Thread: Bharmo's Workbook

Regarding the competition, I got #6 position out of 16 in the lower league, which is pretty good.
I only got lucid one night in the competition but I should not complain too much: I was (and still am) just trying to recover my lucid momentum after taking a break, I had my first more-than-one-lucid-in-one-night, and I got to do my 3 step tasks properly in only one lucid (actually started with the third, but rectified and did them all in the right order)
So now what?
I've been tinkering with this: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...25-time-2.html, enticed by the promise of 100% lucidity Also have read something about a 24/7 Gravity RC. And quite a bit on Self-awareness (a la Sageous)
I'm feeling attracted by these kind of All-Day-Awareness-Of-Some-Kind techniques, but I guess as many others, I'm getting mad at the fact that there is not much solid evidence of which technique might be more efficient.
I've being researching a little bit on very successful LDers and their techniques and, well, each have their own way of doing things, some invented their own techniques, and some just mastered the different, well stablished ones. The only one who I've found claims to be lucid 100% of the time thanks to a technique, and not just by feeling when they're dreaming is Mylynes with the that "Omnilucidity" technique I linked back there, even though he is a natural. Was not a super-thorough research anyway, so let me warn anyone reading this to not just take my word on the topic of "super-effective techniques"
What if I mixed this "Omnilucidity" with All Day Self-Awareness? Am I going nuts already?

This morning woke up with no recall, same as previous week, and I decided to update my workbook, then while preparing breakfast remember a long dream, not very detailed, but a big dream about some of my latest concerns IWL. And when I logged in to update found some likes from CL here in my workbook, thanks!

Dreambh!! Congratulations on the double lucid! That's great stuff, man! I'm looking forward to checking these out. Congratulations, too, on turning in a good performance in the competition.

The search for the "perfect" technique is such a tough question. Take your time with the process and don't put too much pressure on yourself to find the very best tech right away. The most important thing to remember IMO is that the techniques don't make you lucid. They are just there to help focus your intent and your beliefs into a spark of realization when you're dreaming. You got yourself lucid. The techs just brought out your abilities.

Techniques can help a lot, but nothing matters more than intent, belief, and awareness.

Keep up the good work, dreambh!

Back to my practices: I've been doing affirmations in the line of the "Omnilucidity" technique, hoping to get some long term benefits, and in the last few days I've been trying something like ADA including some gravity checking. I'm quite absent-minded (?) and forgetful, so I hope ADA helps me not only in my LDs but in my daily life.
Oops, just got a notification of CL writing a post here, let's check it!

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Dreambh!! Congratulations on the double lucid! That's great stuff, man! I'm looking forward to checking these out. Congratulations, too, on turning in a good performance in the competition.

The search for the "perfect" technique is such a tough question. Take your time with the process and don't put too much pressure on yourself to find the very best tech right away. The most important thing to remember IMO is that the techniques don't make you lucid. They are just there to help focus your intent and your beliefs into a spark of realization when you're dreaming. You got yourself lucid. The techs just brought out your abilities.

Techniques can help a lot, but nothing matters more than intent, belief, and awareness.

Keep up the good work, dreambh!

Nice to "see" you CannisLucidus! Your input it's always so much appreciated.
You are so right that I'm pressuring myself to search for the perfect technique. You know, I'm the kind of person that reads GTD and spends 90% of time "getting organized" and looking for the "perfect tools" and only 10% actually doing things.

I was getting a bit frustrated by lack of results since that "double" LD, even thinking about the effectiveness of my approach and maybe change techniques etc etc, but you are right, I'm the one who gets lucid, so I will keep working on what I feel its good for me, in my awareness by means of ADA + self-awareness, and my intent and belief (that reminds me I need to get back to MILDing more seriously, not just get to bed and pass out)
Thank you again for your excellent suggestions, CL!

Just a brief note: My recall is so bad lately, I need to get it back asap. Oh, and I need to keep some lucid goals in my mind (TOTM?), that's most probably what made me lucid in the competition, thinking about the 3 step tasks, or in other words, a compelling reason to get lucid.
Come on: Dream recall and thinking some goals.

I remember three small fragments from last night, two of them related to lucidity (in one a friend called me while I was on a mall to check on my lucid dreaming progress)
Good signs!

Did not sleep very well last night, not sure why, maybe because of pain in one eye (had a little domestic accident yesterday) but I woke up at 1.30 at the end of a dream that was turning into a nightmare, and I can remember the dream quite well. The nightmare was about aliens (like in the Aliens films) We were going to see a movie with friends (Prometheus 2?), and then it was a video game and then we were inside the game, with guns that did not work properly, and a few xenomorphs coming out of nowhere.

Actually was not exactly a nightmare, my subc always puts these kind of dreams together as TV shows or video games so I feel somewhat detached of the danger.

Bottom line is: My recall is so bad lately that I'm happy for remembering a full dream properly today.

My recall is still very bad, and I really need to take WBTB seriously again. I'm under quite a bit of stress lately, but this week I'll go on camping for 5 nights, so I hope for one or two lucids then!

Last night I seriously tried a WBTB but this just blew it away. Just could not sleep anymore out of excitement!

Originally Posted by dreambh

Last night I seriously tried a WBTB but this just blew it away. Just could not sleep anymore out of excitement!

LOL. I understand the "Oh no, I read something too exciting during WBTB!" problem, ha ha. Sorry about the sleeplessness, but I really do understand. Those would be some pretty awesome experiments!

You know, in situations like that, if you can manage to get back to sleep (not easy), you have a good chance of going lucid since you've been up for a while and your brain has been fully engaged during WBTB. My best advice is to get into your most comfortable possible sleeping position, clear your mind of all thoughts and expectations, and then simply count backwards with your mantra, letting the morning take you where it will. So once you clear your head it might be something like, "100... I'm dreaming... 99... I'm dreaming... " etc.

And if you lose count, don't think about it at all, just start again at 99. It really doesn't matter.

But keep those exciting possibilities in mind throughout the day! You will get lucid again soon!

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

LOL. I understand the "Oh no, I read something too exciting during WBTB!" problem, ha ha. Sorry about the sleeplessness, but I really do understand. Those would be some pretty awesome experiments!

You know, in situations like that, if you can manage to get back to sleep (not easy), you have a good chance of going lucid since you've been up for a while and your brain has been fully engaged during WBTB. My best advice is to get into your most comfortable possible sleeping position, clear your mind of all thoughts and expectations, and then simply count backwards with your mantra, letting the morning take you where it will. So once you clear your head it might be something like, "100... I'm dreaming... 99... I'm dreaming... " etc.

And if you lose count, don't think about it at all, just start again at 99. It really doesn't matter.

But keep those exciting possibilities in mind throughout the day! You will get lucid again soon!

Thank you for your encouragement CL! Excellent advise there, as always!

I'm here back from my camping mini-holidays and... nothing! I've been quite stressed out with some concerns and responsibilities lately, and could not get them out of my head even in these days. I'm not one of these people who keep thinking about their problems when they go to bed, well, I actually just get to bed, forget about everything and fall sleep in seconds, but I guess a part of my psyche does not let go, because my daytime practices have been quite intensive (not at the camping, BTW) and they should be producing results already.
My dream recall is not too good, but it wasn't when I was getting closer to two lds per week a few months ago neither.
Note to myself: Patience and consistency...

Last night could perform a more decent WBTB. Woke up after 4,5 hours of sleep, visited the toilet, browsed DV, did RCs, drank water and went to bed after 40min. My most vivid dream memory was a nightmare, so I skipped the visualization part of the MILD, and just started repeating " I will realize that I'm dreaming and I'll focus in my senses", after some repetitions I realized I was too awake, so I moved to "100 ... I'm dreaming ... 99 ..." After what felt like 10min I fell sleep, and woke up in the morning with no recall

I've been thinking on what I was doing different when I was having success last year and something just popped into my mind: I was waking up 20 minutes earlier than my wife, so that I could dedicate that lonely time to my DJ. I'm wondering if not doing that "little" thing might be the source of my dry spell... I might well be! Bad thing about this is I'm about to have quite a few changes in my life (like moving, holidays, etc) that will really mess up with my routines.
Will see how things go...

As I hinted here http://www.dreamviews.com/lounge/718...ml#post2078564, I'm starting to get things ready in order to move in a couple of months to a very rural area in Central America with difficult internet access, so I'm struggling with an important decision LDing-wise: Should I take profit of this two months in civilization to maybe start over at the DVA DILD Class in order to get renewed motivation so that I can break this dry spell and make as much progress as I can in that time period? Or given that I won't be able to continue with the DILD course after the move, should I try to be a self-sufficient LDer and do the effort to become a frequent LDer on my own? Whatever decision I take I'll try to keep up with my DJ (and others') here at DV, as that is so much fun and motivation.

Going back to my workbook, I feel good because my recall has gone up lately, got 8 dreams in just the last 3 nights (which I've never even expected to get to, as my best average was like 1,5 per night) and I've had one or two every night the rest of the week. I had forgotten how interesting NLDs can be!
So I'll keep working in my recall, and well, my RCs are where they should, I think, an average of 5-10 per day, lately I'm doing something quite similar to Sageous' RRCs.

I remember four different dreams from last night, well, I remember little from some of them, but still feel very good about it as even when I was LDing more regularly I could only remember one or two dreams per night at most.
In two of the dreams the subject of LDing came out for a moment (read in FB than an old friend was now interested in LDs, and greeting caught by my wife as she read a sexy time DJ entry)
I feel I'm progressing little by little!

Lately I'm having trouble to connect to the Internet for more than "Check mail, Check DV control panel, Check Flipboard, Go" so I'm late for this:
Broke my dryspell!!!

My recall continued being good, and got to the conclusion that, as CL had said previously in my workbook, I need to take LDing less seriously, especially with all this struggling with 100% lucid techniques.
So no more explanation, the dream says it all: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...-flying-55498/
PS: And I had another lucid shortly after that, but haven't been able to translate it and post it yet.

I had a chance to translate and post that other LD.
http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...g-widow-55501/
I've been traveling for 4-5 days ( jet lag ), so it may take me a few more days to LD again, but I feel I'm in the right track now.

This comes from here.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

dreambh, I understand. When I started ADA/RC, the result was also a 3-week dry spell. It was then followed by my most dense LD period, 7 LDs in about 2 weeks including my first DEILD. I had another multi-week dry spell following that great LD marathon that I attribute to stress, jet lag, and so on. Getting over my travels and jet lag, I had 2 LDs in the last week that came earlier in the night than almost all my other LDs, both of which came from awareness that "something is here that does not belong", which I attribute to my ongoing ADA/RC focused on location. I also had another high location/gravity awareness dream that left me very confused upon waking (you mean THAT WAS A DREAM?!), so awareness of location/gravity is still on the rise. It just takes time, and I'm prepared to give it as much time as it needs.

Wow, it looks like eventually you will reap great benefits for all that hard work!
So you do a location based RC, then? And, have you read this http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ream-yoga.html OP? It woke up the part of me that wanted to be a ninja when I was 13 years old

Two months may not be enough, or it may be you were not going about it correctly or didn't use an appropriate target for your style of dreaming. It helps to have a guide who knows it pretty well and can read your journal and give you feedback on an appropriate target. Breath/blinking does not make much sense to me, for example. You have to choose a focus that resonates with you and how you dream.

I did not expect 100% lucidity in only 2 months, but no LDs in that time IMO meant it was not going to work, so most probably I was not doing it well or did not choose the target properly or something like that, as you said.

Note that I *do* mix it with Tholey/LaBerge reflection/intention (I generally get in at least a dozen of these, I try for more) and daytime MILD visualizations, and Sageous RRCs. I also have started saying out loud "doors are magical" every time I go through a door and notice the to/from locations and scene change, as an awareness spike. I've gotten to the point where if I'm not actively concentrating on something, like when I'm working, I either have active ADA/RC going, or I quickly realize I've dropped it and re-start it. It takes time. I also am more and more putting attention on DEILD, and am trying a new approach to journaling where I don't move at night and just make mental notes, and only physically record in the morning. Yeah I may lose some detail or entire dreams this way, but if I can optimize time for potential LDs, that's the point of all this anyway. So far it's working out pretty well and my recall is maintaining fairly well, at least for the last 2 wakings this week.

Actually what I do now is a "Tholey combined with Sageous" if you know what I mean, then LaBerges's MILD at bedtime, and brief WBTBs+MILD whenever I can/remember to do it. When I was doing ADARC I felt outdoors was ok, but indoors would kill it, still happens today to a certain degree, but not that much.
I'm very interested on the mental notes you do for dream recalls. I've tried using mnemonic pegs, a la Daniel Love - Are you dreaming? and did not work with me, but I've not trained mnemonics out of that and maybe that's why. What do you actually do?

Yeah it's all a mystery, in the end, one must do what works for yourself. MILD alone can result in practically lucid all night too if practiced regularly enough and with enough attention/awareness. To listen to sivason, once you just get lucid enough times, it gets easier and easier, and you can get lucid earlier and earlier in the REM cycles, where the really juicy long stable LDs are.

Yes, I think I'll leave ADA variants for a bit later, when I have quite a few more LDs booked.
BTW, it called my attention to realize, with VagalTone's help, that Tholey himself claimed that his technique also should go into background mode if practiced consistently over enough time. That also helped me to decide sticking mostly to the old EWOLD techniques by now.

And then there's WILD, but WILD has proven not to be a friend to me, at least not yet.

He he, same here.

Something I forgot to mention is I'm using HabitRPG to help me with keeping a good LDing routine and other habits. The only thing missing is a Lucid dreaming guild
Actually I've been thinking a that some sort of gamification of a good LDing routine (similar to what we do at the General Lucid Dreaming Competition) could be a very good idea to make an app, but HabitRPG is quite good and it's free.

Originally Posted by dreambh

Wow, it looks like eventually you will reap great benefits for all that hard work!
So you do a location based RC, then? And, have you read this http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ream-yoga.html OP? It woke up the part of me that wanted to be a ninja when I was 13 years old

I sure hope so! It's looking good so far. Still plenty of facepalms, though! Like the one earlier this week, "It's too bad this is not enough to get me lucid.." AAAAAAA! At least it was followed by some really awesome dream sex (that I almost forgot! It was a sudden burst of memory after I thought I had recalled all I could).

Yes I try to stay aware of my location with the subtext: is this a waking location? And special increased awareness on every transition of location and doors, really watching the from/to transition. If I ever notice I transitioned location without high transition awareness I stop and do a Tholey/LaBerge and assume I'm dreaming.

That's a great link to BillyBob's note, there's such a treasure of posts hidden on this site, what a trip, I certainly failed on the video! Dream Yoga is high on my list of stuff to put into daily practice, I started a few things a month ago but haven't kept it up. I think it must be a great investment of time, however. As sivason says, it transforms your brain into a lucid dreaming MACHINE!

I did not expect 100% lucidity in only 2 months, but no LDs in that time IMO meant it was not going to work, so most probably I was not doing it well or did not choose the target properly or something like that, as you said.

Yeah, you have to do what works for you, as I said. I'd encourage you to try again at some point, while keeping all the other stuff you're doing. I for one have nothing better to do while I'm walking around getting exercise or simply moving around/commuting, so it seems very natural to me.

Actually what I do now is a "Tholey combined with Sageous" if you know what I mean, then LaBerges's MILD at bedtime, and brief WBTBs+MILD whenever I can/remember to do it. When I was doing ADARC I felt outdoors was ok, but indoors would kill it, still happens today to a certain degree, but not that much.
I'm very interested on the mental notes you do for dream recalls. I've tried using mnemonic pegs, a la Daniel Love - Are you dreaming? and did not work with me, but I've not trained mnemonics out of that and maybe that's why. What do you actually do?

Yup and I do that too (Tholey/LaBerge + Sageous).
The notes are new, but nothing fancy: I just make a few words that represent the dream to me and run them over in my head several times with the images to cement them in place. If you look at my dream journal for last night, the early morning dreams where I did this I represented as "crazy teacher, police car, house buyer" and just said that several times to myself until I felt I had remembered it. I should probably do something fancier, I don't have the Love book yet, I'll have to read that.

Yes, I think I'll leave ADA variants for a bit later, when I have quite a few more LDs booked.
BTW, it called my attention to realize, with VagalTone's help, that Tholey himself claimed that his technique also should go into background mode if practiced consistently over enough time. That also helped me to decide sticking mostly to the old EWOLD techniques by now.

[WILDs not working for me] He he, same here.

Yes but you may want to start training for DEILDs: learn to recognize the waking state after non-lucids without moving, and try to do a bit of quick recall and to sink back into the dream. I've managed just one DEILD on purpose so far and it was really cool.

Quality LDing conversation with Fryingman + Two hours getting my latest dreams to dreamboard.com = One LD!!
I woke up today with no recall, relaxed a little bit without moving and there it was, a vague memory of a weird dream were I was lucid for 1-2 minutes. I struggled a bit to remember in more detail but it was one of those dreams that is better not shared in public
Here are the notes: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...rated-r-55533/

Awesome, way to go! I myself had a "wild & wacky" set of non-lucid dreams for the night, including strong sense of wondering about my location in one of them, so definite progress on ADA/RC-location. Yes it's always worth working for the recall, at least asking yourself the question and lying quietly for a while to give the memories a chance to roll in.