Thread: Smudgefish's Workbook

Just posted about my WILD attempts here.

Been reading more about lucid dreaming and getting advice from any website I can, as well as this one. Have found some more good advice on *Link removed*

My daytime awareness has not been as good as it could be I need to start doing this more and experiment with different ways of doing it, and try to do it something specific at least every hour. I'm going to try asking myself how I got to where I am ie 'What was I doing just before this moment?', and checking for anything unusual around me. From my memory of my LDs when I was young I became immediately aware that I was dreaming, so I'm going to remember my reality checks but not concentrate on those as much as just trying to get myself to recognise that I'm dreaming in the first place.

Welcome Smudgefish, it's great to have you here!

Asking yourself where you were the moment before is an excellent way to get into a critical mindset. You may also try to question main elements of your environment such as the people/DCs present, look for weird objects, etc. Don't forget to always relate the analysis to the possibility of it being a dream right now as the mind tends to explain all sorts of scenarios as normal.

I had to remove the link to the other website as links to other ld forums are not allowed here. However, if you feel like discussing any topic in particular or have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us - here or elsewhere in the forum.

Thanks NyxCC for the welcome and advice. (Didn't know about that rule! apologies)

I'm asking plenty on the forum thanks, getting good advice. Will keep up the critical thinking, difficult life is so busy at the moment I keep forgetting. No LDs yet, and no time to WILD last night due to children being up late into the night.

I've been having trouble remembering to do reality checks.

Yesterday I thought why not simplify it totally and just tried remembering to remember that I had to remember 'something'. Each time I thought of that I though 'what have I got to remember?' and thought to do a quick check to see if I was dreaming. It worked really well and I could do it literally every few minutes.

Hopefully if I keep that up I will do it in a dream soon.

I had my first semi-lucid dream last night, at least I think that is what I would call it.

I can't remember all the details, but I found myself doing stabilisation exercises, rubbing my hands together (although I didn't look at them), then looking at objects around me in detail and feeling them, and remembering to move quickly from one object to another. Then I remember showing someone that I could fly and trying to levitate myself off the ground. Then I became worried that I might wake up and started to become aware of my real body, and woke up.

It wasn't a real lucid dream because I wasn't really in control or fully conscious, more that I felt I was just going through the motions.

Is this a step in the right direction? I hope so.

Well, it sounds like an ld to me! Congrats! There are different levels of awareness in lucid dreams, in some instances I would say some are lower awareness lds, but yours seems like a normal ld actually - you knew you were dreaming, had control over your own actions as well as dream control. By the way dream control doesn't always mean high or low lucidity. So, by all means - I think it's time to celebrate!

Thanks NyxCC. I'm not sure. It actually was nothing like the ones I remember from years ago when I REALLY was aware that I was dreaming, this one didn't really click into full awareness, and I wasn't in control of what I was doing, but it was verging on a proper lucid dream so I'm very happy with that. Just hope I get some more.

I was up late last night. Absolutely no dream recall this morning first time ever.

WOW! I had a sleep this afternoon, trying to WILD. Drifting in and out of sleep again. Suddenly became aware that my left leg could move on it's own and it felt real, not just like the attempts I have made at separating before when I was trying to imagine moving limbs, I really could move it all over the place. Tried to move my right leg and it went too, so tried to levitate my body upwards and it was stuck by my left shoulder. I could roll over to the left but not to the right. I tried to rotate my whole body around by the hips, but it was still stuck by the left shoudler still. This was very frustrating.

I could hear some strange sounds whilst I was doing this, almost like a rushing noise but not quite.

Then one of my children came crashing past the bedroom and I felt myself pulled back in totally and waking properly.

This was real. Not sure how I did it, not sure if I can repeat it again. I was within a hair's breadth of having an OBE at last. I forgot about the swimming technique, or trying to move out by swinging up and down along the body, or creating an extra body to move into. I'm going to have to read through separation techniques again I think if I had not been interrupted or maybe been just a bit more forceful, or remembered some more techniques, I would have done it; or perhaps I could have started a dream to move into. And why didn't I try opening my eyes?? I'm quite shocked at how real it felt.

Wow, that's sounds like a really cool experience! Yes, I think that perhaps you just needed a bit more time and your dream body would have completely freed itself and you would have been able to explore around. I definitely think that if it has happened once, you can surely do it again!

I'm quite determined to get the hang of astral projection, I'm reading several books on it, and watching some Youtube tutorials - particularly about developing full waking awareness, I'm really trying to do that at the moment.

I'm finding my afternoon WILD attempts much more productive than night time attempts. I can't get comfortable when I WILD at night and my mind seems to find all sorts of excuses to bottle out just as I start to get close - it all happens very fast at night, last night it was easy to get into dreams reamining fully aware, but just as it started to get real I felt frightened or uncomfortable and each time felt myself pulling out, and the itching drives me mad! I feel myself thinking how uncomfortable I am and focusing on that. Each time I pull out I can't move immediately so I know I'm really close, it's so frustrating. I don't know why but I seem to have a mental block on going any further at night.
Afternoon WILDing is slower but I don't have any fear.

And my dream recall is awful! It started out good a few weeks ago now I forget everything within seconds of waking long before I can write it down.

I feel like I'm close but just can't let myself go.

WILDing this afternoon: woke 4 times - 1) I became aware of the sound of my own breathing which made me realise I was asleep, but woke too fast got excited and couldn't separate woke up fully, 2) Woke again I think I was talking about waking in a dream, got excited, same again 3) Woke, not sure why, got excited but not so much, telling myself to calm down. 4) Same again. Then spent a long time just drifting around the point of falling asleep, my whole body went numb, I felt some vibrations spreading, but i think my mind was too active, then the cat started moving around so called it a day and got up.

This time I really enjoyed playing around the point of sleep and felt very comfortable with it. No fear of RA, in fact I was hoping it would happen.

It's all quite gentle and fun during afternoon sleeps. Night time is a different story it happens fast, I itch everywhere, the hallucinations come thick and fast, it's much more scary. I need to get over my fear. it's going to happen soon.....

I'm going to keep writing in here everyday until this works!

Major disappointment this morning. I was determined that I was going to LD last night and made myself really believe it before I fell asleep. I woke with almost no dream recall and no LDs. I tried to WILD overnight again but really couldn't concentrate on what I was trying to do so it didn't work at all. I'm disappointed. I think maybe I'm not staying up long enough to do a proper WBTB.

Also when I WILD in the daytime I seemto get to a point of feeling very relaxed, not really aware of anything, in and out of sleep, but no sign of any dreams forming, or any vibrations or anything - could it be NREM? I feel like I am actually asleep and inside my head very often but can't be sure if it is really sleep or just a deep trance like state. Either way nothing happens.

Originally Posted by Smudgefish

And my dream recall is awful! It started out good a few weeks ago now I forget everything within seconds of waking long before I can write it down.

One thing you may want to try is laying there for just a moment and running through all of your dreams in your mind. Try to just lie there quietly until you have a pretty good handle on at least the basic inventory of dreams. That will anchor you for when you start writing. Then once the pen starts going, you'll find yourself recalling more and more details of what you experienced overnight.

And it sounds like you're very close on those nighttime WILDs! You know exactly what to do: let go of the fear. In the light of day, you know that you are perfectly safe when you're dreaming. Once you internalize that fact, you'll be able to relax just like with your afternoon WILDs. And feeling relaxed and positive is such an important component of lucid dreaming!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Thanks CanisLucidus.

Another WILD session, this time late morning.

In and out of sleep again not sure how many times. No panic or over-excitement, at least much less than before. Awareness of my body coming and going. Numerous attempts to separate nothing really happened not sure I was ever really in RA and no dreaming that I remember. One episode of coming to awareness and feeling vibrations but lost it, several episodes of feeling myself diving down but couldn't hold awareness.

Much better dream recall this morning, I have started writing my dream journal on dreamviews. In one dream I counted my fingers and I had three! Seemed quite reasonable at the time, so no lucidity

I have eventually managed to have a good WILD session in the early morning 5am in that I managed to relax properly. I think getting up for 20 minutes for WBTB made a big difference, I usually only get up for 5 minutes.

Again drifting in and out of sleep for an hour, good control over staying concious, and a strong feeling of just drifting around. Stangely though absolutely no dreams formed. One episode of vibrations starting to spread over my whole body and a pressure on my chest, but I got far too excited again, no fear just plain excitement, and I couldn't hold it my breathing and heart rate sped up and I lost concentration totally.

No lucid dreams and very poor dream recall again. The memory was on the edge of my awareness for ages but I just couldn't latch onto it and remember any details.

I'm concentrating now on trying to do astral projection. Read several books yesterday. I am totally determined to do this even if it takes months.

Way to go Smudge! I'm really impressed with your strong intentions and a having a good routine, which will surely pay great dividends in the long term...from little seeds will grow a mighty oak =^^=

I haven't really done WILD when I go to bed because everyone says you shouldn't. My books on astral projection suggest it's a good time for that so I tried last night, and think I'm going to keep trying then as it suits me well.

I thought I had been trying for about 10 minutes last night but looked at the clock and it was over an hour, time really does fly when you do it properly! Had a lot of vibrations and electric sensations in my arms and face each time I felt myself slipping into sleep. As usual I thought 'here we go!' got really excited and just could not control myself and ended up waking myself. I really don't know how to stop it happening but it must be my frame of mind and I suppose I just have to keep doing it until I sort of get bored.

One thing I have noticed is that because I am trying to achieve astral projection I'm not getting any dreams forming during my WILDs. Maybe I should try to get this happening and I might be able to step into one. I might try that again soon.

Away on holiday for 5 days from tomorrow. I will keep trying but won't be writing anything here.

If you are trying to wild at bed time or do astral projection, it may take a while to get to the REM stage. I guess this is why you say there is no dream forming. However, ther may be a little window of opportunity to have an ld even at bed time. Before deep sleep begins there is a short stage that resembles REM and you might be able to experience it.

While the best time to try for wild is after couple of hours of sleep (or naps), you can still experiment at bed time. It seems to work for some people, you come to know the early sleep cycles well and there is a lot of interesting stuff to explore there.

5 days away and had a break from everything, so my dream recall didn't happen.

Going to get back to it now. Making a big effort to get the dream journal going again and to increase my daytime awareness. Thinking through my dreams from last night there were so many points I could have realised I was dreaming but didn't. I remember consulting with a patient and saying to her this is very strange I'm lying in bed talking to you for instance.

Still trying to astral project. Reading as many books as possible and WILDing when I can.

I'm sure you'll get back into the swing of things in no time, Smudgefish! You have been doing really well so far!

Every morning when I wake up I remember plenty of my dreams, run through them in my head and try to commit them to memory. By the time I get downstairs to write it all down at least half of it is gone.
I can't write in the bedroom because it's dark and I don't want to wake my wife. I could do with a voice recorder but I can't do that either for the same reason. It's frustrating.

Still no lucidity or any astral projection. During my afternoon WILD yesterday I actually became concious and was calm for the first time ever, but had no vibrations and couldn't separate, or bring on a dream before I woke fully. I suppose being calm is some progress.

I was meditating last night as I do every night and made a small step in the right direction. I'm now treating my meditations as a WILD session with the intention of astrally projecting as a bonus.

I have always had trouble with just observing dreams as they start to form, the moment I feel like they are becoming 'real' I pull myself out. I think this is my reaction to a loss of control that I feel at that moment, because to continue does entail a certain amount of loss of concious control to fall into the dream.
As I went deeper into meditation last night I saw some very real 3D scenes forming and could almost feel some of the objects I was seeing in front of me. I't about the closest I have come to be conciously aware of a dream, although I still felt myself being drawn back to reality as the scene became more realistic, and so each dip in lasted only a few seconds.

I also had a short WILD yesterday morning and woke immediately with the strongest tingling and vibrating sensation I have ever felt. I tried to put myself into a dream but couldn't bring on any images very quickly so tried to will myself out of body. Nothing worked and I sort of then woke up fully.

Small steps.

I'm now treating my meditations as a WILD session with the intention of astrally projecting as a bonus.

That's a great approach. There is definitely an overlap between meditation and wilding. I think as you progress in your meditation practices, your ability to wild will improve too. And if you are in a comfortable position and the timing is right, you can certainly have a meditation session leading to an ld or astral projection.