Thread: Pickman's Workbook

I've been busy over the past couple of days, so I didn't get to update. Last night, I turned in fairly late at 1am and I managed to wake up twice in the night. The first time at 3:30am where I performed a WBTB, and again at 6:30am. No lucidity but dream recall was pretty good.

No luck over the weekend. I've kept with the discipline of not using my PC before bed for at least an hour, and it may be helping my sleep. My dream recall is still pretty good, but I'm sleeping right through until morning - no chance to attempt a WBTB or DEILD.

No luck last night either. I turned in at a slightly later time, close to 1am, and slept right through until 7:30am. Dream recall was pretty good though, but no lucidity.

Same again. I don't want this journal to turn into a long string of "good dream recall but no lucidity", so I'm going to have to step up the ADA. Listening to old DV podcasts at work seems to be a good way of doing this, I'll have to redownload some of them.

Good idea! It always helps to alternate or add other practices to the mix from time to time. Good luck!

Well I didn't practice much in the way of ADA, except for checking out DV forum posts in the evening, but that didn't matter because I just had another success last night.

I found myself hitchhiking on a road that passed through a Cornish village. There's another guy hitchhiking beside me - a man in a leather jacket and possibly a guitar case. For some stupid reason, I'm actually waiting for a taxi out here in the middle of nowhere. After what felt like ages standing by an empty road, the musician gave up and walked off somewhere. I decided to walk around the village, and that's where I realized that I was dreaming.

It was also around this point that night seemed to come on suddenly and I couldn't see very much. I walked through what looked like a small villa with a number of identical-looking apartments that had the light on inside. I decided that this place is probably a retirement village, although I couldn't see that clearly. I walked out of there to see the rest of the village, but I had trouble seeing what was in front of me and keeping the dream going. That's when I thought, "Oh yeah - I'm meant to stabilize!" So I started rubbing my hands together. This took a surprising amount of effort. My hands and arms felt numb - enough sensation to move them, but lacking in sensation.

The stabilization seemed to work, but only briefly. I found myself back in my own house. It was dark, except for the landing light, so I walked up the stairs and headed towards my bedroom. I could feel my physical eyes as they kept trying to open, but I managed to resist this.

I decided to look at my hands, see what my dream hands looked like. It was like looking at my hands in a circus hall of mirrors. My fingers were distorted and wavy. One of my fingers seemed to vanish half-way along. I stopped looking at my hands, I thought it might freak me out if I looked for too long.

Not long after that, as I moved through my bedroom door, I woke up at 7:30am.

So, since I did the dream control and the stabilization tasks of Lesson IV, I guess that means I've finished this course, right? Unless someone tells me that I have more work to do on this, then I think I will move on to another course, maybe the General Lucid course or the Dream Yoga one.

Well done! It seems your very intention to stir up things a bit and have an ld was successful in bringing you one! Congrats! :bravo:

Seems like a longish dream too, and you stabilized successfully. You've applied the lessons well, Pickman. You have done great, very persistent, updating, following the practices, taking notice of what works for you, etc.

What you do from here is up to you - you can sign up for other classes, write here if there's something you feel like sharing and want feedback, or ask your questions in the Q&A thread or other parts of the forum.

But most importantly - keep dreaming!

Originally Posted by Pickman

I decided to look at my hands, see what my dream hands looked like. It was like looking at my hands in a circus hall of mirrors. My fingers were distorted and wavy. One of my fingers seemed to vanish half-way along. I stopped looking at my hands, I thought it might freak me out if I looked for too long.

Not long after that, as I moved through my bedroom door, I woke up at 7:30am.

Nice job, Pickman, congratulations on the lucid! As I was reading your entry, it took me a second to realize that you were not in fact hitching your way along a road that passed through a Cornish village. Glad you caught your dreamsign because it looks like I missed it.

I'm glad that you took the chance to really study your hands in this one! I highly recommend using your hands to draw yourself into the dream either by studying the incredible detail that your mind can produce or simply rubbing them together. Even should you find yourself in the void, rubbing your hands together will very often keep the dream going until you can find your way into a new scene.

Another cool thing is that your hands may look different from dream to dream. In some dreams you may even find that they are almost completely lifelike apart from a small detail or two. There's a lot of variance here.

Anyhow, great job! Keep up the great work!

Thanks NyxCC - your comments and encouragement during the course was much appreciated, as well as everyone else who posted on this thread. Not really sue where to go from here - I might sign up to either the DILD, WILD or Dream Yoga courses. I'll see how it goes.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Nice job, Pickman, congratulations on the lucid! As I was reading your entry, it took me a second to realize that you were not in fact hitching your way along a road that passed through a Cornish village. Glad you caught your dreamsign because it looks like I missed it.

Yeah, I don't think I got my memories of the dream across all that well in my post. I think I started off hitchhiking, then I ended up thinking I could get a taxi along this empty country road. I didn't realize I was dreaming until I wandered off and started questioning what I was doing and where I was supposed to be going.

I'm glad that you took the chance to really study your hands in this one! I highly recommend using your hands to draw yourself into the dream either by studying the incredible detail that your mind can produce or simply rubbing them together. Even should you find yourself in the void, rubbing your hands together will very often keep the dream going until you can find your way into a new scene.

Another cool thing is that your hands may look different from dream to dream. In some dreams you may even find that they are almost completely lifelike apart from a small detail or two. There's a lot of variance here.

I think the reason my hands looked so distorted and strange is because of how tenuous the dream state was. I was having this dream so close to waking up that maybe my perceptions within the dream were weak as I prepared to return to waking consciousness (if that makes sense). It was like I was seeing my hands from beneath a rippling pool of water that was distorting my perception of them. Perhaps if I was lucid when I was deep within the REM state, it would have been more stable.

Anyway, thanks for the comments, I'll see about signing up to another course hone my abilities further.