Thread: Camdave's Workbook

Thanks for your reply I tried a "natural" WBTB last night and found that I woke up quite naturally after roughly 5 hours 45 minutes of sleep - does this necessarily correspond to the end of an REM cycle? I was under the impression that you generally awaken during the first NREM stage in between cycles, in a phase of light sleep. In this case I stayed up for 15 minutes and tried to WILD, but lost focus and dropped off! When I woke up I had zero recollection of the last dreaming but, but as I was going to work I got into my car and remembered the dream - I dream a LOT about driving and being in cars, so I'm now taking more care to be aware in the vehicle and notice all the small details.

I'm still a very inconsistent lucid dreamer, but I think that building my self-awareness will unlock it. I'm still in the stage of "how did I NOT notice that?" - I even had a déjà-vu last night, whereby I saw a very specific scene whilst driving a car and having an option of going down a small gradient on the left or a set of stairs (!?) on the right - the first time I encountered this I drove down the stairs, but this time I took the smooth path to the left. I didn't even realise this memory until I wrote it down in my dream diary this morning and recognised it.

I've read quite a bit about dream-scapes over the past few months - some quite advanced things about constructing them from scratch and the visualisation needed for that. I think I'll start small and work my way up! I've put together some images as a visual cue to read from time to time that represent my dream-scape (a private island somewhere warm - the UK is blessed with many things but tropical weather is not one of them ) and am working hard to internalise it with as much awareness of the place as possible. At the moment I'm also including lucid dreaming cues (such as a oddly-coloured coconut that is very light to pick up, flying to my beach cabin and making clouds transform into shapes) - I'm hoping that this will reinforce things further.

One interesting thing that has happened is that I've noticed a dream character of someone who I don't think I know from my awakening life has been consistently appearing in my dreams; this has mainly been in the background, but a couple of days ago it came to the front as we were at some indoor waterpark (again, blame the UK weather for this memory!) and having fun together. Usually if I dream about being close with a member of the opposite species then I feel remorse (as I'm married!) and other dream character's also notice this and question it. However, when with this character I feel totally at ease and feel like they have been a best friend for a long time; I do not feel any sense of remorse and other dream characters are completely accepting of it. Have I found my dream guide? I've not yet met them whilst lucid, but I'm trying to visualise meeting them so I can ask them more questions. I've read quite a bit about dream guides and it seems that this DC appears to fit virtually all of the requisites; if it is the case then it gives me an added motivation for lucid dreaming.

edit/ I'd also just like to mention/ask, how specific does a mantra have to be? I've been struggling to consciously think about one specifically, and then when I was meditating one night I just thought "I am ready", and it seems to fit. This triggers thoughts of mental relaxation and visualisation of my dream scene so I presume it's OK - does the mantra have to be more explicit in its worded intentions?