Emnition's workbook

Reality Checks:
- Pushing my fingers through my palm
- Reading the word 'Awake', which I've written on my left hand


Dream Signs:
- I'm studying abroad for one year. People from my homecountry still appear in my dreams.
- People speaking in my native language, while they're not able to in waking life.
- Famous actors/actresses (though less frequent now that I watch less movies).
- Being somewhere I've never been before

Short-Term Goals:
- Having a LD once a week
- Increasing the length of my LDs (I always wake up within a minute)
- Performing RCs more often

Long-Term Goals:
- Having a LD several times per week
- Having enough control over my LDs to decide my own actions

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- I can recall atleast 1 dream every night and often more, though the details are sometimes vague. On a good night I might recall up to 4 dreams in detail.
- I'm not sure how many LDs I've had, but my best guess would be around 10.

Current Technique:
- I'll be trying DILD for the next 3 weeks


I have to say I'm already happy I signed up for DV. Just writing down my goals makes me realise that I need to be more concrete in what I wish to accomplish and gives my motivation a little boost!

Welcome to Intro class, Emnition! :) Let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks NyxCC!

I've been travelling for a few days last week so I haven't recorded everything in my DJ (also there were 2 nights with barely any sleep). Plus, since I'm keeping a physical DJ I'd like to share just the dreams which stand out. In the last week I've had 2 dreams which I feel are worth mentioning.

The first one occurred during one of the nights I was on the travel. I barely remember anything, but what I do remember is that I was walking near a church during the day with atleast 1 other person and that I stood still for a moment because I was thinking to myself that I should be more aware of my surroundings. I don't remember it leading to me doing a RC though.

My second happened just last night. I dreamt that I just returned from my trip (which is actually true) and looked into my pantry to find that my bread had become moldy. I looked for the expiration date, which said 3 november. In my head that date wasn't due until about 5 more days, so I was surprised by my bread having mold already. It was also frozen as if I had actually stored it in the freezer, so I wondered if freezing it had caused it to mold faster. Then I decided to throw it out, along with the milk which had probably gone bad. I didn't do an RC.


I've added something to my RC: first I look at my left hand, where I've written "Awake". I confirm that the word "Awake" is written there, then tell myself that I am in a dream and that I will be able to push the fingers of my left hand through the palm of my left hand and that Awake will have turned into "Dream" once I look back at it. After that I look at my hands and count my fingers, to stay focused on my hands just a bit longer. I remember a lucid somewhere in the past month where I desperately wanted to stabilise the dream by looking at my hands, but my hands remained out of my field of vision and I can't recall my hands ever being in my field of vision when dreaming.

I just remembered something I realised a long time ago: I don't have all my senses in my dreams. I am only able to see and hear in my dreams. The only exception I can recall is having legcramp once while flying during a lucid. Until at least the end of this month I want to be more aware of the items I pick up or move around. I've carried people on my back in dreams and lifted items without feeling any weight whatsoever. I used to be unable to read in dreams because the words were blurry, until I started focussing on it more in waking life. Perhaps becoming lucid will become easier if I unlock more senses. Does anyone have any experience with this?

You can actually use the lack of senses as a dream sign, and also as a reality check. In the case of reading for example, you can try reading things during the day and see if they change or not, if you are able to comprehend them, etc. If the letters change, then it's a dream. Also, gravity in dreams may be different from real life. You can fly, lift heavy objects, etc. Try to be more aware if the gravity is normal when going about your day. Think as often as possible about these dream signs so next time you encounter them you can become lucid. :goodjob2:

Thanks for the tips :) I'm already using the reading as a reality check (see first post), but I'll definitely be paying more attention to gravity/weight to increase my awareness.

On another note, I started a new DJ today because my other one was full, feel really excited about it! Sorta feels like starting fresh. Also I remembered 5 dreams last night. At first I could recall only one, but I knew I had more and while journalling the first I could suddenly remember 4 more.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

I just remembered something I realised a long time ago: I don't have all my senses in my dreams. I am only able to see and hear in my dreams. The only exception I can recall is having legcramp once while flying during a lucid.

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next time once you realize you dreaming try to rub you hands together, you should be able to feel it
then take off your shoes and walk barefoot
also think of something to do and keep doing it
such as walk up to every dream character you see one after another and hug them

you should feel all of these things, and having a goal, like walk to next DC and hug will give you an intention
then tell yourself after every 5 hugs or whatever, rub your hands again or look at them remind yourself the dream can't end
till you have interacted with like 100 of them or something

feeling and having an intention should buy you maybe 5 minutes+

make the goal to just keep going, move quickly from one to the next

try never closing your dream eyes, if you lose the dream, just rub your hands and believe that the dream will return
if there are no people do something else like pick flowers etc just keep moving and doing whatever over and over
like every 15 seconds or so, and stabilizing every min/few minutes

also if no people just call out and say something like "I demand add more people" or what ever

Thank you as well for the tips, cooleymd.

Two nights ago I had a dream wherein I could feel for a short moment of time. It was pitchdark and someone put his arms around me from behind. I could feel the squishy softness of this person's body (or this thing, cause it might have been a mummy). During the rest of the dream I only had vision and sound. Perhaps having a sense of touch was caused by being deprived of my sight.

Last night I had a dream wherein I felt the need to do a rc for the first time since joining DV! I dreamt that I woke up and felt the need to do an rc to make sure I was really awake, as I had some false awakenings lately. Unfortunately I performed the rc way too hastily. I quickly glanced at some text and decided I wasn't dreaming.

I did have another dream last night, in this one I was lucid I guess. I was doing some taekwondo exercises and wanted to do a particular move but was concerned if it was a good idea to perform that move because of my knee injury (which is real). I quickly decided that I could do the move because this was a dream and I couldn't get hurt anyway. My memory of the dream stops after those few seconds. Though I said to myself that I was dreaming I'm doubting if I should really consider it a lucid, as it felt more like something I said to myself for no apparent reason. I didn't gain any clarity or in any way felt this dream was different from regular dreams, perhaps because it was over so quickly.

Last night I had another of those 'sort of lucid' dreams. In the dream I went out with friends using motorcycles. We got separated and I got totally lost. I remember thinking to myself: this is a really shitty dream, I hope when I stop dreaming and then start dreaming again I don't continue with this dream.

It's really cool you are having bursts of awareness like this so often. It would help to think about any goals you want to accomplish before going to sleep, so next time dream related thoughts occur, you can detach from the dream scenario and go about your goals. :)

I was thinking about what I REALLY want to do in a dream, but so far I haven't decided on anything yet.

Last night I had a real lucid, instead of one of those 'was I just lucid?' dreams. A monkey had put my thumb in his mouth, causing it to become purple and bloated. I was looking at both thumbs and thought the bloated one looked quite strange (aside from it being bloated and purple), as if it wasn't attached correctly. I looked closer and noticed I was mistaken but for some reason still decided to attempt to push two fingers from my left hand through my right palm, which worked. I immediately realised I was dreaming and got very excited, because I had attempted this technique on one other occasion long ago. Though it failed back then, I did also become lucid. Last night I was actually happier with the fact that the method worked than with the fact that I was lucid. I immediately realised that I should calm my excitement or else I would wake up. I'm not sure if I really woke up, but I did lose the dream. I frantically tried to look at my hands to pull myself back into the dream, but failed to do so. Then I thought really hard about pushing my fingers through my hand again, but it felt as if I wasn't in a dream at the time.

Good catch! Congrats on the ld! :goodjob:

Thanks!

Since it's a new month I guess this might be a good time to reflect.
» If you count the 'does this count as lucid?' dreams, I've had 3 lucids within 3 weeks, if not, just 1.
» I started out with doing RCs really frequently and thorough, but dumbed down a bit.
» I totally screwed up the weight thing. I only thought about it every once in a while.
» I wasn't consistent in self-affirming that I would have a lucid when I was in bed.

For the next 3 weeks:
» Have at least 2 lucids and of course preferably more (real lucids, not those semi ones).
» Continue doing RCs frequently.
» Consistently use self-affirmation.

Ow and I might have to explore a subconscious 'animal sucking on my fingers' fetish. Last night a yellow hamster or guinea pig put my finger in its mouth. :disconcerted:

As my inactivity suggests I haven't been doing well with my goals for this month. I have been extremely busy and neglected LDing for a while. I finally have some more time on my hands again and will focus again on LDing! The same goals I wrote down in my previous post still stand, but now for until the end of the year.

That went well... I have been backpacking for roughly 2 weeks and during that time I have neglected my LD goals quite a lot. I also didn't get much sleep (slept one night on the ground in a busstation!), mostly due to staying up late and waking up early regardless of any lack of sleep. Every once in a while I would do a reality check, but these were quite infrequent. I will make one more short trip, but aside from that my life has returned to normal, so time to commit again!

I have tried DILD for a few weeks with some success. I have already tried SSILD several months ago (also with some success) for a few days, but never consistently for a longer period of time. I want to try this method for atleast 2 weeks, achieving atleast 1 LD per week.

So far I've thought about doing SSILD every night, but made one critical error. Every time after waking up in the middle of the night I would think I was sufficiently awake to perform SSILD, but I wasn't and would fall asleep again too fast to complete the technique. From now on I'll make sure to get up for a short period of time to waken up a bit more.

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So far I've thought about doing SSILD every night, but made one critical error. Every time after waking up in the middle of the night I would think I was sufficiently awake to perform SSILD, but I wasn't and would fall asleep again too fast to complete the technique. From now on I'll make sure to get up for a short period of time to waken up a bit more.

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Good point! I stive for at least a bit of wakefulness with micro-wbtbs (5min) and also try to stay awake longer (15-20) for normal ones. It helps raise awareness and prevents one from immediately falling asleep without having a chance to do any induction techs. Play around with the lenght to see how long is best for you.

Thanks for the tip NyxCC. I've been playing around with the length and so far haven't discovered my 'sweet spot'. Last night I did have a lucid though. I believe I went to bed around midnight and set my alarm for 5 or 6 am, though I can't remember if the alarm woke me up or if I woke up on my own, as that has happened quite a lot lately. I went to the toilet and tried to crack a puzzle for a few minutes and then went back to bed. I started using the SSILD method but fell asleep quite quick.

I woke up several hours later and after a much longer time of just laying in bed and eventually doing SSILD for a short period of time I dozed off. In this dream I eventually went to the toilet and noticed that the door was different. I first told myself that it was fine and that I didn't need to do an RC and quickly changed my mind because this is exactly the type of thing that requires an RC. I closed my eyes and told myself I was dreaming several times, which at this point I truly believed. I then succesfully pushed the fingers of my left hand through my right hand. I was in bed immediately with my eyes closed, afraid to open them because it might cause me to open my eyes in the real world. I then started experiencing my first ever OBE. I could feel my body being lifted off the bed about 50 centimeters, I slowly rotated 90 degrees to the left, back again and then drifted back to bed. All the while I was too 'conscious' about the whole experience. I was thinking that I should let it happen and not get too excited, but then started thinking about a friend who told me about his bad OBE experiences and I was hoping I wouldn't have a bad experience and was wondering if I really wanted to have an OBE. Around that point is the moment I rotated back and drifted back into my bed.

Nice, congrats on the ld, Emnition! :)

About your OBE experience, just try to be as relaxed as possible if a similar situation happens again. Also, focus on what you would like to do next, like explore around etc. It can help to hum a positive tune in one's mind too, that sets a positive mood and is more likely to yield a positive experience.

Clearly I haven't been posting enough lately. Time for some changes! From now on I'll post 2 times per week as a way of forcing myself to be more active in pursuing lucidity. I haven't achieved anything noteworthy since my last post. However, I did just decide to give Dream Yoga a go as it seems very interesting and I can see the connection with SSILD.

You might want to set some goals for you to achieve to help get back on track :).

For example:

- post 5 dreams
- find most reoccuring dream signs
- read old journal entries
- try to recall a dream in as much detail as possible

These should help get one's mind back to dreaming and when you are ready you can go for some induction goals as well.

- Do SSILD on three nights/wbtb

Finally able to update! I wanted to do so on wednesday already but my internet has been acting up. Anyways: I am working on completing basic lesson 1 from Dream Yoga. For those unfamiliar, there are some alternatives and I've chosen to focus on my sense of touch. I've also downloaded a reminder app (Daybell for iOS for anyone interested) which plays a sound every 2 hours to remind me of this.

NyxCC I really like your suggestion of doing SSILD only 3 nights a week. Previously I wanted to do it every single night, but if you slip up 1 night that quickly opens the door to slipping up more often. For the coming week I will do SSILD on this saturday, next week monday, wednesday and friday. Tonight before going to bed I will read my last 5 DJ entries to see if I can notice some common themes. I'm also considering moving away from recording my dreams in a physical DJ to using DV, so that others may point out any dreamsigns I may have missed.

I'm glad to say I did everything I said I would do.

I looked through my last 5 dreams and the first thing I noticed was the regular occurence of one specific friend. She was in 3/5 dreams, though I didn't dream about her on friday- or saturdaynight. What I did notice in every single dream was that it played out in locations where I have never been before, or locations where I have been but which looked completely different than in waking life.

The last 2 nights I had dreams in which I noticed something was slightly off, but wasn't aware enough to question my reality. One time it was due to me having more courage than I would ever have in waking life to do a particular parkour move, the other was because I believed my bed to have been rotated 90 degrees from its regular position. Case in point: this bed was in my room, but my room looked absolutely nothing like my room in waking life.

I continued with Dream Yoga and when reading through it again I realised that I'm not following the program strictly and am actually already giving the more difficult tasks a try, with some degree of success.

Finally, I did attempt to SSILD last night (or I suppose I should say early this morning). This didn't go very well. I went to bed very late, so when it was SSILD time a few housemates were already up and having a conversation right outside my room, making it difficult for me to focus.

According to my schedule I should've attempted SSILD on monday. That was a total failure. I didn't sleep well at all that night due to a couple of people in my dormitory having some very loud conversations *ahemshoutingcontestahem* in the middle of the night. I'll spare you guys the rant of all the horrible things I imagined doing to them. To compensate I attempted to SSILD last night as well. I had a fair amount of sleep and woke up early in the morning and stayed awake for about 15 minutes. When it was time for me to go back to sleep I found it very difficult to focus on the techniques. I figure it's not only the amount of time you stay awake before going back to bed, but also the activity you do. Next time I'll attempt something a little more brain challenging. Furthermore, since my last update I've had a dream in which I hastily did an RC. Too hastily, it failed and I thought nothing of it.

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I figure it's not only the amount of time you stay awake before going back to bed, but also the activity you do. Next time I'll attempt something a little more brain challenging.

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Cool, I'm looking forward to reading what you come up with. I've always wanted to experiment playing brain train games during a wbtb but am rarely in the mood, so it in the end never try it.

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Furthermore, since my last update I've had a dream in which I hastily did an RC. Too hastily, it failed and I thought nothing of it.

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That's still a good sign of progress! Keep up the RCs! :D

Instead of making a new schedule every week I've decided to make a schedule that I will follow every week.

SSILD: tuesday, friday, saturday
posting here: wednesday, sunday

Furthermore the app I've installed on my phone isn't really working for me. Due to a bug either in the app or in my phone I receive so many notifications within a minute that the app just annoys me instead of truly raising my awareness. I do want to try to set the interval lower (maybe 30 minutes), volume low and let the sound play during the night. Perhaps the sound of a gong will reach me in my dreams and raise my awareness.

Edit: I'm working on the last section of basic skills #1 of Sivason's Dream Yoga class. As I mentiond briefly before I'm still doing one of his tasks several times throughout the day for a short period of time.

Another edit!: Lately I've found it harder to focus while attempting SSILD. Could this be because my brain is not awake enough yet before going back to bed?

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Cool, I'm looking forward to reading what you come up with. I've always wanted to experiment playing brain train games during a wbtb but am rarely in the mood, so it in the end never try it.

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Last night I stayed up for roughly 25 minutes and one of the things I did was solve a small crossword puzzle, which took me maybe 5 minutes. Right now I'm wondering whether it would be better to do something that challenges the brain or something more active, such as a short workout. Though I guess the best thing to do is probably to read about SSILD during this period to focus my mind in that direction.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

That's still a good sign of progress! Keep up the RCs! :D

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I didn't see it that way at first, but you're right, thanks!

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Another edit!: Lately I've found it harder to focus while attempting SSILD. Could this be because my brain is not awake enough yet before going back to bed?

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Yes, this is quite possible.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

Last night I stayed up for roughly 25 minutes and one of the things I did was solve a small crossword puzzle, which took me maybe 5 minutes. Right now I'm wondering whether it would be better to do something that challenges the brain or something more active, such as a short workout. Though I guess the best thing to do is probably to read about SSILD during this period to focus my mind in that direction.

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All these activities ought to have some effect, I think the best way to find out which one works the most is to try them all. You can try some basic math or reading about lucid dreaming and SSILD, that's a good idea. I know one guy used to cycle (workout during his wbtb), but that may not be everyone's piece of cake. :P

It's my updateday but unfortunately I don't have that much to report. I did what I said I'd do, though without success.
Right now I feel like I'm just 'going through the motions', without too much spirit in it. I need to find something to get me really motivated again.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

It's my updateday but unfortunately I don't have that much to report. I did what I said I'd do, though without success.
Right now I feel like I'm just 'going through the motions', without too much spirit in it. I need to find something to get me really motivated again.

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May I tempt you with this month's tasks for an extra inspiration:

http://www.dreamviews.com/tasks-mont...ch-2015-a.html

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

May I tempt you with this month's tasks for an extra inspiration:

http://www.dreamviews.com/tasks-mont...ch-2015-a.html

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Yes you may certainly! :D

As for my attempts: I was supposed to SSILD last night / this morning. I failed to do so (didn't set my alarm). I will make up for it by doing it this night instead. During the waking period early in the morning I will read about SSILD, which will hopefully get me in the right state of mind. Also, in an attempt to be more productive I've made a morning and an evening routine for myself, which also include dream related tasks. Hopefully this will get me more structured in what I'm doing.

Edit: I've already been practicing with Sivason's Dream Yoga a bit, but I've just created a workbook for it to make it more official and get myself into it.

I had to change my schedule a bit this week to accomodate for other plans. I've attempted SSILD on wednesday and thursday and was supposed to do it on friday as well, but I unexpectedly ended up sleeping at a friends place. I haven't had any lucids, but 3 nights in a row I had for my doing quite detailed dreams. Wednesday night I even had a moment where I experienced touch so vividly that I still felt a tingling sensation after waking up. Also that dream was an absolutely great experience!

I'll continue what I'm doing right now and hopefully my dreams will continue to be as detailed.

Note to self: if you need to wake up early in the morning for SSILD, make sure your alarm is not within arm's reach. I either turned it off in my sleep or just slept right through it. Also I feel like I should update this again:


Reality Checks:
- Reading the word 'Awake', which I've written on my left index finger
- Pushing my fingers through my palm
- If on the motorcycle: blink multiple times, as my eyes can be very stubborn in my dreams

Dream Signs:
- Being somewhere I've never been before or locations looking different from the real world (e.g. the interior of my room being moved around)
- Being with people who I shouldn't be with (e.g. people from back home)

Short-Term Goals:
- Having a LD once a week
- Increasing the length of my LDs (I always wake up within a minute)
- Being aware of my own body more often during the day

Long-Term Goals:
- Having a LD several times per week
- Having enough control over my LDs to decide my own actions

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- Every once in a while I have trouble remembering a dream, but most of the time I can remember at least 1 dream per night.
- I'm not sure how many LDs I've had, but my best guess would be around 10.

Current Technique:
- I'll still be trying SSILD this week, after that I feel like I should move on to a new technique (unless of course I achieve some amazing results this week). Any suggestions for techniques?

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Current Technique:
- I'll still be trying SSILD this week, after that I feel like I should move on to a new technique (unless of course I achieve some amazing results this week). Any suggestions for techniques?

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So, to summarize, how many times do you think you have done the technique? Would you say you manage to do a few cycles and then quickly fall asleep, etc? Do you expect to have a lucid dream when going back to bed? I know this may sound like it's obvious, but often we fail to project this intention of having a lucid dream forward. And this makes all the techniques work.

If you want to try something different, maybe you can go for MILD. Do your wbtb, get up, stay a bit and think about your dreams and what you want to do next. Then go back to sleep and think about it a bit more as you fall asleep. You may remember a dream you had and imagine yourself become lucid or just come up with a desired scenario and imagine and try to feel the excitement of becoming lucid. You may also add some mantras like 'I know I'm dreaming" or similar along with your thoughts or visualizations.

The other tech you could try is wilding.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

So, to summarize, how many times do you think you have done the technique? Would you say you manage to do a few cycles and then quickly fall asleep, etc?

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Good question, I'm not sure actually. For the last couple of weeks I've mostly done it 3 times a week, not to sure about the period before that. I know I've had a period where I was struggling. I can definitely manage to fall back asleep quite easily. On some occasions I even fell asleep too fast again.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Do you expect to have a lucid dream when going back to bed? I know this may sound like it's obvious, but often we fail to project this intention of having a lucid dream forward. And this makes all the techniques work.

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This is so obvious and yet so stupid of me to overlook. Indeed, I rarely created the right mindset for myself. Very good pointer.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

If you want to try something different, maybe you can go for MILD. Do your wbtb, get up, stay a bit and think about your dreams and what you want to do next. Then go back to sleep and think about it a bit more as you fall asleep. You may remember a dream you had and imagine yourself become lucid or just come up with a desired scenario and imagine and try to feel the excitement of becoming lucid. You may also add some mantras like 'I know I'm dreaming" or similar along with your thoughts or visualizations.

The other tech you could try is wilding.

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I've read and attempted both techniques a long time ago. I'll read up on them and see which one I prefer.

I've been less busy with LDing this week because I've been sick. Now that I think about it it's actually a waste, because you sleep so much when you're sick! Anyways, I've looked into MILD on the beginners thread here, found several posts and have tried to integrate them.

I've tweaked my routine so that right before bed I will start with Dream Yoga to relax my body. After that I start my dream incubation. I think of a scenery I wish to dream about and start visualising myself in it. I try not to only think about how the scenery will look, but also how my other senses will be involved. Last night i tried this for the first time and it was quite challenging. After visualising the scenery I tried to visualise how my sense of touch would be affected. In this case I knew that walking on water barefooted should make my feet feel wet, but I had trouble going beyond the knowing. What I forgot to do last night was to tell myself every few seconds that this is a dream.

I didn't become lucid last night, but the technique did work a bit. For those who've been there, I imagined Sanur, Bali. I wanted to have a serene setting and thought that the small pagoda like construction at the ocean would be excellent. I didn't dream about this place, but did dream about being in a forest/jungle, standing in the middle of a shallow river. I found the scenery to be calm.

I'm actually quite excited about this. I guess what I really needed was a change of pace to get me motivated again. I've made a schedule of when I should do my MILD attempts and I was actually quite disappointed when I realised I 'have' to wait until Tuesday. Hopefully this will get me so hyped up though that it will lead to some great things.

Hope you are feeling better.

Your new approach with the dream yoga and visualization is great. I can see many benefits there, from dream incubation to potential lds. The dream you had sounds very nice. Happy you found back your motivation. The new schedule with mild is very inspiring! :)

Last night it was finally time for the MILD attempt. I somewhat unexpectedly slept together with my girlfriend, which made it way more difficult. During Dream Yoga I focus on touch, which is much harder to do systematically if someone is laying next/half over you. I did manage to get a new insight into Dream Yoga right before she also came to bed, so that was good. I wasn't sufficiently relaxed so it was very difficult for me to focus. I did manage to do the MILD exercise, but I feel like I could've done a better job at it if I slept alone.

Last night it was time for another MILD attempt. I was pretty sleepy and went to bed on time. I started out with Dream Yoga as usual, but I had some trouble focussing on it properly. I kept trying at some intervals and... fell asleep before I had incubated any dreams. Important lesson learned: Dream Yoga is not an essential part of the routine. If the body is already relaxed, carry on to the next part.

Two nights ago I had an unexpected LD though, finally! I went to bed just before midnight, woke up around 4 or 5 in the morning (coincidence) and it then took me quite a while to fall back asleep again. One of the dreams that followed was the LD. My surroundings were entirely black. The only thing that was present was a large stone bowl, similar to a fruit bowl, but filled with water. I took my contact lenses out and put them into the bowl. The first was fine, but the second contact lens was about as big as my eyeball. I immediately realised that it would be impossible for me to put a lens of this size in my eye, and I realised I was dreaming. I already told myself with full conviction that I was lucid before I even attempted to push my fingers through the palm of my other hand, which worked. Immediately after I made an effort to stay calm and not wake myself up by becoming too excited. This worked and the next thing I remember was me sitting on a stool and a girl walking by. The scenery was still entirely black for as far as I can remember. The dream turned sexual, which I didn't want. I think my negative thoughts may have triggered the false awakening that followed. I was in my bed and afraid to open my eyes, because I thought I might open my real eyes if I did so. I slowly opened one of my eyes just a little bit and confirmed that I had been tossed out of the dream and was now 'awake'.

Also, a friend of mine made a comment a few days ago saying that she was certain I would dream about her (drunk people, eh?), so I thought it would be fun to see if I'm able to summon her. I've once before attempted to summon someone and that worked, so there should be no reason why I can't summon my friend. When I told her about my idea she asked me if I could make her fly, so my intent is to fly off together. To keep some consistency I'll try to make this happen at Sanur, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Good catch with the contact lens! Congrats! :goodjob:

I don't really have much to report about the last couple of nights. Last weekend went just bad because I was feeling extra sick. Last night went horrible because someone in my dorm was hellbend on keeping me awake until atleast 3am. I'll spare you the list of all the methods I devised of making that person be silent... forever(!)

Sorry to hear about that. I don't even want to imagine what you did...:horse:

Woehoe! I went to bed around 23.15 yesterday and set my alarm for 05.20. I got up and stayed awake for 10 minutes, though I was really tired. I sat up on the edge of my bed and started visualising Sanur. I noticed my floor was quite cold so I lifted and put down my feet to mimick the idea of walking over water. I then put a bandana over my eyes to keep the light out because the sun was about to rise and went back to bed and had a lucid somewhere in the morning. The timeline of what happened is quite messed up in my mind.

In this lucid my bed was in the bathroom, which apparently was normal. The thing that was strange was that it was positioned on the other side of the bathroom (my bed doesn't even fit in my bathroom). I sit down somewhere and feel/see my teeth. It feels strange somehow. After a while I notice an extra tooth in between my lower frontteeth. It has a weird shape and there's a hole in it. I then pull a large piece of fried coleslaw (Indonesians really fry everything) out of my mouth. I'm surprised as hell and conclude that I'm dreaming. I do the fingers through palm RC and I have success. I let my hands stay like that for a second and focus on it to stabilise the dream. Throughout the dream I do this maybe 3 times in total. I also feel a loose tooth in my mouth at some point, which has happened quite often in my dreams in the past, so another reason for me to RC. It also happened that the bandana on my head shifted downwards and caused me to close my eyes. Damn! I'm always afraid to open my eyes because I fear I might wake up. I hoped for the best and opened my eyes.. still in the dream. I realise I haven't done anything interesting yet with my lucidity, so I try to think of something. My first thought was to make spiders appear out of my mouth (I played a game with spiders in it yesterday), but luckily I quickly decided that would be an absolute nightmare and decided I wanted to fly instead. I wanted to go tell Bill Clinton about this (I don't know where this thought came from, I certainly didn't consciously put it there). I walk towards the door and see that it's raining. For 1 second I give up, before deciding I can attempt to manipulate the weather. I then have a false awakening.

Some of my other dreams this night/morning were quite... dark. In one my kids (I don't have kids) and I were captured by nazi's. My wife (don't have a wife either) turned out to secretly be a nazi. We were being psychologically tortured to the point were I wanted to escape so desperately I contemplated biting through my own tongue. In another one I woke up in a limousine. Someone asked me and 1 or 2 other persons if we knew where we were, but none of us had any clue. The person asking the question told us that 5 of us got on a plane and it crashed. Rachel (no clue who that is) didn't survive the crash and we're on the way to her funeral now.

Anyways; lucidity. Whoopwhoop!
Before my next MILD I'll make sure to read up on stabilisation after becoming lucid.

Yay! Congrats on the ld! :bliss:

Lol, that fried coleslaw made me laugh. Good job bringing the dream back after the bandana challenge.

So lazy today! Maybe because I don't have something very exciting to share. Yesterday I did a Dream Yoga exercise and WBTB, but other than that I was a total mess. My mind was all over the place, so no lucids to report :doh: Lately I've also noticed that I write down my dreams less often because I sleep at my girlfriend's place more and have to leave early for classes. I'll make sure to atleast make a few quick notes from now on, so that I can write my dream down fully at a later moment.

Last night I managed to recall 5 dreams over a ~9 hour sleep period. Just now I realised that most of the dreams I normally have seem to be quite short, or maybe I just only remember a fraction of my dream. I guess that's the reason why my lucids have been very short so far.

I intend to read up a bit more on WILD today, because I also realised last time that I may have in fact more been attempting to MILD. I've discovered a precious little gem in the DV Academy about WILD and I also have LaBerge's Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming which I haven't looked at in a long time.

I think I had something else to share, but I forgot what :hrm:

edit: I remember! There is a stabilisation thread in the DV Academy which comes with some tasks. They seem very interesting and since they are designed to help stabilise dreams I will give them a go. First task: pass through a wall. Bring it on wall!

^^ Cool! I can already imagine you plunging into stabilization mischief tasks. :D

Whoops! Been a little inactive here. Lately I've been sleeping together with my girlfriend more often, making me totally forget about doing Dream Yoga, since I normally do that right before sleep. I've also become a bit less consistent in attempting WILD, though I am finally actually attempting WILD instead of accidentally another technique. The last few nights I've managed to recall quite a number of dreams (3 - 5 per night).

Last night I also became lucid, though for a very short moment only and not through WILD. In my dream I was in class and was using my tongue to play with one of my teeth. It felt kinda wobbly and after a while it fell out. I immediately recognised this as a dreamsign because this has happened quite a lot to me in the past. I told myself I was dreaming and then took 2 seconds to calm the excitement before attempting the finger through palm technique to make sure I was dreaming. The technique failed, which confused me for a moment, because I was pretty sure I was dreaming. A few seconds after I heard a sound coming from the 'real world' which disrupted my focus and caused me to lose the dream. I'm not sure if I actually woke up, but I'm pretty sure I only imagined the sound, as this has happened to me before quickly after becoming lucid.

Last night I also had a dream about using the train back home, which I did quite frequently and have done only 1 time in Indonesia. This dream used to occur more often when I was still at home, but now still pops up every once in a while. The trainstations are never the same, but the general story of the dream is always similar: I'm travelling to a location and manage to get on the wrong train.

I remember reading once that losing teeth in your dream is a sign of feeling powerless in real life and using transport is because there are changes occurring in your life.... and I'm always on the wrong train. Lets hope there is no truth in it :disconcerted:

Just woke up about an hour ago and writing this from my girlfriend's laptop (priorities!). I remember 3 (and a half) dreams. I didn't become lucid but I think (not sure) that at one point I said to myself that I should do the finger through palm technique because something was too good to be true. Immediately after that thought I figured it would be no use because the technique fails me anyway (see last post).

I'm not sure whats causing me to have my improved recall lately. Perhaps because I haven't had any alcohol in a while..? Guess I'll find out about that soon enough, because tomorrow is a national holiday for me! :bliss: Also I've been trying something different from performing RCs during the day. Instead I try to just focus on my body, especially sense of touch. The feeling of the laptopkeys a I write this, the light pain in my back from sitting a bit hunched like I'm some sort of Quasimodo, the pa... you get the idea. I have an app on my phone which rings every 30 minutes, though I don't alway activate this app. I try to become aware at different moments, which works, but having my phone vibrate or play a sound also helps to remind me. I do the same when my phone goes off because I've received a message or whatever.

Congrats on the ld!

Have you considered using an alternative RC in case the first one fails? Or maybe switching the tech altogether if you are uncertain about its effectiveness. I used to examine my hands closely, trying to spot any inconsistencies in dreams, until at some point I managed to get an almost perfect match in dreams which confused me several times. In the end I dropped this RC altogether.

Wish you awesome lucid time during the holidays! :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Congrats on the ld!

Have you considered using an alternative RC in case the first one fails? Or maybe switching the tech altogether if you are uncertain about its effectiveness. I used to examine my hands closely, trying to spot any inconsistencies in dreams, until at some point I managed to get an almost perfect match in dreams which confused me several times. In the end I dropped this RC altogether.

Wish you awesome lucid time during the holidays! :)

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Thanks!

Good point. It is something that I used to do and for some reason have abandoned. From now on I'll go for finger through palm and then breathing through my closed nose.

I realised I forgot to mention something. Even though I know only a handful of people who speak my native language (Dutch) over here, my dreams are still mostly in Dutch. Sometimes after waking up I'm not sure whether maybe there may have been some English in it. A few days ago however I had a dream that involved our housekeeper, who only speaks Indonesian. I was talking to her and did so in mediocre Indonesian (pretty much like my real Indonesian :lol:)

It is not uncommon to dream in other languages, especially if you use them irl. That may make for some cool experiments during dreams too. I remember one of our members who was learning Japanese had some goals to try to speak to DCs in Japanese and also find something written in Japanese.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

It is not uncommon to dream in other languages, especially if you use them irl. That may make for some cool experiments during dreams too. I remember one of our members who was learning Japanese had some goals to try to speak to DCs in Japanese and also find something written in Japanese.

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Do you have any suggestions? I was considering what would happen if I started noting my dreams in English for a while, maybe I'll give that a try.


Last night I went to a party and had a few beers. I went to bed around 3 am, slept solid until 8 am and after that was in and out of it a bit. I don't remember much but I do remember becoming lucid without trying. All I can remember is that it ended with me feeling like my girlfriend was doing something to wake me up (I was sleeping at her place), like making sounds or whatever. I then had a false awakening. This losing lucidity because someone or something is waking me up from the real world, which isn't really happening, happens to me A LOT. I'd say 90% of the time.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

Do you have any suggestions? I was considering what would happen if I started noting my dreams in English for a while, maybe I'll give that a try.

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You could try that, especially if the dream was in a foreign language.

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Last night I went to a party and had a few beers. I went to bed around 3 am, slept solid until 8 am and after that was in and out of it a bit. I don't remember much but I do remember becoming lucid without trying. All I can remember is that it ended with me feeling like my girlfriend was doing something to wake me up (I was sleeping at her place), like making sounds or whatever. I then had a false awakening. This losing lucidity because someone or something is waking me up from the real world, which isn't really happening, happens to me A LOT. I'd say 90% of the time.

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Congrats on the ld! :) So you often have FAs? Then it might help to get into the habit of RCing every time you wake irl. FAs are great ld opportunities. Be on the lookout to see if everything is order, people or objects that shouldn't be there.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Congrats on the ld! :) So you often have FAs? Then it might help to get into the habit of RCing every time you wake irl. FAs are great ld opportunities. Be on the lookout to see if everything is order, people or objects that shouldn't be there.

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FAs don't happen too often for me. I actually meant that it happens a lot that I lose lucidity (and wake up) because I'm under the impression that something from the real world is disrupting my focus, for example my girlfriend making noise, or little kids making noise. When I wake up I always notice that I only imagined it. Nonetheless solid advice :)

I've been quite inactive for the last week or so. Finals week and after that I moved to a new place. So basically I have nothing to report aside from the fact that I have nothing to report.

Best of luck on the finals! :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Best of luck on the finals! :)

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Thanks! :) They went well I think. I now have a load of free time on my hands, though I'm not spending nearly enough of it on LD related activities. Need to up that!
I'll probably be inactive on DV for at least a month. Schoolyear is nearly finished now and after that I'll travel around Indonesia for a while. Excited!

Nice! Have a great time traveling around and wish you some bonus lds in the meantime! :)

I'm back home in NLD now, already missing Indonesia. Had a great time, but unfortunately I haven't been very occupied with dreams (going to bed late, getting up early, making the most of the day, forgetting about RCs due to all the awesomeness and being busy all the time). Now that I'm home I should really get going again though! I haven't been keeping notes in my DJ lately and my dream recall has suffered because of it, so for the next few days I'll focus on that.

Welcome back! :)

Since I've returned I've been less productive with pretty much everything, including LDing. I need to get back in the habit of.. you know... being productive. Pluspoint: I took a nap today and I had the sensation of touch, which I rarely have in my dreams.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

I need to get back in the habit of.. you know... being productive.

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Lol, that sounds so familiar. :lol:

Still struggling with my productivity. I decided to go for SSILD again, but to be honest I feel more like I'm doing that because it's an easy way out instead of it necessarily being the best option for me. Time to push my reset button and build my habits from the ground up again. Before attempting anything at night I want to make sure my habits during the day are solid. For now that means focussing on more awareness during the day. Shouldn't be too hard since I've just had surgery and I'm nearly always in pain :lol:


Point of interest; in one of my dreams my hand was very cold and refused to become warm, no matter what. When I woke up I noticed I was lying on my hand and it was numb.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

Point of interest; in one of my dreams my hand was very cold and refused to become warm, no matter what. When I woke up I noticed I was lying on my hand and it was numb.

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Yea but did you become lucid?

Long time ago I was in a dream where I was walking along the side of a familiar road, I was dodging out around bushes and back to avoid getting hit, then I said I hope they can see me, suddenly the cars all went past slowly, with all the passenger windows down and people saying be careful there. Thought it was weird I began to notice a tree limb was caught on my left shoulder. I pulled and pulled but the tree just drug along with me bending further and further, the passers by cautioning me, then I saw an SUV diagonally at the side of the road, and thought how will I get around that. Finally I had had enough of the tree limb and just pushed it off of my shoulder with the other arm, it caught on the SUV and it sprung back like spring, it picked up the SUV and tossed it at least 30-40 feet in the air and at least 80+ feet back down the road, its doors were all flapping open as it hurtled rolling thru the air and landed in a parking lot. I noticed a DC in a vendor tent and said that can't happen its impossible, then I was thinking I'm not responsible for that, He immediately closed the tent flaps, then I quickly headed off into the woods towards the river to avoid any possible responsibility. When I reached the river It became hyper-realistic, I could see the rocky bottom with crystal clarity and hyper definition and also the river surface. Next I spotted along the woods trail a bit of landscape I knew was much further downstream and became lucid :) (it also was hyper-realistic with fine grains of texture) I saw a person I had been trying to reach in my lucid dreams, as I ran towards them the dreamscape tore in half, tho I was running full speed the half I was on was moving backwards just as fast if not faster and the other side was moving away at equal speed, seconds latter I was awake my left arm and shoulder totally pinned beneath me without any feeling at all

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

Yea but did you become lucid?

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I didn't. I mentioned it because I rarely have a sense of touch in my dreams.

Since my last post I have been focusing more on awareness during the day. I'm definitely not yet where I want to be, but am making improvements. For now I've got an alarm to remind me every 30 minutes, but of course I want to do it without alarm eventually. I'm still not as properly motivated as I should be to do everything, but it is on the rise fortunately.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

I rarely have a sense of touch in my dreams.

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How about when you rub your hands together, do you feel that it is a great stabilization technique too

I have been sleeping all day since yesterday night like 10 times now :) earlier today I became lucid twice in a dream
(after about 8 hrs of sleeping and almost 8 hrs of sleeping ago now) in the dream I noticed I was gathering up
to much stuff and became lucid I tried to rush towards a dream character and lost the dream. I woke up on the bus realized the bus was going the wrong way and so were many other buses and became lucid, I was looking at the DreamScape and noticing the beautiful blue sky and lost the dream. Number of times lucid TWO, number of times stabilized ZERO (by rubbing hands or doing anything else) total time lucid even adding them together maybe 20 Seconds :(

so give hand rubbing a try see if you can feel the friction, I should have given it a try, instead I tried jumping in the air to verify it was a dream, because the false bus awakening was ultra realistic, result I got stuck in the air.

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

How about when you rub your hands together, do you feel that it is a great stabilization technique too

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I've never used that technique. I've become lucid a few times by pushing the fingers of my left hand through the palm of my right hand and that gave an indescribable sensation. But other than that I most of the time don't have a sense of touch. Also I'm still not sure whether I really am hearing things in my dream, or whether I just know what people are saying in my dreams.

I'm not sure anymore whether the idea was my own or whether I found it somewhere but I've decided to try something for the rest of this month: MILD followed by SSILD. I already attempted it last night but ended up falling asleep during the MILD phase, also being a bit distracted. Tonight I'll sit up while doing MILD to keep me more awake. After that I'll lay down for SSILD.

Hand rubbing isn't a reality check its a stabilization method :)
you feel your dream body via the hand rubbing and stabilize
this will work even if you have just entered the void and are blind
you can still feel your hands, and wait out the blindness

I just woke up from a dream where I was checking my eyes for blind spots by holding up my hands (similar to a reality check) but since in this test I was expecting to see parts of missing fingers that is what I saw. Since I was missing pieces of fingers the blind spot check was a pass, never thought of reality check or to count how many partial fingers I had :)

As I would move my dream hand thru my dream-blind spot the fingers would disappear (partially) and then reappear
should probably post this on in the stupidest ways I missed becoming lucid thread :)

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

Hand rubbing isn't a reality check its a stabilization method :)

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You're right, my bad!

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

I just woke up from a dream where I was checking my eyes for blind spots by holding up my hands (similar to a reality check) but since in this test I was expecting to see parts of missing fingers that is what I saw.

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I've never heard of this method before. Does it work well for you?


Last night I went for MILD followed by SSILD. MILD went pretty decent, though I have to say my visualisation skills could use some improvement. When I tried SSILD I felt still somewhat distracted due to the visualisations still appearing before my eyes. Truth be told I think I've completed a very low amount of cycles without starting over.

It isn't a method it qualify's for stupidest ways to miss becoming lucid, blind spots are something from the real world not dreams :)

missing fingers is a method for me to detect dreams when I am not stable I will be missing some, or my fingers will look weird or twitch around all over.

Once in a dream I did the shake your hand thing like in the move Lucy and got my hand to double

Attachment 8643

Of course it would have been better to get Scarlett Johansson in the dream and have her shake her booty :)

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

Of course it would have been better to get Scarlett Johansson in the dream and have her shake her booty :)

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I think I've just found my new dream goal :lol:


Last night MILD & SSILD again. Because the visualisations were so distracting last time I focused mainly on a mantra during MILD and only a little bit on visualisation. Then on to SSILD. Less distracted, but still distracted. Result: no lucids. I'm also wondering right now if my post-surgery medications might be influencing me. I imagine painkillers do have some effect on dreams. I'll have to look into that

I didn't have much time to post this morning and right now it's already 8pm so I don't really remember the specifics of last night's attempt. What I do remember: no lucid.

Last night I was so tired that I didn't even attempt anything. Laid down, fell asleep.

I'm starting to notice my level of awareness falling during the day. I don't think about it as often anymore and I more and more tend to ignore my alarm.

EDIT: I watched Lucy last night. Her lucid dreams must be INSANE

Do you mean the one with Scarlett Johansson? That is a really cool movie! I think it's very inspirational for lucid dreaming too. When you feel like your awareness is slipping away, try to imagine your brain going full power like in the movie. :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Do you mean the one with Scarlett Johansson?

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Yes <3

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

That is a really cool movie!

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Honestly I expected more from it.


Last night I tweaked my attempts a little bit. I didn't do much visualising, focussing more on the mantra, which I repeated throughout my SSILD attempt. It took me forever to fall asleep though so after a while I started moving around trying to get comfortable again and also lost some focus. Still no lucids. I think I've had a dryspell for at least 2 months now.

Well, I'm sure you're going to break it any time soon!

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the one with Scarlett Johansson?

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Originally Posted by Emnition

Yes <3
...
Honestly I expected more from it.

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What did you want more of?
A) more clips of animals on the Serengeti
B) more speeches from Morgan Freeman
C) more of Scarlett :) :) :)
D) more Drug Lords

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

What did you want more of?
A) more clips of animals on the Serengeti
B) more speeches from Morgan Freeman
C) more of Scarlett :) :) :)
D) more Drug Lords

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A man can never have enough Scarlett

Last night I did something I should've done a while ago: I re-read the instructions for SSILD. All this time I figured there was no need to because I still remembered how to perform SSILD. Turns out I forgot one essential part: do it after several hours of sleep, not immediately when you go to bed. stupid stupid stupid stupid. So that's what I did last night, but I really had trouble motivating myself to get out of bed for a few minutes. Again tonight!

2 nights I didn't get enough sleep in to even make a serious attempt and 2 nights I did set an alarm, woke up... and was too lazy to drag my ass out of bed for 5 minutes. *sigh*

^^ I call that "the pull of the pillow" - the irresistible desire to just sleep and ld some other time. :sleepmeditate2:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

^^ I call that "the pull of the pillow" - the irresistible desire to just sleep and ld some other time. :sleepmeditate2:

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Haha I like the name! Well I made *some* progress. I managed to get up at 5am, stayed up for 5-10 minutes and then performed SSILD... and failed to fall asleep. Though suddenly I do recall that SSILD is known to cause FAs and I didn't do an rc. I really think I didn't sleep anymore though, seeing as I'm a bit tired.

Because of yesterday I was afraid of not being able to fall asleep again... no worries there, cause I went to bed so quickly again that I fell asleep too quickly! Need a bit more finetuning to find that sweet spot. I did have a dream I liked though :) I remember some things in a bit more detail than usual.

Crap! Woke up at 5 again, went to the toilet and read a passive-aggresive text I received. Went back to bed, performed SSILD, though I was somewhat distracted and then... stayed awake for 2 hours. I finally did fall asleep, but perhaps this was too long after having performed SSILD.

Agh! Can you describe how your awake time went by? Try not to be as stressed out about not being able to fall asleep because worring will only make things worse. One tech I find helps me is to either "pretend" to wild or do some relaxation exercises. Basically, I just stay still and focus on the feeling of being relaxed and how nice that feels without thinking about anything else. I don't really try to wild, but sometimes it may happen accidentally as a result. You can also try to come up with your own version of relaxation or focus points.

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Originally Posted by Emnition

I went to bed so quickly again that I fell asleep too quickly!

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While intention setting you can visualize or whatever while in an uncomfortable position like legs all crossed weird or some such
(this will prevent falling asleep during this practice part)

then when you begin your mnemonic part like "the next place i'll be will be a dream... then next place..."
then uncross your legs to a relaxed position hopefully all that visualizing previous dreams and imagining reality checking, imagining doing chosen task, etc will have tired you out so you get back to sleep fast (from your WBTB)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Agh! Can you describe how your awake time went by?

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I probably fretted a bit too much about not being able to sleep and my attempt going to waste. Other than that: lots of rolling around trying to find a comfortable position.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Try not to be as stressed out about not being able to fall asleep because worring will only make things worse. One tech I find helps me is to either "pretend" to wild or do some relaxation exercises. Basically, I just stay still and focus on the feeling of being relaxed and how nice that feels without thinking about anything else. I don't really try to wild, but sometimes it may happen accidentally as a result. You can also try to come up with your own version of relaxation or focus points.

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Great idea, I'll keep it in mind for next time :)

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

While intention setting you can visualize or whatever while in an uncomfortable position like legs all crossed weird or some such
(this will prevent falling asleep during this practice part)

then when you begin your mnemonic part like "the next place i'll be will be a dream... then next place..."
then uncross your legs to a relaxed position hopefully all that visualizing previous dreams and imagining reality checking, imagining doing chosen task, etc will have tired you out so you get back to sleep fast (from your WBTB)

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Last night I (sort of) followed your advice. After waking up and going to the toilet I sat straight up in my bed with the lights off and started visualising and using a mantra. I also performed a few cycles of SSILD and then made myself comfortable and continued the SSILD cycles.

Happy to say I did finally become lucid again, though for an insanely short time. Basically what happened was that I woke up in bed, looking at the wallpaper. I noticed that it was the wallpaper from my little brother's room, which gave me the very strong feeling that I was dreaming. I told myself to remain calm and attempted to push my fingers through my palm, but failed. Nevertheless I was still quite sure I was dreaming, but at that point I either woke up or had an FA.

Having some concerns about continuing my use of SSILD. Last night I woke up and was unable to fall asleep for 2 hours yet again, leaving me a bit tired during the day.

Sorry to hear this. :( You might be surprised to find out, but a lot of people actually find SSILD to be a helpful technique to deal with insomnia. One of the reasons is that when you do it, you clear your mind from thoughts and only notice input from your senses - this is close to meditation techniques. Try to find out what prevents you from falling asleep and if necessary modify the technique. I would experiment with pure body points concentration to see if that makes a difference. For example, focus on a certain point of your body and keep relaxing.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Sorry to hear this. :( You might be surprised to find out, but a lot of people actually find SSILD to be a helpful technique to deal with insomnia. One of the reasons is that when you do it, you clear your mind from thoughts and only notice input from your senses - this is close to meditation techniques. Try to find out what prevents you from falling asleep and if necessary modify the technique. I would experiment with pure body points concentration to see if that makes a difference. For example, focus on a certain point of your body and keep relaxing.

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Nyx's advice here is great!

I in fact used to have this same wakefulness problem with SSILD, just like what you experienced.

Something that CosmicIron suggests (and I heartily agree with) is to do the steps of SSILD quite lazily. Don't get too hung up on doing them with any kind of precision. Just sort of do them, and if you lose track or do them in the wrong order, who cares?

Getting to sleep is far more important than doing the steps of SSILD in any specific way.

Empty your mind of all thoughts and enjoy the stillness of the night. Don't worry about whether you're going to fall asleep. Just enjoy the moment and let whatever happens, happen. :content:

Once your mind is empty of thoughts, your body will just handle the rest.

I'll definitely give your suggestions a go. Up until this point I've been focused on doing it as the tutorial said, i.e. first sight, then hearing and finally touch, because it made such a big deal out of not altering anything about the tech.

Nothing much spectacular going on in my dreamworld, but I did start reading a very interesting book on habits yesterday. At the rate I'm going I might finish it within the next few days. Pretty positive about the possibility of it offering interesting insights which can be applied to lucidity.

Moved into a student house in a different city yesterday evening! Figure this is the best time to change some of my habits and improve those lucids.

First of all, I've committed myself to always writing down my dreams. It helps that I have a high bed (I can't even sit up straight cause I'll bump my head on the ceiling) so that there is not much to distract me before I do so, as it takes more than a moments thought to get out. Lately I've also been attempting to focus more on my hearing, to see if it will cause my hearing to 'improve' in my dreams. It's extremely difficult to keep this up all the time, especially when I'm occupied (for example sitting in class, which requires me to focus on something else). Unfortunately the walls in my new place are pretty thin and I feel too guilty for the person in the room next to me to put my alarm for 4am, so I might have to work around that. Perhaps SSILD is still a good option if you wake up naturally instead of being woken up by an alarm? I have decided to at least put an alarm for early in the morning when I'm sleeping at my mom's place ( because screw my little brother, right? :lol: ).

Nice! What's the name of the book?

Yes, you can absolutely do SSILD after a natural wbtb. I remember reading one member's journal, he got really crazy results with it. He would wake up naturally and immediately start doing the cycles. Obviously he got very good at it as he would start wilding almost straight away. I think his strong intention to have an ld played a role too.

The name is The Power of Habit, written by Charles Duhigg. Especially the first few chapters are interesting. It's about 120 pages and I finished it in 2 days.

Excellent! I'll definitely be giving natural wbtb's a go then! :D

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Yes, you can absolutely do SSILD after a natural wbtb. I remember reading one member's journal, he got really crazy results with it. He would wake up naturally and immediately start doing the cycles. Obviously he got very good at it as he would start wilding almost straight away. I think his strong intention to have an ld played a role too.

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Do you happen to remember his name?

Yes, his name is Sangfoot, but he hasn't been active recently. This is the entry that impressed me so much I remember it up to this day.

7-5-13 Dream Journal - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Ah, the Power of Habit! I bought a digital version of it a while ago. I recall it was very good, but never finished it - it's what happens when I don't have the thing on paper. (Bad habits!) Perhaps it's time to give it another go. Thanks! :)

Last night something quite interesting happened. Despite living in Indonesia for 1 year and really giving the language my best (at times :lol: ), I mostly dreamt in Dutch. Yesterday evening I took a small first step towards learning a very funny language called Toki Pona. That same night I dreamt in Dutch, a little bit of Indonesian and a sentence of Toki Pona. It really cheered me up when I woke up.

So far since moving into my studenthouse I've woken up every single night somewhere in the night, except for the one time we went for drinks. I should really note down at what times I wake up. The first few times I stayed in bed, cause I have a sort of bunkbed on steroids and it takes a while to get down. Because the bed is too close to the ceiling I can't sit up in my bed. Effect: I fell asleep way too soon again. Last night I went down to go to the toilet, but I feel like it took me too long to fall asleep again. Guess tonight I'll just go halfway down the ladder and climb up again :lol:

Well that was unpleasant. Yesterday I spent the majority of my day working on an assignment that I just handed in 3 minutes before the deadline. I set my alarm around 6:30 so I could continue working on it. In my dream I was at my mom's house, sitting in my bedroom at 11:00, totally freaking out because I woke up way too late to finish the assignment. I saw the time on my laptop several times and it changed way too quickly to be real. I realised this and frantically tried to jam my fingers through my palm, but it failed. In my panicking state I tried again and again (This can't be real. COME ON!). I thought about taking a moment to calm down but I was too panicked to do so.

Sorry for the missed opportunity but good thing is you managed to submit your assignment on time. I remember having a printer malfunction + deadline nightmare that was almost as hectic as yours. On top of that, my actual printer is so reliable that you can never know whether it's a dream or not. :whyme:

For atleast the last week and probably a bit longer I've consistently woking up in the early morning and gone back asleep again. Potential for WBTB! The problem I'm facing right now is my motivation to actually do something. I can't sit up straight in my bed, so basically I need to get out, which means climbing down the ladder. This is a bigger mental hurdle than with a regular bed for me. I guess there's only 1 solution: just do it!

Another issue is that I set myself to focusing on the different sounds I hear all day. Basically my way of performing all day awareness. I totally lose focus during classes and while reading though, which in turn affects the rest of my day. I figure I should take a short break during reading every once in a while.

On another note: I got back my grade and it is absolutely ridiculous: 9 (or A+ depending on your system). Not entirely sure how I pulled that off :uhm:

You can still try to be mindful while reading and also rc on the text itself. And in class, focus on the speech of people and whether the characters fit the event.

Congrats on the paper grade! :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

You can still try to be mindful while reading and also rc on the text itself. And in class, focus on the speech of people and whether the characters fit the event.

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I'm trying to stay mindful, but the need to focus on the meaning of the text / what the lecturer is saying often leaves me with little mindfulness left. I feel like I've been slacking way too much lately.. again. I need to make some serious changes if I wanna get this going regularly. Somehow I did become lucid last night, but don't remember anything beyond 15ish seconds. It seems all my lucids are quite random and also very very short

Still, congrats on the ld! :) Every ld you get is a positive sign. Hope you manage to get more organized with the mindfulness practices. If you want any additional tips or thoughts on that, let me know.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Still, congrats on the ld! :) Every ld you get is a positive sign. Hope you manage to get more organized with the mindfulness practices. If you want any additional tips or thoughts on that, let me know.

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Tips are always very welcome and much appreciated! :thanks:

Okay :). Here are a few thoughts:

- try breaking down each interaction into three parts: beginning, middle, end. This will allow you to pick moments when you can pay more attention. Make it a habit to be more mindful at the start and end of each event or conversation. At this point you can also do some critical thinking or RCs.
- when speaking with people or listening, pay close attention to their body language. Do their movements make sense or are you the one influencing them (in case this is a dream). Are their eyes normal? DCs somethimes have this weird crazy look that sets them apart from real people. Are the sentenses coherent and meaningful? DCs may begin to speak gibberish when you focus on their speech. What language are they speaking?
- random RCs - you can do these any time, anywhere - try random dream control during the day, including when amongst people. You can do so only using your mind - think of controlling people's movements, try levitating them or nearby objects, try summoning objects, etc.

There's literally a ton of stuff you can do during the day, the important thing is to feel excited about your ld routine and why you're doing this and everything will fall into place. :)

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Okay :). Here are a few thoughts:

- try breaking down each interaction into three parts: beginning, middle, end. This will allow you to pick moments when you can pay more attention. Make it a habit to be more mindful at the start and end of each event or conversation. At this point you can also do some critical thinking or RCs.
- when speaking with people or listening, pay close attention to their body language. Do their movements make sense or are you the one influencing them (in case this is a dream). Are their eyes normal? DCs somethimes have this weird crazy look that sets them apart from real people. Are the sentenses coherent and meaningful? DCs may begin to speak gibberish when you focus on their speech. What language are they speaking?
- random RCs - you can do these any time, anywhere - try random dream control during the day, including when amongst people. You can do so only using your mind - think of controlling people's movements, try levitating them or nearby objects, try summoning objects, etc.

There's literally a ton of stuff you can do during the day, the important thing is to feel excited about your ld routine and why you're doing this and everything will fall into place. :)

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Though it takes some getting used to, I especially like the first one.
For the random RCs: that would mean not necessarily always doing the same RC, but do random things?

Random RCs - you can do these at random times and you can also do random types of RCs. I think this is much more exciting actually. Imagine trying to reverse everything that is. For example, if you don't hear anything, try to see if you can make music come from somewhere (very dream like). If you see one person, try to summon a clone. If it is cloudy try to make it sunny and so on. :) Look around and play with all your senses and perceptions.

If I was a moviedirector I would be Michael Bay. On my bike on the way to campus I made quite a number of attempts to make cars explode :lol:
It's still difficult to maintain awareness, especially with all the uni stuff going on. On the positive side, I registered for the dreambuddy programme, so I now have a sort of accountability buddy. Perfect for a slacker like me!

EDIT: Because we're supposed to share our dreams, I'm now using my physical DJ to note things down and after I get up I write everything down here.

Haha, I love your new reality check! :)

Great you've joined the buddy program! I think this will be very inspiring for you and your new buddy! :)

I feel like my recall might be improving already due to the new way I write down my dreams. Might have something to do with the fact that I'm able to type quicker than I can write and am thus less likely to lose my patience and make a mess of it. Or because I'm now writing for an audience. :lol:

My dreambuddy (werty52) and I have come up with a challenge: whoever becomes lucid first using DEILD, starting last night. I think both of us are still struggling with the same issue though: how to wake up in the middle of the night consistently. I prefer to use an alarm that will turn itself off after a few seconds, but haven't found one yet. Last night I did wake up in the middle of the night spontaneously, but I had issues laying still because I just was not comfortable, though I did fall asleep again within what felt like a few minutes.

That's a really great idea! Good luck you two! :)

I didn't do anything dream related at all over the weekend. My girlfriend finally arrived from the other side of the world, so you can imagine that dreams weren't my top priority :P I just used an alarm that turns itself off after 5 seconds for the first time last night. I still moved to turn it off, because 5 seconds seemed like an eternity. I also rolled over a few times, but did fall asleep again really quick cause I was really really tired. I set the alarm to go off after 6 hours. I'm not so sure what it is exactly that I'm supposed to do after the alarm has just gone off, I'll have to look into that.

Still trying to figure out the right moment for my alarm. Last night I had a stroke of very moderate genius: I went to sleep with my hat on, which I pulled over my eyes. I figured this way even if I did open my eyes, I wouldn't see a thing and this would somehow help me to lay still. It worked mostly. I heard the alarm (which I set to go off after 6 hours), may or may not have opened my eyes and realised I was supposed to lay still. I think I still moved around a bit, but definitely less than before. I fell asleep really quick again. It didn't result in a lucid though. It feels weird to take this approach, because it's kinda the opposite of SSILD (make sure you stay awake long enough vs. go immediately back to sleep).

That's an original idea, I like it. I would imagine this may even cause some FAs so be on the lookout! :D

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

That's an original idea, I like it. I would imagine this may even cause some FAs so be on the lookout! :D

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I think it was 2 nights ago that I had 2 FAs. I didn't use the hat that night though. Feels kinda weird sleeping with my hat over my face while my girlfriend is sleeping next to me.

I had the idea of combining my DEILD attempt with SSILD, but that didn't work out too well. Cause I'm still so groggy and fall back asleep again quite quick I don't even have the time to finish one cycle. Back to the drawingboard :uhm:

I would try to select a focus point on your body and keep your attention there to see if that works as a DEILD/WILD anchor. I've tried it a few times while focusing on the forehead.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

I would try to select a focus point on your body and keep your attention there to see if that works as a DEILD/WILD anchor. I've tried it a few times while focusing on the forehead.

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I'll try that instead of going through the entire cycle. Thanks for the tip :)
So far my effort is still lacking cause this is quite an exceptional moment. My girlfriend is still here and the majority of the week she spends sleeping at my place. There was the Amsterdam Dance Event though, a major event from Wednesday till Sunday, meaning I barely got any sleep for 2 nights. Also I mess up with the alarm too often, last night again. This alarm needs to remain the active app for this to function and I forgot about that. I'll overcome this by changing the name of the alarm to something like "don't close".

Wicked LD count btw NyxCC :chuckle:

Forgot to post for a moment! My girlfriend returned home earlier this week, so everything is a bit more normal again. I have a whiteboard in my room which I've used to sort everything out for myself yesterday and the day before. To avoid getting discouraged from wanting to do too much (I have way too many hobbies) I've decided to search for a balance between everything.

My dream related things: Monday, Thursday and Saturday are my 'dream days/nights'. If all goes well I will expand these to other days, but this is my starting point.
I focus on ADA during the day. Writing down my dreams here instead of in a physical journal has made it easier for me to form connections by using the tagging system. I've noticed a couple of patterns and will perform a RC if one of the following things happens:
1) There is something Indonesia related
2) I'm with 1 or more of the 3 classmates I occasionally dream about; 1 or more of my best friends; 1 or more of my housemates
3) I'm using public transport or at a train station, bus stop, etc
4) I'm freerunning
5) Something strange happens

My RCs are:
1) Pushing my finger through my palm
2) Breathing with my nose closed
3) Reading a text multiple times
4) MAKE STUFF EXPLODE :evil: (especially convenient when on the bicycle)
5) Randomised stuff like NyxCC suggested

In the evening it's time for Dream Yoga (after such a long period of not doing it, it's probably wise to start over) and DEILD after I go to bed.

I started ADA and DY again yesterday. ADA was difficult as hell to keep up. I had moments where I was aware, but most of the day I was a zombie. Perhaps 30 minutes before going to bed and reading a book I did DY, focusing on sound, which went well because I started from the beginning again.

During the night I woke up a few times and tried to DEILD. I kept my eyes closed, but I kept moving about like a toddler which ate a whole bag of candy. Eventually I did get a MILD induced LD which is wrote down in my DV DJ. I recognised that I was supposed to RC if something parkour related happened. The RCs failed and the lucid was kinda meagre, but progress at least.

An ld is an ld, so congrats! :)

I'm still focusing on ADA 3 days a week, which is still quite difficult to keep up. I noticed that aside from when I'm reading or in a lecture, it's also extremely difficult for me to keep up while exercising. I manage to stay aware while warming up (jogging for 10 minutes) by focusing on the sound of my steps. But after that I go on to heavy exercises such as the leg press and totally lose awareness. I also noticed that I'm not nearly aware enough of the moments during which I should RC. I don't remember the last time I did remember to RC after seeing a housemate :roll:

Dream Yoga is going well though. I've decided to do it every single day. Depending on the exercise I will do it during the day in combination with ADA or I'll do it right before bed. I've also decided to DEILD every night, though so far without success. The last two nights that I used my alarm I already woke up a few minutes before it and couldn't immediately fall back asleep. I did manage to get a DILD last night. It lasted perhaps 30 seconds so it wasn't very satisfying, but I am happy with the fact that my first instinct after becoming lucid was to attempt to stabilise the dream by looking at my hands :)

I just realised something. It used to be that most of the time that it felt like that I didn't really hear someone talk in my dream. Instead I would see them talking and knew what they said. I feel like sounds have become more prominent due to focusing on sound with Dream Yoga. In at least 3 of my dreams in the last week I've heard sounds which I couldn't have seen (someone talking/music being played in another room).

Congrats on the ld!

About ADA and exercising, perhaps you need to focus on another sense - how about the feel of your muscles - you can certainly pay attention to that. :) I think working out is a good time for such practices - you're loaded with all the right neurotransmitters during and after exercises and it helps your mind be more focused and yet you are relaxd at the same time. I.e. your mind isn't flooded with a ton of thoughts as it may be during another time of the day. This leaves more place for awareness training.

I am definitely very attentive on for example my muscles and having the right posture while working out, but so far I fail most of the time to connect this to awareness for dreaming. I am just aware of things, instead of being aware because I'm focusing on being aware.

This weekend has been crap dreamwise. On the night of Friday - Saturday I didn't sleep until late because I was too curious about the situation in Paris and checked the news and FB more than I should have. Saturday - Sunday I didn't sleep until late because my little brother made just a bit too much noise until late. I slept after 2 am and woke up around 5 am to go to the toilet. I am very positive that I had a dream in which I was aware and maybe even lucid, but I can't recall it at all :bang:

Forgot to post here for a while. I report back to my dreambuddy werty52 every day, so often I forget my workbook. I'm still focusing on ADA and DY and lately I feel like some of my dreams (definitely not all) have changed. Sounds are more prominent in some dreams and some dreams are visually more vivid, which adds a level of detail. I've also noticed that not all my dreams are in Dutch anymore. I dream about Indonesia related stuff quite regularly and sometimes when it's appropriate I talk in Indonesian in my dream.

Last night I woke up around 5 and tried to SSILD. I think it was after that attempt that I had this dream (c/p from my DJ):

I'm standing in the kitchen in my student home, behind the stove, cooking something. There's something unusual. I think it has to do with the pan that I'm using. I feel like I was really close to becoming lucid, or maybe I even was lucid. Suddenly I feel horrible. It feels as if I'm really drunk. My stomach hurts and there's some swinging back and forth of the dreamscene involved. It's destabilising.

I'm not sure if I woke up or if I had a FA.


Lately I've drifted from DY and ADA a bit. I need to make sure I focus on it more consistently again.

^^ That sounds like a lucid, maybe with a bit of clouded awareness. Had couple of these myself - feeling very sleepy and tired in the dream - it was quite strange.

Hey, check out this link from one of our students who came up with an interesting technique. I have the desire to do this more frequently. Tried it couple of days ago, really made me pause during the day. Got to keep it up, I like that the technique is very easy to do and relates to all other practices.

http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...-dreaming.html

I keep forgetting to post here. Someone once told me I've got the memory of a goldfish. Anyways, since the last time I posted here I've had 2 more lucids and 1 accidental WILD that broke off a bit too soon. The last week or so however my recall has dropped immensely. I think this is due to disturbing my regular sleeping patterns. Not sure if I should leave my sleeping pattern undisturbed or whether my dream pattern will adapt to my new sleeping pattern.

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

^^ That sounds like a lucid, maybe with a bit of clouded awareness. Had couple of these myself - feeling very sleepy and tired in the dream - it was quite strange.

Hey, check out this link from one of our students who came up with an interesting technique. I have the desire to do this more frequently. Tried it couple of days ago, really made me pause during the day. Got to keep it up, I like that the technique is very easy to do and relates to all other practices.

http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...-dreaming.html

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Thanks for the tip! I think it's an interesting tech, but I don't really understand what the difference is with ADA.

Nice! Congrats on the lds! :)

About the tech - I'd say it's looking at things from a slightly different angle. Personally, I like trying out something a bit different for motivation. But yeah, there is some overlap. In the end, isn't it all about paying attention and remembering?

Ow man, been quite a while since I've posted here. I've still been active mostly. My dreambuddy werty52 and I still message back and forth pretty much daily. Unfortunately I don't feel like I've made any progress lately. I keep going back and forth between the same level, most likely because I lack some consistency in what I'm doing.

I've created a routine that I mostly stick to, though there are some exceptions. I wake up (~ 7am) and go to bed (11 pm) around the same time on Monday - Friday (exception being a late bedtime on Thursday). I meditate for 10 minutes around 22.45 (Thursday being the exception again) and I try to do ADA during the day at specific points, but I don't always remember to do so. During the weekend it may differ because then I'm often at my mom's place and when I'm there every good intention that I have just crumbles.

I want to have a look at the DV Academy, see if that can kick some more consistent effort into me.

Good to see you back! I have to admit that during my morning RCs on the way to work, I keep thinking of how you did yours (badass). If there is a will there's always a way. As long as you have some key moments that you hold on to in your routine, you are working towards lucidity. :)

Haha nice to hear that I've managed to inspire someone :chuckle: I'm currently not really doing any RC'ing. I'm focusing on mindfulness (though I suppose those are 2 very related things) by focusing on my breathing. For now I try to focus while taking a shower, riding the bicycle, the bus and of course while meditating. Once I feel like I've got that somewhat down I'll expand to more moments throughout the day, such as while cooking.