Thread: CanisLucidus' Workbook

Lucid Dream #37

I had a lucid dream last night where I got impossibly stuck in a resort hotel. I wandered the hotel's hallways and wound up in the basement, but every door seemed to stay in my way. Even if I was totally unsuccessful at achieving any actual goals, I always enjoy a good exploration dream, so it really was a fun time.

Here's the DJ entry: Hotel California - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

This gave me a couple of things to work on. I need to remember that Exit signs are a great way for me to find my way out of buildings. That's worked in the past and I need to make myself remember it as a useful tool. I also could have really used a light source, so I should review my earlier ideas on that. I forgot them all in the heat of the moment!

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

Out of Town
We'll be out of town for the weekend, but I'll be back Sunday night or Monday. Everyone have a great weekend of LDs!

Annoying tunnel. How are you at phasing through stuff? I wonder if you get caught in a building or tunnel in the future, remember to try to phase through the wall.

Anyway, have a nice weekend and I'll see ya Monday! I gotta work 20 hours sat and sun myself.

Ah man, that sounds almost like a lucid nightmare. I am horrible at phasing but I'm pretty good at breaking stuff.

I'm tired of walking on eggshells around you

HAHA I love dream humor!

Annoying tunnel. How are you at phasing through stuff? I wonder if you get caught in a building or tunnel in the future, remember to try to phase through the wall.

Anyway, have a nice weekend and I'll see ya Monday! I gotta work 20 hours sat and sun myself.

Phasing is something I can do a bit of but I've got a lot to learn. I can normally phase through clear glass but have trouble with anything solid. In one of my LDs over the weekend, even a screen totally messed me up! The One Who Knocks - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I'm sorry to hear that The Man is working you like a dog this weekend! Hopefully this means the remainder of your week will be more restful.

HAHA I love dream humor!

LOL. I know, it's so bad but you've gotta love it. I guess this is my first SJILD (Stupid Joke-Initiated Lucid Dream).

Lucid Weekend
The combination of good luck, lots of interesting day residue, and plenty of sleep gave me a really strong weekend of dreaming. Over Friday and Saturday I had three lucid dreams.

On Friday, I actually had two LDs, my first night of multiples. First was this converted nightmare: The One Who Knocks - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Then later, a DEILD. Yes, I finally got myself a DEILD. Very, very happy to manage this after weeks of trying. The Endless Farmhouse - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Saturday also yielded a failed Task of the Year attempt. I need to be careful what/how I think in dreams, because I ended up accidentally nuking Tibet. I really am sorry. Crazy dream, though! Tibetan Nuclear Winter - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 100mg B-complex, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB / DEILD
Sleep: 7.5-8.5 hours

I am incredibly excited about how well this weekend went! It's rare that things line up quite this well but it's incredible when they do.

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: 6

Great weekend of dreaming man! So, you swipe at the ceiling when no one is looking or did I read that wrong?
I love the Nuke dream. You just thought of it and there it was!

Your lucid dreams this weekend were certainly amazing. Especially the Tibet nuclear explosion dream.
Great man, keep up the good work!

Originally Posted by Xanous

Great weekend of dreaming man! So, you swipe at the ceiling when no one is looking or did I read that wrong?
I love the Nuke dream. You just thought of it and there it was!

Heh heh, yeah, you read that right. The ceilings in my office are nine feet, and if I'm walking down a hallway when nobody's around, I sometimes like to take a big jump and swipe at them. At the grocery store, if it's just my son and I in an aisle, I'm the guy who takes a quick run, stands on the bottom cross-bar of the grocery cart, and then rides down the aisle. Ha!

Thanks, the nuke thing was pretty crazy. I am still learning how to differentiate between working really hard to remember something and actually causing it to happen in the dream! This has been an issue for me many times! I did that with the "snow" TotM as well. Also when that kid bit me Grimm-style back during the Halloween tasks. I can't complain, though, because it does lead to interesting dreams.

Originally Posted by areyoume

Your lucid dreams this weekend were certainly amazing. Especially the Tibet nuclear explosion dream.
Great man, keep up the good work!

Thanks, my friend, I appreciate it! The encouragement from everyone here in the class is a huge help for me. I don't know where I'd be without everyone here!

Hey CanisLucidus!

Great weekend man, on congratz on your multiple and DEILD!!!
Ur dreams are really fun

I took a swipe at the ceiling at work today an totally got busted! lol.

Great weekend man, on congratz on your multiple and DEILD!!!
Ur dreams are really fun

Thanks, my friend, I really do appreciate that! The encouragement and support that I find in this class is such a help to my lucid dreaming. I can't even tell you how much it has helped me along and I'm so grateful to everyone here.

I took a swipe at the ceiling at work today an totally got busted! lol.

LOL. That is so awesome. Don't feel too bad. I got busted at the grocery store over the weekend riding one of the carts around.

First Two WILDs (Assisted)
I hit two WILDs last night, my first two WILDs of all time. Not coincidentally, this was the first time that I ever used galantamine, and it made an enormous difference. I in no way endorse anybody else using galantamine without understanding this substance inside and out and they've had a number of natural lucid dreams. I spent nearly 3 months studying the cholinergic system, so this wasn't a snap decision. More on galantamine in a sec.

WILD is certainly a unique experience and I'm really glad to have gotten the chance to finally experience it (outside of a DEILD.) The experience of observing the initial dream scene actually being built, sharpened, refocused, and changed while you watch is very cool. I still lean on DILDs for most of my lucids, but WILD is an amazing tech.

The first WILD: This Mortal Life - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
The second WILD, where I again spoke to my subconscious (with dramatic but ambiguous results this time): The War of the Wolves - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Galantamine
So I took an interest in galantamine when I spent a couple of months struggling to have a lucid dream. I decided not to rely on it to learn to LD, but instead made a deal with myself that once I achieved "a lot" of lucid dreams, I could try it, so long as I knew exactly what I was doing. I picked a number of lucid dreams (40) that sounded pretty huge to me at the time. Fast forward a few months, and my 40th hit over the weekend.

Galantamine worked (and worked well) but I can't recommend it to anyone that hasn't had a number of LDs. It was a very different experience from the typical LD. Perhaps it had to do with my state of mind (I'm worried about a sick child), but my LDs were extremely vivid, yet somber, subdued, and notably lacking in "superpowers".

A few ground rules I've set for myself on galantamine! I will try galantamine no more frequently than once per week max. This frequency will not be raised until I have achieved at least 100 lucid dreams, at which point I can reevaluate my stance. Furthermore, a precondition of using galantamine is that I achieve at least one non-galantamine LD since the last time I took galantamine. Galantamine can only be used as a way to achieve a different sort of LD. It will be subservient to my primary practice.

If I hit a dry spell, tough tortillas. It has to be broken naturally.

Teleportation!
I'm going to be putting in some serious work on teleportation in the context of the other tasks I have for myself! Since I've gotten stuck in a number of scenes lately, I want to have more tools at my disposal to deal with this. I'll be trying the following:
-Portal gun (thanks to RareCola)
-Walking through a door to my imagined location
-WILDing from inside of a dream, incubating the new scene

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: 8

Youuuu, are a smart smart man my friend.

I love your approach to using supplements: use them sparingly for a different type of lucid experience, not JUST to have a lucid experience. And dry spells, pff so what. We all have them. Hell, mine can last 2 weeks, but like you put it, tough tortillas. Get over them naturally. And we all do with persistence, not supplements.

You know, I tried 5-HTP on several occasions. But I used it TO get lucid, instead of to have a different kind of lucid. Eventually I just quit it altogether (thanks RareCola). I would use it again, but it would have to be with the same discipline you are employing with the galantamine.

Anyway, cool post. Thanks for sharing your plans with something that's somewhat controversial. I appreciate you input!

I don't understand why supplements seem to carry somewhat of a negative connotation. If they help a person become lucid in a much easier way don't you think this would contribute them to learning how to do it naturally faster? I look at it the same way as protein powder; you don't really need it to become muscular, but using it will definitely speed up the process.

Experiencing lucidity helps understand what it takes to become lucid. I would not discourage people from using galantamine even if it means to achieve lucidity on their first attempt.

Just to be clear I don't endorse excessive use of any sorts of supplements/medication, moderation is everything, its always important to be balanced.

It is so you do not have to rely on them. We all know everyone can accomplish lucidity without the use of drugs. There is just a warm fuzzy good feeling when you do something naturally.

Two WILD's. Well done!
Your're first one wasn't very nice was it. It sucks being stuck somewhere when your lucid.

If I'm getting it right, you were bitten by your sub-conscious. I really think that he doesn't want's you to use galantamine.

what is galantamine anyway?

Originally Posted by BossMan

I don't understand why supplements seem to carry somewhat of a negative connotation. If they help a person become lucid in a much easier way don't you think this would contribute them to learning how to do it naturally faster? I look at it the same way as protein powder; you don't really need it to become muscular, but using it will definitely speed up the process.

Experiencing lucidity helps understand what it takes to become lucid. I would not discourage people from using galantamine even if it means to achieve lucidity on their first attempt.

Just to be clear I don't endorse excessive use of any sorts of supplements/medication, moderation is everything, its always important to be balanced.

My only reservation was that I noticed when I used 5-HTP for example, I experienced a spike in lucidity, then a major drop and dry spell. Point is, nothing wrong with the experimentation, I just don't want students to believe that they have to rely on supplements alone to achieve lucidity. Or that the best lucids only come from supplements.

I want these awesome chickens to figure out how to LD on their own dime. Supplements should be just that, a widening of angle, not a replacement for hard earned skill.

Yes I don't think entirely relying on supplements is a good idea. Besides these supplements don't guarantee a lucid dream, you still have to put forth your own effort and research to really take advantage of the supplements, which is indicative of genuine effort, interest, and hard work. There is no such thing as a magic pill either way you need to do some work!

Of course though BE SAFE! These are drugs! Be responsible.

Nice on the WILDs! I see this sparked a conversation so here's my two cents. I understand your reservation about using galantamine and agree it should be limited. I have used it myself when I wasn't all that proficient in lucid dreaming. I recalled a lot of dreams but only had 1 lucid out of the few days I tried it. Galantamine alone will not bring a lucid its merely an aid. But it's not as simple as chugging apple juice every night either. That stuff is pretty potent and should be used with caution. I have been thinking about keeping it around myself but for the opposite reason. To BREAK a dry spell. I don't like tough tortillas.

I've been using a small bit of caffeine to become lucid the past week. While I realize that it's good to not rely on it too heavily, I also do not see anything wrong with it. It still requires a great deal of awareness to become lucid regardless of what you put in your body. It's still YOU that's doing it. All this other stuff are just aids just like any technique or mantra. Still, I appreciate playing it safe and see the wisdom in doing things naturally.

I love your approach to using supplements: use them sparingly for a different type of lucid experience, not JUST to have a lucid experience. And dry spells, pff so what. We all have them. Hell, mine can last 2 weeks, but like you put it, tough tortillas. Get over them naturally. And we all do with persistence, not supplements.

Thank you, my friend! You've perfectly distilled my thoughts on the whole issue. This is precisely what I was going for with my rules. If I do not allow myself to use galantamine to break a dry spell, then by definition I can never become dependent on it. This ensures that it stays something that (as you say) "widens the angle" of lucid dreaming, never something that I need for an LD.

Galantamine alone will not bring a lucid its merely an aid. But it's not as simple as chugging apple juice every night either. That stuff is pretty potent and should be used with caution. I have been thinking about keeping it around myself but for the opposite reason. To BREAK a dry spell. I don't like tough tortillas.

Ha! I hear you on that, and you could make the argument that my "rule" is too conservative. However, my primary LD practice is extremely important to me (my precioussssss), and this rule gives me assurances that I'll never wake up one day and realize that I only get lucid when I use galantamine. The galantamine is only in bounds when primary practice is on track, which lets me still use it as a tool while protecting what matters most to me (the LD fundamentals.)

If I'm getting it right, you were bitten by your sub-conscious. I really think that he doesn't want's you to use galantamine.

Thanks for reading and for the interpretation. Your interpretation is totally valid, and one that I strongly considered! In the end, I thought of it like this: my dogs represented my older patterns of behavior, the wolf represented this new approach, and the fight stood for my own conflicting emotions -- the whole "you've got a good thing going, why take this risk?" versus "you know this stuff backwards and forwards, you have a solid plan, so don't make your decisions based on nothing but fear." The bite I took as one final reminder to treat this whole subject with the utmost care, respect and rationality. Sort of like saying, "Never forget to take me seriously." (Right now, my subconscious is probably saying "OMG! Dude, I bit you. How dumb can you be?")

what is galantamine anyway?

Galantamine influences the level of acetylcholine (an important neurotransmitter) in the brain and nervous system. Generally speaking, somewhat higher levels of acetylcholine go hand in hand with greater cognitive abilities as well as more time in REM sleep. So that's acetylcholine. Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme that your body produces in order to break down acetylcholine. Galantamine temporarily inhibits the actions of acetylcholinesterase, allowing levels of acetylcholine to rise. If this is timed to correspond with REM sleep (such as after a WBTB), it tends to boost REM and also increase awareness levels. However, it has negative effects on deep sleep (a vital phase of sleep), and can cause desensitization of acetylcholine receptors if used incorrectly. These are the issues I made sure that I had a thorough grasp of before my first trial!

Outstanding discussion, everyone! I very much appreciate all of the thoughts on this.

Lucid Fragment
I had an interesting lucid fragment last night. Wife and I are visiting my parents in their house. The house is rocking back and forth like it's on a boat and I tell my parents that I really think they need to have their foundation inspected. They don't seem to understand what I'm talking about, and I realize that it's only my vision that's rocking back and forth. I can't keep my balance and I fall over on the floor. Even though I hate the idea of ever being in a hospital, I tell Wife to call an ambulance. "Oh, wait a second," I say, and push my finger through my palm, becoming lucid. I'm thrilled that a) I'm not suffering from some mysterious illness and b) I'm lucid, but I wake up or lose lucidity very quickly after this.

Tech: SSILD w/ half-assed 3-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 100mg B-complex, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~6.5 hours

Sleep, the Ultimate Lucid Aid
Looking back over my records, nothing has been a more consistent predictor of lucidity for me than how much sleep I've been getting. Going to bed sleepy but not exhausted and then getting plenty of sleep is by far the most important thing it seems that I can do to achieve lucidity. This helps with WBTB, dream quality, dream pleasantness... everything!

So this quick study of my own history confirmed what I already knew -- staying as rested as possible works.

Post Workout REM rebound?
I also observed a slight trend of having more vivid dreams on nights where I lift. I've got two theories what this might be down to. The first is that after a workout, I tend to eat a good bit of food, particularly carbohydrate-rich foods. This infusion of carbohydrates might do some nice things for the brain that enhances dream vividness. Higher levels of serotonin may also at play here, suppressing REM cycles early in the night and giving me some REM rebound in the morning hours. (Similar to the effect of something like 5-HTP.)

The second theory is that after a workout, I may have a greater need for deep sleep, and REM is slightly suppressed at night for that reason in favor of deep sleep. This could lead to REM rebound in the morning as well. I'll have to look into whether this is something the body tends to do.

Hey Canis, congrats in the lucids you've been getting lately! I noticed I haven't really commented on here :O

Those are some good theories about your REM rebound after working out! Maybe you can try changing the food you eat after your workout, to see if it makes any difference? Or i dunno, up to you! Let us know what you find out.

You do realize what your discovery means, right?

You are now eligible to say this:

"Oh you're not getting lucid?! Do you even lift, bruh?"

Hahahaha

Looking through this thread and all I can say is wow.

Lucid Dream #43
I had a completely frivolous, very enjoyable lucid last night where I was leaping around the railings of a mall and singing old novelty Christmas songs. I was pleased to have any kind of LD at all because some sort of minor cold-like symptoms were keeping me awake.

The Flying Mall Rat - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 25-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 100mg B-complex, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil, dark chocolate
Sleep: ~6.5 hours (some mild cold symptoms kept me from falling asleep as quickly as I'd like)

Obsessive Dream Behavior
At the end of this last lucid, someone in the final scene didn't look like they did in waking life. I just had to fix them so that they looked like their waking life counterpart. I frittered away the rest of the dream on this pointless task. I have no idea why this seemed so important, because in the light of day it seems like a complete waste of time. LOL.

I'll try to make sure I do everything that I can to maintain a "go with the flow" attitude at the start of lucidity. This should hopefully blunt any tendencies toward obsessing about silly things (such as this example) or fighting too hard against the natural flow of the dream (examples of which may be found all over my dream journal.)

General Lucid Aid Schedule
This is the general schedule for lucid aids that fits with my week. It keeps my total exposure to B-complex to 200mg per week and total exposure to galantamine to 4mg per week (in a single dose.)

Monday: B-complex
Tuesday: Apple juice
Wednesday: Galantamine (only if had at least one non-galantamine LD in past week)
Thursday: Apple juice
Friday: Popcorn
Saturday: B-complex
Sunday: Apple juice

Green Tea Lucid Dreams!
Talking with Xanous got me all psyched up to try green tea as a lucid aid (primarily for the caffeine, and secondarily for the L-Theanine.) It was a bit of a learn-as-you-go situation, but in the end I had two lucid dreams last night! I'm extremely happy with these results.

Thanks for the caffeine idea, Xanous!

Both dreams were DILDs, although I was on the doorstep of a WILD at one point. The same sound distortions that I remembered from my previous WILDs returned. Here are the Dream Journal entries:
Pool Care in the Temple of Zeus - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Crowbar Clint - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Here's how last night proceeded:
1. Fall asleep thinking about going through a portal or white door.
2. WBTB after 3 hours. This natural waking was a little early, so I probably would have passed it up in favor of a later one if I hadn't been so excited.
3. Stay awake for ~30 minutes. Drink 2 cups (16 fl. oz.) of green tea (est. 40mg caffeine.) Take 0.75mg of melatonin.
4. Perform 5 cycles of SSILD. Try to fall asleep ASAP. Fail after 30 minutes.
5. Realize I am hopelessly wired from the caffeine. Take additional 0.75mg melatonin, for a total of 1.5 mg.
6. 3 cycles SSILD, then sleep. (Although not immediately.)
7. Hit LD #1. Wake up, fail DEILD. Commit dream to memory. 3 cycles SSILD, back to sleep. Hit LD #2.

I will definitely be doing more work with WBTB green tea! I will try reducing the green tea to 12 oz. (about 30mg caffeine) and take 1.5mg melatonin. I'll stick with using caffeine no more than twice per week for now, limiting my weekly exposure to caffeine to about 60mg. (A little over half a cup of coffee.) This should prevent any tolerance from building up.

Phasing
I managed to phase through stone in the first LD last night, but the process did wake me up in the end. Still, I'm happy to at least be slowly eroding that particular schema. At first I just wound up tearing chunks of stone off of the surface I was trying to portal through, but in the end I did finally manage to actually get in there. I still need to work on actually ending up somewhere.

Refocus on Teleportation
Lately I've mostly just been having fun just exploring the environments the dreams put me in, so I didn't really do some of the teleportation practice that I'd planned. Distractions abound in LDs, so I won't get too upset if I keep forgetting, but I'll focus a bit more on remembering teleportation-related goals before bed and during WBTB.

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: 11

I am very jelly sir, GJ.