Thread: Kaizen's Workbook ॐ

Any advice on modification etc will be much appreciated,Thanks!

Night 1 of my formal workbook journey commences.

I plan on sleeping for 4.5 from hours from now(11:30pm) then WBTB with MILD.

I'll also be reviewing my previous nights dream and using a mantra (I will have vivid dreams tonight and will remember them) before going to sleep now.

See you on the other side

I'm on WBTB at the moment after having slept for about 4.5 hours.

Overview of dreams /fragments:
- I'm in the proccess of having an arranged marriage and I find it to be a huge joke thinking it must be some kind of prank being pulled by friends.
My new wife doesn't feel the same and she's straight face standing at the alter. I run outside the church-like building and see some Russian men selling Raw Cacoa chocolates in red mesh sacks out of a corner stall.
I buy two packets and begin eating one immediately.

-I scan over a Google map from birds eye view. The map shows the freeway and the curving exit that I'm meant to take.The road is surrounded by lush trees.

-I operate a Gatling gun on a helicopter,and somehow fly the craft too.The entire scene looks cartoonified as I fly over the sea.

So BTB now. I'll be using MILD with a mantra,and my lucid goals are to stabilize the dream and perhaps complete the task of the month.

See you in a bit!

Unfortunately no lucid dreams last night

On returning to sleep after WBTB I found it particularly difficult to fall asleep while repeating my mantra and visualizing the dreamscape.
It was almost as if the concentrating mind prevented drowsiness.
I have experienced this before while in early morning meditation,although in that case I didn't want to dose off so the concentration helped.

Any thoughts or tips?

The dreams i had weren't particularly vivid,and recall was fragmented.I attribute this to me being extremely tired when going to bed initially,but who knows.

Dream summaries/Fragments:

-I looked at various sites on the internet for plane tickets to South America while lying on a double bed. Next to me a loud, plump quintessential Spanish woman with black hair,a corset top and black knickers on knelt beside me. I could sense a male presence in the room. She started ranting in Spanish,something about "poquito".
I returned the banter with a couple Portuguese phrases like "tash Fish,Ta bong,toet beng".
I watched as the computer visualization on the screen was flying (or was I??) over the Earth and started moving through the depths of the Amazon jungle.
I observed entranced.

- I sat in a toilet cubicle with Brandon,and old friend,while he showed me the new cellphone designs.
He then takes a medium sized onion out of his pocket and proceeds to cut it in half with a sharp knife.
According to him this was the new telephonic device of choice.

-I stand in the very front of the dance floor where the stage is lit up red and indigo at a big festival in Goa,India.
My good Indian friend,Shai, happened to be DJing. He played some deep fractal psychedelic trance.
Another friend, Samantha, encouraged me to try to hula hoop. I prefer Poi but think "what the heck" and give it a go.
I managed to do a couple of moves without looking completely retarded.

My cellphone starts vibrating and ringing in my pocket. It's Penelope from South Portugal.
I scurry into a quiet corner shop away from the chaos, examining the weird latex party masks and translucent glowing gum boots while answering the phone and speaking to her.
"I'm in Goa!I wanna meet up with you!",She exclaims.
"Sure I'm available right now,come to this party I'm at",I reply.
"Umm actually i forgot, I can't right now because the forum post didn't get enough hits, but your cousin is somewhere close by so maybe you can meet with her instead.",she hungs up.

Confused by the odd phone call ,I simply shrug it off.

Soon after I get a message from my Ex-girlfriend asking if I posted something on her Facebook wall.
"Not that I remember",I text in return.
I go check her profile directly after my reply and notice she has new photos with her bf plastered all over her wall from the "crocodile dundee" camping trip the just went on, next to the same river where I attended the Rainbow Gathering.
I could feel a slight spark,a tinge of jealousy ignite in my chest.

When I walked out of the party store the dream scene had changed slightly. A large yellow roller coaster stood at the forefront of my vision.
All my friends where jumping on and signaled for me to do the same as it would set off soon.
I sprinted to the very back seat and made it just in time.
As the roller coaster jolted into motion I began putting the seatbelt on, and to my dismay mine didn't clip into place. It was broken!
We began to lurch forward up the steep incline to where a sheer drop lay.I shouted for it to stop but the ride continued slowly upward to the summit.
I figured my best bet would be to hold on for dear life.

Luckily,the ride was fairly tame,and from what i can remember i managed to not fall out of the seat.

The entire day I felt lethargic and agitated. I figured some Yoga would help,and attended a late night heated room class.
During the class one of the students directly to the right of me passed out,almost taking me with him to the floor in the process!
My friend and i carried him unconscious out to get some fresh air.

On arriving at home i realized i had left my cellphone behind the reception desk.
My phone is the only alarm clock I have,and soon realised this may be a slight problem if i was wanting to WBTB.

I surrendered to the situation, and decided i would try WBTB, but naturally.
Having no worries of an alarm seemed quite relaxing,and i managed to fall asleep effortlessly,having vivid strings of non- lucid dreams.
Here's one of them.
Surfing in the City(Pt 1) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Upon awaking and writing down the last dream I had i continued to lie in my bed and held awareness with my eyes close.
What happen after was strange, and a first for me.
I seemed to slip in and out of "mini" dreams...some being semi lucid.
I remember one of them where I distinctly felt i was lying in my bed with eyes closed,seeing only darkness.

Then it was as if some hypnogogic images converted into a dream,and when I looked around i was on some kind of bunk bed in a dream.
Soon after i lost lucidity, or there was only a surface layer of lucidity.

This happened more than once.

Hey Kaizen, welcome to intro class!

Your ld schedule looks great so far!

On returning to sleep after WBTB I found it particularly difficult to fall asleep while repeating my mantra and visualizing the dreamscape.
It was almost as if the concentrating mind prevented drowsiness.
I have experienced this before while in early morning meditation,although in that case I didn't want to dose off so the concentration helped.

Any thoughts or tips?

Whether I'm trying to wild or just to fall asleep, I usually focus on my body, trying to feel it becoming more relaxed and light. You can also combine this with focus on inner silence or on your breath, this usually does the trick. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info NyxCC
About to do some a meditation to relax the body,followed by a dream incubation and mantra.
I plan on a WBTB at 4.5 hours after I fall asleep.
Wish me luck !

So the past 3 nights I've had plenty of dreams (3-4 a night - check DJ) and my recall is improving dramatically, although no full blow lucid awareness.
One or two dreams i'd actually be speaking to Dc's about lucid dreaming,trying some arbitrary induction method or have a weird pseudo- lucid state where I'm only on the surface layer awareness but easily slip back into the dream state.

I find this fairly strange because before I started the workbook i seemed to have them more frequently,and now it seems as though there's some added pressure to perform and get results which is actually hindering the process.

The night of the 29th when I performed a WBTB i found it difficult to get back to bed.
Once i did eventually fall asleep I was extremely tired. That night i had many dreams,but none lucid.
The following night I slept over at my girlfriends place so i thought id take a break.

Last night I performed a WBTB, waking myself after 6 hours of sleep.
I decided to stay in my bed during the initial wake up and dream journaling so it would be easier to fall asleep going BTB.
The method worked for falling asleep quicker, but the MILD was slightly more difficult to perform having the groggyness from not getting out of bed.
Alas no lucids last night either

I'll be trying WBTB tonight after a 4.5 hour sleep,with focused MILD, but trying not to worry about the results too much as i feel this is the very thing that is holding me back.

Anyone else have a similar experience?or advice on the situation?
thanks

Also a little miscellaneous question: How do I add something to my name? Wish to add a little AUM sign to it. (ॐ)

Managed to have a short but sweet lucid dream last night after WBTB,followed by a False awakening that I caught
It was almost like a hybrid false awakening sleep paralysis vibe. Strange nonetheless.

You can read the full dream here:

The Quintuple Rainbow (*Lucid) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Any comments,tips, advice or just plain fun banter will be much appreciated

Keep smiling fellow Oneironauts!

Congrats on the ld, Kaizen! Great dream control with the stretchy hands! The rainbow must have been quite a sight.

One or two dreams i'd actually be speaking to Dc's about lucid dreaming,trying some arbitrary induction method or have a weird pseudo- lucid state where I'm only on the surface layer awareness but easily slip back into the dream state.

This is pretty good! In-dream wilds are awesome.

I find this fairly strange because before I started the workbook i seemed to have them more frequently,and now it seems as though there's some added pressure to perform and get results which is actually hindering the process.

I'll be trying WBTB tonight after a 4.5 hour sleep,with focused MILD, but trying not to worry about the results too much as i feel this is the very thing that is holding me back.

You don't need to worry about the results as much. The class is self paced and there is no rush. It takes a while to figure out what works for you - this is a process that everyone goes through. The important thing is to be motivated and also be consistent with the practices and results will follow.

Also a little miscellaneous question: How do I add something to my name? Wish to add a little AUM sign to it. (ॐ)

You can write something just below your name, by going to control panel and then edit profile, where it says current user title.

Last night was spectacular.I had two,maybe 3,LONG lucid dreams and completed the TOTM.
And what makes it even more amazing is that they occurred BEFORE my WBTB!
I believe it had something to do with the ADA tutorial i read and implemented before my sleep during meditation.

I didn't even RC or stabilize.Everything was just so vivid, there was no need to.

Aliens Attack the Airport (Pt1) (*Lucid) (TOTM) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Awesome! Congrats on your first wings and the long lds!

Didn't find the entry with the meditation? That must be coming soon I guess!

Thanks Nyxcc

Part two of the dream is now up:

Aliens Attack the Airport (Part 2) (*Lucid) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Hiked up the mountain with my GF yesterday and didn't bother to WBTB partly because exhaustion and also not wanting to wake up her up...although I'm recalling many vivid non-lucids.
May have to spend some more time with the dreams and less with the GF haha!

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Didn't find the entry with the meditation? That must be coming soon I guess!

I was referring to the Vipassana(sensation) meditation I performed just before going to bed.Goes along the same lines of ADA and i feel it contributed to me become vividly lucid that night

In Part two of the dream you will also read that I performed another meditation while lucid with interesting results.

Very interested to delve deeper into realms of altered states of consciousness within a LD

Up up and away!

Also, any idea how i can change my name to add an "ॐ" sign to it?

Thanks

You can write something below your name (where Dream Guide is written below mine for example), by going to Control panel and then edit profile, where it says current user title.

If you want to change the user name itself, then that costs community hall points.

Thanks for the explanation. Will read your entry!

I'm on a WBTB at the moment,after a surfing/train dream. I've noticed that these are another two dream signs which appear often in my dreams.
I'll be doing some MILD before going BTB and i hope to complete the Expecto Patronus task when lucid.
See you on the other side.

No luck last night
I did,however, realize a new dream sign that seems to appear often in my non-lucid dreams.
I feel that I'm somehow leaving lucidity up to chance.
Although I complete RC's regularly (every hour with an alarm) I somehow believe that my prospective memory is not being stimulated.
My hypothesis on the irregularity of lucidity is that I need to start linking my RC's with my dreamsigns.
I'm choosing to stick to the MILD with WBTB for another week before attempting another technique

Just updated my dream signs to include surfing and trains,these seem to be popping up more than often.

Although I complete RC's regularly (every hour with an alarm) I somehow believe that my prospective memory is not being stimulated.
My hypothesis on the irregularity of lucidity is that I need to start linking my RC's with my dreamsigns.

Yes, it would be good if you can link RCs with dream signs, upon encountering them or if not possible then by imagining them. When you do your RCs, do you truly consider you could be dreaming right now? Are you excited? You can also try stimulating your prospective memory by projecting your intent forward, feel how the RC will result in an ld, something like incubating a deja vu, incubate the dream with your RC.

Thanks for the info NyxCC, much appreciated

My practice has taken a slight dip over the past couple of days, as I've been spending lots of time and late nights with the GF before she leaves to Norway tomorrow.
From tomorrow night onward i'll be full power again

I've still been been keeping my dream journal up to date,having several dreams per night.
Last night I even dreamt that I was in a lucid dream lecture, talking to the old and wise female oneironaut about the techniques I've been using.
I'll post a full dream entry soon.

Also,I've been waking up in the middle of the night and experiencing a peculiar phenomenon.
Upon awakening I keep my eyes closed and concentrate on the blackness seen behind the eyelids.
After a short while it feels as though everything is vibrating and there's a sense of fear or presence of entities within the room.
I seem to snap out of it due to fear without holding onto the feeling too long.

Any ideas what this could be?

Seems to me that you might be starting a wild/transition. Don't focus on unpleasant or scary things, focus on the awesome dream that awaits.

Last night was quite the labyrinth of dreams.I performed a 6 hour WBTB.
In total I had about 11 discernible dreams, one of them lucid and many fairly fragmenty.
The lucid dream occoured before my WBTB,which has now happened on several occasions.Hmm,strange but I'm happy nonetheless.

Here's the latter part of the lucid:

Expecto Pen in the Toilet (*Lucid)(TotM attempt) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Today i'm working on ADA keeping at the WBTB with MILD tonight.

Have a peachy day!