Benni's Workbook

Hey, I have finally decided to start a workbook because I hope that I can gain some more insight and refine my techniques in order to have more frequent LDs, explore the world of my dreams more and of course to have more fun overall :)

Reality Checks:
- Nose plug (usually the most reliable RC for me)
- looking at my hands
- thinking about what happened in the last few minutes/ questioning my surroundings
- trying to change objects or trying to make something appear
- Sageous' Reverse RC (if you want to count that as a RC)
Note: It has only happened once that a RC made me lucid so sometimes I don't even bother to RC after having noticed that I'm dreaming because it is so obvious to me after having noticed something out of place. (I just do it to increase vividness within my LDs. However I'm performing my RCs quite frequently in waking life probably at least once an hour and everytime something strange or odd occurs to me.)

Dream Signs:
- school
- friends
- friends from New Zealand (I have been there on an Exchange Year in 2011/12)
- being in New Zealand again
- my parents
- travelling to places all over the world

Short-Term Goals:
- staying motivated
- improving my prospective memory
- including my LDing routines into my daily life more well

Long-Term Goals:
- more consistent LDs (~2-3 / week)
- increasing my overall daytime awareness
- having more success with MILD
- my first successful WILD and DEILD (but that can wait for now)

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
I got to know about LDing in late 2011 when I was on an Exchange in New Zealand however I didn't find much time to practice and I didn't really think about it. After I had come back to Germany in July 2012 I read an article about LDing on the internet in autumn 2012 and I was quite stoked and ordered Stephen LaBerge's book and started writing a DJ. However I still didn't get very far... Untill I (quite randomly) discovered DreamViews last summer (~June 2013). I read heaps of articles on here and finally decided to sign up :) I started having frequent LDs and all the guides and discussions on here helped me so much! After the summer holidays I slacked off a little because school and LDing practices didn't seem to blend very well, but I have to admit that my LDing schedule was much too packed and there was almost no way of fulfulling my goals that I have set. So by now I am trying to keep up my current schedule which is not so packed in order to keep going with my LDing practices while my final exams in March and April are approaching.
My dream recall is fairly good and I am consistently recalling 4-6 dreaming per night (sometimes it can be 8-11 dreams of which about 70% are fully recalled and the rest are fragments). There are some nights in which I recall only 2 dreams, but that's an exception. I have accomplished a few tasks within my LDs so far including: flying, levitating, meeting some celebrities and old friends, crossing an ocean, etc but there is much more to come like flying to space for instance (I'm a huge astronomy fan) and tasting food, talking to a clone of myself, etc.... So those tasks and many more (I have a list of things to accomplish within LDs) keep me really excited and motivated but also the ability to discover more about yourself that LDing brings with it keeps me stoked.

Current Technique:
- a mixture of ADA (combined with some RRCs for self-awareness), SAT, Autosuggestion and exercises for the prospective memory to improve my awareness
- MILD at bedtime
- WBTB combined with MILD when I can sleep longer than usual
- the usual RCs

I will try to update daily, but if I am too busy I will at least try to update my workbook every third day (depending on what I have to do for school). I hope to have some nice conversations on here and get some advice helping me to improve. I'm sure this will be lots of fun andvery helpful. Thanks a lot for offering this service to help fellow LDers to strive for their goals! :)

Hey Benni! Good to have you here!

The exchange year in NZ where you had the chance to learn about lucid dreaming sounds like a great experience. :)

I also find DV to be a great lucidity booster that has helped me a lot. Looking forward to reading your updates, helping out with whatever tips I can. Don't worry about the posting frequency, it isn't as important as keeping up the daily practices and dream recall. :P

If you have any questions, feel free to ask us here or in the http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...o-class-q.html thread.

Enjoy the journey to lucidity! :)

Thanks for the welcome and the fast reply! :) Yes, the year in New Zealand was great! Especially getting to know so many people from all over the world (I'm still in touch with many and I have recently visited a friend from Sweden :) ). Anyway, my update:
I Had 4 really vivid dreams last night and two fragments which is alright I guess. Yesterday I was really busy which always makes it hard for me to keep practicing. That's what I'm also a little bit worried about: When I just casually go through the day without any special things and I'm just at school or meeting a friend oer doing my homework or going for a walk in the forest then I have no problems reminding myself of doing RCs or being aware and completing my prospective memory training properly for instance. However if I am doing special things that I'm not doing daily then I find it extremly hard to think of all those daily practices... Maybe it's because my brain seems to be a bit overloaded with the different situations so that there isn't much space left?! (Those days don't occur very often but yesterday was one of them.) Any advice on how to prevent my mind wandering off whenever I'm involved in exciting stuff? I might also want to add that it's the same in dreams: I usually become lucid when there are a few quiet moments within my dreams without being involved in any crazy or exciting activities - so my goal would be to keep my mind clear even when there is a lot of whirling going on around me :)
I suppose it's about keeping a distance to the things that happen and not getting trapped within them but much rather critically evaluating them while going through my day :) I just don't quite know how to do that.

Oh and another thing: I have my next LD planned already! :) In my most recent LDs I was just focused on having fun and doing as much things as possible, but by now I actually want to change that a little. I want to explore the feeling of LDs more and my plan was to teleport to NYC and sit down in a cafe, have some cake and actually have a nice conversation with a DC (preferably Karlie Kloss. She's one of my fav celebrities and I have met her in many NLDs and also in two LDs before and I really started to like her! I would consider her a "dream friend" of mine haha :D ). I have barely talked in LDs before because I was focused on doing fun stuff, but now I want to hear what my subconscious has to say! :) and I might also want to pay close attention to what the cake tastes like and what all the materials feel like.

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When I just casually go through the day without any special things and I'm just at school or meeting a friend oer doing my homework or going for a walk in the forest then I have no problems reminding myself of doing RCs or being aware and completing my prospective memory training properly for instance. However if I am doing special things that I'm not doing daily then I find it extremly hard to think of all those daily practices...

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I find it very good that you have nicely incorporated RCs and being aware in your normal daily routine and that is surely going to transfer to dreamworld even more. :)

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Any advice on how to prevent my mind wandering off whenever I'm involved in exciting stuff?

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Well, first of all don't rush through anything you are doing even if it is uncommon and exciting. I usually take the opportunity to contemplate on the differentness of the experience if it is a more exciting one. Let's say you go out with friends to visit a place you usually don't go to. I would immediately relate this experience to the dream world - oh, now we are going on a trip, this is so exciting, it is just like in a dream. And as part of that excitement, you want to soak every aspect of what's going on, all the little details around you. So, just try to be as mindful as possible. I guess if you make it a habit to feel the excitement and at the same time relate the event to something similar happening during a dream, then you carry a bif of awareness while having fun at the same time. :)

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I have my next LD planned already!

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Oh, that is really good. I also think that having a plan or task to do for your next ld is very important. The things you want to do sound great! Good luck with your next ld and let me know how any dream food tastes (I've only had bread so far!:P).

Oh thanks a lot! That actually helped a lot. Naturally I am a calm person anyway and I usually question things and look for mistakes where other people don't expect any so it should be easy and actually fun to look for differences between exciting and normal activities and trying to pay more attention to special things seems like a good idea. I have actually caught myself doing that at times - just thinking 'OMG how can that even happen? Seems like a dream!' If those kind of thoughts appear on a more regular basis then I think I'm on a great way to more regular LDs :) So that sounds fabulous - at least SOME awareness at all times even when I'm busy.

Ohhhh nothing against a piece of bread! :P Did you have some butter and salt on it? And how did it taste within your dream? Bread can be delicious however I only eat crispbread (bad experience from New Zealand. They only eat this really soft and squishy toast/ white bread) so when I came back home I decided to go for crispbread and never have this squishy bread again (yuck).

Anyway: Last night was quite bad. I didn't sleep quite so well (probably because today was the first day of school after the holidays) and I only remembered three fragments. It probably just takes some time to get used to getting up so early! :offtobed: But I did my MILD as always and I am planning to set my alarm for about 3-4 am tonight, do a little WBTB and do my MILD again so that I can have a LD tonight before having to get up at 6:30 am :D I am confident that it will work tonight!
And I am also planning to put on a rubber band or drawing some mark on my hand from now on as to be reminded of being aware more frequently. I'm sure that this will be helpful especially at school.

I finish this update by saying that I am highly motivated at the moment and that reading your reply lets me know that there are other people out there getting involoved in LDing all the time and that i am a part of this awesome community striving for discoveries within our dream worlds :armflap: *how poetic* haha

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If those kind of thoughts appear on a more regular basis then I think I'm on a great way to more regular LDs So that sounds fabulous - at least SOME awareness at all times even when I'm busy

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Exactly! That's a great attitude to have. :)

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Ohhhh nothing against a piece of bread! Did you have some butter and salt on it? And how did it taste within your dream?

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Lol, you must have eaten a lot of bread in NZ then! :lol: Mine tasted like normal bread, just taken out of the oven. I had another dream later on where I came across some food they were selling in the park - it was bread again, but more like a toast with some butter and unidentified spices. It looked really good, but had very little taste. Oh well, I guess I have to look for something else. Why do I never remember to go to the fridge when I have lds in the kitchen! Mmmm.

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I finish this update by saying that I am highly motivated at the moment and that reading your reply lets me know that there are other people out there getting involoved in LDing all the time and that i am a part of this awesome community striving for discoveries within our dream worlds *how poetic* haha

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Nice ending of the post, I like it! I also feel the same way, knowing that there are so many people lding out there, makes me really happy. :)

Sweet dreams! :)

Eating sounds like fun! I shall try that as soon as I get the next opportunity - it's quite high on my list of priorities :D

I didn't plan to post an update today, but I really have to.
My dream recall wasn't quite so again (2nd day of school today). I remembered two dreams and 2 fragments which is better than yesterday (that's good), but still not the usual six dreams per night, but I am certain that I will get there within the next few days of getting used to the school routine again :D However that's not the reason for this update. This is the reason: 14/01/2014 - 3rd LD in 2014 - The dream door, NYC and other strange occurences - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views I had a LD last night (you can read the entry if you want to). It was - considering that the feeling of being lucid is totally magnificent every single time - probably the most exciting of my LDs so far. I did some things that were more fun before in some other LDs, but using that dream door was exceptionally amazing! I just love how this doort appeared just because I wanted it to and how it precisely guided/brought me to my destination (which would take at least 10 hours in real life) in just no time at all!!!.... just.... I'm speechless! :)

What are your stabilisation techniques? Do you have any other idea besides observing/feeling something nearby very thoroughly and rubbing your hands? :) I would have liked to keep the LD going for a little longer, but at the end I just couldn't prevent it from slipping away! At least it worked quite well in the beginning.

And just one more question: I am in two minds somehow. As soon as I become lucid I am somehow trying to feel my sleeping body in order to ensure that I am dreaming (I also do that by RCing of course), but on the other hand I'm trying to prevent doing this in order to stay lucid and not wake up way too early because of somehow 'activating' my sleeping body. Would you suggest relying on RCs and not worrying about my real body at all? :D

Another wee update: I feel like my prospective memory training is progressing and I am catching myself more and more thinking "dammit! I missed it!" So I think I am getting closer to noticing the things that I want to notice and hence catching more oddities within my dreams!. If I keep going like this, I am sure I will have my 4th and 5th LD of 2014 this week so that I can reach the 100 mark in 2014! 2x52weeks = 104! :)

I will definitely go to bed early again tonight and maybe I will have another awesome LD!
Sweet dream to you too!

Wow, Benny you are fast! Congrats on the ld! :)

I'll catch up with you tomorrow because I want to take time to read it all! :D

Hey, read the entry, your recall is great! That is a very long ld too! :banana:

The non-ld part of the dream was also very cool. :) It's really awesome to have dreams where you are visiting new cities. Very good catch noticing the slippers instead of winter shoes!

Talking about stabilization, you fared pretty well here, examining the detail on the floor.

Excellent job with the high tech teleportation door you found! It must have been really exciting when you opened it and saw NYC. And then the cafe and Karlie just as planned and Taylor Swift as a bonus. Man, you are already doing advanced tasks with such great dream control! :D

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What are your stabilisation techniques? Do you have any other idea besides observing/feeling something nearby very thoroughly and rubbing your hands

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Well, I do those two, plus the occasional running through the surface of object with my fingers and paying attention to the texture. More recently, I found I like to move a bit faster around when I feel the dream is slipping away or just pretend that nothing's happening and continue doing whatever tasks I had on my mind.

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And just one more question: I am in two minds somehow. As soon as I become lucid I am somehow trying to feel my sleeping body in order to ensure that I am dreaming (I also do that by RCing of course), but on the other hand I'm trying to prevent doing this in order to stay lucid and not wake up way too early because of somehow 'activating' my sleeping body. Would you suggest relying on RCs and not worrying about my real body at all?

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I understand what you mean, I sometimes try to remember if I was lying in bed the moment before I realized this was a dream, especially if I had been doing a wbtb. But then it's not really a good idea to think about your physical body too much as you said, this may wake you up. There are different ways to verify if it is a dream or not, sometimes there's a distinct dream feeling and you may know with great certainty. But it never hurts to do an RC, especially if you plan to do something wild. You can also do multiple RCs just in case. The jumping out of the window thing still gives me worries even if I know it is a dream, so right now I prefer to use other means to get down. They work pretty nicely and don't add up unnecessary stress. I use nearby objects to help me go down, branches, curtains, etc or simply climb down.

Looking forward to your next awesome ld! :D

Hey! :D Thanks for the kind words.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

The non-ld part of the dream was also very cool. :)

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Yes, I loved it! It was definitely one of those dreams that probably happen 2-3 times/months where I say "Wow, that was fantastic". Honestly it was one of those dreams that are more likely to become LDs because the NLD-part was already extremly vivid and nice and I tend to be more aware of my surroundings in vivid dreams because it makes everything so clear and hence increases the chances of spotting oddities. In the more unclear dreams I just tend to accept everything because it's all more like a blur of strange actions one after another... Anyway, that's what really keeps me going: looking forward to those kind of dreams that are just stuck in my head for ages.... You can look at another dream in my DJ called "first time in the USA"... That's exactly the kind of dream I'm talking about. It was probably the best NLD I have had so far even though nothing too special happened but the whole feel about it was just fanstatic! Do you know what I mean? - For me every dream has a different feel :D

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Man, you are already doing advanced tasks with such great dream control!

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Oh haha, yes thanks. I have to admit that this was the LD with the best control I have had so far. There were some other LDs that were quite awesome, but I always got through them without even stabilising somehow because I didn't really know how to use the stabilisation techniques properly, but now it just worked out so amazingly well that I'm not even worried about control and stabilisation anymore! The only thing I am strongly trying to improve now is the consistency/amount of LDs! :)
I have the next one planned already! I definitely want to catch up on eating something and for some reason I want to have Karlie with me again! I always get such a good feeling when I'm with her in NLDs and LDs and she just became such a good buddy within my dreams even though I have no idea what she would be like as a friend in waking life... It is really strange but such a compforting feeling to be with her (maybe it's because she closely resembles the person that I once assumed to be my anima in a NLD?! - I can't quite remember what she looked like but I knew she was me! and Karlie pretty much resembles her whenever she appears in my dreams!) I honestly want to be with her in many more of my LDs so the plan is to use the lovely door again. I want to go to the top of a really high snow-covered mountin in a jungle or maybe right next to it and fly all the way up to the top. Then I'll get two nice and cosy winter jackets for Karlie and me and start bending the snow around us (time to give bending elements a try!) and then build an igloo with my bending skills! :) Then I'll go inside and finally eat the piece of cake I was planning to have and finally have a nice and long conversation with a DC! And if there will be some time left after all that - then I'm sure there will be a bed somewhere in the igloo.... :P

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

There are different ways to verify if it is a dream or not, sometimes there's a distinct dream feeling and you may know with great certainty. But it never hurts to do an RC, especially if you plan to do something wild.

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Thanks for the advice! :) I have had this dream feeling as well. I usually just get this very brief moment after becoming lucid when thinking "Oh yeah, I just went to bed a few hours ago" and that just shifts my focus slightly, but from now on I will try to keep the focus on the dream world as much as possible and do some RCs instead (I'll just be creative and try making something appear! :D)

So, the actualy update:
Two nights ago my recall went up to 6 dreams - some of them rather long and vivid (above average) so that was a good night. Quite interesting dreams - being followed by two criminals and getting shot at and then running away, finally finding a hospital where my sparkling body armour gets repared (I usually don't have those kind of fancy sciene-fictional dreams). Last night I was able to remember 5 dreams which isn't bad, but there was just one dream which was vivid and long which brings me to one/two questions.

1) Whenever I am setting my alarm (which is not so often during the week. Usually once per night at 4:00am if I have to get up at 6:30 am in order to just reaffirm my intentions, drop down some notes and fall asleep again) I usually shut the alarm off and sometimes fall asleep immediately! I lie still for a minute and the dreams come back to my mind and I think "oh yeahh, good. I'll write that down in a se...." BAM - asleep. And the next time I wake up.... all is gone! Any idea on how to prevent it because quite a deep sleeper (falling asleep quickly and not waking up quite so easily)? Maybe sitting upright while trying to remember dreams and reaffirming my mantras again? How do you do it? :)

2) I have to admit that my prospective memory training slacked off a little in the last two days... and I'm trying to get back to it more thoroughly. Any ideas on how to get focused better in order to spot more of my set-up events during the day (besides writing a daily schedule of what to look for)??

Thanks again and thanks in advance for replying,
and I hope I will be able to enetertain you with some more LD stories as soon as possible! ;)

I love your enthusiasm! :D Yeah, I also absolutely enjoy vivid dreams, especially ones involved with exploring and finding interesting stuff. I've found similarly to you that vividness may help bring lucidity, even with negative vivid events. But even with no lucidity, vivid positive dreams are awesome! I read your USA entry, it seems that you have a sweet tooth. :) I love shopping and exploring stores in dreams. Sometimes I think I like it so much it prevents me from becoming lucid, because there are always interesting items I end up examining.

Great plan for the next ld! That's very interesting about meeting your anima in an NLD. :) The good thing is even if you don't remember her, the memory is still somewhere within you and may emerge at some point during a dream or as a flash during the day. I get memory references from previous dreams during lds and non-lds, it's pretty cool. This by the way can be very useful when it comes to dream control. We've already done tons of stuff in non-lds and we just have to be confident in lds and dream control will flow more naturally.

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Any idea on how to prevent it because quite a deep sleeper (falling asleep quickly and not waking up quite so easily)? Maybe sitting upright while trying to remember dreams and reaffirming my mantras again? How do you do it?

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I either use or an alarm or a natural wake to do a wbtb. Most of the time I would wake up naturally after getting 3.5-4 hrs of sleep or if I am feeling very sleepy after 5-6 hrs. If I notice that I feel extra sleepy for couple of nights in a row, then I would set the alarm, to be sure I don't miss a planned wbtb. At any rate, I always get up and visit the restroom first :P and if there's something I remember I would write down some notes. If it is exciting dream, then I would review it in my head to make sure I will be able to recall it later.

If you are falling asleep too fast, I would suggest putting the alarm far from the bed so that you have to get up to reach for it. And as you said, it may help to be sitting in your bed while doing a revision of the dream, that way it will be less likely to fall asleep. There's also the option of drinking a bit of water before bed, to make sure you are going to get up. While I don't do this on purpose, I have a tea before bed, which has the same effect. :P

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Any ideas on how to get focused better in order to spot more of my set-up events during the day (besides writing a daily schedule of what to look for)??

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It depends how many prospective things you have on your agenda. Writing them down is a good idea. I sometimes do training like "spot 5 things that may be dream signs", or "look for a particular DS". I try to mentally count each occurrence and then summarize them or carry a very small notebook where I can put a tick or write whatever was relevant to the daily practice. You can also use your mobile to write down notes.

One other thing that I find really nice is to run through whatever has happened during the day from the present backwards and then from the past to the present. It takes like five min so you can do in the bathroom, while waiting on bus station, travelling etc. That way you can bookmark events in your mind and your memory improves too. :)

Thanks! :) I'm glad you enjoy reading my posts and DJ entries.

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I get memory references from previous dreams during lds and non-lds, it's pretty cool. This by the way can be very useful when it comes to dream control. We've already done tons of stuff in non-lds and we just have to be confident in lds and dream control will flow more naturally.

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I understand the last sentence, but could you maybe explain the first bit in a little more detail? Especially the part with the "memory references". It sounds really interesting, but I don't quite get the idea of it.

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If you are falling asleep too fast, I would suggest putting the alarm far from the bed so that you have to get up to reach for it

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Yes that's probably the best idea. At least it will definitely get me awake enough to do a proper WBTB instead of falling asleep right away... I'm just a little bit worried that getting up quickly might decrease my dream recall... but I will be sure to try it that way and see how it ends up :) And thanks for the other advice as well! I should drink more before going to bed - makes sense and it is probably the best way to lead to a natural awakening if you are a deep sleeper.

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It depends how many prospective things you have on your agenda.

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I got the idea from this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ml#post1969437 so just as stated there I usually write a list of 2-3 items in advance and then in the morning when I get up I try to memorise them as well as possible. Yesterday for instance I had to watch out for movie trailers, hearing the words "okay" and "wait" and hearing someone (including myself) talk about the weather. I think I did quite well and I caught myself at least 7 times missing something a few minutes after it happened. But I really like your tasks as well! I might do them soon when my propsective memory training is over (I don't want to load my schedule too much... Stress is probably my demotivation number 1 so I want to find the right amount of getting involved in things concerning dreams, but I don't want to structure my whole day according to practices... I did that before and it was a bad idea ._. )

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run through whatever has happened during the day from the present backwards and then from the past to the present

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That definitely sounds lovely. I already stretched out my RCs by thinking about what I have done in the last hour (before I just considered the last 5 minutes which might have been a little short), but going over the whole day in the evening sounds good :) ... Sooo many things I want to try out hahaha. Maybe I should put all those bulletpoints on a piece of paper so I can see what I have planned.

just a wee update:
two nights ago I did great - rememering 8 dreams... I love those nights when I wake up, remember the last dream and suddenly many more dreams start pouring out of my brain and I just think "woaaah hold on, I can't write that quickly!!". Tonight I remember 5 dreams. Today I have to spot eldery people, people wearing ties and notice every time when I take or lay down any part of clothes... And I am pretty sure that tonight my next LD is coming because it's the last opportunity for this week and I really want to accomplish my goal of having two LDs/week!! And if not... oh well then I'll simply have 3 LDs next week =P haha

Oh and if I can find some time (in between studying for the final exams and meeting friends) I really want to go through my old DJs and maybe write up some dreams in as much detail as possible and upload them here!

Sweet dreams!

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I understand the last sentence, but could you maybe explain the first bit in a little more detail? Especially the part with the "memory references". It sounds really interesting, but I don't quite get the idea of it

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I guess this is because I'm paying more attention to dreams, journalling and lding more often. Sometimes during a regular dream while doing something, for example climbing, I would remember that I have done something similar in a previous dream, this might then trigger lucidity. It's a bit different than recognizing DS though because not all references to past dreams include items that I have officially tagged as dream signs. Another example would be a memory of a place I remembered during an ld. At some point I had this dream about going to a ride in a amusement type of building, it was a really cool experience. Then during an ld I came across a building that reminded me of that place and I remembered this dream. The interesting part is I don't think I wrote that non-ld and I certainly didn't think about until I recalled it, yet I know it was a real dream memory that did happen. Memory during dreams is so intriguing. It's also much more vast than our normal waking life memory, which feels like a shorter term memory in comparison (because we are mostly focused on our present circumstances and think chronologically). But in dreams everything gets mixed up and spontaneous memories may arise. One thing I would really love to learn is how to call back those memories on demand, that would be really cool. I hope I'm not confusing you with my explanations. With your excellent recall, you will certainly be able to experience such things (if you haven't already) and play around with this. :)

Sweet dreams!

Oh no worries, after reading it twice it doesn't even seem so confusing anymore! :) I think I got the main idea of it. It seems to me pretty much like an autobiography of your dream world which is not like a book at all but much more like a huge collection of stories (without any particular order) of which any scene (theoretically) can/could be accessed at any time?! So basically if anything at all reminds you of something from previous dreams, then memories can be triggered... sounds extraordinarily cool! I suppose that it could be compared to a deja-vu in real life :)
I really hope that I will experience this (maybe I have already? I shall look for it when I go through my journals soon). However what happens to me quite frequently is that fragments of some dreams and sometimes even whole extremly vivid dreams just randomly pop up in my mind when I see something in waking life... and then I try to figure out whether it's a dream that I have journaled already or a dream that I just recalled for the first time... it can be really tricky but I like it.
Anyway I have considered to raise my goals after reading brandonboss' new thread http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ml#post2075390. I am aiming for two LDs every night now in order to really affirm my will of raising my consistency (if I fail that's no problem. I just want to get across the message to my subconscious mind and assure that I will eventually get there)! I also like his idea of primarily focusing on one goal (for instance increasing the amount of LDs you regularly have instead of trying to focus on many things at once like having two LDs, accomplishing this and that, etc...). May I ask how many LDs you have per day/week/month whatever. I am really curious - sorry if that's a little too pushy.

Another little plan: I want to get my sleeping schedule a little more straightforward. So I will continously go to bed by 10pm for at least the next 2 weeks and see how this affects my dreams and I also want to try to wake up right before my alarm goes off. Last night I went to bed with the intent of waking up several times after dreams and I actually managed to wake up twice with my eyes closed (which is good for DEILDs as I have heard), but I just fell asleep after a minute or so... I am not directly striving for a DEILD but if waking up with closed eyes becomes something regular now I shall at some point be able to actually induce a LD :D

Sooo almost 9:30pm.... Time to get read for bed. See you and sweet dreams!

Oh, that's good! I'm happy you understood and actually explained it way better than I did! :D

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Anyway I have considered to raise my goals after reading brandonboss' new thread BB's Ideas, Thoughts, and Ramblings. I am aiming for two LDs every night now in order to really affirm my will of raising my consistency (if I fail that's no problem. I just want to get across the message to my subconscious mind and assure that I will eventually get there)! I also like his idea of primarily focusing on one goal (for instance increasing the amount of LDs you regularly have instead of trying to focus on many things at once like having two LDs, accomplishing this and that, etc...). May I ask how many LDs you have per day/week/month whatever. I am really curious - sorry if that's a little too pushy.

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Sounds good! I like BB's idea of shooting for the stars. :D I remember he actually said this in a thread. Definitely, try to get as many lds as possible. The trick indeed is not to get disappointed but keep on trying. For 2013, I averaged 18 lds a month. There have been lots of fluctuations, depending on all sorts of stuff but during my best months I did a lot of daily practice plus wbtb (and was also woken up involuntarily - I think we had some guests staying again, so this led to more wbtbs). Also, there was a competition going in one of the months which was very motivating and that helped too.

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Last night I went to bed with the intent of waking up several times after dreams and I actually managed to wake up twice with my eyes closed (which is good for DEILDs as I have heard), but I just fell asleep after a minute or so... I am not directly striving for a DEILD but if waking up with closed eyes becomes something regular now I shall at some point be able to actually induce a LD

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Nice! Intent is extemely important if not the most important thing in lding. If you manage to learn to wake up by willing it like that, this opens up opportunities for deilds or wbtbs, where you can additionally reaffirm your intent of having a lucid dream.

Good luck with your practice and sweet dreams! :)

Oh yes, I love BB's ideas! :) However I have discovered yet another thread that did exactly what I was too lazy to do in the last few weeks/months: summing up everything important! :D http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...ml#post2076092 This is just soooooo incredibly aweeeesome! :) I copied this arrow diagram (with all the techniques) from the thread and I'll add some notes to each technique :) This perfectly describes what I am trying to do every day and having it right in front of my eyes is just a huge help!

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Intent is extemely important if not the most important thing in lding

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I couldn't agree more! Some of my friends whom I talk to about dreaming occasionally always ask "Oh my god, I can barely remember any dreams! How do you remember so many?" and when I say "I just tell myself that I want to..." they never believe me and think there is some kind of magic going on xD hahaha Most people don't believe that intent is all (or at least the main part) there is to do.

I might not update my workbook in the next two days because apparently I am just trying to further incorporate my daily practices into my routine and heighteneing my awareness... so nothing too exciting is happening (of course that's very exciting, but I don't want to write the same every day ;) )... unless there will be ld tonight (which shall be the case!)
Just one more thing: In the thread I linked you, Burke mentioned how he once did a RC counting 7 fingers and not minding it at all... and guess what?? After reading this, that's exactly what I did last night! SO CLOSE TO A LD! I was on my way to school in this NLD and I looked at my hands and yep... my vision was blurry but I was somehow counting 7 fingers. I thought "Ohh, that's a little bit weird" and after staring at them for a little longer I lost two fingers and everything was as usual.... That was sooo annoying to lose this chance but really funny at the same time :D Anyway, I hope this won't happen again - learning from failures probably gives you even more insight than always succeeding :D At least I failed in a funny way and this entry will make a good read in my DJ :P

Thanks again for all your lovely and quick replies! I just love coming online and seeing one of your replies in my workbook - always makes my day a little better :)
See you and sweet dreams!

Hey, thanks for the link! This really looks like a nice summary and it always helps to go over these things again and again. :D

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Just one more thing: In the thread I linked you, Burke mentioned how he once did a RC counting 7 fingers and not minding it at all... and guess what?? After reading this, that's exactly what I did last night! SO CLOSE TO A LD

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Oh, that's awesome! I love those times it gets so close to ld! Even if it's miss, it's still a really good sign that all the practices are working and an ld is coming soon! :)

Great to read your entries too Benni! Lots of luck, motivation and awareness to you! Sweet dreams :)

HEyyy! :)
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(I hope everything works fine because this is one of my first times of posting pictures....). Anyway if everything worked as I wanted it to work then you should see my fact sheet that I came up with after reading the thread about the new MIT technique by Burke which really is sooo helpful to me - and probably many more LDers out there who were looking for a good overview to see all the relevant things in one reasonably short post. Pardon my messy handwriting, but writing small isn't really my strength =P What do you think it about it? I have to say that I didn't add too much concerning WILD and DEILD because my experiences with those two forms of LDs are... frankly... not existing - but I hope to get into it soon after raising my DILD count/consistency a little more.

update: I feel like today was a good day and I did SAt every 1.5-2 hours and my overall awareness was a lot higher than average (mayber a LD is coming?!). Even while talking to people and while solving exercises at my maths class I was able to keep up my awareness which is a good step forwards and I feel like my awareness during the 'busy times' is improving at great lengths! I guess this will be the key to lucidity since all my NLDs are more or less 'exciting' and if I can manage to be aware in those busy daytime situations then DILDs will begin to flow! :D
My prospective memory training is continuing like before, my sleep schedule has become more consistent and my recall is as always (3 days ago: 3 fully recalled dreams, 2 days ago: 4 fully recalled dreams and one fragment and last night: 6 fully recalled dreams and two fragments! :D )
I will consider to draw an "A" on my hand starting on Monday to keep up my good awareness during activities that tend to capture my awareness - so everytime I see the "A" I will think (Example:) "ohhhh wait! I'm just minding my business so absentmindedly! I should probably see what's going around here. Where am I? Why am I here? Is everything where it is supposed to be and can I breathe through my plugged nose?!?! ... No, I can't. But if this was a dream, I would levitate off my chair and fly elsewhere....." *Visualise* (end of example :D )

Anyway, somehow I have this feeling that you will hear about my next LD before the next week starts! I simply can't finish this week without a LD. That would be nearly 14 days without a LD... that's just not an option! :P
Sweet dreams!

Yep, everything uploaded properly. Very nice fact sheet with the all the revelant stuff needed for a multiple attack on lucidity. :D I think that if one follows such a program consistently (as you put it in your notes), it should really maximize the chances for lds. At any rate, it is very important to plant the expectation of an ld with RCs/ADA as well as during wbtbs. I think you are doing pretty well telling yourself to remember your dreams with intent and expectation, so focusing your attention on having lds should involve a similar process.

Really nice to hear that you are pumping that awareness and being able to keep it even when busy. I'm already getting excited about this! :D

Sweet dreams!

Apparently, this is day 13 without a LD... So instead of being disappointed (maybe a tiny little bit), I thought about why this is the case.... And my DJ showed me something that I didn't expect! I noticed that in the last 13 days I had the same sheets on my bed and I really don't like the feel of them... They are so soft and slippery. But even further: With the sheets that were on my bed before those 13 days I had 3 LDs within 10 days! I know, this sounds extremly odd, but I actually consider that those sheets might play quite a big role in becoming lucid because everytime I wake up with those new sheets I am extremly annoyed because my whole blanket is just one messy ball of fabric due to the slippery surface of those sheets! Soooo obviously I changed them today and I am quite excited to see how it will influence my sleep and my dreams. Maybe it's only sort of a placebo effect because I believe that this will change something, but maybe it actually does change something! I have heard that many factors like brightness, temperature and background noise can affect the quality of one's sleep and dreams greatly so why not the sheets on your bed as well?! :D
I REALLY hope that this will give me a LD tonight because it's time to get motivated again! I'm always really stoked after every LD so they always help me to keep up my practices - and even if it won't help I will still stay consistent because I know that at some point the time will have come when being aware is just a routine and doing RCs properly will be just as easy as drinking water... and by then I will have consistent LDs! But of course I'm setting my intent to really strive for LDs every single night!
Also I am thinking of other things (besides the sheets) that I have done or any circumstances whatsoever that could have influenced my sleep previously because there were times (before taking a little LDing break) when I had 2 LDs/week over a time span of about 3 weeks... so I really want to get there again as a solid base and then work my way up from there :)

Anyway, my recall is stable as always. I'm trying to be as aware as possible and I'm striving for a DEILD even more now in order to raise my LD count. I had a look at Dutchraptor's DEILD guide which seems fairly easy so I will give DEILDs a try whenever I wake up still. Do you have any advice on how to perform DEILDs (the part after waking up and staying still). That would be great.

Sweet dreams!

So basically these bedsheets you've been using in the past week are made from some sort of material that gives you an unpleasant overall feel, right? I'm totally for changing things to make yourself more comfortable and also changing bedsheets quite often (I don't even want to start on how alergic these things can make you sometimes). Also, letting in a bit of air before bedtime might bring in extra oxygen, etc.

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I'm always really stoked after every LD so they always help me to keep up my practices - and even if it won't help I will still stay consistent because I know that at some point the time will have come when being aware is just a routine and doing RCs properly will be just as easy as drinking water... and by then I will have consistent LDs! But of course I'm setting my intent to really strive for LDs every single night!

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You are absolutely right about this! :) It does become a habit for the subcon and you are more aware in dreams and start thinking about lding at some point and then you might do a RC and surprise! I remember this time when I was having a normal dream and messing around by announcing that I will do a RC by reading some strange text. I genuinely believed this to be rl RC but the text changed and I became lucid.

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Do you have any advice on how to perform DEILDs (the part after waking up and staying still). That would be great.

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I usually DEILD after an ld, so I just stay still and either strongly desire to be back at the same dream that just ended or I have no particular scene in mind but eagerly wait for the new scene to start. It's generally somewhat easier and quicker than classical wilding.

Also, there's this non-ld DEILD thing that's pretty interesting and it might give you an idea of what feeling to look for. For example, you have a really cool dream you enjoy so much you wish to be back there. You wake up, will this thing to happen, fall asleep and then you are in a similar non-ld. On the back of your mind you still know you are dreaming, but you have given up the control to fully participate into the non-ld.

It's the same sort of determination and desire that you bring with you when you want to DEILD, but you add some extra awareness, expecting to be in the dream lucid. It will be cool to experiment with this, especially since you are a deep sleeper, this might help for the dream to pick up faster. :D

Sweet dreams!

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So basically these bedsheets you've been using in the past week are made from some sort of material that gives you an unpleasant overall feel, right?

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Yes, exactly! :D I just really don't like them anymore even though they are really pretty... I usually change my sheets quite often in summer when it's warm, but during the winter months I leave them on for 10-14 days, but I shall change them a little more often. This refreshing feeling of new sheets always gives me a good nights sleep! :) And I also open the window before going to bed for a few minutes and whenever it's above 10°C I leave it ajar all night long to get some good air.

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I was having a normal dream and messing around by announcing that I will do a RC by reading some strange text. I genuinely believed this to be rl RC but the text changed and I became lucid.

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That is so cool! I have some similar memories but I've never managed to get lucid through any of those... I'm just too engaged in those dream actions most of the time.

Concerning DEILDs: Thanks for your advice! I always try it whenever I wake up still with my eyes closed and if there are no results after ~5-10mins I just get up quickly (hoping to be in a dream and doing a RC). If it's not a dream I just have some water and go back to sleep.
Two nights ago for instance I missed a LD again (which means day 15 withou lds :( ) I had quite a realistic and vivid dream where I sat at school with some friends. We were talking and I somehow had this "dream fading"-sensation after a while and I knew "This must be a dream", but in the same instance I knew that I was awake with my eyes closed... Apparently my throat was very dry and my teeth hurt (stupid sleeping position) so at some point after trying to get back into the dream I just had to move... Anyway; every failure teaches me at least something new and I'm sure that at some point I will have a good sleeping position upon waking up and enough power to get back into my dream scene! :)

Anyway I had a look at my schedule again still wondering why I had no LD in the last 15 days... That's by far the longest period of time without any lucid moment whatsoever. I think it's just that I don't seem to loosen myself from being too engaged in my daily actions! I will just continue to draw an A on my hand daily and try to think of SAT every now and then :) My propsective memory training has been getting worse every single day and I fail at pretty much any event that I am trying to notice. I actually don't know why because I do things just like I did them in the beginning - oh well, I will just keep at it and at some point more LDs will come, but it's still irritating to have no LDs at the moment even though I am very consistent. But the time will come. Maybe it's because I have to study for school a lot more than a few weeks ago, but I will take some time and read through some old tutorials on Dreamviews and through my old DJs - this always gets me in the right mindset!

I think it's very important to gain some distance between the things I do and my mind watching over those things (as you said before). I shall continue trying to achieve a neutral view on things before getting too engaged :)

Wish me success so that tonight I can finally go the jungle and start snowbending on the mointain with Karlie (apparently I start missing her since she has become a friend of mine within the dream realm! so the next Ld can't be far away!) :D
Sweet dreams!

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Two nights ago for instance I missed a LD again (which means day 15 withou lds ) I had quite a realistic and vivid dream where I sat at school with some friends. We were talking and I somehow had this "dream fading"-sensation after a while and I knew "This must be a dream", but in the same instance I knew that I was awake with my eyes closed.

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That's a nice catch even if it was at the end of the dream. It shows you are paying attention subconsciously! I think this is really good! :goodjob2:

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Anyway I had a look at my schedule again still wondering why I had no LD in the last 15 days... That's by far the longest period of time without any lucid moment whatsoever. I think it's just that I don't seem to loosen myself from being too engaged in my daily actions! I will just continue to draw an A on my hand daily and try to think of SAT every now and then My propsective memory training has been getting worse every single day and I fail at pretty much any event that I am trying to notice

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Ok, just don't worry about it. I know from experience it really doesn't help to count the number of days since your last lucid or having any thoughts of failure because that really influences your subcon. You are thinking about lucidity on a daily basis and doing the practices and that's what matters. Nobody expects that you do all of them with the same amount of effort every single time. :P

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Maybe it's because I have to study for school a lot more than a few weeks ago, but I will take some time and read through some old tutorials on Dreamviews and through my old DJs - this always gets me in the right mindset

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It's quite possible. That's a good idea, those things are a great source of inspiration. :) I think you are on the right path and you will soon catch yourself dreaming in some nice place and do all the cool things you have planned!

Oh by the way have you already played with this DEILD alarm thing, got a reference about it from Steph.

Sweet dreams and good luck!

Hey :)
thanks for the nice words!

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having any thoughts of failure because that really influences your subcon.

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You are thinking about lucidity on a daily basis and doing the practices and that's what matters.

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You are totally right about that! I mean - yes - it is a little bit discompforting not to have a LD recently, BUT I should probably remind myself of your words more often. This is not a competetion so there is no failure. I do all those things because I like to do them and hence at some point i WILL succeed. Actually I succeed with every single dream that is written down in my journal because it is one more story or facet of the dream realm that I managed to capture! :) I know that it is a bad idea to think about failures and to count days, but sometimes I just can't refrain, but that will end right now! I shall look at it as if it is something I love doing - which is true of course - so building my practices upon this thought instead of the thought of trying to succeed all the time is probably much much better... :)

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Oh by the way have you already played with this DEILD alarm thing, got a reference about it from Steph.

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Are you talking about the alarm clock with the autosnooze function? If yes, then: I have used it before, but it didn't help me too much... As I said previously I'm such a deep sleeper and I missed the alarm on >50%! :O If you are talking about something else, then no? :D

And thanks again for those kind words!! I think today is a good day because I came to this conclusion: building all my expectation and motivation on a thought that stems from anything similar to a competition with an option like "failure" is definitely not the greatest way of enjoying my hobby of dreaming! It is much too focused on seeing success everywhere and all the time. Focusing on the "process" itself because it is the reason why I am doing all this is much better. The process itself never disappoints - but amuses and amazes instead! :D So from now on I shall enjoy every little step because the steps provide me with reason for being on this journey - the anger about failing just adds to a bad temper that should have never been there in the first place... I think this just was some little enlightment you gave me right here!!! :D Thank youuu <3 !

Oh and today was one of those "good dreaming days" again! Some pretty unforgettable dreams. In the last 2 days the dreams were a little blunt, but tonight it was much more a rollercoaster ride of fun and nice experiences :D This always makes my day before even getting up (except for a WBTB ;) )

Sweet dreams and most importantly: enjoy :) hehe

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I do all those things because I like to do them and hence at some point i WILL succeed. Actually I succeed with every single dream that is written down in my journal because it is one more story or facet of the dream realm that I managed to capture!

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One thing that has changed since I started being more serious about lding induction and from paying more attention to dreams and dream experience is 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. :)

And when it comes to dreams, I have started noticing story lines developing over long periods of time in non-lds. I would often dream of a friend of mine and her having parties at this apartment of hers in the past, weirdly a lot dreams with her would revolve around either mentioning these past parties, that mostly took place in the dream or they would involve her apartment or getting a new place in one way or another. It's quite interesting since I haven't been in contact with her for years and don't too often think about her, yet these stories happen every once in a while. And there seems to be a very vague connection between many other dreams like this. Then I would take special notice of negative dreams and meditate on them, trying to release emotions that have been trapped, like being unable to express anger would circulate in dreams making its own stories. Weird stuff. :shock: So, yeah, there's definitely more than enough to explore and play with.

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Are you talking about the alarm clock with the autosnooze function? If yes, then: I have used it before, but it didn't help me too much... As I said previously I'm such a deep sleeper and I missed the alarm on >50%!

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Lol! :D I have tried it once so far with similar results, but I'm still quite curious if it will be able to bring me an ld this way. Must try again sometime.

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The process itself never disappoints - but amuses and amazes instead! So from now on I shall enjoy every little step because the steps provide me with reason for being on this journey

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That's true. I think it is much more fun like this. Think of it as great journey with endless possibilities, which it really is. You learn and experience something new at every step of the way.

Lots of inspiration to you and sweet dreams! :)

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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

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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.

good news! Two days ago I FINALLY had a lucid dream - and not only a regular lucid dream but a veryyyyyy lucid one! It all started in a dream where I was moving to a new apartment. So I was in the basement of the old house cleaning up some things and bringing them upstairs. Everything looke EXACTLY like it did in our old house - not even a tiny difference. When I was about to climb upstairs it just hit me and I said "Wait. Didn't I want to do MILD?" and then it took me just a second and I instantly said "No need for MILD. Why am I even here? That's a dream.". The surprising (or rather somewhat expected) part: Just like Sageous said - a strengthened sense of your Self (by doing RRCs) and really acknowledging the dream for what it is makes dream control second nature... and that's what happened! I knew instantly that all this around me is my creation. There was absolutely no need to stabilise whatsoever and without doing any RC I went upstairs, got outside and sat down on the floor just marvelling at the greaaaaaat detail. I looked at my hands and it was astonishing how real they looked. I mean this was my 20th LD but never did it feel quite like that! :) As I was about to summon a dream door and accomplish my goal............ my alarm started ringing. 8am. time to get up. I did a RC and sadly I was awake. Quite annoying and sad considering this great opportunity that I missed- but finally I was able to break my dryspell and see that what I'm doing right now acutally works! :)

I will keep you informed about further adventures (hopefully without annoying endings like that one :P )

Sweet dreams,
Benni

Awesome, Benni! Congrats! :awesomed:

It's super cool to see that all your practices are paying off giving you not just lucidity but high lucidity, stability and a great depth of detail. Well done! :goodjob:

Apparently there is absolutely NOTHING at all that I can report. My dream recall has dropped and nothing special has happened despite all my continous work on self-awareness... I'm a little desparate to be honest and don't quite know what to do and how to explain this lack of success after having started so well :( I was really stoked to keep you updated on an almost daily basis with really cool stories but there is absolutely nothing worth being mentioned except for blurry fragments and some vivid but rather boring dreams sitting in school and listening to former teacher...
Any ideas...?

Sorry to hear that. :(

Did you change anything during that time, diet maybe, daytime activities or lots of playing computer games by chance? (that's serious - it may affect recall if you do it too much or late!)

No I did not change anything. I always eat similar things, never drink any alcohol at all and don't play any computer games at all.

But apparently I have had 2 LDs in the last 3 nights! :O Seriously - I just kept going as always and suddenly: BAAM two nights, 2 LDs! That was really amazing and I start to think that once you are doing something which is even remotely right/effective, all that matters is consistency. No matter how discouraging a dryspell might be, the most important thing is to keep going :) I will just keep up my development of self-awareness and after having these 2 LDs I think I found my WBTB-sweetspot which is exactly 5 hours after going to bed. I fell really awake after exactly 5 hours and get up, drink some water and think a little about what I will achieve in my upcoming LD - and this seems to have been really effective! Before that I always did my WBTB after 6 hours of sleep, but 5 hours seems to be a lot better (not just in terms of initiating LDs but also in terms of feeling awake and determined to use this WBTB wisely!).

So all in all - I think everyone has some ups and downs at times, but I suppose that conistency will pay off. The two LDs really were worth all the effort! In one of them I flew to the ISS and after returning home I blew my house apart by using some sort of alchemy/earthbending and in the second LD I just met up with a girl and had some fun haha :D In my next LD I am finally planning to do some serious firebending! I have been looking forward to that for ages, but either did I forget about it in a LD or the dream was somehow unstable which makes firebeding quite a hard thing to do.

Anyway how are you doing? Everything alright? :)

PS: I thought about your post again and it came to my mind that you are totally right! Subtle changes can actually have devastating effects on the quality of your sleep and dreams! I remember barely recalling any dreams at all when I used those slippery sheets with the strange texture on my bedand after removing them everything returned back to normal... something you just have to pay close attention to what's going on and what things change and what stays constant. Thanks for that. I shall pay close attention to any changes in my routine in order to spot possible weekspots :)

Sweet dreams,
Benni

Ahh! Such a great turn of events! You are right the consistency is paying off! Well done Benni! This earthbending/alchemy sounds cool, what exactly did you do? (I know some dream things can be hard to describe :P)

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something you just have to pay close attention to what's going on and what things change and what stays constant.

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Exactly! That's why I asked if you changed anything. Sometimes the small things can have unexpected effects and it's a good idea to be on the lookout for them.

Really happy for the recent developments and I wish you more awesome lds! Sweet dreams! :)

Thanks! :)

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This earthbending/alchemy sounds cool, what exactly did you do?

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Oh I always change things a little :) This time I sort of floated to the ceiling of the apartment (probably I had some zeroG left from the ISS haha) and stuck to it like a spider with my feet and hands. I then put my hands together and it produced some sort of light. Then I put my palms on the ceiling again and it was as if this light had charged my hands and my palms just acted like dynamite and the whole ceiling just totally exploded and took me with it so I was able to see the house from above with all of the smashed ceiling being blasted away! :) Really cool!

Are you beding the elements as well at times and if yes, how do you do it? :)

update: no more LDs in the last few days, but some admittedly very vivid dreams. Even though my dream recall has dropped to 3-5 dreams/night, I am very happy to have some veryyyy strong, clear and vivid, long dreams instead of many little fragments. This is great and even makes up for not having a LD - but of course I'm still looking froward to more lucid adventures... the last two LDs sort of sparked the hope.

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Oh I always change things a little This time I sort of floated to the ceiling of the apartment (probably I had some zeroG left from the ISS haha) and stuck to it like a spider with my feet and hands. I then put my hands together and it produced some sort of light. Then I put my palms on the ceiling again and it was as if this light had charged my hands and my palms just acted like dynamite and the whole ceiling just totally exploded and took me with it so I was able to see the house from above with all of the smashed ceiling being blasted away! Really cool!

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Oh, that is really cool indeed! :D I mostly play around with water - making it appear here and there, make fountains or weird shapes or freeze it, etc. Got some practice with cloud manipulation too. It's very pleasant. :)

ohhh cloud manipulation sounds awesome! That would make weather manipulation a snap - I definitely have to add that to my goal list: creating my own weather (making snow, rain, etc)... thanks for that one! :D

btw I just finished school with GREAT results and I have 6 weeks of spare time now untill I'll start at uni - so some decent time to get cracking and increase my ability of following my routine consistently and including self-awareness and memory more into my waking life. So if all works out fine (of course it will :P ), I should have some brilliant lucid adventures very soon - especially after seeing once more how lovely my dream control was in the last two LDs last week. So for now it's ALL about working on consistency: MORE LDs in LESS time! :D any more advice that I could follow?
My schedule should look something like that:
- doing RCs, RRCs at least once an hour (úsing an app as a reminder)
- reading through my collection of stuff I found in Sageous' thread about the LDing fundamentals at least every second day (I always get so stoked after reading it and it always refreshes my understanding of how to approach LDing :D )
- doing some self-hypnosis that StephL suggested doing
- at night: doing MILD before going to bed (at 11pm)
- WBTB after 5 hours of sleep combined with MILD

soooo having finished school and having set up this new (actually not quite so new :P ) schedule, it's all about being consistent and motivated! I'm counting on that to give me many LDs starting tonight haha.

oh btw I am having some issues with dream recall - have you had recall-dryspells before? and if yes, what did you do to end them? Maybe it's just that I studied a lot for the final oral examinations lately which decreased my time spent on thinking about LDing, but I feel like having to do something to increase my recall again :D

Sweet dreams
Benni

Congrats on the great school results and looking forward to seeing all that dedication bring fantastic lds this summer! :)

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oh btw I am having some issues with dream recall - have you had recall-dryspells before? and if yes, what did you do to end them?

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As I said, I usually go with the checklist of things like diet, exposure to screens, light pre bed and also try to figure out if something has been different from when recall was great. Usually recall bounces back to its long term average, so usually it's a minor fluctuation, again, unless some drastic changes are not involved.

Edit: Oh, I also forgot to mention that recall can suffer if one's sleep schedule fluctuates too much.