Thread: Tommo's Workbook

Hi tommo and welcome to the DVA DILD class!

Great recall is important to LDing: not just so that you don't forget them, but because it builds a closeness to and an awareness of your dreams, a presence, vividness, and all these are important for lucidity. So always work on recall, always strive to pay maximum attention to your dreams while you're dreaming. I made it my morning ritual to post quick summaries of all the night's dreams on the DV "Share your dream in one sentence" thread, and I recommend you do the same. This way, you get the dream summaries written down first, which gives you an outline to fill in later should you wish to fully journal them. It will also give us a good indication of just where you recall is at, and we can follow it as it builds back up.

Late morning dreams are a great time to get lucid. Staying in bed and quietly dozing and contemplating your dreams of the night is one good way to get a LD!

Building high awareness, building great recall, and figuring your your ideal timing are 3 of the most important things. WBTB isn't always easy (it's a challenge for me, I like that comfy bed at night!), but it sure is effective. So I recommend experimenting with WBTB times and durations. I tend to keep them very short, because I wake up quickly. How long you stay up and what you do depends on your own "how fast do I fall asleep" situation.

For for awareness and questioning reality in dreams: how can you best practice this? Doing it when awake! Make a practice of questioning your state at any conscious moment, awake or otherwise . Ask yourself questions like "How odd is this?" "Why do I think I'm awake?". Pay attention during the waking day, be on the lookout for dream-like situations (anything surprising, shocking, new/changed), like say you keep dropping something over and over. Strive to pay attention for as long as you can to life, with the background subext of trying to always determine your state.

That's a good place to start with, let us know if you have any questions! And welcome again!

Welcome to the workbooks Tommo! I have seen your name around DV quite a bit during my time here and would be glad to help as much as I can. You are in great hands here with FryingMan. Let us know how we can help.

So my technique seems to be working at deeper levels of dreaming. Just the other day (sorry, I'm busy, haven't had time to post but I kept it in mind ) I was dreaming of holding a syringe in my bed and I thought ".... how did I even get this? I can't remember picking it up". Unfortunately I woke up after that.
But yep, the practice RC's in light dreams seems to be working coz I keep questioning earlier and earlier in the deeper dream stages.
I still haven't quit alcohol, which is definitely holding me back. But I'm trying.


FryingMan, thanks! I'll try to post in that thread as often as I can, as a morning ritual. Completely forgot about that thread.

Great that you're seeing some progress with your RC and awareness. Keep it up, and try to at least write daily summaries of your dreams. Your SC pays attention to how you spend your time, and spending time on dreaming (and having fun doing it, try not to think of it as a chore but as a really fun time) tells your SC that remembering dreams is important to you!

Alright! So, I started my daily one sentence dream submission today I got lucid

I didn't realise I was already in a dream, but I went to sleep within that dream, realised the weirdness of what was going on and thought "I'm entering a dream". When I was fully in the other dream I said "Yep, I'm dreaming! I'm lucid!". I'm not really sure what happened after that though lol It was really bizarre and trippy. Some strange cartoon faces were sliding across my entire vision, I tried to get "past" them in to a proper dream, instead of this abstract weirdness. But it didn't really work. I think after about 30 seconds maybe, the REM period had ended. I woke up a bit later and luckily remembered what had happened!

So yep, my technique is working. I'm questioning the weird dream signs/illogical happenings earlier and earlier. This was obviously *just* at the end of an REM period. Hopefully tonight I can be more aware somewhere in the middle of one.

I also realised as I was laying in bed having mini dreams later on, that I very often question the weird things/events in my dreams. I can't remember if it was always like this, but nevertheless, I do now.
The main problem is actually going "yes, that IS weird, *maybe I'm dreaming*!". I usually left out the logical conclusion. No more!

Congrats on the lucid! I had one cartoon-y LD that was pretty weird but interesting. Keep up the questioning, it looks like it's working well for you!

Originally Posted by tommo

The main problem is actually going "yes, that IS weird, *maybe I'm dreaming*!". I usually left out the logical conclusion. No more!

I did it! This morning I had a dream where I was walking down a street. I can't remember it fully now because I forgot to write this post this morning (it's night now).
But I was walking down a street, there was a normal shop, and then some other shop which seemed unrealistic, it may have been a Cannabis shop. I was like.... wait....
We don't have them here yet, that's weird.... am I dreaming? YES! I'm dreaming, there's no way that's real.

I felt the dream start fading almost immediately after that, I tried to hold on but I woke up shortly after.

So I think I'm still only questioning in the later stages of REM. At least I questioned whether I'm dreaming though, which is awesome.
Just need to keep getting there earlier and earlier.

That's a great step forwards, congrats! Keep up the day work, particularly always questioning things. Our dream selves mirror our waking selves, so developing that habit of always questioning things and looking for tell-tale dreamy signs will lead to more and more lucid dreams like this!

So I've been kinda lazy with this. But continued again recently and the last two night I've become lucid!

I definitely think this is a viable technique.

I'd been thinking I was becoming aware before/at the start of REM, after waking up at night and trying to WILD. But last night confirmed it's the opposite.
I've been getting SP upon leaving dreams and it fades away as I wake up, which explains why I could never ride that SP in to a dream, haha.
The night before last, I became aware during SP. Last night I became aware just before that SP, I had maybe 30 seconds of dream left.
Last night it happened very early on, only 2 hours or so in to sleep. I questioned reality several times,
due to things like having my car key in my pocket in bed, but it was too dark (as my dreams always are early on in the night) to confirm anything 100%.
I tried to light the room with a fireball in my hand but it didn't work.
Then the dream was ending, I got strong throwing/tumbling sensations as I tried to enter another dream, unsuccessfully, and then woke up with SP slowly fading.

So now that I know this technique works, I'm going to start putting in much more effort.

Congratulations on the LD's Tommo!

ALRIGHT! I think I got it. Yesterday I got lucid about 1 minute before I woke up.
I was in that stage where you're just starting to wake up, but still going back in to proper, full-on dreams for shorter periods (so earlier than before where I was basically just in that reverie stage right near the end of waking up).

I'd "woken up" (just barely, like the tiniest bit of consciousness, couldn't even remember it until later) and went back in to a dream while maintaining that tiny bit of consciousness (to be clear, without trying, this is just from practicing being conscious earlier and earlier, which is what my technique is all about). That flowered in to the thought "I'm dreaming".... "I think I'm dreaming...." "Yep, I am!" "Holy shit this is so cool, I miss this feeling!"

I was in a grassy field, with a blue, slightly cloudy sky. I tried to spin the sky around using a hand gesture, it spun!
It was slow, and going the wrong way. I got it to go the way I wanted, but it was even slower.
I started waking up

I'm getting there though! I'm almost ready to create yet another (x)ILD thread

Awesome! I've never tried sky manipulation, I just like looking at it while lucid, sounds fun, though!

Congrats Tommo! I like this idea of working your way backwards and building on past successes.

ANOTHER!!!! I'm so happy this morning!

This was a little bit longer than the last one, maybe 1.5-2 mins before waking up.

I was in my bed, got up and there were playing cards floating near my window, backs of them facing me. I found this strange.
I wondered whether I was dreaming. My logic kicked in and I realised obviously I am dreaming, there's cards just floating in mid-air.

They weren't organised so I held out my hands and telekinetically spread the cards out perfectly straight in rows.
IT WORKED! Cannot believe it. haha

I got annoyed that I'm always in my room, so I tried to get out (moving by floating around) but could feel the dream was going to fade.
I did the old "clarity now" focus on the surroundings thing and everything became more clear again.
I calmed down and floated back to my bed and focused. I put my hands up and tried to open the ceiling telekinetically.
It didn't work

The dream faded shortly after this.

Next LD I will manage to get out of my room! haha

Congrats Tommo on the great progress! I used to just float right through ceilings as if they weren't there but lately I stay more grounded and go straight for the front door. If you feel the dream fading, it is a good time to try a closed eye teleport or imagining a new scene forming and it often does form extending your REM potentially or bridges the shorter gap between late morning REM cycles.

Thanks fogelbise! I'll give it a go next time.

I had another one! (a couple of days ago but I forgot to post).

This was definitely slightly longer before waking up, maybe 2-3 minutes.

And.... I WASN'T IN MY ROOM!
From what I can remember I was painting some plants/bushes with my finger (as in making them appear by painting with my finger). I got on top of one which was like a maze hedge kind of thing, and laid on my side with my hand propping my head up. I somehow just realised I was dreaming. It was more of that type where you suddenly just gain more consciousness, and you slowly start realising it's a dream, rather than just suddenly noticing out of nowhere. So it wasn't such a major exciting feeling, but anyway I starting floating in the air, and now I forgot what happened next. I think I lost lucidity again and dreamed for a minute or two after that and then woke up.

This was one pretty boring, but still happy that I had yet another LD! This is my best amount of LD's per year, and we're only 3 months in!

Congrats, keep it up!

So the a couple of days ago I woke up early by accident. Decided to try and WILD.
I almost got there but could fully transition. I didn't even have SP or anything.
Just suddenly saw my hand on my bed in front of me (WILD for me pretty much always starts in my room, like seeing through my eyelids).
It faded twice, I managed to bring it back, really tried to get "in" to the scene but it eventually faded completely.
I think I'm getting better at evoking the scene, I did the next night I think.
But I can't get "in" to the scene.

I'm kind of trying to tackle this from both sides now. I try to be more aware as I go to sleep at the start of the night,
as well as trying to be more aware earlier and earlier in the morning.

I figure this will eventually lead to me being lucid all night, if the technique pans out.

But anyway, any tips for transitioning fully in to those WILD scenes?

Thanks!

^Hi Tommo! Your results sound promising. I've had some success with two opposite approaches. One is patience, waiting for the dream to fully form while calmly reminding yourself that you are dreaming. The opposite approach for me is doing an eye clinch thing that seems to heighten or bring on vibrations (for me at least) which seems to bring me more into the dream or actually a third and more successful approach of keeping in mind what scene I would like to see form and seeding it with feelings and/or imagining sounds, sights or other senses (I sometimes get a scene that is different but related to what I was looking for, but it keeps your mind on what you are trying to do. It is still a very laid back approach for me, not pushing too much, and it seems to work better that way).

*But I highly recommend that you pose your question in http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...cid-dream.html or Sageous' http://www.dreamviews.com/wild/13309...-bad-here.html.

@Tommo, I forgot to clarify that you are always welcome to pose your question here as well, just thought I would give you some additional avenues to get some expert WILD advice from members practicing much longer than I have been.

Oh ok thanks fogel! I used the calmly waiting for it to fully form thing, along with thinking of feelings and senses. It worked! I'm actually not sure if it was a WILD or fake-WILD DILD, as it was within the first 4 hours of sleep. I was imagining something during the day, that I wanted to do in an LD, which I think helped for motivation as well. I was on a beach, and just feeling the the sand, pushing my hands through it and moving it around. Then I flew up and did some turns and flips and stuff. Was really, really awesome. It almost faded about 3-4 times and I managed to bring it back every time! Great success!

Awesome job!! Great to hear it working for others!! I like that term "fake-WILD DILD" - I was just describing that very phenomenon recently. A DILD is an LD it goes without saying, so however it is that you become aware works!

I've been lazy.... Am starting to focus on LD's again since a couple of days ago.
I've been using Sleep As Android and I think it's hindering more than helping.
Waking up naturally seems much more optimal.