# Lucid Dreaming > DV Academy > Current Courses > Intro Class >  >  CanisLucidus' Workbook

## CanisLucidus

Let's get this workbook started.

*Reality Checks:*
-Nose pinch (primary, when hands feel clean)
-Finger through palm (when hand cleanliness feels questionable, such as post-doorknob touch)
-"What was I just doing?"
-"What is causing me to feel this sense of <insert negative emotion here>?"

*Dream Signs:*
-Riding any kind of bus
-Feeling strong emotions about trivial things
-Seeing friends and loved ones at different ages than they are in reality
-Being in a university setting
-Being in a bar
-Computers that have unbelievable capabilities and act of their own accord
-Riding in a car with someone who is driving extremely recklessly (generally hitting other cars)
-Exploring ruins or lost civilizations

*Short-Term Goals:*
-Increase average lucidity length (currently around 4 minutes and falling!)
-Eliminate tendency to wake myself up because I "get stuck" for various reasons in the first 1-2 minutes.  Escape attempts often lead to early awakenings.
-Maintain and gently increase lucidity frequency.
-Further stabilize my flight.
-Keep having fun!
-Edit: I have a list of ~97 things I would like to try in a dream.  I'll continue to work through (and add to) that list.

*Long-Term Goals:*
-Lucid dream with very high frequency.  Ultimate goal would be virtually every night or even at will.
-Build creative works and concepts (particularly related to video games) in the lucid state.

*Lucid/Dream Recall History:*
-9 lucid dreams, 8 of which are from the past 6 weeks
-Dream recall averages 4 per night.  All-time maximum is 6.  Get zero recall about once per week.

*Current Technique(s):*
-Lucid living in daytime
-SSILD in the early morning when I have a natural early waking
-The combination of the above leads to DILDs

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## CanisLucidus

Here I'll begin my lesson I homework assignment.

*Times that I go to bed and wake up*
Bed time: ~11:20 pm
Wake up: 6:20 am

*Why I want to lucid dream*
-It's ridiculously entertaining
-I love trying things that I could never do in real life
-I feel amazing when I wake up from a lucid dream.  This feeling lasts throughout the day (and sometimes beyond.)
-I love exploring the mind's potential
-I want to further tap into my own unfiltered creativity

*Next lucid dream*
-Last at least 5 minutes
-More flight
-Compete in the Olympics

I will continue following my nighttime routine of reading my journal before bed.  I will continue maintaining my dream journal (which is thus far in a notebook beside my bed.)

*Edit*: I've also begun a dream journal here.  I'll definitely post all lucids (including past lucids since my count is still so modest.)  I will _try_ to record non-lucids going forward, although I'm quite attached to my pen and paper.

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## OpheliaBlue

Hey! Nice looking workbook. Welcome to the class, and great work on your lucids so far, seems like you got a good technique going already. Were you able to listen to the podcast(s)? I notice you mentioned the olympics.  :wink2: 





> -I feel amazing when I wake up from a lucid dream.  This feeling lasts throughout the day (and sometimes beyond.)



I know that's right! I always feel a little invincible for the day after a particularly good LD.

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## CanisLucidus

> Hey! Nice looking workbook. Welcome to the class, and great work on your lucids so far, seems like you got a good technique going already. Were you able to listen to the podcast(s)? I notice you mentioned the olympics.



Hey, thanks very much!  I've been very pleased with my frequency lately, but I take nothing for granted.  My spazzy dream control, on the other hand, could use a real tune-up!

I've listened to podcast #1 and the others are in my near (commuting) future.  Nice job, by the way -- you seem completely comfortable on the "radio"!  For most first-time podcasters it's a lot of "erms" and "uhhhs" and awkward sweating.   :smiley: 





> I know that's right! I always feel a little invincible for the day after a particularly good LD.



I'm still trying to figure out exactly _why_ I think this happens, but after the best of the best LDs, I've felt frosty, happy, and completely unflappable for 2-3 days.  It makes me wonder what life is like for these super- mega- ultra-frequent dreaming types!

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## OpheliaBlue

Glad you enjoyed the podcast. We're doing one live tomorrow night if you want to tune in.

So what's an example of a lucid dream that has this "spazzy" dream control.

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## RareCola

God that "happy" feeling is something that I crave when I go without lucidity for a while, it's like a drug.

Not sure if you've ever had the experience of such a vivid lucid dream that when you wake you're almost in tears of joy, but it's definitely a great motivator to continue practicing lucid dreaming! Make sure you hold onto those feelings.

And thanks for your comments on the podcast! It's always nice to get feedback like that  ::D:

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## CanisLucidus

*Lucid dream #10 last night!*  Very good one too, certainly my longest.  (I'd say 20 minutes.)  If this keeps up, I may have to just stay enrolled in this intro class forever.   :smiley: 

I've dream journaled it, if anyone's interested.  And can I do the banana dance?  Can I?  Let's go ahead with that.   ::banana:: 





> So what's an example of a lucid dream that has this "spazzy" dream control.



My most puzzling dream control issue was in LD #9 (Sunny Day 'Sleep Paralysis').  I wound up in sleep paralysis in dream and didn't really know what to do.  An in-dream OBE exit started to work but woke me up.  I also suffered from some pseudo-claustrophobia issues in one past LD but after last night's LD (where I crawled up the vent of a cast iron stove), I guess I'm getting over them!

Flight control in dreams #3 and #4 was hilariously bad.  Woe betide any trees or DCs that got in my way as I go crashing through the dream scene trying to fly.  Better in #6 but I'm still kind of an out-of-control menace in the air!





> Not sure if you've ever had the experience of such a vivid lucid dream that when you wake you're almost in tears of joy, but it's definitely a great motivator to continue practicing lucid dreaming! Make sure you hold onto those feelings.



You are right!  I tell you, it is amazing.  I've never gotten to the tears of joy point but I could completely see that happening with the right dream.  (In a manly way, of course!)   :smiley:

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## RareCola

> My most puzzling dream control issue was in LD #9 (Sunny Day 'Sleep Paralysis').  I wound up in sleep paralysis in dream and didn't really know what to do.  An in-dream OBE exit started to work but woke me up.  I also suffered from some pseudo-claustrophobia issues in one past LD but after last night's LD (where I crawled up the vent of a cast iron stove), I guess I'm getting over them!
> 
> Flight control in dreams #3 and #4 was hilariously bad.  Woe betide any trees or DCs that got in my way as I go crashing through the dream scene trying to fly.  Better in #6 but I'm still kind of an out-of-control menace in the air!



Haha you sound like me when I was first starting to fly in my lucid dreams. I couldn't control it well at all, I would drift around the air, smash into buildings and generally flail around like a fish out of water. I seemed to become better at it when I stopped thinking about it so much though.





> You are right!  I tell you, it is amazing.  I've never gotten to the tears of joy point but I could completely see that happening with the right dream.  (In a manly way, of course!)



Oh yes, definitely in the most manly way possible  ::D:  Haha

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## CanisLucidus

My sleeping habits weren't up to snuff over the weekend.  Stormy weather, two toddlers, and two doggies (one neurotic), isn't a fantastic recipe for an easy night's sleep.  And on every waking, I found myself so groggy that I simply fell asleep in the middle of trying to perform my SSILD cycles.  This was even after being awake for up to 15 minutes.  That's obvious sleep deprivation (and lucid dreaming Kryptonite!)

I was lucky enough to still have decent dream recall, in spite of this.  Fortunately, last night Wife sleep-slapped me on the arm at 4 am and I managed to get 5 dreams of varying quality written down.

*What went well the past few days:*
-Dream recall
-Awareness

*What didn't go so well:*
-Sleep quantity
-Sleep quality (interruptions)
-Failed to complete SSILD reps  ::embarrassed:: 

I've settled on doing all dreams in my paper journal and in addition transferring all lucid dreams to my online DV journal.  With the dream journal strategy all set up, I think that I've completed all of the homework for Lesson I.

Moving on to Lesson II, the big task will be selecting a technique.  I'm continuing to enjoy *SSILD* and I think that I will attempt to add *DEILD* as a great complement.  (Got this idea from podcast 2.)

*Goals this week:*
-Get >7 hours of sleep every night this week
-Continue executing SSILD as primary tech
-Study and incorporate DEILD, and continue with Lesson II
-Hopefully, have LDs out the wazoo   :smiley:

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## RareCola

I think it's always important to remember, that above all, you need a good night's sleep. Sometimes I purposely avoid a WBTB or a WILD attempt just to make sure I catch up on sleep, because when you're exhausted or your sleep is constantly disturbed there's no way you're going to become lucid anyway. It's all about choosing your moments.

It's awesome that you're listing what went well and what didn't. Great way to keep improving! Keep it up, you're definitely on the right tracks  ::D:

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## CanisLucidus

A good night of dreaming and many successes last night!

First: *Lucid dream #11!*  (Two chained together, no less!)

Also: *First DEILD!*

I avoided all of the usual nighttime distractions and got to bed early last night.  I had an NLD where I talked to my grandfather for a while.  I lost him many years ago so this was one I really enjoyed.  I attempted to chain back into it to visit with him while lucid.  Unfortunately, an overfull bladder dragged me back into waking life.   :Sad: 

I later hit a lucid dream using SSILD.  When it ended, I chained back into it via DEILD.  This felt almost effortless.  Very effective technique, it seems, for those lucids where you're yanked out before you're ready and still have that "groggy" feeling.

The downside was that my recall of the first LD segment took a hit but I still consider this a complete success.  I still had four dreams recalled last night, and that's counting the two LD segments as a single LD.  This has left me feeling very good about DEILD!

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## RareCola

> A good night of dreaming and many successes last night!
> 
> First: *Lucid dream #11!*  (Two chained together, no less!)
> 
> Also: *First DEILD!*
> 
> I avoided all of the usual nighttime distractions and got to bed early last night.  I had an NLD where I talked to my grandfather for a while.  I lost him many years ago so this was one I really enjoyed.  I attempted to chain back into it to visit with him while lucid.  Unfortunately, an overfull bladder dragged me back into waking life.  
> 
> I later hit a lucid dream using SSILD.  When it ended, I chained back into it via DEILD.  This felt almost effortless.  Very effective technique, it seems, for those lucids where you're yanked out before you're ready and still have that "groggy" feeling.
> ...



That's great. DEILD is very very easy to achieve coming out of a lucid dream, glad another person discovered this! Try to remember how that DEILD felt, it'll be invaluable in constructing more of them, particularly when waking from a NLD also.

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## OpheliaBlue

Well done man! Unfortunately, a drawback to DEILD can sometimes be having a harder time recalling the earlier links in the chain. There are different things you can do to help remember them. I play this little "keyword" game that helps alot.

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## CanisLucidus

> Well done man! Unfortunately, a drawback to DEILD can sometimes be having a harder time recalling the earlier links in the chain. There are different things you can do to help remember them. I play this little "keyword" game that helps alot.



Thanks!!

I'd love to hear more about the keyword approach that you use for your DEILDs.  My memory is a little hit or miss so I'm a big fan of mnemonic devices IWL, particularly the "Memory Palace" technique.  (That one involves using your imagination to construct a building filled with mnemonic triggers that enable you to remember lists, difficult words, pi, or whatever you like.)  I worried, though, that I'd wind up _in_ my memory palace if I tried to build it in-dream.   :smiley:   If you've already found an approach that works I can probably skip a lot of trial and error.

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## OpheliaBlue

It's nothing all that new or complicated, and not necessarily 100% effective. But it has helped me from forgetting entire dreams in a lucid chain, or even a nonlucid chain of dreams, as long as you wake up in between each one. Instead of waking yourself up too much by writing down something in a journal, I just remember a key word from each dream, and memorize it when I wake up in between each dream. Like if the first one was near the ocean, then the second one was about a hot blonde chick, then the 3rd was about puppies, then your key words are "Ocean, blonde chick, puppies." So all you have to do to spark the memory of each dream, is to remember each key word, and it helps if you link the words together to form a picture, ie: A blonde chick holding puppies by the ocean. Something like that. And you make yourself reinforce the keywords into your memory in between each dream so that you remember them when you wake up for good that morning. It has worked for me alot in the past. Including when I had to cram for tests in college  :tongue2:

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## CanisLucidus

> It's nothing all that new or complicated, and not necessarily 100% effective. But it has helped me from forgetting entire dreams in a lucid chain, or even a nonlucid chain of dreams, as long as you wake up in between each one. Instead of waking yourself up too much by writing down something in a journal, I just remember a key word from each dream, and memorize it when I wake up in between each dream. Like if the first one was near the ocean, then the second one was about a hot blonde chick, then the 3rd was about puppies, then your key words are "Ocean, blonde chick, puppies." So all you have to do to spark the memory of each dream, is to remember each key word, and it helps if you link the words together to form a picture, ie: A blonde chick holding puppies by the ocean. Something like that. And you make yourself reinforce the keywords into your memory in between each dream so that you remember them when you wake up for good that morning. It has worked for me alot in the past. Including when I had to cram for tests in college



Great, this should work beautifully for me.  It's very similar to the techniques that I use IWL.  I imagine that any time spent practicing this while awake will pay off when (half-)asleep.

Of course, at my current level of experience I'm likely to try this between dreams and _turn myself into_ a lucid blonde chick holding puppies by the ocean.   :smiley:

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## CanisLucidus

Well, last night was not my best work!  I managed my first night of _zero dream recall_ in several days.  These are always a bummer because good NLDs serve as a nice consolation prize for the nights where I don't have a lucid dream.

I'm dealing with a couple minor headwinds: my strength training has felt a little more physically demanding than usual, I've been unable to rouse myself at my usual waking times, and our youngest has taken to emitting one lone, piercing shriek over the baby monitor in the middle of the night.  I wind up sort of waking straight into a fight-or-flight response!   ::shock:: 

As far as obstacles go, though, these are pretty minor.  I should be able to get this fixed relatively quickly.

*What needs to start happening again:*
-Get out of bed during my 3:30-4 AM window.
-Dream recall returns to normal, w/ minimum of 3 dreams.
-Wake up from dreams and remember them well enough to initiate DEILD.

*How I'll do it:*
-Keep a waking journal, which I'll update in the evening.  (This idea was presented as an aid for dream recall in this thread and I think it really has merit).  Side benefit: good opportunity to review the day and write down cute stuff the kids did.   :smiley: 
-Set bed time intention to remember and wake up after every dream.
-Refocus on lucid living practices, which slipped slightly past two days.
-Stop wussing out when I look at the clock and it's 3:30-4 AM.  RC, get out of bed, etc.

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## OpheliaBlue

> good NLDs serve as a nice consolation prize for the nights where I don't have a lucid dream.



well said!





> I'm dealing with a couple minor headwinds: my strength training has felt a little more physically demanding than usual, I've been unable to rouse myself at my usual waking times, and our youngest has taken to emitting one lone, piercing shriek over the baby monitor in the middle of the night.  I wind up sort of waking straight into a fight-or-flight response!



Wow, yeah I don't miss those days. Chris used to get me up 6 times a night for feedings. I would get my lucids in during an afternoon nap, where he'd sleep 2-3 hours straight. Don't know if you have that luxury or not.






> *What needs to start happening again:*
> -Get out of bed during my 3:30-4 AM window.
> -Dream recall returns to normal, w/ minimum of 3 dreams.
> -Wake up from dreams and remember them well enough to initiate DEILD.
> 
> *How I'll do it:*
> -Keep a waking journal, which I'll update in the evening.  (This idea was presented as an aid for dream recall in this thread and I think it really has merit).  Side benefit: good opportunity to review the day and write down cute stuff the kids did.  
> -Set bed time intention to remember and wake up after every dream.
> -Refocus on lucid living practices, which slipped slightly past two days.
> -Stop wussing out when I look at the clock and it's 3:30-4 AM.  RC, get out of bed, etc.



Sounds like a good plan to me. I like how solution oriented you are. Alot of people hit a snag, then get frustrated or feel sorry for themselves, or WORSE, give up altogether over things that are easily fixable. I fully expect some pretty damn successful lucid stuff from you man. You're setting a great example for the other students as well, much appreciated.

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## CanisLucidus

> Wow, yeah I don't miss those days. Chris used to get me up 6 times a night for feedings. I would get my lucids in during an afternoon nap, where he'd sleep 2-3 hours straight. Don't know if you have that luxury or not.



So cool.  I love that you kept up with the LDs in spite of the fact that you were getting barely any sleep at all.  By comparison, my family's on easy street now!  The littlest one's 13 months so we (theoretically) get the whole night of sleep.  He's sometimes got one good, banshee shriek in him that makes my blood run cold.  But it's just so much easier than those first few months of staggering around, day and night swirled together...

I can still remember how that felt.  I once woke up when the baby was crying and started _desperately searching for him in a pair of discarded jeans on the floor_.  I thought he would be in one of the pockets.  There's tired and then there's _tired_.

Anyway, naps!  For reasons unknown, I rarely have detectable dreams during naps but it just doesn't matter -- I love 'em!  We can only do these on the weekend and only when the stars align but they are blessed things.  I'm sure they'll net me an LD one of these days.





> Sounds like a good plan to me. I like how solution oriented you are. Alot of people hit a snag, then get frustrated or feel sorry for themselves, or WORSE, give up altogether over things that are easily fixable. I fully expect some pretty damn successful lucid stuff from you man. You're setting a great example for the other students as well, much appreciated.



Hey, thanks!  I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.  The support and sense of community I've found here has been like rocket fuel for my LDing.

I hear you on the trap of the easily fixable problem.  You know, I think LDing itself shows us that _we usually have much more power and freedom than we think_.  The first time that you pull off something in a dream that you previously thought "impossible", you see the world a bit differently.  You can't help but wonder whether some of those "mountains" we worry about in waking life are just molehills with a big pile of illusory limitations stacked up around them.

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## CanisLucidus

*Lucid dream #12 last night!*  :smiley:   Short but interesting.  I remembered my intent for the dream incorrectly and convinced myself that I meant to whistle music from waking life!  The DC version of my wife was treated to whistle versions of "Ashokan Farewell" and "The First Noël"  _Truly, nobody rocks out like I, CanisLucidus, rock out_.   :Rock out:  This is my Dream Journal entry for #12.

*What's gone well:*
-Dream recall has stayed steady at 3-6 per night
-Stuck with waking journal and related plans
-Lucid dream w/ a couple of dream goals achieved
-Continuing Lesson #2 homework and sticking with my current techs

*What needs work:*
-Sleep has dipped below 7 hours several nights recently.  Better bring that up.

*Dream goals accomplished:*
-Perform a piece of music from waking life
-Whistle

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## paigeyemps

Congrats! Wow so many students are having lucids lately. Awesome!  ::D:

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## CanisLucidus

> Congrats! Wow so many students are having lucids lately. Awesome!



I know!  It's great isn't it?  A lot of the students have really been killing it.  My lucid #10 was my longest ever!  There's just something about this place.   :smiley: 

Getting good guidance, getting to share this stuff, get excited about it... those things are a big, big help.

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## OpheliaBlue

> I know!  It's great isn't it?  A lot of the students have really been killing it.  My lucid #10 was my longest ever!  There's just something about this place.  
> 
> Getting good guidance, getting to share this stuff, get excited about it... those things are a big, big help.



This is so true, I come back from a long killer weekend at work, and students are having lucids all over the place. We have a great DVA team with lots of support, so I predict that this will continue. And you're doing a fantastic job keeping up with your stuff, CanisLucidus, rock on!

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## CanisLucidus

I managed two more lucid dreams over the long weekend!  We were out of town and getting a bit more sleep which I think really helped.

The two lucids:
Lucid #13 (first false awakening outside of home)
Lucid #14 (prediction of next child's gender??)  ::shock:: 

In LD #13, I ran into some trouble extricating myself from a dark room.  Fumbling for light switches made some semi-interesting things happen but it didn't get me my freedom.  I think that my primary tactic in the future will be going for doors as quickly as possible.  We'll see how that plays out in the future.

I'm surprised that DEILD hasn't worked better for me after the initial success.  I've found myself too excited when trying to chain from another lucid and I don't fall back asleep quickly enough.  When I try to chain from a non-lucid, dream recall takes a bit too long and I have tended to slip "out of the zone".  Calming down and simply sticking with it will probably go a long way here.

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## paigeyemps

> I'm surprised that DEILD hasn't worked better for me after the initial success.  I've found myself too excited when trying to chain from another lucid and I don't fall back asleep quickly enough.  When I try to chain from a non-lucid, dream recall takes a bit too long and I have tended to slip "out of the zone".  Calming down and simply sticking with it will probably go a long way here.



I feel the same way. When I chain two lucids together, it seems to be much easier than when I chain a nonlucid with a lucid. I think it's probably because of the awareness you have from the previous one, so you are more "yourself" or something when you get to the second one. Also, when I chain them, I try not to think too hard aout entering the dream, because when I do, I start waking up for real. What do you think?


And congrats on the lucids!  ::happyme::

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## CanisLucidus

> I feel the same way. When I chain two lucids together, it seems to be much easier than when I chain a nonlucid with a lucid. I think it's probably because of the awareness you have from the previous one, so you are more "yourself" or something when you get to the second one. Also, when I chain them, I try not to think too hard aout entering the dream, because when I do, I start waking up for real. What do you think?
> 
> 
> And congrats on the lucids!



Thanks!!

I think you're right on with your thoughts on DEILD.  When you hop from lucid to lucid, you do take that greater sense of awareness *and* usually much sharper dream recall.  Recalling my non-lucids always seems to take a few seconds of pondering and almost "copying" the experience back into my short-term memory.  With lucids, it feels like it's already there.

I find that your advice to "not think too hard" applies to so many situations in lucid dreaming.  I don't know if it's the same for others, but just the _thought_ of having a lucid dream can make my heart pound.  Like right now!  There it goes!  This is fun but not exactly what I need "in the moment".  What worked for me with DEILDing was allowing myself to gently fall back into my imagination and slip back into sleep.  It's like you said -- you don't think about doing it.  You have to just do it.

Let's hope practice makes perfect.   :smiley:   Many thanks for the advice.

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## RareCola

> Thanks!!
> 
> I think you're right on with your thoughts on DEILD.  When you hop from lucid to lucid, you do take that greater sense of awareness *and* usually much sharper dream recall.  Recalling my non-lucids always seems to take a few seconds of pondering and almost "copying" the experience back into my short-term memory.  With lucids, it feels like it's already there.
> 
> I find that your advice to "not think too hard" applies to so many situations in lucid dreaming.  I don't know if it's the same for others, but just the _thought_ of having a lucid dream can make my heart pound.  Like right now!  There it goes!  This is fun but not exactly what I need "in the moment".  What worked for me with DEILDing was allowing myself to gently fall back into my imagination and slip back into sleep.  It's like you said -- you don't think about doing it.  You have to just do it.
> 
> Let's hope practice makes perfect.    Many thanks for the advice.



I definitely agree. I always seem to have my lucid dreams when I'm not really expecting to have them and it just comes naturally. If I start thinking about the whole thing too much, I fail.

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## CanisLucidus

> I definitely agree. I always seem to have my lucid dreams when I'm not really expecting to have them and it just comes naturally. If I start thinking about the whole thing too much, I fail.



Yeah.  In many ways, it's a fine line.  On one hand, overthinking, worry, and obsession are detrimental to the lucid dreamer.  On the other hand, _knowing and expecting_ that you can and will have lucid dreams is something all the top-notch dreamers have in common.

I'm still a novice, but as best I can tell it's the difference between quiet confidence and fretful obsession.  As I gain experience I'll probably be able to slice it more finely than that, but for now it seems like a reasonable goal post to shoot for.

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## CanisLucidus

I attempted the Task of the Month last night in lucid dream #15!  It was a failure but I did at least _see_ the ocean from afar.  I also managed to slowly float up for the first time (rather than jumping around like The Incredible Hulk.)  Trouble is, the wind just started blowing me around!

This is the Dream Journal entry.

*Technique Update*
The past few days I have been trying a new technique.  I've given SSILD a good run and it's gone well but I am interested in exploring my own ideas.  These involve learning to recognize when I am using my imagination.  This is a combination of:
All Day AwarenessRecognizing when I engage my imagination or slipping into some sort of waking reverie.  "Take control" of these experiences as one would a lucid dream.Oreoboy1996's Daydream Awareness Technique, which involves visualizing the LD you wish to have when falling asleep (as well as other times throughout the day.)  You behave just as you would in an LD.  Very fun technique.

I'm on my fourth day of attempting this technique and I'll continue it for a minimum of two weeks.  (Much longer, I expect, because this approach is a lot of fun.)

*Dream Goals Accomplished:*
-Float to a great height gently rather than jumping

*Goals for September:*
-Complete a Task of the Month.  (Either is fine but "Cretaceous" sounds like serious fun.)

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## OpheliaBlue

What an interesting approach to awareness. I'd love to see the progress on this.

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## CanisLucidus

I caught sight of my feet last night in a dream and briefly became lucid when I saw that they looked purple and distorted, almost as if they were afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis.  I got excited and woke up in less than 3 seconds, though, so not really a proper lucid dream.  I attempted a DEILD (holding the image of my crippled troll-feet in my mind) but just couldn't fall straight back asleep.

I had a second crack at a DEILD when I woke up from another dream w/ full recall and closed eyes.  I had a very vivid (if somewhat boring) image to hold in my mind but was again just a bit too "amped" to fall asleep fast enough.

So close!

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## CanisLucidus

Lucid dream #16 last night!

The good news is that even though I got kicked into darkness the moment I became lucid, I was able to eventually thrash my way out into a legitimate, high-def dream scene.  That's been a source of trouble for me recently, so this was a satisfying step forward.  (Even if I _did_ have to rely on Julia Roberts to bail me out!)

The bad news is that I got very, very excited to be lucid and couldn't seem to control my natural reactions to this excitement.  I suspect that this is what led to the dream's ultimate collapse.  When I woke up my pulse was significantly elevated and I could feel blood pumping hard through my carotids.  I think that I really need to work on maintaining my Zen once I break into lucidity.  I've got some learning to do here.

Here's the entry with more detail of what I experienced: Alone in the Dark - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

And yet another close call for attempting Task of the Month... I was literally _right over the water_!  Ayiee!  Soon.  It shall happen soon.

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## OpheliaBlue

Cool dream! And congrats on lucid #16  ::mrgreen:: 





> I'm shocked that this is a dream and my vision immediately goes black. I start rubbing my hands together, determined not to let this go. I test my dream body in a variety of ways to keep myself tethered to the dream: I rub my hands over my elbows, flick my teeth with my fingernail, lick my arm, flex and prod at my muscles, slap myself in the face.



I laughed so hard at this. Mainly because I've been there myself  ::chuckle:: 





> I wonder: why'd I lose this one? Simple excitement? Succumbing to a false sense of urgency? Or is this all just Julia Roberts' fault? Advice welcome!



I'm thinking a combination? Like, succumbing to the false sense of urgency caused you to get too pumped and woke you up. I've been talking to alot of members about stress and worry in lucid dreams. I think too much negative thinking can cause a lucid dream to go non lucid, or one may even wake up prematurely. Not that your sense of urgency was negative per say, but I'm wondering what the effects are on lucid dreams when the dreamer gets too caught up on any one thing. Especially when a sense or feeling of failure arises from it. I haven't researched this fully, because it's something I just noticed with my own dreams. Just something to think about.





> I keep running, wondering whether I need to try something drastic to change things in my favor.



I'm thinking yes to this, especially if similar things like this happen again. It seems like sometimes even a simple change of focus is helpful. I read an article recently about how changing focus in a lucid dream helps sustain it. Might be a useful thing to have on hand when a dream gets stuck, or too drawn out on one theme. I hope I'm wording this ok. Anyway, I'll see if I can find that article.

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## CanisLucidus

> I'm thinking a combination? Like, succumbing to the false sense of urgency caused you to get too pumped and woke you up. I've been talking to alot of members about stress and worry in lucid dreams. I think too much negative thinking can cause a lucid dream to go non lucid, or one may even wake up prematurely. Not that your sense of urgency was negative per say, but I'm wondering what the effects are on lucid dreams when the dreamer gets too caught up on any one thing. Especially when a sense or feeling of failure arises from it. I haven't researched this fully, because it's something I just noticed with my own dreams. Just something to think about.
> 
> I'm thinking yes to this, especially if similar things like this happen again. It seems like sometimes even a simple change of focus is helpful. I read an article recently about how changing focus in a lucid dream helps sustain it. Might be a useful thing to have on hand when a dream gets stuck, or too drawn out on one theme. I hope I'm wording this ok. Anyway, I'll see if I can find that article.



All right, many thanks for the feedback!  It's like you say, positive or negative, any focus on just one aspect of the dream is bound to yield a lack of control.  In this case, if I'd been paying some additional heed to my emotional state, there's a good chance that I'd have recognized my "whee!  lucidityyyyy!" excitement was getting out of hand.  That moment where I found myself slightly confused as to what to do probably pushed me over the edge.

As for changing focus, I know exactly what you mean.  It's so easy to get caught up in the currents of the dream world.  I imagine that it takes loads of practice to sense when you're being pulled under and know that the dream will wait until you have things sorted out.  Very easy to forget that by definition you are the protagonist and the story's going nowhere without you in it.

I really appreciate the advice!

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## CanisLucidus

Last night was lucid dream #17!  Very short (just over a minute) but high clarity.

The dream felt _very_ stable but unexpectedly blew up when I walked through a doorway.  Strangely, this was a doorway out of a glass building through which I could clearly see a street scene, so the next scene should have been all ready to go.  (I can still clearly imagine what it looked like.)  I had a high-ish heart rate upon waking so found myself unable to DEILD.

While the early ending was a bit of a surprise, this was still great.  Vivid detail, a calm mind, and very high awareness.  I even remembered that it was later in the morning and I should thus be in a nice, long REM cycle.

This is the actual dream: Doorway Troubles - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

To address the door thing, my plan is to:
"Practice" going through doors during my waking LD exercises.Try using RareCola's technique of bringing a DC along with me through a transition as an "anchor".Not get overly concerned.  A door is still just a door and a little practice will sort this out.

Of course, these are just the approaches that occur to me.  As always. I welcome any additional suggestions or ideas.

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## OpheliaBlue

> The dream felt _very_ stable but unexpectedly blew up when I walked through a doorway.  Strangely, this was a doorway out of a glass building through which I could clearly see a street scene, so the next scene should have been all ready to go.



That was a mean thing for your subconscious to do lol!





> To address the door thing, my plan is to:
> "Practice" going through doors during my waking LD exercises.Try using RareCola's technique of bringing a DC along with me through a transition as an "anchor".Not get overly concerned.  A door is still just a door and a little practice will sort this out.
> 
> Of course, these are just the approaches that occur to me.  As always. I welcome any additional suggestions or ideas.



Those sound like good plans to me. I've been thinking about the RareCola's anchor idea as well, now that you two have been talking about it. I wonder if it would help me see better. Anyway, let us know how your plans work!

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## CanisLucidus

I had a great night of dreaming last night, hitting lucid dream #18!

This one's a personal milestone for me and my time in the class.  It means that fully half of my lucid dreams (9 out of 18) took place since joining the intro class just a few weeks back.  I'm insanely grateful to all of the teachers and students here for all of your help, advice, and community.  Can't overstate what a difference this has made.  OpheliaBlue, RareCola, paigeyemps, Xanous... I've gotten a lot of great advice and stolen a ton of great ideas from you and many others.  Thank you all for making the second 9 feel so easy and fun.

This lucid was interesting in that a very hostile DC physically came after me, looking for a fight.  All ended well, though, and I was able to avoid using force.  A day may come when I'll have to cross that line, but I like the idea of keeping the peace with my subconscious.

DC Wants a Piece of Me - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I've also had a great day so far IWL but the afterglow of a good lucid just seems to color everything afterward.  Such a great feeling.

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## OpheliaBlue

Congrats on #18!! I'm so glad we can help. And I'm fairly sure I can speak for RareCola, paige and Xanous as well as myself, in that it's easy to teach something when it's a subject you love. And I know I personally love to witness the progression you make, as well as the other students. It actually makes me a better LDer, I say that all the time.

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## paigeyemps

> Congrats on #18!! I'm so glad we can help. And I'm fairly sure I can speak for RareCola, paige and Xanous as well as myself, in that it's easy to teach something when it's a subject you love. And I know I personally love to witness the progression you make, as well as the other students. It actually makes me a better LDer, I say that all the time.




Agreed for sure!! Congrats on the awesome progress  :smiley:

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## Kaenthem

> I had a great night of dreaming last night, hitting lucid dream #18!
> 
> This one's a personal milestone for me and my time in the class.  It means that fully half of my lucid dreams (9 out of 18) took place since joining the intro class just a few weeks back.  I'm insanely grateful to all of the teachers and students here for all of your help, advice, and community.  Can't overstate what a difference this has made.  OpheliaBlue, RareCola, paigeyemps, Xanous... I've gotten a lot of great advice and stolen a ton of great ideas from you and many others.  Thank you all for making the second 9 feel so easy and fun.
> 
> This lucid was interesting in that a very hostile DC physically came after me, looking for a fight.  All ended well, though, and I was able to avoid using force.  A day may come when I'll have to cross that line, but I like the idea of keeping the peace with my subconscious.
> 
> DC Wants a Piece of Me - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
> 
> I've also had a great day so far IWL but the afterglow of a good lucid just seems to color everything afterward.  Such a great feeling.



 the way you handeled with the DC problem was plain awesome.
I also like to just "observe" things around me when i become lucid,it's just amazing how can owr brain create this alternate multisensory reality.
keep on dreaming  :Cheeky:

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## CanisLucidus

> the way you handeled with the DC problem was plain awesome.
> I also like to just "observe" things around me when i become lucid,it's just amazing how can owr brain create this alternate multisensory reality.
> keep on dreaming



Thanks dude!  I'm with you on the joys of "observing" in the dream world.  Like in your most recent "rooftop" lucid, good awareness habit you've got from during the day carry over wonderfully into the dream itself.  Details that you may have previously just brushed aside in waking life are all rendered beautifully on the dreamscape.  Crazy stuff.

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## CanisLucidus

I got a slightly better-than-average chunk of sleep last night (about 7.5 hours) and was rewarded with a great night of dream recall (7 or 8 depending on how I count them.)  It feels good to get (almost) proper sleep.

I missed out on a very obvious false awakening, too.  I might post that up in the dream snippets thread, but suffice to say that I had plenty of opportunity to see through this one.  These FAs are endlessly amusing but I'd still greatly prefer becoming lucid.   :smiley:   This has been two mornings of false awakenings in a row, so I think that it's time for a new wake-up ritual.

*"False Awakening" detection ritual*
Upon waking, I'll perform these steps in order:
-Bring the previous dream to mind ASAP.  If successful, DEILD.
-Briefly attempt to nonphysically roll out of bed OBE-style.  (New experimental step.)
-Work to recall the last set of dreams.  If need to pee is overwhelming, skip to next step.   ::mrgreen:: 
-Nose pinch reality check, no matter what, before moving to get out of bed.

*Goals for the rest of the month:*
-Solidify new wake-up ritual
-At least *2* nights of 8 hours of sleep (tougher for me than it sounds!)
-Complete either Task of the Month

Only four (I think?) nights of dreaming left to complete Task of the Month.  Tick tock.

----------


## paigeyemps

Your FA ritual sounds good. I mostly reality check a couple times when I wake up. In my FA's, I don't know why it never occurs to me to try to recall the last dream when it's basically the second thing I do after RCing :/

Might I also suggest that upon waking up, try to feel your blanket or pillow or your bedsheet. You can just rub your hands over them or something. I had a few FAs where I did it, and it somehow reinforced my senses and made me lucid. I wonder how that would work out for someone else.  ::D:

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## CanisLucidus

Great idea on feeling the blanket/bedsheets.  I really like that.  I've had false awakenings that turned into lucids where I found myself wrapped up in the bedsheets.  I wound up thrashing my way out, although I've since learned that Ophelia's method of just letting them slide off is much better.  This means that I clearly tend to include bedsheets in my false awakenings.

So I see two big benefits to your idea: first, it could stabilize the scene and make me lucid.  Second, it could also serve as an anchor to *hold* me in the dream scene in case I experience any sensation of "shock" from suddenly becoming lucid.  (I sometimes shock myself awake or into another FA.)

Thanks, Paige!!   :smiley: 

Also, I'm now including in my DJ entries:
-When I went to bed and woke up (thanks to paigeyemps)
-What I ate before bed (thanks to Xanous and his "vodka-filled slushie drink", lol)

I've picked up some sort of cold so in spite of getting 8 hours of sleep, my recall wasn't quite on point.  I only managed to recall one dream last night and I was nowhere near lucid in it.  No biggie, apart from this standing in the way of my September goals.   :smiley:   Hopefully I can knock this thing out quick.  I'll also do a waking journal today to keep my recall skills firing.

----------


## CanisLucidus

I remembered five dreams last night, so recall was much sharper.  I think that the waking journal may have done the trick.  These sniffles are a pain and they _are_ eroding sleep quality a bit.  But hey, if recall stays this high, you'll hear no griping from me.

I had two "close calls" with lucidity last night.  The first (which I posted in the daily snippets thread) had me considering doing a reality check but then losing my nerve.  _Weenie!_  :smiley: 

The second "close call" was a dream where my sister-in-law and I were looking around the house for Wife.  We finally found her sitting alone in a closet by herself, crying.  This shocked me awake but I held on, trying to DEILD back in.  I kept floating into and back out of the dream scene but I think that the dream content was keeping me from concentrating properly.  Even though I knew it was a dream scene, I couldn't shut down the, "OMG, what's wrong?  Was it something I did?" voice.

paigeyemps, you'll be proud to know that I remembered to count with my dream voice during the DEILD.   :smiley:

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## paigeyemps

> paigeyemps, you'll be proud to know that I remembered to count with my dream voice during the DEILD.




That's awesome!! How was it for you?  ::D:  and congrats by the way, looks like everything's going well!


Heads up: It's almost October! I suggest making a new list of monthly goals you want to achieve, as well as reevaluate your DJ for possible new dream signs or any realizations  ::D:

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## CanisLucidus

> That's awesome!! How was it for you?  and congrats by the way, looks like everything's going well!
> 
> Heads up: It's almost October! I suggest making a new list of monthly goals you want to achieve, as well as reevaluate your DJ for possible new dream signs or any realizations



Thanks!  The counting worked just fine but my emotions kept pulling me out of the dream.  One second I'd be shouting numbers at Wife while she looked on, somewhat bewildered ( ::D: ), then I'd suddenly feel pulled back into the bed.  I think it'll just take practice to chill myself out when there are emotional/excitement elements from the previous dream still on my mind.  And now...

*Goals for October:*
-Have 6 more lucid dreams
-Complete one of the October Tasks of the Month
-Stable, sustained flight in at least one lucid dream.  Not just jumping or getting blown away by the wind!

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## Xanous

> then I'd suddenly feel pulled back into the bed.



Ah I go back and forth a lot like this. It is annoying. I think its just that you are not really "locked in" full dream and you kind of startle yourself back to your physical body.

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## CanisLucidus

> Ah I go back and forth a lot like this. It is annoying. I think its just that you are not really "locked in" full dream and you kind of startle yourself back to your physical body.



Whatever it is you are doing to address this, it obviously works.  You had about 50 million DEILDs on your September Task of the Month, all through a bunch of either frightening or emotional dream content.  That's the level I want to get to.

Maybe I just don't fight hard enough.  Eventually I just sort of found myself much more awake than asleep, as if the dream finally had enough of me and booted me out.

A lot of this must have to do with mindset.  How do you get a handle on your excitement/emotions/fear/whatever so that you can let yourself just get sucked back in?

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## Xanous

> Whatever it is you are doing to address this, it obviously works.  You had about 50 million DEILDs on your September Task of the Month, all through a bunch of either frightening or emotional dream content.  That's the level I want to get to.
> 
> Maybe I just don't fight hard enough.  Eventually I just sort of found myself much more awake than asleep, as if the dream finally had enough of me and booted me out.
> 
> A lot of this must have to do with mindset.  How do you get a handle on your excitement/emotions/fear/whatever so that you can let yourself just get sucked back in?



Oh geez. I am not sure am I qualified to answer that right now due to this infuriating dry spell. I have actually been struggling with this myself lately but it might actually do me good to think this over. So keeping a clear mind helps. I know that doing meditation during the day helps a lot. I have been having a hard time finding the time for this. Actually most of the time I take a few minutes at bed time to meditate. This is actually a great way to fall asleep so keep that in mind. 

I usually am able to invoke the same calm feeling I get during meditation when I am lucid. When you are on the verge like that, you really have to detach your emotions and balance between not caring and wanting it. Then at some point you feel like you are stable or 'locked in' and it gets easier. I have to keep a check on it though or my emotions will get the best of me and I destabilize. But then again, you have to have _some_ level of excitement or you fall non lucid. So basically its a balancing act.

Edit: Epiphany!

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## CanisLucidus

No lucid last night, but a great night of dreaming nonetheless.  First, I got over 8 hours of sleep, which is a good thing all by itself.

Second, for the first time last night I tried prepping Wife (or her DC) for CALD.  Wife shows up in a dream virtually every night, making her by far my most common DC and most common dreamsign.  The prep itself just involved spending the time before sleep imagining a conversation with her where I asked her to aggressively remind me that I'm dreaming and to perform a reality check.  Amazingly, she did just that in a false awakening, although I was too thick to pick up on it.  Very encouraging.  I posted the (amusing) results in Dream Snippets: http://www.dreamviews.com/f151/intro...ml#post1947240

I also experienced some very strong hypnagogic imagery after my WBTB that _may_ have led me into the early parts of a WILD.  I faded partially into and out of as many as _ten_ different, very vivid scenes.  I'd be in for maybe a second or two then find myself awake again.  Sometimes I'd sort of DEILD back in and sometimes I'd just latch onto a new piece of imagery.  Even though I never turned this into a lucid dream of any significant length, it was a great experience.  Is this what the beginning of a WILD is like for me?  Is this something else?  Very intriguing new toy to play with.





> Edit: Epiphany!



What a post.  This gives a very thorough treatment of the issue I brought up with mental control during DEILDs and WILDs.

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## Xanous

> Second, for the first time last night I tried prepping Wife (or her DC) for CALD.  Wife shows up in a dream virtually every night, making her by far my most common DC and most common dreamsign.  The prep itself just involved spending the time before sleep imagining a conversation with her where I asked her to aggressively remind me that I'm dreaming and to perform a reality check.  Amazingly, she did just that in a false awakening, although I was too thick to pick up on it.  Very encouraging.  I posted the (amusing) results in Dream Snippets: http://www.dreamviews.com/f151/intro...ml#post1947240



What I great idea! I forgot that my wife is in a lot of my dreams as well. I may try this one. I love all the things I learn form peoples workbooks. Even the new students have great ideas! So cool!

oooh wouldn't it be great if she would play along and you could get a video of her telling you that you are dreaming? Then you could play it back before bed. LOL. I don't think mine would do it.

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## CanisLucidus

> What I great idea! I forgot that my wife is in a lot of my dreams as well. I may try this one. I love all the things I learn form peoples workbooks. Even the new students have great ideas! So cool!
> 
> oooh wouldn't it be great if she would play along and you could get a video of her telling you that you are dreaming? Then you could play it back before bed. LOL. I don't think mine would do it.



LOL.  There is zero percent chance my wife would do that.  I told her about my false awakening and her verbatim response was, "Dorsolateral... ha ha!  Dork!"

It might be worth asking just to see her reaction though.   :smiley:

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## Xanous

> LOL.  There is zero percent chance my wife would do that.  I told her about my false awakening and her verbatim response was, "Dorsolateral... ha ha!  Dork!"
> 
> It might be worth asking just to see her reaction though.



That's a valid response... jk. Actually my wife would say something similar? Hey do you have a CALD guide. I tried last night but realized I didn't really understand it.

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## CanisLucidus

> That's a valid response... jk. Actually my wife would say something similar? Hey do you have a CALD guide. I tried last night but realized I didn't really understand it.



I have to admit that I'd only vaguely heard of the CALD technique myself.  I pretty much rolled this on my own when performing my nightly dream incubation.  It was quite ad hoc but I can describe what I did.

I was trying to incubate a dream scene where I was lazing around on some ancient, secret beach.  (Specifically, a Cretaceous one, as that was my last shot at TotM.)  The scene seemed lonely and I idly placed Wife into it.  It occurred to me just then how strong of a presence she has in my dream life and I wondered if I could create this kind of strong association between her and _the realization that I'm dreaming_.  I figured that Wife's DC is the strongest possible mnemonic device I could employ if I can just figure out how to do it.

I daydreamed one of these conversations we always have where we agree to remind each other about something important, complete with "Now you need to remember this too!  Don't blame me if we forget!" kind of stuff.  Wife and I have been together since we were teenagers so it feels normal for us to rely on one another's memory.  The essence of it is that _she_ agreed to tell me I'm dreaming and _I_ agreed to assume I'm dreaming the next time that I see her.  I daydreamed this whole thing as realistically as possible during bedtime and after WBTB.

In the end, of course, Wife's DC came through and I didn't.  Apparently dream life is just like waking life.   :smiley:   I was astonished to see results from this so quickly so I'll definitely be playing with it more.  Seems like a good use of dream incubation time.

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## OpheliaBlue

> I also experienced some very strong hypnagogic imagery after my WBTB that _may_ have led me into the early parts of a WILD.  I faded partially into and out of as many as _ten_ different, very vivid scenes.  I'd be in for maybe a second or two then find myself awake again.  Sometimes I'd sort of DEILD back in and sometimes I'd just latch onto a new piece of imagery.  Even though I never turned this into a lucid dream of any significant length, it was a great experience.  *Is this what the beginning of a WILD is like for me?*  Is this something else?  Very intriguing new toy to play with.



I would say yes to this. My ways of inducing lucid dreams have changed SO much over the years. Right now when I WILD, the transition is very subtle (which make me subject for possible FAs, but I'm boss and I've figured out how to conquer those  :tongue2:  ), so I don't get as much HI as I used to. I don't know if it changes for everyone like this, but I do know that I used to get alot of HI, HH, and occasional SP. All of these eventually became part of transitioning from awake to a lucid dream, I guess they just phased out because I got so used to the feelings that I can now somehow skip over it? Still newish for me to LD in a way other than a plain DILD, so I'm still trying to figure it all out. But I can honestly say, that you should definitely "play" with this new toy. You're learning how YOU operate, and how YOU transition through all the possible phases that can eventually lead to WILD. No one can really teach those, we can just provide references to our own experience. You're at the best part now, because you get to experiment. I'm really excited for you and can't wait to see where this goes!

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## CanisLucidus

Excellent, thank you for the description!  I love the idea of these experiences becoming simpler the more seasoned your grow.  Over time, it's like the bells and whistles that once seemed so exciting either disappear entirely or just turn into scenery on the way to the real destination: getting lucid!  I will definitely keep playing with this if it happens again.  I'm not in a rush to tackle WILD (although that day will come.)  But if I find my way their on my own, damned if I'm going to miss my opportunity!

After all that help, I hate to try to keep shamelessly looting you for more knowledge, but... have you totally conquered FAs?  This is one I'm still working on.  I really got a lot of these bad boys.  They're charming in their own way but they've got nothing on a true lucid dream.

And that new October avatar!!  That is *perfect*!   ::goodjob::

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## OpheliaBlue

> I'm not in a rush to tackle WILD (although that day will come.)  But if I find my way their on my own, damned if I'm going to miss my opportunity!



I'm with you there. I'll let you in on a little secret: When I first joined DV, I avoided WILD talk, or any other "induction method" talk like the plague! It just seemed too far fetched. I mean, I knew I DILDed, because it seemed like most folks just randomly happened upon lucid dreams, while the WILDs and DEILDs and MILDs etc, were for the elite lucid masters. Probably created a schema in my mind, but that's another story. At any rate, the point is, that was over 8 years ago, and since then I finally warmed up to WILD. But I owe this not only to time passing, but to reading others' experiences. Mainly Sageous's class, and of course RareCola's epic lucid journeys, not to mention teaching DVA. I hope you find that teaching and helping students embellishes your own lucid journey, as much as it has mine.  :smiley: 





> After all that help, I hate to try to keep shamelessly looting you for more knowledge, but...* have you totally conquered FAs?*  This is one I'm still working on.  I really got a lot of these bad boys.  They're charming in their own way but they've got nothing on a true lucid dream.



I only say that because I regularly get "that lucid feeling" so much now, that I'm accustomed to the difference in feeling awake for real when I get out of bed, vs. in a dream when I get out of bed. I admit it's probably 1:10 chance that I get tricked, and it also helps that i can sleep in 4 days a week. There's alot of day residue there, considering the fact that I wake and fall back to sleep many times in a single morning, and I can experiment with this 4 mornings every week.





> And that new October avatar!!  That is *perfect*!



Why thank you! You should so check out the thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/f16/hallow...avatar-136749/

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## CanisLucidus

> I'm with you there. I'll let you in on a little secret: When I first joined DV, I avoided WILD talk, or any other "induction method" talk like the plague! It just seemed too far fetched. I mean, I knew I DILDed, because it seemed like most folks just randomly happened upon lucid dreams, while the WILDs and DEILDs and MILDs etc, were for the elite lucid masters. Probably created a schema in my mind, but that's another story. At any rate, the point is, that was over 8 years ago, and since then I finally warmed up to WILD. But I owe this not only to time passing, but to reading others' experiences. Mainly Sageous's class, and of course RareCola's epic lucid journeys, not to mention teaching DVA. I hope you find that teaching and helping students embellishes your own lucid journey, as much as it has mine.



It's amazing how much perspective time and experience can bring.  I remember from the podcasts that you've been lucid dreaming since you were small.  When you've been successfully lucid dreaming for years, I think it'd be easy to wonder what you even need all this... _stuff_ for.

An occasional tendency that I have (and consciously try to fight) is to become calcified in thought and resistant to change.  But learning, _especially learning about lucid dreaming_ is by definition the opposite of that.  Almost every improvement in LD skill is all about looking at things in a new way and gradually rearranging the web of schemata that defines our worldview.  Working with the staff and students in this class is very, very good at helping me do that!





> Why thank you! You should so check out the thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/f16/hallow...avatar-136749/



Ohh my goodness!  I may have to play with this.

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## CanisLucidus

*I hit lucid dream #19 last night!*  I had been avoided using "the d-word" but I'd gone 10 nights without an LD.  Felt good to have a nice one.  I attempted the Task of the Month and got to enjoy the sensation of popping my own head off.  Not half bad!  I'm sure it's more fun in an LD than IWL.   :smiley: 

This was certainly a wonderful way to greet the day!

Here's the entry: The (Headless) Man in the Mirror - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

The secret sauce seemed to simply be getting enough sleep _and_ going all-out during my WBTB with a proper MILD.  I actually managed just about a full 8 hour sleep period, which is better than I've typically done.  It seems that my odds just go way, way up if I get into those longer stretches of REM.

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## Kaenthem

Nice dream,you were so close, better luck next time  :smiley: ,and a night of good sleep is always good for lucid dreaming,one day i slept for 12 hous and had 4 lucids.

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## paigeyemps

Congrats Canis!!  :Party:  I have yet to feel removing my own head haha. I hope to do that soon! Not irl though x)

Great job!

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## CanisLucidus

> Congrats Canis!!  I have yet to feel removing my own head haha. I hope to do that soon! Not irl though x)
> 
> Great job!



Thanks, Paige!  I think you'll enjoy it.   :smiley:   You really killed it on September's Task of the Month so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this pile of cool Halloween tasks.

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## CanisLucidus

Lucid dream #20 last night!  I got stuffed early trying Task of the Month but *I finally achieved high altitude, stable flight* and made it all the way to space!  I know that flight comes naturally to a lot of folks but for me it's been tough.  That made this LD a big milestone.

Here is the Dream Journal entry:The Unprepared Astronaut - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*LD goals accomplished:*
-Stable, high altitude flight
-Travel to outer space

I also thought this would be a good time to document my precise LD routine these past two (successful) nights.  It seems easy to remember now but I just _know_ that I'll forget some important detail later.

*Food/Supplements*: Drink a lot of pee water before bed.  As in, water that will make me get up to pee throughout the night.  Not water with pee in it.  GOSH, you guys!!
*Bedtime:* 9:345-10:45.  I do the best I can here.  I can go later than 10:45 on a weekend, but otherwise my odds are going to be really bad.
*WBTB:* I rely on natural awakenings for my WBTB, but I _definitely_ employ WBTB.  If I wake up after or around 4 AM, I put my game face on.

*Before sleep*, sit in bed, writing a few sentences in DJ about how vivid and memorable my dreams will be and how well I recognize the state of dreaming.  Skim over a few recent dreams.  Lay down, planning to visualize what I'll do in next lucid.  (In reality, fall asleep in like 3 seconds.)

*Upon each waking*, try to recall any dreams while feeling the bedsheets to catch false awakenings.  Get up, reality check, pee.  Try to avoid light.  Write down all dreams, back to bed.  Perform MILD.  In most wakings before 4 am, I don't last long before falling asleep.

*In any wakings at 4 AM or later*, I journal as usual, then give MILD a full-out effort.  I visualize myself back in my most recent dream while constantly having my dream voice say, "I'm dreaming."  I add banners and graffiti all over the walls of the dream scene that say "I'M DREAMING".  I visualize myself moving as quickly as possible to performing my chosen lucid goal.  Once this is done, I loop back to the beginning of the dream and repeat.  I do this until I feel drowsy, then I roll over onto my side or stomach and try to fall asleep, continuing to MILD.  If it's difficult to sleep, I cut the MILD out and just meditate on my breathing until I am asleep.

----------


## OpheliaBlue

Great dream, congrats on lucid #20 and the flight milestone! Several things you did in that dream are extra noteworthy in my opinion. Instead of just saying "Waaah, I want a mirrorrrr," you thought of the details you wanted and it appeared! Then when your reflection wasn't cooperating, you decided to do something else, which ended up being you accomplishing a personal goal. This is much like real life isn't it? Say fuck it to the thing that isn't working in the moment you want it, and put your efforts somewhere else, and you meet with success that way.  :smiley:

----------


## CanisLucidus

Thanks!!  I appreciate it.  I feel like keeping up with dream journals is helping me make so much more of my opportunities.  There's always going to be tons of fun trial and error in lucid dreaming but others' experiences help so much in shaping strategy.  I didn't have to experience your frustration with trying to clear the stormy skies out of your dream in order to understand the lesson there.

And you're right!  I think it's so much better to redirect your energy when you get that slight sense of "now what the hell was that?" frustration.  It's so easy to become obsessed that things be _just so_.  If I'd stayed there Windexing that mirror, would I have ever realized what kind of opportunity I was trading away?

You know, if I'm not careful, I might learn a thing or two about life here.  That's okay, I guess, so long as it doesn't distract me from Task of the Month.   :smiley:

----------


## CanisLucidus

Last night gave me lucid dream #21!  This one was extremely trippy and wasn't always the smoothest ride.  This dream took me through identity confusion, a false awakening, and lots of weird imagery (including Thomas Jefferson in bright Technicolor.)

At one point my consciousness was separated from the Dream Character that was acting as me, even though I could still hear "his" thoughts.  Easily one of the weirdest experiences of my life.  But you know what?  I still had a great time!

This is the DJ entry: Technicolor Thomas Jefferson - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I ate two tablespoons of natural peanut butter before bed but I've never gotten anything like this from pre-bed PB before.

Another oddity was that my couple of pre-bed glasses of pee-water didn't wake me up until I'd had nearly 6 hours of sleep.  (Usually it's more like 3 hours for the first wake-up.)  All this water gave me a series of dreams where I was some kind of social worker whose job it was to wake up and rescue people who had wet the bed.   ::o: 

Hours of sleep: Just over 7
Technique: MILD, w/ visualization and "I'm dreaming" mantra

----------


## Xanous

> I ate two tablespoons of natural peanut butter before bed but I've never gotten anything like this from pre-bed PB before.



Peanut Butter as a lucid aid?

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Peanut Butter as a lucid aid?



Heh, I really just ate it because I like it.  I wanted to note it in case this ever happens again, though.  We'll see whether Technicolor Thomas Jefferson visits me again the next time I dig into the PB jar.   :smiley: 

Peanuts have choline and various B vitamins but I can't imagine it's enough to make anything crazy happen, yeah?  I've never done any dream supplementation so I don't have any basis of comparison.  But I think with the supplements, the quantities are way higher than just the little bit I ate.

Given the fact that I love peanut butter, I have no problem with making this a nightly thing for the next week or so.   ::D:

----------


## Xanous

I actually searched "Peanut butter lucid aid" and sure enough someone was claiming it was effective. But this person was WBTB eating a whole PB sandwich. I'm sure my waist line could not handle that. But I may try a tbs for fun. I can't say any lucid aid has ever worked for me though. Maybe I forget that its just an aid and I don't try as hard as I normally would.

Mind if join you in a PB experement and compair notes? Might be fun.

EDIT: 



> I can't say any lucid aid has ever worked for me though.



I take that back. A moderate amount of Alcohol seems to help a lot but sometimes I wonder if the dream quality is affected.

----------


## CanisLucidus

> I actually searched "Peanut butter lucid aid" and sure enough someone was claiming it was effective. But this person was WBTB eating a whole PB sandwich. I'm sure my waist line could not handle that. But I may try a tbs for fun. I can't say any lucid aid has ever worked for me though. Maybe I forget that its just an aid and I don't try as hard as I normally would.
> 
> Mind if join you in a PB experement and compair notes? Might be fun.



Yeah man, go crazy!  Looking forward to comparing notes.

I have to assume that the insanity of my last dream must have been down to just catching myself in a particularly hectic state of dreaming.  My WBTB was nearly 6 hours from bed time.  It's hard to imagine that my modest 2 tablespoons of PB was still doing enough to get all that craziness going.

So, tonight's pre-bed nutrition: two tablespoons natural peanut butter and, of course, pee water.

----------


## Xanous

> Yeah man, go crazy!  Looking forward to comparing notes.
> 
> I have to assume that the insanity of my last dream must have been down to just catching myself in a particularly hectic state of dreaming.  My WBTB was nearly 6 hours from bed time.  It's hard to imagine that my modest 2 tablespoons of PB was still doing enough to get all that craziness going.
> 
> So, tonight's pre-bed nutrition: two tablespoons natural peanut butter and, of course, pee water.



Oh yeah probably not a factor by then. I was thinking more WBTB PB. Haha pee water. I do that too but set an alarm just in case. I used to wake up with aching kidney because I would not get up to pee. Of course now a days I have a small carbon based life form sleeping next to our bed. He usually makes a great WBTB alarm several times a night! :p

----------


## Chimpertainment

Peanut Butter has vitamin B if im not mistaken...Increases neural activity and that somehow turns into greater awareness while sleeping....

----------


## paigeyemps

And dont forget apple juice!! It has lots of B6 PLUS it's liquid so you will get the pee feels  ::D:

----------


## OpheliaBlue

I'm not a big advocate for lucid aids myself, but I'll totally join you two in the PB before bed challenge for the heck of it!

I say I'm not an advocate because I don't believe lucid aids should be used long term because they usually level off and stop working anyway. But I'm all for experimentation, so cheers!

----------


## CanisLucidus

> And dont forget apple juice!! It has lots of B6 PLUS it's liquid so you will get the pee feels



Ahh, right!!  I remember RareCola saying that he liked to use apple juice as a lucid aid for recall in particular.  Plus, when you refer to the cup of apple juice you just drank in front of someone as "pee water", you can watch them really recoil in horror.





> I'm not a big advocate for lucid aids myself, but I'll totally join you two in the PB before bed challenge for the heck of it!
> 
> I say I'm not an advocate because I don't believe lucid aids should be used long term because they usually level off and stop working anyway. But I'm all for experimentation, so cheers!



Yeah, I really agree on the lucid aids.  After all, what's _really_ getting us lucid is our mad skillz.  I'm just going to admit that I'm looking for any excuse to eat peanut butter right from the spoon like a barbarian and tell Wife that it's "For science!"   :smiley: 

By the way, I love that graphic, as it appears to combine my peanut butter with Xanous' favorite lucid aid (namely, his wife's "vodka-filled slushie drinks".)  Oh, and chocolate.  Truly, it does not get any better than this.   ::D:

----------


## OpheliaBlue

I swear, before I die, I will make a ChocolatePeanutbutterCuptini.

I'll serve them at the next DV Convention.

----------


## Xanous

I ended up taking 200mg B6 with my PB WBTB. My dreams got very vivid but no lucid. I did dream of another dream views member which is always interesting.

----------


## OpheliaBlue

I'm really digging the fart spray. I've been getting really mild vibrations lately too, that just fizzle into sleep and nonlucids. But I admit I've been naughty and going to bed between 2-3am for no other reason than to stay up and play. How about you? You sleeping enough? I'd imagine so since it said you went to bed at 10:15. What time did you actually get out of bed, 6? Just curious.





> I did dream of another dream views member which is always interesting.



Technically two, if you count the Oreo  :tongue2:

----------


## Xanous

> Yeah, I really agree on the lucid aids.  After all, what's _really_ getting us lucid is our mad skillz.  I'm just going to admit that I'm looking for any excuse to eat peanut butter right from the spoon like a barbarian and tell Wife that it's "For science!"  
> 
> By the way, I love that graphic, as it appears to combine my peanut butter with Xanous' favorite lucid aid (namely, his wife's "vodka-filled slushie drinks".)  Oh, and chocolate.  Truly, it does not get any better than this.



LMAO you kill me!





> I'm really digging the fart spray. I've been getting really mild vibrations lately too, that just fizzle into sleep and nonlucids. But I admit I've been naughty and going to bed between 2-3am for no other reason than to stay up and play. How about you? You sleeping enough? I'd imagine so since it said you went to bed at 10:15. What time did you actually get out of bed, 6? Just curious.



The fart spray is something from my childhood. These things keep popping up. Yeah mine just fizzle out sometimes idk why. I have bee striving for 9pm bed time and I have to get up at 6am. Im still really tired though. I have to start getting up at 5 now to take Riley, my son, to my moms. Actually Alysha and I are taking turns with that... or at least that's the plan.

----------


## CanisLucidus

LOL.  I totally missed the transition from this:





> I'm not a big advocate for lucid aids myself, but I'll totally join you two in the PB before bed challenge for the heck of it!



To this:





> I'm really digging the fart spray.



I see that we're skipping the peanut butter, B6, and 5-HTP and _going straight to the hard stuff!_  Laberge did plenty of research into substances like galantamine, but even he has not as yet ventured down the dark, smelly road of "fart spray" as a lucid aid.  You are on the bleeding edge here.

And yes, it eventually dawned on me that I probably need to read Xanous' dream journal.   ::D:

----------


## Xanous

> LOL.  I totally missed the transition from this:
> 
> 
> 
> To this:
> 
> 
> 
> I see that we're skipping the peanut butter, B6, and 5-HTP and _going straight to the hard stuff!_  Laberge did plenty of research into substances like galantamine, but even he has not as yet ventured down the dark, smelly road of "fart spray" as a lucid aid.  You are on the bleeding edge here.
> ...



OMG yes you should, funny man!

----------


## paigeyemps

DID SOMEONE SAY FART?

 ::D: 

Count me in.

----------


## CanisLucidus

Folks, I may need to check myself into peanut butter rehab.  I had 4 tablespoons last night before bed, which was pretty decadent and awesome.  I don't know whether there's any relation, but I had a very strange night of dream recall and was kind of sweaty after every waking.  (It's unusual for me to get sweaty when I sleep.)

Every single dream that I recalled (there were three) involved frantic, jumpy conversations about dreaming or lucid dreaming.  No Technicolor Thomas Jefferson but lots of frenetic activity and jump cuts between scenes.  What I wrote for dream #2 is so weird that I can't even interpret it.  It involves milking cows during holidays, "super storms" and someone named "Miss Lara" peeling me off the ceiling with her "values".   :Uhm:   (And yes, lucid dreaming talk as well.)

Additionally, I felt hot, restless, and busy-minded during my WBTB.  This led to a vivid, engaging MILD practice but made falling back asleep really difficult.

For the rest of my PB nights, I think that I will dial it back down to two tablespoons.   :smiley:

----------


## CanisLucidus

I had my first "lucid nap" yesterday for lucid dream #22!  Losing a fight to a little kid wasn't exactly one of my dream goals, but I'm always happy to rack up a lucid dream no matter what the circumstances are.   :smiley: 

An interesting thing that happened in this one is that I allowed my mind to wander a bit too much from what was happening in the dream scene and this caused one of the DCs to turn on me pretty viciously.  Lesson learned!  This is the DJ entry:  Unwelcome Houseguests - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

For this nap, I tried a new technique where I try to combine a MILD mantra with my actual falling asleep ritual.  My goal is to continue doing my mantra as close to the point of sleep as possible without keeping myself awake.  It's a fine line, but recently, I've done this by combining my usual "go to sleep fast" technique of deep breathing with a MILD mantra and counting ideas from KamilV's technique for falling asleep.

New Combined Falling Asleep / MILD Ritual:
-Begin at the number 100 and begin to count backwards.
-Deep breath in (6-8 seconds.)  Say the next number.  (In my head.)
-Slowly breathe out (6-8 seconds.)  Say "I'm dreaming."
-Next breath, now at 99.

At night, I've been sticking with my two tablespoons of peanut butter a bit before bed.  My dreams have calmed down a great deal from the "Technicolor Thomas Jefferson" phase of ultra-trippiness.  Recall had ticked down to 2-3 dreams recently but last night was 4, all of them fairly memorable.  That'll do nicely, but I'll keep an eye on things.

----------


## paigeyemps

Ahahaa that was an awesome trippy dream. And I love your sleeping ritual! I might try that out tonight muhaahahahAHAHA

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Ahahaa that was an awesome trippy dream. And I love your sleeping ritual! I might try that out tonight muhaahahahAHAHA



Hey, sweet!  If you do try it, let me know how it goes!  The thing puts me right to sleep when I've always had a bit of trouble sleeping with my mantra still going.

Oh, that reminds me!  Don't you somehow incorporate counting into your... WILD technique?  Xanous mentioned a counting idea that he got from you but I failed to find it poking around in either your workbook or his.

Edit: And talking to paigeyemps reminds me of yet another thing... my October goals!


*Spoiler* for _October Goals_: 




Goals for October:
-Have 6 more lucid dreams
-Complete one of the October Tasks of the Month
-Stable, sustained flight in at least one lucid dream. Not just jumping or getting blown away by the wind! The Unprepared Astronaut - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Lucid Count for October: 4

----------


## Xanous

I think it was mentioned in chat.

----------


## paigeyemps

> Hey, sweet!  If you do try it, let me know how it goes!  The thing puts me right to sleep when I've always had a bit of trouble sleeping with my mantra still going.
> 
> Oh, that reminds me!  Don't you somehow incorporate counting into your... WILD technique?  Xanous mentioned a counting idea that he got from you but I failed to find it poking around in either your workbook or his.
> 
> Edit: And talking to paigeyemps reminds me of yet another thing... my October goals!



Hmm do you mean the thing where I count backwards during WILD for my anchor? Or the thing where I imagine yelling out my counting during DEILDs?

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Hmm do you mean the thing where I count backwards during WILD for my anchor? Or the thing where I imagine yelling out my counting during DEILDs?



Oh yeah should have been more specific!  This was something that you do during WILDs.

I've actually done the DEILD trick (thanks to you!) where I try to shout out a count with my dream voice.   ::D:

----------


## paigeyemps

> Oh yeah should have been more specific!  This was something that you do during WILDs.
> 
> I've actually done the DEILD trick (thanks to you!) where I try to shout out a count with my dream voice.



Ahh now I remember! I wasn't quite sure if it was Xanous or you, haha

----------


## CanisLucidus

Well, I was weak and fell back into the arms of an old flame last night: my first LD tech, the ever-controversial SSILD!  In the past I'd had problems with SSILD keeping me awake but I was tempted to see whether my new "combined falling asleep / MILD ritual" could solve this.

Luckily, it worked!  I had *lucid dream #23* last night plus an additional lucid dream fragment.  SSILD left me feeling very awake but the ritual afterward managed to settle me down to sleep.

This was my lucid dream (a failed Task of the Month): Halloween in the Sky Fortress - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I'll probably also post the lucid fragment up in the snippets thread.

Pre-bed food: 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 200mg ubiquinol (CoQ10), 3 grams fish oil
Technique: SSILD w/ MILD sleep ritual
Sleep: 8 hours+


*Spoiler* for _October Goals_: 




Goals for October:
-Have 6 more lucid dreams
-Complete one of the October Tasks of the Month
-Stable, sustained flight in at least one lucid dream. Not just jumping or getting blown away by the wind! The Unprepared Astronaut - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Lucid Count for October: 5

----------


## paigeyemps

Oh wow pretty cool dream! And I love how you worked with the opposing wind by thinking it was "guiding you" instead of just fighting against it. That was very well done indeed  ::D: 

Congrats on the lucid! Maybe you should come trick or treating at my DV house. I gots da candies in the bowl x)

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Sleep Habits*
The first thing that I'm forced to admit in this update is that my sleep habits have not been very good the past few days.  (I've only gotten 7 hours or more of sleep _once_ since my last LD.)  And last night one of our mischievous dogs managed to set off the glass break sensor on our house alarm so I had the pleasure of a "surprise WBTB" at 1:30 AM.  I'd be amazed if I got a full six.

That's the bad news, and I plan to fix it tonight.  I'll be shooting for 8 or more hours of sleep _if at all possible_.  If I can do that, I feel really good about my chances of lucidity.

*Dream Recall and "Daydream Waking Journal"*
The good news is that recall has been mostly consistent in spite of poor sleep.  I mentioned to Xanous that in times when daytime journaling feels too cumbersome, I instead practice a "daydream waking journal".  It seems that this practice has helped keep my recall steady while being much easier than keeping a waking journal.

Every 1-3 hours, I take a moment to quickly daydream everything that I've done from the last time that I performed the ritual.  I find that I can daydream these fresh memories with surprising vividness and the entire process takes literally seconds.  This has seemed to really help my recall not only of dreams but also of events that took place earlier in the week.  It's far less time-consuming than the waking journal but is also kind of _fun_.

*Text in Dreams*
Lately I've noticed that text stays remarkably stable for me in dreams.  I've known for a long time that I often read in dreams, both lucid and non-lucid.  But I find that if a piece of text is on my mind, it will not tend to change contents.  During one of last night's dreams where I was reading an investing forum, a very long, detailed post stayed stable no matter how much I scrolled my dream-mouse around the page, everything stayed the same -- the contents of the post, the poster's sig, even the replies.  I've had issues in the past where alarm clocks freeze at a particular time, but this was by far the largest chunk of "permanent" text that I've seen.

I'm noting this down in case it's of interest to anyone else and to remind myself that unfortunately I just can't rely 100% on textual reality checks.  It's funny, too, because my 13th LD actually came by way of noticing textual malfunction.  Interesting stuff.

----------


## Chimpertainment

> I'm noting this down in case it's of interest to anyone else and to remind myself that unfortunately I just can't rely 100% on textual reality checks. It's funny, too, because my 13th LD actually came by way of noticing textual malfunction. Interesting stuff.



My dreams are the same way. Although, there usually isnt much text, when there is it is very stable. One idea that I have been putting into practice is basically the same reality check with a twist. When I see text, I will do the look away and look back thing. Then I will attempt to change the text. Attempting to fly is another reality check i try to use along the same lines. It brings in the dream awareness while testing perception at the same time. I just recently began reality checking in my dreams so Im not totally familiar with the mechanics but perhaps that technique will be an efficient work around.
 ::cheers::

----------


## CanisLucidus

I got *lucid dream #24* last night.  I had a blast with this one in spite of screwing up in so many ways.   :smiley:   Yet again I encounter strong winds in outdoor flying!  I'll have to ruminate on ways that I might control this.  What I tried (conjuring a counter-wind) was awesomely fun but simply isn't the right solution to this problem.

This is the DJ entry: Pants Gone with the Wind - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Lessons (re)learned:*
-When the dream throws strong resistance in your way, try to flow with it when possible.  (I did a better job of this in the "Sky Fortress" dream, and the results were much better.)
-Try to avoid meeting force with force.

In addition to the full lucid dream, I had an additional lucid fragment, also with Wife in it.  I'll probably put that in "dream snippets".

My son was coughing over the baby monitor and Wife had to awaken for an early morning run.  Both of these led to lighter sleep this morning.  I wouldn't be surprised if this made lucidity a bit easier to attain.

Pre-bed food: 1 ounce unsalted peanuts, 200mg ubiquinol (CoQ10), 3 grams fish oil
Technique: MILD visualization, MILD counting sleep ritual
Sleep: 7 hours+

----------


## paigeyemps

Aww great job Canis!  :Party: 

HAHAHAHAAHA FLYING BUTTNAKED FTW! I really am hoping to be able to try the wind thing, where if it blows against you, imagine that you're going the wrong way and it's leading you.  ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Aww great job Canis! 
> 
> HAHAHAHAAHA FLYING BUTTNAKED FTW! I really am hoping to be able to try the wind thing, where if it blows against you, imagine that you're going the wrong way and it's leading you.



Thanks Paige!!   ::D: 

And talking to you reminds me of something!  Would Avatar: The Last Airbender contain good source material for air and wind control?  I mean, it's got "Airbender" right there in the title.   :smiley:   I know that you've pulled off loads of waterbending in your LDs, but do you have any luck with air?

Anyway, in the meantime I'll save my delusions of grandeur for later and more go with the flow like you're describing.  Assuming I don't get caught up in the moment in the next LD, which I do tend to let happen, heh heh heh...

----------


## Chimpertainment

Perhaps speaking to the wind may work? Or u could imagine yourself as so aerodynamic that u slice through the wind like butter. One more idea, lol...you could produce a wind eliminating forcefield...just some thoughts, sounds like you are having a great time despite that!  :-)

----------


## paigeyemps

> Thanks Paige!!  
> 
> And talking to you reminds me of something!  Would Avatar: The Last Airbender contain good source material for air and wind control?  I mean, it's got "Airbender" right there in the title.    I know that you've pulled off loads of waterbending in your LDs, but do you have any luck with air?
> 
> Anyway, in the meantime I'll save my delusions of grandeur for later and more go with the flow like you're describing.  Assuming I don't get caught up in the moment in the next LD, which I do tend to let happen, heh heh heh...



Oh for sure!! It's got awesome air control concepts. And the best thing about it is that controlling it requires movement of your body, making it an extension of you  rather than controlling it with your mind. So that, imo, adds awesomeness and an overall realistic feel. And I have airbended (airbent?) a few times, though i really do suck at it, haha. I've tried airbending the air in the lungs of a dream character, totally felt legit!

 ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

You guys rock!  Okay, that gives me plenty, plenty of stuff to try.  So in addition to my current top approach of just going with the wind and imagining that it's taking me somewhere great, I've got these additional excellent ideas to work with:
-Airbending (gonna need to Netflix some Avatar!)
-Verbally command the wind (I'll need to wear down a schema I have that convinces me it's difficult to speak in high wind)
-Make myself as aerodynamic as a bullet so the wind has no effect on me
-Create a force bubble where I'm completely shielded from the wind
-Edit: Imagine the air calming and everything going completely still (thanks to dragonmaster21)

I think that even if one of these works I'll want to try them all at some point!   :smiley: 





> I've tried airbending the air in the lungs of a dream character, totally felt legit!



Whoa!  What did that do to this dude?

----------


## OpheliaBlue

> *Perhaps speaking to the wind may work?* Or u could imagine yourself as so aerodynamic that u slice through the wind like butter. One more idea, lol...you could produce a wind eliminating forcefield...just some thoughts, sounds like you are having a great time despite that!  :-)



Oooh yeah, I've had some luck talking to "lucid obstacles" before. You never know, it could say something back to you like "Don't go against the grain.." Definitely worth a shot, especially since it's so recurring.

----------


## paigeyemps

> Whoa!  What did that do to this dude?



He became crinkled and wrinkled. :l

And died. (i didnt mean to kill him!)

----------


## Chimpertainment

> You guys rock!  Okay, that gives me plenty, plenty of stuff to try.  So in addition to my current top approach of just going with the wind and imagining that it's taking me somewhere great, I've got these additional excellent ideas to work with:
> -Airbending (gonna need to Netflix some Avatar!)
> -Verbally command the wind (I'll need to wear down a schema I have that convinces me it's difficult to speak in high wind)
> -Make myself as aerodynamic as a bullet so the wind has no effect on me
> -Create a force bubble where I'm completely shielded from the wind
> -Edit: Imagine the air calming and everything going completely still (thanks to dragonmaster21)
> 
> I think that even if one of these works I'll want to try them all at some point!  
> 
> ...



Ya know, I think the most important thing is to really "feel" that no obstacle will stand in your way. In my own experience, if I feel that, an idea or solution will present itself. Things just seem easier when you don't see them as difficult. Exercise metaphor: Running up a hill, while feeling that it is easy, despite sweating, huffing and puffing. You will take your body to the limit, and that is the point!  ::D:   I heard somewhere that the mind quits long before the body does. In other words, we think we can't because we have never done it before. I'm sure you will conquer it soon enough, your approach is always impeccable.  :smiley: 





> He became crinkled and wrinkled. :l
> 
> And died. (i didnt mean to kill him!)



Suuuuuure  :wink2: 

Somebody doesn't know their own strength  :tongue2:

----------


## CanisLucidus

I pulled off *lucid dream #25* last night.  I had a natural early waking a little before 4 AM, and I felt like I was in the mood to run some SSILD cycles.  After one brief false awakening, this LD hit shortly before wake-up time.

This LD had a fantastic setting -- nearby helicopter, about to board a yacht, hanging with my best friend.  But for some insane reason I wasted it _talking_.  I just couldn't shut up about lucid dreaming!  I was so busy being impressed with myself that I could spout all this information that I forgot to actually _do_ the thing that I love!  Frankly, I'm pretty embarrassed that I did something so silly but I can only hope to learn from it.

Even though it didn't end as I liked (or last as long as I'd have preferred), it was still a great dream.  This LD was very vivid and the imagery is still sharp in my mind.  I may need to try reincubating this dream scene.

Here's the DJ entry: A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 2 tbsp natural peanut butter, 200mg ubiquinol (CoQ10), 3g fish oil
Technique: SSILD, MILD counting sleep ritual
Sleep: 7 hours+


*Spoiler* for _October Goals_: 




Goals for October:
-Have 6 more lucid dreams
-Complete one of the October Tasks of the Month
-Stable, sustained flight in at least one lucid dream. Not just jumping or getting blown away by the wind! The Unprepared Astronaut - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Lucid Count for October: 7

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Recall Haze*
The past couple of days, I've only recalled dreams that occur after my WBTB.  This coincides with the weather turning cold and I wonder whether I'm going into some sort of ultra-deep hibernation-style sleep.   :smiley:   I'd like to do a few things to help improve the recall of my earlier dreams:
-Go to sleep visualizing the sort of dreams that I wish to experience (suggestion from RareCola)
-Try to experience at least 15-20 minutes of good fantasy material at some point during the day.  (Watch some _Avatar_, play _Journey_, view images of a setting I'd like to visit, etc.)

Hopefully this will help my recall from the earlier phases of the night.  If it doesn't, _I'm going for the apple juice!_  Of course, please let me know if any other ideas come to mind.

*Lucid Fragment*
I experienced a lucid fragment the night before last: _"It's midday and I'm wandering through someone's backyard, searching for something.  I suddenly get the feeling that I shouldn't be intruding on some stranger's property.  Or perhaps this is all a dream?  I half-heartedly try to push my finger through my palm and it doesn't go.  Recognizing my previous RC as half-assed, I try again, really grinding my finger into my left palm.  My hand begins to stretch like taffy and now I'm lucid.  I know that I had LD plans but for now they elude me.  I have no direction and I'm enchanted by the perfect weather.  I stand there for a few moments, enjoying the sun on my face until I wake up."_

Tech: MILD w/ counting ritual
Pre-bed food: 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil

*Upcoming Vacation*
I'll be on vacation and away from DreamViews Friday, November 2nd through Friday, November 9th.  I'll probably have very little chance to post during this time but hopefully upon my return I'll have a pile of LDs to unload.   ::D:

----------


## paigeyemps

Congrats on the lucid fragment  ::banana:: 

Apple juice sounds good (lol don't mind me, I'm biased towards apple juice). Bananas also weirdly give me bizarre dreams.

And go take a vacaaa  ::D:  we shall be awaiting your return :3

----------


## RareCola

Enjoy your vacation! Hope you have many lucid dreams  ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Apple Juice!*
Well, I finally tried bedtime and WBTB apple juice.  _Wow_ that stuff worked!  I don't know whether it's the sugar, the acetylcholine preservation, or some kind of freaky placebo, but my dream recall and vividness were both way up.  I didn't get lucid but I had less than 7 hours of sleep anyway, so I wasn't expecting it.

In my prior post you may remember me pissing and moaning that I'd been having bad dream recall before my WBTB.  Last night, I had 3 vivid dreams before the WBTB, one of them very long and movie-like.  I'll have to post that in dream snippets.

One interesting effect was that after drinking the AJ, it took me a couple of minutes to fall asleep (whereas it usually takes 5-10 seconds.)  It could be a simple matter of the high levels of fructose and, secondarily, glucose in the AJ getting the brain into sort of a primed state before sleep and making it more aware during dreaming.  I really don't know, but it worked on me!

My protocol was one cup before bed, then one cup during WBTB.  I was also paranoid and kinda brushed my teeth after each time I drank all that sugar, ha ha... 

Many thanks to RareCola and paigeyemps for this idea!  Amazing.  Highly recommended to anyone who's curious, at least as an experiment.

Edit: There is no dancing apple, but there *is* a dancing you-know-what!   ::banana::

----------


## RareCola

> *Apple Juice!*
> Well, I finally tried bedtime and WBTB apple juice.  _Wow_ that stuff worked!  I don't know whether it's the sugar, the acetylcholine preservation, or some kind of freaky placebo, but my dream recall and vividness were both way up.  I didn't get lucid but I had less than 7 hours of sleep anyway, so I wasn't expecting it.
> 
> In my prior post you may remember me pissing and moaning that I'd been having bad dream recall before my WBTB.  Last night, I had 3 vivid dreams before the WBTB, one of them very long and movie-like.  I'll have to post that in dream snippets.
> 
> One interesting effect was that after drinking the AJ, it took me a couple of minutes to fall asleep (whereas it usually takes 5-10 seconds.)  It could be a simple matter of the high levels of fructose and, secondarily, glucose in the AJ getting the brain into sort of a primed state before sleep and making it more aware during dreaming.  I really don't know, but it worked on me!
> 
> My protocol was one cup before bed, then one cup during WBTB.  I was also paranoid and kinda brushed my teeth after each time I drank all that sugar, ha ha... 
> 
> ...



That's awesome, glad you had some luck with it! I'll have to go and read your dreams. You know, I've never actually tried drinking apple juice during a WBTB. I've stayed away from drinking anything during my WBTB as it seemed to actually kill my lucid success. Not sure why.

Oh, and here's your apple!

----------


## paigeyemps

YES!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE ANOTHER APPLE JUICE MINION!!  ::D:  great job, canis :3

----------


## CanisLucidus

> That's awesome, glad you had some luck with it! I'll have to go and read your dreams. You know, I've never actually tried drinking apple juice during a WBTB. I've stayed away from drinking anything during my WBTB as it seemed to actually kill my lucid success. Not sure why.
> 
> Oh, and here's your apple!



Ha ha, thanks!  Interesting that drinking interfered with your lucidity during a WBTB.  I didn't become lucid either, so I don't exactly have a great counterexample.  Even so, I'll still have to give it a try... getting lucid during one of these should be _amazing_.





> YES!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE ANOTHER APPLE JUICE MINION!!  great job, canis :3



Yes!!  Soon, *soon* we'll have all of DreamViews experimenting with a variety of delicious bedtime snacks.   ::evil::

----------


## Xanous

If ya'll really want to trip balls do WBTB B6. I took 400MG this morning and OMG I had the craziest LD in a while. And no calories  ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

I had a great time on vacation (and managed to get some good lucids) but man did I miss talking with you good folks while I was out!  I'm glad to see that everyone's been staying active (and that Xanous left me at least _one_ bottle of B6 at the drug store.)   ::lol::   Anyway, it's great to be back and see you all here.  Over vacation, I had 3 lucid dreams, and wound up playing with B6 (intentionally) and sleep cycle adjustment (unintentionally.)

*My Best Lucid So Far*
I had a vivid, extremely long lucid dream near the beginning of the vacation after jumping time zones.  I also took 100 mg of B6 before bed, so this could have been another factor as well.  On top of that, I was excited about the task I was performing (the 17th century turkey hunt) and spent some time incubating imagery about my strategy at bedtime.

The dream felt like it lasted an hour and a half.  (I even told this to a DC in-dream.)  The entire sleep period where it could have taken place was about 2 hours and 15 minutes, so it's at least _conceivable_ that it lasted this long.  I tend to think that time is mercurial and elusive in an LD and you can't really pin this sort of thing down to well.  But in the end, what I think matters most is how the experience _feels_.  It was an amazing dream.  Exactly the kind of thing I always hope for in an LD.

Transcendental Turkey Shoot - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Converted Nightmares*
I also had a couple of converted nightmares during my vacation time.  Walter White showed up in another one.  It seems that Mr. Heisenberg's starting to become a bit of a dream sign.

Another interesting occurrence was that I produced a firearm from out of nowhere when I was frightened in one of these dreams.  It "felt" very much like when I produce objects in an LD.  Are the skills starting to bleed over to non-lucids?  Or was I perhaps very, very dimly aware that I was dreaming?  Either way it was interesting.

Paranoia - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
REBMEVON rejected - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*November Goals*
-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly

----------


## Xanous

> Are the skills starting to bleed over to non-lucids?  Or was I perhaps very, very dimly aware that I was dreaming?  Either way it was interesting.



I have noticed a lot of non lucid dream control. I think it does naturally bleed over because you become used to it after so many lucids.

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #29*
I didn't have a huge amount of sleep last night so I was pleased to get an LD.  In this one, Wife _directly_ made me lucid.  I'm not sure if this is just pure luck or perhaps down to some of the work I did to prep Wife's DC for Character-Assisted Lucid Dreaming.  Regardless of the cause, it was really cool to have her walk me across the threshold.

Here's the DJ entry: The Lucidity Machine - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Technique: SSILD
Pre-bed food: 1 cup apple juice, bag of popcorn, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
WBTB food: 1 cup apple juice

*Lucid Aid Strategy*
I've recently started employing two lucid aids on some nights: apple juice and vitamin B6.  B6 in particular I run on a cycle to avoid building up some kind of tolerance.  Currently, I will take 100mg of B6 before bed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays *if* I will be getting adequate sleep.  I'll intersperse apple juice at will on any night where I'll be getting adequate sleep and _not_ using B6.  (I'm not yet prepared to combine these until I'm familiar with how each works for me.)

I've had good results with both of these, so I'll try to keep very precise records to see what works best for me and in what amounts.

----------


## Xanous

I like your lucid Aid Strategy. I will mostly likely be doing something like that myself. And I totally forgot to mention that I started apple juice myself. I think drinking AJ when you don't B6 is a good idea. I think I will just B6 on the weekends.

How has SSILD been working for you? Do you do it every night? About what is your rate of success with it? 

Sometimes I can't focus long enough to do it. Last night I wasn't so tired and I had some strangeness but no lucid and was really close the night before. It's been over a week for me but like I said being so tired was not helpful. I don't know, I was thinking about trying another method but maybe I should give it more time. I think maybe I tend to switch techs too soon. I just want to get to the point were one tech becomes consistent and I can LD at will. Maybe that's a pipe dream, I don't know  ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

> How has SSILD been working for you? Do you do it every night? About what is your rate of success with it? 
> 
> Sometimes I can't focus long enough to do it. Last night I wasn't so tired and I had some strangeness but no lucid and was really close the night before. It's been over a week for me but like I said being so tired was not helpful. I don't know, I was thinking about trying another method but maybe I should give it more time. I think maybe I tend to switch techs too soon. I just want to get to the point were one tech becomes consistent and I can LD at will. Maybe that's a pipe dream, I don't know



Yeah, lately I've been using it on any night that I have a successful WBTB.  (Unfortunately, this is _not_ every night!)  It's been working very well recently but I was also on vacation and doing my first experimentation with B6.

Doing a quick check of my records, I've gotten lucid the last three times that I did a WBTB w/ SSILD.  While that may just be a hot streak, it's been encouraging for me.

In case it helps, there are a couple of changes that I've made lately.  I've been doing a little bit longer WBTBs, staying up at least 20 minutes, writing dreams, and reading old dreams if there's time left over.  Really reaching hard for recall when I first wake up, too.  Plus lots more sleep, generally.

Once the cycles actually begin, I've performed 5.  The first one I do very quickly.  Perhaps 5 seconds for each sense.  The second cycle is also pretty quick.  I slow it down to a more leisurely pace on the last 3 cycles.  This seems to help me get my head in the game.  I've had less of the trouble where I either fell asleep instantly or got myself too wired doing cycles forever.  At some point, Cosmic Iron suggested speeding up the first cycle or two and I've enjoyed running it that way.

As for whether it's time to switch, we've all got our personal style.  I like to just grind on one tech for as long as possible once it's given me some success.  It takes me time to tune it just right and make sure I've removed all of the possible variables like sleep quality, luck, etc.  Like you, I'd *love* to find the magic bullet that lets me just LD at will!  I believe it's out there and I think we both know what it is -- confidence and top-notch awareness skills.  My feeling, at least presently, is that the best way to enhance both is with good practices and getting lucid as often as possible.  So here's to that.   ::D: 

Maybe try getting some good sleep and shortening the first two cycles.  If you still stay dry after that, maybe a fresh tech would be a good idea?  And regardless of your primary tech, you of all people should always be looking for the odd DEILD.   ::happy::

----------


## Xanous

Well your input and my experience this morning just renewed my love of SSILD. You reminded me of DEILDs so I was keeping a DEILD mentality last night. I got up to go to the bathroom at around 3:30 plopped straight back into bed. I started with SSILD right away. I got a few cycles and went straight into a half dream. I could blindly feel and hear myself walking. Finally it became so real that I thought maybe I was in the dream so I began a lucid task but at the moment SP hit so I did my usual thing but it didn't quite work out. So I rolled but I thought I really rolled in bed and gave up. After the fact I realize it was a FA. The bed was too big and the rolling was too easy and didn't feel right. I even blew through a nose plug but I had given up so I didn't notice. God I feel stupid when that happens. LOL. I guess technically that walking around part was a lucid but I'm not putting that in my count because I was just on the cusp of it and failed miserably.

----------


## CanisLucidus

Hey, great to hear!  Nice that you made it even without doing a really serious, full-length WBTB.  And on poor sleep too!

When the SP hits, are you pulled out of the dream and suddenly fully aware of only your physical body in bed, locked up tight?  I've never experienced any form of SP so my understanding of this experience is pretty limited.

The close calls make me slap my forehead, too, but getting lucid, even for a short time, is always a good thing.  It'll be interesting to see how your caffeine / B6 withdrawal  process goes.

----------


## Xanous

Yes a lot if time I am pulled out if the dream and feel vibrations all over my body. Its pretty much all you can think about at first. It happens so sudden that its a shock. however, I've noticed that I seem to be getting used to it and its less extreme than in the past. Some times I just pause in the dream and resume were I left off. The visualizations I do during induction seem to help. I always visualize myself doing a simple repeditve action like walking.

I slipped up and had a few sips of coffee this morning but no other caffeine. I have a slight addiction to it.  :Sad:

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Fragments*
I was experiencing some very light sleep this morning and this led to _three_ lucid fragments.  (A scene where I woke up too quickly for it to be a true LD.)
Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200 mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD

First: _I'm in the office, speculating with my coworkers S and J about why the ceiling is blackened and scorched.  I mention to J that I think she might have popped up in a dream at some point.  She says, "No, I didn't.  This is the first time."  I become lucid, realizing she's right.  I get one last look at S and J before waking up._

Second: _I'm at the top of a tower, hundreds of feet in the air.  I have to cross over to another tower by crossing over this flimsy bridge of old cardboard boxes sort of jammed together.  Worse, I have to drop down about 12 feet to even get to the bridge.  Fear is making me procrastinate on this task but then I suddenly realize that this is just a dream -- I don't actually have to do this.  Rather than hang on, I wake up, feeling relieved._

Third: _I'm flying over a vast, multi-layered tessellation of hexagons.  Each layer is slightly translucent and floating silently through space.  The scene is extremely complex and the frame rate is chugging slightly.  I speculate that this is because I have an older model of PlayStation 3.  After a bit more of this flying, I become lucid.  I feel oddly insecure about my brain generating this low framerate, lose concentration, and wake up._  :Cheeky: 

*DEILD Time*
The above shows me that it is high time I got better at DEILDing.  Those were 3 _perfect_ setups for a chain into a full-length LD and I wasn't ready to pull it off.  I want to be prepared for those opportunities in the future.

I'm going to review some tips I've gotten in the past on DEILD and probably some DJ entries of people doing it right!

----------


## Xanous

Sounds like LDs to me. Weak ones, but still LDs. I understand not counting them though I think you should.

Yes definitely time to learn to DEILD! Its really easy if you get the timing right.

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Sounds like LDs to me. Weak ones, but still LDs. I understand not counting them though I think you should.



Thanks, man!  I appreciate you saying that.  The fragments are still special to me, so I could go either way.  Ultimately, I decided not to count them since they are just still not _quite_ what I'm looking for.  Hopefully I can turn em into DEILD fuel though.   ::D: 

*Lucid Aids Results and Tweaks*
My twice-weekly dose of B6 _does_ seem to have some effect on dream vividness.  My 3 lucid fragments from night before last were after a B6 dosage, and the dream with the towers in particular was extremely vivid.  I'm going to continue using the B6 twice per week, but switch to Monday and Wednesday (for scheduling reasons.)  On Wednesday I'll try a 200mg dose and compare the effect.

RareCola's thread on mangoes has got me interested in trying to get some more pre-bed tryptophan (like what mangoes have.)  Tonight I'm going to have an ounce of cheddar cheese with some bedtime apple juice and see what happens.   :smiley: 

*DEILD Attempt*
I came out of a long (45+ minutes?), very vivid non-lucid and attempted to DEILD, failing.  Perhaps I'd emerged completely from an REM cycle because I felt very serene and well-rested, which meant that I just couldn't slip back into sleep right away.  I couldn't point to anything I really did wrong on this one, so I'm excited to try again.

I'm adding a successful DEILD as a goal for this month.  I need to get this skill back.

*Lucidity Machine Incubation*
A comment on my dream about "The Lucidity Machine" made me appreciate just how special this LD may have been for me.  It's the combination of a machine that _literally_ makes me lucid and Wife herself operating it (Wife being my most common DC and dream sign.)  The DJ entry: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/cani...machine-40666/

I'm going to try to incubate this dream every night before bedtime for a minimum of one week.  I'm toying with the idea of somehow incubating it during WBTB as well but I'm not yet familiar with doing that.


*Spoiler* for _November Goals Update_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD *(new)*

Lucid dreams this month:4

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #30*
I had lucid dream #30 last night, another fun, pure exploration type of dream that stemmed from converting a semi-nightmare into an LD.  I had vague ideas about performing the Purgatory task of the month, but I was way, way off.  Got some great flight time and explored several different areas.  Oh, and encountered Erik Estrada.   :smiley: 

Here's the DJ entry: Fire Escape - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 30-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 2 bags of popcorn, 200 mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil

*Longer WBTB (thank you, OpheliaBlue!)*
OpheliaBlue posted a Lucidity Institute study in one of the class workbooks that explored the issue of optimal WBTB length.  The upshot of the study was that 10 minutes is a little short, 20 minutes is good, and 30 minutes is even better.  I read through it all and made the change last night.

This worked great!  I stayed awake reading and/or thinking about LD and past entries in my written DJ.  Then I hit my SSILD cycles when it was time to go back to sleep.  While it's only the first night, it's very encouraging that I was able to become lucid on the first try.  The only downside is that this can cut into sleep time, so it can't be performed absolutely every night.  But for the times when it fits the schedule, it's great!  I'll be incorporating it whenever possible.

Big thanks to Ophelia and one Stephen LaBerge on that one.  Here's the link to the study: http://lucidity.com/NL63.RU.Naps.html


*Spoiler* for _November Goals Update_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD (new)

Lucid dreams this month:5

----------


## Kaenthem

Congartulations CanisLucidus on that lucid,must of been really fun.I will read it when I have some time.
About increasing your WBTB time,I unintentionaly did a WBTB that lasted and hour and guess what,3 lucid dreams that day.

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## CanisLucidus

> Congartulations CanisLucidus on that lucid,must of been really fun.I will read it when I have some time.
> About increasing your WBTB time,I unintentionaly did a WBTB that lasted and hour and guess what,3 lucid dreams that day.



Thanks, dude.  It really turned out to be a nice dream!  I love coming out of nightmares this way because instead of waking up with that icky, worried post-nightmare feeling, you greet the day in the afterglow of an LD.  Love that.

Your story about the one-hour WBTB is amazing.  Gosh, I may just have to try that at some point.  It's probably something that I could only experiment with on the most perfect of sleep days but at some point hopefully I can try.  Or maybe it'll be one of those involuntary hour-long WBTBs like yours where the kids wake up in the middle of the night or my crazy dogs set off the house alarm again.   ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #31*
I was happy to have a much-needed lucid dream last night.  Prior to last night, I'd not been getting enough sleep.  Felt dog tired by the end of the day.  Even basic awareness practices were a struggle, so last night I got to bed as early as I could manage.

The dream itself was fairly short but extremely vivid and sharply detailed.  Beautiful scenery and lots of active dream characters.  I was surprised by how abruptly it ended since there was no particular cause for it to fall apart.  Hopefully just unlucky timing.  I felt _fantastic_ upon waking, as is typical after a lucid.  Anyway, since the DJ is down, I'll leave the dream description in handwritten form for later transcription.

During this LD, I had a slight problem turning the way that I wanted while flying.  I could make small turns fairly easily but doing something like a 90 degree turn felt very hard, like I was struggling against the dream.  I'll note that down as something to work on.  My guess is that a slight tweak in technique will do it.  Something as simple as slowly rolling my focus to the right or left side of the dream scene will "turn the camera" just fine.  I'll see how that goes.  If anyone else has ever experienced this, I'm interested in hearing your experiences.

Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 25 minute WBTB

*DEILD Difficulties*
I tried to chain back into this dream but it just wouldn't happen.  After the lucid, my mind was fairly quiet and I felt an incredible sense of well-being.  What I _didn't_ feel, unfortunately, was sleepy!  I just kind of laid there, eyes closed, feeling good, but going nowhere.  I checked the time on the clock later and I'd only been asleep for about an hour.  I'd have expected to have more juice left in that REM cycle, so I was a little surprised?

Does this ever happen to anybody else?

*The Power of Sleep*
I feel much, much better today after getting both an LD and a good night's sleep.  While it could be last night's B6, I think it's just down to getting some rest and the charge I always get out of an LD.  Today, awareness practices that required immense effort and concentration feel pleasant, even natural.

Every now and then I find myself getting overconfident and thinking that I can get away without proper sleep or proper awareness.  It's just not true.  I'll keep this firmly in mind until the next time that I forget it.   :smiley: 


*Spoiler* for _November Goals Update_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD

Lucid dreams this month:6

----------


## paigeyemps

Congrats on the lucid!

I have experienced directional problems when flying too, though rarely. It's a bit different in a way though. I could feel myself turning, but the view never changes. It's still the one I see in front of me, and I never really see myself turn, though I can feel it. If that makes sense. What I do when I experience that is I go at a lower altitude while slowly turning. So it's kind of like if I wanted to go left, I'd be curving to the left as I'm going down as well. Give it a try! It might work for you too  :smiley: 

I've had those DEILD awakenings keep me up too  :Sad:  I haven't really found a way around it besides turn it into a WBTB.

The awareness thing is so true! At times I go like "maybe I won't do as much awareness today" and it always reflects poorly that same night.  The good thing is I'm getting used to doing ADA so it's not as hard and tiring as it used to be when I first started.

 ::banana::

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Congrats on the lucid!
> 
> I have experienced directional problems when flying too, though rarely. It's a bit different in a way though. I could feel myself turning, but the view never changes. It's still the one I see in front of me, and I never really see myself turn, though I can feel it. If that makes sense. What I do when I experience that is I go at a lower altitude while slowly turning. So it's kind of like if I wanted to go left, I'd be curving to the left as I'm going down as well. Give it a try! It might work for you too



Thank you kindly, Paige!

You know what?  Your description of the problem sounds more accurate than my own was.   :Cheeky:   That's very much what it was like.  I really felt like I should have been doing the turn but it didn't _look_ like I was doing the turn.  Your idea about lowering altitude sounds like a good one to try!  If that works, I wonder if climbing higher could do it too.  Good idea.





> The awareness thing is so true! At times I go like "maybe I won't do as much awareness today" and it always reflects poorly that same night.  The good thing is I'm getting used to doing ADA so it's not as hard and tiring as it used to be when I first started.



I'm still at the phase where I simply do not maintain awareness in a true "ADA" sense.  I still can't quite fathom what that's like.  Mine is more of a "Oops!  I'm supposed to be all 'aware' right now but instead I am thinking some frivolous thought about some unimportant subject.  Okay, _be aware!_ *Aware!!*"

I think that the "sporadic awareness technique" winds up being more descriptive of what I manage to do in practice.  I just have to hope that one of those "sporadic" times is in a dream.  Trouble is, my brain doesn't even come close to working properly in my non-lucids.   :smiley:

----------


## Xanous

> I'm still at the phase where I simply do not maintain awareness in a true "ADA" sense. I still can't quite fathom what that's like. Mine is more of a "Oops! I'm supposed to be all 'aware' right now but instead I am thinking some frivolous thought about some unimportant subject. Okay, be aware! Aware!!"
> 
> I think that the "sporadic awareness technique" winds up being more descriptive of what I manage to do in practice. I just have to hope that one of those "sporadic" times is in a dream. Trouble is, my brain doesn't even come close to working properly in my non-lucids.



I'm glad I'm not the only one. Is ADA even possible? I also get so mentally tired some days that I can't even begin to care about awareness. Plus, my job requires a lot of concentration. So, it's tough. I feel ya man.  ::D:

----------


## paigeyemps

Agreed. i ALWAYS forget and be like "PAY ATTENTION PAIGE! AWARENESS AWARENESS!" 

I try to not think about it too much, because I don't want it to feel like something I _have_ to do just so I could get lucid more often. You know what I mean? I want it to be something I can learn to do naturally and gradually because I can and it has a lot of other benefits.

Oh, and a little side note: It helps me with the awareness if I think that I'm in a dream all the time in waking life (I don't jump off buildings though!). In a sense, being in that mindset kind of helps me pay attention more to myself and my surroundings without putting too much pressure on myself to do it. That way, it's like I'm lucid the entire time and continue the lucidity when I start to dream at night  :smiley:

----------


## Xanous

Great way of looking at awareness paigey. Im going to use that

----------


## CanisLucidus

> I'm glad I'm not the only one. Is ADA even possible? I also get so mentally tired some days that I can't even begin to care about awareness. Plus, my job requires a lot of concentration. So, it's tough. I feel ya man.



Glad to hear that I'm not alone.  I think (or at least tell myself) that this process of _suddenly remembering_ that I am supposed to be working awareness is useful in its own right.  That prospective memory of "Wait, what was I supposed to be doing?" is a powerful way to awaken the conscious mind.  Looking back, that is how I hit my very first LD.  (I was afraid I'd forgotten to turn off the house alarm and suddenly remembered it.)





> Oh, and a little side note: It helps me with the awareness if I think that I'm in a dream all the time in waking life (I don't jump off buildings though!). In a sense, being in that mindset kind of helps me pay attention more to myself and my surroundings without putting too much pressure on myself to do it. That way, it's like I'm lucid the entire time and continue the lucidity when I start to dream at night



Yes, this is a great way to look at it, I think!  Dream yoga operates on a similar idea.  It is, in the end, an accurate way to look at the world as it actually is.  We never experience "the world" directly.  All we ever experience _or can ever experience_ is a dream that we construct from the world as our senses perceive it.  Having said all that, I am still blown away every single time by how vivid and realistic some dreams can be.

*Lucid Fragments*
I had two lucid fragments this morning that were too brief for me to classify them as LDs.  Xanous popped up in one.  I'm not sure how I knew this was Xanous, since I only know what Xanous looks like in zombie makeup.   :smiley: 

Lucid fragment #1: _I'm at an outdoor barbecue picnic lunch.  I'm feeling really hungry so I start piling beans and brisket onto my plate.  Once I've got a heaping serving on my plate, I look up and see that Xanous is standing a few feet away.  "What a coincidence!" I think.  I walk up to him to say hey and briefly think to wonder where I am.  When I realize this all makes no sense, I become lucid.  I try to speak to Xanous but nothing comes out -- the dream is ending._

Lucid fragment #2: _I'm sparring with my nephew, who appears to be about 13.  I'm trying to set him up for some kind of throw when I realize that in real life he's 2 years old, not 13, and that it's been years since I've done any grappling.  I'm about to make some comment about my lucidity when the dream ends._

Pre-bed food: 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 15 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7 hours total

Edit: I also got around to posting LD #31: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/cani...-venice-40934/

----------


## Chimpertainment

Canis, your structured approach is awesome! Your motivation is rubbing off on me  :wink2: 

So, that awareness thing is definitely something I struggle with as well. However, I believe Ive been able to experience the awareness in small doses which seems to tell me that it is indeed possible. 

My meditation practices really help me with this. Honestly, I don't think we are really training our conscious mind to be awake, rather, it seems that we are training the conscious mind to be aware of the unconscious.

Once that happens, we enter this entirely separate mind set wherein all experience is accepted as a singularity. That is to say, it is all a dream.  :smiley: 
On the one hand, you have what seems to be a division between sleep and waking life. And on the other, your unconscious mind perceives all this reality as one. 
I'll leave it there before I lose myself in my own rabbit hole, lol...

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Canis, your structured approach is awesome! Your motivation is rubbing off on me



Thanks, man!  That's a great thing to hear.

I'm right there with you on this idea that the real endgame is moving toward awareness at a fundamental level of what unites dream life and waking life.  Figuring this out is a process that I expect to take a great deal of time, given the fact that earlier this year I still thought I "hardly ever dream"!  But hey, we all have to start somewhere.   :smiley: 

*Lucid Dream #32*
I had my 32nd lucid dream last night, and it was a nice, fairly long one.  I managed to complete the "writing REBMEVON" Advanced Task of the Month, which was exciting for me.  I'd had trouble with writing in my previous attempt so this was a good confidence booster.

Here's the full entry: Rollercoasters and REBMEVON - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

A couple of superpower opportunities came up.  I had success asking the dream to light up the city and to help me locate things, both of which should continue to be useful for me going forward.  If you ever need to find anything, asking for the dream to show it to you and expecting it to glow seems to be an effective approach.

Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7.5 hours


*Spoiler* for _November Goals Update_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD

Lucid dreams this month:7

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #33*
I had a short but inspiring lucid dream last night where I saw the Great Pyramid for the first time.  What blew me away is that it looked so much more amazing than the highly literal picture of it that I had in my mind.  When I incubated a trip to the Great Pyramid, I imagined it as it is today, chipped and worn by time.  But in the dream it looked as if it had been built last week!

Beyond that, my mind threw in other structures and details that had never occurred to me.  Where does all of this come from?  How does my subconscious come up with something _better_ than what I had intended for myself?

I think I'd viewed creativity mostly as an act of will.  But it seems that it's really more an act of _listening_ to what the subconscious has already crafted for us.

This is the entry in the DJ: The Poolside Pyramid - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 514g mango, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7 hours

*Mangoes!*
I tried RareCola's mango experiment and had great results!  I hit last night's lucid and recalled 7 dreams in total, which is on the high end for me.

*Recall Rough Spot*
I had a real rough patch in my dream recall over part of the weekend.  On Friday night I only recalled 2 fragments and on Saturday night remembered basically nothing.  It's worth nothing, I think, what I did wrong.  First, I went to bed very late and couldn't get relaxed during the later phase of sleep (as light had started to creep into the room, thanks to the daylight savings time change.)

It's also worth mentioning that my diet was pretty lousy during these few days.  Blame Thanksgiving.   ::D:   Anyway, Future Self, if you are reading this, go to bed.  And put down that chocolate-covered Oreo, for God's sake.  Go carve yourself a mango instead!

----------


## Kaenthem

First, congratulations on that lucid.It must've been amazing. It's really wonderful what the subconscious mind is capable of doing, isn't it?
I  was thinking of visiting mind blowing landscapes recently, and after your experience, I might just yell out for an amazing scene and see what my subconscious has to offer me.
Second, I've noticed that your WorkBook is well-orgnaized and every thing is in order, and that certainly helps when you try to go back and check your progress. I like my things to be in perfect order but I  fail at that miserably, and you can check my Workbook to be sure of what I'am talking about.
Keep on dreaming!

----------


## CanisLucidus

> First, congratulations on that lucid.It must've been amazing. It's really wonderful what the subconscious mind is capable of doing, isn't it?
> I was thinking of visiting mind blowing landscapes recently, and after your experience, I might just yell out for an amazing scene and see what my subconscious has to offer me.
> Second, I've noticed that your WorkBook is well-orgnaized and every thing is in order, and that certainly helps when you try to go back and check your progress. I like my things to be in perfect order but I fail at that miserably, and you can check my Workbook to be sure of what I'am talking about.



Thanks for the kind words, my friend!  And yes, the subconscious really _is_ amazing.

Also, I highly recommend making a request like this of your subconscious!  It's timely that you mention this since in last night's LD I made a request of my subconscious.  I was pleased and intrigued with the (cryptic but relevant) results.  If you try this, definitely let me know how it goes!

*Lucid Dream #34 (Speaking to the subconscious)*
Since I've been reading Robert Waggoner the past few days, I decided to make a request of my subconscious.  In this case, "Tell me something important."  And it actually worked!  (Although I did have to find a DC to harass when the sky didn't respond.)

The reply was cryptic but after waking up, recording it just about word-for-word, and studying it, I felt like the message actually made a lot of sense.  Why my subconscious chose the metaphor of a "dinosaur petting zoo", I'll never know!  Here's the DJ entry: The Dinosaur Petting Zoo - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Quite an awesome experience.  My list of things to try grows ever longer...  :smiley: 

Pre-bed food: 100mg B6, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Sleep: ~7.5 hours

*Lucid Fragment*
I had another lucid fragment, and Xanous popped up yet again in this one.  _"I'm in a restaurant with Wife, getting water from the soda fountain.  I see that Xanous is sitting at a nearby table.  I'm immediately aware that this is off, and I'm lucid.  He stands up and we shake hands.  I say, "Good to see you, man.  This is my wife..." but wake up before the plot can proceed any further."_

----------


## Xanous

Youre welcome.  :wink2:  Its funny we keep showing up in eachothers dreams. Im glad you saw it for a dream sign. Im usually just like oh its CL cool. Maybe there are some incubation opportunites here.

Count yourself lucky you got any reply from your subC on the first try. Mine has been way more stubborn. Of course so is my wakung consciouness!

----------


## Michael073

Hey CanisLucidus!

Nice workbook u got there  :smiley: 
And u got some very very cool lucids! Gratz bro!  :smiley:

----------


## Xanous

I just got to read your latest lucid. It wouldn't let me post a comment there so I am here.

That's really awesome. I can see how there would be a HUGE message there. I am really envious of you right now  ::D:  Hopefully I'll get a response in mine other that shushing. HA!

----------


## CanisLucidus

:Oh noes:  *Mango Mouth!*  :Oh noes: 
So I have a rather unfortunate update on my mango experiment from a few nights ago!  Although mangoes worked _great_ as a lucid aid (I had good dream recall and a short lucid dream), you have to be really, really careful with them if you're sensitive to poison ivy.  The trouble is that mangoes are a close relative to poison ivy, and mango skins contain an oil called urushiol.  Urushiol is what causes the itchiness, swelling, and general unpleasantness of poison ivy.

Unfortunately for me, I'm _very_ sensitive to poison ivy, so diving into a mango (and coming into contact with the skin) has given me what is essentially a faceful (mostly mouthful) of poison ivy!  My lips are quite swollen and very, very itchy.  This has been going on for days and I'm really eager for it to be over.  On the plus side, this makes me feel like _such_ a hardcore lucid dreamer.   ::lol:: 

So, mangoes are still awesome, but be really careful with those skins!  Not everyone is susceptible, but believe me when I say that mango mouth is best avoided.

*Involuntary Benadryl "Experiment"*
I've been taking Benadryl the last couple of nights in order to keep the itching under control and let myself get a good night's sleep.  _I in no way consider Benadryl to be any kind of lucid aid.  I'm just taking this stuff for itch control_.  Still, I thought that I might as well record the effect that it has had on dreaming.

The active ingredient in Benadryl is _diphenhydramine_, and apart from reducing itching, acts as a sedative (makes you sleepy) and an anticholinergic (blocks acetylcholine.)  My personal experience was that it zonked me out, left me with a dry mouth, and made me too lazy to properly get up for WBTB.  Also, both nights that I took the standard dose (25mg in a Benadryl, I believe), I had no dream recall at all.  I still woke around the usual WBTB time but just kind of laid there for a bit before giving up and going back to sleep.  After this awakening, I would have 2-3 fairly vivid dreams, sort of like REM rebound.

All in all, I felt that it acted like sort of an REM suppressor that made me dry-mouthed and too groggy to WBTB.  Not a great deal of fun.  I think that the itch is getting a little better so I am going to really try to get by without taking one tonight!

*Goals for December:*
-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)


*Spoiler* for _November Goals_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid
-Write something down correctly
-Perform at least one DEILD

Lucid dreams this month:9

----------


## Xanous

Mango an poison ivy!? I had no idea. I actually ate the skins one night last week. Im not alergic to poison ivy so though. Not and effective lucid aid for me btw.

Sorry you are broke out! Thats got to be the worst. I feel ya on the benedryl. I HATE that stuff.

----------


## Kaenthem

Wohao..Canislucidus I hope you're okay. I hope you get well soon and get back to the lucid track as soon as possible..... That's some nice goals you got there for decemeber. I hope you acheive all of them and most importantly that you have FUN acheiving them, and as always, Keep on dreaming!

----------


## CanisLucidus

Thanks, gents, I appreciate it!  Fortunately I am doing a great deal better.  I'm still pretty swollen but the itching is getting better rapidly.  Happily, I didn't even need Benadryl yesterday, which opened the door for a great night of dreaming.

*Lucid Dream #35*
With a less itchy face and no Benadryl in my system, I was eager to get a night of serious dreaming in.  I wanted a lucid pretty bad, so I chowed down on a bag of popcorn and 2 cups of apple juice right before bed.   :smiley:   Did I overdo it?  I'll leave that question to the philosophers.

I recalled 6 dreams and had a lucid where I think that I pulled off a basic Task of the Month (by the skin of my teeth.)  I controlled the weather, kind of without meaning to do it quite so early.  I was so determined to remember that I was _going_ to make it snow that this _caused_ it to be snowing outside.  I didn't get to actually play with it, though, so I would like to circle back to this one if I have an opportunity.

Here's the DJ entry: The Blizzard - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 1 bag popcorn, 2 cups apple juice, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~7.5 hours

*Lucid Fragment*
I also had an additional lucid fragment (extremely short lucid dream) that reflected how serious I was about getting an LD.  I got a laugh out of it after it happened, so I posted it in the Snippets thread.

*Lucid Aid Schedule*
Monday / Wednesday: 100mg B-6 or B Complex
Tuesday / Thursday / Sunday / whenever I feel like it: 1-2 cups apple juice, possibly with popcorn.

I've been researching other lucid aids for many weeks, but I like to take things slow.  I'll rotate other things in over time, always with an eye toward safety and avoiding any buildup of tolerance.  A guy who manages to acquire a malady from mangoes can't be too careful.   ::D: 


*Spoiler* for _Goals for December_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 1

----------


## Xanous

Wow man you are really on fire right now! I'm jealous! HA no but I am glad for you!

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #36 - Aurora Borealis Task of the Month*
I had a great lucid dream last night and I was able to complete the Advanced Task of the Month.  (Finding, visiting, and replicating the aurora borealis.)

A first for me was turning day to night, which was exciting.  It was also a really special dream for me because I got to complete it with a DC of my 3-year-old son accompanying me.  I get very attached to DCs of loved ones and it's almost impossible for me not to treat them like their waking life counterparts.  They are just too real for me to do otherwise.

Here's the DJ entry:Aurora Borealis - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 30-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 2 cups apple juice, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~7 hours

*Dream Journal Comments!*
I appear to be able to comment on the very latest Dream Journal entries, which makes me happy.  Is DreamViews beginning to heal itself?  Fingers crossed.


*Spoiler* for _Goals for December_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 2

----------


## Xanous

Dude that's amazing. I'm impressed. 





> I shout a continuous battle cry as I rise. In response, the dream starts blasting a full symphonic orchestra soundtrack to my ascent.



That cracked me up but I bet it just added to it all the more.

----------


## Kaenthem

Wow canis. looks like you're on a lucid rush. Your lucid dream was certinaly amazing.





> I'm so pumped that I shout a continuous battle cry as I rise. In response, the dream starts blasting a full symphonic orchestra soundtrack to my ascent



I've always wanted to do that, it must've been great, have'nt it? & then the mother ship and all, utterly epic!

It looks like I'm the only one who has'nt had a lucid dream last night. Oh well.....

Keep on dreaming!

----------


## Chimpertainment

Lovin all the dreamz!!  ::D:

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #37*

I had a lucid dream last night where I got impossibly stuck in a resort hotel.  I wandered the hotel's hallways and wound up in the basement, but every door seemed to stay in my way.  Even if I was totally unsuccessful at achieving any actual goals, I always enjoy a good exploration dream, so it really was a fun time.

Here's the DJ entry: Hotel California - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

This gave me a couple of things to work on.  I need to remember that Exit signs are a great way for me to find my way out of buildings.  That's worked in the past and I need to make myself remember it as a useful tool.  I also could have really used a light source, so I should review my earlier ideas on that.  I forgot them all in the heat of the moment!

Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 2 cups apple juice, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~7 hours

*Out of Town*
We'll be out of town for the weekend, but I'll be back Sunday night or Monday.  Everyone have a great weekend of LDs!

----------


## OpheliaBlue

Annoying tunnel. How are you at phasing through stuff? I wonder if you get caught in a building or tunnel in the future, remember to try to phase through the wall.

Anyway, have a nice weekend and I'll see ya Monday! I gotta work 20 hours sat and sun myself.

----------


## Xanous

Ah man, that sounds almost like a lucid nightmare. I am horrible at phasing but I'm pretty good at breaking stuff.  :Cheeky: 





> I'm tired of walking on eggshells around you



HAHA I love dream humor!

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Annoying tunnel. How are you at phasing through stuff? I wonder if you get caught in a building or tunnel in the future, remember to try to phase through the wall.
> 
> Anyway, have a nice weekend and I'll see ya Monday! I gotta work 20 hours sat and sun myself.



Phasing is something I can do a bit of but I've got a lot to learn.  I can normally phase through clear glass but have trouble with anything solid.  In one of my LDs over the weekend, even a screen totally messed me up!  The One Who Knocks - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I'm sorry to hear that The Man is working you like a dog this weekend!  Hopefully this means the remainder of your week will be more restful.





> HAHA I love dream humor!



LOL.  I know, it's so bad but you've gotta love it.  I guess this is my first SJILD (Stupid Joke-Initiated Lucid Dream).   :Cheeky: 

*Lucid Weekend*
The combination of good luck, lots of interesting day residue, and plenty of sleep gave me a really strong weekend of dreaming.  Over Friday and Saturday I had three lucid dreams.

On Friday, I actually had two LDs, my first night of multiples.  First was this converted nightmare: The One Who Knocks - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Then later, a DEILD.  Yes, I _finally_ got myself a DEILD.  Very, very happy to manage this after weeks of trying.  The Endless Farmhouse - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Saturday also yielded a failed Task of the Year attempt.  I need to be careful what/how I think in dreams, because I ended up accidentally nuking Tibet.  I really am sorry.  Crazy dream, though!  Tibetan Nuclear Winter - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 100mg B-complex, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB / DEILD
Sleep: 7.5-8.5 hours

I am incredibly excited about how well this weekend went!  It's rare that things line up quite this well but it's incredible when they do.


*Spoiler* for _Goals for December_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 6

----------


## Xanous

Great weekend of dreaming man! So, you swipe at the ceiling when no one is looking or did I read that wrong? 
I love the Nuke dream. You just thought of it and there it was!

----------


## Kaenthem

Your lucid dreams this weekend were certainly amazing.  Especially the Tibet nuclear explosion dream.  
Great man, keep up the good work!

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Great weekend of dreaming man! So, you swipe at the ceiling when no one is looking or did I read that wrong? 
> I love the Nuke dream. You just thought of it and there it was!



Heh heh, yeah, you read that right.  The ceilings in my office are nine feet, and if I'm walking down a hallway when nobody's around, I sometimes like to take a big jump and swipe at them.   ::lol::   At the grocery store, if it's just my son and I in an aisle, I'm the guy who takes a quick run, stands on the bottom cross-bar of the grocery cart, and then rides down the aisle.  Ha!

Thanks, the nuke thing was pretty crazy.  I am still learning how to differentiate between working really hard to remember something and actually _causing_ it to happen in the dream!  This has been an issue for me many times!  I did that with the "snow" TotM as well.  Also when that kid bit me Grimm-style back during the Halloween tasks.  I can't complain, though, because it does lead to interesting dreams.





> Your lucid dreams this weekend were certainly amazing.  Especially the Tibet nuclear explosion dream.  
> Great man, keep up the good work!



Thanks, my friend, I appreciate it!  The encouragement from everyone here in the class is a *huge* help for me.  I don't know where I'd be without everyone here!

----------


## Michael073

Hey CanisLucidus!

Great weekend man, on congratz on your multiple and DEILD!!!
Ur dreams are really fun  :smiley:

----------


## Xanous

I took a swipe at the ceiling at work today an totally got busted! lol.

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Great weekend man, on congratz on your multiple and DEILD!!!
> Ur dreams are really fun



Thanks, my friend, I really do appreciate that!  The encouragement and support that I find in this class is such a help to my lucid dreaming.  I can't even tell you how much it has helped me along and I'm so grateful to everyone here.





> I took a swipe at the ceiling at work today an totally got busted! lol.



LOL.  That is so awesome.  Don't feel too bad.  I got busted at the grocery store over the weekend riding one of the carts around.

*First Two WILDs (Assisted)*
I hit two WILDs last night, my first two WILDs of all time.  Not coincidentally, this was the first time that I ever used galantamine, and it made an enormous difference.  _I in no way endorse anybody else using galantamine without understanding this substance inside and out and they've had a number of natural lucid dreams.  I spent nearly 3 months studying the cholinergic system, so this wasn't a snap decision._  More on galantamine in a sec.

WILD is certainly a unique experience and I'm really glad to have gotten the chance to finally experience it (outside of a DEILD.)  The experience of observing the initial dream scene actually being built, sharpened, refocused, and changed while you watch is very cool.  I still lean on DILDs for most of my lucids, but WILD is an amazing tech.

The first WILD: This Mortal Life - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
The second WILD, where I again spoke to my subconscious (with dramatic but ambiguous results this time): The War of the Wolves - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Galantamine*
So I took an interest in galantamine when I spent a couple of months struggling to have a lucid dream.  I decided _not_ to rely on it to learn to LD, but instead made a deal with myself that once I achieved "a lot" of lucid dreams, I could try it, so long as I knew exactly what I was doing.  I picked a number of lucid dreams (40) that sounded pretty huge to me at the time.  Fast forward a few months, and my 40th hit over the weekend.

Galantamine worked (and worked well) but I can't recommend it to anyone that hasn't had a number of LDs.  It was a very different experience from the typical LD.  Perhaps it had to do with my state of mind (I'm worried about a sick child), but my LDs were extremely vivid, yet somber, subdued, and notably lacking in "superpowers".

A few ground rules I've set for myself on galantamine!  I will try galantamine no more frequently than once per week max.  This frequency will not be raised until I have achieved at least 100 lucid dreams, at which point I can reevaluate my stance.  Furthermore, a precondition of using galantamine is that I achieve at least one non-galantamine LD since the last time I took galantamine.  Galantamine can only be used as a way to achieve a _different_ sort of LD.  It will be subservient to my primary practice.

If I hit a dry spell, tough tortillas.  It has to be broken naturally.

*Teleportation!*
I'm going to be putting in some serious work on teleportation in the context of the other tasks I have for myself!  Since I've gotten stuck in a number of scenes lately, I want to have more tools at my disposal to deal with this.  I'll be trying the following:
-Portal gun (thanks to RareCola)
-Walking through a door to my imagined location
-WILDing from inside of a dream, incubating the new scene


*Spoiler* for _Goals for December_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 8

----------


## OpheliaBlue

Youuuu, are a smart smart man my friend.

I love your approach to using supplements: use them sparingly for a _different_ type of lucid experience, not JUST to have a lucid experience. And dry spells, pff so what. We all have them. Hell, mine can last 2 weeks, but like you put it, tough tortillas. Get over them naturally. And we all do with persistence, not supplements.

You know, I tried 5-HTP on several occasions. But I used it TO get lucid, instead of to have a different kind of lucid. Eventually I just quit it altogether (thanks RareCola). I would use it again, but it would have to be with the same discipline you are employing with the galantamine.

Anyway, cool post. Thanks for sharing your plans with something that's somewhat controversial. I appreciate you input!

----------


## BossMan

I don't understand why supplements seem to carry somewhat of a negative connotation. If they help a person become lucid in a much easier way don't you think this would contribute them to learning how to do it naturally faster? I look at it the same way as protein powder; you don't really need it to become muscular, but using it will definitely speed up the process. 

Experiencing lucidity helps understand what it takes to become lucid. I would not discourage people from using galantamine even if it means to achieve lucidity on their first attempt. 

Just to be clear I don't endorse excessive use of any sorts of supplements/medication, moderation is everything, its always important to be balanced.

----------


## L4xord

It is so you do not have to rely on them. We all know everyone can accomplish lucidity without the use of drugs. There is just a warm fuzzy good feeling when you do something naturally.

----------


## Kaenthem

Two WILD's. Well done!
Your're first one wasn't very nice was it. It sucks being stuck somewhere when your lucid. 

If I'm getting it right, you were bitten by your sub-conscious. I really think that he doesn't want's you to use galantamine. 

what is galantamine anyway?

----------


## OpheliaBlue

> I don't understand why supplements seem to carry somewhat of a negative connotation. If they help a person become lucid in a much easier way don't you think this would contribute them to learning how to do it naturally faster? I look at it the same way as protein powder; you don't really need it to become muscular, but using it will definitely speed up the process. 
> 
> Experiencing lucidity helps understand what it takes to become lucid. I would not discourage people from using galantamine even if it means to achieve lucidity on their first attempt. 
> 
> Just to be clear I don't endorse excessive use of any sorts of supplements/medication, moderation is everything, its always important to be balanced.



My only reservation was that I noticed when I used 5-HTP for example, I experienced a spike in lucidity, then a major drop and dry spell. Point is, nothing wrong with the experimentation, I just don't want students to believe that they have to rely on supplements *alone* to achieve lucidity. Or that the best lucids *only* come from supplements. 

I want these awesome chickens to figure out how to LD on their own dime. Supplements should be just that, a widening of angle, not a replacement for hard earned skill.

----------


## BossMan

Yes I don't think _entirely_ relying on supplements is a good idea. Besides these supplements don't guarantee a lucid dream, you still have to put forth your own effort and research to really take advantage of the supplements, which is indicative of genuine effort, interest, and hard work. There is no such thing as a magic pill  :smiley:  either way you need to do some work!

Of course though BE SAFE! These are drugs! *Be responsible.*

----------


## Xanous

Nice on the WILDs! I see this sparked a conversation so here's my two cents. I understand your reservation about using galantamine and agree it should be limited. I have used it myself when I wasn't all that proficient in lucid dreaming. I recalled a lot of dreams but only had 1 lucid out of the few days I tried it. Galantamine alone will not bring a lucid its merely an aid. But it's not as simple as chugging apple juice every night either. That stuff is pretty potent and should be used with caution. I have been thinking about keeping it around myself but for the opposite reason. To BREAK a dry spell. I don't like tough tortillas.  ::lol:: 

I've been using a small bit of caffeine to become lucid the past week. While I realize that it's good to not rely on it too heavily, I also do not see anything wrong with it. It still requires a great deal of awareness to become lucid regardless of what you put in your body. It's still YOU that's doing it. All this other stuff are just aids just like any technique or mantra. Still, I appreciate playing it safe and see the wisdom in doing things naturally.

----------


## CanisLucidus

> I love your approach to using supplements: use them sparingly for a different type of lucid experience, not JUST to have a lucid experience. And dry spells, pff so what. We all have them. Hell, mine can last 2 weeks, but like you put it, tough tortillas. Get over them naturally. And we all do with persistence, not supplements.



Thank you, my friend!  You've perfectly distilled my thoughts on the whole issue.  This is precisely what I was going for with my rules.  If I do not allow myself to use galantamine to break a dry spell, then _by definition_ I can never become dependent on it.  This ensures that it stays something that (as you say) "widens the angle" of lucid dreaming, never something that I _need_ for an LD.





> Galantamine alone will not bring a lucid its merely an aid. But it's not as simple as chugging apple juice every night either. That stuff is pretty potent and should be used with caution. I have been thinking about keeping it around myself but for the opposite reason. To BREAK a dry spell. I don't like tough tortillas.



Ha!  I hear you on that, and you could make the argument that my "rule" is too conservative.  However, my primary LD practice is extremely important to me (my precioussssss), and this rule gives me assurances that I'll never wake up one day and realize that I only get lucid when I use galantamine.  The galantamine is only in bounds when primary practice is on track, which lets me still use it as a tool while protecting what matters most to me (the LD fundamentals.)





> If I'm getting it right, you were bitten by your sub-conscious. I really think that he doesn't want's you to use galantamine.



Thanks for reading and for the interpretation.  Your interpretation is totally valid, and one that I strongly considered!  In the end, I thought of it like this: my dogs represented my older patterns of behavior, the wolf represented this new approach, and the fight stood for my own conflicting emotions -- the whole "you've got a good thing going, why take this risk?" versus "you know this stuff backwards and forwards, you have a solid plan, so don't make your decisions based on nothing but fear."  The bite I took as one final reminder to treat this whole subject with the utmost care, respect and rationality.  Sort of like saying, "Never forget to take me seriously."  (Right now, my subconscious is probably saying "OMG!  Dude, _I bit you_.  How dumb can you be?")   ::lol:: 





> what is galantamine anyway?



Galantamine influences the level of acetylcholine (an important neurotransmitter) in the brain and nervous system.  _Generally speaking_, somewhat higher levels of acetylcholine go hand in hand with greater cognitive abilities as well as more time in REM sleep.  So that's acetylcholine.  _Acetylcholinesterase_ is an enzyme that your body produces in order to break down acetylcholine.  Galantamine temporarily inhibits the actions of acetylcholinesterase, allowing levels of acetylcholine to rise.  If this is timed to correspond with REM sleep (such as after a WBTB), it tends to boost REM and also increase awareness levels.  However, it has negative effects on deep sleep (a vital phase of sleep), and can cause desensitization of acetylcholine receptors if used incorrectly.  These are the issues I made sure that I had a thorough grasp of before my first trial!

Outstanding discussion, everyone!  I very much appreciate all of the thoughts on this.

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Fragment*
I had an interesting lucid fragment last night.  _Wife and I are visiting my parents in their house.  The house is rocking back and forth like it's on a boat and I tell my parents that I really think they need to have their foundation inspected.  They don't seem to understand what I'm talking about, and I realize that it's only my vision that's rocking back and forth.  I can't keep my balance and I fall over on the floor.  Even though I hate the idea of ever being in a hospital, I tell Wife to call an ambulance.  "Oh, wait a second," I say, and push my finger through my palm, becoming lucid.  I'm thrilled that a) I'm not suffering from some mysterious illness and b) I'm lucid, but I wake up or lose lucidity very quickly after this._

Tech: SSILD w/ half-assed 3-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 100mg B-complex, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil
Sleep: ~6.5 hours

*Sleep, the Ultimate Lucid Aid*
Looking back over my records, nothing has been a more consistent predictor of lucidity for me than how much sleep I've been getting.  Going to bed sleepy but _not_ exhausted and then getting plenty of sleep is by far the most important thing it seems that I can do to achieve lucidity.  This helps with WBTB, dream quality, dream pleasantness... everything!

So this quick study of my own history confirmed what I already knew -- staying as rested as possible _works_.

*Post Workout REM rebound?*
I also observed a slight trend of having more vivid dreams on nights where I lift.  I've got two theories what this might be down to.  The first is that after a workout, I tend to eat a good bit of food, particularly carbohydrate-rich foods.  This infusion of carbohydrates might do some nice things for the brain that enhances dream vividness.  Higher levels of serotonin may also at play here, suppressing REM cycles early in the night and giving me some REM rebound in the morning hours.  (Similar to the effect of something like 5-HTP.)

The second theory is that after a workout, I may have a greater need for deep sleep, and REM is slightly suppressed at night for that reason in favor of deep sleep.  This could lead to REM rebound in the morning as well.  I'll have to look into whether this is something the body tends to do.

----------


## paigeyemps

Hey Canis, congrats in the lucids you've been getting lately! I noticed I haven't really commented on here :O

Those are some good theories about your REM rebound after working out! Maybe you can try changing the food you eat after your workout, to see if it makes any difference? Or i dunno, up to you! Let us know what you find out.  ::D: 

You do realize what your discovery means, right?

You are now eligible to say this:

"Oh you're not getting lucid?! Do you even lift, bruh?"

Hahahaha  :tongue2:

----------


## SpaceCowboyDave

Looking through this thread and all I can say is wow.

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #43*
I had a completely frivolous, very enjoyable lucid last night where I was leaping around the railings of a mall and singing old novelty Christmas songs.  I was pleased to have any kind of LD at all because some sort of minor cold-like symptoms were keeping me awake.

The Flying Mall Rat - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Tech: SSILD w/ 25-minute WBTB
Pre-bed food: 100mg B-complex, 200mg ubiquinol, 3g fish oil, dark chocolate
Sleep: ~6.5 hours (some mild cold symptoms kept me from falling asleep as quickly as I'd like)

*Obsessive Dream Behavior*
At the end of this last lucid, someone in the final scene didn't look like they did in waking life.  I just _had_ to fix them so that they looked like their waking life counterpart.  I frittered away the rest of the dream on this pointless task.  I have no idea why this seemed so important, because in the light of day it seems like a complete waste of time.  LOL.

I'll try to make sure I do everything that I can to maintain a "go with the flow" attitude at the start of lucidity.  This should hopefully blunt any tendencies toward obsessing about silly things (such as this example) or fighting too hard against the natural flow of the dream (examples of which may be found all over my dream journal.)   :smiley: 

*General Lucid Aid Schedule*
This is the general schedule for lucid aids that fits with my week.  It keeps my total exposure to B-complex to 200mg per week and total exposure to galantamine to 4mg per week (in a single dose.)

Monday: B-complex
Tuesday: Apple juice
Wednesday: Galantamine (*only* if had at least one non-galantamine LD in past week)
Thursday: Apple juice
Friday: Popcorn
Saturday: B-complex
Sunday: Apple juice

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Green Tea Lucid Dreams!*
Talking with Xanous got me all psyched up to try green tea as a lucid aid (primarily for the caffeine, and secondarily for the L-Theanine.)  It was a bit of a learn-as-you-go situation, but in the end I had two lucid dreams last night!  I'm extremely happy with these results.

Thanks for the caffeine idea, Xanous!   ::banana:: 

Both dreams were DILDs, although I was on the doorstep of a WILD at one point.  The same sound distortions that I remembered from my previous WILDs returned.  Here are the Dream Journal entries:
Pool Care in the Temple of Zeus - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Crowbar Clint - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Here's how last night proceeded:
1. Fall asleep thinking about going through a portal or white door.
2. WBTB after 3 hours.  This natural waking was a little early, so I probably would have passed it up in favor of a later one if I hadn't been so excited.
3. Stay awake for ~30 minutes.  Drink 2 cups (16 fl. oz.) of green tea (est. 40mg caffeine.)  Take 0.75mg of melatonin.
4. Perform 5 cycles of SSILD.  Try to fall asleep ASAP.  Fail after 30 minutes.
5. Realize I am hopelessly wired from the caffeine.  Take additional 0.75mg melatonin, for a total of 1.5 mg.
6. 3 cycles SSILD, then sleep.  (Although not immediately.)
7. Hit LD #1.  Wake up, fail DEILD.  Commit dream to memory.  3 cycles SSILD, back to sleep.  Hit LD #2.

I will definitely be doing more work with WBTB green tea!  I will try reducing the green tea to 12 oz. (about 30mg caffeine) and take 1.5mg melatonin.  I'll stick with using caffeine no more than twice per week for now, limiting my weekly exposure to caffeine to about 60mg.  (A little over half a cup of coffee.)  This should prevent any tolerance from building up.

*Phasing*
I managed to phase through stone in the first LD last night, but the process did wake me up in the end.  Still, I'm happy to at least be slowly eroding that particular schema.  At first I just wound up tearing chunks of stone off of the surface I was trying to portal through, but in the end I did finally manage to actually get in there.  I still need to work on actually _ending up somewhere_.   :smiley: 

*Refocus on Teleportation*
Lately I've mostly just been having fun just exploring the environments the dreams put me in, so I didn't really do some of the teleportation practice that I'd planned.  Distractions abound in LDs, so I won't get too upset if I keep forgetting, but I'll focus a bit more on remembering teleportation-related goals before bed and during WBTB.


*Spoiler* for _Goals for December_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 11

----------


## BossMan

I am very jelly sir, GJ.

----------


## CanisLucidus

*A DEILD Chain and a WILD*
I had my second go-round with galantamine last night and I got a good DEILD chain and a WILD off of it!  It seems that galantamine provides the most substantial boost to techs in the WILD family.  I did hit one lucid fragment via galantamine (which set off the DEILD chain), but it seems like galantamine makes WILDs way more likely.

The DEILD chain included two false awakenings where I was convinced that I was suffering horrific galantamine side effects.  It's slightly embarrassing because it shows that in spite of all the research I've put into my approach, there's still that element of underlying anxiety there.  But what are ya gonna do?   ::D:   I also enjoyed interacting with Wife's DC in the DEILD chain.  There was a lot of interesting stuff rolled up in that sequence.

This is the DEILD chain: The Blind Man, the Bully, and the Nerd - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
And this is the WILD: Lost in America - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

As usual, I will wait at least one week before employing galantamine again.  (And I must hit a non-galantamine LD in between.)

*WILD Winds*
It was really windy last night and I could hear the wind outside as I was falling asleep.  Just before the WILD took hold, the sound became muffled, then faded to nothing more than a whisper.  It seems to be a good indication that things are close.  Of course, now I have to try not to pay _too much_ attention to these sorts of signs or my concentration might slip.   :smiley: 

*Temper Flare-Up*
I lost my temper in the first dream and totally decked a DC that was harassing me.  I really try not to do that sort of thing but it was amazing how easily annoyed I was when this thing tried to stop me from doing what I wanted in my LD.  I'll just refocus on staying chill when stuff like that happens.


*Spoiler* for _Goals for December_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 13

----------


## Xanous

> This should prevent any tolerance from building up.



I think this may have been the cause of my failures. Why did I not see that? I'm glad to see it worked out for you!

I like your slow and careful approach to caffeine and especially G. I'm really meaning to get some G (It's expensive) as soon as the holiday are done. I think one night/week is a good idea. I'm curious, do you take Choline or Melatonin with it? I think I read something suggesting it but I don't know why. I bought like a trial pack of 3 or 5 a few years ago. I had only one LD in that week I took it. The other nights were extremely restless but I think I must have recalled every dream of the night! I wasn't impressed with the lucidity effects from it but I was also out of practice then.

I got some new info on meditation today and I think tonight I will continue to skip aids but spend my 30min WBTB meditating in a sitting posture. I think the thing I must do is keep it "fresh".

----------


## CanisLucidus

> I think this may have been the cause of my failures. Why did I not see that? I'm glad to see it worked out for you!



It does seem like changing things up works well for you.  Caffeine's a funny thing.  The amount you were drinking at WBTB was pretty small but perhaps your body simply grew accustomed to its effects and you just didn't get that same bolt of alertness.  But cycling it out like you're doing seems like the best way to address this.  Since you get bored easily anyway, having different approaches that you rotate in should be a good fit for you.





> I like your slow and careful approach to caffeine and especially G. I'm really meaning to get some G (It's expensive) as soon as the holiday are done. I think one night/week is a good idea. I'm curious, do you take Choline or Melatonin with it? I think I read something suggesting it but I don't know why. I bought like a trial pack of 3 or 5 a few years ago. I had only one LD in that week I took it. The other nights were extremely restless but I think I must have recalled every dream of the night! I wasn't impressed with the lucidity effects from it but I was also out of practice then.



Right, I'm combining galantamine with choline.  I'm actually employing two sources of choline: choline bitartrate and Alpha-GPC.  And yes, last night I used a tiny amount of melatonin (0.75mg, or 1/4th of a 3mg tablet.)  Galantamine should be far more effective when paired with a source of choline.  For completeness, I should mention that on galantamine day, I take 5-HTP before bed to make sure I rack up tons of deep sleep before bed.  We can talk on PM / visitor message / whatever if you want to know more.

In addition, it's critical that you only use galantamine after a WBTB.  Taking it at the beginning of the night will utterly screw you over.  When your body would naturally be shifting into deep sleep, high levels of acetylcholine will be trying to push you into lots of REM.  You also don't want to take it on consecutive nights.  Its elimination half life is 7 hours, so it's going to take a couple of days to clear from your system.  Since it can desensitize your acetylcholine receptors, you just don't want to overdo it.  Piracetam can help here, but again, you want to have really done your homework.  If you do decide to use galantamine, definitely check out Yuschak's book beforehand.

The meditation idea sounds great!  Let me know how it goes.  It really seems like rotating through a larger set of solid ideas may be perfect for you.  That's what I'm trying to do as well.  Changing things up keeps it all fresh and really should help with the whole tolerance issue.

----------


## OpheliaBlue

You guys are really making me want to experiment with G. I was just talking to a student about it in #LucidDreaming yesterday. I really admire your willingness to try it once a week, and only if you have an LD inbetween without using it. I should have done that with the 5-htp to begin with. Because now I'm too paranoid to touch the stuff again haha.

Anyway, I'm excited to see how you continue with this CL!

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## Xanous

> Taking it at the beginning of the night will utterly screw you over.



I think that's were I went wrong before. I will PM you for more info when it comes time. Thanks!

----------


## CanisLucidus

> You guys are really making me want to experiment with G. I was just talking to a student about it in #LucidDreaming yesterday. I really admire your willingness to try it once a week, and only if you have an LD inbetween without using it. I should have done that with the 5-htp to begin with. Because now I'm too paranoid to touch the stuff again haha.
> 
> Anyway, I'm excited to see how you continue with this CL!



Heh heh, I totally get what you mean!  Remember that I am the guy who managed to get a poison ivy-like rash on his face _just from eating a freakin mango!_  ::lol::   So I am very understanding of the desire to be as careful as possible.

FWIW, I utilize 5-HTP before bed on my galantamine day.  It's the only day that I use it.  It's 5-HTP before bed, then G+C _only after a WBTB_, with a super-small serving of melatonin.  (I literally chop up a 3mg tab with a knife.)  Edit: Also, piracetam the next morning as an extra preventive measure against desensitization, although the infrequency alone is probably enough.

And thanks for the compliment about the approach.  I like to build my failsafes in at the beginning when willpower is still plentiful.   :smiley:   If you have any questions at all about G+C, please don't hesitate to hit me up.





> I think that's were I went wrong before. I will PM you for more info when it comes time. Thanks!



Cool, if you were taking it before bed then the fix will be really easy... just going to WBTB would be a huge difference.  I never tried taking galantamine right before bed but everything I've read indicates that it is a pretty unpleasant experience.  But after 5 hours of sleep, it's a different story entirely.  And with 5-HTP before bed, the effect is magnified since you've spent the vast majority of that time in deep sleep.

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## BossMan

Do you need to take G+C to make use of 5-HTP or will it have an effect on its own without taking G+C after WBTB.


Also isn't 5-HTP super dangerous and banned in most countries?

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## CanisLucidus

> Do you need to take G+C to make use of 5-HTP or will it have an effect on its own without taking G+C after WBTB.
> 
> Also isn't 5-HTP super dangerous and banned in most countries?



Hey Boss!  Good questions, thanks!  Unfortunately, I've got to be brief, but the sole purpose of 5-HTP is to suppress REM in the early part of the night.  That gives you more deep sleep at the beginning and REM rebound after your WBTB.  This potentially leads to longer dreams.

When paired with G+C, the idea is to get lots of deep sleep at the beginning of the night, then lots of REM at the end of the night (since this is what all that acetylcholine will push you toward.)  The idea is that this allows you to still get sufficient deep sleep that you feel pretty good the next day in spite of an intense night of dreaming.  So that is the only reason that I personally would employ the 5-HTP.  Melatonin would also work fine for this purpose.  Or you could use absolutely nothing and just catch up on the sleep later.  Any option is probably fine, and I will probably cycle all three!

I believe that cycling and using the minimum required dose for any aid is a good practice and helps greatly limit your exposure to side effects.  Less is often more with these things and by using them infrequently, cycling certain aids, and simply using low doses, you end up on a very good spot on the risk-reward continuum.  IMO.

As for 5-HTP's safety, I believe that the primary risks are serotonin syndrome (if taken in high doses or paired with an antidepressant, or other interacting drug) and the long-term risks of elevated levels of serum serotonin in the body.  I'm not concerned about serotonin syndrome, as my 5-HTP use is once per week at most, and likely to become even less frequent over time.  The danger of elevated serum serotonin is one to take seriously, but again, at low doses and infrequent use, it's not something that I personally was too concerned with.  Therapeutic use can be more like 300-900mg per day, every day, so 2100-6300mg per week.  A once per week (or less) use of 50-100mg just isn't in the same ballpark, so I haven't worried too much about it.

That being said, the 5-HTP is easy to drop.  It's just not all that essential.  Replacing with melatonin or forgetting REM suppression are both options that I'll try at some point to compare.

And oh yeah, my update!  No further LDs but many lucid fragments lately.  I had a B-complex last night and recalled 9 dreams, which was a bit nuts.  I'd rather have a lucid dream, of course, but I certainly can't complain with that!

Holidays are busy for me, so my availability will be pretty sporadic.  Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy New Year, etc. everyone!  Hope you're all having some great dreams!

----------


## CanisLucidus

Christmas morning was a really busy morning for LDing.  I had three lucid dreams, including the first WILD that I've ever achieved without galantamine.  That's a big one for me, because I've long had a bit of a mental block about WILD.  I know that I shouldn't, but it was still there.  I'm happy that those walls are coming down.

I'm coming to believe that meditation skills and lucid dreaming skills have tremendous overlap.  The more that I focus on meditation-like practices during my WBTB and between dreams, the better things seem to go, particularly with DEILD and WILD.

And it's funny how the big nights of lucid dreaming often come after a string of non-lucid days.

Tech: SSILD w/ 30-minute WBTB, 3 cycles SSILD between LDs
Pre-bed food: Big-ass Christmas Eve dinner
Sleep: ~9 hours

Here are the dreams:
The Subconscious Arcade - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Turtles All the Way Down - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
The Gauntlet of Greed - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

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## Xanous

There's nothing like presents from your subC on Christmas morning!

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Galantamine Insomnia*
I tried a 3rd round w/ galantamine + choline last night during my WBTB.  I dropped a few items from my usual cocktail and had a _ton_ of trouble getting back to sleep!  I managed only two brief moments where I fell back asleep.  Each time I did manage to get a lucid fragment, but they blew up in under a minute.  I'll write them up below.

I changed several elements from my two previous (more successful) trials with galantamine.  The differences this time:
-No REM suppressor before bedtime (no 5-HTP, no melatonin)
-Skipped small dose of melatonin (0.75mg) during WBTB
-Very short WBTB (~8 minutes rather than 30)

Overall, I had way too much of an acetylcholine rush going on, and falling asleep at all was extremely difficult.  This also made DEILDs tricky.  At least the lucid fragments were cool, but I really wish they'd gone further!

Next trial with galantamine, I'll still leave off the REM suppressor at bedtime, but bring back the melatonin and usual 30-minute WBTB.

*Lucid Fragments*
Not sure where all of this fighting came from!  It's fun, no doubt, but I tend to get very caught up in the "danger" of the moment, even while lucid.

First lucid fragment: _I'm in a dark, torchlit arena where I'm fighting with a 12-foot-tall demon made all of bone.  I summon a bone demon of my own and become lucid when I see what I am capable of doing.  My demon engages with the enemy.  I prepare to summon another just before I wake up._

Second lucid fragment: _I'm walking through a labyrinth following some stranger who I consider a friend or ally.  As we're rounding a corner, a guy in kung-fu pants and a headband kicks me in the face.  I become lucid as my friend grabs on to the stranger and starts fighting with him.  The martial artist is much more dangerous than my friend but I start hitting our opponent in the face while they fight.  (It's kinda cheap, got to admit.)  When I strike the martial artist on the cheekbone, his skin splits and large feathers start leaking out of it.  I hit him again and the head of a bird starts to emerge, freaking me out and waking me up._

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## Xanous

Sorry about the insomnia but this...





> his skin splits and large feathers start leaking out of it. I hit him again and the head of a bird starts to emerge, freaking me out and waking me up.



...is so cool it would have made the whole thing worth it for me.  ::lol::

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## OpheliaBlue

Yeah I gotta agree with Xanous. The freaky deaky bird man was cool.

So your experiments with G+C and 5-HTP are interesting. Are you about to go on your stretch of days without supplements? I may hit a 5-htp this week. my work schedule is all wonky lately, and it has wonked up my LDing pattern.

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## CanisLucidus

> So your experiments with G+C and 5-HTP are interesting. Are you about to go on your stretch of days without supplements? I may hit a 5-htp this week. my work schedule is all wonky lately, and it has wonked up my LDing pattern.



Yeah, the G+C I limit to once per calendar week, so I'm sort of in the middle of the stretch without galantamine.  The main factor is that I haven't had a true LD in a few days, so if I crack that I would maybe try G+C on Wednesday.  (For a variety of reasons, Wednesday night is a good night for getting enough sleep and having the right set of circumstances for galantamine.)  But if I don't hit an LD this week _(inconceivable )_ then I'll just skip G this week until my LDs come back around on their own.

As for other aids, I still rotate in experiments with caffeine and B-complex during the week.  (For example, I'm going to be taking a B-complex here in a few minutes, as I'm typing this from my WBTB.)  Even though the caffeine is extremely low-dose, I limit it to twice per week max, and B-complex or B-6 to 1-2 times per week.  That still gives me plenty of latitude for gathering data without much danger of building a tolerance.

Hey, did you ever try melatonin to compare it to 5-HTP?  I tried melatonin last night and it put me dreamlessly under until WBTB, similar to the 5-HTP.  I'll be finding out soon what it does to dream quality.  I'd expect that there'd be differences in effects between the two (for a variety of reasons) and I'm curious to eventually unravel what those are for me.  I keep my exposure to 5-HTP pretty low-frequency, though, so the data-gathering will take a while.

----------


## CanisLucidus

*New Year's Day Lucids*
I had two lucid dreams this morning after the WBTB where I wrote the beginning of this post.  Again with the holiday LDs.  Very interesting.  They were both fun, with the second particularly long and relatively eventful.  Most importantly, I was really feeling ready for an LD, so it was great to have some arrive.

Here are the DJ entries for these two:
The Thragian Age - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
The Obsidian Tower - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Melatonin and B-complex Results*
The melatonin worked great as an REM suppressant, as expected.  I had only one tiny fragment of a dream before my WBTB and woke up feeling physically quite fresh.  The B-complex made it just slightly tougher to fall asleep, but in the end it worked out fine.  I'll definitely be keeping this combo in mind in the future.

Pre-bed: 3mg melatonin
WBTB: 100mg B-complex
Tech: SSILD w/ 40 minute WBTB
Results: Two lucid dreams.  Slight sleep difficulty.  Relaxed mood at WBTB.  Mental focus "okay".

----------


## Xanous

Good deal on the aid combo. Nice!

I love your first one. In dream WILDs crack me up.

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Good deal on the aid combo. Nice!
> 
> I love your first one. In dream WILDs crack me up.



Thanks!  Yeah, I loved that in-dream WILD... I just popped right in!  It would be nice if all WILDs were that easy.   :smiley:   Come to think of it, I actually had in-dream WILD as a lucid goal!  I'd intended to do it while lucid, but it was pretty awesome (and unexpected) from an NLD.  I'll still have to try it while lucid some time.  I really think it might have potential as a teleportation device!

*2012 Wrap-up and New Goals*
I had my first lucid dream (completely by accident) back in April of this year and then spent the next two months trying to make it happen again.  After hitting my 2nd LD, I found SSILD and got into a bit more regular rhythm, although many dreams were still short and unfocused.  (I'd probably call some of them fragments by my current standards.)

When I joined this class back in August, I had 9 lucid dreams after several months of work (a number I'm still damn proud of, and the result of months of work.)  My final count for 2012 was 50 lucid dreams, meaning that I've had 41 lucid dreams since joining the intro class.  That's no coincidence, and I'm extremely grateful to the staff and students here for the support, advice, and inspiration throughout this time.  Thank you!!

This morning's lucids I'll count toward January, 2013.  My major goals for the year will be to hit 100 more lucid dreams (for a total count of 150) and to complete the Task of the Year.  Task of the Year's a big fish for me, but I feel like I can pull it off.  Perhaps I should see what it is before I say that.  LOL.

I'll probably let the Pyramid goal drop for a month or so.  It's still important to me but I seem to keep getting stuck going for it.  I'll get back to it with fresh energy in a few weeks.


*Spoiler* for _Final Update on December Goals_: 




-Have 7 lucid dreams this month
-Complete a Basic Task of the Month
-Complete an Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete the "Trinity" or "Apollo 11" Task of the Year items
-Fly, jump or climb to the top of the Great Pyramid (from November)
-Perform at least one DEILD (from November)

Lucid dreams this month: 16




*Goals for January:*
-Have 10 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Teleport to a new location by creating a portal
-Teleport to a new location by performing an in-dream WILD

Lucid dreams this month: 2

*Goals for 2013:*
-Have 100 lucid dreams
-Complete the Task of the Year

----------


## BossMan

Correct me if I'm wrong but your tech for supplements is as follows:

1. Take 100mg of 5-htp before sleeping
2. WBTB+5hrs stay up ~20m 
3. take 4mg Galantamine + 400mg choline before retuning to bed
4. Let epic dreams commence

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Correct me if I'm wrong but your tech for supplements is as follows:



Pretty darn close.  There are a few other details, such as Alpha-GPC during WBTB and Piracetam in the morning to prevent desensitization.  I will lay out the details on my attempts thus far while chronicling last night's fail.   :smiley: 

*Galantamine Insomnia, Part 2*
I did my 4th round with galantamine + choline last night, and I'm humbled to report that I wound up with one very vivid NLD, then absolutely rock-solid insomnia for the rest of the morning as soon as I woke up from it!  I swapped in melatonin pre-bed, replacing the 5-HTP.  I also left out the small dose of melatonin (0.75mg) during WBTB.  (This may have been critical, as it's the same change I made last week.)

Pre-bed: 3mg melatonin
WBTB (after 5 hours of sleep): 4mg galantamine, 700mg choline (from choline bitartrate), 300mg Alpha-GPC
Tech: SSILD w/ 15 minute WBTB
Results: Almost immediate, vivid non-lucid followed by insomnia.

For the next trial, I'll be attacking this insomnia side effect.  I will either rotate in L-theanine OR the tiny melatonin dose into the WBTB.  In addition, I will return to using 5-HTP as the REM suppressor pre-bed.  I may also drop the GPC and/or reduce the bitartrate to bring down the levels of free choline just a bit.

*Successful Galantamine Cocktail*
For comparison, this is the G+C routine that I had success with twice.  Note the small amount of melatonin during the WBTB both times.  I theorize that to replicate this success without melatonin I'll either need to reduce free choline, get better at meditation, or use an aid like L-theanine.  I'll find out more next week!

Pre-bed: 100mg 5-HTP
WBTB (after 5 hours of sleep): 4mg galantamine, 700mg choline (from choline bitartrate), 300mg Alpha-GPC, 0.75mg melatonin
Tech: SSILD w/ 30 minute WBTB
After waking: 1600mg piracetam
Result: Multiple WILDs and DILDs.


*Spoiler* for _Failed G+C Cocktails_: 




12/27/2012 (Semi-failure)
Pre-bed: Nothing
WBTB (after 5 hours of sleep): 4mg galantamine, 700mg choline (from choline bitartrate), 300mg Alpha-GPC
Tech: SSILD w/ 15 minute WBTB
After waking: 2400mg piracetam
Results: Two lucid fragments intermingled with insomnia.

01/02/2013
Pre-bed: 3mg melatonin
WBTB (after 5 hours of sleep): 4mg galantamine, 700mg choline (from choline bitartrate), 300mg Alpha-GPC
Tech: SSILD w/ 15 minute WBTB
After waking: 2400mg piracetam
Results: Almost immediate, vivid non-lucid followed by insomnia.

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Green Tea Result*
Last night, I tried green tea again.  (It had been a while.)  I drank 12 ounces and had no trouble at all falling to sleep.   ::happy::   Thinking back to the difference between my successful and unsuccessful trials with the green tea, _the successful trials have always occurred with "diet" green tea_.  In other words, the one time that green tea kept me up, it contained some sugar.  That no doubt played a role in keeping me up.  I'm surprised that I hadn't thought of this before!

Anyhow, I now feel pretty comfortable trying a full 16 ounces (2 cups) of green tea the next time.  I think that the sugar was the real issue, not the caffeine.  In addition, I spent the WBTB mostly meditating, and I have to think that helped as well.

Pre-bed: 3g fish oil (so nothing, basically)
WBTB (after ~3 hours of sleep, too soon, but I got confused): 12 oz green tea right before going back to sleep
Tech: SSILD after meditation during 25-minute WBTB
Results: Two vivid dreams, one nearly lucid.  Pretty good sleep until the kids woke up.   :Cheeky: 

*Thoughts on Galantamine and Peak Plasma*
I have thought a bit more on the best way to reduce free choline when trying G+C.  It occurred to me that choline bitartrate has a much faster time to peak plasma than Alpha-GPC (1 hour vs 3 hours.)  That means that the high amount of choline bitartrate is likely more responsible for the early rush and subsequent insomnia.

Leaving in the Alpha-GPC and reducing choline bitartrate should give me a much smoother curve of rising free choline (and hopefully, rising acetylcholine.)  So next time I will cut choline bitartrate back to 200mg and leave Alpha-GPC unchanged.  I'll likely also include some L-theanine.

I'm feeling pretty good about this recipe, so I'll try that next.  Of course, I've gotta have another LD in order to earn myself another dance with galantamine.   ::D: 

Also, I'm interested in how alpha-GPC might do on its own as a lucidity trigger.  Should definitely be worth a shot!

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Two LDs and Alpha-GPC*
I had a pair of lucid dreams last night!  During my WBTB I discovered that the dogs had done something very unpleasant, so I went back to bed in a bit of a bad mood.  I took an Alpha-GPC just before settling down to sleep and ran some SSILD cycles.  Because I'd been busy during my WBTB, it took a little while to fall asleep.

Fortunately, when I did fall asleep, I had a pretty good (though slightly brief) DEILD chain that obliquely referenced the Task of the Year.  After I woke up from that, I was feeling bit amped and buzzed (probably both from the LD and from the GPC.)  Still, I got to sleep okay and got another DILD later in the morning.  Here are the DJ entries:

The Cestus - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Into the Gray Matter - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed: 2 bags popcorn
WBTB: 300mg Alpha-GPC
Tech: SSILD after 40-minute, very active WBTB

So this definitely seems to show that GPC can be a pretty decent trigger on its own.  Probably not nearly as powerful as G+C, but an interesting option to have in the toolbelt!

----------


## Xanous

Nice lucids. I like one where rubbing your hands sort of generated electricity and the lights came back. Great DEILD work too man.

BTW I had a pre-WBTB dream where I was helping DV member Wurlman look for his dog which later turned into his friend who was "special". Anyway where were running a familiar dream neighborhood on foot. You are out for a jog. My mind turns cartwheels at the sight of you and I just politely wave. Wurlman is all like dude it's.... uh.... CL. I ALMOST get lucid but I end up lying to myself to make sense of it all instead of seeing the obvious. ( I wonder how many time I do this in RL  ::shock:: ) I just told Wurlman how ironic it is that we met on DV but you actually live in Joplin. I didn't even think about how Wurlman was here too. LOL.

----------


## CanisLucidus

Ha!  Awesome DV member dream!  Hopefully that was a precog dream of me running off to finally make some progress on TotM or TotY.   :smiley:   It's funny how unless conditions are just right, the mind can accept so many things that seem crazy.  I didn't think twice when you showed up in that last one where you fired a howitzer.  I used to get the occasional lucid fragment when you popped up but now I worry that I'm becoming even more gullible than before.  Ha!  I still need to get a stable LD that has a DV member in it.  I've never actually done that yet.

Hmm, I can't help but wonder what it means that Wurlman's friend was "special", but I won't ask.  LOL.

And thanks for the comments about my last lucids, I appreciate it!  It's especially gratifying that the DEILD work is finally starting to get passable.  I'm no ace yet, but even at my modest levels it is a hugely profitable tech.  I'm still not sure whether what I experienced in #54 was a DEILD, but I'm beginning to think so.  And without DEILD, I'd have missed the best part of #53 for sure!  I'm really glad that I took the time to work on it even when it was kicking my ass.  I knew it was worth it when I saw the way that you used it to grind out big successes even when the dream world was being a pain in the butt.


*Spoiler* for _January Goals_: 




Goals for January:
-Have 10 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Teleport to a new location by creating a portal
-Teleport to a new location by performing an in-dream WILD

Lucid dreams this month: 4

----------


## Adi

Thanks for the great info Canis.. I'm currently using Choline, and was using some Mugwort I picked myself but ran out... When its in season I'm planning on growing some Calea Zacatechichi, but until then I was thinking about trying Galantamine, its good to see your reports so I can get an idea for doses.

----------


## OpheliaBlue

Lol at you two and your DV member dreams haha. I love it! I wonder if that would make a good TOTM. I remember doing something like that for Halloween. Maybe a valentine's one is in order for February, too risque?

Anyway, you're a lucid dreaming demon as always CL. I love how much you help people get lucid!  ::happy::

----------


## CanisLucidus

Heh, yeah, I absolutely love those DV member dreams!  These amuse me to no end.  Wish I had even more of them than I do... having a lucid DV member dream would be especially cool.  I theorize that DV member DCs would be way more cooperative than DCs that represent waking life folk.  In my lucids, waking life people typically want to do waking life stuff and are uneasy, disinterested, or frightened of traveling to the Aurora Borealis, seeing the Great Pyramid, etc.

You know that LD you just had where your son acknowledged that it was a lucid dream and got right into the swing of playing in the dream world with you?  That's a really cool DC reaction, and one that I've never gotten myself.

Ha!  That February idea is pretty amusing.  Something I like about having 2 basics and 2 advanced(s?) is that you can throw in an idea or two that's a little more off the wall without closing anyone out from TotM.





> Anyway, you're a lucid dreaming demon as always CL. I love how much you help people get lucid!



Aww, thank you so much!  That's a really nice thing to say.  Lucky for me, I had one hell of a teacher.   ::content::   (Several awesome teachers, as a matter of fact.)

----------


## OpheliaBlue

> You know that LD you just had where your son acknowledged that it was a lucid dream and got right into the swing of playing in the dream world with you?  That's a really cool DC reaction, and one that I've never gotten myself.



It was so cool. And really strange that during the dream I actually believed that we were in a shared dream. In retrospect, I think it was a lowish level of lucidity. In my most lucid moments, I would have been like "Yeah right, Chris. You is a DC."





> Ha!  That February idea is pretty amusing.  Something I like about having 2 basics and 2 advanced(s?) is that you can throw in an idea or two that's a little more off the wall without closing anyone out from TotM.



That was me and RC's original idea with that. Seems to be working, especially for me since I can mostly only do the basic ones  :tongue2: 





> Aww, thank you so much!  That's a really nice thing to say.  Lucky for me, I had one hell of a teacher.    (Several awesome teachers, as a matter of fact.)



It takes a village! I had great teachers myself when I first joined. And I continue to learn from you guys every day.  :smiley:

----------


## CanisLucidus

*The Mind Monkey*
Buddhism has this idea that the human mind is like a crazed monkey, hopping wildly and recklessly from one branch (or thought) to another.  No focus, no real understanding.  Just madness.  I'm not Buddhist, but I think the metaphor is extremely apt for the non-lucid state of mind.

The mind monkey loves to leap from branch to fruitless branch.  The more fretful and meaningless the thought, the better.
"You really ought to buy more stuff.  Your life does not have nearly enough useless crap in it."
"You suck."
"Could you stop living as you please and be like all the other monkeys?  You're supposed to be reading celebrity news about that one monkey w/ the colossal badonkadonk."
"Hey, I think that other monkey over there has more bananas than you.  You should hate both yourself _and_ that other monkey."
"You are not nearly popular enough.  Please change yourself so that monkeys you don't care about will pretend to like you."
"There are monkeys out there who have a different worldview from you.  This is unacceptable.  Please engage in a pointless argument as soon as possible."
"You still suck."

When you're stressed and/or very busy, the mind monkey loves to take advantage of the chaos and run riot in your mind.  But when you're meditating or living lucidly with a high level of awareness, the mind monkey just... shuts up.  I don't know where he goes, but he's gone, and you're in complete command.  (Ideally, one day he'll wander into a nearby woodchipper.)

And the mind monkey _really_ helps sell the lie that the dream is reality!

*WBTB Insomnia*
Related to that, I've had insomnia after my WBTB two nights in a row.  Night before last I took galantamine + choline and blamed it on that.  But last night I experienced insomnia after WBTB as well, and I took absolutely no lucid aids.  Admittedly, there's still _some_ galantamine in my system during the WBTB.  Galantamine's elimination half-life is 7 hours, so theoretically I still had about 0.5mg of G in my bloodstream.  But this is an extremely small amount, and I think it had nothing to do with sleep trouble.

Essentially, I think the issue here is that the past couple of days I've rented my brain out almost exclusively as a problem-solving engine for cranking on work stuff, letting the LD/awareness/meditation side of things go pretty much dormant.  Conditions are perfect for the mind monkey to carve out a nice little spot for himself.   :smiley: 

But today's practice has been much better so far!  Awareness work has been really good.  Life's still busy and the brain's still busy, but there's just no need for awareness to slip.  After all, when awareness falters, the mind monkey just takes up all the slack for himself anyway.   :smiley:

----------


## Xanous

Wow. Thank you. I have been studying Buddhism lately myself. I am literally just now (yesterday and today) starting to understand  and contemplate the things you mentioned. I like to think of these kinds of "coincidences" as a type of "synchronicity". Sort of like a confirmation that I am on the right path at  the moment. 

I am not planning to convert completely to Buddhism but I have been thinking of how I can adapt the thinking of Buddhism to answer the problems I have with Christianity. I plan to read this book soon. Amazon.com: Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian (9781851686735): Paul F. Knitter: Books A few nights ago I had a NLD. I was in a church that had been completely gutted and was in various stages of renovation. There are very few dreams that I understand the interpretation to but this one was apparent.

As for the insomnia maybe your WBTB was too long? Once in a while I will have issues going back to sleep regardless of aids. I am not sure what the issue is myself. 

I think we all struggle with the mind monkey. Some days are better than others. I have noticed how lucid living and daily awareness and mindfulness does indeed quiet the monkey. I suppose all lucid dream practice Buddhism to a certain extent.

----------


## Kaenthem

Hi CL, I've been away lately and I haven't read your WB in quite some time. It seems you're doing well. You've set new goals which is always good. I made a new year resolution that I would not abandon lucid dreaming and then get back to it as I usually do. So I can get the most of it and more importantly get to hang and chat and share with you guys  :smiley:

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Hi CL, I've been away lately and I haven't read your WB in quite some time. It seems you're doing well. You've set new goals which is always good. I made a new year resolution that I would not abandon lucid dreaming and then get back to it as I usually do. So I can get the most of it and more importantly get to hang and chat and share with you guys



It's great to have you back haithem!  Sounds like a perfect New Year's resolution.  Stick with that and I think you've got a most excellent year ahead of you!   :smiley: 

*Lucid Dream #55*
I beat that WBTB insomnia last night and hit a nice lucid.  I managed to pull off the basic Task of the Month and got to interact with some very amusing DCs while I was there.

The dream: Number Games and Ninja - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 3g fish oil, 200mg ubiquinol, 2000 IU Vitamin D-3, multivitamin (forgot to take all this stuff in the morning)
WBTB food: None
Tech: Very weak "WBTB" (3 minutes lying in bed), poorly-executed SSILD

I had good awareness practices throughout the day, and it really paid off.  As expected, this kept the "mind monkey" nice and quiet.  I also (finally) didn't need to let my dogs out during the WBTB to go to the bathroom, which helped me keep me from navigating stairs, being exposed to light, etc.

I think that a quiet mind and a nice, steady heart rate really help for falling back asleep.  From what I can tell so far, those are my two key elements for avoiding WBTB insomnia.

*Lucid #56*
I had another lucid early morning January 13th in spite of getting terrible sleep.  The dogs were doing nutty things downstairs which I had to get up in the middle of the night to clean up.  I had a really hard time getting back to sleep after that, but when I did, I got rewarded!  I feel very lucky/grateful here.  I don't get many when sleep habits are so messy, so I was really pleased.

The dream: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/cani...ngarant-42521/


*Spoiler* for _January Goals_: 




Goals for January:
-Have 10 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Teleport to a new location by creating a portal
-Teleport to a new location by performing an in-dream WILD

Lucid dreams this month: 6

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Galantamine w/o the Insomnia*
The last two times that I'd tried galantamine at my WBTB, I'd wound up with pretty significant insomnia.  Well, last night was my galantamine night for the week (shifted to Friday rather than Wednesday due to life craziness.)  This time, I had no trouble sleeping and had both a lucid dream and an additional interesting lucid fragment.  (I'll post that lucid fragment in the Intro Class snippets thread.)

I believe that the difference was simply down to a more relaxed state of mind and the inclusion of L-theanine to calm the mind.  This helped me get right to sleep before the galantamine kicked in.  Since I'd been having trouble sleeping previously, I decided to forget trying to WILD and simply go for DILD via SSILD.  Since this combo was successful, I'll be trying it at least once more before changing things up.

This was the lucid dream: Gladius and Darkness - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Last night's galantamine cocktail
Pre-bed: 100mg 5-HTP, 200mg L-theanine
WBTB: 4mg galantamine, 200mg choline, 300mg Alpha-GPC, 200mg L-theanine
Tech: Extremely short WBTB, 4 SSILD cycles, straight to sleep
Result: 1 fairly long lucid dream + 1 lucid fragment

The usual rules apply: galantamine no more than once per week, and only if I have a lucid dream _without_ galantamine in between.

*Stuff I'm Excited About*
Perhaps this will make for interesting reading in the weeks or months ahead.  This is a list of the ideas that are really on my mind lately.
-Tech from Xanous: when stuck in a dark scene or DEILDing, act out the thing that you want to do, whether ride a book, run, throw a punch or swing a sword.  Very promising results last night and could really open up the DEILDing game.
-Xanous' ideas about the ideal way to combine a small dose of caffeine with a properly boosted cholinergic system.  I found research from Yuschak which showed that he was thinking along the same lines.  Pretty exciting.
-Europe task of the month.  (Gladiator fight.)  I keep coming close on this one.  I think that I want it pretty badly.
-DV member dreams: Been having more of these lately.  Love em.


*Spoiler* for _January Goals_: 




Goals for January:
-Have 10 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Teleport to a new location by creating a portal
-Teleport to a new location by performing an in-dream WILD

Lucid dreams this month: 7

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dream #58*
This experience was from Saturday night.  This was an important one for me, since it broke a bit of a dry spell.  I took some DMAE before bed (my first time trying this) to examine the effect on dream recall.  Recall was certainly better than usual, but it's always a bit hard to do a comparison on a night where I have a lucid dream.

I was able to fly in this one, but I was definitely having some issues with altitude and flight control.  It still turned out to be a nice dream, challenges and all.

Pre-bed food: 3g fish oil, bag of popcorn, 250mg DMAE, 6mg melatonin
WBTB: 100mg B-complex, 400mg L-theanine
Tech: SSILD, 6 fast cycles, 2 slow, then drifted off.  Front sleep first, then side sleep.

Generosity and Giants - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Apple Juice Revisited!  (Lucid Dream #59)*
It had been a long time since I tried apple juice pre-bed.  Why oh why did I ever stop?   ::content::   I _finally_ achieved my old goal of visiting the Great Pyramid!  I even made a very close attempt at the "Africa" portion of Task of the Year.  Nearly had it!

Interestingly, I only recorded one fragment of any substance before my WBTB, which makes me wonder how much REM I got early in the night.  Perhaps even less than usual.  I also tried to really take my time with my WBTB and I even wore my super-cool blue wavelength-blocking glasses.  I spent the time reading Waggoner and DJ entries for old lucid dreams.  That may have been why the Pyramid was back on my mind after all this time.

Pre-bed food: 2 cups apple juice, 3g fish oil
WBTB: 100mg B-complex
Tech: SSILD, 6 fast cycles, 2-3 slow cycles.  Side sleep, then stomach sleep.

This dream was from last night:  On the Back of the Sphinx - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Goal Progress*
My goal was to have 10 lucid dreams in January, and as of this morning I'm sitting at 9 for the month.  It's gonna be tight!  I'm way off on my teleportation goals, and haven't even gotten close on Advanced TotM.  Don't think I'll be getting all of that done tonight!   :smiley: 


*Spoiler* for _January Goals_: 




Goals for January:
-Have 10 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Teleport to a new location by creating a portal
-Teleport to a new location by performing an in-dream WILD

Lucid dreams this month: 9

----------


## CanisLucidus

*Lucid Dreams #60 and #61*
These two lucid dreams were from Wednesday night, the night of the week that I chose to use galantamine.  _(For anyone new to my workbook, I restrict galantamine to once per week and only use it if I've had another non-galantamine LD in between.  It's a power tool and only recommended if you've done your homework.)_

These dreams were both a lot of fun.  These had the sense of joy and play that I'm used to from most of my standard lucids.  This had somehow been missing in lucids on galantamine night, where things tended to feel a bit more somber.  I think that I'm over the last of my nerves about insomnia and galantamine, and the more relaxed, carefree dreams are a reflection of me leaving this anxiety behind.

I'm still really pushing for Task of the Year, but I didn't manage any this month.  I _will_ get one next month!  Gotta make it happen!

Lucid Dream #60: It's Just a Phase - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Lucid Dream #61: It Has to Be the Colosseum! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Pre-bed food: 100mg 5-HTP, 3g fish oil
WBTB: 4mg galantamine, 200mg choline, 300mg Alpha-GPC, 400mg L-theanine
Tech: SSILD, 6 fast cycles, 3 slow, then alternating side sleep and stomach sleep.

*February Goals*
I missed on a lot of my goals for January, although I did manage to make my LD count goal (got 11, going for 10.)  I am going to be really focused on tasks this month!  I want a Task of the Year item pretty badly now after coming close so many times in January!

Goals for February:
-Have 11 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item

That's it -- short list this month.  Total focus on having fun and knocking out tasks!


*Spoiler* for _January Goals Final Results_: 




Goals for January:
-Have 10 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Teleport to a new location by creating a portal
-Teleport to a new location by performing an in-dream WILD

Lucid dreams this month: 11

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## paigeyemps

You too, CL! Like I told Xan, I haven't had much time to read your workbooks as much as I wanted to  :Sad:  But yea, hey!

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## OpheliaBlue

+poke+

Sorry I've been neglecting you too.. what's new scooby-doo?

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## CanisLucidus

Ha ha, you caught me... I have been putting off a February update mostly because I'm headed for a miss on so many of my monthly goals.   ::chuckle::   It hasn't been a bad month by any means but I've just been off of the pace that I'd set for myself.  Hopefully I can raise my game in the closing days of this month.  However, I've had some great accomplishments this month that I'm really proud of.

-First phase through a solid, non-glass wall (in the past 6 months)
-First lucid dream with DV members (two this month!)

*The Lucid Dreams*
I've had 8 lucid dreams this month, so my goal of 11 is going to be _seriously_ tight.  The past few days have actually been quite good, though, with a lucid fragment yesterday and a lucid dream on each of the two days before that.  While there are REM cycles still ahead of me, I can still get it done!

Basic TotM success and advanced TotM fail: Winged Cupid Painted Blind - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsCool pseudo-apocalyptic lucid: After the Storm - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsStreet Fighter II: The Menthol Arcade - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsTotY fail: A Short Soliloquy - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsRumors of a mysterious "Dream Coordinator": The Dream Coordinator - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsClumsy but groundbreaking phase through a solid wall: All That You Can't Leave Behind - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsA Xanous DC (!!), plus shades of NewArtemis, Alyzarin, and Ophelia DCs (!!): Losing My Grip - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsA tiny Paigeyemps DC stabs me with a safety pin: The Scorpion - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Tasks*
Task of the Year has still eluded me so far.  With nearly two months of 2013 down and no tasks completed, I'm definitely behind!  I've taken several good stabs at them but just haven't sealed the deal yet with any of them.  I'm going to fight like hell for it, though!  I really really want it this year.  Whether it comes or it doesn't, I think that I'll learn a thing or two along the way.   :smiley: 

I was glad to get Basic this month but I'm still hoping to clutch Advanced at the last minute so that I can achieve more of my February goals.

*Technique Changes*
My run with SSILD has been great, but a few days ago I decided to return to MILD.  I've gotten a ton of lucids off of SSILD, but I want to reacquaint myself with MILD now that I'm more confident and seasoned.  The last two LDs were via MILD, so I'm feeling great about the trial so far.

The plan at this point is to rely mostly on MILD for at least the next two months, with WILD attempts probably coinciding with any nights that I employ galantamine.

*Goals Review*
Here are my February goals.  As you can see, I'm short on these.  But I've got four days left _and if I'm going down, I'm going down swinging._  :Mad: 

-Have 11 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item

Lucid dreams this month: 8

March's goals will probably look much the same, except the "Task of the Year" goal is going to have a greater tone of desperation this time.   :smiley:

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## OpheliaBlue

> I've got four days left and if I'm going down, I'm going down swinging.



I love your attitude. I'm willing to bet that your positive thinking, and never give up attitude is partially responsible for a chunk of your lucids. Every new lucid dreamer needs to follow this example, because getting discouraged about anything is a lucid killer.

Way to go man, now go get those goals! I keep thinking of the great barrier reef TOTY, and how much it reminds me of that one cretaceous period TOTM from last summer, remember? I can't wait to see how all y'all pull that one off!

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## CanisLucidus

> I love your attitude. I'm willing to bet that your positive thinking, and never give up attitude is partially responsible for a chunk of your lucids. Every new lucid dreamer needs to follow this example, because getting discouraged about anything is a lucid killer.



Aww, thanks!  That's super cool of you to say.   ::hug:: 





> Way to go man, now go get those goals! I keep thinking of the great barrier reef TOTY, and how much it reminds me of that one cretaceous period TOTM from last summer, remember? I can't wait to see how all y'all pull that one off!



Oh, _do I_ remember the Cretaceous TotM?  My friend, that task is my White Whale!  That has to be one of the coolest TotMs we've ever had, and I spent a solid month trying to make it happen, my ass kicked at every turn.  Ah, I was but a boy then!   :Cheeky: 

Now that you mention it, the similarities between that one and the Cretaceous are really striking!  You have totally put me in the mood to bite a great white shark.  (Hopefully tonight's dose of menthol won't make me want to do anything worse!   ::o: )

Yes, completing the Australia TotY would be fitting redemption for all my attempts at Cretaceous back in the day.  By God, I am pumped right now!!   ::lol::

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## OpheliaBlue

> Yes, completing the Australia TotY would be fitting redemption for all my attempts at Cretaceous back in the day.  By God, I am pumped right now!!



Yeah, me too! Let's DO THIS!! I can picture it now:
_
wavy lines wavy lines wavy lines_

*CL:* *jumps into the water with both feet and bites the first shark he sees*
*Ophelia:* ...
*CL:* *pops head out of the water* "Come on in Ophelia, the water's nice!"
*Ophelia:* *dips one toe into the water, turns and runs way..."
*CL:* ...

Actually, I probably could do these water tasks better if I watched a DC do it first. So um, yeah... you first!

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## CanisLucidus

> _wavy lines wavy lines wavy lines_



LOL.  This is going to be my new WILD transition.  So very "Wayne's World".   ::D: 





> *CL:* *jumps into the water with both feet and bites the first shark he sees*
> *Ophelia:* ...
> *CL:* *pops head out of the water* "Come on in Ophelia, the water's nice!"
> *Ophelia:* *dips one toe into the water, turns and runs way..."
> *CL:* ...
> 
> Actually, I probably could do these water tasks better if I watched a DC do it first. So um, yeah... you first!



Ha ha, that's awesome... you can bet that my DC would be so hellbent on pulling off a Task that I'd just dive into absolutely anything.   ::chuckle:: 

You know, I was just telling Xanous about how now that he's had a TotY success, hopefully he'll spread his Success Cooties to the rest of us.  You are especially susceptible to residue from his Dream Journal, so now may be the time for you to take down one of these Tasks of the Year!



_"Wonder Twin powers activate!"_

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## Xanous

Both of you hop in Linkzelda's truck.  Ill drive. It'll be a piece of cake.

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## CanisLucidus

*March Goals*
These are the exact same goals that I had in February.  I _know_ that I can raise my game this month and make them.  I've moved the Task of the Year goal up in the list and in importance.  I'm now running a little behind pace if I'm going to complete Task of the Year, so it's time to get serious.  I _will_ get one of the Task of the Year continents handled!

Here's the list of goals for March:
-Have 11 lucid dreams this month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month

Lucid dreams in March: 2

Here are the lucid dreams I've had so far in March:
False awakening confusion and in-dream WILD: Fooled - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsBasic Task of the Month and an intriguing DC: The Wish - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
*Techniques*
I will be focusing primarily on MILD this month, with WILD attempts on Wednesdays when I employ galantamine.  The other change that I'm emphasizing is lots of work on intent and mantras during WBTB.  What I think about during WBTB seems to really stick with me in the early morning dreaming.  When I read DV, I'll have DV member dreams.  When I look at pictures of Task of the Year locations, I'll have non-lucids and near-lucids that take place in those spots.

And most importantly, I'm coming to believe that when I spent WBTB focusing on my intention to have a lucid dream, DILDs become very likely.  I'll be trying to do that consistently throughout the month.

*February Final Results*
February went just fine, but I was short on my goals.  I'd intended to get 11 lucids that month but wound up with 9.  I'm not at all disappointed in that total, but I believe that I can do even better and get those 11 lucids.

I don't think big changes are necessary.  I believe that more intent and confidence coupled with a determined effort at MILD will be enough to get me there.


*Spoiler* for _Final Results for February Goals_: 




-Have 11 lucid dreams this month
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item

Lucid dreams in February: 9

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## CanisLucidus

*March Progress*
I've had a good start in March, even though I've been just a bit dry the last few days.  Bad sleep and the last remains of a cough have been hassles that I hope are now mostly behind me.  I am still a complete zero on Task of the Year successes, and we're getting close to 25% of the way through the year.  _Get the lead out, son!_

Here's where things stand for March goals:
-Have 11 lucid dreams this month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month

Lucid dreams in March: 8

Here are the lucid dreams I've had since the last workbook entry:
Short ninja WILD: On a Dark Rooftop - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsVague Task of the Year-ish MILD w/ Xanous and NewArtemis: Mantras in the Green Valley - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsMILD in a hotel room: Floodlights - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsPrison rescue WILD w/ NewArtemis speaking role: Prison Break - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsFlying MILD and close-ish call for Task of the Year: The Mesa - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsWILD in my house, followed by a micro-lucid DILD: The DreamViews Drive - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*Induction Methods*
I've been enjoying MILD and I certainly think that I'll stick with it for April as well.  One interesting thing has been that I've had 3 WILDs this month out of 8 lucids.  Sometimes I'm going for a WILD (because I use galantamine once per week) but I also had a spontaneous WILD without really intending to do that.  MILD seemed to keep me engaged enough that I lucked out and was aware enough to recognize a dream scene forming.

There have been fewer DEILD opportunities but I've been able to extend several dream scenes for at least a little bit.  I'll try to put a little more effort into this so that I don't miss any chances.

*State of Mind*
I feel really motivated, energetic, and confident right now in spite of being a little dry.  I just feel really psyched... like my next "cycle" of lucid dreams is going to be very strong.  It's just a little late in arriving is all.   ::D: 

I believe that I'll make my LD count goal but I'm concerned about Task of the Year.  That's higher priority to me now than getting Advanced wings.  It's really time to get on the scoreboard!

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## CanisLucidus

*March Final Update*
And the final tally for March's goals:
-Have 11 lucid dreams this month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month

Lucid dream count for March: 12

Here are the lucid dreams that I've had since my last workbook update:
Void rescue and fleeing Enclave soldiers w/ NewArtemis: The Hall of Letters - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsSuccessful teleport to the Colosseum: The Sands of the Colosseum - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream ViewsRated R.   :tongue2: Several teleportation attempts from empty office space: Afraid of the Dark - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

*April Goals*
Task of the Year is huge for me now.  I'm well past due to get on the scoreboard, so I've got to make it happen!  We're 25% through 2013 and I am 0% of the way through the 7 tasks.

-Have 12 lucid dreams this month
-Complete at least one Task of the Year item
-Complete Basic Task of the Month
-Complete Advanced Task of the Month

*Teleportation Thoughts*
I've made some recent progress in teleportation recently with my trip to the Colosseum.  I feel very confident "in the void" now, and think that I've got a good shot at moving from the void to a location of my choosing.  It's still a relatively recent skill for me, but I think that I can make it pay off over and over.  Some ideas:

*Colosseum*: The "sand trick", as seen in The Sands of the Colosseum - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
*The Great Pyramid*: The "sand trick", emerging in the Egyptian desert.
*Angel Falls*: The "sand trick", feeling the rush of water before it goes over the falls.  Alternately, imagine the falls are behind me and throw myself backward off of them.
*The Great Barrier Reef*: The "sand trick", emerging on an Australian beach.
*The South Pole*: The "sand trick", except with snow and ice.
*The Great Wall*: The "sand trick", feeling the stones of the Great Wall.
*Empire State Building*: The "sand trick", feeling the cracks of a New York City sidewalk.

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## Kaenthem

Hi CL!
Its been a long time since I posted here, It looks like you're doing well, and don't worry about the task of the year, with some persistence and hard work you'll get it. (this is from the guy who didn't practice for 2 months or so  :tongue2: )
keep on dreaming!

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## CanisLucidus

Haithem!!  It's great to hear from you, buddy!   ::content:: 

Thank you for the encouragement.  It's much appreciated -- I'll need it all when I'm cranking on Task of the Year.  April!!  This is when I will get it done!

Hope all is well!  Happy dreaming to you.

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## PennyRoyal

> *Colosseum*: The "sand trick", as seen in The Sands of the Colosseum - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
> *The Great Pyramid*: The "sand trick", emerging in the Egyptian desert.
> *Angel Falls*: The "sand trick", feeling the rush of water before it goes over the falls.  Alternately, imagine the falls are behind me and throw myself backward off of them.
> *The Great Barrier Reef*: The "sand trick", emerging on an Australian beach.
> *The South Pole*: The "sand trick", except with snow and ice.
> *The Great Wall*: The "sand trick", feeling the stones of the Great Wall.
> *Empire State Building*: The "sand trick", feeling the cracks of a New York City sidewalk.



Awesome idea, using the sand trick in different ways to TP. I was thinking about trying something like this for my wolf goal. Place my hand on a wall or something an imagine the feel of a tree to get myself into a forest.

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## CanisLucidus

> Awesome idea, using the sand trick in different ways to TP. I was thinking about trying something like this for my wolf goal. Place my hand on a wall or something an imagine the feel of a tree to get myself into a forest.



Great idea!  If you decide to try this out I'll be very interested to see how it goes for you.

This worked so well for me in the void and was much more challenging in a well-lit scene.  What's great about the void is that there is no visual feedback there to prevent you from building your mental model in exactly the way you want.  In the void, who's to tell me that I'm not feeling a tree?  I certainly don't _see_ a wall!

I see two options: either closing our eyes or looking away when feeling the tree.  Do you remember my office building teleportation fails from a recent LD?  I was wondering if I should maybe look away, feel sand until I'm convinced it's sand.  Then, get really into this sand I've produced and ignore the rest of the scene.  This is when I could pull off the teleport perhaps.

But we'll see!  This is all new stuff for me, so it's experimentation time!  Results are always uncertain but it's loads of fun trying all this stuff.

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## PennyRoyal

> Great idea!  If you decide to try this out I'll be very interested to see how it goes for you.
> 
> 
> 
> I see two options: either closing our eyes or looking away when feeling the tree.  Do you remember my office building teleportation fails from a recent LD?  I was wondering if I should maybe look away, feel sand until I'm convinced it's sand.  Then, get really into this sand I've produced and ignore the rest of the scene.  This is when I could pull off the teleport perhaps.



My original plan was to close my eyes/cover them with the other hand or something so I couldn't see my surroundings and focus on whatever texture I had in mind. If I get an opportunity to use it I'll let you know how it goes

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## Kaenthem

Your new method of teleportation seems fun, I never thought of actually using other senses to enter another scene, I usually focus on sight, but its kinda hard. 
By the way, how can you stay in the "void", if it ever gets dark in my dreams I panic and wake up  :Sad:

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## CanisLucidus

> My original plan was to close my eyes/cover them with the other hand or something so I couldn't see my surroundings and focus on whatever texture I had in mind. If I get an opportunity to use it I'll let you know how it goes



Oh man, such a great idea!  Thanks, PennyRoyal!  I can just study my hands up close, and behind them I can imagine... whatever I want!  Very slick idea.  I want to incorporate this immediately.  The next time that I'm in a location that I can't work with, I will try this to help me teleport!

Brilliant.  Love the idea sharing.  I get farther faster when I'm stealing ideas.  LOL.





> Your new method of teleportation seems fun, I never thought of actually using other senses to enter another scene, I usually focus on sight, but its kinda hard. 
> By the way, how can you stay in the "void", if it ever gets dark in my dreams I panic and wake up



Thanks!  I really enjoyed it.

Lately I have found the void to be a more and more stable place.  Sometimes when things go dark, yeah, I just simply wake up.  But if there's any dream left at all, I can usually hang in there for a while.  I just think of the void as a familiar location... almost a crossroads of sorts.

One key element is that I maintain awareness of my dream body.  I do a lot of poking and prodding at myself, rubbing my hands together, checking to make sure my body feels real.  The reason for this is that I want to stay very firmly rooted to the dream scene.  I am trying to think *only* of my dream body.  At that moment, it's all that's real.  This seems to help bind me to the dream.

The trouble I had, though, was that I often couldn't go anywhere from the void.  One thing that helped was a repetitive motion trick that Xanous used.  My variation of it was to pretend that I was swinging a "gladius" (a type of ancient Roman sword.)  This would sometimes get me to a new scene and was a huge help.  But the sand trick seems to be even more specific.

Another great technique is to ask a dream character to pull you out of the void.  It's amazing how well this works.  I've tried it three times and it's always been different DCs (once NewArtemis, once a DC from a recent NLD, and once Julia Roberts of all people.)  Easily the most exciting void exit!  It's way cool.

Just think of the void as one more place.  Probe at your dream body and connect with it.  Even if there's nothing else around you, _you_ are still there.  That's all that matters.  The rest can come later.

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## PennyRoyal

> Oh man, such a great idea! Thanks, PennyRoyal! I can just study my hands up close, and behind them I can imagine... whatever I want! Very slick idea. I want to incorporate this immediately. The next time that I'm in a location that I can't work with, I will try this to help me teleport!
> 
> Brilliant. Love the idea sharing. I get farther faster when I'm stealing ideas. LOL.



Lol, feel free to take any idea I throw out there. My LDs are so short right now I don't get much of an opportunity to use my control theories, I can live vicariously through you until I can get some longer ones  :tongue2:

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