Thread: Smudgefish's Workbook

I was actually reading in my dreams last night. The concentration it took made me quite aware and I knew I was dreaming. It happen twice. I couldn't see any other dream landscape but the words were clearly there and I was reading them. There were a lot of words. One was on a big notice a full page and the other was a smaller note. This is all hard to explain but what I do know is that each night brings a different experience that you cannot predict.

Originally Posted by DannyCool

I was actually reading in my dreams last night. The concentration it took made me quite aware and I knew I was dreaming.

That has happened to me as well. Strange how reading is so good at triggering lucidity.

I was thinking more about how I could increase my lucidity if I wake with a further FA, particularly if I decide that I'm going to be paralysed again! Maybe I can try to change something around me - paint the walls pink or make something move, or turn it into daytime. Maybe if I imagine a cold breeze or snow falling that would give me some sensory input and draw me further into the dream and make me forget my real body (I presume I'm sensing my real body in SP therefore not being able to move).

Any other ideas would be welcome.

I don't know man generally when I have sp I just relax come back into my body and wake up. I think OBE has to happen naturally not to force it like Dolphin said focus on the dreaming not the dream.

From my dream journal:

Then I walked backwards I think I felt like I was flying so I immediately thought that I must be dreaming. I looked at my hands but they looked normal, I checked again, still normal, I thought what the hell I know I'm dreaming!! I flew into an open room and pushed a window open to go outside then thought why didn't I just fly through it? I was slightly worried remembering that sometimes people can't fly when they first get lucid and wondered if I might fall to the ground but felt confident. I felt like I was flying in a vertical position so went horizontal. I flew out of the window and out into a dark night. I could hear an old friend calling me in some woodland a way off so flew that way. I could feel cold air blowing past my face it was so realistic! I started to wonder how long it would last for and could feel myself breathign so I rubbed my hands together, then tried to spin. It was working but by now I was thinking that I was bound to wake up. I spun around again then I was stood by a BBQ in a garden. The lucidity was very poor and I knew I was starting to wake up and gave into it, in fact I was so amazed by this point that I wanted to wake up to write about it.

Well, I had what I would call my first REAL lucid, in that I actually did something in the dream. Definitely related to a good WILD before I went to sleep where I experienced some good floating and moving sensations.
Not very high lucidity, I don't remember seeing much in any detail, and I forgot all about what I wanted to do once I got lucid and sort of did flying as a default activity. Also I sort of got a bit confused: I did some stabilisation but was really expecting to wake up so was concentrating more on the grounding that actually what was happening to me, and thinking about waking up, so I did. Having said that it was AWESOME and I want to do it again.
I think that I might have been able to continue in the lucid if I had tried hard enough, but I had sort of decided it was weird enough that it was time to wake up and not push it - it was actually quite a battle to wake up, I was defintely in SP and felt myself coming out VERY slowly - I'm sort of getting used to that now.

Next time I will remember to: touch things, try to change something in the environment, and shout 'more lucidity'!!

Way to go Smudge! Congrats!

My personal life has taken a turn for the worse in the last few days - straight after my first ever decent lucid dream and just in time for the Competition so I'm not earning many points for my team.
Sleep is very poor, my recall had dropped dramatically. I can't concentrate on trying to WILD (too many things going on in my head), and I'm completely forgetting to reality check.

Damn. And it was going so well.

Sorry to hear this. Did things improve? One of the lucid living practices I do is to always try to find relaxation in the smallest items and details - you can find these anytime and anywhere. It works really well - I encourage you to look for and find those details in the world that you really like. Once you do - they will be there to help you out.

Thanks NyxCC - things are better at the moment. That's life.

Thanks for the advice. Life IS great, it's easy to forget that sometimes, and there is a lot of beauty in the world, and fantastic people out there. At times we have to go inside ourselves to really understand life and I was in that place last week. I appreciate all of life, even the lows - they teach us so much, and make the highs even better.

I'm sticking around every day for a couple of months until i get the hang of it. Let's keep at this. It is not just about becoming lucid but getting lots of other skills as a by product like patience. I am going to get into using emotions as reality checks. See what Gab has to say about this in reponse to Habba or Josh McNaught http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...ml#post2192443 . It is great to work with you on this. I know that this is really valuable for us.

I have had about 6 weeks off trying to lucid dream.

I have had 2 lucid experiences in the last few days so maybe it's a hint that I should start trying again!

1) Afternoon sleep. A sort of false awakening. I was half woken by my daughter and fell straight back into sleep, I thought I was half asleep and tried moving my arm around but was convinced I was moving my real arm because I could feel myself touch my face. I could hear a voice issuing instructions following a fire at the local hospital and was listening to see what it would say next. I started spinning and thought this is good for maintaining lucidity but it was too much and woke me up.

2) Last night I was dreaming that I was lying on a bed but lucid and tried to move my arms and legs around. I felt a tremendous buzzing and was vibrating all over - it was quite frightening really, and I thought good I'm going to go lucid any minute or OBE. I tried to sit up but couldn't. I tried touching my hands together to see what it felt like, they were numb to start with but then some sensations started and it felt like normal rubbing hands together. I though that I needed to open my eyes and couldn't, then I tried imagining myself sitting on the roof, which didn't really work either. Then I woke up.

2 questions:

1) How do I open my eyes when I'm lucid like that?
2) How can I imagine a dream better so that I can move into it?

Thanks.

I'm in the same boat, work has been keeping me pinned for time to even get a healthy amount of sleep let alone record dreams and spend time meditating. Looking forward to getting back into it again! I wish I could answer your questions, I'm sure if you post them in the forums you will find the answers though.

Hey Smudge, congrats on the lds!

To answer your questions - you usually don't need to open your eyes during a lucid dream, technically you don't have any eyes so just try to see through your eyelids and recognize what's around you.

Regarding the second question and perhaps also relating to your second experience - maybe it was just a matter of the dream forming more fully, rather than an actual vision problem. So, if this is the case, I would suggest to just wait out for the picture to fully form and in the meantime try to focus on anything you see - any lines and curves that you see and how they form objects. The more you keep your focus on these, the more the rest of the picture should show up.

I love your determination and spirit!!

After a long break I'm back!!

Four days of journalling and RCing and last night I almost got lucid!

Recall getting good again. Last night I had a very vivid dream about flying. I was thinking about what I could feel and how realistic it was, and the detail I could see in the countryside I was flying over was stunning! I was disappointed that I couldn't fly faster. Basically I was just a tiny step away from lucidity, it just didn't quite click that I was actually dreaming although I had an awareness that it wasn't reality.

Having difficulty remembering to RC, particularly when I'm at work, so setting an hourly reminder using an app on my phone.

Originally Posted by Smudgefish

After a long break I'm back!!

Four days of journalling and RCing and last night I almost got lucid!

Recall getting good again. Last night I had a very vivid dream about flying. I was thinking about what I could feel and how realistic it was, and the detail I could see in the countryside I was flying over was stunning! I was disappointed that I couldn't fly faster. Basically I was just a tiny step away from lucidity, it just didn't quite click that I was actually dreaming although I had an awareness that it wasn't reality.

Having difficulty remembering to RC, particularly when I'm at work, so setting an hourly reminder using an app on my phone.

Great that you are doing so many RCs keep them up. I am getting vivid dreams too. Dreamviews is great. That flying dream sounds amazing. Keep journaling. Super. Danny.

Your name was on a letter in my dream last night. That was a dream sign if anything was.

Originally Posted by DannyCool

Your name was on a letter in my dream last night. That was a dream sign if anything was.

Did I help you get lucid?

Is it just me or does this happen to anyone else?? - every time I get anywhere near lucidity my dream recall suddenly falls to nothing. It's like two steps forward, one step back.

Welcome back Smudge! Always happy to see you!

Updated my introduction.

Trying to use the concepts of impermanence and non-attachment to cultivate an awareness of the dream like nature of reality.

Remembering a lot of dreams.

Reading and watching a lot of youtube videos about lucid dreaming.

I had another very low lucidity lucid last night. I was flying and realised I was dreaming but the level of lucidity was very low indeed. My first thought was to fly somewhere but that was about it. I didn't know where I wanted to fly to and I made no effort to stabilise or increase lucidity. I had no real awareness of who I was, just a vague awareness of the fact I was dreaming and that I should do 'something'. There was no excitement and no real recall of any plans. It was about as low level as I could possible get, but better than nothing. I almost immediately fell out of that dream and inot another.

I have noticed that my most vibrant dreams have a lot of detail. I become very aware of fine detail in my surroundings and almost become lucid as a result, I find it interesting to look at the detail within the dream. I am using this now in waking life and making it part of reality checking such that I an noticing all the detail in my surroundings and becoming very 'mindful' and expansive in my thinking as often as I possibly can. this is part of my impermanence and non-attachment practice.

Originally Posted by Smudgefish

Remembering a lot of dreams.

Reading and watching a lot of youtube videos about lucid dreaming.

I had another very low lucidity lucid last night. I was flying and realised I was dreaming but the level of lucidity was very low indeed. My first thought was to fly somewhere but that was about it. I didn't know where I wanted to fly to and I made no effort to stabilise or increase lucidity. I had no real awareness of who I was, just a vague awareness of the fact I was dreaming and that I should do 'something'. There was no excitement and no real recall of any plans. It was about as low level as I could possible get, but better than nothing. I almost immediately fell out of that dream and inot another.

I have noticed that my most vibrant dreams have a lot of detail. I become very aware of fine detail in my surroundings and almost become lucid as a result, I find it interesting to look at the detail within the dream. I am using this now in waking life and making it part of reality checking such that I an noticing all the detail in my surroundings and becoming very 'mindful' and expansive in my thinking as often as I possibly can. this is part of my impermanence and non-attachment practice.

This is the knowledge that we are free. Totally free. Gravity helps me see in detail too.

Doing lots of day work. Good dream recall and regular journaling.

Still no definite lucid. Non-attachement - I'm staying positive and not expecting anything.

Still doing the day work as much as I can.

No more success since my first almost lucid within a couple of days of starting. At this point I think I have given up a few times in the past, disappointed from lack of progress after a good start. This time I'm pushing through and know that it could take months.

Bought a few books on lucid dreaming.

I need to do more night work. I usually wake at least once around 4am. This morning I was determined to do have a WBTB and do MILD. I did a short WBTB then intended to MILD but fell asleep the moment I got into bed so that didn't work! I need to try concentrate a bit harder!!

Which books did you buy?