• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




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    NyxCC

    Candles

    by , 01-29-2014 at 02:26 AM (980 Views)
    Date: 21 Jan

    Entry 1/2

    Pre bed: 3mel

    Wbtb: 1/3 latte, had trouble falling asleep (external factors)

    At some point, I begin to feel energetic as has been occasionally the case, but interrupt the process by visiting the restroom. Finding a comfortable position is not easy.

    WILD: Finally, I turn to my lhs and remain still for some time. Then find myself staring at this DC woman with green blouse, it feels like I'm in.

    I make cautious movements, trying to get up from the same position I was sleeping, initially just move my head. A slight scene change, I am now in my old room. I begin rocking sideways, the way I did at the beginning of another ld. This makes me feel more comfortable/fit in my dream body. Then I fully get up. The dream feels slightly unstable and I head for the window, where I tear down the curtains and look outside.

    It is dark as hell, no light in the apartment and not a single light in the entire town. I remember to look at the sky - it's mostly clear, a slight mist and no stars at all. I look to my right and feel a bit creeped out. It is dark there. My worry is that I might summon something by habit. I recall I wanted to and shortly do breathing exercises. The effect is very powerful, I feel lots of saturated energy coming in and as part of me.

    I decide to get in and turn around, it is a bit brighter in the room. I head towards the switch and turn it on. No light. Then I concentrate on the bulb and try to make light radiate from it, there's some effect but the room does not get brighter. I imagine another lamp and try to do the same with similar results.

    Maybe I can use some candles, so I summon three small blue candles and work hard to light them. I've always thought that lighting a candle should be easy in a dream, but it turns out not. I just can't imagine the fire I guess. The wicks get bigger and fluffier and the candles change to larger ones and I make some fire-like sparks with my hands, rubbing the wick, hoping it will catch fire and use the other candles to spread it. They appear to have a ghostlike fire now, but don't emit much light as I place them around. I am annoyed with my abilities, but feel that I just need to do some fire gazing irl to improve them.

    I retreat to the bed and examine the furniture. There's lots of stuff around and it looks as if I am back in this room. I wonder about how accurate the proportions are. It's exactly the same size. Most of the objects belong to the particular time frame when I lived there, but there is the blanket from our current home. Then a sofa from our old place appears for my amusement. I think about doing more breathing exercises (maybe just a few breaths?, not much done or effect) and contemplate on my life while living there. In the meantime, it is a much brighter day outside, when did that happen? Cool!

    At some point I notice that I am holding a melting candle in my hand and decide to extinguish it and put it aside, but somehow feel that this symbolic act means the end of the dream. Indeed, just a bit later, the dream starts to thin out.


    I think I did touch on my body very briefly, but it might have been a in-dream chain.

    DEILD/DILD: I eagerly wait for the next scene, wondering if it will be in the same place. I see (kind of like in third person) myself walking in bathrobe in this place. I'm in properly now and have the ability to look around and choose where I want to go. It's inside a building and I look at this open door which reveals a softly lit bedroom apartment. I briefly consider it, but prefer to go outside, so head towards the door. It seems that it is still winter, piles of semi-thawed snow and I am not properly dressed, but for once boldly go outside. I try to phase through the glass door, but it's solid so I just open it. As I pass through the back entrance of the building and yard I see that part of the yard is sunlit and feel happy about that. Maybe I will finally have the opportunity to look for a palace looking building once I get to the street. I also think about possibly being invisible, but not sure how to apply at this point.

    There are different levels of the side of the building, so I have to maneuver by climbing near a balcony to manage reaching the front of the building. I see a weirdly shaped gray cat there and wonder if it is a real cat and can see me (cats are supposed to see things like people possibly obeing), but it doesn't react like it would if that were the case. It's controlled by my thoughts and comes closer. There's something not very catlike in it, like another sort of animal I can't identify. I don't want to get too involved (and have it stuck to me like a blanket) so ignore it and think about finding the palace. There are only normal buildings around and I think I need to get in the middle of the street where I would get a clearer (trees here) view of the buildings and hopefully think of or see something appropriate.

    In the middle of the street and my mood is great, sun is shining brighter too. I do some sort of bounce where I float and remain mid air and then gently float up. Very pleasant feel. I come near this tree with very small bipinnate leaves (possibly closest to honey locust tree, but with thicker leaves), it looks very beautiful. I'm starting to lose height so wonder if I should use the nearby thin end of the branch to hold on to, but with the delicate tree leaves this is not going to be very nice for the tree. I prefer not to do any mess on the tree even if a dream tree.

    [mood change]

    In the meantime, I see two female DCs that I identify as bitches down on the street. My attention is directed at them, I want to and then do something to one of them. I briefly wonder why the hell do I have these desires with those bitches, one of them looks a bit like Rachel Weiss. Luckily, even after what I have done, I manage to control my impulse and don't get a sexy feeling. I think about my tasks again. I am now in what reminds me of my school but the building is kind of shifty/unstable. I think that maybe I should summon my dad and he will drop me off the palace. The dream fades.

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    Updated 01-29-2014 at 02:30 AM by 61764

    Categories
    lucid , memorable

    Comments

    1. fogelbise's Avatar
      You have some good lengthy lucids!! Awesome That is where I can improve the most...slowly but surely! Do you remember transitioning from shorter to longer lucids in general?
      NyxCC likes this.
    2. NyxCC's Avatar
      Thanks fogelbise! I'd say it is a gradual change that takes place over time, with periods of shortening followed by longer lds. I think with the practice that you are nicely getting they would get longer.

      Some additional things to consider:

      - REM rebound (from being sleep deprived, wbtb or supps)
      - deeper sleep
      - where in the REM cycle the ld occurs - if it's in the beginning of a later REM cycle (I don't time these things btw)
      - being able to archor in the dream (it still remains a challenge with wilds mostly due to the fact that I am quite wakeful when I do them, but sometimes it works quite well)
      - dild in beginning of REM
      - visualization exersices. I have been practicing visualization exercises for 15-20 mins where I imagine or at least try to think about simple backgrounds, objects, etc and especially trying to hold the image or thought for as long as possible. I think this relates to what we do in dreams, so may be giving dreaming an extra boost.
      Updated 01-30-2014 at 02:17 AM by NyxCC
    3. Highlander's Avatar
      Congratulations on the lucid dreams NyxCC, especially the WILD.
      I think I have tried the rocking motion one time when half-asleep and it did sort of work as I could sense my dream body moving but it startled me alert.
      I get the thing about the light too. I have that summoning problem.
      The scenery sounded interesting too.

      I liked the part about the cat in the next dream and how you got good vibes from the sunny scene, plus the (B6?) bitches.

      Rachael Weiss.
      (Now I'm starting to visualise!)
      fogelbise likes this.
    4. fogelbise's Avatar
      Thank you so much NyxCC for all of those ideas! Mine have been getting longer in general (or at least the really short ones are a lot less frequent) but I can see that there is room for improvement when I read yours above. I hope you don't mind some follow-up questions/comments.

      - where in the REM cycle the ld occurs - if it's in the beginning of a later REM cycle (I don't time these things btw)
      I would love to be able to DILD at the very beginning of the dream frequently and I think I have only gotten semi-close to the beginning(except for WILDs/DEILDs of course). I assume this improves over time with heightened awareness and a solid feel for the dream world.

      - being able to archor in the dream (it still remains a challenge with wilds mostly due to the fact that I am quite wakeful when I do them, but sometimes it works quite well)
      This reminds me of Mzzkc's suggestion <link: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-cont...damentals.html > for balance between self and surrounding. Most of my LDs are probably more imbalanced towards the self and may cause them to be shorter at times (my take is that too much focus on surrounding can cause you to lose lucidity but continue in an NLD whereas too much focus on self can return you to your sleeping body, but upon review it looks like Mzzkc posits the opposite). What are your thoughts?

      - visualization exersices. I have been practicing visualization exercises for 15-20 mins where I imagine or at least try to think about simple backgrounds, objects, etc and especially trying to hold the image or thought for as long as possible. I think this relates to what we do in dreams, so may be giving dreaming an extra boost.
      I like this and have to make time to do this more.
      NyxCC likes this.
    5. fogelbise's Avatar
      Ooh, just a quick clarification on Mzzkc's thread...he may have put it backwards in the OP under "Bringing it all together" because in the following post of the same thread he states the opposite: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-cont...ml#post1792173
      NyxCC likes this.
    6. NyxCC's Avatar
      @ Highlander

      Thanks!

      I liked the part about the cat in the next dream and how you got good vibes from the sunny scene, plus the (B6?) bitches.

      Rachael Weiss.
      (Now I'm starting to visualise!)
      Lol! Yeah, that's my brain on neuro chemicals. And what a better to promote visualization than sexy ladies?

      @ fogelbise

      I would love to be able to DILD at the very beginning of the dream frequently and I think I have only gotten semi-close to the beginning(except for WILDs/DEILDs of course)
      In addition to the classical wild/deild and dream experience/awareness/DS recognition, another case to consider would be a post wild attempt dild. For example, if you do the preparations for a wild and go through the wild process but for some reason (nerves, laziness, sleep) give up at the end, missing the transition and possibly becoming lucid within a few seconds of the dream developing. This by the way may help reduce some instability issues if you initially shortly engage in the dream non-lucidly.

      Most of my LDs are probably more imbalanced towards the self and may cause them to be shorter at times (my take is that too much focus on surrounding can cause you to lose lucidity but continue in an NLD whereas too much focus on self can return you to your sleeping body, but upon review it looks like Mzzkc posits the opposite). What are your thoughts
      Ok, I have a lot of thoughts about this, let me try to get them organized. Apologies in advance for the length, typos, or if adding more confusion.

      I think that in general this is a somewhat good view of how things are but is not the only aspect to consider. I most strongly support the part about paying attention to the dream/dream elements. The process of perception is a bit more complicated than we think because there are a lot of less detectable parts of our consciousness that also take place when we are experiencing the dream. We may or may not be aware of them, but can train to be more aware of them and control them eventually. I'm talking about moods, emotions, associations, thoughts in conception, and the feedback loop (there probably is also ton of other stuff I have no clue about!)

      The feedback loop plays a great role in maintaining the existence of current dream and can also lead to funny multiplication effects. For example, you see a cat and think 'oh, cat' and since your thoughts give rise to dream reality soon there may be more than one cat here. So, you are maintaining your world by thinking of what you are perceiving.

      Then there is focus. The better and clearer focus on that world, the more stable the dream will be. In the moments where you start distracting yourself with too much thoughts that are not related to what is in front of you and then the surroundings change or you might wake up, etc.

      Idleness. This is similar to the lack of focus because you stop feeding the dream with your attention.

      So, for me the lack of anchoring (dream focus) isn't necessarily the corresponding antonym of focusing on your self (from real life) if I understand correctly what's said in the link. But then I have to agree that focusing on your body certainly doesn't do any good during an ld.

      I also like to refer to another conversation between you and Canis that I happened to remember having a look at some time ago:

      Boring fragments then Bed Launch Wild, too short. - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

      Quote Originally Posted by CL
      Daniel Love made the observation that in a WILD, you're taking your awareness and watching the dream get built up. Therefore it's normal to work the hardest at enhancing and stabilizing the dream. Likewise he says that in a DILD, you are in the fully-formed dream and watching your awareness form. So presence of mind and hanging on to lucidity are liable to be the biggest challenges.
      ^^ Very well said. Since we start with very little out there, it may be additionally challenging to feed the illusion of that which is not there.

      Finally, I also would like to add that in the case of wild, especially with some people like myself (insomnia and lattes), the way that we are biologically programmed to normally sleep and be awake may play a role. Sometimes I am just too mentally alert even if not focusing on my body, the mental activity is surely sending signals that it is time to wake up and start doing stuff.

      One more thing before I end this post for which there are certainly word count limits.

      Pay close attention to the end of your dreams. If the dream fades more slowly, that might be indicator that you will be able to chain-in dream or DEILD later on.
      Updated 01-31-2014 at 03:37 AM by NyxCC
    7. fogelbise's Avatar
      Thank you so much for your detailed, helpful response! And good point about previous tips from CL! I think it is time to go back and review them!

      I'm talking about moods, emotions, associations, thoughts in conception, and the feedback loop
      Moods/emotions: are almost always good/positive, if at times overly elated.

      associations, thoughts in conception: what did you have in mind on these please?

      feedback loop: sometimes I set up the scene I want through a kind of feedback loop perhaps. I see 'this' but I want 'this' instead so it materializes usually...but once in the scene that I want, my feedback loop seems to be put on the back burner...Unintentional feedback loops like your cat example seem to be more in my non-lucids (with the exception of getting something that is a little different than what I was looking to create). Perhaps I am too actively involved and should take half a step back and definitely put more focus into the surroundings as you and CL have suggested. As you suggested, this is probably ending some of my dreams quicker than they need to. I think my awareness pendulum has swung too far towards self-awareness even though that is what Sageous teaches and I do believe is important to have a lot of waking life memory...
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    8. NyxCC's Avatar
      Unintentional feedback loops like your cat example seem to be more in my non-lucids (with the exception of getting something that is a little different than what I was looking to create)
      That's great! This possibly means that your dream control is really good.

      Perhaps I am too actively involved and should take half a step back and definitely put more focus into the surroundings as you and CL have suggested.
      Yes, you could experiment and see if there are any differences in dream lenght, vividness or stability. I know this technique has been very effective for CL, where he would take a moment to fully immense in the dream as a way to boost its vividness. I think it's working pretty well after reading his entries.

      And some more thoughts on the feedback loop and the other things you asked about.

      The cat example I gave is an extreme case of the feedback loop. I think this process is ongoing during the entire dream but may not be as pronounced. You are simply noticing that which is in front of you so part of your attention continues feeding its existence, even if you don't register an explicit thought.

      I have another example which relates to this. In this recent dream I faced a number of elephants that started roaring menacingly. On the conscious level, I tried to control the situation and just wanted them to shut up, but I felt/registered that on a deeper level a part of me was reacting negatively to their roaring, and I was thinking about them doing so, which in turn fed more attention to them behaving like this and it was not until I had another thought to override and interrupt the entire process that they stopped.

      I think this feedback loop is also the reason why we can fail at dream control, especially when trying to change things - when we are looking directly at something we want to change, we uphold its existence by perceiving it.

      But then this is not all bad - because the feedback loop may be one of the pillars of stabilization. The more attention we give an object by examining all of its properties the greater our focus on a single object and the more attention we pay to it will help solidify its existence.

      Thoughts in conception

      Similarly to in real life when we are engaged in an activity and random thoughts pop up from time to time, this also happens in dreams. Some of these thoughts may not succeed in manifesting, especially if we nip them in the bud. By the way, sivason mentions being aware of such thoughts in his dream yoga class. Some of these thoughts will start manifesting before you even knew there were there - a transparent contour of an object or a DC. I had this lion coming into existence in front of my eyes like this, but I managed to ignore him so he didn't fully materialize.

      Associations

      Well this has to do with how information is stored. I have no idea how all this data is organized but association plays a role there. Our brain loves to make something unfamiliar into something familiar. Perhaps the memories and impressions that are strongest (enforced by repetition and emotions) can then easily provide a blueprint for such changes. This might explain why we constantly run into familiar DCs in dreams. I guess one can contemplate on the topic of associations and memory even further, but I think I'll stop here and allow dreams to teach us more on the subject.
      CanisLucidus and fogelbise like this.
      Updated 02-02-2014 at 02:41 AM by NyxCC
    9. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Awesome dream and great discussion in the comments! I think that your daytime meditation/breathing practices are having a huge positive impact on your lucid dreaming, Nyx.

      I love that you took a moment in the dream to contemplate your life and do a few breathing exercises. This seems like a great way to practice recalling details of waking life from in the dream. Thomas Yuschak also posited that this could be a good exercise for improving dream recall since it helps you get more and more used to information passing freely between the dream world and the waking world. And then, of course, when you were done with all that contemplation... you had your daylight!

      The skills involved in meditation and lucid dreaming are so interrelated. IMO.

      Great stuff! And BTW I think I'd act the same way if all of my unlikeable/hostile DCs looked like Rachel Weisz rather than Samuel L. Jackson!
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    10. fogelbise's Avatar
      Thank you so much your time in sharing all of the excellent info NyxCC!! You are very much appreciated!!
      NyxCC likes this.
    11. NyxCC's Avatar
      @ CL Thanks!

      This seems like a great way to practice recalling details of waking life from in the dream. Thomas Yuschak also posited that this could be a good exercise for improving dream recall since it helps you get more and more used to information passing freely between the dream world and the waking world
      It would be really nice to be able to activate this kind of exchange more often. I think there's lots of stuff we can nicely mix from both worlds - from remembering what your goals are and how to more efficiently approach them in the dream, to actually employing ld acquired self-control and detachment (during challenging moments) and solving day life problems with a calm, focused and more creative mind.

      @ Folgelbise

      Thanks for reading and the kind words!
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