Benni's Workbook

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acquiring this appreciation for all sorts of things. I would walk down the street and notice the breeze and feel as joyful as if it is a dream (I enjoy this during a lucid, so why not enjoy it in real life). When the sun is shining, I would pay attention to the light being reflected from different objects. I would marvel the little droplets of rain on my window which would shine like tiny crystals at sunset

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Oh yes, I feel the same! Especially during my SAT sessions I enjoy all those sensations. Sometimes the little things are the things that one can marvel at the most! :D I actually think that the act of dreaming has given me a different view on my waking life (even though it's a mirror of the waking life of some sorts... ironic isn't it? :D )

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I have started noticing story lines developing over long periods of time in non-lds

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there seems to be a very vague connection between many other dreams like this

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Oh maaaan. the more I hear and learn about dreaming the more it amazes me! I have noticed a few connections as well. For instance quite a few of my dreams revolve around two young teachers at my school (they are married). I like them and I often find myself visiting their classes within my dreams. And apparently all those dreams seem to be connected - they always say similar things and act based upon things that happened in past dreams! In one dream for instance I didn't find my biology class so the teacher had to help me find it... In a later dream (that became a lucid dream) the same teacher showed me where the room was because she knew I wouldn't find it. And then the whole classroom was covered with orange leaves from autumn trees which was a big enough cue to give me lucidity :D

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I would take special notice of negative dreams and meditate on them, trying to release emotions that have been trapped

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Wow, that's fantastic! I don't suffer from any nightmares whatsoever, but there are some dreams that are not as nice as others so I should do something similar. Up to now I have just looked at them, acknowledged them and then closed my DJ.... maybe it helps to analyse them a little more in depth!


Little update: Tonight was one of those crazy night again... I set my alarm 3 times. i got up each time, turned off the alarm and went straight back to bed without taking some notes on any dreams. When waking up at the end of the night I had one dream in my mind which was a tiny bit annoying considering that I remembered at least 4 dreams during my micro WBTBs. So I took some notes on this one dream and while writing SEVEN other dreams came to my mind so quickly that I couldn't even keep up writing them down! :D It was like dominos! remembering one dream somehow triggered a memeroy connected with another dream! I had a close look at all those dreams and decided that they all presentdifferent dreams even though they had similar elements! So that way quite cool :)

After not putting too much energy into trying to be aware all day long (which is too tiring) in the last few days, I have started to notice that my awareness has become very sporadic - which is awesome! Today I went to town with some friends to get some Asian food from the stores and some tea from the tea shop and I noticed myself just stopping at times having this 'awareness-boost' looking around for any oddities and questioning my surroundings. I think this is very much the sens of performing of SAT and it is definitely going to help in having more LDs in the future. AND I have totally jettisoned this thought of failure that we talked about in the last 3 posts! :D It is just a fun thing to me and if I don't accomplish a given thing I just try again instead of worrying about it.

Thanks and sweet dreams to you too :)

What a great read! Enjoyed this!
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In a later dream (that became a lucid dream) the same teacher showed me where the room was because she knew I wouldn't find it. And then the whole classroom was covered with orange leaves from autumn trees which was a big enough cue to give me lucidity

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That's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about! It's amazing isn't, the mysterious things that happen in our subcon. And what a cool way to become lucid - having autumn leaves fill the room. :)

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I have started to notice that my awareness has become very sporadic - which is awesome! Today I went to town with some friends to get some Asian food from the stores and some tea from the tea shop and I noticed myself just stopping at times having this 'awareness-boost' looking around for any oddities and questioning my surroundings. I think this is very much the sens of performing of SAT and it is definitely going to help in having more LDs in the future.

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Mmm, Asian food, now I'm hungry. :D That's really good, I think having this sporadic awareness boost really helps and if you manage to keep having something like this during the day, it will surely transfer to dreams at some point. Maybe the next time you are having some dream food? :drool:

Sweet dreams!

Good evening :)

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What a great read! Enjoyed this!

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Thanks Steph! :) I'm glad you enjoy reading about my progress!

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Mmm, Asian food, now I'm hungry

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Ohh Asian food is awesome! I was living with a hostbrother in New Zealand and he came from Thailand so we invited all our friends every Saturday and he cooked Thai food for us like Green Curry or some really cool omlet filled with shrimps and mushrooms :) And we always had a box of tissues on the table because it was sooo hot but soo good!

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I think having this sporadic awareness boost really helps and if you manage to keep having something like this during the day, it will surely transfer to dreams at some point.

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Yes, you are totally right! I am still aiming for LD number 19, but to some extent it has already carried over because all of my 18 LDs have been initiated by being aware all of a sudden! As the long time without any LD shows I really have to increase the frequency of my awareness during the day and I have to stay consistent no matter what! And then I can be confident that this will bring me many LDs. I really can't wait for the next next LD - just a random morning hours and suddenly I notice one of those countless oddities withing my dreams and BAAAAM: let the fun begin! :D I already miss this awesome and revealing feeling of LDing. How could I possibly stop practicing with this lovely goal of having LDs?!?!

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Maybe the next time you are having some dream food?

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It's very strange but in all my DJs (which might have reached the 500 dreams mark by now) I have only one dream recorded in which I can remember actually sitting down and eating something! :D Never do I eat nor drink anything within my dreams. Crazy, isn't it? I should have starved to death in my dreams by now! :P

Anyway, I will ask the same question as before. do you have yet even more ideas on how to improve my daytime awareness and on how to break this little dryspell? :D I think I do have the right mindset and (besides being busy with school but still getting ~8hours of sleep each night) I do try to keep practicing and my MILD every night is very consistent. I do have quite a few ideas that I will definitely try out once I'm done with my final exams, but I am looking for something not quite so time-consuming which is still effective over time so that I can give me best even when I'm a little bit stressed.

Thanks and sweet dreams.

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Anyway, I will ask the same question as before. do you have yet even more ideas on how to improve my daytime awareness and on how to break this little dryspell? I think I do have the right mindset and (besides being busy with school but still getting ~8hours of sleep each night) I do try to keep practicing and my MILD every night is very consistent.

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Well, you may try sporadic autosuggestion during the day. Basically, repeating the mantras like 'I realize that I am dreaming/I am dreaming' or whatever mantra you use, while looking at different objects. Or you can do it while looking at your hands. I found this also transfers to dreams, it can be pretty funny when you catch yourself repeating the mantra while the dream is going on.

Also, don't underestimate the power of a good wbtb. Whenever possible, experiment with longer wbtb and remind yourself that you are just about to have an ld as you go back to bed. Let it be the last thing on your mind before you drop off.

Good luck and sweet dreams! :)

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Well, you may try sporadic autosuggestion during the day.

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I think that's a good idea :) Not much effort and a good effect if practiced consistently and long enough!

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Also, don't underestimate the power of a good wbtb

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Oh yes, WBTBs are great! usually when I'm busy with school or so I just add one micro WBTB/night because I don't want to lose too much sleep, but when there is some more spare time I usually plan a nice WBTB. Always boosts my recall greatly! The only downside might be that the alarm might wake me up from a LD which would be very annoying hahaha :D

Anyway, I have to admit that since my last wave of exams before the final exams in March has started I slacked off a little. My dream recall has dropped to 2-4 dreams/night (which is still great! :) ) - seems like a standby mode untill the stress is over haha. It's always quite amazing (and a little bit sad as well) to see how MUCH stress can actually influence the amount of dreams I can recall and their clarity! I am still consistent with my MILD every night, but my ADA/SAT pratice has slacked off as well... damn those exams. Anyway my chemistry exam is over now and German and Maths shouldn't trouble me too much... I am extremly determined to keep up all my pratices to a minimum level untill all those exams are over so that I don't have to start from scratch. On the 21st of March all those exams will be written and I can lean back, pat my shoulder and engage in all of my hobbies (especially dreaming) as much as I like because I'm done with schoooool! :) So my main goal at the moment is to keep at my practices as good as possible (without overstressing) so that I don't ruin my awareness- and dreaming-rountine! :D So on the 21st of march I will proceed at a supersonic pace and have thousands of LDs! ;) haha.

Ohhh btw: Last night I had one extremly vivid dream in which i ATE - crazy isn't it? We just mentioned eating stuff in the workbook and baaaam: I ate within my dream. Subconscious mind never fails to amaze! I was in Monaco with my parents and my little dog and I had one scoop of strawberry icecream. It was sooo expensive (4,65€ for one scoop!!), but it tasted fantatstic! I still remember feeling this cold soft feeling of it melting in my mouth. That was great because it was a very hot day! And in yet another dream I went for a drive and suddenly my fuel tank was empty.... that dream was crazy haha.

I will just "mantra" my way through my Friday afternoon and weekend and look forward to the next (lucid) dreams :)
Sweet dreams!

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So my main goal at the moment is to keep at my practices as good as possible (without overstressing) so that I don't ruin my awareness- and dreaming-rountine! So on the 21st of march I will proceed at a supersonic pace and have thousands of LDs! haha.

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That sounds like a good plan. Good luck on the exams! :D

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Last night I had one extremly vivid dream in which i ATE - crazy isn't it? We just mentioned eating stuff in the workbook and baaaam: I ate within my dream. Subconscious mind never fails to amaze! I was in Monaco with my parents and my little dog and I had one scoop of strawberry icecream

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Awesome! Seems like we have managed to incubate food dreams with all this talk. Weirdly, I had a non-ld yesterday where I was looking at and about to enjoy (but got distracted again!) a very nicely looking apple pie with some ice cream on top. I haven't stopped thinking about it since then. I need to get to the store and see what they have there! :lol:

Sweet dreams!

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That sounds like a good plan. Good luck on the exams!

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Thanks! I think I will do fine - definitely good enough to study chemistry at uni, but I would still like to reach a little higher than that. Better grades always look good in the final reports so I'll reach for a 1.6 (1.0 is the best and 6.0 is the worst grade in our school system :D ).

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Awesome! Seems like we have managed to incubate food dreams with all this talk. Weirdly, I had a non-ld yesterday where I was looking at and about to enjoy (but got distracted again!) a very nicely looking apple pie with some ice cream on top. I haven't stopped thinking about it since then. I need to get to the store and see what they have there!

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Woaaaah seems like there is food all over our dreams hahaha!
Amazingly I have yet another story to tell. Last night I had another dream about food - this time I was in Russia (what the hell?) and strangely I was looking for roasted seaweed... sooo yet another dream about food in the last few days... it's crazy!

BTW: Do you know the fried seaweed from Tao Kae Noi? It is DELICIOUS!!!! Basically it just cut squares and little pieces of seaweed which has been dried and/or fried and then flavoured with spices like chili or so. It's quite expensive here in Europe, but I always buy a few bags whenever I'm in town... and you can't buy it in every Asian store so that's probably why I went through whole Russia looking for seaweed LOL :D Crazy subconscious mind :P

Sweet dreams!

PS: I might concentrate on school for the next few days, but I will definitely update if there is anything worth being mentioned like an awesome LD or cool progress :)

Oh, I haven't tried that stuff but it sounds tasty! And you traveling to Russia, cool! :D

I guess with your dream trips it may make for a good RC to ask yourself where you are during the day. Good luck with further lds or food dreams! :)

Hey,
long time no talk! Sadly I am quite busy and I honestly have to study quite a bit. As you might imagine that's not soooo good for LDing - still no LD so far.

BUT there are still some good news to catch up on:
1) my dream recall is still quite good (2-6/night) and I record all of my dreams as always.
2) I am still performing MILD every night and WBTBs occasionally
3) I have had some AWEEEESOME non-LDs in the last few weeks. I plan to post some of them in my DJ after the final exams will be finished. Especially one of them which is about an army attacking Germany and me being totally scared to death about it... It was the longest non-LD I have ever recorded (it was 2 days long!) and it was just so incredibly packed with such intense emotions, vivid imagery and sooo deep conversations and feelings and creepy weapons and soldier, etc.... just incredible! It's all in my DJ and I will post it here next month or earlier if I can find some time :D )

Anyway: my exams are over on the 21st of March and I am absolutely confident that after that I will emerge in LDing just like I did before. I just have to throttle down a little bit for now :) But I am still trying to keep up some SAT and RCs which is working reasonably well.
Any more advice on how to get through stressful situations?

PS: I had one non-LD in which I was asking myself 3 times "Am I dreaming?" "I must be! It seems so unreal", but somehow something about the dream convinced me that it must be reality - really crazy haha :D I shall not let such an awesome chance slip off next time!

Sweet dreams and sorry the late reply,
Benni

PS2: How are you doing? :) everything alright? Any special dreams lately?

Hey Benni! Good to hear that in spite of all the stuff you have going, you are still keeping up with a reasonable amount of practice and your recall's great. Two days worth of a dream time, that's pretty intense, especially if armies were involved! :D

Very good sign from that dream where you were wondering if you are dreaming too!

Oh, I don't know if exams would fit into the kind of advice I have for stressful situations usually, namely relax. I guess you need to just be a bit calmer, but not too calm when it comes to exams and turn the stress into a motivation to pass with flying colors (or just pass depending on your goals! lol). But yeah, if you succeed in transforming some of that stress into a drive to manage the situation, then that will be very helpful.

By the way, had another food related non-ld. My dad got a box of chocolates and ate most of them, but I managed to get my hands on a large piece of chocolate and what looked like creme brulee. The taste was great and no extra weight upon waking up too! What can be better than that? :)

Best of luck with your studies, RCs and sweet dreams!

Hello!!! :)
I finally managed to finish all my exams! And it's honestly veryyyy revealing :) Especially because I have an absolutely great feeling concerning all my results and there shouldn't be any bad surprises. Couldn't be any better, right?

I didn't have a LD since january, but fortunately I kept going with my DJ all the time which means that I have got some pretty cool dreams to report even though I have been so stressed lately. My dream recall has dropped a little, but I am absolutely certain that it will go up now again once I'm online more, reading in the forum and doing my workbook consistently... I really missed my time on here and all the great feedback from you and other users so it's great to be back now.
I'm sure that I will be lucky with the LDs soon as well as I am planning to get straight back into my schedule (which I have posted as an image above somewhere in my workbook)... So that means more frequent RCs, Reverse RCs, ADA, of course my beloved WBTBs and intensifying my MILD! :D I know that "having to study" has been an excuse to some extent because obviously I didn't study 24/7, but even though I had some spare time it was simply too much to load the little time I had with all my LDing practices.... I knoooow... my bad... but the happier I am now to get back into it and I am glad that AT LEAST I didn't stop writing down my dreams in my DJ so that I don't have to start from scratch now! :)

Anyway, any advice how to get back into my practices as efficiently as possible without losing too much time?
And how have you been doing lately? Everything alright?

Sweet dreams and the happiest greeting from Germany,
Benni <3

Hiya Benni! Welcome back - glad the exams went well - catch up soon! cheers - Tlaloc :lol:

Benni, welcome back! Good job not giving up on journalling despite all the stress and time pressure surrounding the exams. I think going back to your schedule and your own version of MIT is a great idea. Nothing works better than trying lots of techniques at the same time (as long one doesn't overdo it, but I think we are ok here). You probably know my fav tech is wbtb for any fast results and then you can complement it with whatever feels right to you. See you around! :)

Thanks Tlaloc! :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Benni, welcome back! Good job not giving up on journalling despite all the stress and time pressure surrounding the exams. I think going back to your schedule and your own version of MIT is a great idea. Nothing works better than trying lots of techniques at the same time (as long one doesn't overdo it, but I think we are ok here). You probably know my fav tech is wbtb for any fast results and then you can complement it with whatever feels right to you. See you around! :)

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Finally back online! :) My parents and I moved to a new maisonette so we had quite a bit to do and it took a little to get the internet working and to get done with all the furniture and decorating work, etc... But now I am confident that I can be online on a much more frequent basis! :D Journaling is going good and I even had two very brief lucid moments recently. In one LD I managed to fly a little but somehow after flying I did another RC which was negative so the dream somehow tricked me into losing my lucidity by giving me five fingers instead of the eight fingers I had in the beginning (very bad idea to do the finger RC once you are lucid already and your LD is not quite so stable!). I was still quite happy to regain a little lucid moment after such a long time. In another lucid moment 3 days ago I met Karlie (my best dream buddy if you can remember from earlier posts in my workbook) and I took selfies with her and we held hands and talked and it was soooo real and perfect and the moment couldn't get any better so in that very second it dawned on me... "I must be dreaming!" and I instantly woke up and dropped down notes on everything I was able to remember... I can still feel her hand holding my hand! Heavenly :D I suppose that I woke up because I was so excited but also because my room was bright from the morning sun (note: I have to close the roller blinds in my new room completely in order to have a dark room especially in summertime when the sun rises so early)

So my schedule for now is as follows:
- keep journaling as always (of course! )
- increase my recall from 0-4 dreams/ night to 3-7 dreams /night in the course of the next 2 weeks
- HUGELY increase the frequency of SAT, RCs, RRCs, ADA and WBTBs
- keep having lucid moments which are longer than the last two in order to reach a state of having such awesome lucid dreams as the one I had in January when I first used the dream door to get to New york and meet Karlie
---> and hence: better dream control and higher vividness! :)

I'll report about my progress soon
sweet dreams!

Benni! Congrats on the new place and the recent lds! It's very encouraging that you have been able to get back on track already and with some of your dream goals too! :D

Great ld plan! Looking forward to hearing about more awesome dreams soon! Sweet dreams! :)

Hey :) Thanks for your quick reply. I decided to write down how I want to proceed. You might just check what I wrote down today and maybe you will find some things that are worth being changed or maybe you have any good advice that I could add :D

Here we go:

What have I accomplished so far?
I have had a decent amount of Lucid Dreams (~20) and my dream recall is good and stable over time. I have gained quite a bit of knowledge about different induction techniques, maintaining a DJ properly, recognizing Dreamsigns and heightening my (self-) awareness gradually. I managed to control some of my LDs to a great extent and ended up completing tasks I have set with much precision and fun.

What are my weak points?
I have not been able to initiate LDs on a regular basis for a longer period of time (i.e. >1 LD/week for more than one month). I have yet to gain the ability to successfully stabilize ALL of my LDs. I have not managed to keep a high level awareness for long periods of time or regularly for short periods of time all over the day (some days have been more successful whereas others have been absolutely horrible). I still have to improve my MILD consistency. I don’t manage to drop down notes on dreams that I can remember during my Micro WBTBs (I fall asleep too quickly, but I shall find a solution for that). My sleep schedule is not quite so consistent.

Which of my skills are best developed?
My dream recall is excellent on most of the days. Sometimes it happens that I can’t recall any (rarely) or just 1-2 dreams/night, but I usually manage to recall at least 4-6 and on some occasions 7-11 dreams/night depending on how much sleep I get and how well my WBTBs work out. My Dream Journal is kept extremely well and I write down when I go to bed, when I get up and I drop down notes on EVERY dream I can recall. Also I am very keen on having LDs and I am keeping and constantly updating a “Goal Sheet” with all the things I want to accomplish in my LDs on it. “IF” I manage to stabilize a LD (which I haven’t been able to do properly since January) my Dream Control is quite good and I have managed to fly, summon people, travel through the world by teleporting and using my ohhh so beloved “Dream Door” and doing other lovely things like bending the earth, meeting my favourite celebrities and other things I prefer not to talk about so far.

I have hard times developing:
- Consistent (self-) awareness
- A consistent daily schedule
- The skill of consistently initiating LDs ( which is surely caused by the two points above)

How will I solve these issues?
As always I will try to stick to my MIT (Multiple Induction Technique) schedule more consistently and this time I will copy this schedule and put it on the doors and in reach all around in order to develop some consistency. As soon as this consistency is reached I will remove the copies in order to keep this consistency without needing reminders.
I will put on a rubber band and draw an “A” on my hand standing for awareness.
Having finished school exams gives me the ability to attend to a mindset which questions its surroundings and values every sensation and experience and its place in this world much more. Hence I will have the opportunity to completely implement this mindset into my daily routine before university starts in October and things will get a bit more stressful.
I will give meditation a try.
I will daydream more and pay more attention to the thought that reality is very similar to dreams and once a moment has passed it’s nothing but a memory. I will also acknowledge the differences between states more and try to work out how exactly my dreams actually differ from my waking life.


All in all it can be said that by improving my whole level of self-awareness I will manage to discover the slight differences between dream and waking life for instance by paying attention to any occurring inconsistencies, logical flaws, the way of feeling things and the effects that I have on my environment and my environment has on me. This will enable me to tell that a dream is a creation by myself containing things that don’t fit the laws of waking life and hence becoming lucid.


END. What do you think of this and do you have any ideas on how to fight my weak points? :) That would be great.

And as promised I finally managed to write a new DJ entry (I am quite busy because I still have to put dreams worth 3 weeks from my notebook into my DJ which I shall complete within the next few days).
there you go: 12.2.2014 my first and hopefully last war - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Even though it might not sound as exciting as my other DJ entries the emotions involved in this one were staggering!
Dream Journals are just awesome because I can just go back to this date, read my notes and then just put it up on DV! Yay :)

Anyway, I am looking forward to your thoughts!

Sweet dreams,
Benni

PS: i have already planned what to do in my next LD (I am certain that after almost 3 months of no decent controlled LDs I will very soon have a great LD with full control and many more LDs to come afterwards! :) ). I am planning to visit my dream land and finally have a talk with my dream buddy Karlie while sitting at my favourite place within this dream world having a hot chocolate. If you want I can tell you more about my "dream world" :D.

I know you haven't replied to my last post yet and I don't want to be pushy... however a question popped up in my head so I want to write down before forgetting it again! :D
I have read a lot about awareness and especially self-awareness lately and there is one thing I can't stop thinking about. According to Sageous LDing is a 3legged stool with its 3 legs consisting of memory, awareness (Self-awareness) and - of course - dreaming itself. sounds reasonable so far. Maybe I shall ask Sageous himself, but I just wanted to ask you first because you know my situation best and have helped me many times before: How does increasing your self-awareness (i.e. acknowlediging that you are part of the environment and how you effect it and how it effects you) help in becoming lucid? I know that increasing awareness boosts the level of detail that I can recall in my dreams and hence increases the chances of triggering lucidity by paying more attention - but still: how does 'acknowlediging my existence and its impact' have similar effects? I performed those Reverse RCs for a while, but all it came to was one dream in which I just got totally amazed by the dream scene and acknowledged how beautiful this dream forest in front of me was and how I have an impact on it simply by walking through it.... this increased my awareness but how does it help with lucidity? :D
According to Sageous it helps in noticing that the dream world is not something independent of your own senses but something that you yourself made up - so your dreams pretty much are yourSELF. I get the theory, but considering that dreams can be very convincing at times and considering that parts of my memory that find logical flaws are switched off during sleep how am I supposed to notice that dreams originate from my very SELF instead of being a real environment like the one in waking life?!
I understand the thoughts in terms of grasping their content, but I don't get how this is supposed to work (so maybe I don't get the thoughts either). HELP please! :D

Sweet dreams,
Benni

Hey benni! Feel free to post and update here and you can also go ahead asking Sageous, he'll surely give you a great answer! I'll adress your posts soon as well! :happyface:

Very nice analysis of strenghts, weaknesses, benni! On tips on how to improve, I think you yourself have nailed the key - consistency. Once you get in the habit of and become well organized about ld induction (and MIT is a great strategy!), then you will increase the rate of your lds. And the more lds you have, the more opportunity you will have to work on stabilization. This will also help you tell whether there actually is the need to stabilize, how, etc.

On the subject of self awareness, my understanding in general is that if you are more self aware you kind of take a step back from what is going on around you. This will increase the chances if becoming lucid if it is a dream, as you are not so involved in the dream. Also, it may help you find inconsistencies relating to the dream world or your own behavior (i.e. what am I doing now, why am I happy, sad, etc.). Finally, it may help you spot the famous but hard to explain dreamy feeling that may trigger lucidity. But those are mine explanations and I'm not quite sure this is what Sageous means, so you still might consider asking him for additional insight.

Hope that helps! :)

Thanks a lot for your insights! :)

I will definitely just keep going like this and maybe review my analysis of strengths and weaknesses and see how things have - or have not - changed.

I also have some great news to share:
Before asking Sageous myself (which is redundant now) I read the whole 13 pages of this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/wild/12557...mentals-q.html which is the greatest thread I've seen on here so far and BOOMMM: all my questions have been answered and even more than that... I created a document in which I pasted some quotes of Sageous and made some comments on them in order to capture the essence of this whole debate and fully grasp the concept of the LDing fundamentals - SELF-AWARENESS and MEMORY. Getting through this whole thread took me four days, but - without wanting to exaggerate - it honestly opened my eyes concerning LDing! I now see how focusing on techniques themselves brings us nowhere and only focusing on the fundamentals and looking at how to incorporate them in my daily life without slacking off can help me to achieve lucidity on a regular basis :) And guess what? In the nights after starting to read this thread I was able to recall 6 dreams, 10 dreams and 9 dreams respectively and in 3 dreams I came sooo damn close to becoming lucid which seems to be the best sign possible to indicate that I am now - finally - on the right path. I think my lack of any knowledge that made sense to me in such a way that I knew pretty much exactly how to proceed was very confusing and explains the absence of LDs lately!

So what I have learned now: Initiating LDs is all about activating my self-awareness by doing RRCs and similar exercises. By asking questions like how I interact with my environment, how I play a role in this world and what I have done in the last 15ish minutes, do now and will do soon (in order to train my memory-skills) I will reach a state that enables me to notice that my dreams are not a complex environment in which I play a role but much more a creation of myself and hence behaves accordingly or at least enables me to spot this by carrying some of my waking-memory and self-awareness into my dreams! :)
Makes total sense to me! :D

I will definitely keep you updated about how self-awareness and memory training will gradually become part of my daily life and if I am confronted with any problems whatsoever, I will contact you and we will find a solution together :)

Thanks again for your help and your kind words! I am glad to have the ability to have this workbook and use its benefits.

Sweet dreams,
Benni

Wow, that is fantastic Benni! Readying the whole thread and summarizing key points was a great idea. I'm certain there's a wealth of knowledge there and now you have it covered from all possible angles. :D

Very happy that things make more sense now, indeed a lot of induction is about understanding what you are doing and why you are doing it. Best of luck with your new schedule, I'm sure lds will follow your super boost in recall. :)

Sweet dreams!

Hey :)

My recall has dropped a little (which seems understandable since recalling 10 dreams every single night seems a little over the top after just starting my awareness exercises a few days ago), but it's still very good and my daytime practices are going great!
I made a list of questions to ask myself during my RRCs and self-awareness moments:
- Where am I? Why am I here?
- What have I exactly done in the last 10-15 minutes? Why have I done that?
- What am I doing now? Why?
- What am I going to do in the next few minutes? Why?
- How do I affect my environment? How does it affect me?

Anything to add? :) I especially love the WHY-questions because they really make me wonder. By asking "why" I don't just mean "oh well I'm in the kitchen because obviously I want to eat something", but much rather "After coming home from school and slowly climbing upstairs I decided that having lunch might be a good idea, so that's why I am in the kitchen now in order to satisfy my hungry feeling...". And when answering those questions I really try my best to strain my memory and think as realistically as possible of how I got to where I am now and how doing so affected me and the things around me. And I always try to incorporate new thoughts in order to keep the feeling of asking those question something special instead of just answering them without losing a single thought. I usually end those thoughts with a RC - just to make sure :P

Anyway, I was wondering what your approach to LDing in general is like! Maybe I can learn something from your routine. You've told me a little about what you do, but I was wondering: Do you ask similar or the same questions? And how often do you perform RCs? Do you also stress self-awareness a lot? And most importantly: Do you train your memory and if yes - how? The only exercise that I found is the prospective memory exercise that is supposed to give me better chances of MILDing, but are there any other exercises that you know of because somehow I can't come up with any myself - except for asking what I have done recently. I know that copying techniques from others is not the wisest idea, but some inspiration would be great! :)

Sweet dreams,
Benni

Lol, Benni, with 10 dreams per day, you are indeed leaving very little room for improvement. :D

About my routine - it varies a lot. I try to be consistent in the long run, never fully forgetting about lding in the very least. The rest is determined by my mood and how motivated or busy I am. I like to freestyle a lot, but still aim for consistency. For example, in some periods I would emphasize RCing a lot, at other times I would focus on ADA, DS or critical thinking. Some of the stuff I do, I would focus on reviewing the day and/or examining the current situation and comparing it to a dream to see if it makes sence, like am if I involved in something extraordinarily exciting, etc. that could point it can be a dream. In general, I don't do prospective memory exercises but occasionally look for particular DS whenever in the mood. As I said, it really depends! But of course, the more of these checks one does the better the results!

By the way here's a link from zoth about prospective memory exercises if you are interested! Sweet dreams! :)

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...e-skilled.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Lol, Benni, with 10 dreams per day, you are indeed leaving very little room for improvement. :D

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Hahaha yes, that's true. It doesn't really matter whether I can recall 6 or 10 dreams per night. Both is great I think. It's much more about whether the dreams are nice or not. I would be much happier about a night with 4 recalled dreams which I really enjoyed instead of recalling 10 very dull fragments that don't even seem that nice! :D

Thanks for those insights! I think your routine sounds very promising because sometimes I think that overstressing the whole art of dreaming and seeing it as something like "I MUST have a LD tonight" is actually really counter-productive. Just casually changing the schedule and not overstressing any single aspect like you do makes perfect sense! :)
I have come very close to having LDs recently and I think that it can't take much longer for the spark to ignite my self-awareness during dreams haha! I am sure that my memory- and self-awareness-work will pay off soon!

Thanks for the link! Doing this exercise described by Zoth can be very tiring but considering that school is almost over now I will definitely have enough time to effectively improve my prospective memory - thanks for the reminder.