Coelhao's workbook

[Coelhao]

Hey everyone, I have been lurking on this class for a while and it is time to join. I have been trying some visualization exercises the last few days and am noticing minor improvements. I am also a big fan of the listening exercises, which I find extremely difficult, but pretty rewarding. So should I start with the earlier material, and work my way up? Or does it not matter because I am joining the class late? I don't really care either way, but it tend to get a lot more things done when people tell me to do them. Thanks! Coelhao

[Coelhao]

Okay, i am gonna get started on the first lesson and homework tonight.

[Coelhao]

I have been doing listening exercises every day. I am in a pretty nice place to do it because of the interesting sounds here. The cicadas are the most prominent by far. There are hundreds of them around, and different species have different calls. I would normally learn the calls so I could identify them by sound, but that would just run Wikipedia pages through my head while I am trying to stay rather thoughtless. The next noise that is easily noticeable is the central AC unit. Because it is almost always running, and monotone, it is pretty easy to lose track of. Other interesting noises outside: coyotes, crickets, cows, my roommate shooting guns (always a nice surprise), cars on dirt roads. I am finding it easier to stay in the moment as time goes on. At first this seemed pretty impossible, but I have progressed quite a bit. It also makes listening to and playing music much more fulfilling. That's all for now.

[Sivason]

I have been doing listening exercises every day. I am in a pretty nice place to do it because of the interesting sounds here. The cicadas are the most prominent by far. There are hundreds of them around, and different species have different calls. I would normally learn the calls so I could identify them by sound, but that would just run Wikipedia pages through my head while I am trying to stay rather thoughtless. The next noise that is easily noticeable is the central AC unit. Because it is almost always running, and monotone, it is pretty easy to lose track of. Other interesting noises outside: coyotes, crickets, cows, my roommate shooting guns (always a nice surprise), cars on dirt roads. I am finding it easier to stay in the moment as time goes on. At first this seemed pretty impossible, but I have progressed quite a bit. It also makes listening to and playing music much more fulfilling. That's all for now. It is funny how sounds like the AC almost get totally erased from what we experience. It is great to hear music this way, I am glad you are getting more fufillment out of it. A student could jump around lessons, but the training is designed to reveal things in the first lessons, that will help you in the later lessons. I think it works better to take them in order. Also, you should go back to the begining lessons, even years later. When you have learned all sorts of powerful mental tricks, it is still good to sit and listen.

[Coelhao]

Update: So I have been doing listening/tactile sensation exercises off and on since my last post. The listening is going pretty awesome. I am still unable to prevent my mind from wandering for over 2 minutes, but when I am locked into audio zone I am able to keep about 5 noises separated simultaneously. This is normally the AC (yeah it is a tricky one), several cicadas that turn on and off, different birds, a large wasp knocking on the ground ect. So that is going great, and it helps to visualize their position in relation to me. I also tried this while drumming on a my chair or my darbuka, which is a great drill for both this class, and drumming. My favorite part of this exercise, besides how awesome and psychedelic the cicada orchestra sounds, is opening my eyes and enjoying how detailed the world is. The tactile sensation drills have been going pretty great too. I used to do a lot of progressive relaxation type of things for self hypnosis and the like, so I have just been doing those again. And that has been going good as well. These are good will power strengthening exercises, and I think I have had enough success to move on to some more material. I will continue to do these every now and then too. Also, Sivason, have you seen any of the fires in Idaho? I few of my friends are wildland firefighters. -Big rabbit over and out-

[Sivason]

Sounds like you are making great progress, go ahead and move forward. I can not see the fires from where I am, but can see thee giant billowing clouds of smoke rising miles into the air. The smoke is often so thick here, that you can only see a mile or two. Often the mountains around town can not be seen because everything just blurs into a grey haze.

[Coelhao]

I read through the rest of the thread on the introduction material where the application to dreaming was discussed. I will spend a little more time on these exercises with this in mind. Last night I had 2 lucid dreams, and in one of them I remembered the concept of keeping multiple things in mind to retain lucidity (your body, the fact that you are dreaming ect). The dream didn't last long, but I had a fun RC. My friend wouldn't believe that I was dreaming so I jumped out in front of traffic and 2 cars passed right through my body lol. I at least remembered something from class in a dream. Hopefully this is a growing trend! Wow Sivason, that sounds pretty intense. I am being trained as a wildland firefighter right now so I hear a lot about fires that are going on.

[Sivason]

Congrats on getting lucid twice in a night! The air has cleared up a lot over the last couple days. It does not burn my eyes and you can see the mountains, thank goodness.

[Coelhao]

So I have been practicing diffuse vision a lot today. I am playing around with several ways of having my eyes focused or defocused. So let me know if there is a correct setting of defocus that I am going for. The first would be picking an object in the distance, and having my eyes optically set for that focal length, but bringing my awareness to the outside of my field of vision, or trying to see the whole picture at once. With this setting, when I bring my awareness back to the place my eyes are pointed at, it is still in focus. The second thing I have toyed with is doing the same thing, but "blurring" my vision, and trying to do so effortlessly and having it stick that way, then drawing my awareness away from the place that my eyes are pointed. The third thing works on objects that are close, within a meter or so; I set the focal length beyond the object so I get a blurred double vision of the object. I have had really interesting experiences with all of these methods. Earlier I was doing the first method with my eyes pointed at my fire pit, which was smoking. And I drew my attention to my entire yard because a breeze was coming through and agitation some of the grass. That mixed with the visual distortions from the exercise left me with an experience that I am hard pressed to put into words. The most interesting thing so far happened just a few minutes ago. I grabbed some dried up american lotus seed pods from a nearby lagoon. I have one hanging over my bed about 10'' from my face. I was doing the third thing described above, blurry double vision. Aside from the pulsing blue and white visual distortions of my room, the most interesting that is that the slightly overlapping double lotus pod would switch back and forth from being 2 images, to one, and back and forth. But I wasn't refocusing my eyes. It was switching from left to right, left to right alternating. I would watch one turn invisible, and then reappear, and the other would do the same. My brain realized that there should only be one at a time, so it would periodically erase one. Interesting stuff. Still trying to figure out exactly how this can be used for dreaming, but I have a few I ideas that I will post later. -Coelhao-

[Sivason]

I think all of the methods can be valuable at expanding your awareness. The true diffuse vision technique does not have a point of focus, so the eyes may rest in a way that causes slight double vision near the center. I am glad you are exploring this skill, and experiencing some cool stuff. The most basic way it will help in lucid dreaming, is that it is a huge expander of awareness. High levels of awareness are important for getting lucid. The mental state involved in seeing without focusing, is the correct mental state needed to pull off a WILD. By learning to resist the need to focus, you are learning to control your state of mind. In WILD you should stay aware, but not focused, and yet not drifty either. Finally when you are in an LD it has some handy applications which I mention in the lesson thread. Keep it up, and have fun!

[Coelhao]

In WILD you should stay aware, but not focused, and yet not drifty either. I like that. I'll keep it in mind thanks!!!

[Coelhao]

I have been pretty busy lately, so I haven't been practicing as much as I should. I will just take a few more weeks with this material. The few times that I have tried diffuse vision this week, I have found it easier and easier to drop right into the desired mental state. I just need more determination to keep it up for longer periods of time. I read through the rest of the thread where the dreaming applications are discussed. I saw a few comments in there that seemed like words out of my mouth. Dark merlin talked about how this skill can be used to overcome the annoying breathing and physical sensations that can prevent a WILD (this was my main problem a few weeks ago when I was trying to WILD every night). Strit was commenting on how awesome the grass can look with a breeze. Still can't get over this one. I live in native tall grass prairies, so I get extra eye candy when I try this. Earlier this summer I was cloud gazing and I hit this state without trying. I was looking at the whole cloud (big) at once, and watching it change. Good stuff. That's all for now. I will go try some diffuse vision right now so I don't waste my motivation. -Coelhao-

[Sivason]

Take as much time as you want. These are large life changes and new ways of experiencing the world. It is good to explore them in detail, rather then hurry. It sounds like things are going well for you in general.

[Coelhao]

I had a really good time last night. 2 DILDs early in the night. In one of them I remembered to try out diffuse vision. I was looking out from a beach. The waves were really beautiful, and unrealistically blue. Did some flying, had a little fun. Later I had my first successful WILD in about a year. The vision training definitely helped me get passed some extra weird sleep paralysis stuff. More flying, doing flips in low gravity, floating through walls, looking at myself in the mirror, and just enjoying myself. Then I came out of that dream, but pulled a DEILD to enter another. I really like the transition from simple light imagery to a fully detailed dream scene. Got a lot of stuff done that I had wanted to do. Need to update my task list. Haven't had a good lucid dream in a while, so 3 or 4 in 1 night was pretty rewarding.

[Sivason]

Souds very awesome!