Thread: Odonata's Workbook.

Welcome Odonata! It's great to have you here. I'm excited for the start of your journey and that you've already had good success on your very first night!

Dream recall is the foundation of your practices, and already you've taken a tremendous stride forward. One of the unexpected pleasures that I found in lucid dreaming was just how much the wild, unorthodox, and entertaining non-lucid dreams sustained me between lucid dreams.

Also, fantastic observation in realizing that the "annoying" DC was trying to get you to focus attention onto your hands! You've nailed it! It's exciting to think how close you were on this one.

Unusually strong, exaggerated emotional reactions are also another hallmark of dreams and a great dreamsign in and of themselves.

Congratulations once again on an excellent first night! I'm really looking forward to watching your progress!

Lesson 2

So having read through the text for lesson two it seems that I'm using MILD more that DILD, as stated in my response to Lesson 1 in the post above. This is because both nights I've incorporated a mantra before going to sleep. Having noted the listed "con" of MILD in the lesson notes, I think I need to this with a bit more purpose and conviction for a better chance of results. Tonight I will also try incubating a dream scenario to focus on.

I was pleased to have dream recall again last night, again confirming the importance of recording dreams as I awake from them in a journal. However, last night my dreams were a lot less easy to cling on to as I wrote them down, and I retained less details that last night. I had two alcoholic drinks last night, but only one the previous night, and this potentially a factor? Tonight I will abstain from alcohol and note any differences.

Again, I did not achieve lucidity. Here are my notes from Night 2:

In bed at 11:45pm

02:20am: I was dreaming of going to bed in a bunk bed, which was in a lovely floating wooden cabin on a lake. A heavy rainstorm hit, and this worried me at first, but then I relax and enjoy it. As I relax I drift out of the dream and I awaken IRL.

03:11am: I was on a fairground ride (note: I can't remember what type and I didn't record this at the time). I get off the ride and re-queue for it. I then try desperately to look at my hands to do my RC, however I suspect I was already out of the dream at this stage and was doing it retrospectively.

04:41am: I was returning from a hospital to a car park. An ex-colleague of mine is pointing out signs that instruct to take off your shoes! There is a canal in the car park, and I attempt to walk around the ridge of one of the barges. This has the effect of causing the barge to drift away. There are two elderly couples on the barge, one of the ladies is fine with what happened, another is quite annoyed.

08:00am: A female friend of mine are (somehow) using dreams to get at a girl she doesn't like. (Note: IRL she is the least vindictive person you could meet!). The character of Freddy Krueger was there, but he did some kind of deal that meant he wouldn't get this girl, but in the end he gave her the head of a toad! Freddy seemed to find it interesting that this girl now had "a hot body" (as he said in the dream) but with the head of a toad!

At 08:30 I was fully awake.

I need to make plans in advance that sleeping in until 08:30am is a rarity for me, from tomorrow that will change and I'll most likely be getting woken up between 6am and 7am. I will need to adjust my bedtime accordingly. Looking at the notes from the last two nights I'm dreaming 6.5 to 8.25 hours after getting into bed. On that basis I need to get to bed at around 10pm usually.

So I'll continue to focus on the MILD, doing my RCs during the day and getting a proper focus and "will" before I sleep to get the intent to be lucid dialled in. I've also looked at the Awareness techniques and will build them into my routine too.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Welcome Odonata! It's great to have you here. I'm excited for the start of your journey and that you've already had good success on your very first night!

Dream recall is the foundation of your practices, and already you've taken a tremendous stride forward. One of the unexpected pleasures that I found in lucid dreaming was just how much the wild, unorthodox, and entertaining non-lucid dreams sustained me between lucid dreams.

Also, fantastic observation in realizing that the "annoying" DC was trying to get you to focus attention onto your hands! You've nailed it! It's exciting to think how close you were on this one.

Unusually strong, exaggerated emotional reactions are also another hallmark of dreams and a great dreamsign in and of themselves.

Congratulations once again on an excellent first night! I'm really looking forward to watching your progress!

Thanks so much for dropping in and commenting. That's really encouraged me that I'm on the right track! Cheers

Night 3

Last night I completely abstained from alcohol, however I did eat quite late and had quite a heavy pasta dish. Before sleep I read through my previous dream journal notes. On turning off the light I spent a while repeating my mantra to look at my hands in a dream to know that I'm dreaming. After that I visualised flying.

The visualisation was a bit annoying as my logical brain kept getting in the way; it was constantly trying to add reality to it! Eventually I was trying to visualise hover-boards or hang-glider type contraptions instead of just soaring about! I think in future I'll either nail down how I want to fly well in advance, pick something else, or even just create a landscape I want to go to, and let the dream take it from there.

So to sleep...

Last night felt a bit disappointing after previous nights. I only recorded two dreams, the first with very little details, but I have a strong feeling there were others In the middle but I somehow rationalised against waking up, putting on the lamp and writing them down.

I was in bed at 23:50 (I'm annoyed I couldn't resist messing about until late!)

02:15: I was riding a motorcycle but kept losing the footpegs, and was constantly fishing about with my feet to locate them as I rode. Note: As this was early on in the sleep cycle, I wonder if this was a result of my conscious mind meddling with my flying visualisation?

07:32: I was coming out of a cinema at a film festival. I get separated from my wife in the crowd of people. A tall man, who I don't know, calls me over to chat - he seems to know me. Whilst we talk, I'm more interested in extracting myself from the conversation to get back to my wife, or I'm also distracted trying to work out this guy's name. He produces a computer screen and starts to send an email, from which I can now see that his name is "Chris Price!" (I don't know anyone by this name).

I then dozed until 08:00, at which time I was fully awake.


I'd be interested in any opinions from the teachers about my process. I'm doing MILD, but as I'm waking up to write down my dreams as I come out of them, would it be worth practicing any WBTB techniques as well? Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by Odonata

I'd be interested in any opinions from the teachers about my process. I'm doing MILD, but as I'm waking up to write down my dreams as I come out of them, would it be worth practicing any WBTB techniques as well? Thanks in advance.

I think you're doing great, Odonata! You still had a good night of recall, so don't feel in any way discouraged by this night's results! I still have nights with no recall whatsoever sometimes, and it's just one of those things that happens. Remember two good dreams is just fine!

Yeah, when you're doing MILD, are you performing it during your WBTB? That's the time when MILD is most effective.

When you wake up to write down your dreams, I'd definitely recommend strongly setting your intention to have a lucid dream and returning to your MILD practices. Post-WBTB is when I have the vast majority of my lucid dreams!

Beyond that, if you feel adventurous, you can also play with extending the amount of time that you're up during WBTB. Maybe you could add five minutes at a time and see how you feel getting back to sleep. This can be tricky, since getting back to sleep is very important. (Since we need sleep not only to function but to LD! )

LaBerge found that being up for as long as an hour (!) yielded really strong chances of having a lucid dream. I'm not saying that there's any need to jump to something that long (it's not practical for me!) but it's just something to be aware of. In practice, most of my WBTBs range from 3-15 minutes. But I do get even better results from going longer!

Anyway, just keep experimenting and find out what works best for you! By carefully taking notes, you're already doing the right thing. This will enable you to look back and see what's working best for you as you go. Good luck!

Thanks again for your reply, I find the feedback really helpful.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

I think you're doing great, Odonata! Yeah, when you're doing MILD, are you performing it during your WBTB? That's the time when MILD is most effective.

I hadn't been, but after your suggestion I started to implement it last night. It felt like a really positive thing to do to break up the dreams and to restate my intent. Thanks

Night 4

This was a strange night! I unavoidably went to bed late and knew I wouldn't have the luxury of a waking naturally in the morning.

I felt like I had many dreams but lacked the awareness or discipline to awake and write them down. I only recorded one dream immediately after it occurred, and one that I remembered in the morning.

To bed: 00:20

Unrecorded time: This was very strange. I think I had a non-lucid dream about lucid dreaming! I think I'll call it a "False Lucid"! Either that or I made the first push through to lucid but didn't fully get there. There were futuristic "baddies", like from a computer game, and they were positioned all over a steep hilly landscape. I looked at my hands and the fingers stretched and exploded like fireworks. I looked up and said "I can do what I want now" and with some kind of psychic ability I shot explosive sparkling bombs and the enemies, blowing up the land they were standing on. This lasted a few seconds, the whole time there was whirring noises like a power-up had been activated in a game. I immediately woke up, thought "was that lucid?" as it only felt slightly different from a normal dream , and I must have gone straight back to sleep.

05:45: This dream was hazy and all over the place. I was eating a wrap that contained a filling that literally looked like sh*t. I got it all over the carpet in our living room, and my daughter then rode a tricycle through it. At some point I was watching UFC with my best friend, but we were outside doing things at the same time! There was a crazy fighter doing vertical push-ups after he had fought!

After recording this dream I reaffirmed my RCs and mantra etc, and I know that I dozed off again and dreamed, but I could not recall it. I awoke fully at 07:30.


I do wonder if I'd been able to go to bed at an earlier time if I'd have made a push into lucidity? Clearly my sleep cycle was a bit out last night.

Originally Posted by Odonata

Unrecorded time: This was very strange. I think I had a non-lucid dream about lucid dreaming! I think I'll call it a "False Lucid"! Either that or I made the first push through to lucid but didn't fully get there. There were futuristic "baddies", like from a computer game, and they were positioned all over a steep hilly landscape. I looked at my hands and the fingers stretched and exploded like fireworks. I looked up and said "I can do what I want now" and with some kind of psychic ability I shot explosive sparkling bombs and the enemies, blowing up the land they were standing on. This lasted a few seconds, the whole time there was whirring noises like a power-up had been activated in a game. I immediately woke up, thought "was that lucid?" as it only felt slightly different from a normal dream , and I must have gone straight back to sleep.

Ah yes, these!! I've had a good number of these myself. Yeah, aren't they crazy? I think that I actually called them "false lucids" at one point as well, so good call there!

In any case, these dreams about lucid dreaming can drive you a bit crazy when you think about how close you are. But they are such a great sign in my experience. It means that lucid dreaming is on the brain to such an extent that it's appearing in your dreams.

The concept of lucid dreaming is something you now regularly and casually access while you're dreaming. I think you know what's likely not far behind.

In my experience, this is a great sign that my mind is moving into a great place to have a lucid. Keep this up! You're doing great!