Thread: Wannabeotaku's Workbook

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

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.

Sounds good! Care to share any dreams with the group? 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

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

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.