Camdave's Workbook

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Is there any way round this other than just getting up and getting on with it?

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Whenever I don't have the time to journal, I try to first journal in my mind, and then I can write down the entry whenever possible, at best during the same day. You know the way you journal - you think and talk to yourself in your mind and then write it down. I am in a cafeteria, queing to buy something, there's a DC in front of me, bla bla. Well, I tell the story to myself in the same way, as if writing it down in the journal or as if I'm reading it. This might require going over the story a few times (which serves as wbtb anyways). Or you can try with keywords, but be sure to tell yourself the story around the keywords. I like to count items, say five key items - I go over them. Cafeteria. Castle. Lions. Three items, maybe three dreams or elements from the same dream. Make sure I can remember those and think a bit about the details around them. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a bit easier. Works for remembering lds too.

I kind-of had the problem in reverse last night - woke up and wrote down lots of the dream by the bedside, and then realised that this was part of a false awakening, so that writing went to waste!

Firstly, I woke myself up at about 3.30 AM, roughly four and a half hours into sleep. I got up and wrote down a couple of dream fragments that I had whilst on a trip to the bathroom. I have now left some paper and a pen in the bathroom and kitchen so I have a justifiable reason to get out of bed and go to get a drink or go to the bathroom :cheeky: I then wanted to try a WILD; I was aware that previously that I had either fallen asleep during relaxation or had forgotten to repeat a mantra to keep focus. I was more aware of this as I had forgotten to repeat the mantra for MILD when I went to bed the night before.

I managed to catch my thoughts drifting this time and went back to repeating a mantra. I think I managed the transition this time as I have done once previously after turning back onto my side to sleep. I don't seem to have that much in the way of the onset of REM atonia; I've read about hallucinations and vibrations but I seem to have none of the sort! I just get a bit of "white noise" in my eyelids, like looking through a very blurry/dull kaleidoscope. My heart also seems to beat a little bit faster on the onset of atonia, which gives the impression that I've got too excited and that it's failed, but I learnt from last time I tried that it is actually a good sign that I am now in the "dream" body. I also noticed that my body felt quite light, much more so than usual. I did a nose-pinch RC and found that it worked, so went to get out of bed. I had the same sensation as before of my body suddenly being very heavy and falling to the ground, but I recognised this so I stopped and looked at my hands to stabilise the dream. This worked well, with everything coming back into focus. I then managed to get out of bed and tried to turn the light on, which didn't work. (which is actually unusual for me, as lights usually work in my dreams) After a bit of stumbling in the dark I tried to command the lights to turn on, but this didn't work - I'm guessing that I still didn't quite "believe" deep down that it would work. I remembered my dream goals then of travelling to my private island (visualised most days) and meeting my DG, but I woke up shortly after this.

I then managed the double-whammy and kept my focus on the dream as I woke up, and managed to DEILD straight back into the dream again, doing another RC to make sure that this was the case. I then figured that since my "door open" teleport wasn't working that I'd just go outside and try to fly there instead! I've never flown in my dreams before, so I thought might as well make this the first time. I went outside my house (the neighbourhood didn't look much like my neighbourhood at all!) and looked around thinking about how to fly; there were other people walking around but I didn't want to ask and rouse attention. I just sort of jumped and aimed my arms forward like a two-handed superman pose, and found that I took straight off! It was a beautiful clear day and I flew over our suburb and out towards the countryside, over some golf courses and some huge country estates. I went towards what looked like beaches but decided that as they weren't islands that I wouldn't land there; I woke up shortly afterwards. I wrote down my dreams in my book beside the bed, and then awoke properly and realised that it was a false awakening. D'oh! In my excitement to write down the lucid dream details, I had forgotten to do a RC to catch the false awakening.

It was a great feeling :) I think it's come around as I've become more focussed on certain methods and less taking an impatient scatter-gun approach to trying lots of LD methods. I'm running a MILD method of 3 actions/items to prompt a RC alongside general increased awareness of questioning my environment around me and my recent and longer memory. If I wake up in the night then I attempt a WILD, which is usually relaxation on my back (where I find it hard to sleep) and then rolling over to my side to sleep. It worked last night as I remembered to keep my mind awake! Just realise that now I need to be a little more aware of stabilisation techniques and methods to lengthen LDs.

Awww, that's fantastic, Camdave! Congrats on the lds and your first flying experience! You really are getting some impressive results, wilding and deilding in one night! Great stuff! Keep up the good work. :goodjob2:

I've had a busy few days due to completing a house purchase and having a lot of things going on at work - my dream recall has gone through the floor in these days! Not helped by a lack of will in the evenings - I had recall last night when I woke up at about 4, but didn't write it down and then couldn't remember it in the morning. I started to WILD but fell asleep almost instantly because I didn't get out of bed, and also was very tired from carrying things to the new house all day.

Will be back into the dreaming world shortly :cheeky: Having recall last night was a good thing, even if I didn't write it down, as it means that it's picking back up again. Last time I had one of these dry-recall spells I rebounded with a lucid dream, so I'm hoping it's going to be the same again tonight!

One thing I did notice when going through the dream diary is that I quite often note that the overriding emotion is anxiety, whether about an event involving me or one not involving me (e.g. watching other DCs play out some TV scene / video game scene). I've read that anxiety is the most common emotion felt in dreams; I'm not a particularly anxious or negative person in reality. When lucid these emotions drop straight away and I feel confident and limitless. I'm not sure I buy completely into dream definitions / dream dictionaries, so at the moment feelings of anxiety in walking life provoke reality checks as it's another good dream sign - I'm realising that it's not just objects that can act as dream signs!

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One thing I did notice when going through the dream diary is that I quite often note that the overriding emotion is anxiety, whether about an event involving me or one not involving me (e.g. watching other DCs play out some TV scene / video game scene). I've read that anxiety is the most common emotion felt in dreams; I'm not a particularly anxious or negative person in reality. When lucid these emotions drop straight away and I feel confident and limitless. I'm not sure I buy completely into dream definitions / dream dictionaries, so at the moment feelings of anxiety in walking life provoke reality checks as it's another good dream sign - I'm realising that it's not just objects that can act as dream signs!

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Right, I've also seen this being mentioned in studies or by other members here. Something similar with me. For lding, I try to categorize the different anxiety scenarios as dream signs for easier recognition.

Hope most of your daytime anxiety goes away soon or in the very least helps you transfer more RCs to the dream world. In general emotions help us retain/record info much better.

Sweet lucid dreams! :)

Again, apologies for updates. No lucid dreams to report and it's been a little hectic here due to moving house! Sleep quality is a bit down and I think that the worst impact on recall is inconsistent sleep times - I usually wake up around the same time to go to work, but bed time has been rather erratic over the past week or so.

I've been working on prospective memory using the timer method (set a timer for a longer period of time, and remember to turn it off before it goes off) as I've found that many of my lucid checks for the MILD I carry out retrospectively, rather than as the event occurs. I've become much better at remembering to RC as I note the LD checks during the day. It probably sounds strange to say, but even though I've not LD'd for almost 20 days now, I feel like I am in a better position to do so as I am continuously RC'ing throughout the day, do not get caught up so easily in what I'm doing and constantly think and ask myself if I'm dreaming.

The night before last I experienced a phenomenon that I think I've read before on this site - dreaming about lucid dreaming. I woke up at around 5.30 in the morning and thought that I would try to WILD. I heard a loud buzzing/vibrating noise as I practised my mantra. (I think I've read that some people experience loud noises when falling into sleep atonia; the times that I have managed to successfully WILD has been pretty mild in terms of experiences for me) I didn't feel afraid of this as I recognised it as a sign of an impending dream. However, I then woke up . . . on the floor of my office, as I had had a nap at work! I thought I'd try to WILD again as the clock on the wall said 5.30 AM. I did and had the same experience of the loud buzzing noise and waking up in the office, but it was now 6 AM on the clock on the wall. I then started to check some emails as other people were coming in to work. I then actually woke up and realised that I had tried to WILD inside a dream that was induced by the WILD in the first place - whoops! Must remember to reality check, even if I think a WILD has failed . . . :D

Well, even if your sleep schedule has been erratic, it's great that you have been keeping up all the practices and even had such a close call with the in-dream wilding. It's quite possible that you are in a much better position than before, because these practices have been solidifying in your mind, so you just need a little bit of opportunity and lds will catch up.

Also, congrats on the new house! :D

Thank you! Unfortunately lots of hard work means that I'm falling asleep almost straight away at the moment. I did manage two lucids over the weekend and I feel much more perceptive about questioning reality. My first LD came from this; I was at the bottom of a tall building and had to get to the top by a long staircase; I thought if I was dreaming then I'd just fly to the top so I did a RC, and found that I was dreaming. I then managed to fly/float to the top of the building without even thinking that indoor flying may be more difficult than outside flying! I found the dream a little unstable so I performed stabilisation techniques a couple of times, but it felt almost like the dream was determined to "force" me out; I turned a little too quickly around a corner and woke up from that. I was in two minds whether to try a DEILD or to write down what I remembered so as not to forget; I chose the latter as I've been a bit lazy recently at getting out of bed and writing things down.

My second LD was brief but along the same lines; I had woken up in the middle of the night and was about to get out of bed, before I realised that I was in bed at my old house and this was not my new bed, so I thought I was probably dreaming at that point. A quick RC confirmed this, so I stabilised my dream. I was just getting out of bed to start lucid tasks and then felt "pushed" over; my wife had rolled into me in bed, waking me up.

Is it possible with enough practice to stay lucid even with these exterior stimuli - if I am determined enough, can I "train" myself to ignore the external senses in order to stay lucid? With a better feel for lucidity and a better mindset, I'm going to start to move on to the fourth lesson and begin to practise stabilisation and lengthening techniques :)

That's still great news! Two lds the moment your body was well-rested, awesome! :D

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Is it possible with enough practice to stay lucid even with these exterior stimuli - if I am determined enough, can I "train" myself to ignore the external senses in order to stay lucid?

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It's possible if you try to ignore stimuli from the outside or treat them as part of the dream (the same way stimuli become interpreted as something else in our dreams). Just don't think about the waking world. I once managed to ignore an alarm - it rang for a while and then it seems it turned off. It was surprising because I usually jump to turn it off so didn't know it had some sort of auto-snooze. I guess I was very pissed off it hit during the ld so I tried to ignore it to the best of my abilities.

Well, let's hope it doesn't come to this too often, murphy's law for external stimuli to hit during an ld.

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With a better feel for lucidity and a better mindset, I'm going to start to move on to the fourth lesson and begin to practise stabilisation and lengthening techniques

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Great! Lots of awarenss to you with many stable lds to come! :)

Hi, it's been a while since my last entry but I thought I'd pop back to see if you had any advice. I have started to become more aware during the waking day and practising RC's without being prompted, but I'm going through a bit of an LD dry spell. I had an epic LD about three weeks ago with the same recurring dream character that I previously mentioned - she mentioned that she was my dream guide and was beginning to tell me the best way of becoming lucid but unfortunately again an exterior stimulus made me think about my sleeping body, and I woke up! Since this dream, I've not managed any lucidity. This has happened before (and I figured it was a side-effect of being a newbie!) but the marked difference this time is previously my recall also went down the pan during this period, but at the moment my recall is good; I'd say that my recall at the moment is the best it's ever been.

Are there any strategies for overcoming dry spells? I've upped my meditation a little and as mentioned have generally become more aware during waking life. My current dream signs are quite consistent (work colleagues, one old friend at school and train stations) but when I see them in dreams I don't think to perform a reality check. I can't really reinforce the behaviour with the old friend / train stations in real life as I see neither of them! Is meditation time (or the time when going to bed) the time to focus on suggestion to yourself that if you see these, you need to perform a reality check?

I had an odd moment of "synchronicity" on Friday. On Wednesday I dreamt that a colleague of mine came over to my desk to tell me something about the work we were doing - this is odd as he is more senior than me, so I always go to his desk for questions and not vice-versa; I also dreamt that we were having a three-course meal and the starter was an apple crumble that tasted strongly of cinnamon. On Friday at work my colleague came over to my desk to ask a question about some training courses, and then at lunchtime we had apple crumble for dessert that specified "filling rich with cinnamon" - I don't think I've ever seen it for pudding at work before, and they don't usually go out of their way to specify things. This has happened a couple of times before - it's an odd feeling when you get the recall from dreams to reality rather than the other way around!

Hey Camdave! Good to hear from you! The epic ld sounds super exciting and I'm looking forward to seeing how this DG story goes :). I think going back to past entries can bring additional motivation and focus on lucid dreaming, so that's one thing you can do. It's good that your recall is at a high level, and the fact that you are getting used to doing RCs, being aware and doing meditation, etc is very positive since your practice is becoming solidified. So, I see lots of good signs here. Getting dry spells isn't too uncommon, I'm wondering if you have been getting enough sleep recently, these might hit a bit more if you have been more exhausted than usual. If this is the case, take a few days if possible where you go to bed a bit earlier and focus on getting more sleep.

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I can't really reinforce the behaviour with the old friend / train stations in real life as I see neither of them! Is meditation time (or the time when going to bed) the time to focus on suggestion to yourself that if you see these, you need to perform a reality check?

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Excellent question! Well, you can do this any time - in your thoughts like a mantra - I see old friend, I realize that I'm dreaming/do RC, you can visualize during the day, in meditation, before bed, at wbtb.

This reminds me of the general advice of how to break dry spells as well how to get more lds: Quantity and Quality. Do more of what you do (RCs, critical thinking, DS), add more induction techs (mild, autosuggestion, etc.) and do all these things more thoroughly.

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This has happened a couple of times before - it's an odd feeling when you get the recall from dreams to reality rather than the other way around!

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Fascinating stuff! Sounds like a sort of precognitive dream. I've had a very shocking moment once after something what I said about an unrelated event (a stage performance) in a dream, was the following also said almost with the same words by a friend of mine in a random conversation with another friend. Makes you wonder...

Thanks for your comments. I don't think I did anything particularly special last time I broke a dry spell of 2-3 weeks; it just happened! I think it happened on a weekend sleep-in, however, so I tried that on the past weekend but found that I dreamt without becoming lucid or aware of dreaming.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Getting dry spells isn't too uncommon, I'm wondering if you have been getting enough sleep recently, these might hit a bit more if you have been more exhausted than usual. If this is the case, take a few days if possible where you go to bed a bit earlier and focus on getting more sleep.

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I usually get about 7 hours of sleep during the week (bed at about 11 pm, wake up at 6.25 am - factor in half an hour or so for falling asleep and wake-ups in the night) and then on the weekend a couple of hours extra. I found that the best period of LD for me has been when I was "home alone", where I was very rigorous in going to bed at the same time each day (10.15 pm) and having a good 8 hours sleep; unfortunately this isn't possible with my wife at home as she goes to bed later than I'd like to, and so if I go to bed early I'm interrupted in the early onset of sleep.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Excellent question! Well, you can do this any time - in your thoughts like a mantra - I see old friend, I realize that I'm dreaming/do RC, you can visualize during the day, in meditation, before bed, at wbtb.

This reminds me of the general advice of how to break dry spells as well how to get more lds: Quantity and Quality. Do more of what you do (RCs, critical thinking, DS), add more induction techs (mild, autosuggestion, etc.) and do all these things more thoroughly.

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Thanks - I'll give it all a try. I've noticed that I'm not as aware at home as I am at work, possibly due to being more "relaxed" and not doing things that demand my full attention. I've started to be more thorough in my meditation in not letting thoughts wander and have had much more success recently in meditating a little longer and in different positions, so I think that'll help. I had a strange lucid/hallucination when meditating one lunchtime which was odd - I was meditating in the back of the car (where it's quiet!) and I was watching TV on some kind of tablet, before realising that it was actually the folded cup-holder tray in front of me. This has also happened a couple of times in thinking that the car in front of me was something else than it actually was; realising that this isn't real seems to snap me out of the trance however, so I think I just need to relax here and "enjoy the ride" rather than snapping straight back to reality.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Fascinating stuff! Sounds like a sort of precognitive dream. I've had a very shocking moment once after something what I said about an unrelated event (a stage performance) in a dream, was the following also said almost with the same words by a friend of mine in a random conversation with another friend. Makes you wonder...

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Makes you wonder, indeed! I presumed that general events and happenings are either musings of the subconscious mind, or it picking up on fine details of events and messages read during the day that you would not have otherwise consciously noted. When it's a specific detail that is noted, however, it does seem to shock you a bit more. (specific words, colours etc. that you took the time to note down exactly from the dream)

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I was meditating in the back of the car (where it's quiet!) and I was watching TV on some kind of tablet, before realising that it was actually the folded cup-holder tray in front of me. This has also happened a couple of times in thinking that the car in front of me was something else than it actually was; realising that this isn't real seems to snap me out of the trance however, so I think I just need to relax here and "enjoy the ride" rather than snapping straight back to reality

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That sounds cool! It's quite possible to transition to wild or ld if one falls asleep meditating or in some sort of sleep resembling trance. While this perhaps isn't something to for aim during meditation, it can be a nice awareness practice or even training for wild.

Once again best of luck with the practice and looking forward to hearing about your next ld! :)

Well I half-managed it this morning! I woke up at 7 AM and decided to go back to bed (it is a Sunday, after all :lol:) and try to WILD. I've attempted WILD for the last few days and have found myself falling asleep almost immediately, so I went to the bathroom to write down dream fragments in a bit of natural light rather than the light on my phone; this had the effect of waking me up a little instead. I lied on my back and felt my body go numb, but managed to lose concentration and slipped into a dream. Similar to previously, I had been repeating a mantra whilst doing so, so I half-knew I was dreaming. I was at a hotel and sat in a room which looks similar to my room at home, and thought that I've heard that meditation during dreams is epic, so I would give it a go. I sat on the floor and begin to meditate, and almost immediately I could feel a sense of everything being "pulled" towards my head and I knew that I was switching to my dream body, so I tried to get up, but doing so woke me up. I went back into the dream (sort-of DEILD, but without too much lucidity!) quite quickly and tried again, and this time succeeded.

I got up and felt my dream body, which feels a little groggy. This always seems to happen for me - when I realise I'm lucid I get a feeling of everything pulling together and my vision sharply coming into focus, almost like the rack focus you get in films/TV shows. It feels as though my focus is far away and it is "racked" back to where it should be. The odd thing this time is that I go to look at my hands to stabilise the dream before I proceed, and I find that my hands are nearly translucent; I can just see a very faint outline of them. Unfortunately my dream ended after about a minute as my wife woke me up with a sudden movement; need to try and work on ignoring exterior distractions. I want to tell myself to ignore the physical world, but I'm worried if I think of that then reverse-psychology will imply that I then think of my body in bed and wake up!

Not bad, Camdave! You broke the dry spell! :)

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Unfortunately my dream ended after about a minute as my wife woke me up with a sudden movement; need to try and work on ignoring exterior distractions. I want to tell myself to ignore the physical world, but I'm worried if I think of that then reverse-psychology will imply that I then think of my body in bed and wake up!

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One never knows when one will be woken up by externals but it's best not to think about them. Let's hope there will be less of distractions when the right ld moment comes. :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Not bad, Camdave! You broke the dry spell! :)

One never knows when one will be woken up by externals but it's best not to think about them. Let's hope there will be less of distractions when the right ld moment comes. :)

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Indeed! Hoping to get a more consistent bed time / wake-up time to get more sleep and align the body clock. I made a slight mistake before - the gaining of awareness to me feels like the Dolly zoom effect; your focus stays in the same place but it feels like the background "catches up" with you and is no longer blurred or distant.

I've had a few goes at WILD without much success recently, falling asleep quickly. Is it worth staying up a little more during the WBTB beforehand? At the moment I stay up for a couple of minutes, write down any dream fragments and maybe pop to the bathroom. I think that if I stay up a little longer or have some water then I may wake myself up a little more so I should be able to not fall asleep straight away. I also find myself visualising dream scenarios and then getting lost in thoughts as they come forward; I think that mantra repetition is probably better than dream visualisation at the start. When should you start visualisation - when you can feel the onset of REM atonia? (When I successfully did a WILD before, I don't seem to get any of the weird symptoms in the paralysis stage; I seem to get a fast-beating heartbeat that feels like I'm excited and then I "wake up", but in the dream)

Well I'm glad to report another success on the weekend! I wanted to lie in to get some more REM time but I find it hard to get back to sleep when I wake up at about 7-8 am (I usually wake up at about 6.30 for work) - on Saturday I got up at 7 so I could write down my LD.

I woke up in the night and got up to go to the bathroom, then tried to WILD but fell asleep. As before, the mentality of repeating the mantra appears to have woken my senses a little. I am sitting at a dining table eating a meal with my grandparents, but I begin to question this as my Grandma talks to me, as I remember that she passed away a few months ago, and so this must be a dream. I then excuse myself from the table (no need for bad manners . . . !) and perform a nose-pinch RC to verify that I'm dreaming. I decide to go outside to find my DG so I can ask her questions, as that was one of my lucid goals; I can't see any door or way outside, so I decide to walk through the window instead with a leap of faith. The window appears to disappear from its frame as I pass through it.

I wander outside and try to focus on my DG but can't find her, so I think that I'll try to teleport to where she is instead by doing a spin. The first time I spin (never done this before in a LD) I feel the landscape tearing a little but nothing happens; the second time I try I shut my eyes and focus on my DG and end up in a small house. I ask someone in the house (who is a friend in reality with a similar-sounding name to my DG) and she points me to my DG. One thing I notice is that my DG's room is pretty cold (I don't usually "feel" warmth or cold in dreams, like if it's a sunny / snowy day) and that there is a sense of sadness/weakness; my DG has a few plasters on. I comfort her and then get slightly caught up in the moment and find myself in total darkness.

At first I think I've woken up, but then I believe that I am still dreaming and again nose-pinch to check this. I figure that I'm still in the same room but the light has gone out; I try to "shoot" it back on with my hands as I know the switch doesn't work, and manage it on the second attempt. I woke up (properly!) not too long after this. I'd estimate my "perceived" time in the dream world as being around 10-15 minutes; this is also without performing any stabilisation (whoops) methods.

One thing I'm noticing at the moment is that I spend a while looking for my DG; this dream was the first time I decided to take matters more into my own hands. I've read about various teleportation methods; could you please recommend ones that I can work on and try out? I always want to "open a portal" but it feels a little complex for a total beginner!

Awesome, congrats on the lds! :D

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One thing I'm noticing at the moment is that I spend a while looking for my DG; this dream was the first time I decided to take matters more into my own hands. I've read about various teleportation methods; could you please recommend ones that I can work on and try out? I always want to "open a portal" but it feels a little complex for a total beginner!

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There are as many ways as you can possibly think of and I have to say some work better for some people then others so you just have to try. One thing you did quite well was the spinning. Hmm, let me see, you can try the 'it's behind the corner' or 'turn your back and try to change the scene', or cover part of the scene and then imagine/expect/think of the new place. Also, you can try thinking of elements belonging to the place (like sand from the beach) and summon them. You can walk to the place, fly there, drive, ask a DC to guide you. You can zoom in, or move with super speed. Or you open a door and enter a new place or make a portal. Be sure to think about the place or person you want to see.

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I've had a few goes at WILD without much success recently, falling asleep quickly. Is it worth staying up a little more during the WBTB beforehand? At the moment I stay up for a couple of minutes, write down any dream fragments and maybe pop to the bathroom

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Longer wbtbs may increase ld chances if one has the opportunity to use them, so yes.

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When should you start visualisation - when you can feel the onset of REM atonia? (When I successfully did a WILD before, I don't seem to get any of the weird symptoms in the paralysis stage; I seem to get a fast-beating heartbeat that feels like I'm excited and then I "wake up", but in the dream)

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Hmm, I don't think there's a rule about when. You can start before HI appears, this may help calm oneself down and fall asleep more easily or after some HI appear - then this may be used as an anchor or to set a particular dream scene. About weird symptoms - not everyone gets them, and not consistently, so no need to expect them at any stage. :P