Thread: Merlin's Yoga Mat

Hi there!

I've got a basic understanding of relaxation and meditation, and have previously practiced a lot with physical body awareness and energy control, and for a couple of months I was practicing daily, which I want to get back in to!

I've always looked at lucid dreaming as a wonderful way to learn more about the infinite amount of things that are possible. My father always raised me to know that anything is possible, a lot of his beliefs stem from a movement about creating your own reality through intent and belief, which made a reappearance a couple of years ago in a book called 'The Secret'. I think I've taken this lesson and really taken it beyond the scope of what I ever really thought possible, beyond affecting and influencing my own path I am doing and creating things in dreams, and learning an incredible amount from it at the same time

I am really interested in learning more about Dream Yoga, I've always thought that a continuing state of awareness is a goal for me, and I'd really like to help train myself to reach that. I'd also love to learn more about energy control, after learning basics such as stimulating the major chakras and creating energy sensations throughout any part of my body.

I will increase my awareness of hearing and touch over the next few days, and get my hands on some hard candy!

Just make sure you steer away from them white vans.

Originally Posted by fOrceez

Just make sure you steer away from them white vans.

It took me a while to get the 'hard candy' joke

Today sporadically while I was walking, doing work, talking, showering or generally any time I remembered about awarness or RC'd, I'd try and start a period of awareness, paying close attention to sound and touch, trying to focus on both at once while still completing what I was doing. While I sometimes found my brain quickly flicking attention from one sense to the other I found that overall it felt relatively natural

Also, last night I repeated some mantras before bed, for the first time in a long while. I changed my usual mantras to some new ones, and I found myself lucid once, and almost lucid a second time throughout the night! One notable thing was I didn't RC, it simply came from an awareness of the situation and what was going on around me

It sounds like we both got cool advice from our dads. My dad always chanted "Anything the mind of man, can concieve, and believe, it can achieve.

Originally Posted by sivason

It sounds like we both got cool advice from our dads. My dad always chanted "Anything the mind of man, can concieve, and believe, it can achieve.

That's it! I remember my father saying the exact same quote! How interesting!

I've been increasing the frequency with which I have my bursts of awareness, and I can notice it's effect, when I'm doing it often enough I end up in a really heightened state for a while even after I stop paying attention, until I get too distracted and forget about paying attention to my senses.

I've also been learning to balance between the major and minor sensations that I can pick up on, and trying to also mentally make note of what is making the noise and where it's coming from, becoming more involved in it. The level of focus this has is great - and I've found when I'm focussing on enough sensations at once my inner monologue stops - something which is normally quite hard for me, which has also made meditation difficult. I think this is because I'm paying attention to so many things that it replaces the spare attention that would normally go to distracted thoughts

I'll try and think of a way to come up with my own later!

Originally Posted by Dark_Merlin

- and I've found when I'm focussing on enough sensations at once my inner monologue stops - something which is normally quite hard for me, which has also made meditation difficult. I think this is because I'm paying attention to so many things that it replaces the spare attention that would normally go to distracted thoughts

Good observation. It is one of the only ways to stop the inner monologue at first. People should not jump straight into meditations that just preach 'stop f-ing thinking' What kind of advice is that. How about they teach you 'how' to stop thinking.

Originally Posted by sivason

Good observation. It is one of the only ways to stop the inner monologue at first. People should not jump straight into meditations that just preach 'stop f-ing thinking' What kind of advice is that. How about they teach you 'how' to stop thinking.

That's what I've found - despite knowing how I'm supposed to stop thinking and 'silence the monkey of the mind' it generally fails for me - and I've only ever been able to replace it with focus

The past few days, I've unfortunately been very distracted by school and social gatherings and haven't been practicing awareness quite as much. I would like to get back into the routine of meditating and doing energy work every day

In a WBTB the other day, I focussed on my body as I went back to sleep, and tried to sustain my awareness. I began to notice that my deep breathing had turned into snoring, and my body was ready for sleep while my mind was still completely awake - without any symptom of SP or anything that could have allowed me to WILD. It's happened a few times before and I know my father does the same thing often - but I'm confused as to where this stands between awake/aware/asleep?

Don't worry about SP. It is really just one thing that happens, and is not important. If you fall asleep with your mind still aware, you will eventually enter SP. It is not good to try to test SP, as the aware mind can and will be able to force you to move in SP, but that will likely break the SP. I think you were doing great to get where you did and could have had a WILD if everything worked out just right.

I've always been pretty confused about WILD - I have had WILDs where I have transitioned without any sort of SP or feeling and others where I have had the 'typical' weight/rushing/vibrating sensations most people experience. I have had relatively few WILDs though, and most of my LDs come from DILD/MILD, so I've been wanting to work on my WILD skill for quite some time. I think refreshing the idea that I can transition without the associated SP will be good for my practice - but I do think that I still remain too conscious and that I'm not far enough 'asleep' mentally to enter the dream, most nights.

Today I figured out what my own personal lesson should be - as I was driving to school with some music playing, I started to focus on the layers within the music - the drums, the various guitars and bass, the patterns and flow of each and how they combined. I ended up in quite a meditative state (as well as I could, while driving) and noticed it physically stirring emotions within me, whilst also focussing my awareness on many layers of sound and allowing me to do it while performing a normal activity ! I think I'll continue to do this when I listen to music, and I will try some sitting practice with some softer music to see how deep into the musical-meditation I can get. The only other times I've experienced music like this was once whilst meditating on improvisation when playing guitar, and listening to some Pink Floyd

I look forward to the next part of the lesson!

Originally Posted by Dark_Merlin

Today I figured out what my own personal lesson should be - as I was driving to school with some music playing, I started to focus on the layers within the music - the drums, the various guitars and bass, the patterns and flow of each and how they combined. I ended up in quite a meditative state (as well as I could, while driving) and noticed it physically stirring emotions within me, whilst also focussing my awareness on many layers of sound and allowing me to do it while performing a normal activity ! I think I'll continue to do this when I listen to music, and I will try some sitting practice with some softer music to see how deep into the musical-meditation I can get. The only other times I've experienced music like this was once whilst meditating on improvisation when playing guitar, and listening to some Pink Floyd

It amazes me how with simple awareness you can re-discover music. This is very inspiring, thanks for sharing!

Hi everyone! It has been almost two weeks. I hope everyone got a chance to practice. The thread Dream Yoga Basic Skills: Lesson 1, has been updated. I have shared a few ways these skills will be useful in LDs, and the thread is now open to Q & A.

Last night as I was laying in bed, meditating before going to sleep I think I realised the key of how the diffused vision is important for learning to WILD (I keep up with fOrceez's thread aswell ). It's not so much that you can train your eyes to relax while you concentrate on the pen - it's to learn to understand how to move your focus throughout your body and throughout what you see without your body reacting. This is where I normally go wrong in the WILD process, while I can lay still for long enough that my body will begin to fall to sleep, as soon as I become aware of that fact I start naturally reacting to it - changing my breathing patterns, feeling tense, etc and it snaps me out of the tricky balance between awake and asleep. Whereas, learning to train your eyes to not move, and focus on what you are seeing as one is used to doing when watching a TV show, reflects the same skill that allows you to be aware of what is happening as your body goes to sleep, but not to react to it!

You got it.

I like this gold star business!

Originally Posted by Dark_Merlin

I like this gold star business!

Well that lesson has yet to be taught. So, play with the diffuse vision now if you want, and be ready to post something insightful right away. You do seem to have a good grasp on the concept. The new skill lesson will be up with in a week. I will remember you brought it up first.

Over the past few days my awareness has been increasing and decreasing as I've been distracted and not distracted - but it is constantly popping up in my mind to keep aware throughout the day.

I've been trying to keep aware of many senses at once - starting with touch of 3-5 points, moving to sound and then, if I can, focussing on many things within my field of vision.

I think it is really quite helpful to increase the level of awareness during my day to day life and I've already noticed the increase of awareness in my dreams, where I've been lucid simply from feel and understanding the situation, and others where I've been doubting the dream, but not quite to the point where I gain lucidity. The lucids I've had have also been increasing in stability and my control has been a lot better.

Originally Posted by Dark_Merlin

Over the past few days my awareness has been increasing and decreasing as I've been distracted and not distracted - but it is constantly popping up in my mind to keep aware throughout the day.

I've been trying to keep aware of many senses at once - starting with touch of 3-5 points, moving to sound and then, if I can, focussing on many things within my field of vision.

I think it is really quite helpful to increase the level of awareness during my day to day life and I've already noticed the increase of awareness in my dreams, where I've been lucid simply from feel and understanding the situation, and others where I've been doubting the dream, but not quite to the point where I gain lucidity. The lucids I've had have also been increasing in stability and my control has been a lot better.

Yay!!!!! That is good to hear. I am glad to get the positive feed back.

I have started Lesson two, and when I open the thread in about two weeks, I will copy your entry from a couple above (about diffuse vision) into the thread. You will get a Gold Star for the entry. They are now worth 30 hall points.

Marlin's Yoga Fat.

Unfortunately lately I've been having trouble focussing - I've been aware of this constant pressure of exams and school lately, though. It's hard for me to keep my mind on awareness and dreaming, but I do plan to start meditating regularly again and to begin to increase my awareness daily aswell I shall be updating my thread more often, soon enough!

Take your time. This material is normally something I would spread out over about a year. The class is not going anywhere. I think it may need to be left open, and people can just join and go at their own pace. None of these skills are really easy, and some people consider even my basic skills to be "advanced" meditations. So, no worries, you are doing great so far.

Ah dear, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted in here! I didn't realise quite how long I've been distracted from DV and dreaming as a whole! School has forced its way into a massive priority in my life and has disrupted my practice of any lucid dreaming completely - the only ones I've been having had been residual practice. I'm really keen to be getting back into the swing of things soon, and in a couple of months my schooling will be over and I'll have a 4 month holiday to relax and focus on dreaming again.

I've read the latest lessons and I'm quite happy the course is taking this path. Energy manipulation has always been something I've been interested in, and I learned a few basics through a program written by Robert Bruce called 'Mastering Astral Projection: 90 Day Guide'. While I didn't go on to complete the second half of the program, the first 45 days focussed wholly on learning to create these subtle energy flows and sensations using visualisation such as brushing and sponging. I got quite good at this, and really enjoyed it in using it to relax and meditate, but unfortunately I've not been practicing and stimulating some of the more stubborn energy flows within my body is more difficult. In particular doing any stimulation with my chakras requires a lot of concentration and yields little in response, I think it is probably a matter of starting from basics again and getting my energy body used to manipulating these flows again.

My first experience with energy manipulation was when I was little and I had trouble getting to sleep, my father would tell me to visualise my breath flowing down from my nose into my lungs, and then back out on the exhale. Somewhere along the line I adopted the practice of visualising a blue, positive 'cloud' of energy being inhaled, and a red, negative 'used' cloud of energy on the way out. While I didn't use this for a significant length of time, I stumbled into it accidentally one day again. Whilst with an ex girlfriend who was suffering from rather severe depression, and without knowing anything about what I was doing, i simply tried to do this same principle with her. I placed my forehead against hers, and drew in as much 'red' negative energy as I could, and gave her as much blue positive energy as possible. As I started to do this, she got noticeably better, but I got much worse. It took me a long time to make any sort of connection between what I was doing and the effect it was having, as I'd never really consciously thought about what I had been doing, it just sort of came naturally. Whether there is any connection between this and the effect it had, I can't truly say, but in my mind I certainly link the two together, and it has served for me as an idea of what energy manipulation can do, and to be cautious before trying any sort of energy swapping again. This might not be relevant at all, but I figured I'd put it in here as a bit of background info!

I'd like so say I'll be making more of an effort to keep up with my dreams, I've been journalling again and have been increasing my sense of awareness throughout the day. I'm sure in time I will return to (and exceed!) where I was at before

Hi! I hope school is going well. Thanks for sharing about your experience. Energy work can be used to create very real affects like you helping her depression. There is no need to take any one bad energy inside you. You can simply push it out of them by floooding them with your energy.

Stop being lazy, Marlin

Heh, it's been a while. I've learned a lot over the past year and a bit, and I have been doing sporadic practice in regards to my dreaming, but not committed to the habit. I've become more successful at quieting my mind during meditation, and I believe that if I put myself up to the task and established routine and practice I would progress much further. My recall now has been rather bad, though I still keep my dream journal and every night try to remember as much as I can. My dreams are very vivid and adventurous now, but I simply have trouble grasping at the memory once I have woken up, and the glimpses quickly fade.

I've had a particularly peculiar experience with dejavu over the past year, often finding myself recalling things as though I had dreamed them a long time ago, and have remembered details of events before they have happened. I also have had a few dreams where I get the same feeling of dejavu, but in the dream have total recollection of how things progress, and can take control to alter the outcome. I am not extremely lucid in these dreams, but I have a high level of thought and control.

I would like to delve back in to lucid dreaming, I am still very curious as to the nature of dreams and the extent of the knowledge and experience that lucid dreaming can bring. I also would like to learn more about meditation, and continue getting better at finding peace and sharpening my focus. I feel drawn to it, having experienced yet only really the beginnings of what is possible through dreaming and meditation, and I know that so much more is achievable, that I would learn and grow by following my gut and putting in the effort to be aware and understanding of my dreams. I feel I suppose, an underlying sense of urgency, that I should learn and create a solid foundation of practice while I am young, that being lazy is throwing away an opportunity to learn.

So I am back! I will start at the beginning again, as I am sure that I have picked up some bad habits in my practice and I would like to make sure that I take the time to do my practice right. I am also thinking about using mantras again, as MILD was one of my most effective techniques. I want to surpass my previous best and be the most I can be!