Quietness's Workbook

Reading Sageous' WILD technique, I think this may be a reason for my relapse:

Quote:

---

Meditation is always an excellent tool for awareness, but it can be difficult to master and, in my opinion, tends to build goals unto itself that might obscure or supersede your LD targets.

---

I've been using meditation for self-awareness, but maybe it created a different goal because of my reading of various Buddhist materials. Maybe I should practice it separately from my LD practices? On the other hand, my last LD ended with the result that I did meditate during my LD (which was a goal I intended).

Note to self:

- Will be practicing reverse RC as described in Sageous' WILD technique for this week.
- I will also work on dream recall.
- No particular technique aimed at LD for now.

I made it SNOW! <3 I completed two basic TOTM (even though I really don't want the other one (-____-)).

Dream: Snow Making and a Christmas Song

I failed the advanced TOTM, though. I can't even fly. (T_T) A usual problem for me in my dreams.

Good dream recall this afternoon. Also read a weird real-world news that seems to correspond with the dream.

Have you tried using a portal to reach the northern lights? That way you can bypass the whole flying thing.
Congrats again on the snow TOTM. I love how popular it has been http://fourthirds-user.com/forum/ima...smiley-035.gif

Thank you, Ophelia! (^_^) It's a FANTASTIC idea! Rather than losing lucidity, the TOTM gave me a certain focus for the LD. I think that was the longest LD I ever had, because I had a goal.

No, I haven't tried using a portal. Thank you for the suggestion! I think I'm better at portals than I am with flying in dreams. (>_<) Although I really want to fly. I think the last successful flight I ever had was when I was riding a dragon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by quietness

Thank you, Ophelia! (^_^) It's a FANTASTIC idea! Rather than losing lucidity, the TOTM gave me a certain focus for the LD. I think that was the longest LD I ever had, because I had a goal.

---

You're welcome :) I know that I personally have accomplished SO much more in my lucid dreams when I've had either had a TOTM on my mind, or even just a set of my own goals that I pre-memorized in waking life.

Quote:

---

No, I haven't tried using a portal. Thank you for the suggestion! I think I'm better at portals than I am with flying in dreams. (>_<) Although I really want to fly. I think the last successful flight I ever had was when I was riding a dragon.

---

Oh well cool, that's another great idea! Fly on a dragon, or Pegasus, or get a jet-pack.. whatever gets you into the atmosphere :happy:

Awesome! (^_^) So it doesn't have to be on my own? I'll try it!

Meanwhile, my dream recall is on a roll, just as long as I don't try dividing my attention between dream recall and attempts at LD, I think. (>_<)

This afternoon's dream includes a waiter-assassin, who wasn't very good at it.

I will not consciously attempt LDs this week until Monday. I will focus on fixing my dream recall. I will still practice Triple Gem (morning and night), zhine breathing (morning and night), 9 purification breathing (before sleep), and reverse RC/ADA.

I try to do reverse RC/ADA every hour, but time often flies when I'm just in front of the computer working, when one hour to the next I don't make a lot of changes. It's a different matter when I am outside, though. The breeze, the fresh sights and sounds almost immediately throw me into an ADA.

I was able to do 9 purification breathing and dream recall quite okay. The zhine breathing meditation was tricky, and my mind tends to jump around. I had better experience with focusing on the earth-touching Buddha, but then during that time I was also able to do ADA almost every hour that I was awake. I'm not sure if the challenges was because I shifted from the Tibetan Yoga book to reading the Just Be Good booklets, or something completely psychological on my end.

Plan of action:

- I will continue with 9 purification breathing, zhine breathing meditation, and reverse RC/ADA for another week to see how it fares
- For LD, I will do WBTB WILD: I will wake up around 4-6 hours after sleeping, stay up for 45 minutes, and go back to sleep while observing HI.
- If there's no improvement, I will go back to focusing on the earth-touching Buddha from the zhine breathing, cancel reverse RC, and read Tibetan Yoga every night for 15-30 minutes before sleeping. Continue LD WBTB WILD.

I hope I can still make it for the December Advanced TOTM. (>_<)

I forgot I was supposed to do zhine breathing still, and changed to focusing. My ADA immediately improved. I guess my change to breathing was the culprit. Will go back to focusing now. I wasn't able to do WBTB because I had to work.

So now my sched is:

- ADA
- focusing on ETB (earth-touching Buddha)
- 9 purification breathing
- WBTB after 4-6 hours (question whether I am awake or in a dream)
- go back to sleep after 45 minutes
- WILD focusing on HI

God, I haven't updated this in a long time. I missed the TOTMs too. Well, now's a good time as any to get back.

Presently doing meditation into sleep (Sam Harris' 26-minute mindfulness meditation). Not much else as I've been busy learning a lot of other stuff (parkour, Español, Deutsch, Coursera stuff), but I plan to experiment with melatonin soon. Strange thing is that when I search for melatonin here, people use it with other stuff. The people I've personally talked to, on the other hand, didn't need to; they had vivid dreams, if not lucid dreams.

My schedule has been wonky lately, and is still going to be in the next few weeks due to overtime (willingly done for extra moolah). I've been sleeping at various hours, e.g. 3 a.m. to 12 nn, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., 12 mn to 10 a.m., etc., all in a span of a week. So yeah, wonky. I've also been trying to stabilize my gym schedule. I was thinking of doing it after I wake up (supposedly 6 a.m.).

As per my dream goals, I listed them here.

In short:

Test 1: Melatonin alone, no other practices, e.g. meditation or WILD techniques. Sleep before 12 mn.
Test 2: Melatonin with meditation before sleeping.
Test 3: Melatonin with WILD technique.
Test 4: Melatonin with LD-related alarm.

The next tests are the same except that I sleep at different times. I've had quite vivid dreams when the sun is up, either morning or afternoon (though most if not all of my SPs happen during the afternoon).

I plan to do each test (e.g. Test 1) maximum of twice each week as taking too much melatonin might accumulate and skew the results. I planned to start by Wednesday, August 6, but maybe Monday (August 4) won't be too bad.

I was unimpressed with my first use of melatonin.

Dream here.

Next, I'll try melatonin + meditation.

Hey quietness! Welcome back! Did you do any inductions techniques with the melatonin? It might help to do some mild pre bed, focus on expecting to have an ld and then strengthen the intention during a wbtb later on.

For this one, I didn't. I'm planning to do meditation with the next one though.

Just a bit frustrated because people I know who've tried even just 1mg of melatonin claim to have experienced vivid, if not lucid, dreams. :/

I'll try the next one within the week with meditation, and then after that the MILD and WBTB. Thanks for the suggestion! :)

I recently got very frustrated with a lucid dream where I know I was dreaming but still couldn't go through the wall or fly out. It wasn't the first time this kind of thing happened: Lucid: Cannot Escape.

Hey congrats on the ld! :) I've also come across some phasing issues in a number of dreams. One was actually quite funny as I tried to phase through a table but just hit it hard and turned it over and made a big mess. Sometimes the things we want to do may not work in a dream, but we should not allow ourselves be overcome with frustration. The best thing to do is keep on trying and especially to treat each dream as a fresh beginning, where we are confident that whatever we want to achieve will work. :goodjob2:

Thanks! :) I get to fly/float once in a while, but it usually happens in a non-lucid dream. Phasing, on the other hand, seems to be a different matter. I remember one dream where I tried to phase but got stuck in the wall. (T_T)

Anyway, I'm recently working with Tibetan Dream Yoga, but not the practice yet. I'm still reading the book. My recent dream: Red Cloaks and Robots.