Wannabeotaku's Workbook

Alrighty then, here's my workbook, let's see what we've got to work with. :cheeky:

Reality Checks:
- Finger Through Hand
- Looking at my Watch
- Hand through Wall (very rarely used)

Dream Signs:
-None that I can think of off the top of my head.
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Short-Term Goals:
- Get better Dream Recall
-Have a lucid dream
-Wield magic in the dreams

Long-Term Goals:
- Lucid Dream at will
-Wander through the dream world and maybe even create something huge.
- Teach my friends

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- No lucid dreams, but I can sporadically remember my dreams. It's usually bits and pieces

Current Technique:
- I don't really have a set technique at this point. Planning on using WBTB in the next day or two and seeing where that takes me.

Welcome, wannabeotaku! Good to have you here.

Nice job on the workbook. I think that the first order of business is to begin growing your dream recall. It's the foundation for most of lucid dreaming and it'll help you discover your unique dream signs.

As soon as you can, get a bedside dream journal going and upon every waking, write down every dream or dream fragment that you can remember. It's also useful to mentally set the intent at bedtime to remember all of your dreams. I even write a note to this effect in my dream journal the night before. See if that doesn't begin to boost your recall a bit.

Anyhow, work through the lessons at your convenience and just keep us posted on your progress in your workbook. Lesson II gives a good overview of the available techniques, which should help you with your decision!

Will do. Quick question though, what is the best way to really get yourself to write in the journal when you wake up in the night. Thing is that I wake up a lot so I always get the feeling that if I were to start writing I might lose a lot of sleep. Probably not the case but that always seems to be my very brief thought process.

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Originally Posted by wannabeotaku

Will do. Quick question though, what is the best way to really get yourself to write in the journal when you wake up in the night. Thing is that I wake up a lot so I always get the feeling that if I were to start writing I might lose a lot of sleep. Probably not the case but that always seems to be my very brief thought process.

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Good question. My advice would be to experiment with this, starting first with fully writing out whatever dreams you can remember. It may not even be very much material. My early dreams are usually a bit abstract, shorter, and less vivid than the later stuff.

If you find that this is keeping you up for too long or troubling your sleep, writing down 3-5 keywords in the margin that will bring the dream back to you later is also good. Try to write these as clearly as you can! I sometimes screw up and write my keywords very unclearly.

Also, try not to expose yourself to too much light. I usually just get up, pee, and leave the bathroom light on when I'm done. I write in the dream journal outside of the bathroom in the semi-dark, with all of the illumination coming from the adjacent bathroom. After that, lights off, back to bed. It's a fast process unless the dreams have been especially vivid. (Or lucid!) :)

Edit: Also, if by "get yourself to write" you mean actually convincing yourself to do it, well... I'll admit I've fallen short before. The best advice I can give is to just do it. I had to learn for myself how important it was for my own recall, so that motivated me.

Alrighty then. Tonight I start fresh with this journal then.

:welcome:

Thanks for the welcome Paige :)

Welp, I've got some pretty alright recall goin'. Remembered about two dreams.

Great work, otaku! You are off to an excellent start. Dream recall will be your foundation and the main way that you "get to know" your dream life. (At least until you become lucid, at which point you'll really get to know your dream life!

Keep going with this and after a few days of consistent practice, a review of your dream journal will likely present some dream signs that you can use. Keep us posted on how things go!

^^^^ That's true, when you build up your dream recall you really get to know that wonderful world you go to every night.I hate to see all of those people missing that chance,not to mention missing the opportunity of lucid dreaming.luckily your not one of those so you better keep on dreaming.

Well,a little status report: My dreams seem to have been connected last night. Interesting stuff wondering that hasn't happened very often before. At least, not to the point where I can say one started where the other ended. It was a cool feeling.

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Originally Posted by wannabeotaku

Well,a little status report: My dreams seem to have been connected last night. Interesting stuff wondering that hasn't happened very often before. At least, not to the point where I can say one started where the other ended. It was a cool feeling.

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That sounds very encouraging, particularly since your recall was coming from a place where you remembered only sporadic bits and pieces. Dreams can have such sudden, unusual transitions that it can be hard to tell where one begins and another ends.

It's great that you are noticing this. If you start picking up on these transitions, really think about them and begin to learn what they're like. I've gotten lucid at least a couple of times because in-dream a weird transition jumped out at me and I said, "Oh I know this. That's a dream thing."

Hey there. Sorry I haven't said much in like a week. Thing is I haven't had much to report. Dreams keep fading away far before lead meets paper. On a more positive note I keep getting the feeling that the dreams kinda connect every night I remember as if trying to finish where they left off. Also noticing a lot of ruined cities in my dreams. Does that count as a dream sign?

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Originally Posted by wannabeotaku

Hey there. Sorry I haven't said much in like a week. Thing is I haven't had much to report. Dreams keep fading away far before lead meets paper. On a more positive note I keep getting the feeling that the dreams kinda connect every night I remember as if trying to finish where they left off. Also noticing a lot of ruined cities in my dreams. Does that count as a dream sign?

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Hey, don't worry about it at all!

And yes, that could be a possible dream sign for you. Are there any recurring events happening in those ruined cities too?

The only tip I can think of right now is that when you seem to have no recall, repeatedly try to 'demand' to you yourself that "I have to remember my dreams" or something along those lines. It kinda tells your mind that this is something you want and have to do, thereby placing more importance on remembering them. And when your bain remembers that that is important, you'll have better chances of improving your recall for real :D

Good luck :3

Yeah, I agree with Paige. The ruined cities are sounding like a good possibility for a dream sign. That's a theme that pops up for me sometimes as well, although it has been a little while. It would be a great setting to become lucid!

Since you are unlikely to see ruined cities walking around in your waking life, try to think, "I am dreaming" every time an image or thought of one goes through your head. Imagine yourself becoming lucid and think about what you would do immediately afterward.

Try out Paige's recall trick. It's not one I've heard before and I like it! I may use it myself. If you still have trouble getting recall going, we've got other ideas as well, so just keep us posted on how things go for you!

Alrighty then in the past two days, I've been slowly working back the dream recall to where it was before. I'm not completely there yet but given a few days I'll have worked myself back up to zero. :cheeky:

Sounds good! Care to share any dreams with the group? :P It's ok if you don't want to, but it can help your recall if you discuss your dreams with others. It can also help us help you pinpoint possible dream signs. :)

Sure. Do I just write in the online dream journal?

Yeah if you want to! It's really cool because others can read it (if you want), and post comments and stuff. Obviously you can leave private ones out of it. I have one on there, to break the ice :P

Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - OpheliaBlue - Dream Journals

Alrighty then, there goes my first entry into the dream journal. I'll try to add at least one thing every day. Gotta say though, Paige's suggestion is really helpin' me out. That, along with writing those couple of keywords, as Canis suggested, let me remember the dream a lot better. Thanks guys =]

My very first entry for those who are interested :cheeky:

Good!! It looks like you've gone from 0 recall to remembering detail on a pretty darn exciting dream. I like where this is going!

One tantalizing bit for me was the description you gave to the cop that one particular location in your dream was a "mindscape". (How right you were!) That's an exciting little piece for sure.

Nice work!

Thanks! Let's see if I can get some more out of my dreams tonight. It'll be interesting to see just where this goes.

Well, things were certainly interesting, I'll give my brain that.

Right, so I decided to meditate today in order to get ready for some induction methods. When I was done I got the weirdest feeling. Kinda like I was sick. My body felt heavy and breathing would turn into hyperventilation every so often. But the weirdest thing was that my mind felt completely overwhelmed. Took me like a minute to recover. Thoughts on this?

That's a strange experience. I am not the best person to talk about meditation but maybe you could tell us a little more about how you were meditating.

I just had some white noise in the background, turned out all the lights, sat down, and cleared my mind.

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Originally Posted by wannabeotaku

Right, so I decided to meditate today in order to get ready for some induction methods. When I was done I got the weirdest feeling. Kinda like I was sick. My body felt heavy and breathing would turn into hyperventilation every so often. But the weirdest thing was that my mind felt completely overwhelmed. Took me like a minute to recover. Thoughts on this?

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I had a very similar experience in August. I wrote everything down in my DJ Entry 8-19-12...

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I went to bed at about 3am. Usually I sleep on my side or stomach. Instead I decided to try sleeping on my back. It felt like I wasnt getting enough air so i began breathing deeper. After a couple minutes I became really nauseous. So much that I had to switch to my side in order to prevent myself from vomiting. It took me a while to level out my breathing. Once it was level again, I began hearing a ton of audio hallucinations. There was this really strong undertow energy pulling my stomach down. This feeling is familiar but its been a very long time since I felt them. Usually, these feelings would cause terrifying SP, and HH. Understandable, I got really freaked out. I just started humming to myself to remain level headed, something I also used as a young child.

I couldnt sleep at all so I got up and wrote a post on DV. Then I turned up my music and played a DV podcast at the same time so I could hear some human voices. I ended up laying in bed for another 30 mins. The podcast ended and I began speaking a mantra in my mind. My eyes were closed and my mind was getting very sleepy. Suddenly, I heard a noise as loud as a ban saw right next to my ear. I realize I am entering SP and get slightly excited. I open my eyelids, realize I opened them, yet my SP only slipped for a second. I slowly closed my eyelids again, and let the SP feeling envelop me. I could feel the vibrations smoothing out and the feeling of the dream state pouring over my mind. I did remember dreaming immediately after that although my recall lost them. That was in my deep sleep cycle.

I learned the techniques of dream yoga from the yogas of dream and sleep. The author spoke about awareness experiences of all kinds regarding dreams and waking life. He spoke of being able to retain awareness into the dream state from going to sleep at night. This used to happen to me when I was young but this was the first time it happened since I started my lucid practice again. It was such a crazy experience, wow. I wasnt sure if it was real at first, I checked my phone to see what time it was just to make sure and the alarm i had set hadnt got off yet. Very cool experience, despite the bi-polar feelings.

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So. When I laid down, I was on my back. I usually sleep on my stomach, but that night I wanted to try to up my awareness by sleeping on my back. As I lay there, it felt like my breathing wasnt doing enough and I ended up hyperventilating. I have tried hyperventilation exercises before so I tried to ride it out. However, I became so nauseous that I had to lay on my side. At that point, my body felt super heavy, like it was being pulled down a tube, voices everywhere, and the mental energy was intensely chaotic.
My personal opinion is that the brain was probably shifting in some way while we were still fully awake. Its like SP without the paralysis. When I was young, this turned into a butt load of pre-lsleep HH.
I am sure there is a way to maintain that state without having a negative reaction, but being partly asleep already when it happens helps. Anytime you maintain that awareness you are going to experience unusual things. The sick feeling reminded me a lot of vertigo actually. Having the entirety of the material world dissolve in front of you can be an interesting experience.
:rockon:

Holy crap that's almost exactly how things went for me a few days ago. Funnily enough, I tried recreating the event yesterday but got nothin' heh. :D

Ill see what i can do with it tonight. Coincidentally Ive been refreshing myself on the awareness practices the Tibetan Dream Yoga teaches. It seems to be a combination of deep, measured breathing, mixed with total relaxation. The dream yoga practice talks about breaths of preparation that are supposed to put your mind into a certain place. Its kind of a like other meditation practices but you do them while laying down.
One thing the book mentions is that if you are having trouble with this on your back, you can try some alternative positions. One is using several pillows to prop up your back to a semi sitting position. You can also try propping your head just a little and crossing your legs. These positions usually lead to waking up pretty often. In the practice, it is recommended that you switch positions every 2-3 hrs. There is a prescribed set of sleep awakening, and posture changes that a student of Tibetan Dream Yoga must accomplish as a basic starting point to their awareness practice.
My biggest hurdle so far has been relaxation. Switching positions constantly has been what I have done for years, and attempting to be still while relaxing is very difficult. It is suggested that you count your breaths as you fall asleep to maintain focus. The same kind of mind discipline in meditation is required in dream yoga.
They are a little different however, and everyone has a different approach. These things tend to come naturally to one who is allowing themselves to try new things. At the same time, don't give in to discouragement just because you may fail. Do the same practice several times before switching. This builds patience and relaxation.
Anyways, Ive rambled a bit too much...hope that helps a bit. Awareness can be tricky.

Relaxation is a bit weird for me for some reason I can't really do it...

Wow, it's almost been a month since I last posted. Sorry for the hiatus. College life can get a tad hectic. As for my progress, I gotta say, haven't made too much leeway into getting lucid but my dream recall is getting pretty amazing. I decided that using a recorder made the whole process easier since I could write it all down in my dream journal later. So, it's kinda like a two pronged attack for remembering dreams. Still haven't figured anything for realizing I'm in a dream though, so I'm gonna go ahead and try at least one of the methods... Perhaps DILD... I need to read up a lot more on that before I can do much with it.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention That I actually am starting to notice some recurring things in my dreams. Mostly a much bigger version of high school, violence, New York City (I go to a school in New Jersey), my college mixed with my old high school, the colors are so much more vivid sometimes in my dreams than in real life, other times the dreams are incredibly dark, going back to my college mixing with my school, a lot of places seem to just blend together like a mall and a city or my college and a mall etc., Oh, and silent hill seems to get mentioned a lot in my dreams that's fun stuff (except for the one time I was actually there that was less fun)

Hey, no worries at all. It's great to hear your recall is going great.

I see you're interested in DILDing. Might I suggest MILD? Since it's a subtype of DILD, your chances might increase if you do some mantras to help you get lucid, rather than doing the regular DILD where you just wait for random lucidity. It doesn't require much preparation too, so that's also nice.

Oh, and I have the same dream signs as you. I always dream of my current school, and when I go through doors, or even just walk along, it suddenly morphs into my old school. Haha!

Good luck!

Hmm... Mantras did help dream recall significantly, so yeah, I'll go for MILD. It'll be fun. :)

One tip on mantras:

I have found that just saying a mantra, no matter how powerful the accompanying emotion, is still limited in its power. A more effective approach is to say a mantra while using experience to make the mantra real. For example:

My mantra is "I will remember my dreams"...As you say this, not only use emotion to believe wholeheartedly in the mantra but also remember times when you have remembered your dreams. Remember that experience of recall. This will help make the mantra very real. And it can work with other mantras like "I will lucid dream" or "I will be aware". Remembering previous experiences related to the mantra really seems to help make the intention very focused.

Lookin forward to seeing more of your progress! :)

I dunno if I can go full experience on a mantra since I haven't been lucid... At least not at any point I can remember. That being said, any mantras that have worked out particularly well for you guys?

Side Note: As of the past few weeks I've begun to notice my dreams taking a turn for the violent. I'm not at all sure what to make of this, or if I should make anything if it at all. Thoughts?

My personal favorite is a pretty simple one. It goes, "I will be lucid and aware", "I will remember my dreams", and thinking those two phrases alternately as you breath. One phrase is said on the inhale, the other on the exhale. I say it in my head of course but I make sure to hear my voice in my head.

Finding what works for you in the important thing. It is something that will make you remember, so whatever that is works. You can say "I will dream about (insert location) tonight"..."when I dream, I will eat fudge brownies on Mars"....Whatever engenders that feeling of intention for future action. Mantras are assistants in creating feeling. The feeling I go for is determination to do future actions. In this case to lucid dream.

When you are in line to buy a tasty treat, there is anticipation for whatever is coming. There is a determined future outcome in your mind and that is why you are standing in this line. There is an intention to purchase a tasty treat. That feeling is important for mantras...anyway, hope that makes sense.

Always be positive. Before sleep, when you wake up, always take some time to feel positive. This will increase your recall, lucidity, and improve dream experience. That simple augmentation of emotional orientation can color the entire days activities as well as nights activities.
:)

So, I was asleep last night and I think I got lucid. I was at a subway and I see a living giraffe plushie and I think to myself "Giraffe plushie? I must be dreaming." The giraffe disappeared and it was as though nothing much changed. Only there were several moments where I aced as though this were a dream and I had AMAZING recall.

Happy new year, all. Came with a status report. Couple nights ago I got lucid for a few seconds, even got myself to fly for a bit, before spinning out of control and waking up. Haven't quite been able to replicate the event as of yet, but I'm hopeful now that I know that becoming lucid is doable and feels far more awesome than imagined. I went for a combo of mantras and WBTB, relying a lot less on my reality checks. Gonna keep going for this to see how it works.

P.S. I actually forgot to ask, but is there such a thing as fake lucidity?

fake lucidity, yes!

There can be a lot of gray area when it comes to this...There are several levels of awareness to lucidity. There is also the possibility that you could have a dream which seems to be lucid, but is not. I have had dreams where I will feel amazing and be telling myself that I am lucid. Then I wake up and realize that I was in fact, not lucid. The differentiation comes with experience, so just feel it out, and use your best judgment. :)

Well then, that's certainly something to take into account. In the meantime time to continue working on my lucidity.

Wow, has it really been 5 months? I'm really sorry I haven't updated in so long. College can be a bit hectic sometimes. Anyway, given that a good night's sleep wasn't all that usual for me in college it's pretty safe to assume that I didn't get too much in the way of dream recall and lucidity. That is until the last month or so when I got back home and have been getting sufficient sleep. Recall is back to alright levels. I just need to remember to record to my dreams. That said, I think I have enough recall to remember when I get lucid and I've been trying to induce Lucid Dreams. One problem though. Everything I try pretty much keeps me awake, be it FILD (for context, I tried FILD for an hour and stayed awake the whole time), or just regular WILD. And when it doestn' keep me awake I peter out somewhere and forget the whole thing 'cause I'm so sleepy. I'd go for MILD but the problem with that is I don't remember to do my reality checks and, well, even if I manage to notice that something's wonky, I just kinda go through my dream as though I've lost sight of my goal. So, any advice on this? Particularly where FILD is concerned since I've heard good things about it.

Welcome back! Well if you're determined on going with FILD, I'm assuming you're doing WBTB already with it. I would suggest experimenting with the amount of time you sleep before waking up. Do this also for the amount of time you stay up before doing the attempt. In most cases, those two are the most important factors that make you too awake/too sleepy. Perhaps decrease the time you sleep beforehand?

Also, don't worry, college and life in general can be reaaaally hectic. As long as you don't completely forget the basics and still try to place important on your dreams, you can always be in good shape for lucid dreaming :)

Hello again all. So, I've taken the last couple of weeks to do some work on the whole dream recall think sine it was starting to slip. Thankfully I'm gaining it by just recording my dreams on my phone, as opposed to writing them all down. I may get back into writing them later but this is a pretty good method, i figure. I think I may have figured out one of my dream signs. As it turns out I fight a lot in my dreams. They're not terrifying or anything, in fact, I always seem to revel in it, but it happens that I fight quite a bit in my dreams. I've also gotten in the habit of taking fish oil since I've heard that helps with the whole dream recall thing. Now, here's a question, I've looked at a lot of methods that generally mention setting an alarm for 4-6 hours after you fall asleep. The problem is my sleep pattern is erratic in that once I put my head on the pillow, it'll take me anywhere from 10 minutes to about an hour and a half to sleep. As such, what would be the best way to set the alarms? In fact, if I could get a breakdown of the whole alarms thing that would be much appreciated. In the meantime, I'm gonna continue to work on the dream recall. G'night all.

One question before everything else: are you trying to get your sleeping schedule fixed/decent?
I think if you don't have a decent enough sleep sched, the alarm thing (WBTB) won't really be helpful since it relies on interrupting your REM sleep *insert technical stuff here hehe*, and if you have a very erratic schedule that's just all over the place, there won't be any REM to figure out, really. Does that make sense? I suggest establishing a (semi)ndecent sleep schedule first, you can try by going to bed at roughly the same time every night. Once you get a nice routine going, I am sure you will have much better success at doing WBTB (Wake Back to Bed).

Or, in the mean time, as you're figuring that out, you can take naps! Naps are great, as you fall directly into REM, and you dont have to wake up after 4-6 hours. :3

Check this out: WBTB Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Hope this clears things up a bit, cheers!

Huh, now that you mention it, my sleep schedule is incredibly erratic. This may be the answer to so many of my problems! Thanks Paige!

Sure thing, lemme know how it goes!

Hey there, so, I figured I'd go on with a sorta status report. Still got a bit of a crazy sleep schedule, but it's getting better. Should work on my dream recall again, since I've been neglecting my dream journal. That said, I think I may be getting a bit closer to lucidity since it seems that I at least somewhat acknowledge that I'm in a dream, I just seem to going on autopilot when I do. That and I seem to focus on keeping the dream stable so there's that.

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Originally Posted by wannabeotaku

Hey there, so, I figured I'd go on with a sorta status report. Still got a bit of a crazy sleep schedule, but it's getting better. Should work on my dream recall again, since I've been neglecting my dream journal. That said, I think I may be getting a bit closer to lucidity since it seems that I at least somewhat acknowledge that I'm in a dream, I just seem to going on autopilot when I do. That and I seem to focus on keeping the dream stable so there's that.

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Not bad! Try to repeat and recall your goals throughout the day to really set them in your mind. That way when you get lucid you'll have stronger memories of it, and hopefully that can help make you more mindful of what to do instead of going along with the plot. Also don't forget to do your reality checks maybe twice so you really really wonder about it. That simple habit could help you reach full lucidity, since if you double check yourself, you get more of that "i really am dreaming!" feeling.

So, I just had an almost-breakthrough. Decided that I'd try to get into some sleep paralysis to springboard into lucid dreaming. After laying perfectly still for what seemed like an eternity, my arms felt heavy, though I'm sure I could have moved them, and my breathing felt just a tad bit more forced. Then, as soon as it started, it stopped but I didn't start dreaming or anything. Perhaps I thought too much about what the sensations mean, such that I woke myself up, but that sucked. Now, the last time I was in sleep paralysis, my breathing felt a lot more shallow, my heart was racing so maybe last night I was just on the cusp of paralysis. Thoughts? Advice? I really feel like I'm getting close to a breakthrough.