Thread: Sharpshoey's Workbook

Read the entry, and you know what? I see a little lesson in it.

my "Dream Guide" (not sure if he actually is because I lost lucidity because of him) says to do something, (speak maybe? I'm not sure) you have to make him laugh.

So, you mention the DCs have been somewhat aggressive in your last couple of lds. In this part, your angry brother was coming in the house, and you weren't sure how he would behave. Your dream guide told you to make him laugh. Changing your mood like that is one of the best weapons with uncooperative or unpleasant DCs.

I guess i never really thought of that before. I've been told to ask DC's what they want, but the last couple DC's had no times for questions, they just wanted to kill me. I'll try being really friendly next time and hopefully that will take care of the issue. Thanks for the advice

I found the audio aid repository last night and I was going to listen to a subliminal messaging audio. It said that it was proven to work so I thought I'd give it a try...no harm in it. Anyways, I listened to it on the computer and then went to bed. I couldn't get to sleep for an hour. It didn't get me lucid or anything, was that because I couldn't get to sleep right after, or do I need to listen to the audio as I'm falling asleep? Do you even recommend the audio?

And I've started doing Vipassana Mediation to help with my mindfulness practice all day...it seems to have made it easier to keep up awareness throughout the day.

Also I am going to write a new and improved goal list out and post it here. The goals I posted at the beginning I kind of did it quickly and sloppily and it wasn't that big of a list. I am going to create a much better one to give me even more motivation to go after!

Do you mean this one?

http://www.dreamviews.com/lucid-aids...epository.html

I haven't listened to it, so can't say if it's effective or not. The instructions say to listen to it before bed. Not sure if this was the cause of you not being able to fall asleep, maybe using the PC with all the bright light contributed too. You can also make your own audio track, the only thing you need is a voice recording app, then play the stuff during the day, at bed time, etc. You can list your dream signs, repeat mantras or list your goals, etc.

Yep its that one. And I just figured out I was listeneing to an old track that wasn't really effective

Also, form now on I have to wake up an hour earlier than usual two days a week. If I go to bed an hour earlier, would my sleep schedule not change and could I still get lucids effectively? Or on those days would there be no hope of a lucid?

A little bit of an update too I guess. This morning was a day I had to wake up earlier, and I did the meditation but I don't know how effective it was. I was so tired my mind was constantly wandering off and I could almost see the tings I was visualizing. I always brought it back, but it took a while to.

It seems that when I'm practcing MILD, I can only imagine myself doing a couple of things. For some reason I an't think of anything else to imagine to do, but I know there are a limitless amounts of stuff do do in Lucid Dreams. Maybe I just need to look at a list of things you can do in an LD to get some more ideas?

Hopefully I'll get this straightened out.

Also, form now on I have to wake up an hour earlier than usual two days a week. If I go to bed an hour earlier, would my sleep schedule not change and could I still get lucids effectively? Or on those days would there be no hope of a lucid?

This will be interesting to see. You may get a boost on your later days as a result of what is referred to as cycle adjustment. You can read more about it here:

CAT Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

At any rate, if you can't do wbtb on those days, you can still practice a few mins of pre bed mild and expect an ld. Won't hurt in the very least and you can get an ld.

It seems that when I'm practcing MILD, I can only imagine myself doing a couple of things. For some reason I an't think of anything else to imagine to do, but I know there are a limitless amounts of stuff do do in Lucid Dreams. Maybe I just need to look at a list of things you can do in an LD to get some more ideas?

I find that coming up with things to do, especially new ones is great for motivation, but I usually keep my practical goals to a minimum. That is, while in the long term I want to do all sorts of bending, all possible totms, totys, etc. when I think about what I will do in the next dream, I focus on one to four items. It works best if I don't change those too much for a certain amount of time, say couple of weeks. This allows the tasks to sink in and you can more readily recall them during the dream compared to if you change your goals every couple of days. That may work too, but then you probably have to ld on a very frequent basis where you complete one task after the next, which allows you to generate more tasks.

So with the CAT tutorial, do you suggest I actually change my sleep cycle? I only have to wake up early for 2 days a week, but maybe because I already have to do that it will be a perfect set-up for the CAT technique? Also, if I don't do the CAT, would I still see the same benefits by waking up early only 2 days a week?


And I can do a WBTB on the days I have to wake up earlier, I just WBTB earlier.

So with the CAT tutorial, do you suggest I actually change my sleep cycle? I only have to wake up early for 2 days a week, but maybe because I already have to do that it will be a perfect set-up for the CAT technique?

Precisely! I think your two days of early wakes may work in a way similar to CAT.

And if wbtb on those days isn't too demanding for you, then you can do it.

Had 2 LD's last night! I haven't had an LD in a while now and that just refueled my motivation... I needed it. Ill type it up later today, I'm too lazy to do it now. I was able to fly, but I went into 3rd person mode and then it was like I was playing a computer game. I knew I was still dreaming and I tried to press the R key to go into first person and I was close, but I never actually got to experience the flying

Also, yesterday I started doing the Gravity RC again. This time it is a lot easier starting because I've done it for a little before. The mindfulness I was doing seemed to be too broad and after about to months of practice I haven't seen any of the effects transferring over into my dreams. The only things that come over are me doing my RC's. Anyways, I was thinking for a good awareness technique to do and the Gravity RC kept coming back to me. I also thought of trying to do another "natural" RC as Hukif puts it but I couldn't think of one. I was worried that gravity would be the same in my dreams as in WL but that could go for any technique. I'm pretty certain in most of my dreams gravity will be different, and if not there has to be a way to overcome that obstacle. So I'm going to be working on this from now on, along with saying "I'm dreaming" throughout the day and during MILD, Dream Journaling, and a WBTB a night.

I've noticed my practice has been getting kind of unorganized and cluttered but I think I've gotten it back on track now and I'm excited to see this Gravity RC pay off! Me and dreambh are both working on it and we are experimenting to see how well it works.

If you have any recommendations for another "Natural" RC please tell me them! Hopefully this will pay of in the next couple of months!

(Or in your opinion, do you think these types of RC's are not reliable enough? And what do you use to boost your awareness?

(forgot to add this in) I will also be trying to meditate every morning, except the two days I have to wake up early. I will just be clearing my mind of thoughts and focusing on my breathing, gradually building up the time I'm meditating as time goes on. Do you think that is a good meditation to do and will that transfer over into my dreams with increased awareness?

And do you recommend to do a different meditation practice instead, or to do in addition to it? Also, if you recommend a practice to do in addition to the breathing meditation, would I just do the other meditations later in the day?

Do you do meditation, or do you think it is not needed?

SORRY for all the questions. I know I've asked questions like these before but for some reason my thoughts are really jumbled and I need clarification on things. If you want, you an just answer a few questions at a time and answer the others when you are ready so you're not answering questions for an entire day

Congrats on the lds, Sharpshoey!

[So I'm going to be working on this from now on, along with saying "I'm dreaming" throughout the day and during MILD, Dream Journaling, and a WBTB a night.

This sounds like a well organized and good plan to me.

If you have any recommendations for another "Natural" RC please tell me them! Hopefully this will pay of in the next couple of months!

With natural do you mean stuff that appears both in dreams and the waking world? There are two similar omnipresent RCs that I can think of, those are being mindful and RCing on your breath and also your blinking. There was a thread somewhere about that, I will post the link if I find it.

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...0%25-time.html

About meditation: Yes, I practice meditation frequently (I want to say daily but some days I skip ). This has been going on for a while with me, so I switch techniques as my mood permits. Some of the things I have been doing include focus on breath, general body relaxation, gazing objects, concentrating on internal silence directly or on inner chatter, and visualization. The breath meditation is classic and works really nicely. You can do it with eyes closed or open depending on how you feel (if you are drowsy then it would be better to keep your eyes open). Meditation is about learning to focus on one thing and keeping your attention there, so much like with wilding anything can serve as your object of attention. The breath is easy to focus on as it is always there. But you can visualize an image and hold it for as long as you can and you will also be doing meditation. These practices are beneficial to dreaming because what we do in the dream is to hold the images much like we do with meditation.

OK I had to delete my last two posts...they were getting too jumbled. Anyways let me condense it down. I don't know if I still should do the Gravity RC, because what if the gravity in my dreams never changes? I don't want to waste a couple months of practice. Should I just go with a Sageous type Self-Awareness? I thought I was doing Self-Awareness before but I don't think I was. What are your thoughts on this.

Well, the thing is, most RCs have the potential to work, but you must practice them consistently and you must expect them to work. For example, some people rely on finger counting as RC. If you really expect to have multiple fingers in your dream and your RC to work, then you will have multiple fingers. Same thing with gravity. Always be focused on the RC working and revealing you are in a dream. Also, think of it as the more techs you do (RCs, MILD, wbtb), the more chances for lds.

Thanks a ton! You reminded me that if I expect gravity to be different, it will. That's how my counting fingers RC and my nose pinch RC work I think. So I'm going to stick wit the Gravity RC, because I think it may be better than Sageous's self awareness technique because its all day. I think that the Gravity RC also builds up self awareness too. Sageous said that memory is very important though, so I'm going to add something. Every hour 1-3 times, I am going to stop and question where I was 15 minutes ago, where I am going and why I am going there. Just some memory questions like that, and I will couple it in by doing some traditional RC's.

Do you think the Gravity RC builds the same type of Self-Awareness that Sageous's RRC technique does?

I need to stop reading all the other techniques out there, I tend to over think things and I get wrapped up in all these promising techniques when I really just need to stick with one.

Last night I had a fake LD. In the dream a crazy sadistic madwomen was coming after me and a friend. I suddenly realized I had powers because I was in a dream, so I would move things around and send things flying at her to slow her advance on us. (I guess when its a fake LD my Dream Control is perfect ) I knew it was fake though because I really didn't *know* I was in the dream, I just knew I had powers and I was still scared out of my mind.

Also got LD's #14 and 15 written here

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/shar...s-14-15-61782/

Every hour 1-3 times, I am going to stop and question where I was 15 minutes ago, where I am going and why I am going there. Just some memory questions like that, and I will couple it in by doing some traditional RC's.

That is a great idea, keep up the good work.

Do you think the Gravity RC builds the same type of Self-Awareness that Sageous's RRC technique does?

You are asking difficult questions, Sharpshoey. I wish there was an effective way to measure awareness, except for running around with an EEG device. I think it might be a different type of awareness in terms of classification, but then depending on how you do the RC (i.e. being mindful, aware of the environment and engaging in critical thinking when performing the RC), then it could have similar (but again not exactly the same) effects in terms of enhanced cognition and awareness.

Your fake ld sounds like it could be a low awarness ld, if you knew it was a dream. At any rate, you had the chance to practice dream control, so you can be more confident about the things you can do in a dream.

sorry about all of the difficult questions! Thanks for the great answered you have provided, they've helped a lot. I've also found it quite enjoyable to periodically ponder the thought that I could be dreaming at any moment throughout the day. I like to notice my surroundings during this time, and I also become more aware of my gravity even more. I become ultra aware and it really is quite enjoyable. Everything seems more vivid and then when I am done pondering, I do a Reality Check. So I guess it's a bit like the memory questions I do.

Had another instance last night where I was hoping something wouldn't happen in the dream, and then I realized that because I even had the thought it might happen, it could possibly happen because I was in a dream. I am seeming to have a lot of these moments of boosted awareness in dreams now so that is a good sign. Hopefully my awareness is transferring more and more into my dreams. This wasn't enough to make me lucid, but I could tell I was really close.

Having micro ld moments like these is definitely a good sign. It will be helpful to review your ld goal before bed or wbtb and think about completing it. This could help detach from the dream - "It's a dream, oh yeah, I had to do this task".

Another dream last night where I had a thought that if I was dreaming, I could be able to do so much stuff. I was going to do a reality check but then decided not to because the dream was too realistic. IWL I even tell myself that I could be dreaming at any time, and it doesn't matter how realistic things look or feel. I'm disappointed but I find it a really good sign that in the past few nights in at least one of my dreams a night, I've had thoughts of lucidity and become a bit more aware!

Highest recall yet last night! I was sure I would have an LD because I woke up a ton in the night, but I'm still really happy from the recall. My recall has been a little low the past few days so this is a big confidence booster!

Here's the Dream
http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/shar...ate-yet-61885/

10 dreams? That is a lot! Fantastic recall!

I haven't been on DV in a couple of days, but I've kept my practices up. I kind of stopped doing the memory exercises, those got to be too much of a pain to do, and with the Gravity RC I don't think I'll really need it. So my day practice is basically just Gravity RC with a mantra and occasionally a traditional RC.

I've had some interesting dreams, and a fake LD last night and I tried to fly in it but couldn't even fly then! I don't know what the problem is, even in a fake LD I can't fly. I'm going to do what dreamer suggested and try to use some objects to assist me until I get a feel for flying, then try it on my own.

I think I am going to set up a workbook in the WILD Class and start trying to WILD. I was going to wait longer to try it, so I could get more LD experience under my belt, but I feel like NOW is the right time. It's hard to explain, but I just have this feeling like now is the right time to WILD. I don't see why I shouldn't, because if you fail to WILD, you can still DILD and if I start practicing now I'll be able to master WILD sooner which means more LD's. I also like the idea of being able to just "pop" into a dream and being able to LD at will...so I'm going to start praticing that.

I kind of rambled on there, but I just wanted to let you know that I was going to do that too.

Just saw you can't make a workbok but I'll be taking the class regardless

Also, I've decided to add this bit because I have nothing else better to do You probably don't really care though, so feel free to skip reading this if you don't want to. Another reason I'm taking the WILD class is because my motivation has dropped again. I don't know why it keeps on dropping. The only thing that keeps me practicing LDing is the thought of the awesome things I can do, but it doesn't increase my motivation, it just helps me continue to practice. I even have trouble dream journaling one dream every day. I'm hoping that by taking Sageous's class, it will help to overhaul my LD practices and increase my motivation again. Hopefully my motivation will stay high up until I start getting the hang of WILD. Then it will be easy for my motivation to stay high because I'll get way more consistent LD's.