kamskun's Workbook

Greetings Fellow Dreamers,

First off, Thank you so much for organizing such a wonderful forum For a long time.I have been fascinated by Lucid Dreams, and now I have determined it is about to for me to explore this world, the Inner world of Lucid Dreaming. I have no doubt that I will master Lucid Dreaming If I really try hard enough because I have spontaneously had a few over the decades, the only problem for me is Organization and Periodic Activity, so I in hopes to get my exercises in shape, I have joined this Course.

Reality Checks:
- Stop at a random moment, observe the state of my surroundings and Observing my lefy Hand and asking am I in a dream and counting my fingers.
- Pinching Nose and trying to breathe out through it.
- Reverse RC.


Dream Signs:
-My Childhood's hometown and all facets associated with it.
-Anime characters, Anime scenes.
- Night time with a pleasant feeling.

Short-Term Goals:

- Achieve a LD spanning atleast a Minute
- Achieve atleast some sense of Dream Control

Long-Term Goals:
- To have atleast 5 Lucid Dreams per week.
- To Explore the Vast expanse of the Universe which, I otherwise would not be able to do so. (I have always been a Star-gazing freak)
- To Interact with Nature in higher levels of Interactivity(Like Befriending Plants, Animals)
- Time Travelling(Basically the prehistoric age and even beyond, Like the formation of the first Star, Formation of Life on earth in its primordial form)
- Befriend DC Aliens.
- Live in Anime Worlds
- Many other personal desires.

Lucid/Dream Recall History:

- None, but many vivid dreams.

Current Technique:
- Reality Checks, Reverse Reality Checks and ADA.
- WILD.

Results of First iteration on 07/08/2013 (dd:mm:yyyy):

Being my first attempt, I had a very hard time sleeping, Earlier I had cut interaction with any and all electromagnetic sources such as a Monitor etc 1 hour prior to sleeping, in this one hour, I had take a bath and retired to my bed to do some doodling and then I decided to do some Self-Hypnotism, I am not even sure if i actually did it the way it is meant to be done, anyways, I generally sleep with a posture of lying on my front, with practicing to keep both my legs parallel, this time around, the room was very hot and humid, and I finally drifted off into sleep.

After this, I have memories of actually trying to go to WILD, but I am not sure as it is very faint, maybe it was a dream about me attempting to lucid dream, but the location was in my bed, also the only thing I remember very clearly is a scenery from one of the earlier dreams, it is a very pleasant looking view of a railway station dipped in the Night sky in the background, I do not remember the dream itself, but just this single screenshot of the dream, and I had gone to sleep at 1: 45 AM after struggling to sleep from 1: 20 to 1: 40 AM, and I had kept a Voice Alarm(seeking senior advice on whether or not this is good) telling me to "Record your dreams", at 6: 11 AM, but strangely, I had woken up earlier, maybe around 5: 15 I am not sure, the first thought that came to mind was that maybe I forgot to wake up at the alarm and it is already past 6: 11 but i did not look at the clock, I laid there, trying different postures and also trying to enact a scene(of carnal nature) in an attempt to drift into WILD, but nothing worked, then, by the time I looked at the clock, it was 5: 50 AM, so I decided to go to sleep so that I would be woken up by the alarm midway and can record another dream for the day(I had recorded the aforementioned dreams vaguely in my phone memo app upon waking up at 5: 15) but i could not sleep at all, then finally it the alarm rang, and I looked at the sky and it was kind of refreshing, so i decided to take a glance at the morning sky for a few minutes before going to sleep and went up to the terrace, but then I was actually too psyched by the fact that I have finally started taking this seriously and imagined of all the great thing I have in store for me once I master it, then I decided to not go back to sleep and proceeded to do Yoga after an hour and a half. I was planning to take an afternoon nap but instead thought I should preserve this sleepiness in my attempt to go to sleep earlier (Usually I used to go to sleep at around 3-4 Am and rarely around 5-6 AM, but from now onwards, I am planning to go to sleep at 12: AM and set the alarm for 6: xx AM and then commence sleep after 15-30 minutes and expect to achieve lucidity at around 7:30 - 8:30 AM.

Hey Kamskun, great start on the workbook there!

I agree with you that for starters, it's good to focus on one method first for a while, and see how it goes. My suggestion would be a DILD, combined with WBTB. The waking up early then going back to sleep sets you up really well for a lucid dream, such as a DILD. However, if you're finding yourself kinda drifting in and out of sleep and having dreamlike scenes appear (the "screenshots" you mentioned), you could opt for a DEILD instead.

As far as the issues with your memory, of course keeping a dream journal will help improve dream recall a ton. And folks who keep a waking journal as well have reported success in not only improving waking life memories, but an increased ability to remember goals once in the lucid dream itself.

Hope this clears some stuff up for ya :)

Thanks for the Advice! after reading up all the techniques thoroughly, I determined to try out WILD because I have always been very airheaded and always seem to procrastinate alot so the Idea of practicing ADA and reverse RC seemed overwhelming to me at first, also because WILD seems more Intuitive than DILD and tried it out last night, although I failed Miserably.but it seems DILD is the best bet for beginners, so I am going to stick with it for now because it doesn't matter either way, since, in the long run, I am planning to become familiar with all the techniques anyways.

Anyways, This is the Update for 08/08/2013

I had gone to sleep at 12 AM, switched off the computer at 11:30 and took a bath at 11:35
Set the alarm for 6:05 AM,
At First, I was laying still for about 15-20 minutes,(unintentional)
then I decided to go to sleep immediately, but when I turned into my right side to sleep, having rested my head in my Hand(I do not use pillow for therapeutic reasons) i could feel my heartbeat in my right ears, Don't know what that is about, but I turned to my left and I could also feel the same on my left ears as well although a little more faint.

Anyways, I woke up at the sound of alarm at 6: 05 AM to record my dreams, but it was very vague, and I could not recall the dream itself, but rather, could only remember that the dream I had was about an Anime I watched yesterday (only 11 episode in total, so I started and finished it in the same day) so I recorded this in my Journal.

then, as I laid on the bed to go back to sleep, I was Urged to try to WILD, so I became still in my comfortable sleeping position, laying on my back, I calmed down, let go of all the anxieties, chanted my mantra a few times, all the while, I was completely awake, so I decided to go to sleep first and then become aware midway, so I started visualizing Metallic-white colored numbers on the night sky, I might have counted to 15 or so, and I think i started to have my first dream fragment, after about 30 seconds or so into this dream, I became aware but the problem was that the dream image vanished and I became completely aware again, after taking care of some Itches I went to still and started counting again, then again, I lost count somewhere and was inside another dreamlet, also this time, after about 20 seconds or so, I became aware again, also, this time, I became completely aware and the dream image vanished, this same cycle happened about 3-4 times in total I think, then, I thought to myself that maybe, it is because my brain is not yet conditioned to be aware in the sleeping state, so whenever I bring myself to be aware, all the dream images vanish and I am awake again, meaning that it was either 1 or 0, either I stay awake or forget to become aware and drift off into the dream and sleep, I realized that at this moment of time, I cannot stay suspended in the the semi-awake and semi-dreaming state, so I finally decided to give up for this session and decided to go to sleep, and when I looked at the clock, It was almost 1 hour from the time I started to WILD, I was quite surprised how fast time went, so I decided to sleep and then again, at around 11 AM, upon being woken up by the Alarm, I decided to update my DJ again, this time, for a minute there, I did not remember anything at all, but strangely after a little while I could remember the 2 Long dreams and their contents, (Even Before I started to practice LD, even when I tried to remember my dreams on the morning casually, I would not remember, but later that day, I would strangely come to remember one or two of them)

But there is one thing I find to be completely strange. Out of the two dreams, one was about a very bizarre plot which included my current best-friend and my childhood bestfriend(whom I have always regretted not being in touch with) the strange part here is that, I can somewhat (VERY FAINTLY) remember being SURPRISED of seeing him in my dream, I somewhat faintly remember uttering "It's Gunsu!" (His nickname when we were friends as a child) but I do not know what this means, I first thought that it might mean that I realized I was in a dream because I am not supposed to see him, but the feeling is So faint that I am not even sure.

Anyways, I just encouraged my self for even trying for a whole hour to WILD, which is in itself a very large progress for me. then I decided I would decided I would concentrate on ADA and Reverse RC all day today.

If I am doing anything incorrectly, please point it out.
P.S. I have decided to stop attempting WILD for now and focus on DILD as per the advice of a few seniors.
My previous post was incorrectly dated as 07/08/2012, I changed it to 07/08/2013, in order to prevent any confusion.

Hoping to receive any kind of feedback.

Thanks.

Entry for 09/08/2013:
Preparation: RC, Reverse RC, ADA, Drank a large glass of Milk 6 hours before sleep. Brightened up the room a little with a CFL Lamp(white light) because of the suggestion of the Dream Recall Compendium thread.
Gone to bed at 12:20 AM itself, But I was simply unable to sleep as I have not slept so early in the recent past, so i tried to chant the mantra with a goal of 100 chantings!, I think I overdid it a little because I was chanting for almost half an hour or so, I simply could not sleep at all,but i remember having a very small session of sleep(maybe 20-30 minutes) then I am awake and chanting again but finally, I think the sound sleep kicked in at around 1:40 AM, woke up at the sound of alarm at 6:05 AM, I don't know why, but I was VERY tired, Even though my alarm is a voice alarm which goes up gradually, and it although it says "Don't move Stay still record your dream" repeatedly, this time around my singular thought was to switch off the alarm, and I did not remember to WILD at all because I was so tired! so I went to sleep, without even recording the dream in my Phone. anyways, the second alarm goes off at 9: 00 AM and this time around, I could remember to somewhat stay still in bed and recall the dream, but all i could recall was the latest dream I was having, (i think i was in that dream, when the alarm rang, because it felt so recent) but even still, I could not recall it with the same clarity as I did with yesterday morning. anyways, I updated my phone DJ, and then immediately woke up. I am planning to attempt WILD tomorrow at 6 AM as well.

Strangely, Yesterday, when I had slept in complete darkness for the first 6 hours and then slept in a room lit by natural sunlight, for another 5 hours, I could recall two long dreams with somewhat a satisfying clarity but today, I wonder if the recall was affected by the sudden change in the ambient light for the first 6 hours of deep sleep? It is too soon to tell, so I am going to continue with the brightened room for another week and see how it goes.

Edit: One of the most recurring themes in my dreams is undoubtedly My Childhood Home and Hometown and all other associated figures/objects with it. I must etch this into my memory.

Entry for 10/08/2013:
Preparation: RC, Reverse RC, ADA, Drank two large glasses of Milk, one at around 5 PM, another at around 8 PM. I switched back to the dark room for now.
Current Techniques: DILD, WILD.

Gone to bed at around 12: 45 AM, but, woke up at around 3 AM by myself, I could not recall the thought of remaining still at all, I only remembered to be still, after I moved out of the bed, . . . anyways, I tried to record my latest dream in my phone, but nothing came to mind except a single fragment, and it too was very faint, and I am not very sure whether it is actually true or not. so went back to sleep.
Woke up at around 6: 45 AM by the alarm, this time also, I did not remember to lay still, switched off my alarm, and tried to remember any dreams, But ABSOLUTELT NOTHING. so I decided to proceed with my WILD attempt, the problem was, for some odd reason, my head became VERY VERY ITCHY when I was at the transitioning phase of WILD, so I had to take care of it by soaking my hair in a lot of Oil, the distraction went away, then again tried to WILD, alot of funny and strange dreamlets formed, but I don't know when, but I must have somehow forgot to become aware and drifted off in one of the dreamlets and fell asleep, anyways, upon waking up at 10: 57 AM by the sound of alarm, I remembered to stay still! but the thing is the alarm was very noisy, so I tried to lay still while shutting of my hearing, so I could not concentrate much on recalling the dream at all. So, I finally shut down the alarm and tried to recall for about 3-4 minutes I think, but nothing came into mind, i was kind of disappointed and was about to write NOTHING in my Phone DJ, when bang! I suddenly remembered a fragment of what seemed to be the latest dream I had, then I could remember a big chunk of it, the first thing that struck me was not the actual scene of the memory itself but rather the EMOTION i felt, it felt very EPIC and pleasant at the same time, so then by backtracking I was able to recall some fragments of the dream, the most epic of which was me descending down a building by sliding on it, like in the megaman X games, while my father is chasing me with a gun and shooting me, I also remember being shot, but nothing Happening, I wish I remembered then and there that it was a dream, anyways. I recorded it in my PC dream journal and the feeling of awesomeoness I felt during that dream is somewhat faintly, comprehend-able even now.

My motivation to practice grows stronger each and every day. I thank my DJ for making me remember such an epic dream. and I also thank all those who helped me along the way as well. This is just the beginning.

Enttry for 11/08/2013:

Preparation: Alot of ADA(Atleast once per hour) but very little RC & Reverse RC(I don't know why but they just seem a little weird to me now), Ate two Large green Bananas, A Large glass of Milk at 6PM.
Current Techniques: DILD, WILD.

Gone to bed at around 12:15 AM, It is to be noted by self that I have been strangely feeling sleepy from 7 PM on-wards yesterday. naturally woke up at around 2 PM, decided to record a dream which I very faintly remembered. only 1 sentence worth of memory. then I gone back to sleep. Woke up at around 6:05 AM at the sound of alarm, strangely, when I woke up, I thought that I must have missed the 6 AM alarm and that the current time is actually 10 AM, but when i took a look at the clock it was only 6: 05 am, so I decided to record the dreams but nothing came up, so I wrote Nothing instead and got back to bed to attempt to WILD, I think I must have attempted for about 30 minutes, before I decided to fall asleep because there were too many distractions. woke up at around 10:00 am at the sound of alarm, luckily, after waking up, about after 10 seconds I remembered to stay still and recall my dream, but it was in vain because I could not remember anything at all, I switched off my alarm, then laid still, tried to jog my memory, there were some moments where I felt like I had almost remembered a fragment, but then it came and went in a flash, like as in a hundredth of a second, there were 3-4 Instances where I almost remembered it but to no avail, so after about 5 minutes I gave up and went to bathroom, there, again, when I was being fully aware, I almost remembered a fragment, but no luck. So I just wrote in my PC's journal about my unsuccessful attempts, Today was very dry. Hopefully, I can do better tomorrow.

Entry for 12/08/2013:

Preparations: ADA, RCs, RRC(very few), Ate 3 Large, Green bananas, A Large glass of milk at around 6 PM, some chicken.

Gone to bed at around 11:50 PM , but I think I slept at around 12: 05-12:10 AM,

Woke up naturally as per my suggestion before sleep, at around 4:40 AM, when I woke up, I was actually exiting a dream, within just 2-3 seconds of waking up I could remember a large portion or fragment of the dream, but I was actually deciding for about 5-6 seconds whether I should attempt a DEILD or note it down in my Phone's DJ, I finally decided that I should note it down, and not rush things too much, as this was one of the more vivid dreams I had remembered, so I wrote it down in my DJ and went to sleep after about an hour of squirming around in my bed due to unknown reasons (I had also noted that it was raining at that time). I then woke up somewhere midway between 7-8:30 AM not sure when exactly, this time also, I was immediately waken up from the dream, but this time it was one of those exits which occur due to falling out of building kind of stuff, the last thing I remember of the dream was drowning in a pool of unknown, gooey, muddy substance, and I think I woke up as It came into my mouth and I had almost begun tasting it. This time, the thought of DEILDing did not occur to me at all, and I was very very tired for some reason, too tired to reach into my phone to record the dream, but somehow, I felt that I would remember this dream after waking up (I knew this was not true due to the previous occasions where I would forget the dream upon waking up) but this dream had much deeper impact, and I remembered the most notable scene in my dream and tried to remember it in the morning, hopefully, upon waking up at around 9 AM by myself (1 hour prior to the final alarm) all I could think about was that previous dream, somehow, I remembered most of it, which I noted down in the journal, then after settling down for about 20 Minutes, I went back to sleep again, only to be woken up by the 10 AM alarm.

Today, I have almost had two occasions of waking up by myself without the aid of the alarms, which is a feat in itself for me. I am pumped up now.

P.S. (I wonder if the chicken and the bananas helped somehow?)

Entry for 12/08/2013:
Preparation: RRC, RC (Stopped everything halfway through the day yesterday)

It was a very bad night for LDing, I have not slept much, maybe just 2 hours, I just heard a shocking news and my mind doesn't seem to stop thinking about it, hopefully, today will be a better day.

Entry for 13/08/2013 & 14/08/2013 :

Barely had any sleep at all, so I figured it would be futile to attempt to WILD. Just kept doing my RC and RRC all day

Entry for 15/08/2013:
Preparation: RC, RRC, 3 Large Glasses of milk.

I was able to return my LDing practice thankfully, now everything is starting to settle, I also seem to have a higher recall, again, this time, one of the most obvious and the most recurring dream signs is my childhood bestfriend, gosh I must really yearn to meet him again or something. After I woke up I remembered the dream very clearly, but I did not try to WILD at all, since I was so tired.

I am determined to notice my recurring Dream signs the next time I encounter them, I am also glad that my recall is picking up. Could not post here for 12th and 13th because I was out of reach.

Entry for 16/08/2013 & 17/08/2013:
Preparation: RC, RRC, 3 Large glasses of milk
On 16th I did not have much recall, so nothing to report. Today, however, my recall was very good, I could remember 2 dreams very clearly, I am also somewhat accustomed to becoming aware when I wake up in the midnight after the cycle, I am hoping to somewhat make this a regular routine in order to use it as a leverage for DEILD. overall feeling happy about the progress.

I could not update my workbook for the past few days because I was preparing and amid the relocation affairs.
Entry for 18 - 24:
Preparation: RC, RRC, 3 glasses of milk throughout the day.
It seems that the fact that I have moved to a new place has taken a toll on my practices somewhat, I was not able to do more than 5-6 RC's for the first few days in my new place (20 - 23) and even when I did them, they were somewhat vague and felt like they had lost purpose, on the other hand, my dream recall definitely increased, in fact, on 23rd I almost became Lucid (This has given me a huge confidence boost as well). I usually do not have nightmares, but it seems something has been causing a few for the past few days. Anyways, it seems that I this strange feeling I had after relocating has weared off, now I shall resume my practice with more persistence than before, since I have felt what it is like to become Lucid, albeit for the briefest moment of time. Will be present in this site again daily!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kamskun

It seems that the fact that I have moved to a new place has taken a toll on my practices somewhat, I was not able to do more than 5-6 RC's for the first few days in my new place (20 - 23) and even when I did them, they were somewhat vague and felt like they had lost purpose, on the other hand, my dream recall definitely increased, in fact, on 23rd I almost became Lucid (This has given me a huge confidence boost as well). I usually do not have nightmares, but it seems something has been causing a few for the past few days. Anyways, it seems that I this strange feeling I had after relocating has weared off, now I shall resume my practice with more persistence than before, since I have felt what it is like to become Lucid, albeit for the briefest moment of time. Will be present in this site again daily!!!

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Congratulations, kamskun, I'm glad that you had the close brush with lucidity!

Now that you are getting more settled, hopefully you'll have the luxury of allowing your brain to play with the question of "Am I dreaming?" Even if you don't RC, just have that question circulating through your mind as often as you can.

You will dream every single night for nearly two hours. Those moments will seem incredibly lifelike, particularly when you are in the moment and your brain is in the dream state. Now how do you know for sure that you're not dreaming right now?

Cultivate that attitude of critical questioning throughout the day. Make it a habit, and you will get lucid.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Thanks a lot Canis, for your valuable advice and boost in morale, I am definitely trying my best to do my RC and RRC throughout the day to the best of my ability, I have confidence that I will achieve Lucidity pretty soon and when I do, I will share my experience here :)

Entries for 26,27,28,29,30,31 :
Preparation: Lots of Milk each day, RC, RRC.
I have been observing a stabilization in my dream recall, I think right now, I can remember atleast 1 dream with some amount of clarity everyday, planning to use this as a leverage to bring it up to 2-3 entire dreams rather than fragments, I have decided to stick with just DILD till then, and then afterward I will jump into DEILD and WILD. I have also conditioned my self to become aware of when I wake up from the first NREM Sleep(for me, it is usally, 4-5 hours).