FriendlyFace's workbook

Reality Checks:
-gravity check
-try to pull off body parts
-rearrange teeth with tongue

Dream Signs:
-abnormal physics (jumping very high or floating, no friction on surfaces)
-being in a mall or fast food restaurant (I rarely visit such places in real life, but frequently in my dreams)
-being on a high school or college campus
-people speaking english (only applicable until I'm back in the US)
-smoking cigarettes (I quit in real life)
-seeing people I don't really know anymore
-driving a car (also only applicable until I'm back home)
-inappropriate weather
-aliens or zombies
-the ocean
-lack of social anxiety
-funky things happening in the sky

Short-Term Goals:
-do a WILD
-get back to where I was with DILD
-write a song in a dream and remember it when I wake up

Long-Term Goals:
-be more in touch with my subconscious
-be more present and aware in waking life

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
-until about a month ago I had been lucid dreaming for a year with no conscious effort on my part. I would become lucid at least once per week, usually more often than that. Since then I've made some pretty drastic lifestyle changes for the sake of my health, and haven't become lucid at all recently. I think perhaps a more deliberate approach might be what I need to get me back on track. I still remember at least one pretty long dream per night and try to write in my dream journal every day (I don't put all of my journal entries in the journal on this site). I think I almost WILDed by accident once, I was lying in bed with my eyes closed and suddenly I was looking up at the sky but as soon as I thought "wait I was just lying in bed.. this is a dream!" some fireworks or something went off in the sky and I woke up immediately. I remember thinking that the fact that I was pressing my feet against the wall the whole time had something to do with it... the sensation seemed to serve as a kind of launch pad. I'll probably pursue that.

Current Technique:
DILD
Going to start trying to WILD

Hi Face! Sorry for the delayed comment to your workbook, the end of the month is busiest for me around here.

Anyway, I really like that launch pad thing you did. It probably served as an anchor to help you get lucid. I've had experiences where I'm dreaming, then I suddenly go "Oh hey, I was JUST lying in bed not 4 seconds ago tryign to go back to sleep. BOOM lucid."

I get funky sky and ocean dream signs too. Like tornados, weeeird ones lol. Anyway, good that you got a dream journal going. Are you going to practice a WBTB to help you with your WILD endeavors? That seems to help the most.

No problem, I'm in no hurry :cheeky: became sort of lucid last night. I was in a grocery store with no bathrooms and I had to pee, so I had to get back home quick but the lines were super long and I hadn't done any shopping yet. I just went to the front of the line and was able to make the items I needed (beer, frozen pizza, and a loaf of bread) appear in my hands at the checkout. I think I knew it was a dream to some extent because everything became very fuzzy and distant while I was in the parking lot looking for my car, and I knew I had to concentrate to bring it back. By the time I found my car I had lost any semblance of lucidity, but the dream was quite vivid again and got a lot more interesting from there.

No luck on the WILDing front. I do wake up three or four times every morning, but I'm generally too exhausted to do anything other than use the bathroom/roll over and go right back to sleep. This is definitely when I have most of my dreams though.

Hah! Pee dreams. Did you have to go in real life, just wondering? I find it really interesting how outside senses affect our dreams, lucid or otherwise.

Anyway, on your WILDing attempts: you say you're waking up several times. What times I'm curious? And how many hours sleep are you getting total?

I don't think I had to go in real life, at least not badly since the feeling went away after I was out in the parking lot. I sometimes have to pee in a dream when I have to pee in real life. Other times I'll be able to pee in a dream and the feeling will go away. It's not infrequent that I'll have dreams where I'm looking for a toilet but unable to find one, or I'll find one but it'll be out in the open or something. I messed up my bladder in college with too many dissociatives and it's still not completely better, which is probably the reason for those dreams. I generally feel a lot more secure if I know there's a bathroom nearby.

I usually go to bed around 5 am and wake up around 7-8, 10, and 12. One of those times is usually to go to the bathroom, the others are usually due to my roommate making noise, the cat, or noises outside my window (I live in a pretty busy part of town). I wake up for good at around 2 pm.

Hiiii

Kinda late but welcome to the class! :D

Thanks paigeyemps! I became lucid twice last night. The first time I was on an athletic field at my old school. The field was covered in dandelions. I was doing flips and stuff and at one point I thought to myself "I wonder if I could do this in real life?" which made me realize that I was dreaming. I jumped up and started flying around, one fist outstretched like superman. At one point I lost focus and woke up, but I was able to dive right back in. I realized that I was losing focus when I got to parts of the campus that I didn't remember properly, or tried to leave the campus. It was pretty cool to observe the process actually, everything would go all black and white or fuzzy and I'd be like AH gotta concentrate! I was sitting on a roof trying to think of someplace else I could fly to that I remember, but thinking about other places made me lose focus completely and the dream ended.

The second time I was driving in a car somewhere with my dad, and I think I just remembered that I had had a lucid dream earlier and figured out that I was probably dreaming again. I tried to blow up the houses along the road as we went by (yeah I'm a douche I know) but I couldn't make it happen. I lost lucidity when we got to where we were going. I actually told a friend there that "I had two lucid dreams last night" but that didn't trigger anything.

The dandelion field dream was probably one of the most lucid dreams I've ever had. Like where I was closest to my waking mind-state. That's probably why I had to concentrate so much. Last night I didn't take my supplements before bed (magnesium, vitamin B, and I think it was a melatonin night) and I drank a little less a liter of gin. It's kind of annoying because the lucid dreams I've been having recently have all been on nights when I've been drinking, and I'm really trying to stop drinking. I'm going to try three days on one day off with the supplements, to see if maybe they put me in a deeper sleep and then when I don't take them I sleep more lightly and am closer to consciousness or something. I also had three very long and memorable dreams that as far as I can tell had nothing to do with the lucid ones.

Lucid again last night. This time it was a nightmare (first one I've had in years). I was lost in a house that kept making weird noises and sending people who looked like friends/relatives to try and kill me. I became lucid but was unable to control anything... tried to put my hand through a wall to see if maybe I could just walk out of the house through the walls but it wouldn't go. I tried to fly through the ceiling but I just hit my head. The only way I was able to wake up was by jumping from a high balcony. Every time I become lucid it's got nothing to do with my reality checks, I just realize "hey this stuff doesn't happen." I don't think I've managed to do a single reality check in my dreams for months.

Congratulations! Wowwww so many lucids :D Being lucid spontaneously is a good thing, it means your awareness is getting better since you innately recognize it could be a dream. As for the dream control, dont worry about, it will get better with practice since you'll get used to interacting with your dream the more you get lucid. Have you read this yet? Dream Stabilization and Clarity Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Thanks for that link, those look some nifty techniques - the hard part is remembering to do that kind of stuff while I'm asleep! I was lucid AGAIN last night, I must be on some kind of roll. I was in a train station when I became lucid, and spent a good chunk of time trying to fly, but just ended up sliding long distances on the floor. Then someone came up to me and I don't remember what they said, but they explained something to me and I became much more lucid and was able to fly. After that the dream only lasted maybe ten seconds. It seems the more lucid I am the more focus it takes to stay in the dream. I assume that's normal yeah? The more "awake" you are the harder it is to stay asleep?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FriendlyFace

It seems the more lucid I am the more focus it takes to stay in the dream. I assume that's normal yeah? The more "awake" you are the harder it is to stay asleep?

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I think it may be that, just backwards: like, you are approaching the time that you would naturally wake up anyway, which results in more awareness in the lucid. But that's why it's handy that you were able to DEILD ( = "dive back" into the dream that one time you mentioned). Still, if it happens close to when you naturally wake up, then the price can be a shortened experience.

An obvious solution would be to try to have lucid dreams earlier in your sleep cycle, while learning to increase the awareness with various methods. That way you have both: high lucid level, longer dream. One way to go about this is to WBTB. Basically set your alarm for 5 hours after you fall asleep. Then when you wake up, instead of just peeing and going back to bed and immediately passing out, you stay up for a bit doing stuff to elevate your awareness. Then you can WILD, or do like you've been doing and have a spontaneous DILD. The latter for you would probably be pretty damn attainable, since you mentioned that you were able to become lucid once because you remembered while in the new dream that you had just woken up from a lucid dream a little bit ago (I do that alot, it's great!).

Anyway, I just hit you with a ton of stuff, but definitely think about it. And congratulations big time on your lucid streak!!! You know, instead of defaulting to the flying when you get lucid, why not attempt one of the Tasks of the Month next time? It's a great way to bump up your mind for a couple reasons, 1.) it forces you to recall a task that you have pre-memorized from waking life, and 2.) it gives you a single task (whether basic or advanced) to focus on, which helps keep your mind sharp and aware in the lucid. They're really fun and we do them every month. Anyway, here they are: Task of the Month

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

An obvious solution would be to try to have lucid dreams earlier in your sleep cycle, while learning to increase the awareness with various methods. That way you have both: high lucid level, longer dream. One way to go about this is to WBTB. Basically set your alarm for 5 hours after you fall asleep. Then when you wake up, instead of just peeing and going back to bed and immediately passing out, you stay up for a bit doing stuff to elevate your awareness. Then you can WILD, or do like you've been doing and have a spontaneous DILD. The latter for you would probably be pretty damn attainable, since you mentioned that you were able to become lucid once because you remembered while in the new dream that you had just woken up from a lucid dream a little bit ago (I do that alot, it's great!).

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Well I did something like that today, my roommate had to get up early (well, at like 11) and he tends to make a lot of noise so by the time he left the apartment I was completely awake and aware. After he left I ended up in a dream and in the dream I was lying in bed still trying to fall asleep while my roommate made noise. I think I WILDed within the dream, because as I was trying to fall asleep this new world began unfolding, and although I wasn't aware that I was dreaming, my dream self was aware that this new world wasn't the world I had fallen asleep in and realized that he was dreaming. I remember thinking like "are these just thoughts or am I actually going to this place?" as it was appearing before me. It's actually one of the cooler things that has happened to me in a dream, because I was able to watch the whole dream come from scratch, just straight up blackness turned into a nice sort of Spanish seeming town as I walked around. I spent most of the time trying to walk on the walls, which I've never even thought of before and now doesn't really seem that cool. I wasn't so good at it. I had a lot more control over the world itself than I've ever had before, for example as it was being created I was able to sort of guide what it would look like, and once it was complete (like no blackness in my vision) I could decide what would be behind a door before I opened it.

Eventually as I left the town I started trying to fly, but I could only manage to jump really high. I don't know why it is that I always default to trying to fly, but I really love the feeling of it once I'm able to. While I was walking on the walls I remember thinking of your post suggesting that I try the monthly challenges, but I was kind of obsessed with the whole walking on walls thing for a good while and once I was trying to fly I think I had forgotten about it. I always have a lot of trouble remembering things from real life or thinking of something to do. I guess I should be setting more goals for myself, but I'm still pretty happy with the way that went. I've never had anything like that happen before.

Next time I end up in a lucid dream I'm going to try and find whoever it was who helped me out in my train station dream, because whatever they said really helped me out.

So recently I've been noticing that in the mornings as I'm trying to fall asleep, I have these "dreams" that are a lot more coherent and detailed than the stuff I get in hypnagogia, but I'm not actually "there" the way I am in a normal dream. Like it's a scene playing out in front of me and I have no part in it. I was just wondering if that's maybe a step in the right direction for WILDing? Like if I could insert myself into those scenes I'm sure I would know I was dreaming.

Other than that not much to report. I've had a few lucid dreams since I last posted, but I didn't really do anything cool. When I become lucid I often don't quite realize that the characters in my dreams aren't actually the people they represent (with a few exceptions. a couple weeks ago I told my brother in a lucid dream that he wasn't my real brother. specifically I told him "you're just a little man in my head." he got really offended) so I treat them the way I would treat these people in real life... for example I will still be awkward around people I'm awkward around in real life, even though when I DON'T know that I'm dreaming I always connect with them in a really great way. I feel like if I could get over that I'd make more progress, not only in lucid dreaming itself but also in the analytical opportunities it provides.

That could be a step in the right direction for your wild yes. Being outside the experience would suggest that on some level you know that you are in a dream. Stepping into those dreams sounds like a good idea. If you have awareness on any level combined with a solid dream, that is a good sign.

I agree with Chimp about it being a step in the right direction. Some of us like to call those dreamlets, the type of dreams where it's just kind of starting, but it's much more stable and sensible that the imagery we get in hypnagogia, but at the same time it's not a full-on dream yet. When that happens to me (and I luckily manage to be aware in that phase), I like to imagine myself in the dream. And by that I mean I try to interact with the dream. At first I'd have no body, like I'm just an observer. But then I try to think I'm just in first person mode, and then I visualize my dream body reaching out to touch objects, or move my limbs a little. I try to imagine how it feels when I am reaching out and coming into contact with the dream objects, and most importantly, I try to look down at my dream body. It helps me reinforce the thought that my dream body is really there, I just havent seen it yet. So once I establish my dream body is there, I do a reality check and have fun :D

As for treating DCs as you would irl, why don't you try verbal reinforcement when you are lucid? Once you get lucid and think about interacting with DCs, you can verbally tell yourself 'he is not real. i can do whatever i want' or anything along those lines. I know it seems pretty straightforward and silly, but many times our dreaming mind (even when lucid) can still struggle with really comprehending the implications of being lucid, such as no rules/laws of physics or reasonsm basically. And saying it out ooud can even boost your lucidity since you get more awareness by reminding yourself.

Hope that helps a bit, you can try doing that if you want~

Thanks for the advice, I have managed I think to get more into the "I can do whatever I want" mentality. I always used to just go about my dream business as usual, but I'm trying to get a bit more crazy lately. The other night I decided to jump into a tornado. It seems mostly to be scary stuff that I just want to see what it's like.

I think I had my first WILD night before last. I woke up for only like a few seconds, rolled onto my back, and closed my eyes and there was a blue sky there with clouds. I focused on it until the clouds became really clear, but I could still feel my eyes closed. I kept opening them halfway and seeing my room, but eventually I was able to focus hard enough that I could open them and it was still just the sky/clouds there. After that I had a not so pleasant lucid dream, but at least I wilded! At least I think I did, it doesn't match the descriptions on here too much, but I was awake and then I was dreaming so yeah?

If you were lucid then yes, Congrats! Sometimes early lucids can be a bit dark. Often people first get lucid during a nightmare. Whatever the reason, that will pass with more lucidity. :)

Yes that sounds like a WILD (perhaps DEILD) to me! Great job!

As Chimp mentioned, clarity, control, and other things will get much better the more you get lucid dreams. Think of it as being initiated into WILDs. At first it might be dark or crappy, but the more you have them, the more your brain becomes familiarized with what to do and how to go about the lucid.

:D

Not so much luck lately, on the WILDS or being lucid in general. This morning I was lucid for the first time in quite a while, probably since the last time I posted in this thread. I became lucid 3 times though, which is a personal record. First time I was kneeling on a skateboard and using my hands to push myself around town, mostly on the freeway. A lot of stuff happened that I won't describe here, but I kept seeing this frumpy brown haired girl everywhere and at one point I saw her while I was in some store and realized that it was a bit odd that she was all over the place, and became lucid. The dream shattered immediately after that.

Second time I don't remember exactly how I became lucid, but I do remember telling everyone around me (IRL friends) that I was dreaming and I was really excited about it. I spent a good amount of time flying around some wilderness dotted with these really strange houses, kind of like the Weasleys' Burrow from Harry Potter but more Victorian in design. I kept trying to control what would be in the houses when I went in, but by the time I landed at any of them it turned out they were all dollhouse sized and nothing interesting was inside. This is the best flying I've done in a dream, with the exception maybe of the dandelion dream described earlier in this thread.

Third time I was in a like Game of Thrones version of my kitchen (a whole lot of that dream was Game of Thrones themed actually) and I realized I was dreaming and once again told everyone around me. I'm not sure how I became lucid this time either. The frumpy brown haired girl was there again, and I grabbed her and we like, got it on. I haven't had sex in three and a half years though so it wasn't very realistic. Whenever I have sexual encounters in dreams, they are always excruciatingly painful. That didn't happen this time, which is really nice, although it wasn't particularly pleasurable or erotic either. I'm still calling that progress.

All of this happened between 9 am and 1 pm. During that period I had some very crazy vivid dreams, again for the first time in a while. I did sleep an hour or so longer than I usually do. In addition to my "Super B Complex," last night I ate ~10 grams of some rather potent kratom and drank a lot of kava and whiskey (a nice combination for me, however not something I would recommend to someone who doesn't have an annoyingly high opiate/depressant tolerance). I'm drinking kava again tonight to see if there is a similar effect. Kratom always has an interesting impact on my dreams, however I take it so often that I don't really notice so much anymore. I think the minor withdrawal from alcohol in the mornings also causes strange and vivid dreams. And just FYI I'm not as much of a mess as I may seem like really.

Anyways yeah. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing with this thread, I've just been using it to log my progress if that's alright. I really need to get back in the habit of writing in my dream journal. I noticed a significant improvement in my recall and the frequency of lucid dreams while I was doing that. I just have trouble gathering the patience to write for an hour or more every morning, and if I write less and leave out details it kind of defeats the purpose.

Anything you want to share is fine with us! :)

Whenever you have questions, updates or whatever, we do our best to give some helpful feedback. The lesson plans are basic blueprints for starting out in lucid dreaming. So following those can be also be helpful in your practice. Perhaps re-establishing your goals and intentions may be useful?

Heyyy been a while since I've been on here, but I'm just wondering if it's common to have lucid dreams that coincide with nightmares. In the past few nights I've I think three lucid dreams, two of which were nightmares that were very difficult to escape, even though I knew I was dreaming. Nightmares are very rare for me. I have had maybe seven in the past eleven years. The last three have all occurred in the last six months and I have been lucid for all three of them. I am pretty sure I know what is causing the nightmares. I'm just wondering if it is more common to be lucid in a nightmare than in a normal dream.

That's pretty much my update. I've once again made drinking a full time occupation so obviously my dream life is pretty messed up/non-existent. I'm cutting down on the booze, but in addition to doing that I need to start keeping my dream journal again. I didn't realize how important it was until I was writing down my dreams every morning. It's just really time consuming to spend a couple of hours every day writing this stuff down.

Anyway yeah basically I'm just interested in this correlation between terror and lucidity.

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Originally Posted by FriendlyFace

Heyyy been a while since I've been on here, but I'm just wondering if it's common to have lucid dreams that coincide with nightmares... I'm just wondering if it is more common to be lucid in a nightmare than in a normal dream.

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Great question. I'd tend to say yes. I don't tend to have very many nightmares these days, but on the occasions when I do, I very frequently become lucid.

Thinking it through, it does make sense. If a nightmare is strong enough to invoke the fight or flight response, that ought to trigger increased mental awareness and alertness. That neurochemical change may be just enough to top things in our favor.

It's also notable that a lot of people that become talented lucid dreamers early do so after suffering from childhood nightmares. In one sense you could argue that this is down to motivation. You're motivated to become good at lucid dreaming because it allows you to avoid the unpleasantness of a nightmare. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to it than that.

Gahhh most awful night last night. Smoked some weed that I swear almost gave me a panic attack (I used to smoke 24/7, but the stuff just agitates my anxiety now. don't ask me why I say "sure, I'll have a bit"). Came home, tried to go to sleep, and after a number of strange, unrelated visions, was convinced that I was in a world that was a sort of demons vs. angels thing in a war between good and evil, which I was involved in for a while. Later I was sitting in a library refusing to fight when some soldier came in and started yelling at me to join the cause for good. I was going to ask him what the point was, but then I thought about it for a second and realized that if I didn't fight the demons would win. To me the meaning of this dream is rather obvious, since I spend most of my time in waking life not caring about this exact same war in my head. I'm putting it here so I don't forget about it. Not only was it a meaningful dream, it was also really awesome and fun and one of the coolest (albeit scariest) worlds that I have experienced.

Thank you to canislucidus, as yeah once again, I knew something was up during these dreams/waking horrors. Hopefully I will be able to use what I've learned from these crazy ass dreams to my advantage. I won't be smoking weed for a while from here on out, just because it completely screwed my brain backwards last night. I never used to have dreams after smoking it, but last night I was so anxious from smoking that it destroyed all of my self confidence completely. I have said on here before and I will say again that marijuana can be beneficial to your practice, but as with any drug in my experience you gotta be so damn careful with it. This is why I need to get my drinking under control. It's just so easy to repress your problems with booze. I just finished reading Doctor Sleep (one of the greatest books ever if you already have read The Shining) and I feel like Dan Torrence before he got into AA.

While I always like to hear from y'all, the reason I post in this thread now is for me and others who are dealing with the same shit. Don't feel obligated to reply just because it's in the academic section or whatever.