Thread: Structure/Organization Department

Originally posted by Naiya

Working Outline:

So far we already have the first four chapters and their names

1. Introduction
2. History of Lucid Dreaming
3. Aspects of Dreaming
4. Lucid dreaming

What should come next, and in what order? Please post suggestions regarding chapters, chapter names, appendices, and so on. I'm making the following suggestions, but not necessarily in this order:

-overcoming nightmares
-dream control (tutorials on common things like flying should probably be added in this one.)
-lucid experiments
-general awareness (I'd very much like to do a chapter on this)
-dream characters (types of characters can be discussed, we'll try to keep it general . For example the "cookie cutter" brainless ones, the "doppleganger" ones of friends and family, the monsters/antagonizers, the "aware" or wise ones)


I think we can make separate chapters for the big techniques. It seems like this may have been the original plan so it would be nice to stick to that in respect to the people who started this.

-DILD
-MILD
-WILD
-VILD ect.

The writers of each of these can be people who have a lot of success using that particular technique; if possible we can ask permission to use various tutorials that have already been posted on DV.


Lastly there are some chapters that are hot topics on DV. Should we say something about them, or not? Personally I would like to avoid things that are purely opinion based such as astral projection, dream sharing, and premonitions from dreams. I think it would reflect well on DV if we just stick to lucid dreaming and what the accepted facts are. I want to avoid spreading myths, beliefs and opinions, because presenting those alongside with factual information can undercut our credibility.

But if you guys want to include these or believe we can talk about them in an objective and professional way, speak up about it now so we can talk about it.


-Ethics of dream control (is it OK to kill DCs? A few views should be presented. This should be done in a way that does not assume unproven theories about mutual dreaming and AP.)
-Dream guides and wise DCs (learning to find wise DCs, asking them questions)



Appendices

1. TOTM List
2. Other Task List
3. Glossary (or glossary of terms, especially acronyms like MILD, WILD ect.)
4. Endnotes (if we make reference to studies and other works, we can use endnotes to list our sources. We absolutely HAVE to list our sources, either in footnotes or endnotes. It will also be a really great reference.)
5. Index (Pain in the ass to do, but may be easier if the entire book were copied into a decent word processor. Then searches could be done for certain words.)

Originally posted by The Cusp

Any of the sub forums on this board would make good chapters.

Dreams in General

LD Induction

LD Control

Nightmares

Interpretation

Dreaming myths

Originally posted by dreamingofdreaming

I think emphasizing research and experiements is a must, should definietly have its own chapter...

Just a thought; a descriptive/creative prelude about a lucid dream could be neat. Incorparate waking in ones room, yet its different, clocks are off, flying, fantasy environment etc....

Originally posted by mrdeano

Originally Posted by Naiya

Lastly there are some chapters that are hot topics on DV. Should we say something about them, or not? Personally I would like to avoid things that are purely opinion based such as astral projection, dream sharing, and premonitions from dreams. I think it would reflect well on DV if we just stick to lucid dreaming and what the accepted facts are. I want to avoid spreading myths, beliefs and opinions, because presenting those alongside with factual information can undercut our credibility

I am in favor of this. We should stick to the facts rather than myths and rumors.

This also makes me think there should be a chapter covering such rumors that are not true. For example, "Saying your own name in a LD will wake you up"
The above rumor is not true at all. But a lot of people still belief it.
Maybe a FAQ chapter or something?

Originally posted by Naiya

Yeah, a sort of mythbusting chapter would be fun.

The old "you can't turn on lights in a dream" and "dreams are in black and white but you fill in the color later" are easily disproved and we can encourage the reader to disprove those things themselves with a few instructions. Or just list some of the rumors and explain why they are not true.

General awareness is a chapter that could definatly be accomplished.

For example, people need to understand the different levels of awareness they will experience in a lucid dream, and the importance of their awareness that they are dreaming to keep the experience stable. One of the largest problems I have noticed is that PEOPLE CAN GET LUCID, however CANNOT STAY LUCID. There have been excellent improvements in the field of dream stability since Stephen LaBerge's book.
In addition, people may need to understand the different levels of lucidity they may experience, and how they can improve this.

There are also a number of small phenomena that occur occasionally that need to be covered, such as: 1). Being lucid but not aware you can bend the rules of physics, life and death, summoning and so forth, 2). False Awakenings and how they can manipulate these to their advantage.

Additionally, I beleive that we should engineer a two to four week program people can follow to the best of their ability, following the most proven method(s) to experience a lucid dream, or ideally - many more. Just my two cents

Also, I'd like to apologise if I posted this in the wrong thread. Hehehe.

Don't forget, we should have a relatively large section that contains anecdotes and stories from lucid dreamers, so that it's easy to become motivated

Each technique should have a difficulty rating?

Or a learning curve rating?

Originally Posted by marcc

Don't forget, we should have a relatively large section that contains anecdotes and stories from lucid dreamers, so that it's easy to become motivated

Just wanna poke my head in and mention: One of the things I disliked about EWOLD is that there'd be a sappy motivational personal experience wedged in all over the place. Just a suggestion, can be ignored if you want, but maybe keep all of these anecdotes and DJ entries for the very end of the book, but organized by relevancy to topic. For example, "Overcoming fear/nightmares". At the end of that section of the book, it could say "Go to pages x-xx" and on pages x-xx you'd have those dream stories. That way, if you want to read them you just zip to x-xx, but if you don't you can just keep reading normally.