Squilli0's Workbook

Reality Checks:
- Counting Fingers and checking hands for vague anatomy/deformities.
- Plugging my nose and breathing through it.
- Jumping.
- Attempting to fall through a wall.
- Reading a sign or a clock (If available).

Dream Signs:

- High places (eg; Floating citadels in the sky)
- School

Short-Term Goals:
- Being able to LD consistently.
- Do a WILD
- Have a fully conscious dream where I am conscious enough to shape the dream.

Long-Term Goals:
- Explore ways of bending dreams to my will (Portals, flying, shapeshifting, making a giant stone cart fall on top of a cabbage stall, bending elements, etc)
- Complete a task of the month


Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- When I was a very small child I had a recurring nightmare for about a week, and since it was happening consistently I soon realized it was a dream and confronted it. Since then I have every once in a while attained lucidity but I always wake up since I did not know stabilization techniques back then. I have always had a fairly above average recall, but I often don't hang on to it long enough after waking up to commit it to memory or write it down. Often my memory would be triggered by a sight, sound, thought, smell or some other sense that reminds me of my dream. When I write down my dream though, I most often remember it for the next few days.

Current Technique:
- Mostly DILD/DEILD but it would be nice to learn how to WILD later on.

Welcome to the class! I like your Lucid/Dream Recall History. I don't know if very many people have spontaneous lucids but that really cool you did! I like your goals too. If you're serious about WILDs I highly recommend giving Sageous' class a read.

Thanks Xanous :D I feel as if for a (mostly) first time LD'er I should focus my attention on DEILD/DILD until I have the correct habits like regular Reality Checks and awareness, but once I feel I am read to commit a proper amount of time to WILD'ing, I am sure I will take that path at some stage. The experience when I was a small child I think was not so much confronting it spontaneously (I meant confronting as a figure of speech), but realizing that it didn't have to take up space in my head.

Welcome, Squilli0 :banana:

That's good to hear, that you are willing to take your time and commit to the basics for now. I think that is very important, and many people miss it because they're in such a hurry to try out something else, even though they're not ready yet or not yet in the proper mindset. But I agree with Xanous, when you get to that level where you want to pursue WILDing, definitely check out Sageous' class before reading anything else. :)

Good luck, and i look forward to reading your progress!

Very good. Paigey is right WILD can be frustrating if you don't have the basics down. I thought of mentioning that but I didn't want to suggest any limitations on you. Just go for it when you feel ready.

WORKBOOK UPDATE: WILD's And Dryspells 1/10/12

Last night I attempted a WILD with varying success. I think I succeeded in that I willed myself into waking up at an appropriate time for WILD'ing, but I believe I failed in that I didn't get up to sleep paralysis. I relaxed my muscles, and I sort went into a trance-like state which I've never really experienced. It wasn't like being extremely drowsy, It felt like I wasn't really thinking any thoughts and that I had my weight was being spread in different directions, like melting into the bed. Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't relaxed enough (I was itchy :( ) so I didn't experience full SP or HI/HH. At some point I decided to try it from a new tack, and that was basically falling asleep and hoping for the best.

I didn't have a lucid unfortunately, and I cant remember the dream, which leads me on to the other subject of this workbook update. For the past few nights, I have not remembered a second of my dreams. The dream from the night before last however, I can remember one facet, being on an aeroplane. I feel as if this would hamper my progress as a lucid dreamer considering I still need to work on my recall and dream recognition. Do any of you have a suggestion for improving recall? Maybe I've just been having Layer 0 dreams. In any case, I'm hesitant to try any sort of Vitamin B supplement, because as far as I know I have a healthy amount of Vitamin B in my diet and it's one of those vitamins you can overdose on (I think).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

WORKBOOK UPDATE: WILD's And Dryspells 1/10/12

Last night I attempted a WILD with varying success. I think I succeeded in that I willed myself into waking up at an appropriate time for WILD'ing, but I believe I failed in that I didn't get up to sleep paralysis. I relaxed my muscles, and I sort went into a trance-like state which I've never really experienced. It wasn't like being extremely drowsy, It felt like I wasn't really thinking any thoughts and that I had my weight was being spread in different directions, like melting into the bed. Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't relaxed enough (I was itchy :( ) so I didn't experience full SP or HI/HH. At some point I decided to try it from a new tack, and that was basically falling asleep and hoping for the best.

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I think the more you try WILDs the more you will get a feel for it and understand whats going on. Everyone is different but remember SP is just noise and is not a necessary or required thing and should not be given too much importance. However, I almost always enter SP when I WILD so I think you can passively note it as progress during your WILD. (Sageous might disagree with that one)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

I didn't have a lucid unfortunately, and I cant remember the dream, which leads me on to the other subject of this workbook update. For the past few nights, I have not remembered a second of my dreams. The dream from the night before last however, I can remember one facet, being on an aeroplane. I feel as if this would hamper my progress as a lucid dreamer considering I still need to work on my recall and dream recognition. Do any of you have a suggestion for improving recall? Maybe I've just been having Layer 0 dreams. In any case, I'm hesitant to try any sort of Vitamin B supplement, because as far as I know I have a healthy amount of Vitamin B in my diet and it's one of those vitamins you can overdose on (I think).

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I know I tell everyone this, and it may only work for a few, but have you tried a waking journal? I think it helps to record as much of the days events as possible in the evening as it helps boost memory and trains your mind to sort of record and store events as they happen.

Supplements can help but I don't put too much stock into them. I think the B6 would be OK just don't go overboard. I usually take it anyway among over vitamins. I did have a phase not too long ago when I would gobble just about anything that might have produced a lucid. I can't say any of it really worked but maybe that's just me.

Hope that helps. :D

Thanks Xanous, it helps a lot! I'll try again to WILD tonight using all the mentioned techniques. My schedule for these holidays is basically do useless sh*t all day, but I'll try waking journalling for a couple of days. Last night I was using this WILD tutorial. Can someone please tell me if its contents are credible and would work? (Just remove the asterixes, I've only been a member a couple of days so I can't post links) http*://ww*w.youtu*be.com/wat*ch?v=q9fY*qUH7sxw I forgot to mention in my update, I have put various post it notes reminding me to remember my dream when I wake up around my bed (I even put one on the ceiling o_o).

He has a lot of good tips but I'm really partial to Sageous' class. I think there are a lot of junk techniques out there and there is no magic formula. Maybe you should work on building awareness first?

Thanks, I'll do that. When I walk the dog the way I build awareness is by trying to take in every sensory detail around me, and I think it's important that I do take awareness breaks because I spend a fair bit of time on my computer wearing a large headset that blocks out a lot of sound. I have a plan for the next week: I'm gonna try WILD at night, failing that I'll try DILD and DEILD if my WILD is unsuccessful, during day time I'll do awareness breaks every time I have an RC via Sageous' method of think back and forward 5 minutes. Gab reckons my recent dryspell is natural and will pass soon, so I'll be back to dream journalling and wake journalling in no time.

Sounds like a good plan! Yes dry spells happen to us all. I'm in one myself. I guess you just wait it out while honing your techniques. btw I love your post it note idea. I am going to start this tonight! I always forget to RC when I wake up so Ill use it for that.

Yeah I've vaguely tried to make myself RC after waking up, just in case I someday get blindsided by a false awakening, but when I wake up I have the awareness and memory of a mole on anasthesia.

WORKBOOK UPDATE 1/10/2012: 3:15PM: First identified dream signs and dryspell is over! (I think :? )

Ok so I just remembered all of last nights dreams. It's funny because just a tiny thing triggered it. I was playing Bad Piggies on my iPod, when I was thinking how cool it was how it had Aeroplanes and flying machines. Flying machines = dirigibles = airships. Airships < Sky Citadels. I remembered my dream: Me and a couple of my close friends (And some not so close) were living and going to school on a giant flying citadel (With a huge swimming pool :3). We were living all happy and such until the A.I. controlling the citadel went rampant (I remember it was a mixture of GlADoS from Portal 2 and HAL-9000 from A Space Odyssey) and started trying to kill us. There were less notable dreams on other citadels that I cannot recall very well.

This is a breakthrough for me. Because of this, I can say that (Hopefully, I'm not sure if I'm in the clear yet) my dryspell is over. But, it gets better. I identified my first dream sign(s). I can confirm that big floating citadels and being in a high place / school are some dream signs of mine. I can confirm school because as well as going to school on the citadel, my dream a couple nights ago revolved around me being in school. I also can confirm high places because in that dream my school was also conveniently... suspended very high over Sydney Harbour. (Even though I live an hour and a half away from sydney -_- ) Well I'm very elated by this discovery/memory, and I feel as if it's a very important milestone in my Lucid Dreaming journey now that I've discovered two dream signs. I wrote this dream down in my journal as soon as I remembered, and I will continue to do so with all future dreams.

That's great stuff! It's great that your recall came back with such a vivid dream. Think of this dream often, especially as you're preparing for sleep tonight. Look forward to more and really anticipate all of the dreams that you're going to experience tonight. (BTW, good choice of villains in GLaDOS and HAL-9000, by the way. Nice one, subconscious.)

Also, you've now got some dream signs to start working with as well. Very good. Any time you find yourself thinking of these things (or, in the case of school, actually seeing it), go through the RC procedure you've already laid out. (RC, awareness check, remember what you were just doing, etc.) This'll both give you a shot at lucidity and continue to raise your awareness and recall in-dream.

Anyhow, congratulations on this big step forward. As GLaDOS herself would say: "This was a triumph..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

Thanks Canis! Yeah I'm a bit surprised that portal 2 would manage to get into my dreams, but GLaDOS is the only evil A.I. I know besides HAL-9000 and I guess my conscious just decided to stick them in a blender and create GLaDHAL-9000. I had another dream last night where school was a prominent feature, as a large percentage of time was spent there. I suppose it's forgivable that I didn't recognize the dream sign since I only confirmed it yesterday.

GLaDOS is great. Witty, passive-aggressive, and completely insane.

As for missing dream signs, all I can say is that on the pathway to lucid dreaming, be prepared to forgive yourself often. :) I've certainly missed out on loads of incredibly obvious dreamsigns. All you can do is laugh at yourself. (I posted a really egregious one in Daily Snippets if you'd prefer to laugh at me instead.)

Considering that in non-lucid dreams we function (as far as today's science understands) with important parts of our brains virtually inactive, it's pretty understandable. :)

WORKBOOK UPDATE 10/7/12 9:06 PM: First proper DILD/Lvl 3 lucid dream.

Last night I was going along my business in my dream, when eventually I realized how f**king wierd my dream was. I understand that rational thinking is inhibited greatly in dreams, but I realized that I was dreaming. I didn't even have to try to stabilize. But I continued the dream as if it was non lucid, but I was aware that I was dreaming. I think this classifies it as a level 3 dream.

Congratulations!! :party:

So I guess you didn't have much control in the dream? That's alright, you knew it was a dream so that's still awesome! And it's really neat that you didn't need to stabilize. As OpheliaBlue said, stabilization is necessary if you make it necessary. So if you don't think about needing to stabilize, your mind won't see the need to destabilize the dream, know what I mean? :D

Well done squilli0!

WORKBOOK UPDATE 10/27/2012: First three proper DIELD's and incubation/induction.

First off, sorry for a period of inactivity, my holidays are over and I'm back to school so my lucid dreaming has regrettably been put on hold for the last few weeks, but I have every intention of continuing.

I had a chain of dreams last night, and on my second dream I woke up, I estimate around 3:00 AM. I kept my eyes closed and immediately thought of the circumstances I was in a few seconds ago in my dream. It worked, and lo and behold I was in a dream. Just to check, I did an RC. (Surprising of my subconscious, since I haven't been regularly RC'ing in waking life since school) Unsurprisingly, I had fingers sprouting from my palms and without further doubt, I knew I was dreaming.

I can't remember the first dream, nor the second which I will write about know. By the time my second dream in the chain rolled around, I knew I was losing lucidity. At that point I started becoming aware of both my real body's sensations, eg; the bed-sheet, and my dream self's sensations. Without opening my eyes, I did some induction techniques again until I was dreaming.

I woke up again around 5:00 AM and unfortunately opened my eyes. However, I was on a roll and this did not inhibit my dreaming! I closed my eyes and imagined I was still seeing my room, then imagined it morphing into a dream. And then the coolest transition I've ever experienced ocurred. The colours bleached out as if my dream self was going into a figurative hyperspace and then it spun around. I tentatively opened my eyes, unsure if I would still be in my mundane room in my real body (Or a false awakening?) What I found was me lying on a large mangrove root in a swamp. Drops of water from a previous storm were dripping beside my face from a previous storm. I got up and swam across to a bay reminiscent of the ones near the Hume Highway in NSW, Australia, with tall cliffs hanging precariously over a long beach. I saw a large ship that was a mixture of a modern cargo ship, but with elements of a Spanish Galleon or a Portuguese Man O' War. A captain looking DC approached me and told me that this area was under attack, and offered me shelter in his ship amongst a clan of pirates. I chatted with the DC's, some of which were insane (Possibly a reflection of my subconscious?) And decided to ascend the stairways of the ship. I found a locked door to the captain's room which I picked. Inside were some very seedy looking slaves (Wink-wink. What? Their pirates, What else do you expect?). I talked with the DC's, which is a fairly new habit of my subconscious and then woke up.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I couldn't return to my dreams but I'm quite satisfied with those achievements.

NOTE 1: I think I experienced SP during all the times I woke up. I can't tell, as I have no previous knowledge of that sensation but I either couldn't move or couldn't be bothered. The former makes more sense, because when I wake up I'm almost always aware and ready to move.

NOTE 2: The night before I technically had my first DEILD, but as soon as I had induced a dream I lost lucidity. So it was a DEILD minus the L. On the bright side, this gave me a bit of experience/ I knew what DEILD'ing was like.

WOW very nice! It's great when you are on a roll like that. BTW you won't always notice SP. Keep up the great work and don't forget what you are doing now. Maintain as best you can. I'd say you are on fire!

Congratulations on the lucids! That's some great DEILDing work. I'm most impressed -- you're setting an example that I could surely learn from to improve my own DEILDing, which has been terribly inconsistent.

I'm starting to remember not only what I did in the dreams, but my thoughts at the time as well. I think I used dream control when I picked the lock to the Captain's room because I remember a feeling of doubt (I haven't been able to pick locks in previous non lucids even when my subconscious leads me to try :P) but I think I sort of bent the rules my subconscious created, if that makes any sense.

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

but I think I sort of bent the rules my subconscious created, if that makes any sense.

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Your world. Your rules. :shadewink:

WORKBOOK (Semi)UPDATE 10/28/12: Lucids two nights in a row?!

I feel like I've had a small success last night, because I attained (And kept) lucidity two nights in a row without waking up immediately. I had 4 dreams last night (One of them was a subdream) But on the last one I realized that I was dreaming. I think I've gotten good at not getting overly excited when I attain lucidity, because once again I didn't have to ground myself. I remember I was sort of thinking about the possibilities of the dream now that I was lucid and I remember the scene was me attending the coronation of some new monarch or political leader in a cordoned off section of a zombie infested city (I love my subconscious.) and I managed to change who the monarch DC was and what they looked like. I'm quite pleased with this, although I was only lucid for a minute or so, and if I have a lucid tonight for the third time in a row I'll probably flip shit with disbelief :P.

WORKBOOK UPDATE 10/29/12: Most clear lucid yet/3rd lucid night in a row.

Last night I had my usual amount of dreams (Albeit I can't remember them, I may have to put my focus on recall for little while) Except on the last one I remembered to RC and I had my most successful DILD yet. The circumstances of the dream are unimportant except that my sister was driving me from somewhere. I live on an small island connected to the mainland by a bridge and it is riddled with canals. 87% of the house (Including mine) are waterfronts, sharing canals with other houses. We drove down the roads to my street, and once we had parked in the driveway, we looked back and the roads had turned into waterways. This was my first big clue. Once we were inside I asked my sister how we drove through the water, and she said some random response like "We took the elevator to 45th story and then went across and down." Well there sure as hell aren't any tall buildings anywhere near where I live, so that triggered an RC. Sure enough, I had two extra fingers sprouting from the sides of each middle finger. As soon as that happened my surroundings started to become whitewashed and hazy as I started to become conscious. I could hear the sloshing of water in the bathroom's drain, but as a last ditch attempt I rubbed my hands together and looked at my surroundings very critically. This gained me an extra 5 minutes of lucidity. I didn't do much with my time in the dream, but I remember it with the most clarity of any LD yet. It felt so clear even when I was lucid it felt realistic. This dream was also so far my best use of grounding, although I forgot to ground the second time. Perhaps one of the most important underlying factors of this dream is that it was my longest (Probably only :P) LD chain. If I have an LD for the 4th night I will be gobsmacked :D.

Anyway, these past few nights have been a huge and much needed boost to my confidence. After the frustrations of dry spells and long periods of NLD's this has given me a taste of what I can do. I will enjoy experimenting with dream control, and my next goal is flight. After looking at recounts of other peoples first flights, I think the results (If any) will give some good laughing material in future.

EDIT: After looking at this later, I think I found a connection. Notice how it was my first successful example of dream stabilization.
Also note the clarity of the dream. Anyway, that little revelation is a bit of a learning curve for me.

Congrats squilli0! :party:

Great job on the stabilization. Also, I wonder how weird it looks and feels when you first saw fingers sprouting from your middle finger! D: lol

Here's hoping for another one tonight! :3

Thanks! Unfortunately the chain was broken, but I'm still pretty proud of 3 nights in a row. :P Seeing the hand deformities is kinda weird at first but I've seen it in dreams a couple of times so I'm getting more used to it. I kind of want to look at myself in a mirror during my next LD and kind of don't at the same time, because on one hand it would be interesting, on the other I've heard of people scaring themselves awake because their deformities are freaky and at this early stage it seems a bit like a waste of a lucid.

I know exactly what you mean. In my first induced lucid dream, I unintentionally looked at myself in the mirror. My face kept getting deformed and morphed. It was scary, but omce I woke up it felt kind of cool. For the longest time, I would avoid mirrors just in case. But I dunno, one day I just decided to wanna see myself in mirrors. Sometimes when I'm lucid enough to remember, I do it. Sometimes it's scary, sometimes it's awesome. But either way it's an interesting experience! :D

WORKBOOK UPDATE 11/1/12: Yet another DEILD

So it was fairly late into my dream cycle so I was having some awesome dreams, and I was on my third when suddenly- I woke up. My eyes briefly flashed open for a second, but I closed them when I realized I had just been dreaming. I closed my eyes and imagined the scene again. Who was there, where I was, the noises, what I was holding. I managed to go back to sleep, but my victory was short lived. I heard a clapping sound and I woke up. This time I kept my eyes closed and tried again. Imagine, rinse, repeat. After about 10 seconds I opened my eyes again and I was back in the scene. Success! Well, you would think so anyway. I lost lucidity a few seconds later. I consider this a success, because it was an application of induction techniques that succeeded, but more analytic people could say that It failed because it has to be lucid to be a DEILD. Meh, take it how you see it :D

Well done! Most definitely a success, you still had lucidity, even if it was short lived :)

WORKBOOK UPDATE 11/5/12: Greatest success yet!

It's been a while before updates, but hell has it been worth it. This time I had a DEILD chain, and unlike prior successes, I kept lucidity for the whole ride. Anyway, I was coming home from school when suddenly I woke up. I was confused and disoriented, thinking "wasn't I just at school?" so I kept my eyes shut and imagined the scene. I'm getting quite a knack for this if I do say so myself, because within 5 seconds I was plonked down on my arse in the dreamworld.

At first I was at school, but I did a scene shift. I was suddenly in a large park with a tall marble gazebo in the centre. I immediately remembered my goal, which is a first for any of my dreams, and tried flying. So I jumped up high (About ten metres) and lay horizontal and imagined flying, having no doubts that it was possible. No results. Quickly tiring of this, I realized that DC's are malleable so I changed the park-goers around a bit. My dream suddenly began shaking and rippling like a pond with stones thrown into it! A digital clock appeared counting down the 30 seconds I had left! I was about to ground, when I thought: "Hey, may as well go with the flow and DEILD chain then ground next time." So I woke up and started constructing a new dream.

Within 7 seconds I was on a large hill where a convention of native american indians were camping and I saw the helpful digital clock again saying I only had one minute. Some hardcore grounding of rubbing hands together, touching the ground and stroking friends hair pushed it back to 10 minutes. I climbed the hill and snuck around a chainlink fence at the back to find a shear hill. "Perfect" I thought, and some 5 year olds started encouraging me to jump off it. I jumped and flattened my body. I didn't quite fly, but I shakily glided about 200m. I came back and got into a scrap with some DC's. Having won, I spent the rest of the time messing around.

When I woke up I was immedately excited and ran downstairs to tell my family. As I got down the scene started changing. "Bollocks! A false awakening" Dream me thought. So I lost lucidity at that point and the rest of the dreams are hazy.

All in all, this was the greatest lucid dreaming success I have had yet and I have past many milestones. 15 minute LD, 200 metres glided, Most effective DEILD chain yet. After the past few days of stress, these dreams were a perfect pick-me-up.

Incredible man! That is awesome :)

WORKBOOK UPDATE 11/6/2012: The D(E)ILD Conundrum

So I had an LD for the second night in a row, with luck I'll beat my previous chain record. I had many vivid dreams in a very short time between 5:40 and 7:12 AM. At one point I had a dream about waking up and DEILDing so I had a DILD about DEILD? Anyway, I achieeved some goals in a limited fashion as it was a level 3.5 LD. I flew, firebended and looked in a mirror.

Congrats!

Interesting, what you said about DILDing about DEILDing. Did you know it was a dream in the suppsosed DEILD? That sounds like a false awakening! :lol:

Goodluck

It was a false awakening, but I never opened my eyes (Habit from my latest DEILDING) and the FA led me to lucidity. I'm so confused as to what the f**k actually happened :P but the only thing I know is that I was never awake o_o

That's really cool. FAs help me become lucid alot, because they've happened to me so much over the years. It's a really great tool to have, being able to turn FAs around to your benefit!

WORKBOOK UPDATE: Awesome LD! 11/9/2012

As per usual I was going along my merry ways in a dream when I woke up. I love that realization when your awake and your eyes are closed and you attempt to drop back into the dream and it works. I was in the dream and I was really feeling like doing nothing productive but then after I grounded a couple of times I suddenly remembered my goal of doing the first basic TOTM. Me and a friend found a door, and we walked through in the hopes of my SubC making it a portal. No such luck. We were simply in a small DIY shed, so I stepped back out side. Sudden scene change, the shed is now in a forest (Que Isaiah Mustafa voice)! I was walking through the forest, and trying to conjure up a 17th century firearm, when suddenly, I hear someone scream "STOP!" I looked around for the source, and I see a dark skinned man in a snazzy business suit shouting: "Haven't you heard the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? Get out of the forest now!". Odd of my subconscious, seeings as I haven't read the Legend of Sleepy Hollow or seen the movie. It's just lucky that the Headless Horseman didn't appear.

So anyway, I continued out of the forest, and I was on a city street. I woke up, went back to sleep, and continued. I grounded then remembered my goal of inspecting my reflection, so I went up to a car mirror which was for some unfathomable reason on the back of the car >_> and looked at my reflection. My eyes were on different parts of my head, my face was white and my lips were black and I had no nose. The sudden realization that my SubC thinks of me as some freakish Voldemort esque creature made me wake up with a jolt. Luckily, I got back to the dream, and just walked down the street. I was at that point tired of goals so I just enjoyed the ride and then woke up at exactly 5:00 AM. The excitement of such an easy and awesome dream made me decide not to go back to bed :P

So anyway, that was a successful dream in my eyes, I grounded a couple of times, did some cool things, but I guess it'll have to wait until next time for mah first wings :D

Congrats on the lucid! :party:

Great job on stabilizing too. Those wings are soon to coooome!

SMALL WORKBOOK UPDATE 11/10/2012: a failed TOTM attempt and many awesome dreams.

Having woken and fallen asleep many times through many awesome NLDs, I finally got to one where I was in the bathroom of a modern style cinema. I was thinking about how odd the last few hours, and looked into the mirror above the basin to see a very blurred reflection. I looked down at my hand, and of course my fingers were one segment short and a few digits were fused together. It then dawned on me that I was dreaming, and I woke up. I immediately initiated DEILD, and within moments I was in the forest I had considered the night before to attempt the basic Task of The Month. Alas, being caught up in the excitement of having another shot at the TOTM (And so soon after the last failed attempt, too) I completely forgot to ground. As I was forming the forest and coniferous trees were popping up around me, I began to become aware of the felling of my bed-sheets and I woke up soon after.

I guess this is proof you should always ground.

Dreams I can recall: 4
False awakenings I can recall: 1 (Possibly 2)
Lucid Dreams I can recall: 2

Go Captain DEILD!! I love how easily you slipped back into lucid after lucid like that, especially in the entry from yesterday. Question though: when you say you "ground" I'm assuming you mean stabilize. So what is it you do to stabilize?

I do mean stabilizing, it's just me being silly and mixing up my terminology. I tend to first rub my hands together, then feel the ground, then run my fingers through a DC's hair (A trait I picked up after reading RareCola's dream journal xD). Unfortunately, I tend to forget to ground sometimes, leading to ultimately short and unsatisfactory dreams. Although, sometimes after attaining lucidity I purposefully wait to wake up so I can DEILD and then stabilize, so I can have a) A fresh pallet of a dream to work with and b) To extend the dream a little bit.

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

Although, sometimes after attaining lucidity I purposefully wait to wake up so I can DEILD and then stabilize, so I can have a) A fresh pallet of a dream to work with and b) To extend the dream a little bit.

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This is interesting to me. Do you mean that you actually hope (or try?) to wake up ASAP when you first become lucid? What are you looking for in a fresh dream? To give yourself time to calm down?

Essentially, all of the above. I don't try to wake up ASAP, but I don't ground and I use the minute or so I have before waking (And DEILD) to calm down and collect my thoughts and remember my goals. Basically when I have a fresh dream I mean my memory isn't a clusterf**k of the last few dreams so I can work a bit more clearly on my dream goals :P. I haven't heard of this being utilized before, but from my experience it is effective. I've gotten used to the odd feeling of changing from fake sensory illusions caused by the dream to feeling the bedsheets around me, and as soon as I realize that I'm awake (My eyes shouldn't have opened) I begin constructing the next LD.

Very interesting! Sounds like it's working pretty well, especially if DEILD is coming so naturally to you.

The only thing I might discourage is building up any notion in your mind that your original dream scene can't work for you. I'd hate to see that idea limit you because existing dream scenes are often filled with opportunity (although I'll admit that some do suck, heh heh...) As long as you don't fall victim to any self-limiting beliefs, it sounds like you're nicely honing your DEILD skills!

That is an interesting technique there SquilliO. I admire your patience. Most of us want to grab on and run. I personally wouldn't want to do that every time but I can see how that helps. There have been times when the dream doesn't form for me very well and I feel it going. That's usually when I just relax and wait to DEILD back in. Great job!

I do this as a guideline, If I see potential in the current scene I tend to keep it/ alter it slightly

last night I had a WILD where there were objects flying through the dark like the space screen saver on windows. I tried to focus on one, I think it was a grandfather clock, but I was unable to go into a dream.
Perhaps it was an awareness problem in general, but my thought is that if I might have waited to concentrate on a specific object, a scene would probably have developed...just food for thought...

The unconscious always out does the conscious mind.

Well, my dryspell is (with any luck) over. During its progression from inconvenience to absolute f**king nuisance it seemed like a negative, but now having an LD feels so much more rewarding. I suppose having completed the basic TOTM on my previous attempt I feel rewarded enough, but a bit extra never hurts ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

Although, sometimes after attaining lucidity I purposefully wait to wake up so I can DEILD and then stabilize, so I can have a) A fresh pallet of a dream to work with and b) To extend the dream a little bit.

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The +like system is temporarily disabled, so for now "+like" on that thing you do ^^. Makes me curious to try it myself. And congrats on the totm!

Thanks! It took a few attempts, but the main thing is that I got there :P. For better or worse, I'm of a fairly persistent disposition.

MINOR WORKBOOK UPDATE: Short and Inane Dream Clusters

I had a huge cluster of 7+ (Mostly) short dreams and more before that I can remember from last night. They aren't really of note, and some less pleasant then others, but the point is that I was lucid to a small extent for the majority of the dreams. I had little control, but I was flying unintentionally. It was odd, because one second I was somewhere in my local area and then I was soaring through the clouds. I woke up about 5 times and DEILD'ed back into lucidity on many occasions, but the possibility of a certain phenomenon piques my interest. It has occurred to me that perhaps I had a False Awakening about doing a DEILD, and then that I was Falsely Lucid, meaning I thought I was lucid but in fact I wasn't. I'll look into this, because it just seems like a funny thing for my Sub-Conscious to do.

Great recall. I think false lucids are possible but I am not sure I have had one or how that happens.

There have been a lot of threads discussing "false lucidity" or "semi-lucidity" or "pseudolucidity".

Apparently, it's what you just stated — a dream where you are dreaming that you are lucid, and seem to follow a storyline without much thought.

For me, that is still a lucid dream. However, I think that there is a huge difference between knowing you are dreaming and understanding you are dreaming. The former entails that you merely know you are dreaming, and may or may not have control and much clarity of thought. The latter, however, means that in addition to knowing you are lucid, you fully understand the implications of it being a dream. When you truly understand that it's a dream, fear vanishes because you know there are no laws and you can do anything you put your mind to.

I do have many lucids where I merely know it's a dream, and I'm still a bit foggy with consciousness. A lot of the times, even though I know it's a dream, I still get scared because somewhere in the remote corners of my mind, a part of me won't let go of the fact that it's a dream and anything is possible. :D

I've been stuck in a dry spell for a couple of weeks. I am getting frustrated, due to a bit of a block occurring with my DEILDs. It has stopped me from having an LD many times. I keep on waking up with my eyes closed, imagining the dream scene, going back to sleep and then losing Lucidity. When I do get lucid, I either stabilize and fail, or forget to stabilize and lose lucidity. Please share some tips, because this is getting really discouraging.

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

I've been stuck in a dry spell for a couple of weeks. I am getting frustrated, due to a bit of a block occurring with my DEILDs. It has stopped me from having an LD many times. I keep on waking up with my eyes closed, imagining the dream scene, going back to sleep and then losing Lucidity. When I do get lucid, I either stabilize and fail, or forget to stabilize and lose lucidity. Please share some tips, because this is getting really discouraging.

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Hey Squilli0! I'm sorry to hear about the dry spell, but we've all been there at one time or another.

I'm the World's Slowest Learner at DEILDs, so I'll leave the DEILD tips for others to provide. :D It sounds like you've gone a bit dry with DEILDs but you are having some DILDs occur that just give you some stability issues. DEILD dry spells are pretty much the story of my life, but DILDs alone can provide you with tons of great lucid dreams. I don't know whether you are still bailing out of DILDs intentionally in order to chain back in, but if you are, maybe look at this as an opportunity to work on stabilizing your DILDs.

The good news is that you are still achieving lucid dreams, so that's great in itself. All you have to do now is keep them going. It seems that the first problem is when you "stabilize and fail". Can you describe a bit more what happens here? What sort of failure do you experience and what sort of stabilization do you perform? I find that the biggest factor in stabilization is simply making yourself a part of the dream scene in every way you can. This especially includes your dream body. Rubbing your hands together, studying your hands, feeling the scenery, clinging to dream characters, feeling objects in the scene, licking the wall or floor, whatever! All of this works.

A lot of super-experienced LDers just sort of naturally anchor in and don't need to do any explicit stabilization. OpheliaBlue and paigeyemps have both mentioned that they no longer explicitly stabilize. Believing that you are a part of the dream scene is the crucial factor. I find that interacting aggressively with dream scenery (dream body included) is a great way to enhance this belief if it does not come naturally.

As for forgetting to stabilize, try making it your primary lucid goal when settling down to sleep or for a WBTB. If you commit to yourself that your main goal in the next LD is to study your hands, rub them together, and just feel the dream environment in every way possible, you'll be that much more likely to get right to it. This can be a great deal of fun all by itself! Studying your hands close up, for example, will amaze you. Your mind can generate incredible detail.

Good luck and let us know how things go for you!

Thanks CanisLucidus! Unfortunately, I don't get the opportunity to try the DILD bailing things. When I fail to stabilize I mean that I don't commit to it well enough, so all in all I only get about 10 seconds lucidity. I'll work on the stabilizing things first before I get into my other goals, like the Task of the Month.

Ya know, when it comes to stabilizing, becoming completely conscious of your surroundings can be very helpful...Practicing it during the day is also very helpful. All Day Awareness is what its called, although that doesn't mean you have to do it all day. Here are a couple links that will be a bit more helpful...


!This is about Stabilization!

!This is about ADA (All Day Awareness)!

Enjoy :buns:

WORKBOOK UPDATE 12/9/12: Sudden Influx

I'm probably going to use this update to address two changes, as one of them I should have added a looooooong time ago but I was too lazy.

UPDATE: 12/5/2012

Dryspell is broken, I had a short LD where I was a passenger driving in a car passing through the Simpson Desert. I became lucid with barely any stimulus and managed to hold my s**t together and not get excited, eliminating the need for stabilization. It lasted about 10 minutes because I tried teleporting, but Marvelous Monsieur Subconscious decided to intervene with my scene change and send me into a Hellish dimension, where I was side scrolling along platforms like a deranged Mario. I was woken up when a certain family member decided I had slept long enough.

UPDATE: 12/9/12

Wow, mental suggestion is freaky stuff. I hadn't had any LD's since the dryspell was broken, and last night I set myself into a firm mindset, telling my self that there is no chance of me not having an LD. It worked, and I managed to have 3 LD's. I wasn't too excited, so I didn't have to stabilize, but perhaps I should have, because one was only about 5 minutes long. First one, I was in a long train carriage, and there were fire sprinklers on the ceiling. They were going off, and dream me decides rather then evacuate the carriage I may as well take the opportunity to have a shower. :uhm: . Well anyway, someone was throwing rocks through an open window carriage into my makeshift shower, so I walked down to the other end of the carriage, away from the window. I decided to have a drink from a water dispenser that some people have on their fridges. Que non lucidity. Fast forward. Que Lucidity. Que forgetting what happens during said lucidity. Fast forward again. Que Lucidity. So for the 3rd LD I was trapped in a bus outside a gas station. I teleported out, and had a chat with some DC's. I roamed around the station a bit and then woke up.

WORKBOOK UPDATE 12/13/12: Clear dreams


As per the three to four day average rule, it's been four days since my last LD. I had a grand total of three lucid dreams, but two of them are kinda quasi LDs due to them being short.

The first one, I was at a local gym type place, but it was much larger. I lost lucidity due to not stabilizing.

The second one, I was under a tree on the shore, about 50 metres inland from the beach, and there was some person trying to start a riot. Don't ask me how this made me lucid, because I have no clue. I remebered my goal of doing the basic ToTM of making it snow, but remembering this external stimulus made me wake up. I madly stabilized as the colour bleached out of my dreams.

I kept my eyes closed on waking up and immediately imagined the scene I was in, but my subconscious inervened and made me focus on the scene of the first lucid. This pissed me off, but I couldn't really fight it. I almost woke up completely out of the void scene straight after losing lucidity, but I focused harder and rather then thinking of sight I focused more on smell and sound. This got me lucid, but I can't remember what I did in the following LD.

Anyway, I was out of town, and sleeping in a different bed somehow helps me gain lucidity. Speaking of which, I had a nasty cold last night so I took one of those night pills for colds (Don't know if Antihistamines is the correct word, I always thought they prevented allergies/colds rather then subdue them) so I was pretty drowsy when I went to sleep. I don't know if this counts as a lucid aid as well as a sleeping aid, but I avoid lucid aids like Vitamin B6 and such.

I would write more descriptively, but right now I'm on a dilapidated Dell Inspiron 6000, and I'm currently experiencing a 25% chance every 5 of this thing spontaneously combusting.

Congrats on breaking the dry spell!

Also, i think the medicine you took could have helped. i know i get lucids sometimes when im sick and take some medicine like those for colds or cough. :D

And good luck on your laptop not combusting and stuff x)

WORKBOOK UPDATE 12/29/2012: Dry Spell and Motivation Deficit

So recently I've been having a really long dry spell, and it's stolen away most of my motivation. It's kind of like the chicken or the egg, I may have lost motivation due to the dry spell or I may have had the dry spell due to loss of motivation. Either way, I take this as a trial standing between me and my lucidity, so I'm gonna revisit lucid dreaming with a new motivation.

WORKBOOK UPDATE: 12/30/2012: Elusive lucidity returns as well as a strange feeling

Well, having reset my motivation and setting my intentions for half an hour prior to sleeping last night, I had three consecutive lucid dreams! Recently I've been skepticizing (Is that even a word? Well it is now :P ) about dream guide things, so I decided the best way to determine it is to try it out myself. I had some fun NLD's for a while, then I realized I was dreaming. I immediately stabilized. Hilarity ensues. As I frantically run my fingers through a DC's hair, they look at me as if I'm some insane person. I started to doubt whether I was in a dream, so I flipped my s**t and ran a few streets until I was well clear of a potential personal invasion crime scene. I ran into a small room with a plastic desk on one side, and completely forgetting my goal, I set a new one of lying down and going to sleep in an LD. First I RC to make absolutely sure I didn't just invade someones personal space. Seeing three fingers on my left hand, and two fingers connecting at the tips on my right hand, I was reassured enough to lie on the floor and try to sleep. Evidently, it makes me wake up in real life.

I snapped my eyes shut and focused on the previous scene, and I was transported through it. Unfortunately, my dream reconstruction isn't all there yet, so I wound up in some random's house (who seemed to recognise me) and stabilized. I then remembered my goal, and walked through the house, repeating something about dream guides over and over. No DG was apparent, but I got this feeling of my limbs locking up and spiders crawling down my back, which lasted until I woke up and entered the next LD, which I can't quite remember. :panic:

Sorry about the DG stuff, which probably belongs on a different part of the forum, but it was in an LD so I sort of bundled it up with my LD progress and so it is here. :P

Wowie, cool dreams! I don't know why it is, but I'm the same way when I "go to sleep" in an LD: I wake up for real. Like we can't be asleep in 2 places at the same time lol.

Anyway, congrats on the lucids, and on adjusting your motivation to get through the dry spell. It sure worked fast! Sometimes that's all you need: to take a little pressure off yourself, or redirect your attentions one way or another. When I go through my dry spells (which happen for me regularly enough that I just call them "cycles"), I stop focusing on technique, or awareness ALL day long, and just focus on one thing: getting the right amount of sleep. Sometimes, just a couple days of good, solid sleep seems to be what I need to break the cycle. That's just me though.

Anyway, now that you're back on the lucid track, good luck with finding your DG! And in regards to talking about the subject of DGs here, remember that this is your workbook. You get to put whatever you want in it. It's for you to progress in anyway you see fit. Plus it gives DVA staff an idea of what you're trying to do so we can help better. :) Hell, if they'd had DVA workbooks when I first joined, it would have been a s.h.i.t.t.y. mess lol

Thanks! I think what was going on wasn't so much a dryspell as much as me losing interest. I haven't been doing RC's lately, and I generally haven't been paying any notice to lucid dreaming, but just spending half an hour on DV 1-2 hours prior to going to bed seems to be like the pilot light to my lucid dreaming oven or the spark plug to my LD-Mobile's engine.

~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

Seeing three fingers on my left hand, and two fingers connecting at the tips on my right hand, I was reassured enough to lie on the floor and try to sleep. Evidently, it makes me wake up in real life.

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This is cool! Its like to the dream you, the waking life is a dream. While in your waking life, going to the dream means going to sleep. Interesting metaphor. :)

WORKBOOK UPDATE: Slight issue causing a dry spell

Recently, whenever I've been waking up from a dream the transition is instant, I get no grogginess. I wake up fully aware and ready to hop out of bed. You'd think this is a blessing rather then a curse, but I'm currently halfway through my summer holiday, And the only thing this is really doing is keeping me from my DEILD's. Recently, whenever I DEILD (If ever. Although this has been a problem before I was waking up fully aware) I can get back to sleep alright, but I can't transfer my awareness into the next dream unless I've had an LD beforehand. It's been quite annoying, and I think it's one of my other lucid habits/issues I need to revise. Speaking of which, I should list them.

• Fixing these DEILD shenanigans.
• Restart doing RC's.
• Restart my DJ

WORKBOOK UPDATE 13/1/13: Last night's lucid and tonight's WILD attempt

Last night I had a freaky dream, where I went somewhere with my sister and drove her car to a parking lot near where I live. My subconscious put a tennis court next to the parking lot, so I walked through it and came to a movie rental shop. I poked around, but found nothing good (There were a few Harry Potter movies and some Aliens movies, but I can't recall any but them) so I walked back to the parking lot. I got sidetracked and walked down a path into a sunny forest clearing, and halfway down the path I got a funny feeling. I looked at my hands, and I had three fingers awkwardly protruding from each hand. Without a thought for stabilization (I've gotten into a habit of forgoing stabilization) and no doubt in my flying skills, I hurled myself forwards, arms extended superman style. I flew 50 metres in the space of a few seconds, and then I hit a mental hyperdrive switch and my surroundings bleached away. "Cool! A new scene!" I thought. Wrong. It was just me waking up.


So tonight I thought I'd try a WILD. I've set my alarm and my intentions to do the basic ToTM of freezing a lake over and donning ice skates. I'm getting myself into the state of mind with no doubt that I will have a WILD. I'll add my experience in the morning.

WORKBOOK UPDATE 14/1/13: Close, but no cigar

The results of the WILD are semi-conclusive. I woke up naturally a minute or two before the alarm, so I nailed the timing. I went to bed at 11:00PM and set the alarm for 4:15AM. I stayed up reading Robert Jordan's "The Eye of the World" until 5:00AM and then I tried lying down in several comfortable positions and counting y breathing soon enough I started losing count due to my brain trying to go to sleep, but I can't remember SP. (Which isn't to say it didn't occur) I actually think I got to the REM stage, but I must have lost focus and followed a dreamlet, because there was no lucidity.

I'll try again tonight, last night was more successful then my first attempt which only got into the relaxation phase.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

Recently, whenever I've been waking up from a dream the transition is instant, I get no grogginess. I wake up fully aware and ready to hop out of bed. You'd think this is a blessing rather then a curse, but I'm currently halfway through my summer holiday, And the only thing this is really doing is keeping me from my DEILD's. Recently, whenever I DEILD (If ever. Although this has been a problem before I was waking up fully aware) I can get back to sleep alright, but I can't transfer my awareness into the next dream unless I've had an LD beforehand.

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That's interesting to hear you say that, because my reply was going to be for you to attempt WILD. But in your subsequent posts, I see that you already are. The reason I find that interesting is because DEILDs were always a bit weird for me too: either I would DILD early in the morning, then maybe have a DEILD. But usually it would just be additional DILDs. Ironically, in my quest for trying to get DEILDs just right, I accidentally stumbled upon the elusive WILD for the first time in my life (happened just months ago). My ticket wasn't SP, rather vibrations. They acted as a signal that I could "open my eyes" and be in a lucid dream already. Sounds like you're headed that way yourself. Got my fingers crossed for you man!

It seems like it is easier to DEILD from a lucid than a non lucid. Perhaps it is because you arwareness is already in place when coming out of a lucid. I have only DEILD from a non lucid a handful of times. I need to work on that more. Ive found mantras to be a great tool. That's just my 2 cents anyway :D

WORKBOOK UPDATE 1/18/13: ToTM complete!

Last night I had a DILD, and it was the usual, I started waking up as soon as I reached lucidity. But straight after, I started hearing the noises of waking life, and I briefly wake up. Too determined to stop there, I pulled myself straight back into the dream. I stabilized straight away (Unlike my last few DILD's) and after stabilizing, I realized I was in a tour group in Antarctica. This reminded me of the ToTM, so in a rush for ideas on how to freeze the water around the ice floes, I summoned a giant pink monolith of ice. I shoved my hand into it and pulled out a fist sized shard, and holding this I ran into the water. Except, I didn't fall into the water, the ice was being created under my feet. I created about 50m square of ice on the water, and put a pair of ice skates on my feet, soon starting to skate around.

I'm quite happy with this, but perhaps it doesn't count because I did it in Antarctica? :?

Awesome work, Squilli0! That's probably the most challenging of the Basic TotMs that I've ever seen. I didn't even go for it! (Edit: Meaning, I didn't even go for this one, not the arrogant "Even I didn't go for this one!"... lol)

And hey, you were in Antarctica, too! You could have done one of the Task of the Year items afterward, too. Maybe you still can if you find yourself back there!

Excellent work! :goodjob: Glad things worked so well for you, and great job DEILDing into an awesome lucid after almost losing the whole thing. (Or at least I guess it was a DEILD.)

Thanks! It was a bit of a quasi DEILD, I wasn't fully out of the dream, but I had the sensation of the bed sheets around me and hearing commotion downstairs :P . I may or may not go for task of the year, on one hand it's a good ongoing task but on the other, I might still have to improve some aspects of my lucid dreaming.

Okay, I know I've said this before, and I'm tentatively saying that for real I'm going to get back into LD'ing. I've had a lot on my plate recently, and I haven't been giving my LD's the attention they deserve, but that's gonna change soon!

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Originally Posted by Squilli0

Okay, I know I've said this before, and I'm tentatively saying that for real I'm going to get back into LD'ing. I've had a lot on my plate recently, and I haven't been giving my LD's the attention they deserve, but that's gonna change soon!

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Good deal, Squilli0! And look, no worries on things getting busy and having to take some time to get real life organized before falling back into your rhythm on dream work. Once you get your practices going again, you'll have it all back in no time.

I'm looking forward to hearing more! :goodjob2:

I've decided what I will focus on for the next two months!

I'm afraid I never gave WILD and WBTB techniques enough consideration. I can't decide which technique I'm best at until I've tried them all, so for now I may as well try to be as well rounded as possible. If I need more time after two months I will allow myself another month, and if by then I have not had reasonable success I will confirm that I'm utterly useless at WILD and move onto the next technique (Probably MILD).

WORBOOK UPDATE 4/7/13: DILD within a WILD, and dreams everywhere!

I started with the usual procedure; you know, sleeping. I woke up at 4:00AM, because I have recognised 5:00AM as my most vivid REM cycle. I timed it perfectly, and I exited towards the end of a few dreams I can remeber. I went to the toilet, had a drink and read a few pages of the nearest book. When I felt sleepy but aware, I stopped reading, blindfolded my eyes, and started LDHSW. I did this a lot better than before, and I was getting a lot of twitch signals and itches from my brain, but I ignored the majority of them, and after 10 minutes nothing had happened. I figured I was fidgeting too much, so I decided to pass the time by focusing on the swirling colours and shapes on the back of my eyelids in the darkness. A few minutes of this and I lost my memory, but not my consciousness. I can remember just after the LDHSW phase, and I remember feeling my body lock up into SP, but then I went into a sort of "grey area". I was still conscious, but I wasn't forming any memories. Having no dream to go into as I was not expecting to get that far, I quickly lost lucidity and started having normal dreams.

However, I did have one thing working in my favour. My WBTB had made my brain more prone to conscious thinking during REM, so while I was dreaming I felt suspicious enough to do an RC in my dream. I started with the ol' reliable method of counting fingers. It was a pretty convincing array of appendages, I had all 5 and none were deformed. I was about to move onto nose plugging before the pinky and ring finger on my left hand shortened at the first joint.

I'll explain the dream first, as I quite like it.
We started off in a random country in Europe, and my sister was driving me and her friends to Italy (I lived there for a year, might be significant) to meet up with our parents in Rome. We drove through several countries, and it was very scenic. We eventually got to Rome and we met our parents in a reaaaaally swanky hotel. It was like a mansion and we were in the penthouse apartment. I was walking around, and then I did a reality check.

I hadn't set my intention, so I ended up just pissing around, teleporting, flying, etc. I still think that this was successful, I set the foundations of future WILD's and had my first LD since returning to DV.