# Lucid Dreaming > DV Academy > Current Courses > Intro Class >  >  Steph´s Workbook

## StephL

*Reality Checks:*

- Looking at my hands
- Trying to breathe with nose held closed
- Trying to remember what I did 10 min. ago

*Dream Signs:*

- Being at the place, I spent my youth at (Bavaria, Tegernsee)
- School and meeting schoolmates/ex-boyfriends
- University
- my old job
- Trying and failing to achieve the simplest things - like not getting somewhere, or not getting somewhere in time - packing things up and something staying behind - trying to talk to somebody, whom I see in the dream, and not managing for some reason
- my (dead) grandmother
- lots more actually..

*Short-Term Goals:*

- well - gaining lucidity after not managing for over a year
- keeping a dream-journal and not only trying to remember dreams for the day after - putting them down - reviewing them
- working on real-life awareness and prospective memory
- keeping the desire alive

*Long-Term Goals:*

- gaining control, so I can create the scenario I want to dream in, while dreaming
- gaining control, so I can accomplish tasks, I set up before I go to sleep - taking part in the challenges and getting these nice wings.. :wink2: 
- finding inspiration and maybe answers/insights into my psyche and maybe being able to resolve difficulties in real life
- working on my dart-throwing technique - it is possible to do something there with visualization and banishing mind-chatter (sounds a bit weird - I know..)

*Lucid/Dream Recall History:*

- first time around I gained lucidity in my early 20s after following Castaneda with telling myself it will happen for 2 weeks every night before falling asleep - and when it did work - stabilizing the dream with looking at my hands, till I saw every little detail crystal clear.
Maybe because of the expectation, that I had entered a real other plane of existence - where I could also come to real harm - getting into a panic and turning the dream into a nightmare - walls of a cave which I was exploring for fun with friends suddenly turning to sand and coming down on me.
With all the willpower I could muster, I transferred my consciousness back into my body - just to find, I am unable to move or scream - leading to a very real fear of dying.
That kept me off trying again for years.

- second time - after reading up on LD and getting rid of my superstitions - incl. turning agnostic - a wonderful, quite long LD - so lovely hyper-real visual dreamscape - I could fly and go where ever I wanted (well - I just wanted to go to this place of my youth - but anyway..) - met people, I wanted to meet - it was pure joy.

- one semi-lucid experience - the same crystal-clear and beautiful imagery and short glimpses of the realization that it was a dream, but no real lucidity with control

- one instance, where I got lucid, but it faded around me - tried spinning - but really wildly spinning - I read now it is not meant to be done like that - bam - dream gone - only emptiness - and I woke up

*Current Technique:*

- DILD

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## NyxCC

Welcome to intro class StephL!  :smiley: 

Seems to me that you are pretty aware of your dreams and have completed a great deal of work so far. You have a nice long list if dream signs, which you can go over the day and before bed as a mantra to help you catch them during your dreams. That's one of the things that have actually helped me increase my ld count (in addition to other techs). I have printed a list of DS, quite similar to yours by the way, including school, grandma, past places where I lived, etc. Then during the day, before bed or wbtb I would repeat to myself "I see dream sign1, I realize that I am dreaming, I see dream sign2, I realize that I am dreaming and so on. 

Very good job conquering your fear from your first lucid experience too.  ::goodjob2::  During dreams we can be extremely sensitive about the environment and contents of the dream and our moods drive our experiences. It takes a while to realize this and also one needs to practice to remain calm and positive. That way, one can determine the direction our experiences take.

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## Brizzl

It would be interesting if your grandmother turned out to be your dream guide. You should look further into that.

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## StephL

> Welcome to intro class StephL! 
> 
> Seems to me that you are pretty aware of your dreams and have completed a great deal of work so far. You have a nice long list if dream signs, which you can go over the day and before bed as a mantra to help you catch them during your dreams. That's one of the things that have actually helped me increase my ld count (in addition to other techs). I have printed a list of DS, quite similar to yours by the way, including school, grandma, past places where I lived, etc. Then during the day, before bed or wbtb I would repeat to myself "I see dream sign1, I realize that I am dreaming, I see dream sign2, I realize that I am dreaming and so on. 
> 
> Very good job conquering your fear from your first lucid experience too.  During dreams we can be extremely sensitive about the environment and contents of the dream and our moods drive our experiences. It takes a while to realize this and also one needs to practice to remain calm and positive. That way, one can determine the direction our experiences take.



Thank you NyxCC!

Oh - yeah there are many dream signs.
That is a good idea - I will print a list and go over this as mantra - somehow I had problems with finding something I like.
I have an alarm-mechanism sorted now, where I can get an alarm, which doesn´t need to be put out.
So I could try WBTB as well.
I´ll see.

Friday is darts with my mates day - and we usually drink some alcohol and go to bed late - like now - not a good day for it - but I hope I will have something for my dream-journal - at least a bit..

I hope I´m close - last night I fell out of a cable-car, which had morphed from a simple train.
It was going almost 90° up and suddenly was open..
My dream-self "knew" then, that this was supposed to be Florence - before it was just a school-excursion to Italy.
But it was weird - like all columns - not broad - more like from a scaffold for a building site - but mostly not connected.
And people all covered in some sort of white dust where living there and going about their business - stepping from column top to column top - rarely some cross-pieces.
Maybe 500 qm in sight only consisting of scaffolding and lots of dust and rather unhappy people - like some sort of slum.

And I stood there - also in that scaffold-forest on some columns/cross pieces - and thought - noo - I was in Florence before - it was not like that.
There was a memory of Florence then - but I just concluded, this must be some suburb, and the city comes on top of that cable-car-line.. ::roll:: 
Then the scenery got wider - part-of-a-city-size.





> It would be interesting if your grandmother turned out to be your dream guide. You should look further into that.



What exactly is a dream guide?

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## Brizzl

A dream guide is basically somebody who seems to show up in your dreams very often. If you establish that connection when you are lucid you can ask questions like "Are you my dream guide?" or "Can you help me be lucid?" They are almost like the dream part of your subconscious and can give many valuable tips on lucid living. Also whenever you see them you can automatically know that you dreaming. Dream guides can be very helpful.

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## StephL

> A dream guide is basically somebody who seems to show up in your dreams very often. If you establish that connection when you are lucid you can ask questions like "Are you my dream guide?" or "Can you help me be lucid?" They are almost like the dream part of your subconscious and can give many valuable tips on lucid living. Also whenever you see them you can automatically know that you dreaming. Dream guides can be very helpful.



Ah - I see - thank you!
I might try that - but somehow I´d rather keep her "her" if that makes sense.
Like - I read, when someone appears - you can basically "simulate" them.
So she would react like deep down I expect her to react and I could talk to her as "her".

But such a dream guide sounds nice!
Maybe I try to "establish" or create or just find another entity as a companion - thinking of someone non-human, like a cute alien or so..lol - who acts as one..
That would be much harder than try it with my Grandma, I guess.
Well - next time I meet her lucidly - I´ll just listen to what she has to say - maybe it´s going to be as you say!

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## NyxCC

> Oh - yeah there are many dream signs.
> That is a good idea - I will print a list and go over this as mantra - somehow I had problems with finding something I like.
> I have an alarm-mechanism sorted now, where I can get an alarm, which doesn´t need to be put out.
> So I could try WBTB as well.



Great! Looking forward to your updates. These automatic off alarms are really useful for DEILDs. Give it a try and see how that goes. If you feel you are too sleepy, it may be better to actually get out of bed for a while. This helps waking up necessary for ld parts of the brain.  :smiley:

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## StephL

> Great! Looking forward to your updates. These automatic off alarms are really useful for DEILDs. Give it a try and see how that goes. If you feel you are too sleepy, it may be better to actually get out of bed for a while. This helps waking up necessary for ld parts of the brain.



The alarm was too low in volume - didn´t wake from it - lol

My update: one more moment of lucidity in one of two dreams I can recall well - but have them only on paper - too private.
Again - I looked at my hands - they were there instantly - I did not get them past blurry and blue - light blue.
Everything else was only greyness - and I forgot, if it was followed by a short wakening or direct re-entry in the dream - about showing somebody a DV-like forum and it´s special effects - lol - 3D!

After waking once more - I went for WILD.
Laying there - expecting my visualization skills providing my with something - it was my body-sensibility that blew my mind - initially.
I know it´s not about them - but "bells and whistles" was something completely new on my experience range.

First around my mouth - then head - then diverging towards all body - fist slight only (used susurration wrongly before) and then quite a lot of *Bsssssssss!!!*
So fascinating!

Towards the end of it - I saw a mandala-structure in electric blue on the back of my eyelids - bit behind them it seemed - me looking outside into black with it hovering - theoretically in my room.
Very beautiful - a cross but like the red cross with some stuff missing towards the middle and round patterns overlayed and inlayed.

This makes me really confident and this forum was a speedway I got to say - towards the door at least for now!
Been looking for the door a while..

Cool.gif

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## NyxCC

It looks like your awareness just needed to be reminded to ld. You are getting great results already! And I saw you posted a dream about a baby doing Obe. That was so cute!  :smiley: 

The WILD experience sounds really cool too. I rarely get any vibrations, but sometimes the transition can be really fast. One moment you are lying in bed, the next you are already asleep and can see though your eyelids. Really weird. In such a case it helps to wait a bit, then think about moving or floating. You can also roll in bed if you have the impression you're in your dream body already.

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## StephL

Thanks - yeah - maybe I was just assuming it was over and I woke up, which I then made real by moving - maybe I could have gotten away towards my mandala after it dimmed a bit..
I can not really explain, why - but I made a break in efforts last night - too much posting on DV!!
cheeky.gif

I repeated some mantras going to bed much too late - but it is rather easier for me to go about it after waking from at least one dream I believe.
And I did that - wake up I mean - that I usually do between dreams in the morning - made notes in my paper DJ and then somehow decided I want to rather go on having a normal dream.
Are the alarms meant to catch you in REM, or is it fine, if you wake up in between dreams anyway towards the morning?
I could just as well forget about it, if it is the latter.

Naja - I think, I somehow was exhausted and saw sort of something strenuous in trying to LD.
Not really realistic probably - anyway - I had the next dream then - the one my snippet is from - and I actually liked it so much - I re-entered it twice and went on with it - but non-lucidly all the time.

When I am free to sleep in - and I have this great luxury for a little while more atm. - I do this from time to time - but it´s been a while I liked something so much, I tried till I really had more than enough sleep - like - one hour ago...redface.gif

On the other hand - to bed at 3 am - up at 12:30 - 9.5 hours is not that much.
I just need to be careful to not get into too queer a rhythm - I want to catch the light - and it´s getting winter..

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## NyxCC

> I can not really explain, why - but I made a break in efforts last night - too much posting on DV!!
> 
> Naja - I think, I somehow was exhausted and saw sort of something strenuous in trying to LD.
> Not really realistic probably - anyway - I had the next dream then - the one my snippet is from - and I actually liked it so much - I re-entered it twice and went on with it - but non-lucidly all the time.



Understandable, we all need to have our little breaks. There's no rule that says you've got to try for an ld every single day. I think what's important is when you are trying to be really enthusiastic about it. I also allow for couple of days off, then I am back with more enthusiasm. 

I love these non-ld re-entries. The feeling is great! Sometimes you don't care about acting in the dream, just want to continue dreaming. You will yourself to go on with the dream and voila! Really nice!  :smiley: 





> Are the alarms meant to catch you in REM, or is it fine, if you wake up in between dreams anyway towards the morning?
> I could just as well forget about it, if it is the latter.



The way I've read it, the alarms are best set for the end of REM. That means n cycles of 90mins after falling asleep. Well, that's too technical for me personally, and I really can't say at what time I will be able to fall asleep to set the alarm properly and honestly, there's no guarantee it will hit end of REM. I use the alarm just in case I miss my desired wbtb time (after 5.5-6hrs). That's in case one is sleeping really deeply and finds it hard to wake up.

The thing is, we tend to wake up naturally for just a short while after each REM (after a certain time at least, for me that's about 3-4 hrs of sleep, where I have my first natural wake). Some people are unaware of this, others use it for toilet breaks. Lders use it for wbtb or DEILDs. So, there are plenty of opportunities to ld right there.  :smiley:

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## StephL

Yeah - I really wake up naturally in between dreams - now I do something - journalling or toilet or whatever - this gets more and more obvious.
My husband had to search for that alarm function quite a while - don´t think I will use it, though..

Riight - it seems to go forwards - two lucid mini-episodes, where I _did_ something, but nothing much:

Stressy Nightmare In Several Parts - Two Mini-Lucid Zoomings - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I really have to combine awareness for myself and the surroundings together - this time surroundings took over..
It is progress - but my dream-recall is so bad from that night and it was all one protracted nightmare - it somehow doesn´t feel so much like it.
Also - interesting - I´ve been drinking alcohol Friday (bit more) and yesterday (not much..) - that plays havoc with recall - week before and days in between - it worked so much better!!
But it seems to work nicely to become aware that I dream in the first place - just from then on the problems begin.
This of course is much better than not getting there - but I am really impatient - 3 times since starting journalling - a DILD did take place - but I got simply nowhere - well - I got somewhere locally this time - but it is in no way comparable to what I had years ago.
I just don´t get a grip on me being fully immersed in a 3D environment with body and all.
Only the realization kicking in for now.

 :Oh noes:

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## NyxCC

> Riight - it seems to go forwards - two lucid mini-episodes, where I did something, but nothing much:
> 
> Stressy Nightmare In Several Parts - Two Mini-Lucid Zoomings - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
> 
> I really have to combine awareness for myself and the surroundings together - this time surroundings took over..



Hey, that's really cool, congrats on those two mini-lds. I really liked how you zoom moved in the first one. Looks like there's a zooming fad going on these days. Now I must try it for myself . 

Pretty good results so far. Having mini episodes like these so often is really promising. Right, so what are your plans for the next time you become lucid, because it is coming soon!  ::D: 





> Also - interesting - I´ve been drinking alcohol Friday (bit more) and yesterday (not much..) - that plays havoc with recall - week before and days in between - it worked so much better!!
> But it seems to work nicely to become aware that I dream in the first place - just from then on the problems begin.
> This of course is much better than not getting there - but *I am really impatient* - 3 times since starting journalling - a DILD did take place - but I got simply nowhere - well - I got somewhere locally this time - but it is in no way comparable to what I had years ago.
> I just don´t get a grip on me being fully immersed in a 3D environment with body and all.



Alcohol initially suppresses REM and then there's rebound once its effects wear off. This might explain variations in recall, dream vividness and contents. Although I wouldn't rely on it to get lucid.  ::lol:: 

As I said, you have been progressing really good. These things take time, but you have fared well so far. Keep up all the RCs and awareness and focus on your goals. Take a moment to rub your hands and then start doing whatever you have planned doing. I think that works best to keep you from getting entangled in the dream.  ::goodjob2::

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## StephL

> Hey, that's really cool, congrats on those two mini-lds. I really liked how you zoom moved in the first one. Looks like there's a zooming fad going on these days. Now I must try it for myself . 
> 
> Pretty good results so far. Having mini episodes like these so often is really promising. Right, so what are your plans for the next time you become lucid, because it is coming soon! 
> 
> 
> 
> Alcohol initially suppresses REM and then there's rebound once its effects wear off. This might explain variations in recall, dream vividness and contents.* Although I wouldn't rely on it to get lucid*. 
> 
> As I said, you have been progressing really good. These things take time, but you have fared well so far. Keep up all the RCs and awareness and focus on your goals. Take a moment to rub your hands and then start doing whatever you have planned doing. I think that works best to keep you from getting entangled in the dream.



Thank you!

And noo - I try to actually not drink *any* alcohol at all any more.
It´s not much nor even more days than not in a week.
But it is so obviously impairing my recall when I do - and it´s cell-poison - so why not ditch it completely?
Well - not Fridays or parties - my darting-buddies would probably be less amusing if I did.. ::D: 
On the other hand - one of them (it depends, who comes - but up to 8 of us) did have a serious problem and is tea-total now.
And he tends to roll his eyes..hehe.
Except 3 they are all exile-Britons - dry darts almost being anathema.

Oh - here my last DJ: Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - StephL - Dream Journals

No lucidity - too damn lazy to WILD again when it would have been time for it - but great dream!

Don´t worry - not a certain question in the moment - bundle your energies for the ones next doors and my evtl. coming ones.
But very nice to have a chat with you!

smile.png

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## NyxCC

Good to know! You have no idea what kind of drinking ideas I have seen circulate around the forum.  ::lol:: 

Alright. Thanks for the post and sweet dreams!  :smiley:

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## StephL

I think, I have to fix something with my intent to DILD.
I feel, that this one experience with almost WILD has sapped away a bit of energy in this regard - like thinking - ah - DILD is so unpredictable - but maybe WILD is easier (because these bells were there so fast, when I tried for the first time..).
So what I really look forward to is waking up and_ then_.. ::roll:: 

Maybe I should even drop the intention to go for one, to free up the expectation for a DILD.
Because the second time, when I had planned the WILD, I wasn´t interested, when the time would have been right - and today I was too late maybe, or made some weird mistake..

Anyway - recall is good - I´m just a bit torn about how to journal - only private - like the last two days - was once disappointing, I was too lazy - and yesterday I did type my stuff, but it was a much less satisfying activity than doing it in here.

But my dreams throw up a lot of personally interesting - well but also _personal_ stuff.
Trying to do the leaving-out-dance later.

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## NyxCC

> I think, I have to fix something with my intent to DILD.
> I feel, that this one experience with almost WILD has sapped away a bit of energy in this regard - like thinking - ah - DILD is so unpredictable - but maybe WILD is easier (because these bells were there so fast, when I tried for the first time..).
> So what I really look forward to is waking up and then..
> 
> Maybe I should even drop the intention to go for one, to free up the expectation for a DILD.
> Because the second time, when I had planned the WILD, I wasn´t interested, when the time would have been right - and today I was too late maybe, or made some weird mistake..




I see. Well, I personally don't care as much whether I get a dild or a wild as long as it's an ld I'm super happy.  ::D:  There's also something else about wilds, but I am not going to type it right now, because I don't want to influence your experiences by setting expectations. (Nothing interesting, just an observation). You will tell us how it goes and then we can compare. 

In the beginning I was trying very hard to wild, but couldn't quite get the hang of it. I found a way to it through the back door. Most of the time, when I do an extended wbtb (15-20min) and later have trouble falling asleep, I would get an ld. Like this, I get lots of unintentional wilds or from scratch lds (basically you miss the transition part, you just fall asleep and then you are lucid from the beginning of the dream). For me that's the easiest way to get my lds. I do repeat mantras during wbtbs. 

Depending on how much of the other DILD practices I do, I can get dilds too even if I skip the wbtb. For these daily RCs and details noticing like ADA, staring at my hands with autosuggestion mantra "I am dreaming" and DS repetition have been most effective. 

I can't say which dreams are better, I think it is good to practice and try for both though. Also, the more dilds you get, the easier wild becomes, there's this spillover effect. But people are different. We have some people here that easily do WILDs and DEILDs but not get many DILDs and the other way around. By the way, I have heard a lot people also get wilds with the SSILD technique. Here's the link if you are interested:

SSILD

At any rate mantras to remind yourself that you are dreaming plus any tasks are of great help with both techniques and so is WBTB.  :smiley: 





> Anyway - recall is good - I´m just a bit torn about how to journal - only private - like the last two days - was once disappointing, I was too lazy - and yesterday I did type my stuff, but it was a much less satisfying activity than doing it in here.
> 
> But my dreams throw up a lot of personally interesting - well but also personal stuff.
> Trying to do the leaving-out-dance later.



There's a lot that we can learn about ourselves from dreams, recurring patterns, emotions, etc. I totally understand not wanting to post personal stuff. I guess if you still feel like posting but there is something personal you can make generalizations to make things more obscure. In the end journalling is for you - keep track of what's going on inside, determine dream signs and of course a tool to help achieve lucidity. Also, in the long run you can change even normal dream contents - using a mix of autosuggestion, external stimuli selection, also meditation and analysis (like releasing trapped emotions), the last one can take a lot of work.

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## StephL

http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...ml#post2060886

 :boogie:  :boogie:  :boogie:

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## NyxCC

Hey! Congrats on the long ld!!! :bravo: Cool dream control and being mischievous with the vase. I also liked the flying around like a bee thing.  :smiley:

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## StephL

Yeah - thank you!!
Well - a human body flying about in it, was not the architect´s concept for that house..
So I felt a bit like a crazed bumble-bee - maybe one day I can try to _be_ an animal.
Reports of people doing that seem very sparse, though.
Did you try out to take on a completely different body before?

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## NyxCC

> Well - a human body flying about in it, was not the architect´s concept for that house..



Oh, wait until you start phasing through the walls. No architecture can stop you then!  ::D: 





> So I felt a bit like a crazed bumble-bee - maybe one day I can try to be an animal.
> Reports of people doing that seem very sparse, though.
> Did you try out to take on a completely different body before?



They're not that sparse as you may think. Such transformations are really cool! Unfortunately, I’ve only remembered to do it three times: one full into a tiger, one partial tiger, and one partial shark (the shark was for Totm Aug). Here are couple of links:

Obsessed with TOTM full tiger transformation

Rem Rebound partial tiger transformation in ld1

Long Journey to the Beach partial shark transformation at dream end

On top of my head Scionox quite often transforms or partially into a dragon, Xanous has been a werewolf, CanisLucidis did a junior King Kong transformation for Toty, and sivason has done lots of experimental transformations with the food chain. 

CanisLucidis - Donkey Kong Junior 

Sivason - Swim as an eel part 1 food chain

Sivason - Advanced dream goal part 2 food chain

I think that transforming into something that’s closer to one’s size should be at least initially easier, although there are practically no limitations as to how far one can go. So, maybe we will read about you becoming a bumble -bee in one of your next lds.  ::D:

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## StephL

Oh - great - thank you NyxCC!

This is motivating - looking forward to your tiger and shark stories and dragons and, and..

Experiments with the food chain sounds very interesting, too!
I didn´t yet look - but have a lot of associations, as to what that might mean.

I unfortunately got to battle down a gastro-enteritis virus at the moment, and that greatly impairs my lucid  desires.
More or less any desires, actually.. but it´s getting better - maybe next night will be fine already - I hope.

But I will read these and dream of dreaming a bit.

I don´t know where that was, but when I read about lucid dreaming a bit more the second time of my life - and had two of them - I came about somebody describing how he dreamt himself into a butterfly and that was very, very beautiful and exotic!

I could also do these witch-tricks I read about as a child and later when coming across Terry Pratchett .. ::bluesmile:: 

First the walls, though!


Great - thank you once more NyxCC!

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## NyxCC

> I could also do these witch-tricks I read about as a child and later when coming across Terry Pratchett ..
> 
> First the walls, though!



Cool! Looking forward to that!  ::D:  Yes, Terry Pratchett, read him a long time ago, but if I remember correctly it was Esme that turned into a crow in one of the books. I really liked those stories. Maybe I need to get the digital version of a couple of his books sometime. One looks at things from a different perspective when one is lucid dreaming  :smiley: 

I wish you to get better soon! Lots of sleep and good hydration. Take care, Steph!

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## StephL

Yepp - I am restored - feeling completely healthy - aand - I did have success once more:

Yippee - A Lucid With Doing Several Tasks - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Very proud of that!
It was a bit of a rush, though - mainly doing the tasks to put a checkmark next to them - not so much for the experience as such.
So - I didn´t stabilize and concentrate my attention overly much on my surroundings - they were less vivid and elaborated as a result.
But my memory was really intact - as to what the tasks were, and the months to say backwards - no problem whatsoever.

But a little hick-up with fear of jumping out of a high window and coming down hard on my back when dropping backwards.


Pratchett is one of my favourite authors - I love his wit and humour.
Somehow I never saw what all the fuss was about with Harry Potter, though..

Got to try to remember a book, which I really liked, with a wizardry school in the classic manner..
It went like somebody having read something like the "Narnia-Saga" - it was obviously referring to that, but not namely - and then coming into that world himself..
From a modern-age point of view, and with depths to the characters - good book - will find out..

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## NyxCC

Whoaa! Fantastic entry! Congrats on the ld, totm.  ::D:  It looks like you were on a dream control spree, did so much stuff! Really cool! I also like how your DCs come up with well thought of answers, mine are retards 90 percent of the time.  ::lol::  

Ah yay for another zoom in!!!  ::banana:: 


Yup, TP's really good. Reading his books is a really enjoyable experience. There are few authors with such wit indeed. And all the descriptions of strange objects and actions remind me of dreaming. I don't know what's with the HP frenzy either. 

I wish I had the time to read more books but am always torn between fitness, meditation and scientific mags.  ::roll::

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## StephL

Hehe - in the moment - I do also sort of not get to as much reading as I would - but I find it very inspiring on here - and spend quite some time on here in the moment - and seems to bear fruits, or wiings, too.

Torn between fitness, meditation and scientific mags - that must be truly horrible.. ::D: 
I was in bed so late - maybe I turn around once more... ::yawnorama::

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## StephL

I´ll try once more this night with alarm clock after 5 hours - last two nights I tried WILD, when waking up naturally - and bit later, than maybe good - about 7 h after falling asleep in etwa - and both times I really didn´t honestly hold on to awareness and slipped away - willingly.
But differently than with the two times with alarm - I had no DILD following, but another dream - and got up much too late for my liking..
Maybe the startle helps.

Well - anyway - started journalling again - and maybe I link up in here.
Singing Bowls and two more fragments - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
It seriously helps writing it out - and I do not do it "just for myself", at least not now..

After a bit of being all round otherwise focused - I want "back in"!
Tonight - I hope.

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## NyxCC

Did you stay awake for longer when using the alarm? When I'm feeling too sleepy and go back to bed too quickly I usually miss out on lds later on. Maybe sit up in bed for a while and revise dream signs and goals? That should work to help activate brain centers a bit more. 

Good luck with your next tries!  ::goodjob2::

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## StephL

That could actually be it - yes - I did stay up longer with the alarm!
I was also thinking about this already - because of feeling so mellow - I did wanted right back to sleep - lucid or not..
I will try with 15 or 20 min. - I think, I was never up for longer these 5 attempts.
Having your help on here is wonderful!
Thanks - will take that into account!

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## StephL

Soo stupid - I did not set the alarm correctly, it didn´t go off.
Edit: Correction - seems it did or should have and I didn´t hear it - was my mobile, and if I need alarm for work - I take a louder one..sigh..
But again I awoke naturally - quite late, the awakening, I took note off - maybe after 7 h of sleep which is already enough.
But I said - good - take this chance once more - and I stayed up about a quarter of an hour.

No such luck - same as the last two nights. But I had some more persistence - and tried it out with SSILD and later with mantras - I just lay there awake.
I had drank a cup of tea - which I did with the alarm-sessions, too - but there it was making more sense - it being earlier in.
This here was not too mellow, but too clear..
And about half a hour later - I went to the toilet and lay down to sleep a bit more - hoping for a DILD - but no.
So - back on square one from yesterday - alarm-clock after 4 h and up for 15 min. it will be.
I´ve been also drinking water after fogelbise´s advice - seems not enough of it, though, to wake up earlier fully between dreams.

And I will more seriously also prepare for pure DILD, which has to be properly expected and prepared for, I guess.
I hope I come back to my initial assessment, that WILD seems like an easy at least incubator for DILD.

Back to the hard work it is - and a proper alarm this time around.

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## NyxCC

On the brighter side of things, you did get to practice the techniques. And yes, preparing for DILD, i.e. doing daily awareness work is really important. Don't tell anyone but after getting some fantastic results (both with dilds and wbtb by-product wilds) I kind of became lousy with the daywork and a dild reduction followed, not immediately but gradually. So, I have to start with the good old induction structure once again. Revisiting the basics is good for all of us.  :tongue2:

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## StephL

Usually I write over the day and different things to my lovely three direct teachers - this here today is "only" an almost copy-paste from Sageous WILD class.
I have been paosting it towards dear fogelbise just before - I just do not think, I will find much more to say about it - buut - there are questions inside.
So - do not feel disrespected and also feel directly adressed:
Attachment 6004

Steph discovers a new species of roadblock:

The effort yesternight didn´t take place - but this last night I tried WILD again.
And I find it went quite well - up to one point always:

I was relaxed, didn´t feel my body any more - at one time it felt as if I was spinning slowly horizontally - more my head seemed to make a left-turn with my upper body. But not a lot - I tried nudging mentally - but bit more, and I would have moved.

Buut - maybe 5 times or so - I started "making something" out of what I saw on the back of my eyelids.
After some time of black - there were black and white and grey clouds swirling about - I could make these take on forms - and with a certain complexity - a real scenery appeared, and got clearer and clearer - each time another one.

But it was so weird - every time I came to see real details full colours and all - there was an almost physical surge to draw me into the scene, which before I had only witnessed "from nowhere" so to speak.
And every time, I just could not let it happen, not on purpose, it was more or less subconscious direct reaction.
I sucked myself back out.
It was really like having a short startle reaction, a bit of physical arousal - and like on a gummy-band - I got my consciousness back in my body on my bed.
And had to more or less start all over again.
As said - it was at least 5 times, and I really tried to be prepared for it, and let it happen the next time..
Nope.

Is this how it feels, when it works, as well?
And I just need to let myself get sucked in without excitement?
I couldn´t do away with the excitement - it felt like I was sucked from location to location in in real-life!
Not fear - but a general alarm-situation.
How can I counter that?

It felt as if I just about stopped it off, before a physical sucking feeling would have followed.
How does it feel, when you transit?
Unfortunately I went to bed so late yesterday (daaarts..Attachment 6003) - that I decided, I should get up to the day, and not turn around and hope for DILD.

Maybe closest to an actual WILD yet? Unfortunately again no LD last night!
 :Puppy dog eyes:

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## NyxCC

Thanks for the post Steph. You are a very good and dedicated student, so I know you are going to surprise us with some great lds very soon.  ::goodjob2:: 

Here's my interpretation of the experience and I hope our possibly sightly differing feedback across workbooks won't confuse you. In the end, we speak from personal experience (as well as general knowledge) and these experiences can be quite subjective. Sageous has tons of experience and I think it might help to browse through his Q&A to read questions others have posted and his reply to them, in addition to his reply to the specific questions you asked. That way, you can get an overview of how this process is going for a larger number of people.

From reading your post, I think that you were on the verge of entering those dreamlets. It's always hard for another party to ascertain where the dreamer is (in one's body, asleep, in the dream or somewhere in between). Since you say you didn't feel your body anymore and later got to observe new and different scenery, I can conclude you went past the normal falling asleep phase, did a successful WILD induction and if you had let go, you would have found yourself in one of those dreamlets/scenes.

I know it can be hard to manage this whole process because it really is exciting. Also, sometimes this startling reaction may happen bodily with little volition on our part. The important thing is to keep going, which you did really well and you didn't let awareness slip either. Yet, to be able to get in the dream, you need to have a tiny bit of gentle release of that control, so that you may allow the dreamlet to suck you in. 

Sometimes it can be quite easy and fast, at other times, you might find yourself observing those dreamlets from a distance for a while. In that case, it may help to imagine oneself being part of the scene, ideally being engaged with some sort of action - seeing one's hands grabbing nearby objects, running, cycling, etc. Yet another possibility will be to try to invoke a particular scene by visualizing and best again, thinking of being part of it and/acting inside (or thinking about acting). This might be quite useful when there is no dream scene available, when you are in the void or if you happen to be browsing through a number of scenes. I encourage you to play with all of these methods (letting go, involvement, visualization) since they come in quite handy and we may face different situations.

Finally, here's a link to WILD entry types that you might have already read, but it doesn't hurt to check this out again.   :smiley: 

http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ntry-wild.html

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## StephL

Thank you!
Yupp - it is very interesting to get answers from different points of view.
What seems to be common is - for once - let go, let it happen.
It might be I was wanting to enter and be sucked in too much - this sucking might have been of my creation - and not the best thing to do.
Either watch it - and maybe it is HI or some sort of NREM entry - or it was an unfolding dream, which I tried to_ grab_ too forcefully.





> 1. Dream images
> First type of entry involves looking at the back of your closed eyelids. At first, you will see black and grey fog swirling around. Maybe you see some colors. Then you start seeing simple objects and geometric shapes. These will evolve into more complex pictures and dreams. You may see movie like scenes. *When these scenes change into one big movie screen covering your whole field of vision*, the dream is ready for you. But so far you are just an outside observer.
> 
> You may either *wait for it to envelop you* and you *suddenly find yourself inside* of a dream, or you may look at the dream scene, *pick a spot on the ground and say slowly and deliberately something like "I am there"*. This should transport you inside a dream.



This from your link - Gab had also answered me directly.
Now it makes even more sense - the scenes were not yet covering my whole field of vision, when I tried to get sucked in.
It was more, the scene was enveloped in a surrounding of nondescript area.
So - chances are high, I did my conscious efforts sort of too early.
Should have gone on watching and see, if a full surround scenery appears - maybe then I would have been there - or could have tried gab´s command stuff.

The latter I will now have in my repertoire for such situations as well.
If it is not a dream-inlet, but for example HI - it just won´t work and nothing is lost or damaged..


One conclusion threads through all the wonderful answers I got: More of "letting it happen" - "watching it unfold" - patience.



Now to my latest mishap:
Yesterday - I took some time - three times - and visualised one of my most persistent dream-signs - the house I spent my youth in.
And I tried to promise myself, to RC when I came across it. Really went around it and inside and visualized very well - was amazed at my good memory.

But it ended up with me perfectly making a fool of myself.
I dreamt of the house - and - stood there - looking at the texture of the wall - and believe it or not - I thought to myself - wow, thank the heavens - it is still standing and *I am not only dreaming of it again*!
Because if I were dreaming - it would not look so realistic in every detail.
Instead of RCing or pondering how I got there, etc. - I closely inspected the house as a RC, sort of.. ::roll:: 
Yepp - so stupid - spent my dream happily renovating the inside and decorating - and - coming up with a perfectly rational answer, as to how it was still standing.
Like - it was sold - ground and all - but left untouched - and I got it back, before the demolition ball took it away.


Was really mad at me, when waking up!

A question: What sort of RC are you using in RL and in dreams - the same?
Which exactly?
I do not "trust" the more inconspicuous ones, if it is about _is it really a dream?_.
Except sometimes - it is clear - me floating or so.
But anyways in a LD I had lately - I had to repeatedly nose-plug, to make sure I can for example ignore a group of elderlies pleading for my help for a supposed accident victim round the corner.
I went there in the end anyway - see what it was all about - but first I nose-plugged twice, and only _then_ did I make fun of the worried elderlies calling on me..
Despite having _flown_ there.
Probably I need more experience to be more sure about what is what..

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## NyxCC

> The latter I will now have in my repertoire for such situations as well.
> If it is not a dream-inlet, but for example HI - it just won´t work and nothing is lost or damaged..



For sure. And indeed, nothing is ever lost with these attempts, it's great practice one gets with each attempt, successful or not. You can never get too much practice and as I said, these events may vary, i.e. not be exactly the same even when you get the hang of. It's really an amazing and cool experience how one can keep one's awareness beyond the point of falling asleep.  :smiley: 





> But it ended up with me perfectly making a fool of myself.
> I dreamt of the house - and - stood there - looking at the texture of the wall - and believe it or not - I thought to myself - wow, thank the heavens - it is still standing and I am not only dreaming of it again!



That happens to me as well. I have my list of places and even meditated and relived the whole process of moving out from my last place, yet I found myself having a non-ld about packing again. I am determined to go over the moving out once again sometime, until then I need to get back to repeating the old mantra list "I see place X, I am dreaming", etc. These things do take a while to sink in, and I have noticed that the more you practice this, the more it sticks with your subcon and at some point you will start catching these more often. By the way I do get a lot of lds in my ex place, so this has to be working (that or awareness).  :tongue2: 





> A question: What sort of RC are you using in RL and in dreams - the same?
> Which exactly?
> I do not "trust" the more inconspicuous ones, if it is about is it really a dream?.



I should really be spending more time RCing than I actually do, because I don't get to do too many in lds, rather simply know I am dreaming, or spot something weird or DS. When I did do a lot of them, I would get many DILDs.

My daily RCs have gone from checking the features on my hands (which did transfer to dreams, but proved rather unrealiable for me because I had learned them so well, they were very similar in the dream), reading something (also transfered a number of times, that RC's pretty cool, so I still do it from time to time), recently I moved to telekinesis and nose plug, but again, need to increase the frequency of those to get better results. By the way, there's no rule that says you can't do more than one. Just the more consistent you are, the better the results.

Most of the times, when I become lucid I don't do an RC because I know it's a dream, however I would RC in the dream whenever there is doubt about the situation. 

DCs in dreams can be very distracting, so doing the nose plug as a reminder is a really good idea. Another way would be to repeat to yourself that this is a dream and maybe remind yourself of some goals.

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## StephL

Finally some little bit of lucid dream-time!!
These TOTMs seem really to be number one motivation at my present stage - so thankful for this!!

Two Short Lucids with Snowman-Efforts - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Same old wacky approach - alarm clock after 6 h - this time I managed to get myself out of bed for almost half an hour - and so I was for a change not lazy and un-determined with my efforts.
Only problem - still unsure about which exact WILD approach to take - I mix things up at the moment - and - like usual - didn´t work.
But I found like this a very enjoyable state of relaxed - quite detached contemplation.
Been lying there for quite some time and thought about real life stuff - maybe I even got something out of it!

Then later I fell asleep and had one normal dream - woke up - toilet - back to bed and when the dream started - I knew it instantly.
No reality checks needed - also on re-entry of the first episode.
Seems I have a tendency to spontaneous hovering - on top of knowing it instantly - not bad for a sign.

Yupp - again - very good daytime-memory access - did my planned stabilization stuff and went right for the snowman in the next LD-dreamlet.
Very happy about the nice snow I got to come down - by shouting out, that I want it - that´s a first - summoning something.
If it had not been so late after so much sleep - it might have been more stable and long, I think.
So - next round snowman is on the plan once more - I didn´t get it alive in the last few seconds - it only started melting..

Time for this guy again:

 :Bliss:

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## NyxCC

Awesome! Congrats on the lds, Steph!  ::banana:: 

Really cool with the meadow tasting stabilization and also making it snow, and especially the snow on the kids' heads.  ::D:

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## StephL

Hehe - thank youu!
Yeah - they sat there as the most convenient source of building-material.. :Cheeky:

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## StephL

Hi NyxCC!!
Thank you for commenting on my last before last night!!

 ::banana:: 

Forgot to link through - this time I do: Mini-DILD Again - And First Time Being Male - Singing Like An Opera Tenor - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I am very pleased, that DILDs are happening on their own seemingly now - even if these unprepared ones are no good for almost nothing - with sparsest daytime memory and little control.
But them just appearing is a good sign, I think.

Also - I was male for a while - maybe a first even in my life - surely the first I remember!
And to make it better - I had the voice of an opera-tenor!!
Other interesting bodily differences went unfortunately unexplored, though.. ::D:

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## NyxCC

Hey that's so good! Congrats! You really are on fire, keep it up!  ::goodjob2:: 

The tenor non-ld part was super cool! A lot dream control and great ideas come from non-lds. And now that you've done amazing stuff like this, it opens the gate to more possibilities. Music in dreams and lucid dreams is absolutely awesome. You can make it come out of nowhere or anywhere, have your DCs sing or even stage entire concerts. Makes me want to go to bed and ld right now!  :Off to Bed:

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## StephL

Ooh - didn´t work..
I made a variation, which did no good.
Thinking that the WILD had never worked, because I got impatient with _not falling asleep_, while lying on my back and going about it.
So I thought, I´d try the whole process lying on my stomach turned to the left side - how I usually sleep.
Well - yupp - I fell asleep just fine - but without noticing and taking my consciousness with me.
Grrr.
Naja - this night again and on the back..
Also got smashed my recall for more than the one dream just before my WBTB by the doorbell ripping me out of bed - and I had to deal with a repair-guy, for whom my husband had made a date, and didn´t tell me.

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## StephL

Hi NyxCC!
I feel a motivation surge at the moment - did just journal a lot - and with goals and and..
Got to tumble towards bed soon - so I link up and will maybe edit in a bit more later:
Very Nice That Last Night Counted - 3 Points - Quite Happy! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
One important thing - how can I learn to recognize my most frequent dream-signs and DCs - even if I do not come across them irl any more?
That would be so fantastic..
goodsigh2.gif

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## NyxCC

That's great Steph, competitions can be really helpful for both recall and ld motivation.  ::D: 





> One important thing - how can I learn to recognize my most frequent dream-signs and DCs - even if I do not come across them irl any more?



Well, one thing that I have done was to set up a list, broad categories as well as concrete examples, for example school, classmates - their names (obviously this is for private use  :wink2: ), places, people, animals, actions - like climbing, flying, etc. So this is the list of major DS and I have it printed so go over it whenever I feel like, but it would be best if at least once a day. I like to combine this with a mantra, I see X, I realize that I am dreaming. At some point I have memorized most of the list and can recite this as a poem. Actually, you can go creative about it and put them all in a poem or a song. I have been able to catch a number of DS, although I still get a miss on some key items, but I think with more practice, you can train to recognize these with better consistency.

So, list is one thing. Another is to use flashcards, maybe you can add some pics there too, especially if you go for a digital flashcard app. Finally, there's the classic mild thing, where you remember a dream with the DS and imagine yourself becoming lucid upon seeing it. You can do this during the day, pre bed, wbtb, etc.

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## StephL

Thank you - great advice!!
 :smiley:

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## StephL

Whooop Whoop - DiSchnuuhup!!

Finally Lucid Again - Being Hugged And Swirled And Keeping Eyes Closed TOTM - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

So happy - got myself a pair of wiings last night - thank you so much for all your help!!

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the ld, Steph! That's such a nice execution of the basic task! Honestly, I don't even dare trying it, as I am fearful it might mess up the dream. Good to have people here brave enough to do it and successfully too!  ::goodjob2::

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## StephL

Thank youu!
It was so that I_ felt_ very nice, when I accidentally closed my eyes - and I somehow knew I would "survive" ten seconds - or even a bit more maybe.
Stupidly - I expected to wake up after I had seen the dream again - that it doesn´t go on after that confirmation - and yepp. Surely.
But I am really so happy - when it started out so nice - and then nothing for a whole week - I was starting doubtful thoughts - good these are put to some peace now!!

 ::banana::

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## NyxCC

Banish all doubts. Your practice is really paying off! Keep up the good work!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Bit silly - but I find these wings fit my cat so nicely..
I can look at them - and say - yepp - I do LDing!

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## StephL

I´m on a roll - soo happy - did it again:

Lucid - Again No Animated Snowman - But Some Fun With Summoning - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Stupid doorbell kept me from building my snowman - and I forgot about the order of stuff to do for the comp - but summoning seems to work just fine!
First I summoned a naked beau - and "disappointed" him, by asking for a present suddenly - I did have other plans initially - he did not like the question and stalked off back around his corner.

Probably I DEILDed in some way into the second part - not sure there - maybe I just lost lucidity shortly..?

And in that second part - the snow-summoning was working veery much better and faster this time.
Not by shouting out something - but by seeing something fitting - a birch tree - and convincing myself it would be snow on the branches, and it would be snowing back there - super results - happy Steph!!

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## NyxCC

Hey, that's so cool! Congrats Steph and keep them coming!  ::D:  





> First I summoned a naked beau - and "disappointed" him, by asking for a present suddenly - I did have other plans initially - he did not like the question and stalked off back around his corner.



Nice choice of summon subject and scoring points for the competition. For some reason, my sexy time guys are never naked but that's another story.  ::lol::  Really funny how you scared him off!

Loved the heavy snow part too! Weather management skills totally rock!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Yeah - and this second time of letting it snow - it went so much better than shouting did the last time.
I saw a tree with white branches - like a birch - in the distance - and all it took was convincing myself, that this would be snow - and that it was snowing back there for it to be so - baam.
Most importantly - this didn´t seem to take energy to accomplish - while the shouting did, and worked much less nicely.
This is so fantastic - when I tell somebody about having teachers like you - and getting answers to all my questions and daily (!!) attention - they all initially ask, what it costs.
When I tell them it is completely free - I got some heads shaking in almost disbelief!
It is really not possible to thank you enough for all the time and thought and effort you invest in teaching me - I am such a lucky person!

Aaand - look, loook:

Purple Patch!! My Longest LD Since Joining Here - Maybe Longest Ever! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

 :Bliss:

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## NyxCC

Yay, that sounds like a really nice long ld!  :smiley:  Sometime soon you might be giving us tips on dream control. That fierce look was actually quite good. The thing with dreams is you kind of never know for sure how things will turn out, except by practice. Sometimes things change easily, sometimes they become more stable and vivid like in your case. If you could notice and remember the distinct feel that comes with each dream control task, that might facilitate repeating the process in the future. I also liked how you made some sort of (secret) interaction with known people and were in the proper mood to do so.  ::goodjob2:: 

It makes me really happy to read about your lds and fun adventures. I have to say I am still learning every day by either lding or by reading other people's fantastic entries. Really like this process and this site where there are so many enthusiastic dreamers. Glad to have you here! Sweet dreams.  :smiley:

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## StephL

> Yay, that sounds like a really nice long ld!  Sometime soon you might be giving us tips on dream control. That fierce look was actually quite good. The thing with dreams is you kind of never know for sure how things will turn out, except by practice. Sometimes things change easily, sometimes they become more stable and vivid like in your case. If you could notice and remember the distinct feel that comes with each dream control task, that might facilitate repeating the process in the future. I also liked how you made some sort of (secret) interaction with known people and were in the proper mood to do so.



Thank youhuu!
I am really fascinated by what Sivason has to say about the visual field - not to let it get buried:





> The first thing you need to do is learn to stop thinking of the visual field in a dream as solid or conforming to even the most basic principles of real life.
> 
> To do this you start with simply attempting to rend or smudge the visual field.
> Start with an idea that you are looking at a chalk board.
> Put your fingers on a table top or wall and watch very closely. Feel as if it is a painting, not real. 
> 
> Now draw your fingers slowly down it and expect the visuals to get mangled and blurred like they would if you did this to a fresh oil painting.
> 
> As soon as you can do this with your hand, practice doing this to an object simply by moving your hand slowly in front of the object.
> ...



This is genial - and I am sure, I can do it with practice.
To make something appear, while you do not "know" what your dream has hidden, where you want it to be, seems to come rather easy for me. But I always need this component of an undefined and esp. unobserved space, from where something/somebody comes.

So I follow the rules of reality - just with the twist of self-convincing/strongly expecting.
That does not feel like _true_ creative freedom.

But to really grasp by experience - not only theory - _what a dream actually is_ - namely patterns in your brain - fully manipulatable with respective skill - that is something extremely desirable!
Also sounds very advanced - but to blur views and imagine images into the blurring - I sometimes do that in real life.
For example - I have a sort of stone floor - it´s called and is  - wood-concrete.
Normally people put carpets on top - but I really like it - and it ages, stains - has a lot of pattern-inspiration.
I sometimes draw on it with pencil and might then transfer it somewhere else - it´s fun inspiration.

I have this photograph - it looks pretty even there - but it is not so everywhere - I rather chose an even patch:









> It makes me really happy to read about your lds and fun adventures. I have to say I am still learning every day by either lding or by reading other people's fantastic entries. Really like this process and this site where there are so many enthusiastic dreamers. Glad to have you here! Sweet dreams.



Thank you once more - and I agree to the fullest - the people on this site are amazing, insightful and really motivated to help along - with whatever concern, actually!

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## NyxCC

Thanks for the quote. Sivason has lots of cool exercises in his class. Surely with practice and more playing around you will be able to change things the way you want to. Yet, I think that both the hidden summon and front summon are creative because you are using your thoughts to bring the object into existence. I guess we are more used to the hidden summon out of habit, we don't act like master magicians in daily life for one thing, and there might be this mental barrier. The other thing is, when you are directly looking at something you are thinking about what you are seeing and that reinforces it. For example, if you are seeing a dog, but you want it to become a cat, some part of you will still be supporting the existence of the dog. To change that, similarly to sivanson, I think it really helps to think about dreams as being fluid and flexible. Also, if you practice visualization during the day and allow your thoughts to freely build any objects you think about, you will be better able to summon and eventually change things in dreams too. Can't wait to read what kind of cool stuff you'll come up with.  :smiley:

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## StephL

Yes - absolutely - summoning is creative - but as you say - no need to override perception and schemes for it to work.
I meant the emphasis on the creative _freedom_.

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## StephL

Haha!!
I am just at the moment playing darts with my mates - 5:2 with one, 3:3 with the other it is!
That is unheard of - if I am lucky, I get out with 3:10 - not often. These two are the best of about 9 of us - not always here on Fridays, most.
Last night I dreamt non-lucidly of playing darts!
And hanging on here so much - I had not practised in real life - almost not - not as usual.
I hope I can do that study still - with the finger-tapping - got to mail him.

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## StephL

6:4 win - and a 4:3 loss - but anyway - was good - in the future then playing darts in LD.. ::D:

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## StephL

Just a short update - two mini lucid glimpses - at least, I do not run dry any more..:

Monster-Rabbit And Monster-Dog And A DEILD Between Two Useless Mini-Lucids - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

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## NyxCC

That's great! That rabbit thing I can imagine it being terrible, I once had a dream with a very annoying squirrel.  ::lol:: 

Good try with climbing up the tree and you really are getting good DEILDing back!

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## StephL

> That's great! That rabbit thing I can imagine it being terrible, I once had a dream with a very annoying squirrel.



Thanks!
Yeah - small things can be horrifying - I still remember a childhood nightmare where something the size and also shape of a sausage - but with mighty black chitin plates and sort of rotating spiked drill as a nose - wanting to drill into me.
And it was always able to hide - or break through somewhere.
Good I don´t have to listen to an analyst´s opinion on this...tongue.gif
No - it was like a mega insect and really nasty.





> Good try with climbing up the tree and you really are getting good DEILDing back!



Yepp - this seems to come almost on it´s own - I just want to - why not WILD, though??
Didn´t mention - but I tried it in an afternoon nap as well - and didn´t get to anywhere - not even to sleeping..

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## NyxCC

> Yepp - this seems to come almost on it´s own - I just want to - why not WILD, though??
> Didn´t mention - but I tried it in an afternoon nap as well - and didn´t get to anywhere - not even to sleeping..



Yeah, but you already know by now that there are only two types of lds: dild and wild and deild is a form of wild.  :tongue2:  Sooooo, it's a nice small victory for wilding! 

Still I understand you and love your drive and desire for more. Wish you lots of successful wilds, deilds and dilds.  :smiley: 

By the way, I also find it very hard to nap during the day. I just can't fall asleep....

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## StephL

I can´t nap either - but I thought, I try it with SSILD, if that might not enable it - nope.
But I was very refreshed after it anyway - almost better, than having slept a short while and had to get up then..

And I have thought - maybe try WILD without WBTB?
Staying conscious seems not so much the problem than falling asleep..
I mean wake up - maybe loose your dream - maybe having only stumbled to the toilet - without staying up for a span of time..
And then try to WILD?
I only get the idea to DEILD, when waking from an already lucid dream.
And I feel, it is different - rather an unstable dream collapsing intermittently - before you have really woken up completely..?

I will go on holiday tomorrow early - I expect not very much because of that - but I´ll give it a try there as well.
Have a good time, however you celebrate!

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## NyxCC

Oh, certainly you can play with the wbtb duration and see how a different one affects your awareness, wilding, dreams and lds that follow.  

Not all deilds will be short, actually I think they might make dream immersion easier (vs classical wilds), because you are usually more sleepy when you wake up and deild than when you are going for a wild. When you get more lds you will see that some no matter what type will be short, others long, yet try to give them your best without bias, because it is you who makes your dreams!  ::goodjob2:: 

Thanks! You too, have great holidays !  :smiley:

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## StephL

I am taking a look at my time on here - and feel a huge wave of gratitude for having a teacher like you - always there for me - giving so much time and thought and positivity - teaching me so wonderfully!

I said so to gab and fogelbise as well - this academy is an absolutely unique place on the internet - what you do for me is truly invaluable - and as a gift from you personally and whenever I need you.
Hard to make people believe something like this is reality!
Happy fresh lucid year to you and the people you value - may you get as much good things as you give and more!


flowers.gif

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## NyxCC

Thank you for the kind words, Steph!  :smiley:  I certainly feel the same way about DV and all the awesome people here. It really is amazing and I am also very grateful to all present and past staff members for creating and supporting this lucid inspiring environment as well as to all the enthusiastic and friendly members we have here. Even if I have a bad day, when I log back in and see all the positive talk, the lds that everybody keeps having, it instantly makes me feel so much better. Happy to have you here and I enjoy reading those awesome entries of yours! 

Thanks a lot and a very happy lucid new year to you too!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Thank you so much and I feel the same - I love the enthusiasm and friendliness - also the open-heartedness of so many people.
So many people in the first place - that is extremely encouraging - and I find more every day lately since asking!
At least - "back in childhood LDers" like I also was - then it stopped for some reason.
I have to seriously count - but I might be over 10 discoveries now - including 4 my dartsforum - 3 pages - would you believe it?
Mainly me writing - but anyway - all 4 in adulthood and 3 at the moment.
One of my good friends there had one after reading my thread - and not for years before.
Don't know what I'm typing - was on a mixed small darts tournament - lost most - won some - had bit of beer - good night!

 :Off to Bed:

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## NyxCC

That's so nice! Keep spreading the lucid knowledge! I love it!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Yepp - I allow myself to be enthused - this is worth it!
Had a mini LD moment last night, by the way. - I think, my hands get more and more realistic from the get go - just from giving them a boost of some looking at them and mantra-ing that I look at my hands and know that I dream.
But when I look at them - I am already lucid.

I heard something:
Supposedly - it is even very bad to look at something directly in front of your eyes - if you do not move your eyes - since that is what is, when you sleep and not dream.

I will leave this out next time - and concentrate on the intellectual realization, that I am dreaming.
That's why I RC - not because I do it in real life.

Hm hm - on the other hand, I did 3 hand-lookings yesterday - not questioning anything - just looking at them and mantra-ing that in a dream - I look at my hands and know that I dream.
But that was not like many say - "building a habit that spills over" - only 3 between weeks of none.
I had a primary notion of being lucid, and _then_ did it.

I will grab something only next time - or simply look around - not do something artificial in the expectation of having a problem.
I want to get my dream stable - not my hands.
Don't know, if that makes sense..?

Maybe even no need for a dream-body in the first place?
Just a point of view - have you done that?

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the ld! It's good that you are getting these so often and soon a big one will come and you will have the chance to experiment and do all those awesome tasks.  ::D: 





> Supposedly - it is even very bad to look at something directly in front of your eyes - if you do not move your eyes - since that is what is, when you sleep and not dream.



Hmmm, really? Well, staring at an object for a long time might cause some dream instability but not always. Interesting possible connection to sleep vs dreaming.  :Thinking: 





> But that was not like many say - "building a habit that spills over" - only 3 between weeks of none.
> I had a primary notion of being lucid, and then did it.



I think that even if you don't perform a RC in the dream as direct spillover, the practice of daytime techniques helps channel your intent to ld, you subcon takes note and then it's like a little mental reminder you set for yourself. 





> I will grab something only next time - or simply look around - not do something artificial in the expectation of having a problem.
> I want to get my dream stable - not my hands.
> Don't know, if that makes sense..?
> 
> Maybe even no need for a dream-body in the first place?
> Just a point of view - have you done that?



By all means, feel free to explore as much as you like in order to stabilize. Canis has gotten some really impressive dream prolonging and enhancing effects by trying to take it all in during the first couple of moments. It seems the more engaged in the dream you are, the more stable and vivid it becomes. Just don't forget it is a dream.  :tongue2: 

The idea of no dream body is a good one and opens the door to lots of experimentation. I personally prefer to have  body parts present to ground me when needed, as feelings of weightlessness may lead me in the direction of the void. So, it's usually not something I aim to do at this moment, although the realization that there is no dream body could be very useful when you get stuck among different objects, face aggressive DCs, etc. By the way, I have heard that Sageous doesn't have a dream body (anymore?), so he might give you additional insight on the matter.

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## StephL

Yeah - if only I knew where I read that about not keeping the eyes still.
But on the other hand - in that LD where I tried in vain to transform things - I did stare at stuff - and not woke up..
And yeah - definitively doing something in the day to anchor the intent was the driving force behind that short blip.

What I meant was more that I do not first think, all is reality - then do an RC - and then realize, I dream.
I realize that I dream first - and then do RC.

And I suspect to distract myself from the intellectual realization by for example too much hand-looking.
Got to try it out with only "taking it all in".

I sometimes have no body anyway - and it seems to be effort to bring all and every aspect into the dream of a body.
But maybe it is really very good verging on needed for stabilization for a beginner.

There was also a moment - one of my first lucid moments on here - zooming into a tree for nazi-hunting - where I did not have a body, and felt a bit clueless as to how to exist like that further on - and lost lucidity.


Last night I was semi-lucid - felt like being a character in a movie being recorded - I had my role to play - and special powers - but didn't recognize it as a dream. More like a game.
Not the time now - after posting loads other things instead.. ::roll:: 
But got to journal it soon - made no dictation, because it was so vivid and easy to remember - hopefully I get it back together.
It was impeding apocalypse by an attack from space - without finding the aliens unfortunately - that would have been nice - my first consciously remembered self-created aliens!!

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## NyxCC

> Yeah - if only I knew where I read that about not keeping the eyes still.
> But on the other hand - in that LD where I tried in vain to transform things - I did stare at stuff - and not woke up..
> And yeah - definitively doing something in the day to anchor the intent was the driving force behind that short blip.



I remember that task, getting more detail instead of changing was pretty good too! I guess it helps to notice all the background processes that happen while we are doing dream control. I think sivason also talked about being aware of your own thoughts before they manifest. That way control will be more precise. But don't worry too much about it, we are always learning and your experiences with dream control nicely add to the cumulative knowledge we have. More experiments, additional insights!  ::D: 





> Last night I was semi-lucid - felt like being a character in a movie being recorded - I had my role to play - and special powers - but didn't recognize it as a dream.



Cool! What were the superpowers?  ::yddd::

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## StephL

Oh - I missed your answer!
First of all I could fly - and then I had to stop a plane and bring it down - but at the same time - I knew, it wasn't really me - flying next to the plane - but a special effects crew on the ground.
It was about catching a group of people - action-movie style - with running and shooting I believe - but it was weird - a semi-lucidity, where the explanation went awry - movie set/special effects - was great though - didn't journal - but memory is unusually good for it too.


Now I have two nights with multiple alarms - last before last - I think I wrongly remember having been awake when they went off - every one of 6 - can't be true - don't know what sort of tricks my memory played on me there - and last night - I slept through them all - but maybe I heard some, and forgot - except one - and this woke me up too much to try - moving, opening my eyes and all.

I don't know what's wrong with my motivation..
That's the real problem - I simply went to bed and expected myself to take care of it, when waking up.
Since I "suffer" from a strong inertia when waking up - I need to set intention, do some RCs in the day, mantra properly before going to sleep.
I simply forget to care, when it is time.. ::roll:: 

Got a lot going irl - and am a bit into a movie watching phase for relaxation - so LD-reinforcement urgently needed - not least to try and do my lucid darting.
There was supposed to be a tournament yesterday - if it wouldn't have been cancelled - maybe that would have been enough..?
Could hit myself for letting it slip - but at least I got the alarm thing now to further experiment with.
I think, I need to really prepare myself actively to hear it and do what I planned..

Soz for the whining..

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## NyxCC

Nice to hear from you Steph!  :smiley:  That sounds like a cool semi-ld. 

I hope your motivation to ld returns soon. The inertia when waking up is not something unusual. I think we all resist the desire to get up and try for an ld when we are so sleepy. Also, I sometimes find it hard to pick a task that will help me focus on having an ld.

Luckily, this mood passes away when I read a few entries to inspire me or just notice something cool when watching a movie or from real life that I then want to try. And then it's the usual organization: ld with a particular task to complete. By the way, you seem to have really interesting non-lds, you may look for cool stuff to do from them too. The thing with lding is, it feels so great, it's hard not to want to come back to it, even for the occasional sunset or doing some telekinesis, the pull of adventure and the sense of freedom is awesome.  ::dreaming::

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## StephL

::banana:: 

Not a big one - but a bit of progress towards a WILD - second ever time with HHs!
Very happy to have the auto-snooze clock now - very promising!
Okay - I wrote a lot in my DJ - so I will copy-paste over:

The (long) dream I journalled from last night had almost an overload of dream-signs:

Geographical setting around lake I grew up close to
Looking and finding a place to move in for living
Swimming
Searching luggage and getting frustrated
Ex-boyfriend
Not being able to speak

Six of them in one dream - and I stayed happily non-lucid.. ::roll:: 
The problem might be that I love to dream of my growing up area - maybe I sort of want to miss out on it being a dream..?

Made a mistake with my alarms - the app needs to be open, for them to go off - I noted, it was not - but my dictation-thing, when I woke up naturally quite late.
Was awake for the next one still then - and the one after that woke me up - and I tried it out as a micro-WBTB with mantra - in the end I fell asleep to a non-lucid.

Buuut: before that was a short phase of - very short - disappeared once I got a bit excited about it - *HH*!!
And pretty strong ones - bit of vibration and a strong feeling of weightlessness - but at the same time movement - swerving about - even falling.
That was the second time of my life, I had strong bodily HH - any HH, actually - first one was after a longer WBTB and 2 min. of just looking at the back of my eyelids on a WILD try - on my second ever WILD try!!

And such I made a lot of tries the last two months up to half an hour - never again with HH or success in WILD but quite often with a following DILD.
I guess, I need them some more times, before I can avoid getting so positively excited about it..
This is progress towards WILD, though - and makes me very happy indeed!

It was not on my back but in my usual position on my stomach and turned to the right.

So - wish me luck with my new toy, please - looks I might finally get my WILD if I do a micro-WBTB only.. ::D:

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## NyxCC

Hey, it sounds like you were getting close indeed!  ::banana::  I'm pretty sure you will surprise us with a cool wild experience sometime soon. For me when I get close to the ld state, it helps to have a mix of strong determination combined with lack of interest. This usually keeps the excitement down. I try to make wilding a very casual (in terms of attitude) process, where I don't worry so much about the transition and the noise, but simply concentrate on having a lucid. 

What's the app that you are using by the way? There has been so much talk about this, I may give it a try as an alternative to normal wbtbs. I used one app a long time ago where it would play a song (chose Piav's famous song), but it was always too loud for me and I had to wake up to turn it off.  :tongue2:

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## StephL

::yddd:: 

It wooohoorked!!

My First Alarm DEILD!! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views


I will link you up to the app, like benni did - it is soo worth it - that was the easiest thing in the world!
Edit - there:  Alarm Clock Bud Pro for IPhone
And not like the two LD-LD DEILDs I had - it felt more like a WILD - no noise - but I was completely out of the previous dream - and had this phenomenon of looking through my eyelids like through a camera-seeker and then it made wuusch - not acoustically - somehow bodily - and I was there!

And - I found two new "victims":





> I was out last night - watching the première of a movie the husband of a friend is the director of - was great - aand - both were fascinated, when later I told them about LD.
> He even told me, he would have some lucidity - but only for the very last moments in a dream - and he would always wake up almost with or from the realization.
> Since the movies he not only directs, but also writes, are a lot about psychological stuff - for example how people deal with violence in the family - I guess, he could really bite.
> Dreaming big, the me - maybe he makes a movie on it one day, if he happens to learn and love it properly!!
> Now that would be something!!
> But his wife - my friend - she did indeed already know, what LD is, and has read about it - just never had one/remembers none.
> So it sort of must be something about Germany - and/or my "intellectual" circle of friends..

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## NyxCC

Well done Steph!  ::banana::  So when the alarm went on that first dream you had interrupted and you found yourself in bed or were you just floating in the dark until this next scene - the ground appeared? 

Your dream sounds really cool, I love dreams where you go around and explore and the villa must have been an awesome place. Nicely done enhancing dream vividness and the toilet experiment. 

Lol about finding new victims. Maybe the word really is spreading and with more well made movies out there it will become more popular (_and neighbors won't be making so much noise because they will want to ld too_!) Ok, now I'm dreaming  ::D: .

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## StephL

Hehehe - thank you!
I was really awake, lying in my bed and waiting out the 5 sec. alarm.
That's why I felt, it was a sort of WILD, while my other two supposed DEILDs were loosing LD - something - back in LD - or my memory deceives me - just read my DJ anew - and found inconsistencies with my memories now.
Not much or far - but some stuff morphs in memory always.

It might really be, that this director gets into it - just a hunch - since he already had a notion of it, shortly before awaking - and lately.
Plus has now some new info from me - and I believe also read something himself before.
Would be great!

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## NyxCC

> That's why I felt, it was a sort of WILD, while my other two supposed DEILDs were loosing LD - something - back in LD - or my memory deceives me - just read my DJ anew - and found inconsistencies with my memories now.
> Not much or far - but some stuff morphs in memory always.



I also sometimes forget the exact post ld transition, especially if I continue sleepying after the next ld/deild or engage in additional chaining. Sometimes I touch on my body for such a short period of time, I can't be sure it even happened, i.e. not being sure if it was a DEILD or in-dream chain.  ::?:

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## StephL

Again!!
This time I had for the first time after joining up and still not having an LD - taken RRCing seriously in the day.
Every time I went to a toilet - noticing to my slight embarrassment, that I encounter dream-toilets regularly - and some more for good measure - around 20.
Plus mantraing, when going to bed.

Soo - and this is what I got: LD Even Before The Alarms!! Well - Lucid Fragments In Another Dream - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Excerpt from the first LD-episode of two in that normal dream:





> But what came to my mind this time wasn't darts or TOTMs - but dutchraptors 5 lucid criteria.
> I knew that I was dreaming - I remembered these criteria - and decided to break through a closed window.
> First I touched the glass - and then I just pushed my lower arms through.
> What happened when I broke through was, that this window behaved, as if it had been a thin plastic foil with some metal-foil mimicking a mirror then.
> So then I was outside and hovering like 2 m over the ground - and wanted to make sure, I know there are no consequences to what I do.
> There was a group of people standing about - and I took a long stick from a tree - and poked them.
> I know..
> At least I didn't care, what they thought of me. They looked a bit afraid, asked what that was all about - but didn't leave.
> Well yeah - and I was on the one hand able to contemplate, that it constituted a failure not to do more - on the other hand - I couldn't bring myself to seriously hurt or kill somebody. 
> With that I lost lucidity.

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the early lds, Steph! Very good recognizing the enclosed space and doors as dream sign.  ::goodjob2::  It was funny how you recalled the 5 ld friteria and went on poking DCs. Do you plan on continuing the tests?  ::lol::

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## StephL

Heheeh - nope actually not.
In the end effect - I did really have an understanding of there being no consequences if I had killed one of them - except me having a nasty dream.
To completely free myself from _such_ an effect then - is maybe not on the platter right now.
What I rather got to do - and didn't last night, what I think I should do is prepare myself for making a pause and think about my options - not have an idea and rush to follow it.
I didn't really expect an LD out of the blue - I should always be prepared.
I had promised myself to try and dart at the next best opportunity - but the criteria had come to my mind - and I forgot to consider further.
And not get disappointed by something like this next time - I could have just flown away and done something else instead of loosing lucidity.

What I take from it is planning my next alarm-night with an onset after 3 hours of sleep, and see how that goes.
And - I guess I can say, I fulfilled the criteria - I did not refrain from hurting somebody, because I thought they were actually alive other beings - but rather because I didn't want to dream of gore, screaming and dying.

Oh well - edit:
As an aside - nice I did the window thing on the one hand - on the other - I didn't really phase through - but rather made a transformation of the window into something penetrable irl.
So - once I got nothing better to do - I will work on that further. And I guess - once in a while - probably for a TOTM - I also will get myself into some gore and screaming and dying one day.
I think, Ophelia will reliably present some opportunities for that further on..

girl_werewolf.gif

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## StephL

I did it!!!

I played lucid daaarts!
Soo great - I used the lately often mentioned pretend-remember-technique - being in a house - I "remembered" that there was a dart-board and arrows next door - and they were!!

Yupp - need stabilization stuff now for sure - it was a bit blurry - also metaphorically speaking - I can't remember, what I hit - I think I just threw at the board, to see, if I really can, and if they really fly naturally - and they did!!
I mean - not a wonder, that my unconscious knows about how darts fly, did that enough often - but it really felt natural - and even the oche-length - I was worried, that it wouldn't be dreamt correctly - but it felt all right!!

darts-048.gif


Copy-paste - sorry - but that's exactly what I want to brag about today ...cheeky.gif

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## NyxCC

> And - I guess I can say, I fulfilled the criteria - I did not refrain from hurting somebody, because I thought they were actually alive other beings - but rather because I didn't want to dream of gore, screaming and dying



I totally understand this. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we have to do it. It's just another option. 





> I did it!!!
> 
> I played lucid daaarts!
> Soo great - I used the lately often mentioned pretend-remember-technique - being in a house - I "remembered" that there was a dart-board and arrows next door - and they were!!



That's awesome Steph! It's really cool you managed to get such a real life proximity of the experience too! Why do I have the feeling that this won't be the last time you play lucid darts?  ::D:

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## StephL

I mean this really seriously - I want to "prove", that it can have an effect on performance - for that I needed _quite some rise_ in mean 3-dart average - good question, what would be credible as anecdotal evidence?

Darts is something, people usually play for years on end, before they really feel, they got their personal technique pinned down.
I have started a thread on my forum a while ago on these plans and LD in general - shame I can't link up - and I also told them the news today.
Soo - sort of I freely put myself under observation.

Got to play some darts on the internet with statistics now* - as a sort of control - been inactive there for several months - only privately, and I have a bit of a rise already over that time - without dreaming. Also I will keep up real-life practice of course.
I should think about these things - because I should expect the lucid darting coming in every night now, shouldn't I?  :Shades wink: 
Hm, hm..

If I get this going now - maybe I should even go to the research-section on here - and ask for help with setting it up..?
Dreaming big is allowed, after all!

feathers (1).gif


*I am a novice with less than three years all together - but I have my days, where it starts to really click - and then on others - it seems, like I forgot everything and throw a load of crap.

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## NyxCC

> I mean this really seriously - I want to "prove", that it can have an effect on performance - for that I needed quite some rise in mean 3-dart average - good question, what would be credible as anecdotal evidence?



You mean conducting an experiment that may show that ld practice improves real practice? I have read in an article somewhere that musicians and athletes often visualize performing before important events, and possibly those who can ld may do this in dreams too. I know from practice that solving exercises in a dream (even a non-lucid one) can indeed help solidify knowledge and improve skills.  :tongue2: 

Good luck with the experiment. It would be cool to have it in the research section. ::goodjob2::

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## StephL

Actually - yupp!
I mean - if it really works - why not on me?
There is at least one study, which shows, that training for throwing coins in buckets trained only in LD is more effective, than the already established effects of visualization - and I'm not sure - but really close to physical practice alone, I believe it was.
MelSchaedlich, the German sports psychology researcher, who is sporadically on here, was involved with a TV-docu aired last month, which featured an athlete, too.
And now she - believe it or not - does a sleep lab study on throwing darts!!
But for beginners in darts rather - she mailed me about it - you got to be there, though - and I do not know the details.
Maybe distance to the bulls-eye?
Can't wait for the results of this of course!

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## NyxCC

Oh, there is a study! That is so exciting indeed!  ::D:

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## StephL

Yeah - but the only thing, I could do would be my very own stab at a piece of anecdotal evidence.
But cool they really do it in the sleep-lab.

I needed to take a good measure of where I am right now - and then see, if I can raise performance in a way, that transgresses my pretty well documented rate of slow improvement over the last year by a convincing amount.
It had to be a big effect, to make it less probable, that it is down to the phase of learning, I am in.

How to go about defining a result, even if it is only so that I personally would be really convinced of it?

And there are several other problems - first of all - I am pretty lazy with darts at the moment, and I definitively have to keep up with my usual daytime practice.
That was very often an hour a day - sometimes more, but definitively every single day.
And these days I go through several days without throwing. The only thing, still really up and going are my Fridays - a lot of hours then - but otherwise just some here and there.
So if now I do less than I used to irl and some LDing - I might drop, even.

But it combines the two and I hope, with being able to lucid dart - my real life darting motivation will come back up.
Next Friday a couple from England comes joining us for darting, while they are in Berlin - knowing them over the forum - and on the 9th is a tourney..

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## NyxCC

Wow, you have an underground darts organization going on there. Have fun and good luck on the tourney!  ::D:

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## StephL

Two mini lucidities!
I had again - but only shortly - tried to WILD - and in the following dream, twice it came to me, that I could simply fly where I wanted to go, because it was a dream.
As if that were insignificant - I flew there and good was.. ::roll:: 
Can't hurt, though either - and was nice!

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## NyxCC

Sounds like you made the most of these mini lds! Congrats!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Congratulation on your bonus-adventure!!

You saw it already in the TOTM thread - but I wanted to make a few remarks on this latest LD of mine from two nights back.
I've long been moaning about less than realistic - or lets say reduced sensory environment in my LDs.
Like I didn't have all-round in depths surroundings - only where my concentration was, did stuff get, at times, very clear and vivid.
But all overall I had problems stabilizing and with vividness over the last weeks.

This one was different - the world felt stable and was full of intricate details, the colours were vivid, all came together highly harmonically.
That's why I held back on dream-control a bit, fearing a loss of quality, after not having it for so long.

What did it?
I don't know - but I have done for three days now very simple meditation efforts. Just lying down comfortably and observing my breathing and try to detach myself from all else concerning thoughts, perceptions etc.
Maybe 5 min. each time - always directing myself back, when I started to wander.
I like it a lot, and it is almost wondrous, how good it makes me feel, just trying for such a small amount of time.
I really hope, that is what did it - would be easy enough to keep up!

I have also a new appetite rearing up towards going out and sampling reality - it helps that spring breaks out round here at the moment!
Like - searching for beautiful, vivid detail-rich reality impressions for my unconscious to play with at night!
One could say this is mad - dreaming is for living, not the other way round - but I don't care - it will be good for me no matter.



Another thing - I have identified tons of dream-signs of which I keep dreaming over and over and then some.
Only in the rarest cases do I recognize them to get lucid.
I caught up with the toilets only by doing RCs almost every time irl. But almost all other dreamsigns don't occur in my actual life (any more).

Soo - and this last time, I recognized one, which I had dreamt of only once (knowingly) before: Digging a bit in the ground and finding a lot of finger rings buried there.
It instantly made me lucid, that I remembered having dreamt it before - so comprehensively, that I didn't need any RCs and as said - it was a great LD compared to my latest ones.
Not only long, but vivid and stable.

How come?
What can I do to pin down the others?
If I got lucid from lets say the most persistent 5 signs - I would be lucid every night and often in several dreams per night!
As said - I can't RC on them..

I tried it with mantraing over the day and in bed - when ever I see x I know that I am dreaming, and I visualize x with it - but it doesn't really work. Sometimes I wonder if this is because unconsciously I want to dream of these things - mostly the place I grew up at and some people I really miss irl, because they are geographically far away and contact is sparse.
Maybe I want them simulated realistically??

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## NyxCC

Thanks!  :smiley: 

Congrats on your awesome ld and the totm! I really liked how you made that simple task so interesting.  ::goodjob2:: 

I went back and read the entire entry - it felt magical! It's quite possible that mediation is helping. I have been doing on a regular basis a kind of visualization/meditation exercise, quite similar to yours actually, but the focus being an image or a thought. So I would relax for 10-20 mins and choose a simple object, background, or color, focus on the image of it for as long as possible or the thought of it. Then I would go to another one and so on. I think this has been very helpful for enhancing ld length and for summoning.  

Very good you recalled this rare dream sign and that triggered lucidity. It's quite interesting that there are some weird DS like these that pop up from time to time. I remember I used to dream of finding ancient coins long time ago and it recently occurred again and twice! No lucidity though, but I am on the lookout now!  ::D: 





> I tried it with mantraing over the day and in bed - when ever I see x I know that I am dreaming, and I visualize x with it - but it doesn't really work



I thought about it recently again. From my experience, if you repeat this mantra list over and over, you are bound to catch the dream signs sooner or later. But we always get so disappointed when we miss. I have found out that some of these old dream signs - place, people tend to pop up more often while we are more deeply asleep, hence our logical thinking is at minimum then. Therefore it might be slightly more difficult to catch them sometimes, which is why we use the mantra. It will eventually reach the subcon, so this association that a DC is DS will be formed. Another thing one might try - is to actually program this _during the dream_. Let's say your first grade teacher is your DS, then you can summon her in an ld, talk to her, and emphasize this fact. If you repeat this a number of times, it will become a stronger association and memory.

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## StephL

Oooh - thank you!!
First of all - you are surely right and so is fogelbise - this mantraing _will_ work - just I need to keep at it!
And I really like your idea of summoning a DS DC in an LD - will try that out!
The dream was great, really was.
Was lazy with my meditation yesterday - tse - don't understand myself sometimes - just 5 min. and if only for how good it makes me feel directly - one should think, I wouldn't let it slip..
Today more!

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## StephL

I had two lucid moments again - directly when a dream was about to end - wasn't prepared to DEILD mentally unfortunately - but it's great to know, I just get lucid like that from time to time - out of nothing.

Aand - mantraing on some dreamsigns of mine did start to work maybe - it's from Stupidest Way You Missed Becoming Lucid - but anyway:





> It happened again.
> Sunbathing with my mother on the balcony of the house, she sold and which is ripped down.
> I turn to her and said - you know - for a while I have only dreamt of this house a whole lot. But since we are _really here_, and all the time (I dream of it a lot) - how can that be?
> 
> She said - yeah - she sold the ground, and didn't tell me, that it would still stand - behind the two big apartment houses, I had seen, when I had been coming here to look.
> Somehow I was sceptic, because we didn't own that much ground and there was a hill in it - but I thought - ah - that's the earth from where they built the new ones.
> And then of course I got into a tirade how maximally unfair this would have been of my mother, to for years have this secret, and I can only dream of it.
> While she sunbaths etc. 
> 
> But it was muuch closer than just dreaming of it! Mantraing on it starts to work maybe?



The second lucid moment was so - I had gotten a new short hair cut, and the second time of re-cutting - all was wrong with it - pony too short, sides too long and whatnot.
Then I started to see myself in 3rd person perspective and the haircut from all sides, and it turned blonde - that tipped me off.
But woke almost directly afterwards - had been a long dream before.

I find it remarkable, because I want to try out 3rd person perspective in a lucid - esp. for darting - but didn't ever try yet.
At least I can do it from non-lucidity!


Aand - something else - I read in 501's workbook, that he twice, I believe, or once, had a lucid when having taken Valerian.
Did that twice - and one time, I was lucid that night - forgot to mention that.
But I don't like it - very hard to get out of bed.
When I have a sleeping problem - rarely - I take Melatonin, which works, and I can get up fresh in the morning - no problem.
This Valerian (300 mg - half a "strong" tablet) - while sounding so harmless - is pretty strongly sedating.
So no further motivation to do pharmacological experiments with it - too strong for my taste - and didn't expect it.
But I guess, it is a sleeping-pill, which at least doesn't interfere negatively with lucidity.

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the lds! Nothing's really random - you are making it happen one way or another!  ::D: 

That dream about the house was so close! It looks like the mantras are starting to work. I know that feel when you miss a lucid, sometimes I would see that something's off, comment that it looks exactly like a dream and now is a good time to RC, then continue doing whatever I was doing.  ::doh:: 

Still, those are signs of real progress! 





> I find it remarkable, because I want to try out 3rd person perspective in a lucid - esp. for darting - but didn't ever try yet.



That would be so cool! I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes for you! 





> Aand - something else - I read in 501's workbook, that he twice, I believe, or once, had a lucid when having taken Valerian.
> Did that twice - and one time, I was lucid that night - forgot to mention that.
> But I don't like it - very hard to get out of bed.



For me valerian isn't contributing to lucidity per se, but helps me fall asleep and reduces wbtb insomnia. But my recall and dream control are worse off.

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## StephL

Luuuhuucid again!!
So much yet to write - I copy paste once more, sorry:

eek.gif

Why does nobody do this?
Upon reading up on overdosing Melatonin, and that I don't have to worry one bit with it - I took 15 mg - 5 small pills.
It is even a very potent and healthy antioxidant - like vitamin C and E...
And I didn't do nothing else - absolutely nothing in the day and in bed. Edit: Oh wait - I did about 5 min. meditation in the afternoon..
And yepp!!
There were even three instances that night - somewhere in the first 7 h hours of sleep.
What is a bit stupid, is that I didn't journal directly after the dreams - but went on to heavily oversleep afterwards - I guess I slept 12 h or so.
Side effect from the Melatonin, I guess - but I wasn't tired or feeling smashed after getting up.
I guess, I could have gotten up earlier without problems too.
I know, I forgot large parts of the lucidity like this.
Good that I remembered the TOTM and now also remember doing it - but not much else from these instances.

First off - I got lucid from realizing, that the old house cannot be real, because it has been ripped down!!
It was again a bit back and forth with - but it is soo real - but it can't be real - but it looks soo .. and then finally a RC.
If this would reliably work - as I said - I got a chance every night on that house - if I don't stop dreaming of it so much, once I register it isn't for real??
This time I really took my time with pondering the implications of lucidity - dutchraptor-like, unfortunately forgot to do a full-sensory inventory - but it was pretty stable anyway.

What didn't work was phasing through a big closed window - it broke and it hurt a bit - I also clearly remember this.
It's such a shame I forgot so much - that won't happen again - I promise myself to journal instantly after an LD!!

 ::yddd:: 






Edit: Just came to my mind: Since two days I use a sleeping mask - maybe this also was beneficial.

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the lds! Also, checked the journal entry as I think I kind of saw TOTM there. Yep, maybe you wanted to spare me the details of _this_ particular task completion, lol!  ::lol::  The ending was very funny! 

Great you caught the old house DS too! Maybe with more cases like this, you will show us all that 100 percent lucidity is possible.  ::D: 

15 mg? That's a lot! I probably would have a mix of lucidity, nightmares and mega insomnia with such quantity.  ::roll::

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## StephL

Thanks!
 :smiley: 

Naa - no insomnia - but I was pretty tired the next day - that's too much for regularly - but I'm convinced it worked - that was really different in terms of ease of realisation of the signs.
I've edited into my DJ my research on dosages and toxicity - should be completely safe - but as FryingMan remarked - there are no long-term medium dosage studies - like over years.
What I found for example, was a study with very high dosage of up to 170 mg per day over 35 days, and they found only rare and minor side-effects - like for example - vivid dreams!  ::roll:: 
More over there.

But yeah - irrespective of that - I'm soo happy, I start catching up on this house - now I just need to keep on dreaming of it as much as I do now - and you're right - should mean almost every night!

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## CanisLucidus

Woohoo, nice!  Congratulations on the lucids, Steph!   ::happy:: 

Yeah, that's a pretty amazing melatonin dose.  As you obviously found out in your research, that stuff is very hard to overdose on (in fact it has no known LD50 in mice... meaning that scientists were unable to find a high enough dose to kill mice with it), but I definitely found it can make you very drowsy.  I did a 12 mg mega-dose once and dragging myself out of bed the next morning wasn't so easy.  Definitely best to only do something like this when you don't need to be doing any driving any time soon.   ::chuckle:: 

Keep up the great work!

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## NyxCC

^^ Those mice must have had a hell of trip then.  :Boggle:

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## StephL

Thank you CanisLucidus!!
I agree - my 17 mg would not have been a good idea with something to do the next day.
I was sick last week and just simply felt bad and weak anyway - didn't want to add up on that yet.
Maybe middle ground next weekend - or maybe not.

Been saying it next door - if I would go down the supp route - I had to really study it - gather lots of information, and then truly play with different substances and mixtures and concentrations systematically - and that would cost quite some money and time, too.
We can't even get melatonin in the pharmacy over here let alone the other stuff by the way.
Which is soo bizarre - melatonin's tons of positive effects are beyond doubt - so why is it sort of outlawed here - that somebody should try explaining to me..?

Well - anyway - I've been moaning about not meeting my main dream-sign irl - but a bit of activity almost two weeks back, with mantraing and visualisations on our old house - like recommended - gave me two further detections!!
Its sort of receding - I'm not living there any more meanwhile, it is about to get destroyed.
First time while being sick and not motivated in any way - I just slipped out of lucidity after taking a look around and dreamt on with my story.

Then last night was some weird back and forth reasoning:
The house - I dream!
Then - no, it's getting ripped down this day - that's why I want to get something out of the empty building.
Then - noo - it has already been, so I can't stand in front of it!

The normal dream, which I forgot by now - was something nice and I wanted to go on with it actually.
But the TOTMs came out just on time for this - since there were two DCs standing behind me - I thought take the first task in stride - and so I found out, that a woman with really beautiful long black hair - has as middle name Niniana!
Groundbreaking, earthshaking news!!  ::roll:: 

Shortly thought of the aliens -* I have to and I will get abducted by aliens this month!!*  ::alien:: 
But somehow I reckoned, I wouldn't have enough dream quality or control - and without so much as trying - I slipped back in non-lucidity.

So I guess I should concentrate on keeping up the motivation to do something lucidly - waking up seems not so much the problem atm.
My real life darting has a dip in the moment - so that went to the back of my mind lately - but this whole alien thing with space-ship tourism - I have to!!

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## NyxCC

All this talk about dream signs is so motivating. It presents a wonderful opportunity for us that is right in front of our sleeping face. I also tend to dream of past places a lot, but have been slacking with the place as a DS mantra recently. Still, there are lots of times when I ld straight into my old room. It is a very familiar location, so my mind easily builds the place. I've had tons of dreams there over the years. Hopefully, with more ld events there, it should start getting bookmarked as an ld location. Also, I think in the long term, it will be really cool to see how much of my DS list I can turn into lucidity. My wbtb routine gets me lazy about DS lists during the day, but then I need to have a non-wbtb plan too. Sorry about the rambling, you really got me thinking and determined to do this at some point.  :smiley: 

Congrats on TOTM too! That's a very interesting name, maybe she was alien?  ::shock:: 

Looking forward to reading about your alien abduction!

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## StephL

Yeah - dream-signs are a fine thing - while missing out on a bucket-load like usual, but having a lot of recall because of relatively light sleep - I even caught myself two more little instances with lucidity just like that the last three nights.
Niniana - yupp - quite alien a name - but she was just a pretty woman - actually I didn't really see her face - her hair was wonderful, though - and she was not green.
I'll avoid going into the details of my problems once more - but if you find the time and look at the last two DJ entries - illusory urinary urges are out to get me - such a stupid thing. Real ones - okay - tough luck - but this is silly.

But - the second one was not so bad - proud on opening a huge hangar door with my mind only - but it wasn't the desired spaceship outside - only a military tank in green, which brought me into trouble later on.. ::roll:: 

Very happy with my recall - also last night - if I had put them down in between - I had four really exciting and long and cohesive dreams at memory, while waking up after them - they were all there.
Guess, I could even reconstruct a lot of it now.
Too lazy though to write - tomorrow the comp - sparing my typing powers..
But it was with rocket-base and adventure and and - hope it goes on so interesting.

Good luck you with the dream-signs - I really feel, I got number one pinned down - now I just hope, it's not going to disappear because of me having "solved" something in that department..?!


Edit: Actually - I wouldn't complain in a way if I did solve this thing with me still being sad and sort of angry with my mother for what she did - would probably be a healthy thing, if I had to switch to the next sign.
The past being over and all.

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## NyxCC

Well, first of all congrats on the lucidity!  :smiley: 

I don't know why you have a peeing spree but hopefully won't get schema infected.  :tongue2:  I'm not even sure I want to write this but...well I was reading one of CL's entries and he had an issue with a certain thing (omitting it so that you won't get to dream about it), and then I've had three dreams lucid where I bumped into the problem item. It is absolutely ridiculous, and I would tell myself that it doesn't exist and everything, but I could still...anyways...just wanted to say this happens to all of us...whether it's pee or other stuff.

Best advice, try to ignore it as much as possible. It's just an urge, if it's a real one 2 mins of more sleep probably won't be fatal and if it's illusory, then, it's just a distraction.





> Good luck you with the dream-signs - I really feel, I got number one pinned down - now I just hope, it's not going to disappear because of me having "solved" something in that department..?!



Thanks! What I've found is that they do require some maintenance work. Some months ago I was very aggressive with DS review and had more DS catch DILDs. But once I started relying on the wbtb, DS reviews would slack and catching them diminished. Hope to manage things better this time. Good luck to you too!  ::goodjob2::

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## StephL

I have such great news - my husband managed his first LD and by doing a WILD dive at bedtime!!
Soo typical - first he knows nothing about it, and never had an LD - then he starts out with mastering the most advanced technique at first shot.
I brought him to play Go with me, too, he had only played some several games at uni before - and now - after looking some things up on the net as well, but anyway - he smashes me to shreds every single game - even if I get stones up front.
He lost interest in in darts, hitting a 180 and three red bulls after an extraordinary short time, compared to normal humans, as well.

I can see it coming - him going in and out of lucidity at a whim and his leisure - throwing snowy mountains at hordes of alien dragons and melting into the blissful void of insight - or whatever - and me looking on enviously..
He's a sort of natural genius with almost everything he touches - I love him for it - but it's not so easy to take the comparison at times.

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## NyxCC

Ahhh, that is great news indeed!  ::D:  I think it has been the dream for many here to try to get our partner interested in the topic, and him having an ld is super accomplishment! 

My bf has been rather uninterested in the whole topic of lding in general, but recently I got a pleasant surprise from him. I had previously questioned him about having lds and he seems to have no memory of having one. But then a week ago ago or so, we happened to be discussing sensations when falling asleep and I talked about some of my unintentional first wilds (which by the way were bedtime too), but I didn't label them lds when talking about it. And then he tells me he has had similar experiences - the transition and dream entry.  ::shock::  

I guess a lot of people have no clue what's going on sometimes. I would see through my eyelids when falling asleep many times in the past but always came up with an explanation for it - maybe my eyes were half open.

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## StephL

Do you still do bedtime WILDs?
I'm a bit at a lucid loss in the comp at the moment - but I have a great plan, for if I manage at least!

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## NyxCC

Not now - either too tired or insomnia prone, but have plans for the future. I think I need more practice and hopefully one day will be able to maintain awareness through the earlier sleep stages and for larger chunks of time.  :smiley: 

Good luck with the competition! You are already quite skilled with induction, so I know you just have to set your mind on it and the lds and awesome task execution will follow.  ::D:

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## StephL

Yeah - baah - don't know what it is - again left out my WBTB for being too lazy and cosy..
Quite unsatisfying.
Na well - a bit of time is left, and if I manage to do, what I plan, once I get there - that would be some points-bomb indeed.
With aliens.
 ::alien::

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## StephL

Soo - got lucid again last night from_ expecting_ to be able to drive my bicycle on water - not because it worked.
But I feel I smashed it up with trying to activate all senses - patting myself down and touching stuff - maybe because I didn't first of all concentrate on vision.
Do you "stabilize your senses" at all?
From the podcast - I got my doubts again - Ophelia said, she just takes the dream as it is, since she already had believed it was real before lucidity - no need to stabilize anything.
I think, to activate my touch might drag me back to bed, could that be?

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the ld! Well, I don't usually start with stabilizing, but rather go on doing whatever I had planned to do. However, there are moments when I feel the dream dangerously thinning, so I go into a bit of a panic mode, grabbing on to objects.  :Oh noes:  This has been effective but not always. I also like to do brisk walking - have no idea how but this works pretty well for me. Now, examining and paying attention to detail should generally work for anchoring in the dream. But be careful not to stare too much - idleness has exactly the opposite effect. Also, if you begin to lose sight of the dream, don't give up on it - keep walking around as it may actually return.

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## StephL

Ha - there is a pattern - thank you!
Will walk about and don't worry - I hope, I get a WILD tonight - very determined to stay at it for longer - I only maximally waited for 30 min. and Sageous says, he needs an hour sometimes - need to keep at it!

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## StephL

Soo - here is the last LD-report, which I forgot putting in here - so copy-paste and sorry:





> Last night (28.03.14) I took a different approach than usual and I'm quite happy with how it went.
> I recognized one of my dreamsigns - and without RC or any stabilization activities - I just went with the flow of the dream.
> First off I took flight and airswam about in the house - to the admiration of the people there.
> Maybe first time I told somebody, that I was dreaming - they were like - really? What is with us then, though??
> I let the topic slip immediately, because I wanted them to feel real..
> There was a story going on and DCs from real life - somehow I slipped in and out of dreaming it lucidly.
> For example I got handed a toddler, and it was so nice and cuddly - I forgot myself - but not for long.
> I guess, I got lucid in the same dream about three times - and it was a really long one - much more lucid time than the last many instances. People whom I didn't see for long - so my main aim was being happy and having fun with them.
> It was very enjoyable - not according to plan, exactly - I wanted to walk about briskly and look at things and call out commands - completely forgot about that. But no stability issues whatsoever except in terms of intermittently loosing lucidity from getting too involved.
> ...



This was quite nice as an approach to the problem of stabilization, I used to have.
My main effort was to leave the dream be and take it as it is and comes - it was unstable towards nonlucidity - but not towards waking - and I was very thankful for that. One day, I'll have the balance thing figured out.

Being stupid last night:
I found myself in my old school, having to take an obscure course, supposedly belonging to my professional training.
And I thought (correctly) - I have been dreaming about exactly this before!

My marvellous conclusion: *That must have been a precognitive dream!!*  ::bluesmile:: 

I even went as far as beginning to tentatively pull on loose strings in my world-view - like - how can I integrate this?
Most silly of all - I thought shortly - why not do, what you would do, if it was a dream - jump in the air a bit and start hovering?
Answer - naa - if I really do hover then - that might disquiet my conversation-partner...rolleyes.gif

*Nose pinch baby next time!!*

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## NyxCC

Thanks for posting Steph and congrats on the ld!  :smiley:  That was a clever way to achieve stability. I have found something similar to be true, if you manage to maintain a minimal level of lucidity and allow the dream to flow as it is, you may find yourself sleeping for longer. There is indeed such a balance as the one you are referring to. Mostly, I find the trade off between lucidity and stability with wbtb lds. 

If I do have a dream immediately following a wbtb (wild or from scratch dild), my awareness is extremely high and I'm able to recall goals and be quite functional, yet I have to exert an extra effort to stay in the dream (especially in the early moments), possibly because I'm technically so awake. If I catch a dild mid-REM, I might lose lucidity at some point and possibly regain it later and may not recall tasks so well, but the dream would be more stable. And finally there's the end of rem catch where it seems that your awareness is becoming higher gradually only to find out that this was the end of the dream. That does not mean, however, that we can't extend it a bit. If your mind is focused on task completion, even a min of extra dream time can accomplish a lot. I guess in the long term it would come in handy to be ready for any of these situations. 

Thanks for this month's contribution by the way and wishing you lots of lucidity and awareness in the days to come.  :smiley:

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## StephL

Ah - I enrolled in an experiment:

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...d-dreamer.html
http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...r-day-0-a.html

Looking forward to how that goes!

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## StephL

Soo - I have decided to watch the beta-testing for a while, since the first few chapters were rather a disappointment - now I know, it's going to be 20 in all - maybe it has got something in it still - maybe I'll take it up again later.

For now - I started with self-hypnosis yesterday.
Got this link from Sibyline: Instant Self-Hypnosis - How To Hypnotize Yourself With Your Eyes Wide Open
LDing is the last script in this - rest of the book is missing.
Linkzelda said in another context, that he successfully used these scripts as well.

I am hopeful - it says it usually takes some 3-5 sessions, and then it should show effects - and I did react to it quite clearly already.
The intro contains how you feel your body being heated up by the sun - and my blood-vessels knew exactly what to do - I got an almost burning feeling on my face, really like from the sun, and my rest body became so warm in no time at all - it's also really relaxing. So I'm definitively not immune to it.

I'll translate it into German and adapt the LDing script a bit - my new pet-hope hurrah!

 ::yddd::

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## NyxCC

That sounds like a great idea! Looking forward to seeing how that goes. So this self-hypnosis thing you read it out before bedtime I guess or do you make a recording? I don't know if I mentioned but after talking with your guys about dream signs and catching more of them, I made a recording with my DS to make it even easier to just listen. But I still don't play it often enough.  ::shakehead::  I think it will be best for me to make a progress tracking thread, that way I'll be forced to do it. 

It's great you guys keep coming with new stuff to try, I love all the enthusiasm.  :smiley:

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## StephL

It's something you read to yourself - I did it twice, and the general effects - like getting warm and really relaxed - they worked.
No LDs yet - but there are factors hindering me and they say it takes like 3/5 sessions.
I will translate it into German and adapt it - put a WILD section in - and start out tomorrow again.
Going to report back!

 :Off to Bed:

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## StephL

Ha - notice to my dear teachers:

I translated only a third of it - but I did it the third time in English just now, and I felt seriously hypnotised this time.
Been hypnotised before.
It felt, as if I knew it by heart partly - much more fluent than I sometimes read.
And if you would have recorded me - that would have sounded hypnotised, believe me.
Veery interesting - lovely - so it seems the more I do it the more fascinating - if only on spot yet.
So Steph in hope, once more - and it's even a form, and a powerful one - of the "new acronym" - PM - prospective memory!

 ::yddd::

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## NyxCC

Thanks for the update!  :Happy: 

Well, that is exciting and a little bit creepy.  ::shock::

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## StephL

Not really - hypnosis is something natural and we are always in some sort of hypnosis, but you can induce a state of deep hypnosis and even see it happening on the EEG. A certain characteristic pattern - there was a study done on this some years ago at Charite Berlin.

Naja - and if you tell yourself to slow down for example - you really do that. 
Not like just reading: Now my reading slows down - and then somehow artificially and consciously slowing down. 
No - you slow down _period_, as Sageous might say.
That seems the only thing to do then - that's not normal consciousness - and such it also comes to sound eerie, because it's different.
But it didn't work yet. Not in English. But it worked in as far as I hypnotized myself - just the suggestion didn't go through properly.
Maybe I just translate that specific part? Or at least first and then one more try..

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## StephL

I had a little lucid dream last night!
With scaring a girl by partial bear-mutation (unconsciously) and I got ignored by not so interesting plants.
Veery happy - that was quite a long dry period.  :Bliss: 
Finally A Little Lucid Dream - Scaring A Girl To Tears - Unwilling Plants - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views


And I have something more to share - thanks to Mismagius posting a link to Hyu's DJ, I believe I finally understand the biggest riddle of my LDing journey:





> This is important.
> If you want to experience an entire world or setting (Hogwarts, Middle-Earth...), never try to create it right in front of you.
> There will be inconsistencies, DCs will go out of character, forget what they're supposed to do...
> In my experience, it just doesn't work right.
> Instead try to go there.
> Don't create Hogwarts, instead go to the real Hogwarts.
> 
> I do this by leaving my dream bubble (just a bubble containing my current dream), and going to an entirely new place.
> *Doing so I have an easier time believing that I am in a real place, and not in a dream controlled by my own sub-conscious,
> which renders dreams much more realistic.*



I have mentioned it again and again - my very first LD was so extraordinarily realistic and stable and I consciously tested all senses and the surroundings with never a shred of doubt about the tangibility of it all.
Completely like being teleported to another world.
It never was like this again.

Now I think I know what it was - I got there by following Castaneda's lessons, and I wanted to believe in the woo, so when I got lucid, I really seriously thought, I am in an actual different realm.
A supernatural world, but a real and consistent one, and not a dream.
And so that's what it felt like. Total immersion.

Oh - if only I could get that on purpose - no wishy-washy changy things and this horrible stability problem of mine.
That dream back then was so stable, that I had to really force myself into waking intensely - and at first it didn't work, even.

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## NyxCC

Congrats on the ld and Totm! Your hypnotic agenda is really working!  ::D: 

I quickly looked at a few articles, it seems that theta waves are activated during this state, the very same waves that facilitate learning. It sounds similar to some meditative states that lean towards trance...really interesting! 

About huy's journal and realistic comments I agree with what has already been said around the forum that it is very quality enhancing to regard dreams as being real. One thing that might help us do it, is to think about how the brain sees this whole situation. For your brain it doesn't really matter if you see the real world, say an apple, think about an apple or dream about it. For your brain in all three circumstances it is equally real and the very same areas will light up. Of course there are brain area differences between sleep and wake but that won't make the apple any less real to your brain. It also helps to play around with definitions - in a way the dream world is also real (since it exists!), just the rules of the game there are different.  :wink2:

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## StephL

Yeah - but my brain knows now "it's only a LD - my mind makes it up right now" so it can make it up _badly_, esp. if I expect to have stability issues or faulty optics.
Suddenly - knowing it is my brain's work - shoddy work might appear and I have the explanation, so to speak..
Actually that is more_ what I expect_, because it is so hard to believe that the mind can really make up whole worlds on the spot.

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## NyxCC

> Yeah - but my brain knows now "it's only a LD - my mind makes it up right now" so it can make it up badly, esp. if I expect to have stability issues or faulty optics.



Not, quite! You (your conscious self) know it's an ld! Your brain doesn't! Here are a few articles from a quick google search that better explain what I meant.

Real or Imagined? The Brain Doesn’t Know! | New Hope Outreach

Visualization alters the brain

And in the end real or not real it doesn't matter - because we are capable of internally producing a high quality version of everything, just need to learn to do so. Be confident and be amazed - there is no better recipe!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Soo - I seem to have a bit of success with something - and it might well be the hypnosis, which I repeated yesterday and 2 days before.
Night before last night - I got shortly lucid in the most un-useful circumstances - I decided to go on with what I was dream-doing, since it was very pleasurable.
And last night - I got lucid again, and thought of my plan to follow The Cusp's tip with establishing a 3d environment - but - I didn't concentrate on the cognitive side of affairs a la dutchraptor, and so I happily lost lucidity in the beautiful 3d landscape I got..
But I did not wake up or loose perceptions - I've been lucidly running about for a while!
Much better than that streak of seconds-lucid fadeouts to awake.

Besides hypnosis I do a bit of image-streaming, but only under 10 min. yesterday because it can be quite strenuous.
And I did a bit of imagining a dream and becoming lucid in it before sleep - nothing else - and for that my success is quite nice, I would say!

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## NyxCC

That's awesome! Congrats on the lds! Image streaming sounds interesting! I guess the combo of the two techs works even better!  ::D:

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## StephL

Tonight - soon - one more hypnosis!
And I play a darts-tournament tomorrow - it would be perfect timing, if I'd be lucid darting tonight and properly.. goodsigh2.gif

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## StephL

Didn't work of course - neither/nor - otherwise you'd know it by now! Na well. Season starts September - I'll see, what I can do till then.
I don't do anything for LDing at the moment, except wishing for more recall upon going to bed and doing a mini-WBTB the last three days. After some hours, when I woke up naturally, I got up just shortly and then lay down on my back, where I usually can't fall asleep at all.
But at all means half an hour for me - how others could possibly wait for several hours for that - I can't quite understand.
Funnily I did fall asleep once, after loosing myself in thoughts, slipping into a dream - so I guess, it is a good WILD position for me after all.
On my stomach - I just fall asleep.
Anyway - with looking at the back of my eyes or counting down with saying _I am dreaming_ for maybe 10 min. or a bit more, and then rolling over and sleeping - I had two short lucid moments!
So that is not so bad - but they were gone and I was awake almost instantaneously. And I don't know why.
Next time I keep DEILD in mind - could have worked, had I been mentally prepared, I guess.
Isn't most of the practice about getting there - and I do - but what to do in the day for them not instantly collapsing?
Probably the usual things - need to kick my behind in action - mostly I enjoy posting more than doing something useful for LDing - it's a shame..



Something I forgot - not long ago I had a dream, in which a flying train featured - and now last night's dream had people talk about such a train, and I remember that scene as reality!!

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## NyxCC

About the hypnosis thing - maybe more repetitions were necessary for it work? You know that's how it goes with most techniques here. 

Congrats on the lds!  ::D:  So, these were following a wbtb that was shorter than usual or longer than usual? If I do a long wbtb I have more chances of lds that even start straight away but the first ones can be quite difficult to hold. Was that the case with you - maybe you were too close to waking? Other than that I think working on one's focus should help keep lds for longer. The very simple visualization/meditation practice during the day can help - visualize or think of an object and hold it in your mind for as long as possible. Then you can take a few seconds to rest and either pick the same object or another object. It's a really great skill (being able to focus and for a long time) that comes in quite handy in all areas of life - from work to lding.  :smiley: 

Really cool about the flying train dream btw.!

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## StephL

Oh yes - I am going to go on with the hypnosis - just slacking a bit at the moment!
Maybe I do a session of picture streaming first, and see, if I can compare effects - but I think, both works to an extent.
I'll try to stay up a bit longer this night and not forget DEILD.

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## StephL

Very, very good news!

Day before yesterday my fourth hypnosis session - yesternight a micro LD - last night a loong one!
Fogelbise and Ophelia had lately emphasized again, not to worry, if for example optics don't work, and just expect it will come in order, and keep dreaming blindly.
Now I know, that many of the crashed LDs were actually me aborting them actively - waking myself up in frustration.
Last night I just accepted blindness, and walked about a bit, talking, and I could stay in the dream perfectly well. Optics came back, too, but with a bit of a fight. Intermittently they were so good, that I had to re-RC, but there were all in all four episodes of battle with dream-light, I believe.
I managed a basic task, too!
Hypnosis - and yesterday newly RCing on three cues, natural short WBTB after four hours sleeping, some affirmations - that was it.
Now I am finally motivated again - I didn't see the sense in inducing micro-LDs any more - and it were only such over the last several weeks.
So I'll start throwing more energy at it again, after this very revealing experience!

 ::giraffe::

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## NyxCC

Ahhh! Congratulations!  ::cheers::  How did the tequila taste? 

Well done on not giving up on the dream! Now that you know you can stay in the ld longer, you can go for all sorts of cool adventures.  :smiley:

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## StephL

It tasted like proper tequila, and the lemon was very convincing, too - fortunately the "salt" tasted like sugar!

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## StephL

And another one last night! Ha!
 ::D:

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## StephL

Little update - 4 nights no lucidity after doing the 5th repetition - much to my dismay and as I have been afraid it would be - after hyping it so much. Maybe that's the exact reason, this holding my breath in subliminal negative expectation - but maybe my lucidity levels with the 4th were coincidental after all.

I did have a dream about lucidity, though, in the first night and in the third, I told myself, it's okay the scenery out of the window looks strange - that would always be so in my dream-flats. Happy about this solution to the dissonance - I turned round and kept dreaming non-lucidly ..

This time I included my WILD script - that's the main reason I gave it a shot in the afternoon yesterday - from Sageous' report thread:





> I was sooo close just before!
> Taking a nap, concentrating on my breathing, watching the optics on the back of my eyelids, which were really interesting - and they stayed to be looked at properly for a while at times, and crystallized to scenes at times as well. Bit of mantraing..
> And then - that was not the first thing - of all things, I had before dreamt of stuffing candy in my mouth - but then I dreamt of scratching an itch on my chin - and realized, that my arm was at the time lying next to me, and not scratching!!
> That jolted me awake then - damn!!







> Yeah - it's so hard for me to keep my cool when "something happens" in a WILD attempt - tends to give me a surge of excitement, physically.
> Thankfully that doesn't happen in DILD - but at least this time something_ did_ happen, and I'll hopefully get used to the craziness of it all soon!
> Bit paradoxical, this - I obviously did dream already - but I didn't know that - so technically it wasn't an LD - despite me being otherwise of almost waking-life functionality, cognitively. On the other hand - why find it normal to take a piece of candy and eat it in the middle of a WILD attempt. I would never do that - so I _was_ clouded after all.



It's actually better than it used to be - when confronted with stable optics in fine detail - that used to give me a jolt in the past, and this time not. There was one huge completely sharp and clear eye hanging in my vision for example - looking at me, or in me it felt - and I could take that without the visceral reaction.

Usually I am full of coffee and not able to fall asleep in the day - but this is encouraging. The more so the more I think about it.
I could have gotten up and had an OBE ("experience" - of course I do not subscribe to supernaturalism) - I was basically half there - or further in even. Just I was still aware of my physical body at the same time as doing things with my dream-body.

There was no candy of course, for sure not - but I must have reached somewhere and grabbed a piece of dream and put it in my mouth and tasted it and all.

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## NyxCC

> I did have a dream about lucidity, though, in the first night and in the third, I told myself, it's okay the scenery out of the window looks strange - that would always be so in my dream-flats. Happy about this solution to the dissonance - I turned round and kept dreaming non-lucidly ..



So, even in the cases where it's not working to induce lucidity, it is still working. I think greater success would follow after more repetitions. I'd love to prove this point with my audio but had to put it on hold for a bit. So far, I could attribute 2 lds to it (excluding wbtb lds, and lds on nights when not played pre bed/day before). 





> And then - that was not the first thing - of all things, I had before dreamt of stuffing candy in my mouth - but then I dreamt of scratching an itch on my chin - and realized, that my arm was at the time lying next to me, and not scratching!!



Oh, that's so cool! Congrats on the mini-wild! Next time just keep scratching!  ::D: 





> Yeah - it's so hard for me to keep my cool when "something happens" in a WILD attempt - tends to give me a surge of excitement, physically.



That used to be the case with me as well - I would analyze the stage of wild where I was at, and get excited when going deeper into sleep. The only way for me to overcome this was to become indifferent to achieving a wild! Sounds strange but this is the only way for me to fall asleep!  :tongue2:  (That of course doesn't mean cancelling the intent to have an ld.)





> Usually I am full of coffee and not able to fall asleep in the day - but this is encouraging. The more so the more I think about it.



As long as you have the opportunity, naps are a bonus for lding. Caffeine in small amounts can help bring extra awareness. A tea nap might do the trick too. :sleepysteph:

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## StephL

Hi there!
Just dropping in, hoping to get myself to work again.
Lucidity never really left, once a week or so I get a short and relatively unsatisfying one, but a little string of lucids over the last days plus having read the Feynman autobiography where he describes how he stumbled upon the phenomenon and wanting to post that - brought me back here!
Soo - lets see if I get a TOTM done!

 ::yddd::

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## NyxCC

Great to see you back! Thanks for sharing Feynman's dream experiences, was a really cool read. 

Wish you more lds with the totms soon!  :smiley:

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## StephL

Thank you!  :smiley:

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