Thread: 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 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

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).

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.

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)

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).

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.

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!!

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?

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

Originally Posted by Squilli0

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

Your world. Your rules.

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 .

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 ) LD chain. If I have an LD for the 4th night I will be gobsmacked .

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.