CanisLucidus' Workbook

Let's get this workbook started.

Reality Checks:
-Nose pinch (primary, when hands feel clean)
-Finger through palm (when hand cleanliness feels questionable, such as post-doorknob touch)
-"What was I just doing?"
-"What is causing me to feel this sense of <insert negative emotion here>?"

Dream Signs:
-Riding any kind of bus
-Feeling strong emotions about trivial things
-Seeing friends and loved ones at different ages than they are in reality
-Being in a university setting
-Being in a bar
-Computers that have unbelievable capabilities and act of their own accord
-Riding in a car with someone who is driving extremely recklessly (generally hitting other cars)
-Exploring ruins or lost civilizations

Short-Term Goals:
-Increase average lucidity length (currently around 4 minutes and falling!)
-Eliminate tendency to wake myself up because I "get stuck" for various reasons in the first 1-2 minutes. Escape attempts often lead to early awakenings.
-Maintain and gently increase lucidity frequency.
-Further stabilize my flight.
-Keep having fun!
-Edit: I have a list of ~97 things I would like to try in a dream. I'll continue to work through (and add to) that list.

Long-Term Goals:
-Lucid dream with very high frequency. Ultimate goal would be virtually every night or even at will.
-Build creative works and concepts (particularly related to video games) in the lucid state.

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
-9 lucid dreams, 8 of which are from the past 6 weeks
-Dream recall averages 4 per night. All-time maximum is 6. Get zero recall about once per week.

Current Technique(s):
-Lucid living in daytime
-SSILD in the early morning when I have a natural early waking
-The combination of the above leads to DILDs

Here I'll begin my lesson I homework assignment.

Times that I go to bed and wake up
Bed time: ~11:20 pm
Wake up: 6:20 am

Why I want to lucid dream
-It's ridiculously entertaining
-I love trying things that I could never do in real life
-I feel amazing when I wake up from a lucid dream. This feeling lasts throughout the day (and sometimes beyond.)
-I love exploring the mind's potential
-I want to further tap into my own unfiltered creativity

Next lucid dream
-Last at least 5 minutes
-More flight
-Compete in the Olympics

I will continue following my nighttime routine of reading my journal before bed. I will continue maintaining my dream journal (which is thus far in a notebook beside my bed.)

Edit: I've also begun a dream journal here. I'll definitely post all lucids (including past lucids since my count is still so modest.) I will try to record non-lucids going forward, although I'm quite attached to my pen and paper.

Hey! Nice looking workbook. Welcome to the class, and great work on your lucids so far, seems like you got a good technique going already. Were you able to listen to the podcast(s)? I notice you mentioned the olympics. ;)

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Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

-I feel amazing when I wake up from a lucid dream. This feeling lasts throughout the day (and sometimes beyond.)

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I know that's right! I always feel a little invincible for the day after a particularly good LD.

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Hey! Nice looking workbook. Welcome to the class, and great work on your lucids so far, seems like you got a good technique going already. Were you able to listen to the podcast(s)? I notice you mentioned the olympics. ;)

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Hey, thanks very much! I've been very pleased with my frequency lately, but I take nothing for granted. My spazzy dream control, on the other hand, could use a real tune-up!

I've listened to podcast #1 and the others are in my near (commuting) future. Nice job, by the way -- you seem completely comfortable on the "radio"! For most first-time podcasters it's a lot of "erms" and "uhhhs" and awkward sweating. :)

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

I know that's right! I always feel a little invincible for the day after a particularly good LD.

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I'm still trying to figure out exactly why I think this happens, but after the best of the best LDs, I've felt frosty, happy, and completely unflappable for 2-3 days. It makes me wonder what life is like for these super- mega- ultra-frequent dreaming types!

Glad you enjoyed the podcast. We're doing one live tomorrow night if you want to tune in.

So what's an example of a lucid dream that has this "spazzy" dream control.

God that "happy" feeling is something that I crave when I go without lucidity for a while, it's like a drug.

Not sure if you've ever had the experience of such a vivid lucid dream that when you wake you're almost in tears of joy, but it's definitely a great motivator to continue practicing lucid dreaming! Make sure you hold onto those feelings.

And thanks for your comments on the podcast! It's always nice to get feedback like that :D

Lucid dream #10 last night! Very good one too, certainly my longest. (I'd say 20 minutes.) If this keeps up, I may have to just stay enrolled in this intro class forever. :)

I've dream journaled it, if anyone's interested. And can I do the banana dance? Can I? Let's go ahead with that. :banana:

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

So what's an example of a lucid dream that has this "spazzy" dream control.

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My most puzzling dream control issue was in LD #9 (Sunny Day 'Sleep Paralysis'). I wound up in sleep paralysis in dream and didn't really know what to do. An in-dream OBE exit started to work but woke me up. I also suffered from some pseudo-claustrophobia issues in one past LD but after last night's LD (where I crawled up the vent of a cast iron stove), I guess I'm getting over them!

Flight control in dreams #3 and #4 was hilariously bad. Woe betide any trees or DCs that got in my way as I go crashing through the dream scene trying to fly. Better in #6 but I'm still kind of an out-of-control menace in the air!

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Originally Posted by RareCola

Not sure if you've ever had the experience of such a vivid lucid dream that when you wake you're almost in tears of joy, but it's definitely a great motivator to continue practicing lucid dreaming! Make sure you hold onto those feelings.

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You are right! I tell you, it is amazing. I've never gotten to the tears of joy point but I could completely see that happening with the right dream. (In a manly way, of course!) :)

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Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

My most puzzling dream control issue was in LD #9 (Sunny Day 'Sleep Paralysis'). I wound up in sleep paralysis in dream and didn't really know what to do. An in-dream OBE exit started to work but woke me up. I also suffered from some pseudo-claustrophobia issues in one past LD but after last night's LD (where I crawled up the vent of a cast iron stove), I guess I'm getting over them!

Flight control in dreams #3 and #4 was hilariously bad. Woe betide any trees or DCs that got in my way as I go crashing through the dream scene trying to fly. Better in #6 but I'm still kind of an out-of-control menace in the air!

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Haha you sound like me when I was first starting to fly in my lucid dreams. I couldn't control it well at all, I would drift around the air, smash into buildings and generally flail around like a fish out of water. I seemed to become better at it when I stopped thinking about it so much though.

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You are right! I tell you, it is amazing. I've never gotten to the tears of joy point but I could completely see that happening with the right dream. (In a manly way, of course!) :)

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Oh yes, definitely in the most manly way possible :D Haha

My sleeping habits weren't up to snuff over the weekend. Stormy weather, two toddlers, and two doggies (one neurotic), isn't a fantastic recipe for an easy night's sleep. And on every waking, I found myself so groggy that I simply fell asleep in the middle of trying to perform my SSILD cycles. This was even after being awake for up to 15 minutes. That's obvious sleep deprivation (and lucid dreaming Kryptonite!)

I was lucky enough to still have decent dream recall, in spite of this. Fortunately, last night Wife sleep-slapped me on the arm at 4 am and I managed to get 5 dreams of varying quality written down.

What went well the past few days:
-Dream recall
-Awareness

What didn't go so well:
-Sleep quantity
-Sleep quality (interruptions)
-Failed to complete SSILD reps :embarrassed:

I've settled on doing all dreams in my paper journal and in addition transferring all lucid dreams to my online DV journal. With the dream journal strategy all set up, I think that I've completed all of the homework for Lesson I.

Moving on to Lesson II, the big task will be selecting a technique. I'm continuing to enjoy SSILD and I think that I will attempt to add DEILD as a great complement. (Got this idea from podcast 2.)

Goals this week:
-Get >7 hours of sleep every night this week
-Continue executing SSILD as primary tech
-Study and incorporate DEILD, and continue with Lesson II
-Hopefully, have LDs out the wazoo :)

I think it's always important to remember, that above all, you need a good night's sleep. Sometimes I purposely avoid a WBTB or a WILD attempt just to make sure I catch up on sleep, because when you're exhausted or your sleep is constantly disturbed there's no way you're going to become lucid anyway. It's all about choosing your moments.

It's awesome that you're listing what went well and what didn't. Great way to keep improving! Keep it up, you're definitely on the right tracks :D

A good night of dreaming and many successes last night!

First: Lucid dream #11! (Two chained together, no less!)

Also: First DEILD!

I avoided all of the usual nighttime distractions and got to bed early last night. I had an NLD where I talked to my grandfather for a while. I lost him many years ago so this was one I really enjoyed. I attempted to chain back into it to visit with him while lucid. Unfortunately, an overfull bladder dragged me back into waking life. :(

I later hit a lucid dream using SSILD. When it ended, I chained back into it via DEILD. This felt almost effortless. Very effective technique, it seems, for those lucids where you're yanked out before you're ready and still have that "groggy" feeling.

The downside was that my recall of the first LD segment took a hit but I still consider this a complete success. I still had four dreams recalled last night, and that's counting the two LD segments as a single LD. This has left me feeling very good about DEILD!

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Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

A good night of dreaming and many successes last night!

First: Lucid dream #11! (Two chained together, no less!)

Also: First DEILD!

I avoided all of the usual nighttime distractions and got to bed early last night. I had an NLD where I talked to my grandfather for a while. I lost him many years ago so this was one I really enjoyed. I attempted to chain back into it to visit with him while lucid. Unfortunately, an overfull bladder dragged me back into waking life. :(

I later hit a lucid dream using SSILD. When it ended, I chained back into it via DEILD. This felt almost effortless. Very effective technique, it seems, for those lucids where you're yanked out before you're ready and still have that "groggy" feeling.

The downside was that my recall of the first LD segment took a hit but I still consider this a complete success. I still had four dreams recalled last night, and that's counting the two LD segments as a single LD. This has left me feeling very good about DEILD!

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That's great. DEILD is very very easy to achieve coming out of a lucid dream, glad another person discovered this! Try to remember how that DEILD felt, it'll be invaluable in constructing more of them, particularly when waking from a NLD also.

Well done man! Unfortunately, a drawback to DEILD can sometimes be having a harder time recalling the earlier links in the chain. There are different things you can do to help remember them. I play this little "keyword" game that helps alot.

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Well done man! Unfortunately, a drawback to DEILD can sometimes be having a harder time recalling the earlier links in the chain. There are different things you can do to help remember them. I play this little "keyword" game that helps alot.

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Thanks!!

I'd love to hear more about the keyword approach that you use for your DEILDs. My memory is a little hit or miss so I'm a big fan of mnemonic devices IWL, particularly the "Memory Palace" technique. (That one involves using your imagination to construct a building filled with mnemonic triggers that enable you to remember lists, difficult words, pi, or whatever you like.) I worried, though, that I'd wind up in my memory palace if I tried to build it in-dream. :) If you've already found an approach that works I can probably skip a lot of trial and error.

It's nothing all that new or complicated, and not necessarily 100% effective. But it has helped me from forgetting entire dreams in a lucid chain, or even a nonlucid chain of dreams, as long as you wake up in between each one. Instead of waking yourself up too much by writing down something in a journal, I just remember a key word from each dream, and memorize it when I wake up in between each dream. Like if the first one was near the ocean, then the second one was about a hot blonde chick, then the 3rd was about puppies, then your key words are "Ocean, blonde chick, puppies." So all you have to do to spark the memory of each dream, is to remember each key word, and it helps if you link the words together to form a picture, ie: A blonde chick holding puppies by the ocean. Something like that. And you make yourself reinforce the keywords into your memory in between each dream so that you remember them when you wake up for good that morning. It has worked for me alot in the past. Including when I had to cram for tests in college :P

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

It's nothing all that new or complicated, and not necessarily 100% effective. But it has helped me from forgetting entire dreams in a lucid chain, or even a nonlucid chain of dreams, as long as you wake up in between each one. Instead of waking yourself up too much by writing down something in a journal, I just remember a key word from each dream, and memorize it when I wake up in between each dream. Like if the first one was near the ocean, then the second one was about a hot blonde chick, then the 3rd was about puppies, then your key words are "Ocean, blonde chick, puppies." So all you have to do to spark the memory of each dream, is to remember each key word, and it helps if you link the words together to form a picture, ie: A blonde chick holding puppies by the ocean. Something like that. And you make yourself reinforce the keywords into your memory in between each dream so that you remember them when you wake up for good that morning. It has worked for me alot in the past. Including when I had to cram for tests in college :P

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Great, this should work beautifully for me. It's very similar to the techniques that I use IWL. I imagine that any time spent practicing this while awake will pay off when (half-)asleep.

Of course, at my current level of experience I'm likely to try this between dreams and turn myself into a lucid blonde chick holding puppies by the ocean. :)

Well, last night was not my best work! I managed my first night of zero dream recall in several days. These are always a bummer because good NLDs serve as a nice consolation prize for the nights where I don't have a lucid dream.

I'm dealing with a couple minor headwinds: my strength training has felt a little more physically demanding than usual, I've been unable to rouse myself at my usual waking times, and our youngest has taken to emitting one lone, piercing shriek over the baby monitor in the middle of the night. I wind up sort of waking straight into a fight-or-flight response! :shock:

As far as obstacles go, though, these are pretty minor. I should be able to get this fixed relatively quickly.

What needs to start happening again:
-Get out of bed during my 3:30-4 AM window.
-Dream recall returns to normal, w/ minimum of 3 dreams.
-Wake up from dreams and remember them well enough to initiate DEILD.

How I'll do it:
-Keep a waking journal, which I'll update in the evening. (This idea was presented as an aid for dream recall in this thread and I think it really has merit). Side benefit: good opportunity to review the day and write down cute stuff the kids did. :)
-Set bed time intention to remember and wake up after every dream.
-Refocus on lucid living practices, which slipped slightly past two days.
-Stop wussing out when I look at the clock and it's 3:30-4 AM. RC, get out of bed, etc.

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Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

good NLDs serve as a nice consolation prize for the nights where I don't have a lucid dream.

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well said!

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I'm dealing with a couple minor headwinds: my strength training has felt a little more physically demanding than usual, I've been unable to rouse myself at my usual waking times, and our youngest has taken to emitting one lone, piercing shriek over the baby monitor in the middle of the night. I wind up sort of waking straight into a fight-or-flight response! :shock:

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Wow, yeah I don't miss those days. Chris used to get me up 6 times a night for feedings. I would get my lucids in during an afternoon nap, where he'd sleep 2-3 hours straight. Don't know if you have that luxury or not.

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What needs to start happening again:
-Get out of bed during my 3:30-4 AM window.
-Dream recall returns to normal, w/ minimum of 3 dreams.
-Wake up from dreams and remember them well enough to initiate DEILD.

How I'll do it:
-Keep a waking journal, which I'll update in the evening. (This idea was presented as an aid for dream recall in this thread and I think it really has merit). Side benefit: good opportunity to review the day and write down cute stuff the kids did. :)
-Set bed time intention to remember and wake up after every dream.
-Refocus on lucid living practices, which slipped slightly past two days.
-Stop wussing out when I look at the clock and it's 3:30-4 AM. RC, get out of bed, etc.

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Sounds like a good plan to me. I like how solution oriented you are. Alot of people hit a snag, then get frustrated or feel sorry for themselves, or WORSE, give up altogether over things that are easily fixable. I fully expect some pretty damn successful lucid stuff from you man. You're setting a great example for the other students as well, much appreciated.

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Wow, yeah I don't miss those days. Chris used to get me up 6 times a night for feedings. I would get my lucids in during an afternoon nap, where he'd sleep 2-3 hours straight. Don't know if you have that luxury or not.

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So cool. I love that you kept up with the LDs in spite of the fact that you were getting barely any sleep at all. By comparison, my family's on easy street now! The littlest one's 13 months so we (theoretically) get the whole night of sleep. He's sometimes got one good, banshee shriek in him that makes my blood run cold. But it's just so much easier than those first few months of staggering around, day and night swirled together...

I can still remember how that felt. I once woke up when the baby was crying and started desperately searching for him in a pair of discarded jeans on the floor. I thought he would be in one of the pockets. There's tired and then there's tired.

Anyway, naps! For reasons unknown, I rarely have detectable dreams during naps but it just doesn't matter -- I love 'em! We can only do these on the weekend and only when the stars align but they are blessed things. I'm sure they'll net me an LD one of these days.

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Sounds like a good plan to me. I like how solution oriented you are. Alot of people hit a snag, then get frustrated or feel sorry for themselves, or WORSE, give up altogether over things that are easily fixable. I fully expect some pretty damn successful lucid stuff from you man. You're setting a great example for the other students as well, much appreciated.

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Hey, thanks! I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. The support and sense of community I've found here has been like rocket fuel for my LDing.

I hear you on the trap of the easily fixable problem. You know, I think LDing itself shows us that we usually have much more power and freedom than we think. The first time that you pull off something in a dream that you previously thought "impossible", you see the world a bit differently. You can't help but wonder whether some of those "mountains" we worry about in waking life are just molehills with a big pile of illusory limitations stacked up around them.

Lucid dream #12 last night! :) Short but interesting. I remembered my intent for the dream incorrectly and convinced myself that I meant to whistle music from waking life! The DC version of my wife was treated to whistle versions of "Ashokan Farewell" and "The First Noël" Truly, nobody rocks out like I, CanisLucidus, rock out. :rockon: This is my Dream Journal entry for #12.

What's gone well:
-Dream recall has stayed steady at 3-6 per night
-Stuck with waking journal and related plans
-Lucid dream w/ a couple of dream goals achieved
-Continuing Lesson #2 homework and sticking with my current techs

What needs work:
-Sleep has dipped below 7 hours several nights recently. Better bring that up.

Dream goals accomplished:
-Perform a piece of music from waking life
-Whistle

Congrats! Wow so many students are having lucids lately. Awesome! :D

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Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Congrats! Wow so many students are having lucids lately. Awesome! :D

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I know! It's great isn't it? A lot of the students have really been killing it. My lucid #10 was my longest ever! There's just something about this place. :)

Getting good guidance, getting to share this stuff, get excited about it... those things are a big, big help.

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Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

I know! It's great isn't it? A lot of the students have really been killing it. My lucid #10 was my longest ever! There's just something about this place. :)

Getting good guidance, getting to share this stuff, get excited about it... those things are a big, big help.

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This is so true, I come back from a long killer weekend at work, and students are having lucids all over the place. We have a great DVA team with lots of support, so I predict that this will continue. And you're doing a fantastic job keeping up with your stuff, CanisLucidus, rock on!

I managed two more lucid dreams over the long weekend! We were out of town and getting a bit more sleep which I think really helped.

The two lucids:
Lucid #13 (first false awakening outside of home)
Lucid #14 (prediction of next child's gender??) :shock:

In LD #13, I ran into some trouble extricating myself from a dark room. Fumbling for light switches made some semi-interesting things happen but it didn't get me my freedom. I think that my primary tactic in the future will be going for doors as quickly as possible. We'll see how that plays out in the future.

I'm surprised that DEILD hasn't worked better for me after the initial success. I've found myself too excited when trying to chain from another lucid and I don't fall back asleep quickly enough. When I try to chain from a non-lucid, dream recall takes a bit too long and I have tended to slip "out of the zone". Calming down and simply sticking with it will probably go a long way here.

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Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

I'm surprised that DEILD hasn't worked better for me after the initial success. I've found myself too excited when trying to chain from another lucid and I don't fall back asleep quickly enough. When I try to chain from a non-lucid, dream recall takes a bit too long and I have tended to slip "out of the zone". Calming down and simply sticking with it will probably go a long way here.

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I feel the same way. When I chain two lucids together, it seems to be much easier than when I chain a nonlucid with a lucid. I think it's probably because of the awareness you have from the previous one, so you are more "yourself" or something when you get to the second one. Also, when I chain them, I try not to think too hard aout entering the dream, because when I do, I start waking up for real. What do you think?


And congrats on the lucids! :happyme: