Flightless204's Workbook

[flightless204]

Hello! My username is flightless204 (duh!) and I've been practicing lucid dreaming for a few weeks now. I wanted to start a workbook to keep track of my progress and hopefully get some feedback and constructive criticism. I'm so excited for my first lucid! Sleep Schedule: On a regular school day I usually go to bed at 10 and wake up at quarter after 6. So on average I get 8 hours of sleep at night. Reality Checks: -Push two fingers through my palm -Plug my nose and try to breath -Mental/Reverse Reality Check (Where was I 5 minutes ago? Where am I now? What am I doing? Where will I be 5 minutes from now?) Dream Signs: I don't know many of my dream signs; my dreams seem kind of random, but here are a few I did notice... -Impaired physical ability: In dreams whenever I attempt some kind of physical activity, my body doesn't work like it does in waking life. For example, when I was little I had a recurring nightmare where I was running. But it felt like I was running through honey! I knew I could run faster, but whenever I tried, I would just fall over. In another more recent dream, I was trying to tumble. I am a cheerleader with level 5 tumbling skills, but in the dream I couldn't even do a round-off, a level 1 skill! (A round-off is a cartwheel where you 'snap' both your feet down at the same time) My arms kept sliding out in random directions and I had the same feeling of moving through a thick liquid. Short-Term Goals: -Remember to practice awareness and reality checks more often throughout the day -Have my first lucid dream -Remember to stabilize when I become lucid Long-Term Goals: -Meditate each night before bed -Be able to consistently have 4-5 lucid dreams per week -Have 20 LDs by January 1, 2016(Is this too small of a goal? Should I make the number larger or smaller?) -Create a persistent realm like Hyu describes -Complete a task of the year(maybe not this year, but it is something I would like to achieve eventually) Lucid/Dream Recall History: -Currently, I am usually able to recall 1-2 full dreams per night, plus fragments of 2-3 other dreams. -When I was younger, I used to have frequent nightmares, like every week or so. I used to, more often then not actually, realize that it was just that- a nightmare, and use this knowledge to wake myself up. Eventually the nightmares got more and more spaced out, until I stopped having them altogether. I haven't become lucid in a dream since then. Current Technique: -During the day I practice Puffin's SAT technique coupled with reality checks -At night I practice MILD while falling asleep Motivation to Lucid Dream: -Honestly, I really just want the thrill of being able to do things that are not possible in the waking world. Being able to try things I see in movies that aren't possible in real life! I don't know if this is a good reason, but it's my reason, and I'm sticking with it! Plus, I'm not going to completely ignore the other side of lucid dreaming either. Talking to my subconscious is also something that I'm very interested to try. I recently bought 'A Guide to the Inner Self' by Robert Waggoner, and would like to try some of the techniques in that book as well. What I Want to do In My First Lucid Dream: -I think it would be really cool to find a beach, by teleportation or other means and get a DC to teach me how to waterbend, like in Avatar: The Last Airbender! Anyway, this first post is quite long, so I guess I'll be done now! I'll post any results tomorrow. I can't wait to finally have a lucid dream!

[flightless204]

January 5 Yesterday my family went on an adventure around town and I think I did a pretty good job of keeping up my awareness. My recall isn't as good lately, and I was only able to recall 4 fragments this morning from different dreams. Also, I woke up at 2 this morning. I don't usually notice when I wake up during the night, but I woke up enough to write down a dream before going back to sleep. I guess that's all for yesterday, but I did notice another dream sign last night while thinking about my dreams, so I'll update my first post with that.

[flightless204]

January 7 I didn't post yesterday; I've been pretty busy with exams coming up. I'll have to make a schedule for doing these posts. Anyway, I didn't do very well with keeping up my awareness yesterday, and my recall has kind of been dropping. I woke up this morning at 5:30, unable to recall anything. I didn't have to get up until 6:20, so I went back to sleep. When I did, I had a dream that was a cross between Avatar and the Matrix. As I was running from some jockeys on horses, I realized I was dreaming and became lucid! I've had a couple semi-lucids, before, but nothing so clear! It quickly faded to black, however, and a new dream scene emerged, but I lost lucidity. I'll type it up in my dream journal later, when I have time, and link it here. Edit: Got it typed up! http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/flig...t-lucid-63364/

[CanisLucidus]

Hi flightless204, welcome to the Intro class! Your reasons for lucid dreaming sound excellent to me... having fun is a huge, important part of life, and I think it makes perfect sense for this to be your goal, particularly starting out. I've been LDing for a couple of years now, and it's still my main goal! Congratulations on that first lucid!! This is a huge deal! Don't worry about the short length. With practice, that'll all sort itself out. The dreams are yours and as you practice, you'll get used to keeping yourself in them. One simple trick is to interact with the dream environment a bit and marvel at its detail. Even rubbing your hands together is an easy way to bring yourself further into the dream and enhance it for you, really get you hooked into it. BTW a dream that's a cross between Avatar and the Matrix?? Sounds like you've got a great dream life going already! Keep up the great work! Looking forward to hearing about the many LDs you have ahead of you!

[flightless204]

Thanks Canis! I am a big thrill seeker and fantasy lover, (with a bit of sci-fi thrown in) so there's so much I want to try! I'm really excited to get good at this whole thing and have amazing adventures like the ones I've read about on here!

[flightless204]

January 8 Well, I've been getting better at practicing awareness! My recall has been dropping though, which is kind of worrying, haha. When I woke up this morning, I could recall only one fragment, but then I thought about something funny one of my friends did the other day which triggered some delayed recall of a full dream involving him, plus another fragment. Hopefully this means I'll have my recall back up soon!

[CanisLucidus]

Thanks Canis! I am a big thrill seeker and fantasy lover, (with a bit of sci-fi thrown in) so there's so much I want to try! I'm really excited to get good at this whole thing and have amazing adventures like the ones I've read about on here! Awesome, I'm really excited for you too! I don't know about you, but I always had this itch to truly experience the things that I imagined. I just never really thought I'd do it or that it was even possible. I felt about like you when I figured out that I really could do that! What a discovery lucid dreaming has been! January 8 Well, I've been getting better at practicing awareness! My recall has been dropping though, which is kind of worrying, haha. When I woke up this morning, I could recall only one fragment, but then I thought about something funny one of my friends did the other day which triggered some delayed recall of a full dream involving him, plus another fragment. Hopefully this means I'll have my recall back up soon! No sweat, just keep working at the recall! You're picking up good skills reaching back and pulling up nearly-lost fragments. Honestly, that's a huge part of getting good at recall is snagging those dreams that want to slip away from you, getting a grip on them, and reeling them back into your brain. Sometimes it's just going to be a fight, but you get better at hanging in there for it until the dream comes back to you. BTW, love the new LD count!

[flightless204]

January 9 Well, recall is definitely back up because I woke up at 5:30 again today and my brain was exploding with all the dreams coming rushing back! I actually got tired of writing them all down! Then I remembered two more after my alarm clock went off and woke me up again at 20 after 6. I accidentally fell back to sleep after I turned off my alarm clock (whoops) and had yet ANOTHER dream, which I can't remember all the details of, but I did hear the phone ring in my house, which woke me up enough to realize that I was dreaming, but not enough to actually remove me from the dream. I did my reality check, this time looking at the other side of my hand, so instead of seeing my fingers disappear, I saw them come out the other side. It was really cool! (BTW it will probably take like 100 tries before the novelty of even just doing this wears off!) But then the phone ringing woke me up for real and I realized it was 20 minutes later and I had to be out the door in a half hour Also, yes I have had that 'itch'! I guess that's why the idea of lucid dreaming appeals to me so much!

[flightless204]

January 10 So this morning I remember waking up and recalling a few dreams, but while I was lying in bed organizing them in my thoughts, I must have fallen asleep again. When I woke up again, I couldn't remember anything I had dreamt about, but oh well. I've been really tired lately, but that should sort itself out once I really get back into the rhythm of my schedule. Also, I've been finding that when I first wake up, I find it really easy to keep up my awareness, and I can hold it for an hour and a half or so. After that though, it gets harder throughout the day to concentrate on it. By the end of the day I constantly am realizing that I totally just spaced out for the last 10 minutes. Does this get easier with practice or do I need to be concentrating harder on it? Maybe both? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[CanisLucidus]

Awesome, flightless, congratulations on the lucidity! It's great that you're having fun with your "check out my hands" RC. I'm right with you... even after dozens and dozens of nose pinch RCs, the feeling still excites and invigorates me! It's that feeling of "That's impossible!... Yet here we are." I love it! Also, I've been finding that when I first wake up, I find it really easy to keep up my awareness, and I can hold it for an hour and a half or so. After that though, it gets harder throughout the day to concentrate on it. By the end of the day I constantly am realizing that I totally just spaced out for the last 10 minutes. Does this get easier with practice or do I need to be concentrating harder on it? Maybe both? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Sure, this is perfectly normal! My advice is to never worry about this too much or be hard on yourself about it. For a time I tried practicing "All Day Awareness", but I quickly realized that it was just too much for me. Spacing out for just 10 minutes just isn't a big deal at all! I recommend learning to enjoy the feeling of your awareness returning to you. As you lose awareness naturally throughout the day, simply take a moment to regain your lucidity and bring yourself back. This is exactly the process you'll go through in your DILDs, so it's a good thing. Welcome that transition back into lucidity and learn to really enjoy it! Whatever you do, never let it stress you out. Always associate your awareness with positive emotions and make the whole thing a happy experience. This is not only helpful for your lucid dreaming practices but IMO your overall state of mind. It also makes things much easier to stick with if they bring you joy rather than stress.

[flightless204]

January 13 Nothing much to report over the last few days, however last night I had quite a vivid dream that left me with a different kind of feeling than most of my dreams. I posted it in my DJ here: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/flig.../bridge-63488/ I was a little reluctant to post it because it seemed kind of personal, but I would just like to know what other people think; does it have a deeper meaning or am I just over analyzing it? Anyway, like I said in the journal entry, I'm certainly not going to dwell on it or worry about it, I just thought it'd be nice to get some other people's opinions.

[flightless204]

Welcome that transition back into lucidity and learn to really enjoy it! Thanks for the advice! I was putting a lot of pressure on myself because I thought I had to, but practicing awareness has been much more enjoyable for the past few days since I took a step back and relaxed a bit.

[CanisLucidus]

Thanks for the advice! I was putting a lot of pressure on myself because I thought I had to, but practicing awareness has been much more enjoyable for the past few days since I took a step back and relaxed a bit. That's wonderful... I'm so happy to hear it! When you're going through your lucid dreaming practice, always be good to yourself, and always have fun. We're all here to enjoy ourselves and explore. It's meant to be fun, and it's meant to feel good. If you let that guide you, I don't think you can go wrong. I'll check out your dream!

[flightless204]

January 19 Well, I wrote my first high school exam today! I've been kept quite busy studying, so I haven't posted in a while. I didn't feel like there was much to report, although there was a dream where there were a couple of cues that should have made me realize I was dreaming. First of all, I was happily running from zombies, but it was one of those dreams where I couldn't run fast enough (though they never seem to catch up), then my friends and I went to a hotel to hide from the zombies, and the guy at the desk said 'welcome to my lucid dreaming abode' or something weird like that, but I never did catch on. Oh well, I'm getting better at practicing awareness every day, and my dreams are becoming more vivid, so I'm positive that another lucid dream is on it's way soon!

[flightless204]

January 20 Last night I had another one of those dreams where dreaming is mentioned, but I never become lucid. I was telling someone how he could be in my dream. I was telling him that he can't control the dream because dream control relies on expectation, but the dream is in my brain, and my brain can't get inside his thoughts and tell what he is thinking. I guess it makes sense if you ignore the fact that a 'real' person can't be inside my dream, just dream characters!

[CanisLucidus]

January 20 Last night I had another one of those dreams where dreaming is mentioned, but I never become lucid. I was telling someone how he could be in my dream. I was telling him that he can't control the dream because dream control relies on expectation, but the dream is in my brain, and my brain can't get inside his thoughts and tell what he is thinking. I guess it makes sense if you ignore the fact that a 'real' person can't be inside my dream, just dream characters! Nice! This kind of dream is the next best thing to having a full-on lucid. The more that the subject matter of dreaming crops up in your dreams, the closer you are IMO to having that spark of critical thinking ignite full lucidity. Not only that, but the depth of the conversation itself seemed to indicate that not only were you thinking about dreaming, but actually considering dream mechanics in depth. That's very cool! I'm excited to see where this leads next.

[flightless204]

January 24 So I've been really tired recently, and I find personally it gets harder for me to practice awareness when I'm tired like this. Thankfully exams are over and I get a few days off school to sleep in! I did get a few good sessions in today, when I was able to really concentrate on it, like when I took my dog for a walk. Actually, when I was on my walk today I was going through the park, and I looked over and thought: 'Hey, that's where I was standing in my lucid dream!' I haven't been through there since that dream, so I went over and just kind of stood there for a few seconds imagining I was back in the dream. It was pretty fun! Anyway, I'm going to bed early(er) tonight to hopefully catch up on some sleep.

[flightless204]

January 25 Another semi-lucid this morning! I call it that because I knew I was dreaming on some level, however I never really took control of my own thoughts and actions, and my dreaming mind kind of just took over. I woke up at 4:07, sitting up in bed. (Literally when I woke up, I was sitting with my legs crossed on the bed, facing my clock. This has never happened before and it was pretty weird.) I realized what time it was and went back to sleep. Sometime after I went back to sleep, I ended up half waking up, but I managed to stay still, and tried to hold onto the dream I was having. Somehow it worked, and my awareness got pushed back inside of the dream! I'm quite surprised that it did, actually, because I've never been able to do this before. I think it could possibly be classified as a DEILD? Anyway, upon re-entering the dream, I wasn't lucid, but then I got dropped into the park, (again lol) and realized I was dreaming. I believe I was fully lucid at this point. I walked around, marveling again at how real everything was. However, I wasn't really trying to engage all my senses, and I forgot to remind myself that I was dreaming, so I lost my full lucidity. What was kind of funny though, was through the whole second half of the dream (which was extremely long btw) I kept thinking: 'Oh it's 9 or 10 o'clock, I should probably get up now, but if I do, the dream will be gone.' When I did wake up it was 10 after 7.

[flightless204]

January 27 I've kind of been slacking off on dream journaling lately, but this morning I told myself I was gonna write down everything I could remember, and I actually got a decent amount! I usually do better at dream journaling on weekdays anyway, and use the weekends to sleep in and get more dreaming time, so the long weekend hasn't helped!

[flightless204]

January 31 Last night I remembered three really interesting dreams. In the first one, I was being kept prisoner in a cell that was filled with flesh-eating liquid up to my knees. In the second one, I was climbing down a ladder from a really high bridge, with some weird symbols on it, and the clouds were moving really fast. (This kind of freaked me out because I have this weird fear of clouds. And google earth lol) And in the last dream, I was at a cheerleading competition. I thought I forgot my uniform, but it turns out it was in my bag the whole time. This seems to be another dream sign of mine. I end up somewhere without any of the stuff I need. There were some girls around me wearing the wrong uniform, and some girls from my school were apparently on the team too. I found this odd, but didn't become lucid. I have been getting better at reality checking though. The other day my science teacher said we were going to bend water, and even though I pretty much knew I was awake, I got a little excited for a second

[CanisLucidus]

Sometime after I went back to sleep, I ended up half waking up, but I managed to stay still, and tried to hold onto the dream I was having. Somehow it worked, and my awareness got pushed back inside of the dream! I'm quite surprised that it did, actually, because I've never been able to do this before. I think it could possibly be classified as a DEILD? Anyway, upon re-entering the dream, I wasn't lucid, but then I got dropped into the park, (again lol) and realized I was dreaming. I believe I was fully lucid at this point. I walked around, marveling again at how real everything was. Nice job, flightless! If I understood you right, it sounds like you re-entered the dream with your awareness intact but that it evaporated quickly. But then after being in the dream for just a bit, you regained your lucidity? Kind of like a DEILD-to-DILD type of thing, more or less? That's probably more common than you think! I've had situations like that where I'll be attempting to WILD but awareness will slip just a bit during transition, but then I'm more prone to regaining it quickly because my intent was so firmly in mind. Anyway, it's all pretty academic; lucid is lucid, so congratulations! You guys waterbend at your school? Sounds awesome!

[flightless204]

February 4 So, over the past few days I've been experimenting a little bit. I was reading through my dream journal and noticing it looked a little bare over the past few days. I felt a lot closer to getting lucid when my dream recall was really high, so on Saturday night, instead of repeating: 'I will have a lucid dream tonight' as I fell asleep, I thought, 'I will remember my dreams.' I woke up at 4:20am, and was able to remember two dreams. I wrote them down, and then told myself to remember my dreams as I fell asleep again. When I woke up only 2 hours later, I remembered three more dreams! I did this again Sunday night and Monday night, and strangely, the same thing happened every night. I woke up around 4am every time, able to remember 2 dreams, went back to sleep, repeating to myself that I would remember my dreams, and then in the morning I remembered a whole bunch more! Tuesday night went a little differently. When I woke up at 4 I wrote down what I could remember, but when I went back to sleep, I wasn't thinking about recalling my dreams, and when I woke up again this morning, I only got a few images, not even fragments. It seems like my dream recall is directly influenced by how much I focus on it while falling asleep. Anyway, now that I know I can recall my dreams well (as long as I focus on it) my next goal will be to increase my awareness in my dreams. To do this, I have created a little challenge for myself. For the next 5 or 7 days (depending on how well things go) I'm going to take one dream fragment and describe it in as much detail as I can, and post it on here. Maybe by the end of the week I'll have another lucid dream!

[flightless204]

February 5 Alright, let's do this. I'll underline dream signs like I do in my dream journal. In the dream, a new ultra reality video game has just come out. I think it revolved around dragons. I'm staring at my dad's phone screen. The phone is as bit bigger than usual. It's more like a tablet, actually. On the screen are two red dragons with purple wings. The picture is so clear, it's almost surreal. I can practically see the individual pixels. There are ear buds in my ears. Even though no sounds are currently coming from them, my heart is thumping a little louder than usual and I have a nervous kind of feeling. This first one was kind of short, but I'm sure as the week progresses I'll get better at this. Just to explain the nervousness, I had a couple of traumatic experiences as a kid where the TV or the computer in my house would get turned up really loud and blast my ears. For a few years after that I was always really nervous around things like radios or TV's, basically any kind of things that made noise, especially ear buds because it sounds like the noises are coming from inside your head. I got over this a few years ago, but I still get dreams every once in a while where I'll get really freaked out over loud noises. (Wow just reading through my last few entries I realized I have quite a few strange fears )

[flightless204]

February 12 So yeah, of course as soon as I say I'm going to post my dreams on here, my recall drops to zero! However this morning I got a bit more than usual, so that's a good sign. After I woke up at 6:10, I went back to sleep accidentally, and somehow ended up in a lucid dream! I don't remember how I became lucid, and it was only semi-lucid. It certainly was a lot clearer than my other semi-lucid dreams, I just didn't feel like I was fully mentally *there*. It was still pretty fun though! Anyways, onto the dream... Day 2: I am standing by a river. On my side is a city with walkways made of grey stone. On the other side are lots of big trees. With me are two dream characters, a man I don't know, and a woman named Charlene. Black and white tiny birds circle above. I want to fly with them! Charlene, who seems fairly knowledgeable tries to help me in my attempt. I imagine myself getting lighter and lighter and lifting off the ground, a technique I have tried before in other semi lucid dreams. I begin to feel weightless, and it makes me think of being on a roller coaster as you plummet quickly towards the ground. I get up onto my tiptoes, but I can't get any higher. I try stretching up but nothing works. I give up and turn around to face the lake, and the birds fly out over the dark water. It is almost black, but I'm not put off by it. I take off running and push off the edge. I mean to fly off with the birds, and while I get a little higher than I usually would out of a jump, the next thing I know I'm submerged in the cold water of the lake. I kick with my arms legs until I'm above the water again, and swim back over to where Charlene is standing.

[NyxCC]

How are your recall experiments coming along , flightless? I think a little self challenge like this can be very useful.