Thread: Mike's Workbook

Reality Checks:
- Looking at my hands
- Read something, look away, then read again.
- Try to breath with my nose plugged

Dream Signs:
- Broken objects
- Going to the bathroom and completely losing the ability to aim.
- Being at the gym

Short-Term Goals:
- LD once a week
- Improve my prospective memory
- Achieve heavy sleep paralysis

Long-Term Goals:
- Make lucidity a more consistent part of my dreaming experience.
- Participate in the monthly challenges .
- Try to share my enthusiasm of dreaming with others.

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- Dream recall has never been an issue for me. I have always enjoyed dreaming and have my dreams have always been topics of conversation that I share with my wife and kids. Until the beginning of January however, I have never actually written any of them down. I have been keeping a consistent dream journal now for a month and have found that my dream recall has improved even more. I typically can remember 3 to 4 dreams a night and I write them down immediately regardless of the hour.

Lucidity on the other hand is something that has only happened a few times in my life. There were a couple of instances when I was a kid when I realized I was dreaming, but never really knew what to do with it since it came as a surprise and I really didn't have a plan.

Since starting on my attempts at lucidity, I have had one, and only one incredible experience. The very first time I ever attempted it, I used a ramp timer at about 3:30 in the morning. I went into heavy sleep paralysis, with vibrations so severe, I was highly tempted to arch my back to try to reduce the vibrations in my vertebrae. I rode it out however, and I woke up. I was so excited, I woke my wife up and told her all about it, and then I woke up. I realized I had had a false awakening. I told my wife about it and then went to shower for work. I realized at that point that I always go to the gym before showering, so something was strange. It was a dream. As soon as I realized it, I woke up. I was really flipping out at this point. I was so excited, but my wife was not in bed so I couldn't tell her about it. Then, I woke up once more and felt the vibrations start again. At this point, I had the thought, "if I don't get up now, I may not get another chance." I stood up, and looked back at my body still lying in bed. The room was flooded with purple light. I walked through the door into my bathroom and was suddenly in a mountain cabin. I needed to do a reality check, but I couldn't think of any, so I stuck out my tongue and stretched it out to arms length. That did it. I was lucid and started flying. I flew out the door, and my alarm rang, waking me up for real this time. It was so incredible.

After that experience, I thought "Oh man! this is easy!" One month later, and I haven't made it happen again since.

I feel like I am making progress, but just haven't gotten to the point of lucidity. I can make it to a state of moderate vibrations 9 out of 10 times I try, close to paralysis, but it is a weak paralysis, and the trance or state just isn't deep enough to shift into a dream.

I am open to suggestions on what can help me progress.

Current Technique:
- DILD
- MILD
- WBTB/WILD