Pennyroyal's workbook

[PennyRoyal]

Reality Checks: -Trying to breath through plugged nose -Checking my watch/counting fingers -pushing a finger through my palm Dream Signs: -When I dream of fighting, before I hit someone my fist slows down and I am only able to barely tap them (if I can even make contact). (This is the only one I can recognize so far) Short-Term Goals: -Stabilize the dream the next time I become Lucid. -Figure out more precisely when I wake up in the night to better target my REM cycle -Increase my dream recall from a few a week to 2 or more per night Long-Term Goals: -Lucid dream on a consistant basis -Be able to have good control over LDs -Fly -I have many more goals to attain while in a LD, but I figure I'll start with one thing before I overload myself with ideas. [Attend class at Hogwarts, Play on stage with Hendrix/The Beatles/Pink Floyd, Fly on the back of a Dragon like Valheru in the Riftwar Saga, Get in an epic battle as a Shinigami like Bleach, have a swordplay lesson with Syrio from A Song of Ice and Fire] Lucid/Dream Recall History: -Before getting involved with DV (a week or 2 ago) I would maybe remember one dream every few months. After making an effort to keep a DJ I was able to recall one Monday-Thursday, and I recalled 2 on this last Friday. -I have become Lucid in my dreams in the past as a child, I was never able to have any control, nor did I attempt it. I just found it curious that I knew that I was dreaming, but it was comforting to know that I could not be hurt. My first week I was able to become Lucid very shortly and the same happened to me just this morning. Both LDs are in my DJ if anyone is curious. Nothing too exciting I woke up when I realized I was Lucid both times. Current Technique: -Currently attempting WBTB, I have tried WILD a few times with no success.

[Astaire]

Interesting dream sign. I actually don't start fights unless I'm aware that I'm dreaming or if someone gets me in rage mode.

[PennyRoyal]

I don't remember ever antagonizing a fight, but whenever I find myself in one I can never seem to connect a satisfying hit. I have never been in a physical altercation other than fighting with my brothers growing up, I wonder if this is my brain just not knowing what sensations to use in that particular situation.

[OpheliaBlue]

Hi Warren, happy you joined the class I know what you mean about that punching dream sign. I have a similar issue when I try to yell at DCs in dreams, both lucid and non lucid. It feel like I put all my energy into the scream, but then I just can't push it out. So weird. Anyway, I read your most recent DJ entry, and I'm happy you were able to find a way to go from awake to lucid without a seam. I can't wait to see what happens when you repeat the process. I'm also impressed at how quickly you went from really low dream recall to having recall every night, just by keeping a dream journal for a couple weeks. Glad that worked so well for you, I preach DJs to members all the time. So what is your WBTB routine, just curious? The times you go to sleep and wake up, etc.

[PennyRoyal]

Hi Warren, happy you joined the class Thank you so much, everyone has been really great so far. I feel very welcome. Anyway, I read your most recent DJ entry, and I'm happy you were able to find a way to go from awake to lucid without a seam. I can't wait to see what happens when you repeat the process. I'm also impressed at how quickly you went from really low dream recall to having recall every night, just by keeping a dream journal for a couple weeks. Glad that worked so well for you, I preach DJs to members all the time. I'm not sure if you would be interested, but I made a thread regarding my taking a break from using THC to observe the impact that it has on my dream recall and vividness. I plan to update that daily when my break begins(tomorrow, Monday). I'm hoping it will increase my progress even more. So what is your WBTB routine, just curious? The times you go to sleep and wake up, etc. Honestly half the reason I joined the class was because I have done so much reading on LDing over the past month that I have kind of had an information overload and I can't decide what to stick with. Currently I'm just using whatever mantra I choose that night to use as I go to sleep and sometimes try to visualize a dream scene I would like to have. When I wake up I'll use the bathroom and drink some water, if I woke up from a dream I'll write down a short version so I can fill in the details in the morning. I'm up maybe 10-15 minutes. Then I lay down and focus on going back into a dream/use mantra. I was trying to set alarms to wake myself up, but I had no luck and decided it was kind of futile until I had a good idea of when I naturally wake up. Do you have any advice/guidance on a good routine to stick to for my WBTB? As far as my sleep/wake up times. I wake up at 6:30am Mon-Fri, and whenever i feel like getting my lazy ass out of bed on the weekends :p Along with taking a break from using THC I am going to force myself to try and sleep at the same time every night. So over the next few weeks I will be sleeping from 10pm - 6:30am. This will be the hardest thing to stick to for me, because I love to stay up late Thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply.

[paigeyemps]

Hey warren! Welcome to the class

[OpheliaBlue]

I'm not sure if you would be interested, but I made a thread regarding my taking a break from using THC to observe the impact that it has on my dream recall and vividness. I plan to update that daily when my break begins(tomorrow, Monday). I'm hoping it will increase my progress even more. Sure! Checking it right now.. Do you have any advice/guidance on a good routine to stick to for my WBTB? As far as my sleep/wake up times. I wake up at 6:30am Mon-Fri, and whenever i feel like getting my lazy ass out of bed on the weekends :p Along with taking a break from using THC I am going to force myself to try and sleep at the same time every night. So over the next few weeks I will be sleeping from 10pm - 6:30am. This will be the hardest thing to stick to for me, because I love to stay up late Thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply. Np. Sounds like you have about the same work schedule as I do. The only difference is that my 2 off days are during the week, and I have to get my son up for school at 6:45am. So this becomes my WBTB. I go to bed at night by midnight, then I get up at 6:45 then don't go back to bed until 7:30. During this time I do like you, get water, go to the bathroom, morning stuff. It wakes me up just enough to help me achieve a lucid dream when I go back to sleep. I may wake up naturally a few more times, but I usually end up with DILD or WILD. So if you wanted to try it, on the weekend you could get up early, monkey around for a bit, then go back to sleep and see what happens. I read an article at the Lucidity Institute that people who increased their WBTB time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes or even an hour, had more success. Just something you can experiment with until you find what works for you. Hope that helps

[PennyRoyal]

. I read an article at the that people who increased their WBTB time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes or even an hour, had more success. Just something you can experiment with until you find what works for you. Hope that helps I will have to try and increase the time I'm awake this weekend and see the results. I am a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep after being up that long, but I guess I won't know until I try.

[PennyRoyal]

Hey warren! Welcome to the class Thank you Paigeyemps! I noticed you are a waterbender, I loved The Last Airbender .

[PennyRoyal]

Lesson 1 "Homework" Sleep Schedule: 10pm - 6:30am M-F Times woken up 12:50, 2:30, 3:45, 5:04 Things that caused me to Reality check Driving home, the sun glared off of a windshield giving it a purple sheen. RCd Woke up from a nap on the couch, the wall in front of me suddenly lit up. RCd (It was just the TV haha) Why I want to Lucid Dream I have always had a pretty active imagination. I can daydream very deeply.. especially when I read - I would almost describe it as being in a trance. I am able to almost completely tune out the world around me. Reading and Daydreams are all good and fun but I've always yearned for a way to have a "Lucid Daydream" so to speak. I always assumed I would have to wait until they came out with some Ultra Fancy Virtual Reality. Then.. I discover Lucid Dreaming and it seems to be the means to achieve a desire I have always secretly had. Make a plan for your next Lucid Dream The next time I become lucid I will find a flower and hand it to a Dream Character. (Per Feb. TOTM)

[PennyRoyal]

Lesson 2 "Homework" The following will be the induction techniques I will be practicing in conjunction with my personal sobriety experiment over the next 4-6 weeks. Practice All-Day-Awareness during the day This method of improving awareness appealed the most to me after the reading all of the techniques in Lesson 2 Mild before sleep I find that visualizing a dream while I'm sleeping comes fairly easily to me because I have always been able to have fairly detailed daydreams. I also find that repeating mantras can be comforting while I drift off to sleep. I need to practice KNOWING that my suggestions will happen instead of just hoping. WBTB/DEILD I wake up pretty frequently throughout the night, last night was the first night that I had recorded the times that I wake up. I plan to continue this over the next few weeks until I'm satisfied with the data that I have collected. Since I naturally wake up often I figure it would be good to do a WBTB in my later hours of sleep at night. Sometimes I dont feel I have the energy to get up and out of bed, in those cases I will attempt to DEILD. I'm not really fond of waking myself up in the night with an alarm, especially considering there's no guarantee that I'll hit the right time to enter REM. My problem right now is that I have been unable to stay still when I wake up. Before I even notice that I am fully awake, I'm already rolling around in my bed. Perhaps I could try to solve this with auto suggestion before I go to sleep This is my plan for the following weeks. Please, if you have any suggestions/additions that could help.. absolutely do not hesitate to drop a comment. As always thank you for taking the time to read and comment, I do appreciate it.

[PennyRoyal]

Sleep Schedule 9:30pm -6:30am Times woken up 1:00am, 1:57am, 2:22am, 4:45am, 6:00am I thought I heard someone whisper my name this morning as I was getting up, freaked me out and I looked around. Reality checked, but I was awake. I woke often last night, and after waking up at 2:22am I couldnt go to sleep for over an hour. Terribly frustrating. I havn't had trouble falling back to sleep after quickly recording times/dreams since I started. Hopefully this will not be something regular.

[OpheliaBlue]

My problem right now is that I have been unable to stay still when I wake up. Before I even notice that I am fully awake, I'm already rolling around in my bed. Perhaps I could try to solve this with auto suggestion before I go to sleep Concerning this, I'll say that I've read over and over about how "You absolutely cannot move or open your eyes for DEILD," but that's not an absolute truth. I usually DILD or WILD or some combo, but in the few times I managed a DEILD, I opened my eyes, and rolled over one or twice into a more comfortable position. If I was still tired enough, I found that I could enter an LD even though I wasn't completely still beforehand. The only times it doesn't work for me is if I'm TOO tired and I pass out into a dreamless sleep, or I'm too awake, and it's time to get up anyway. But tossing and turning a bit won't kill it. If for you, a little rolling over for a few moments turns into straight up insomnia, then yeah, auto suggestion might be helpful. Or we can just look at your sleep schedule and see if something there is causing it. Though you're still in the beginning stages of your experiment, so you're still gradually settling into things I'd bet.

[PennyRoyal]

I usually don't have a problem falling asleep once I wake up. I was able to wake up every night last week and record a dream and fall asleep again in under 5 minutes. I would probably chalk it up to my body being off it's normal balance since I have started my experiment. Typing this now though..I just remembered I was experiencing a lot of hypnagogic images as I was falling asleep before the bout of insomnia, so I could have just got myself overexcited. The images were very similar to what I experienced last time I followed an image out of my line of vision and experienced the sinking into the couch sensation followed by the FA.

[PennyRoyal]

Sleep 10pm-6:30am Woke up: 4am, ?, 5:40 I woke up sometime between 4am and 5:40 and had not moved or opened my eyes, instead of writing down what time it was, I tried to DEILD. I was surprised when I realized that I woke up my first time at 4am.

[PennyRoyal]

Hey warren! Welcome to the class Thank you Paigey!

[PennyRoyal]

Sleep: 9:30pm-6:30am Woke up: 2:50 Recall: Very small fragment all I can remember is a face with no discernable features and a phrase in my head as I woke up "I will kill each and every person here" Now the emotion behind the voice wasn't malicious, it was almost.. protective.. but I can't remember the rest of the dream at all, which was frustrating because I remember everything and before I could think to make myself hold still and get it all in my mind.. I subconciously rolled over and lost it all -.-. I've gotten better at spontaneously questioning if I'm dreaming throughout the day. I'm trying to do it twice per hour, not using any kind of alarm or alert system. I don't want to become reliant on it. I REALLY ponder for a moment if i'm in a dream or IWL, I look around and see if I can see/smell/feel anything out of the ordinary, I ask myself where I was 5 minutes ago, where/What will i be doing 5 minutes from now? when was the last time I asked myself this questions? Was I dreaming when I asked? Then I reality check. I usually inspect my hands for anything peculiar, count my fingers and repeat a few times "When I dream, I look at my hands and realize I am dreaming" I count my fingers and repeat maybe 2-3 times. I pinch my nose/finger palm for good measure just incase my brain is being tricksy. I have not been able to become Lucid this week, but I am determined to finish the last lesson's homework. TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT []When inside of a lucid dream, practice the dream control techniques. Post your results in your workbook. []If you you have a lucid dream and find yourself losing it, practice the stabilisation techniques listed here. Post your results in your workbook.

[OpheliaBlue]

So how did last night go then Warren?

[PennyRoyal]

So how did last night go then Warren? Well I found out that I'm getting laid off next week, so my stress level was pretty high. I kind of lost my train of thought last night and didn't even have any recall. The upside is I will probably have a few weeks while I look for new work to focus on improving my LD. I think I was REALLLLLY close to a WILD yesterday when I napped.. but right as I had a lot of images in my vision like last time I drooled on my arm and scared myself awake lol -.- It's been a little discouraging that I became Lucid twice last week, but havn't had any luck this week. Not enough to lose my motivation though and the week isnt over yet! I picked up Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by S. LaBerge on recommendation by a few DVers. Just going to try to keep LDing in my mind as much as possible and practice until I can do it regularly There's still tonight!

[PennyRoyal]

Meh.. No luck and no recall I think I may have got myself a little overexcited last weekend when I unintentionally had that WILD. I've been trying to do it again all week. Waking up at different times, playing with how long i'm up etc. But I always just end up laying perfectly still for an hour or so. Ive never felt any kind of body sensations or the like. HI never evolves past seeing a flash here or there. I think maybe I jumped the gun and expected too much of myself. I might just want to scale back to my original goal of remembering 1 dream every night before I go on trying to induce. Did so well last week I remembered one almost every night, then had that wild and got unfocused on my original goal thoughts?

[Alucinor XIII]

I think I was REALLLLLY close to a WILD yesterday when I napped.. but right as I had a lot of images in my vision like last time I drooled on my arm and scared myself awake lol -.- Lol, thats hilarious! No harm intended. I'm sorry for your job-loss though. I commend your positive outlook, you'll definitely get enough sleep to practice LDing! And dont worry, we all have bouts of bad-recall. I think being over-zealous can sometimes negatively affect dreams. The suboncious is really finicky. ~~ But focusing on getting really good recall is a must! And its never a bad goal. Lucids are great, but focusing on recall can bring an entirely new appreciation for your non-lucid dreams as well. =]

[PennyRoyal]

Lol, thats hilarious! No harm intended. None taken it's pretty funny :p Thanks for the encouragement. I think I need to just relax and focus on falling asleep instead of focusing so intently on being aware.

[OpheliaBlue]

Well I found out that I'm getting laid off next week, so my stress level was pretty high. I kind of lost my train of thought last night and didn't even have any recall. Damn man, I'm really sorry Stress certainly can be a dream/recall/lucid/sleep killer all around.. a variable that I'm sorry has now been included in your experiment. The upside is I will probably have a few weeks while I look for new work to focus on improving my LD. I think I was REALLLLLY close to a WILD yesterday when I napped.. but right as I had a lot of images in my vision like last time I drooled on my arm and scared myself awake lol -.- Yeah that was funny Glad you have the extra time to devote to LDing, in spite of the job thing. Hope you find another soon! It's been a little discouraging that I became Lucid twice last week, but havn't had any luck this week. Not enough to lose my motivation though and the week isnt over yet! I picked up Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by S. LaBerge on recommendation by a few DVers. Just going to try to keep LDing in my mind as much as possible and practice until I can do it regularly There's still tonight! That's the spirit! No sense in giving up. If anything, you'll teach yourself how to have LDs under ANY type of circumstance. And LaBerge is a wonderful source of LD info. He has youtube videos too, really great for lucidspiration. I think maybe I jumped the gun and expected too much of myself. I might just want to scale back to my original goal of remembering 1 dream every night before I go on trying to induce. Did so well last week I remembered one almost every night, then had that wild and got unfocused on my original goal thoughts? There's nothing wrong with expecting alot from yourself. That's actually good, so the next time you get lucid you won't get caught with your ass in the air. You'll be prepared to knock out those goals. You just have to promise yourself not to be hard on yourself when you don't get lucid. Dreaming is a natural process, and everything natural has cycles. I have dry spells, lucid "plateaus" and all kinds of annoying issues that come and go. I just ignore disappointments and keep moving forward. Your subC will eventually reward you, so be ready when it does! That said, just having the goal of recalling dreams is nice. If it takes pressure off yourself for the time being, while you're going through alot, nothing wrong with that either. Good luck and keep us updated, we're rooting for you!

[CanisLucidus]

Well I found out that I'm getting laid off next week, so my stress level was pretty high. I kind of lost my train of thought last night and didn't even have any recall. Hey, man, I'm really sorry to hear that. Just do the best that you can to manage the inevitable stress we all feel in situations like these. If you can, let your sleep time be your sanctuary from the cares and concerns of waking life. Keep your practice as fun and relaxed as possible so that you can recharge to deal with these temporarily higher levels of waking life stress. The upside is I will probably have a few weeks while I look for new work to focus on improving my LD. I think I was REALLLLLY close to a WILD yesterday when I napped.. but right as I had a lot of images in my vision like last time I drooled on my arm and scared myself awake lol -.- That's awesome. I think maybe I jumped the gun and expected too much of myself. I might just want to scale back to my original goal of remembering 1 dream every night before I go on trying to induce. Did so well last week I remembered one almost every night, then had that wild and got unfocused on my original goal thoughts? I completely understand. Having the kind of success you did is intoxicating. Focusing on recall for a while sounds like a perfectly valid way to go. WBTB is incredibly powerful and important for generating LDs, but it can be a demanding thing to put into practice. My advice would be to do whatever feels natural, fun, and relaxing to you. Anything that feels like a burden should probably be scaled back for the time being. For example, I actually really enjoy the quiet study, peace and mindfulness of my WBTB time, so it doesn't feel like a burden to me. But I know that for a lot of people WBTB feels like much more of a chore. WILD, too, can be a pretty demanding tech. You just have to promise yourself not to be hard on yourself when you don't get lucid. Dreaming is a natural process, and everything natural has cycles. I have dry spells, lucid "plateaus" and all kinds of annoying issues that come and go. I just ignore disappointments and keep moving forward. Your subC will eventually reward you, so be ready when it does! This is such great advice. Dreams, lucid and otherwise, have a natural ebb and flow. They're from the wildest parts of our mind and they don't obey timetables, timelines, coercion, or threats. Always keep that confidence in yourself, and understand that you got yourself lucid twice last week and you will make it happen again. Be ready when the LDs return, because so long as you put in the work, they will.

[OpheliaBlue]

Well said, CL They're from the wildest parts of our mind and they don't obey timetables, timelines, coercion, or threats. Ooooo yeah, we don't threaten our subC's.... bad bad bad things happen when we do O_O