got a laugh out of it after it happened, so I posted it in the Snippets thread.

Lucid Aid Schedule
Monday / Wednesday: 100mg B-6 or B Complex
Tuesday / Thursday / Sunday / whenever I feel like it: 1-2 cups apple juice, possibly with popcorn.

I've been researching other lucid aids for many weeks, but I like to take things slow. I'll rotate other things in over time, always with an eye toward safety and avoiding any buildup of tolerance. A guy who manages to acquire a malady from mangoes can't be too careful.

Spoiler for Goals for December:

-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 1

Wow man you are really on fire right now! I'm jealous! HA no but I am glad for you!

Lucid Dream #36 - Aurora Borealis Task of the Month
I had a great lucid dream last night and I was able to complete the Advanced Task of the Month. (Finding, visiting, and replicating the aurora borealis.)

A first for me was turning day to night, which was exciting. It was also a really special dream for me because I got to complete it with a DC of my 3-year-old son accompanying me. I get very attached to DCs of loved ones and it's almost impossible for me not to treat them like their waking life counterparts. They are just too real for me to do otherwise.

Here's the DJ entry:Aurora Borealis - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 30-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 2 cups apple juice, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~7 hours

Dream Journal Comments!
I appear to be able to comment on the very latest Dream Journal entries, which makes me happy. Is DreamViews beginning to heal itself? Fingers crossed.

Spoiler for Goals for December:

-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 2

Dude that's amazing. I'm impressed.

I shout a continuous battle cry as I rise. In response, the dream starts blasting a full symphonic orchestra soundtrack to my ascent.

That cracked me up but I bet it just added to it all the more.

Wow canis. looks like you're on a lucid rush. Your lucid dream was certinaly amazing.

I'm so pumped that I shout a continuous battle cry as I rise. In response, the dream starts blasting a full symphonic orchestra soundtrack to my ascent

I've always wanted to do that, it must've been great, have'nt it? & then the mother ship and all, utterly epic!

It looks like I'm the only one who has'nt had a lucid dream last night. Oh well.....

Keep on dreaming!