Rallan's Workbook

[Rallan]

Hello friends! Thank you so very much for taking the time to help new lucid dream practitioners like myself! It's wonderful that there are people who give their time and energy freely to help others learn to make the most of their dreaming life. I am incredibly grateful for your generosity! Motivation: Although I hope to find enjoyment and adventure, my main motivation is to use lucid dreaming to help me become a more happy, aware, awake and kind human being. Specifically my aim is for dreaming practice to enrich my waking Buddhist practices, such as mindfulness, kindness, generosity, meditation and cultivating wisdom, as well as helping me grow psychologically. Reality Checks: - Hand test. I look at my open hand, quickly flip it, then look carefully to see if anything has changed or if there is any weirdness. - Nose pinch test. - Thumb through palm test I learned the hand flipping test from the book 'Dreams of Awakening'. I have seen some sources say to just look at your hands carefully and see if anything is strange, but flipping seems more effective in theory as seeing your hands changing shape is more explicit than them just looking wrong, which may not convince you in a dream (correct me if I'm wrong!). I am also doing the nose pinch test afterwards or sometimes on its own. I like that you can do it in bed in the dark and it is more discrete in social situations! Finally I have started also trying to put my thumb through my palm since it's very quick to do. My current game plan with reality checks is to introduce them in a balanced way into my daily life. I want to make sure that they are not forced and that I am actually enjoying the process; if there's anything I've learned about anything it's that you don't keep things up if you're not enjoying them! As a result, I'm finding that not rushing into reality checks is helpful. I don't try straight away to convince myself I could be dreaming (as there is usually some internal resistance around this idea!) Instead I first establish mindfulness of my body and begin to become more aware of my surroundings, until the question 'am I dreaming?' feels more natural and sincere. Since discovering the forum a few days ago I have also started saying a mantra after each reality check, 'next time I'm dreaming, I joyfully realize I'm dreaming!' I added the word 'joyfully' to help me get more excited and enthusiastic about the possibility of becoming lucid At the moment I am stuck in the house most of the day due to having a minor operation, and I don't seem to see much that could be considered strange very often. I have mostly been doing reality checks just whenever the idea pops into my mind and it hasn't been 10 seconds since the last one! That said, I have sometimes managed to convince myself that some fairly normal things are potentially dream signs e.g. 'oh look! A bird in a tree! That wasn't there before!' Since reading a little bit on this forum, I have begun to appreciate even more the importance of detailed awareness with reality checks. It makes a lot of sense! And I am also very happy as it gives me more motivation and opportunities to practice mindfulness every day! Thank you! P.S. Since I started writing this post a few days ago (I like to take my time!) I have read the SAT and ADA tutorials and have since been making awareness a much bigger part of my reality checks and my day time experience in general. Dream Signs: The following are the most common signs I have noticed over the last 4 weeks of dream journalling: Locations - Being in the village I grew up in. Very common! - Being in the remote countryside. This can be on a country trail, in a field, around mountains, or quite commonly being in a building or urban site that feels far from civilization and is surrounded by countryside. - Bedrooms. I often find myself in bedrooms, usually rooms shared with other people. They nearly always look quite different to my actual room, but I often think they are mine in the dream. - Hotels/hostels/large living spaces. So many of my dreams I seem to find myself in some big building complex where either all the people live there or are staying there as if it's a hotel. People - Old school friends, with two in particular appearing frequently. It's amazing that I rarely think about these guys in day to day life yet they feature so much in my dreams! - My ex girlfriend. - An anonymous female companion. This is an interesting one. I often seem to have a female companion with me who is like my 'dream partner', keeping me company and joining me on adventures, sometimes offering advice or guiding where I go. Sort of like Doctor Who! It's almost like she's another aspect of myself. I've never seen her face, but sometimes (maybe as a result of trying to see her) she takes the appearance of my ex girlfriend (but still retains the behaviour of the female companion). Emotions - Worry, concern, stress. When it occurs this tends to be much stronger than my average waking experience of worry. - Excitement and joy. - The feeling of things coming to an end. This can be just a sense that whatever is happening now is about to end, like the end of the day, or a more emotional feeling akin to what you might feel at the end of a long holiday. - Confusion and forgetfulness. Either feeling that thing don't make sense or feeling fuzzy and drowsy like I'm on sleeping pills but don't know it. This has become much more common recently, which is hopefully a good sign that I'm starting to become more aware in my dreams! - Fear. It's rare that I have the kind of terror you might experience in nightmares, but mild fear seems to pop up regularly. Themes - Trying to get home or trying to get to my bedroom. This is more common towards the end of a dream it seems, but I have had whole dreams where I'm trying to get back to my bed! - Video games. This is either me playing a game, or me inside a video game like in a virtual reality. Most often, at some point things in the dream transition into 'video game mode', where reality follows similar rules to games, often a specific one I used to play, and often I see myself in 3rd person here. Then at some point I might 'zoom out' and it's like I was actually playing the game instead of being inside it. I don't play video games any more, yet this seems to happen a lot! - Extreme sports, both participating and watching. - Watching a film or story from the inside. This is similar to the gaming one. I'll be witnessing a story unfolding that has nothing to do with me, then either I at some point enter the scene and become part of it or it turns out that apparently I was watching the whole thing on tv. - In a transport vehicle like a car, van or train. I don't do this very often in waking life these days (I tend to walk or take buses!) Short-Term Goals: - To establish a sustainable, progressive and enjoyable daily dream practice that synergizes with my Buddhist practice. - To become sufficiently aware of my sleep cycles and establish a regular sleeping routine that incorporates WBTB. - To find a basic induction technique that feels suited to me from which to establish a foundation. - To be able to confidently stabilize lucid dreams after the 'aha!' moment. - To become more aware of my dreams signs and start noticing them during the day. - To cultivate my prospective memory skills. Long-Term Goals: - To be able to use lucid dreaming to 'commune with my subconscious', as a means of psychological integration and growth. - To be able to do Buddhist practices in dreams, such as meditation or visualisation. - To have lucid dreams on a reasonably regular basis. - To be able to perform WILDs with reasonable consistency. - To one day encourage and help others to take up lucid dreaming! Lucid/Dream Recall History: My recall has been surprisingly good relative to how it was, ever since I just started going to sleep with the intention to remember my dreams and write them down. I very quickly found myself waking in the night with sometimes quite detailed dreams on my mind. A future problem I foresee is keeping up the motivation to write all my dreams down. At the moment my motivation is high, but when I start my new job and have to stick to a wake up schedule the prospect of spending over 30 minutes of my night and morning writing may not seem as appealing! I had my first lucid dream (that I can remember at least) about 6 years ago, a few days after reading about the idea and spending those days doing reality checks. At that time I lost motivation to continue, but since taking up the practice about 4 weeks ago after reading Dreams of Awakening, I have had 5 lucid dreams, albeit very short ones! The first one was actually incredibly significant, as upon becoming lucid I was immediately held at gun point by a man who burst into the room. I realised that he was a shadow aspect of myself and so I started hugging him, telling him I loved him! After hugging it out he turned into light and we merged together. The day after (whilst awake) I realised how I had not been accepting a certain undesirable aspect of my self and on top of that, that it felt much easier to actually accept it with kindness right then. So that was a win! My other lucid dreams so far have been quite similar, in that they seem to occur right at the end of a dream and so I seem to already be waking up when I become lucid. In one, the room contained a powerful storm, which soon lifted me off my feet as the room fell apart. In another, I was lifted off of my feet by an intense energy and whooshing sensation. In the last one, I could feel my mind being drawn away, and I felt like I could hardly control my balance as I was trying to interact with things as if gravity wasn't working properly. I have heard this is common, as the mind becomes more critically aware as it transitions into waking which makes lucidity more likely at the end of a dream. I think as well I need to improve my stabilisation skills, as in one dream I tried the spinning technique (which I had decided to do if I became lucid) which caused me to lose awareness but have an incredibly vivid false awakening afterwards. Current Technique: Before finding this forum I had experimented with a few techniques over the past 3 weeks from 'Dreams of Awakening' and 'Are You Dreaming?' by Daniel Love. For about a week my technique has been fairly consistent and roughly consists of falling asleep mindfully, mostly by grounding myself in physical sensation, whilst making an affirmation or setting my intention to realise I'm dreaming when I'm dreaming. Since discovering the forum I have begun using the mantra whilst falling asleep. I have also been doing a WBTB every night, mostly from naturally waking up but sometimes from an alarm. Wake up Times: The first week I started dream journalling I was on a solitary retreat without a clock so I had no idea what times I was waking up in the night. Shortly afterwards I had an operation under general anaesthetic, which takes a while to leave the system (it's still working it's way through now it seems!). As well as this I am physically healing which seems to be using up energy and I'm sitting around most the day which likely is having an effect on my energy levels too. As a result, my sleeping patterns have been fairly erratic! That said, I have been recording times I wake up in the night as well as using a sleep cycle app 'sleep as android' to see if it could offer any further useful information. My sleep cycles seem to roughly be 90 minutes give or take 10 minutes at the start of the night. In the morning hours (between 5 and 9), I've found that the time between falling back to sleep and waking from a recalled dream is usually about 50 minutes. Does that mean my cycles are shorter in the morning? Gosh, this has been quite an epic first post! Sorry! Congratulations and thank you if you made it to the end!

[NyxCC]

Hey Rallan, welcome to DV and to intro class! I have to admit this is probably the longest workbook post I've ever seen, yet I can see from it that you have done your homework thoroughly! Great to hear you are already practicing awareness exercises and also have had some promising results with the induction techniques you've been employing. Your lucid dreams sound really interesting and it is great to have you share your perspective on approaching different issues such as agressive DCs or considering other aspects of ourselves during dreams. The non lucid dreams with your dream partner are also very intriguing. I wonder if this person will start appearing in your lds too. In the morning hours (between 5 and 9), I've found that the time between falling back to sleep and waking from a recalled dream is usually about 50 minutes. Does that mean my cycles are shorter in the morning? That's quite an interesting observation, how often does it occur? It could be that in the mornings you are indeed well rested and sleep cycles are shorter. Looking forward to reading your updates. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

[Rallan]

I have to admit this is probably the longest workbook post I've ever seen Haha oops! I certainly found it helpful reviewing what I've done so far and getting stuff down in words. Thanks for being cool about it! In the morning hours (between 5 and 9), I've found that the time between falling back to sleep and waking from a recalled dream is usually about 50 minutes. Does that mean my cycles are shorter in the morning? That's quite an interesting observation, how often does it occur? This happens pretty much every time if I've woken up and gone back to sleep after half 6 ish. My natural wake up time is around 7, which could have something to do with the shorter cycles.

[Rallan]

I went to bed at about 10 last night However an hour later I'm still not asleep. This is very unusual for me as I'm normally a great sleeper! I was in a quite pleasant meditative state for a while, following my breath and bodily sensations, but then afterwards I kept waking up every time I was close to sleeping. I would be lying there trying to relax, would notice myself starting to enter sleep, then without meaning to my mind would be like 'oh look I'm falling asleep!' which would wake me up, sometimes with a rush of energy through the body. Eventually got to sleep at about quarter to 12 I think. Alarm woke me up at 4.No dream recall. Sleep app said I was in deep sleep for almost the whole time (if it can be trusted!). Stayed awake for 30 minutes, then tried to get back to sleep but soon realised I was having the same problem as before. I did my best not to let it get to me as I knew this would just make it worse. So I just drifted in and out of sleepyness for about an hour and a half, before giving up and reading for close to an hour. Do you know any existing threads about sleep problems like this? After finally falling asleep at around 7, I dreamt I'd gone to a car to see if I could sleep there better. After waking from that dream at around 7:50 I visualised myself lying in the car as I fell back to sleep with the intention of knowing it was a dream. I then had a lucid dream, which was also the most vivid dream I can ever remember having! I didn't know I was dreaming at first, but after a man climbed through the window to come and attack me, I suddenly just knew I was dreaming. I didn't even need to reality check! I felt the bodily energy building as usual when I realise I'm dreaming, but managed to keep calm. I then shouted 'stabalize lucidity!' and to my utter surprise, it actually worked! It was like I'd been injected with a HD drug. I was flabbergasted! I'd heard people say lucid dreams can be very realistic, but I really wasn't expecting it to be THAT real! Soon the dream started fading and I shouted 'lucidity boost!' which had the same amazing effect. The dream felt only about a minute or two in length (my longest ld yet!) and it ended with gravity going funny and me floating away as my vision faded. I'm now quite monged out from sleepiness having had only about 5 hours Will be expecting a REM rebound later.

[NyxCC]

Congrats on the vivid ld! About your sleep problems, you say that this doesn't occur often, perhaps you were just too excited about lucid dreaming and that kept you on the verge of sleep? If you want you can start a new thread about this. There are usually threads where people ask for insomnia tips, you can find some of these in the Sleep and Health Subforum. Hope this is just an exception though. Wish you a good night's sleep!

[Rallan]

Last night I got to sleep fine, but after waking and writing a few well recalled dreams at 3:30 I had the same issue. Was less bothered by it this time, but again found myself in the dozing state without actually sleeping for about an hour and a half. I think lack of fresh air and exercise (due to operation recovery) as well as the anaesthetic finally leaving the system might have something to do with it. At one point I actually started dreaming for about 20 seconds maybe, then I felt a wave of intense energy and I woke up! It's like my mind just doesn't want to fully rest at the moment. Interesting! The silver lining is I then had a chain of 4 lucid dreams! The first I thought at the time was an OBE, as it was preluded by intense bodily sensation, which then transitioned into me floating in my room without a body. Although I had no body, when I tried to look at my hand, my hand did appear (with 3 stubs for fingers!). I'm guessing though that It might have been a WILD? I had just read about OBEs before sleeping, so it seems the thought that I may be having one when the intenseness started probably caused my dreaming mind to create the scenario from the expectation. It ended with me being sucked back into my body (with more intense energy sensation) and me waking immediately. I then had another 3 lucid dreams, two of which started in my bed with me realising I was dreaming a few seconds in. The last one was much longer than I have experienced yet! I was constantly needing to do stuff to stop the dream breaking or becoming too blurry (again, it seems my mind really wanted to be awake). Lots of shouting for lucidity, talking out loud, playing with everything solid and spinning. I forgot to rub my hands and/or arms though. At least once I lost vision completely but brought myself back by feeling around until I touched something solid, which then formed into the next scene gradually. So yeah, lots of practice! And an incredible experience! Think I will not try WBTB tonight. Me need sleep please

[Rallan]

I just read about SSILD, and it seems this is roughly what I might have unknowingly and involuntarily did this morning when I had the 'OBE dream'.

[NyxCC]

Congrats on the lds! Seems like this insomnia turned into a long wbtb session which facilitated having lds due to the wakefulness. I was thinking of suggesting doing SSILD cycles to help fall asleep. These can help both with insomnia as well as to get an ld as it is a form of relaxation plus focus practice. So, you are saying you did something similar? WILDs can be very diverse - sometimes you float up your body or find yourself in your room, at other times it can be a transition to another location. One never knows.

[Rallan]

Great suggestion! I woke up naturally at half 3, then did SSILD. I occasionally had an 'energy wake up' but would just carry on with the cycle. I found the visual cycle especially sleep inducing. Had a ld, woke up, wrote it down, did SSILD and had another ld! Both were pretty vivid but not very long. They both ended shortly after I saw some distant scenery that got me excited. 'Wow! My mind created that?! Where does this stuff come from?! I have to go there!!....'......awake SSILD as a technique appeals to me massively, due to it being quite meditative. I feel if I can meditate myself to sleep then even if I don't have a lucid dream it would still be beneficial. As well as that, I think pretty much all my lucid dreams so far have been after I have fallen asleep fairly mindfully, which I'm guessing causes more awareness to naturally be carried into the dream. Would you recommend I stick with SSILD for now? I've not yet had 2 weeks of using just the 'basic dreamviews technique' (falling asleep whilst setting intention/reciting mantra). But to be honest, my way of doing that so far has not been too dissimilar to SSILD; I would set my intention then follow my breath, taking an occasional moment to recite my mantra. Last night I was still setting my intention and reciting mantra, but then didn't interrupt the SSILD cycles once I'd started them.

[NyxCC]

I feel if I can meditate myself to sleep then even if I don't have a lucid dream it would still be beneficial. As well as that, I think pretty much all my lucid dreams so far have been after I have fallen asleep fairly mindfully, which I'm guessing causes more awareness to naturally be carried into the dream. Would you recommend I stick with SSILD for now? I've not yet had 2 weeks of using just the 'basic dreamviews technique' (falling asleep whilst setting intention/reciting mantra). But to be honest, my way of doing that so far has not been too dissimilar to SSILD; I would set my intention then follow my breath, taking an occasional moment to recite my mantra. Last night I was still setting my intention and reciting mantra, but then didn't interrupt the SSILD cycles once I'd started them. Good point! At any rate they (yogis) say it is best if one enters the sleep state from a meditative state with a clear mind and so on. So, since you are on that path as well, you are doing some form of dream yoga. And yes, being more aware before falling asleep, especially with a wbtb enhances ld chances. Don't hesitate to go for SSILD, it's a great technique and as you said, it fits you and your lifestyle. As far as the mantra and setting intention is concerned, you can practice a mantra reciting before SSILD or at your normal bedtime. Setting intention - I think this is a part of all techniques, so you always do it in a way. You can also make your own technique or mix of techs. Experiment to see what works best and once you have found your fav tech, stick to it.

[Rallan]

Thank you! I find your advice very encouraging and helpful! Last night Did WBTB. Very vague recall. Only thing I wrote was 'Yoda + mashed potato'. Did SSILD back to sleep. Took maybe 20 minutes to fall asleep. Then had a lucid dream! Was quite a successful one. I managed to follow my dream plan to what seems like was a positive conclusion. In case you're interested, the dream is here. Still feel a bit shaky with stabalization. This time, following the advice of someone here, the first thing I did once lucid was to try and look at the details of my hand, but I found myself blacking out anyway. I stayed in it somehow though, can't remember exactly how. After that I just tried to really pay attention to the details of the dream, which seemed to work. I did forget to shout for lucidity, announce out loud what I'm doing, interact more physically with the environment and rub my hands. Must set my intention to do some of these next time. I don't seem to have any problem remaining aware I am dreaming so far with my lucid dreams, but I just find I lose vividness and start blacking out every so often, which then does seem to reduce my mental clarity and awareness. From what I've gathered, this is because I'm not engaging in the dream enough? That said, on reflection I do also sometimes seem to get 'caught up in the dream', which seems to lead to blacking out. I sense it may be sometimes because I suddenly realise I'm getting a bit caught up in the dream and then overcompensate by thinking too much about what to do about it! After waking and making notes on that dream I tried SSILD again. This time I had little focus, and felt myself being quickly pulled to sleep. At least this is what I realised in the morning. I believed for ages it seems that I wasn't sleeping and kept waking up and doing SSILD. But on waking I now believe that was all a dream! Must remember next time, If my SSILD feels a bit fuzzy I should do a nose pinch test every so often. In the last few nights, my lucid dreams do seem to follow those longer periods of falling asleep, where I spent more time cultivating awareness.

[Rallan]

Did WBTB then took ages to fall asleep doing SSILD. It seemed to be going well, then I got the intense ringing sound in my ears which startled/excited me suddenly awake. if I had kept my cool, it may have led to a WILD! I wasn't fully awake however, and then was lingering in a kind of semi-anxious not falling asleep SSILD mode. I think if anything like this happens again, it's best for me to just stop SSILD, as the excitement from the thought of potentially WILDing seemed to contaminate my attempts for the rest of the morning with that toxic desire to fall asleep, causing insomnia. In fact in general I think If SSILD becomes a chore I should probably just stop, as I don't want to disturb my sleep, and the times it has worked it was a pleasant way to fall asleep. I'm also going to try setting my WBTB alarm for 6 hours instead of 5, as more often than not the alarm seems to feel quite startling and I usually don't feel like I was just dreaming. Hopefully I will find I naturally wake up somewhere between 5 and 6 hours, as I don't usually wake up in the 4-5 hour area naturally. I do however seem to find myself often awake after about 3 hours sleep, usually with barely any dream recall. Usually I assume I haven't slept long enough yet to do WBTB, but would this be something worth trying if I'm often waking naturally then? Ideally I would like to be able to establish a WBTB habit that does not need an alarm, so that I'm waking at the best time for restful sleep.

[NyxCC]

Congrats on the hand munching ld! I see you managed to pull off a longish ld and successfully dealt with some challenges. Great job! Dream darkness/loss of vision occurs quite often for lders, so don't worry about it. There are few key points to remember, it may be temporary and a fading dream doesn't necessarily have to end. You can certainly bring it back by relying on your other senses. Whatever fluctuations you may experience, just keep going and you will find the dream comes back. You did great there, so keep it up! I do however seem to find myself often awake after about 3 hours sleep, usually with barely any dream recall. Usually I assume I haven't slept long enough yet to do WBTB, but would this be something worth trying if I'm often waking naturally then? Ideally I would like to be able to establish a WBTB habit that does not need an alarm, so that I'm waking at the best time for restful sleep. If you go to bed at approximately the same time, your body should wake at about the same time every day. At least in theory. I know I wake up after3 hours of sleep and then approximately every one and a half hours, which is a bit funny because the one and a half hour is average for people. This will vary of course and if I need more sleep, I might sleep straight through the entire night. Anyways, to the point. Try going to bed at consitent times and note if you wake up at an appropriate for your wbtb time. That way you may avoid using the alarm clock. The other thing you can try is to drink a bit of water before bed, it works like a natural alarm clock after couple of hours. Finally, if you're up to a challenge, you can try willing yourself to wake up at a desired time.

[Rallan]

Last two nights I woke naturally at a decent time to do WBTB. After writing down the dream I just had, I did SSILD. Both times it then took a while to get to sleep afterwards. It's like I get stuck on replay and can't stop my mind wanting to keep coming back to sensation, which keeps waking me up when I get closer to sleeping. I would sometimes even fall asleep but then soon after just wake up for no apparent reason. However this morning after waking from a dream, I did just the hearing and touch cycles of SSILD and then had a fairly short but nourishing lucid dream. I seem to find the sight part of SSILD a bit too stimulating. It even sometimes causes my eyes to ache as I find it difficult to be aware of sight without being semi focussed on something, so my eyes often move around and don't want to relax. I realized this a few days ago but wanted to keep trying to see if I could learn to relax the eyes more. But I think for now it's best to give that a rest and either try again at a later date to give it time to feel 'new', or realize that sound and touch are enough to make the technique work. It makes sense to me that it could work just as well without sight, as any kind of focussed awareness on any sense naturally heightens awareness of the other senses, or at least that's what happens in waking mediation! I am undecided whether to try this simpler SSILD tonight or have a break from induction techniques. At the moment I sort of feel like I've forgotten how to fall asleep properly, so maybe I should give priority to getting that back!

[NyxCC]

Congrats on the ld! I think the point of the 'sight' part of the cycle is simply to notice, i.e. be aware of the sight in front of the eyes, rather than strongly actually focusing them to see. If possible, try to do what you normally do with your eyes when falling asleep, but attach some awareness to it. Apart from that, I think it's ok to use a modified version of the exercise. Looking forward to reading about you doing 2 sense cycling and the results. By the way, I often use a single sense when falling asleep or wilding - touch, ie. focus solely on my body. That is enough of an anchor for me and I also find it quite pleasant.

[Rallan]

By the way, I often use a single sense when falling asleep or wilding - touch, ie. focus solely on my body. That is enough of an anchor for me and I also find it quite pleasant. Do you find that doing so gives a similar heightened awareness in the dream comparable with doing SSILD? I'm wondering whether SSILD is effective simply because doing the cycles encourages you to keep coming back to awareness, as opposed to the focussing on different senses having a unique effect different from simply engaging with any meditative falling asleep practice. But then again I gather that no one yet can say exactly why SSILD works!

[NyxCC]

Good question. As far as I remember, the SSILD technique was first published by the name "A very mysterious technique" in Chinese by CosmicIron, so as the name implies we don't quite know why it works. I think it provides a good mix of relaxation and focus, and switching from one sense to another may boost one's attentions - it prevents us from uncounsciously drifting away, so to speak. But then again, if you do a wbtb and keep your focus on your body, this too could serve as an anchor. So, there is some similarity and overlap, but not quite.

[Rallan]

The last two nights I did WBTB and did body + breath awareness while falling asleep. Whenever I noticed I was lost in thought I would bring myself by wondering if I'm dreaming yet, which I would answer by checking my body position and the feeling of gravity. I'm having a break from SSILD at the moment because it was feeling way too forced and hence lost it's enjoyment. I may come back to it, but I'm not going to force myself as that leads to headaches, insomnia and probably bad dreams! I've had lucid dreams both times! The night before last was crazy confusing. I'm quite certain that I did a WILD. I say quite, because some of my dreams throughout the morning I was trying to fall asleep meditating just as I was doing awake, which also seemed to feature quite intense body sensation, so It's unclear sometimes when I was dreaming! To the best of my memory, I entered the dream consciously after some intense energy feelings and loud ringing, was in blackness wondering where the dream was, assumed it hadn't worked, then walked out of the airport bathroom and rode off in my leather wheelchair I'll know next time to be more vigilant! So that one didn't quite work, but later in the morning the same thing happened but this time I did a noseplug straight away! This morning I had two lucid dreams, both which started as usual with me just suddenly realising I'm dreaming. The second was similar to a few other borderline non-lucid dreams I've had where I know I'm in a dream, but I don't have access to much of my memory and so make some or many false assumptions about the nature of the dream. This morning I believed the dream characters that I recognised were real people sharing my dream. In others, I've believed that the last dream I was just having was reality, so that I'm in a dream within a dream where I've forgotten the first dream was a dream! In those ones I would probably say I'm not lucid at all, more like I'm dreaming I'm lucid. I behave how I would knowing that it was a dream (treating things as if they're not real, knowing I'm going to wake up at some point, sometimes even trying my dream plan), but have little to no self awareness. Any tips on how to catch things like this? I'm guessing the 'lucid dream dreams' are harder to prevent due to having no self awareness, and I'm not sure I'd want to stop them as they've so far been very enjoyable and nourishing! But I'd certainly like to not get caught by thinking dream characters are somehow the real people in my dream! I'm going to have a break from dream views for at least a few days so I can focus just on my practice, as I feel I have plenty knowledge now and would benefit from seeing where I go with it. I'm cautious of spending too much time reading about lucid dreaming and getting into that 'knowledge hoarding' frame of mind where you rely too much on information and technique and not enough on your own practice and experience. Thank you again for all your excellent advice! See you later!

[NyxCC]

The last two nights I did WBTB and did body + breath awareness while falling asleep. Whenever I noticed I was lost in thought I would bring myself by wondering if I'm dreaming yet, which I would answer by checking my body position and the feeling of gravity. I'm having a break from SSILD at the moment because it was feeling way too forced and hence lost it's enjoyment. I may come back to it, but I'm not going to force myself as that leads to headaches, insomnia and probably bad dreams! It's great to hear that the modified tech is equally effective and possibly less disturbing for you. Congrats on the lds! This morning I had two lucid dreams, both which started as usual with me just suddenly realising I'm dreaming. The second was similar to a few other borderline non-lucid dreams I've had where I know I'm in a dream, but I don't have access to much of my memory and so make some or many false assumptions about the nature of the dream. This morning I believed the dream characters that I recognised were real people sharing my dream. In others, I've believed that the last dream I was just having was reality, so that I'm in a dream within a dream where I've forgotten the first dream was a dream! In those ones I would probably say I'm not lucid at all, more like I'm dreaming I'm lucid. I behave how I would knowing that it was a dream (treating things as if they're not real, knowing I'm going to wake up at some point, sometimes even trying my dream plan), but have little to no self awareness. Any tips on how to catch things like this? I'm guessing the 'lucid dream dreams' are harder to prevent due to having no self awareness, and I'm not sure I'd want to stop them as they've so far been very enjoyable and nourishing! But I'd certainly like to not get caught by thinking dream characters are somehow the real people in my dream! I see. Some people say these are not really lucid dreams, others call them semi-lucid or low level lucid. I personally like to examine my awareness under the microscope and if I find some, usually conclude that, yes, there was some awareness present so it can be considered a low level ld. One of the things to do on such occasions is to learn to detach oneself as much as possible from the dreaming scenario. Assert to yourself or say to other DCs that this is a dream. This can help bring you closer to your daytime awareness and you may even recall some goals you wanted to do. Goals in general are another great way to detach from the dream scenario. Have a great lucid time!

[Rallan]

All has been going well over the last week. Have had several more lucid dreams, and my technique of meditation combined with affirmation seems to be going well! I certainly notice the difference in the dream when I fall asleep with a more alert awareness. However I need to give attention to balancing my energy more as a few times I have been trying 'too hard', which can lead to insomnia. I also need to learn to expect and not react to hypnagogic imagery. I'm becoming more aware of it and noticing longer more vivid fragments, which sometimes startles me and wakes me up. In a few weeks I will need to be waking up before 7am every day and I will need to compromise something so I can get enough sleep. Most likely I will just do one wake up in the night and possibly sacrifice remembering some dreams in full detail. So far I have naturally been waking up a few times in the night to write down dreams and practice falling asleep mindfully. I'm yet to become comfortable in stabalizing lucid dreams. Regularly my vision starts blacking out, and so most of my lucid dreams are spent trying to stop that happening! I had one where I asked out loud for help, and a women led me to a wise man who told me 'to not do the things that cause it'. At the time I thought it was lame advice, but thinking about it I guess he's right haha. My theory is that I'm actually trying too hard to stabalize the dream, which results in a bit of a frantic state with little calm and focus. I'm thinking it's probably that lack of calm and 'omg I must stabalize now' attitude which is contributing massively to the issue! Does that make sense to you?

[NyxCC]

That's nice! Congrats on the lds! I'm yet to become comfortable in stabalizing lucid dreams. Regularly my vision starts blacking out, and so most of my lucid dreams are spent trying to stop that happening! I had one where I asked out loud for help, and a women led me to a wise man who told me 'to not do the things that cause it'. At the time I thought it was lame advice, but thinking about it I guess he's right haha. My theory is that I'm actually trying too hard to stabalize the dream, which results in a bit of a frantic state with little calm and focus. I'm thinking it's probably that lack of calm and 'omg I must stabalize now' attitude which is contributing massively to the issue! Does that make sense to you? That DC has given you a good piece of advice. I remember in the beginning, especially after joining here, I also read a lot about stabilzation and spent some time trying to stabilize the dream. It seems to be some sort of default mode, "Oh, I become lucid, I need to stabilize" type of mentality. But the truth is, just because you became lucid, it doesn't necessarily mean that the dream is unstable (especially all the time) and that you actually always have to try to fix this. I've learned that some dreams can be more stable than others, and that some are just bound to end no matter what, so I just go ahead to do whatever I was planning to do in the dream. Acting in the dream is also a way a stabilizing it, so as long as you are giving the dream your attention and acting in it, you are on the right path.

[Rallan]

Ah very good! I will certainly give this a try, that is, to simply follow my dream plan. I've also just realised that recently by just having my dream plan to 'stabilize' I've lost some of the passion and excitement to lucid dream, since that's a pretty boring reason to become lucid! Think I might try meditate next time!