Booney's Workbook

[Booney]

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[Xanous]

Welcome Booney! It looks like you have got things locked down and set. Your recall is really awesome as well. I have the same dream sign of strong emotions. Strange. Isn't it? Don't hesitate to give one of us an electronic shout if you need anything. Good luck and good dreaming!

[paigeyemps]

Hey Erik!

[OpheliaBlue]

Hi Erik! Welcome to the class Applause to you first of all for using awareness in general for your reality checks. I can't ever stress enough how important it is to maintain an increased level of awareness during the day, whether it is sustained or in short sporadic bursts. Awareness really is one of the biggest keys to lucidity, if not THE biggest. Looks like you're off to a great start in terms of getting your recall back up. I'm like you, sometimes I remember the dream later in the day. Thank god for smartphones so I can last minute journal haha! Your dream signs are really interesting: anger, colors and ice! The unique signs are good, they'll help you later on. Good luck on the DILD and DEILD, and I look forward to catching up on your progress!

[paigeyemps]

Interesting dream! Yes, that is a huge step towards lucidity. Just a little bit more to really push you over the edge (not in a violent way lol). I get lots of dreams like those too – where I talk to DCs about seeing them in a previous dream, and even mentioning that it is a dream right at that moment. I just can't seem to get that lucid snap to make me realize "what am I saying? This IS a dream!" as opposed to "this seems like a dream. Cool." Keep up the awareness practice and the reality checks and I'm sure you'll get there in no time :3

[RareCola]

We all have off nights, it's to be expected really. Shows how delicate the balance for good dream recall and lucidity can be! The best recommendation I can make is to find some motivation to get those dreams written down in the middle of the night, for me, it's one of the key things that increases my lucidity chances. Not only does writing it down help you boost your recall but the action of sitting up and writing a dream gives your mind just enough time to wake up and get into the mindset for lucidity. It's great that your recognising your progress though, being aware of those small advances really helps with the motivation to continue. Keep it up!

[Xanous]

Actually, If you can sleep late after a night of little drinking it can be a nice lucid aid. It sometimes works for me. I don't know about getting to bed at 4AM though. You totally get it about awareness. I am impressed. Looking for dream signs and doing RCs helps a ton but won't work if you don't put your full attention and awareness into it. Ha! And I am totally like you with putting my imagery in my mind. I find that when I play some video games or watch movies or TV, my dream become more interesting. And yeah, if you were to notice that you are dreaming about a movie you watched then I could see that triggering lucidity.

[paigeyemps]

And finaly I have one more question. I can't seem to stay relaxed when just waken up out of a dream. I want to DEILD but end up tossing and turning like a madman. It probably needs more time for me to relax but any other tips would be appreciated. Ahh, that is the thing a lot of people struggle with during DEILDs, which is quite normal. One tip I could give (which might be quite vague) is to visualize the dream you just exited. I know it sounds quite basic, but focusing on the mental aspects will shift your focus, and thus slowly disregard the physical aspects. Another tip I can give is....dun dun dunn.... ...just move! Just try not to move too much though. Whenever I DEILD, I usually roll over, or move my arm or leg to get more comfort. And I can still achieve DEILDs. The trick is that even though you move, you should try not to think about it too much, which makes you linger in the physicals. DEILD is so much more mental, that even if you move, as long as you're in the proper mindset, it should still work.

[RareCola]

DEILD is a tricky one, it's incredibly easy to achieve if you get it right and I think most people tend to have DEILDs just as flukes. My best DEILDs have been when I haven't even thought about it. The same principles of WILD can apply to DEILD too, as DEILD is simply just that except executed at a different time. When you're expecting to have a DEILD, that is, fading through from waking state into a dream, your adrenaline is going to shoot through the roof when the thing you're waiting for actually starts to happen and most of the time this completely kills the attempt. This could be why you're wanting to move so much also, the build up of adrenaline and anticipation will do that. So, in short, I agree with Paige. Focus on the dream you just had or even a completely new one (but plan the new one before bed so you don't have to go through the mental practice of crafting a new dream scene on the spot) and then just go back to sleep while remaining still and ignoring any of the "noise" that occurs through the WILD transition. Your goal shouldn't be to have a DEILD because that subconsciously signals you to notice the "noise" that you shouldn't be noticing.

[RareCola]

It's actually really good that you're being hard on yourself when it comes to classifying what a lucid dream actually is. Many people on this forum simply class a vague awareness, or even just vividness in their dreams as a lucid dream. This is fine, but it's not really being honest with yourself and makes it a lot harder to progress. Especially considering the actual definition of "lucid" is "Expressed clearly; easy to understand."

[OpheliaBlue]

Lovin your post! So real quick question, sorry if I didn't get it right. You will keep the dice in your pocket when you go to bed, but no dice there in the day? This is interesting

[OpheliaBlue]

I don't think there's anything wrong with focusing on the dice thing, or any other thing to help you get lucid. Recall sometimes gets better when some focus is taken off of it. Different for everyone of course. I have to say, I rather love the idea of checking your pocket from time to time. If you ever feel dice there, you must be dreaming! Definitely let us know how that goes!

[CanisLucidus]

Tomorrow I can sleep in so I'll try to go to bed early and attempt a WBTB. It's been a long time since I've done a WBTB I'm talking about months here. But I have experienced it as a powerfull tool so let's see what happen when I use now with a more dedicated mindset. Sounds good to me! Good luck, Booney. You're correct about WBTB. It is an extremely powerful technique and IMO a necessary power tool in just about every lucid dreamer's tool bag. The honest truth is that I've had only very few lucid dreams that were not preceded by a WBTB. I resisted doing it when I first tried to LD but this was a mistake. The technique really is that good and greatly enhances almost every other tech you might try. Let us know how it goes!

[paigeyemps]

As I side note, before I wasn't sure about what was better, too have predictable boring dreams or fantastic over the top dreams. I've found out that for myself, I got closer to reaching lucidity during the week when work continued in my dreams. I guess it's because I'm in a familiar scene where I'm used to be aware of my surroundings. When I dream about locations I've never been before I seem to just go with it. So I'll take this as something to look into and learn from, see if I can take advantage of it. That is a great idea and observation. Don't forget to perform reality checks whenever you're doing something routine for you. It can be hard to remember while you're doing it, but do them whenever you're filing papers or cooking, and not just at times when you're not doing anything.

[Booney]

Week 02 Day 6 Lesson II: After being awake for almost 24 hours I went to bed today at 09:00 AM I woke up half an hour ago at 02:00 PM. I have recalled one dream so far, lots of lucidity chances but none taken unfortunately. After 5 hours of sleep doing a WBTB now would be a good idea, if it weren't for the construction site across the street. I'll try to go to bed at 03:00 PM but I don't think I can get back to sleep. I'll update on my progress today later tonight,

[CanisLucidus]

No worries on missing an opportunity here or there. Just take a little time to think about those opportunities and go over in your mind why you should have become lucid. Leave more mnemonic tripwires behind for yourself to stumble upon later. With this construction going on (and your apparent late sleeping hours), perhaps some form of ear plug would be a good idea for you?

[Booney]

I love how you call them mnemonic tripwires. It's a good way of phrasing what I'm actually trying to achieve here. And with that I'm almost finished, after this week I hope to have set up my way to lucid dreaming in all my sleeping circumstances. I have thought about earplugs and mask/blindfolds but I think I will get used to it eventually. Having things in my ears just adds to the discomfort for me. As for the dream I mentioned earlier, funny thing about that. From todays DJ entry I log on to a computer to see when my appointment with Mr. M is, 2:00 PM and I look on the clock which says 2:06. To be sure I check the schedule again and it's indeed 2:06. Realizing I'm late I get stressed and wake up. The time I wake up is 1:56.

[Booney]

Week 02 Day 7 Lesson II: Went to bed at 03:00 AM 'till 09:00 AM Recalled a bit about being in an office (watched 5 or 6 Madmen episodes in a row before bed so it was to be expected). I noted the dreams, went to the bathroom and got back to bed to sleep again for 3 hours. After that I woke up from a zombie adventure dream it was awesome. I really wish I could have battled more of them with my weaponset. I should mention having a bit of dreamcontrole in the last dream, making a mental note of that feeling. End of Week 02 evaluation. This week was strangely enough all about dreamcontrole. The way I handel myself in dreamsituations is starting to change. I can tell even though I'm not lucid I take controle of the situation more, I behave more resourcefull in my dreams if that makes sense. I'm also happy to have recalled something every day of the week, be it fragments or complete dreams. And I guess the biggest step forward was the moment I realised I was dreaming and used the spinning technique to get out of a difficult situation. Man, just thinking about that moment gets me excited again. Can't forget the somewhat succesfull first try at DEILDing You could say my dreaminstincts are finally kicking in, so lucidity is in my grasp I can feel it!

[RareCola]

That's awesome, lucid dreaming really is all about patience and persistence. The more you do it the more your instincts builds and you come to understand how it feels to be inside of your own head. Make sure you keep hold of those feelings, even the small ones. They will really help you out. One thing I like to do is keep a piece of paper in the back of my dream journal with the various ways my dreams have felt, both non-lucid, lucid and most importantly how it felt at the moment of realising that I'm dreaming. It's nice to refer to them. Onto week 3, and good luck!

[Booney]

Week 03 Day 1 Lesson II: Another graveyard shift, bedtime 08:00 AM I find these shifts to be the hardest on LDing, they tire me out which makes me lose focus. Had a good dream recall though. After tonight I will get back into my prefered sleeping schedule so I expect to be fully back in the game by the end of this week. Oh yeah, my focus is still on the MILD and DILD with trying to get some DEILDs here and there.

[Booney]

Week 03 Day 2 Lesson II: Well that's it for now as the graveyard shifts are concerend. Went to bed at 05:15 AM, woke up with a mind full of dreams and experiences but was to exhausted to write them down. I'm sure some fragments will reach the surface during the day. I also found some kind of meditation video on YouTube, but my tools to rip audio from YouTube have seemed to stop working. Which is a shame cause I would love to have the audio as an mp3 so I can listen to it in bed. As I don't want my computer to be on all night. Now the graveyardshifts are over for a while I will get back to more awareness and better MILD attempts.

[Xanous]

I think I can help you with the YouTube thing. If you have an Android device try tubemate. It won't be in the market you have to google search it. Also do you mind sharing the link? Id like to get it on mp3 myself. I like to occasionally experiment with those. I can even share the file in my box account if you prefer.

[Booney]

I think I can help you with the YouTube thing. If you have an Android device try tubemate. It won't be in the market you have to google search it. Also do you mind sharing the link? Id like to get it on mp3 myself. I like to occasionally experiment with those. I can even share the file in my box account if you prefer. Thanks for the tip, I ended up using GetTube works great. Here's the link: Sleep Hypnosis Easy Lucid Dreaming - YouTube It didn't do much for me in the end, it got me relaxed but nothing more and I even question if my relaxation was because of this video. These things never work for me, no matter how open I try to be to the idea. Oh well. Week 03 Day 4 Lesson II: It's been a busy weekend which is why I didn't update yesterday, but there wasn't much development anyway. Yesterday was another pubnight went to bed pissed and still had the best recall ever! Amazing dreams, kinda scary and surreal, even Salvador Dali popped in to say hi. The main theme last night was the lack of time, a feeling of; I must hurry or else! Also a blind man was chasing me, it was scary as hell. New change in waking life, bought an electric guitar, so I'll have to look out for music related dreamsigns now.

[Xanous]

Oh that one... Yeah. I found it to be annoying more than helpful.

[Booney]

Yeah, didn't do much for me either.