Thread: Sensei's Ideas, Thoughts, and Ramblings

Using the list above and/or the dj system, you should be able to figure out what you need for LDing. Remember that techniques that you do take a month or so to kick in, and a month or so to kick out.

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For me, I normally am lacking GDA (general dream awareness) because of lack of sleep. The longer that you spend on GDA, the slower it takes to leave you. The longer you are a way from it, the harder it is to get back. Dream state awareness seems to be able to come and go without much issues.

Great post!!
Enjoyed reading about normal reasoning in normal dreams being intact, and awareness levels in normal dreams.
Just last night had an astonishing example of complex reasoning, I find at least, for a dream.
Just about lately I had major hickups about people telling a person, who only remembered her LDs, what normal dreams supposedly would be like.
"Woe me my rational mind is dead, and nothing makes sense, all is bizarre and unusual."
Not so.
Could be that I feel an effect of meditation by much better insight in retrospect, what had been going on.
I suspect some people don't remember the details, and what you say - that false memories and dream-logic are present, and it was not "stupid" to not notice.
Rather indeed one is not aware enough and memory.
Whatever that means, exactly.

Great thread - do keep going by all means!!
Still loving your pretend memory dream control!

Fabulous post, BB! I am experiencing increasing spikes in both dream and state awareness, but they're not coming together at the same time!

What I'm really interested in is your detailed current practice:

+ when and how and how often and how long do you think "I'm dreaming" during the day?
+ what else do you do during the day?
+ what do you do before bed? What bedtime intentions do you set?
+ what do you do on each waking? What more intentions, how do you decide between choosing WILD vs. DEILD vs. DILD
+ how do you do your micro-WBTB, do you have it timed, or do you monitor your level of drowsiness, etc?
+ how do you recommend getting in to teleporting while still at a pretty low LD count (say 20ish )? Or do you recommend not doing that until higher counts with more reliable denser LD frequency?
+ what again is your teleporting approach?

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

The triple threat is simply what I call it because it is the same feeling and thoughts going through your head for all three. Actually it might be more.
Beforei go to bed visuals is for DILD.
If Iwake up in the middle of the night and want to WILD or DILD back in, I just do that.
If I have a FA I do it.
If I wake up from an LD and just want to DEILD back.

So it is the same thing. My mantra "I'm dreaming." Along with visualizing myself teleporting away and LDing. No matter which place I get at, my night time visuals are the same, but all roads lead to LD. hope this explains it. If you need more I can make a long detailed point by point one though.

Thank you! I think this is genius to have a "go to" approach for all three situations! That should make it easier to remember and give more opportunities to not miss those chances that are within grasp. Awesome!

Thanks steph and fryingman. Fryingman. Make sure that each day you spend time on both types of awareness. The one I am always lacking is GDA (general dream awareness), if you don't get enough sleep, or have too much stress, this lowers first.

+ when and how and how often and how long do you think "I'm dreaming" during the day?

Well on average I think it any time that I think about dreaming. I want to have it in the back of my head at all times, but I have changed this for a little while. Right now I am on a looong LDing lack and I need a lucid, so I decided to pick up the gravity RC way more than ever and make it my own. I couldn't seem to think about*gravity "all the time" like hukif suggests, so I am conditioning myself into it. When at work right now I have an alarm going off every minute in order to remind me to think of gravity. I try to keep it going for the full minute. If I do this long enough I am hoping that each time it hits the minute mark I will still be thinking "I'm dreaming" and paying attention to gravity, at least somewhere in my mind since it is supposed to be something that is in the back all the time. When I get it there every minute I will keep increasing the time until I know that it is in the back of my mind. so right now I repeat it thousands of times a day since I hit about 50% of the minute marks for 5 hours of work and I probably have it repeated every other second. so a lot. This is extreme, but I want to get this working really bad. I have commited to doing this the next 30 work days at least. When not working it is getting to be like every minute or so, but before this I did it every five minutes or so and that didn't work bad.

+ what else do you do during the day?
Right now gravity RC. Visuals. Mantras. Telling myself that I am the best ever and things like that.song about LDing. Relate everything I read or watch to LDing.
+ what do you do before bed? What bedtime intentions do you set?
+ what do you do on each waking? What more intentions, how do you decide between choosing WILD vs. DEILD vs. DILD
+ how do you do your micro-WBTB, do you have it timed, or do you monitor your level of drowsiness, etc?
+ how do you recommend getting in to teleporting while still at a pretty low LD count (say 20ish )? Or do you recommend not doing that until higher counts with more reliable denser LD frequency?
+ what again is your teleporting approach?

Hah! All these I can answer in one question. :3 because they are all similar in my way.
Ok. So I lay down. I start feeling my dream body. Now at this point when in a dream or in waking, what body you feel at this point is your dream body. Whenever you. Start feeling your body, it is really your idea of your body. So I imagine myself falling asleep and waking somewhere else. I keep up my mantra the whole time and I keep the "dream feeling"
It is always a feeling that I go for for micro wbtbs, so I dont know how long. I only DEILD after LDs, and WILD and DILD are chosen for me this way. This is a way to teleport as well.

More on:
teleporting
My first 70 LDs I spent a lot of effort on flying because I didn't think that I would be able to accomplish any goals if I couldn't fly! I was not a natural flyer, no help from DCs constantly harassing me and telling me that I couldn't fly. After I got that down I used my method of doignthings like walking for a while. After about 150 LDs I started teleporting like mad. Lucids and non lucids. I still have issues with goals, but probably because I have too many. I accomplish a goal prolly 3 times a week when I am LDing (I am on a slump right now, but I will get all the LDs tonight) it is easy to accomplish most, but goals for competitionsbor toty are hard to rememeber because they dont come from my desiresm trying to change that). :3

I had awhole thing written about teleporting methods, but I am gonna make a thread for that soon. I will just give you the one that is just what I do with the DILD,WILD, and DEILD.

Teleport tech:
I lie down and go to sleep. then imagine where you want to go and teleport. It basically an in dream WILD.

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Thanks fogelbise. I am glad you think it is genius. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any chances to WILD, DEILD, or DILD, so the only way to make sure I miss no chances is to have the same set up. It took me a while to get exactly what I needed to do down. I have specific things that I do in order to keep my mind active yet not too active that insomnia ever sets in, but I dont tell people exactly what I do, because that isn't part of the "system" that is something that will have to be specific to the individual, and will take time to find your own way.

One of those things is SSILD, if I feel like I can't fall asleep. Backflips if I can't feel my dream body enough, forgetting my body if I am thinking too much about my dream body and can't sleep, counting if I am too tired. One thing I always always do is my mantra. This is why I try to get people away from SSILD because it is only 1% of what I do when getting myself into the right mindset, and info it once a week at most.

^^ Great great great BB I'll read it through several times, thanks! When I'm not focusing on work (which takes my total attention since it's heavy mental work), I'm now basically *always* thinking about LDing via ADA/RC. I'm doing location and adding in gravity....not sure of splitting the attention on focuses is bad, it may slow me down, but I want to make sure I have both bases covered. I have consciously noted gravity [a feeling of lightness like fainting or I could float away] in a dream twice, once this week, and low location awareness a few times and high location awareness 2 nights ago [in the dream I'm explicitly wondering where I am, in relation to physical landmarks I know in waking life, and even ask a DC where we are relative to such-and-such a landmark. I also do Tholey/LaBerge reflection/intention, and daytime MILD.

My last two LDs were from "those things don't belong here" thoughts, lower location awareness, but not me explicitly wondering about where I was. They were both on the "fuzzy" side of general dream awareness, and were earlier in the sleep cycle than most of my "lucid while waking up" moments. I have had several strong general dream awareness dreams this week, not fuzzy at all but quite clear, I'm me, and I'm in control. Yet I don't know I'm dreaming! So getting these two to go together is the thing I need to figure out. Maybe it's just a matter of time. In any case recall this week has been great and I think that's a good sign.

I too am an "obsess" sort, usually though not at long as this LD obsession . This is one for the rest of life I think. I will hold it as my primary thought during the day as long as it takes to reach Hukif-levels

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

I had awhole thing written about teleporting methods, but I am gonna make a thread for that soon. I will just give you the one that is just what I do with the DILD,WILD, and DEILD.

Teleport tech:
I lie down and go to sleep. then imagine where you want to go and teleport. It basically an in dream WILD.

******edit*******
Thanks fogelbise. I am glad you think it is genius. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any chances to WILD, DEILD, or DILD, so the only way to make sure I miss no chances is to have the same set up. It took me a while to get exactly what I needed to do down. I have specific things that I do in order to keep my mind active yet not too active that insomnia ever sets in, but I dont tell people exactly what I do, because that isn't part of the "system" that is something that will have to be specific to the individual, and will take time to find your own way.

One of those things is SSILD, if I feel like I can't fall asleep. Backflips if I can't feel my dream body enough, forgetting my body if I am thinking too much about my dream body and can't sleep, counting if I am too tired. One thing I always always do is my mantra. This is why I try to get people away from SSILD because it is only 1% of what I do when getting myself into the right mindset, and info it once a week at most.

I think that I first heard that from you, finding your own way, and I agree. Take other framework and piece it together to suit you...it's amazing how different each person's approach can be and still be effective...or rather how different some approaches have to be to be effective for each individual. But as you and others have pointed out, there are basics (fundamentals) that I think tie them all together in some way. I tried what I imagined to be the closed eye teleport with several successes after hearing you mention it so I think this is something that would fit in with my practice quite well. I focused on FAs for a while but found it pulling my attention away from other priorities and I think your triple threat is a good way to start catching them again (and more DEILDs, etc). I also hear you on SSILD, I have been slowly using other things and saving SSILD for certain attempts. I was getting over 50% success early on while using SSILD (along with day practices), that I did start to rely on it. I assume, to catch as many FAs as possible, that you attempt the closed eye teleport no matter how sure you are that you have woken up (even if it feels like time to get up for the day)?

I wanted to post in this thread for a long time but only now realized I still hadn't 0o

You're one of the people whose mindset I greatly admire around DV: I know the first reaction is to look at how the person is achieving their lucid dreaming rates, but I tend to give more relevance at how the person is achieving his/her lucid dreaming practice. From all the posts around, a definitively key-word I'd use for your journey so far is hard-work. You mention several techniques, sometimes a small shift in perspective regarding induction, but always in the lines of "I was working on this, and then working on this, and testing this, and developing this". This makes you a great example in terms of "you can achieve lucidity even if you used the least effective way, providing you're consistent in your practice".

One also very relevant aspect of your methodology of lucid dreaming, that I wish people would pay huge attention to, is the focus on journey vs focus on the arrival, focus on the process vs focus on the result. Lucid dreaming is so ephemeral for quite some time, that if you are one of those that doesn't learn to love the process you will never learn to appreciate the results, as small as they be at first. Lucid dreaming, frequent/long-lasting/solid will only (imo) be achieved with constant work on a group of aspects related to dream knowledge, awareness, and overall mental clarity/memory. Can't stress how important these principles of habit formation are for people who want to become a life-long lucid dreamer, and your posts show that perfectly

Nice that you took the time to post this, I'm sure many new lucid dreamers will save much frustration by taking some lessons out of your own experiences

Originally Posted by Zoth

One also very relevant aspect of your methodology of lucid dreaming, that I was people would pay huge attention to, is the focus on journey vs focus on the arrival, focus on the process vs focus on the result.

Yes, this! You have to love your dreams, especially the non-lucid ones. I personally consider any night with decent recall a successful night now, lucid or not. Lucid is icing on the cake, and a tasty icing it is. Yeah I'm not perfect, I get a bit cranky if a no-lucids spell extends to several weeks, but probably one of the most important epiphanies is that we are each of us alone responsible for our (lucid) dreaming results, so must make a habit of seriously asking and evaluating the question, "am I doing all that I know I should be doing to promote lucid dreaming and dream recall?".

http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-cont...-teleport.html
I made a thread about teleporting and talked a little about the triple threat. It is easy to find if you go over there, I put a spotlight of sorts on it.

Thanks Zoth. I hope it helps. If it doesn't help other people, I know it will help me having all my thoughts in one place.

Zoth and Fryingman. It is a lot like staying in shape. If you make it a project with an end in sight you won't succeed, or you will only succeed for a while, but if you make it a process and a full out change in your life forever, then you will be fine. Don't go on "diet's" when planning on lucid dreaming or you will just be a "diet lucid dreamer" (which doesn't taste as good as normal, admit it). You want to change something permanently. I sleep 8 hours almost every night, forever, not just for the next year or two years. I spend 10 minutes before I go to sleep saying my mantra and visualizing. Every night. Even if I am too tired. I am not lucid dreaming, I am a lucid dreamer.

Steps of dream recall for me:

nothing
Remember 1 dream a night (10 minutesish)
Remember a little more than one dream a night (10 minutesish each)
Remember 3 or 4 dreams a night (10 minutesish each)
Remember 5-6 Dreams a night (10 minutesish each)
Remember 7-8 dreams a night (10 minutesish each)
remember 2 dreams a night realizing that before you were thinking of a whole dream as just a snippet of a dream (20-30 minutes each)
Remember 3-4 dreams a night (20-30 minutes each)
Remember 3 dreams a night realizing again that you were only remembering snippets of a dream (30 minutes-hour each)
Remember 4-5 dreams a night (20 minutes to an hour each)
Remember 6-8 dreams a night (20 minutes to an hour each)
start remembering even NREM snippets as well.

I was at 4-5 (20 minutes to an hour each) yesterday, but I was taking care of wife (with strep) and baby (with fever) last night so i stepped back to 7-8 (10 mintrs or so). This seems like a huge step back, but I have a little to say about the GDA in this area.

When dealing with GDA (general dream awareness I believe that the angle on the line is a lot smaller an angle than the angle in state awareness. I think I said this before, but I am adding to it. The angle is smaller going down as well.

So say your GDA is getting higher and higher and you are at 4-5 long dreams and something like stress or lack of sleep hits. It will seemingly step you back a few steps when you haven't really stepped back. Stress and lack of sleep are exceptions, you need to not worry if it seems like it went down to zero, but it takes longer than that to get it down. A couple of months or so. I have had some really bad months and not gone back to zero even though it seemed like it. Always work on your recall! Keep it going up! If you need help with that or GDA, check out my dj system. I just want people to LD and I think that this can help.

^^ Interesting list of the recall stages! I'm somewhere in the high-middle of that list when I'm firing on all cylinders like I have the last week or two. Recently I've noticed more of the transition from the lots of unconnected scenes to a long single stream of multiple scenes. So I'm somewhere between the 7-8 and 2 or perhaps reaching 3-4 but rarely. Mostly between 7-8 and 2 (1-2). So 4-5 is really really impressive

But I know it's possible, because 6 months ago if anybody had told me I could write the sort of entries I'm writing now in my DJ about the dreams I have every night, I would have laughed saying "I hardly ever dream, what are you talking about."

What I *do* get the sense of though now is I *know* and *feel* that there's so much I'm forgetting, that just comes in as fragments.

Oh and on the subject of off-times, yes, I experienced two interruptions (going on a three week trip that causes a 2-week jet lag adjustment on both directions really sucks for dreaming) of almost a month recently, yet I pretty much got right back in the saddle once I recovered from that bad time.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Stabilization
I have a few ways to stabilize, so I will note the ideas down here.

Hey BB, did I miss your ways to stabilise? I read your tutorial about extending the dream time.

My problem, I think, is that I seem to get lucid just as I wake, so virtually all of my lucids are only a few seconds long.
I have tried to just lay dead and re-enter the dream, but never managed to succeed at that.

It's possible that I'm just not calm enough when I do LD, and that I wake because I am excited. I guess I just have to keep plugging away at that and hope to calm down a bit!

Hmmm... did I not put ways to stabilize? Interesting. I shall put some stuff up about it soon.

Main thing for me is to not worry or think about stabilizing much. Just play! I shall put up the techs that I do when losing a dream soon.

Perhaps interesting data point on BB water wake-up technique. I drank a lot of water yesterday, to-bed at 23:xx (23:20?) and at 04:00 I woke directly from the end of a series of dream scenes with excellent immediate recall of all of them (and an urgent need to pee but I was able to hold it off while I lay still and did recall). A dozen or more scenes, with lots of detail in some cases, I got a fair bit of it recorded. 20-30 minutes of dreaming probably remembered, at least piecemeal, a long one for me.

I was able to get back to sleep and had 2 more wakings each with recall, and at the first waking I did not record, but remembered it on the 2nd waking at 07:15 or so.

It may be that water wakings are more "gentle" than setting direct "wake up" intentions which Sageous suggests may run the risk of fully waking you up, making it much harder to get back to sleep.

I'm not sure where I read this, perhaps from BB, but I had my first "sight correction" in a LD last night. After getting lucid I felt like my vision was clouded, I remembered the metaphor of veils, and I then saw veils in front of my face, which I lifted away and resulted in super clear vision!