Nightingale's Workbook

Reality Checks:
- finger counting
- trying to 'see' a symbol on a bracelet
- checking clocks
- when allergy season is over i'll try the nose plugging thing. would give too many failed checks atm.

Dream Signs:
- dead people
- telekinesis
- flying
- smoking cigarettes

Short-Term Goals:
- become more flexible with dream recall (everything shouldn't need to be 'perfect' when i wake up)


Long-Term Goals:
- be able to induce LDs whenever/
- LD at least 3x/week

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- a lot of LDs when a child. DILDs induced by nightmares. they stopped when i was around 8. i was still (and occasionally still do) able to DEILD, but i had never considered that a true LD - it always feels more like i'm designing a world instead of exploring one... feels fake. have had a few DILDs in the last 5 or so years, but they were short either because of waking up excited i went lucid or quickly loosing lucidity.

Current Technique:
- Trying to remember to practice being AWARE and in my body.

Good looking workbook so far, if you have any questions feel free to PM me or any of the other apprentices. Welcome to the class! :welcome:

Welcome Nightingale :) Nice workbook!

So you say in those DILDs in the last 5 years, they were really short and you woke up too soon. Do you remember what you did in them? Also, what was it about the DEILDs you had that made you feel like they didn't qualify as a lucid dream? What is because you didn't really ever partake in the scene you were designing? I think that's what you meant, I was just asking to be clear.

thank you ^_^

i don't have a stable natural sleep schedule. from what i've been able to tell when i'm not trying to mess with it at all it cycles. like i'm running on a 25/26 hour day instead of a 24/25 one. i've been trying to force a stable schedule - succeeded for a month or two then flipped. dawn does help wake me though, so i'm trying to wake up around then (or by 9 if that fails). going to sleep somewhere between 10 and midnight (no earlier than 8).. later if i'm out. i've had natural wakes anywhere from 3-4.5 hours into sleep.

um... no. might be the case in some situations, but i was participating in others... when i do the DEILD i become aware of my body (which is what makes me lucid). i sometimes loose this awareness, but either way it sets up in my mind that i'm just daydreaming. having a bit of visualization fun. the awareness of the location of my body and the knowledge that it would be exceedingly easy to rouse seems to take away from the immersive experience of the lucidity. loosing that awareness is difficult and even when it happens i have the memory of it within the dream.

as for the recent lucids i remembered them at the time, but no longer. i might have written one or two of them down... ah! found one - i was practicing my telepathy and remembered doing it before. i wondered why i hadn't been practicing it more - had the sensation of a long time since i tried this last and it was so easy and fun. i then remembered that the last time i was doing this was in a dream and AHA! lucidity. i then brought my consciousness up and out to ensure i didn't forget this (it was early on in my sleep - fairly deep and would probably have been lost otherwise). when i went back to sleep i don't believe i was even dreaming.

so... i dreamed i was lucid last night. not sure if it was a true lucid that i quickly lost or really just a 'dreamed i was lucid' situation. i didn't get that 'aha!' moment that snaps me conscious and didn't really question my environment. simply assumed and went with it. i had been repeatedly checking a screwed up clock.

Well, I get that too sometimes. It's like I know I'm dreaming but I don't care enough to change much or make any decisions. I just seem to flow with the dream. I think there are different levels of lucidity and there seems to be kind of a gray area for some people but it's really simple; If you knew you were dreaming then you were lucid. Either way it's a good sign. Congrats. :thumbup:

Tried experimenting with peppermint tea last night. Led to an awful nightmare - very vivid, but no lucidity (less you count that .2 seconds when I woke myself up). When I woke up from the nightmare I swore I wouldn't try that again, but looking back on it it really did seem to enhance the vividness of my dreams. Don't think this will be as helpful as could be wished for lucidity, but still an enhancement I'd like to play around with again. Maybe Calea Zacatechichi tonight.

Too bad you got a nightmare from peppermint tea. That's one of my favorite dream enhancers. It never helps me to get lucid but it does make the lucids better. Do you think it was the menthol that caused the bad dream or something else?

I have no idea what sparked the nightmare. The goriest thing i watch is the walking dead, and its been over for a few weeks. I was inclined to blame it on the tea, but from what I've read from the Menthol forum it doesn't seems to induce nightmares. I think I'm just going to take a break from dream poking over the weekend and get back at it Monday.

If you're interested in playing around with supplements, I'd really recommend mugwort tea. Its not very expensive either. If you're in a fairly big city, all you have to do is find your nearest New Age-y shop, maybe a head shop will have it. Might have to order it online, but it should still be very cheap for a whole lot of it.

When you make it, make sure to actually let it boil for a little while. Boiling it wont hurt the active ingredient (thujone) at all. Or, if you prefer, you can roll it up and smoke it. It has a really herbal taste when smoked. As a tea, it just tastes kinda grassy. Not good, not bad.

Edit: And dont drink it too often. Maybe a couple times a week. Thujone is fairly harmless, but consistent long term use can cause a toxic build up.

I've had a lot of success with mugwort but I limit myself to once per week.

thanks for the suggestion - i'll pick some up next time i'm at my local apothecary. ^_^ hell, i think my metaphysical store actually has mugwort and its a lot closer. i just wish they carried things like calea zacatechichi so i didn't have to order them online. *still* haven't managed to try my calea and I've had it for over a month.