Thread: Smudgefish's Workbook

I tried the totem sound again last night, but it just woke me 3 times. No more false awakenings or sleep paralysis.

I always write in the dark when needed...you'll soon enough get the hang of it, as long as you can reach for your trusty jotter without falling out of bed.

The totem sound is a great idea, Smudgefish! How often do you use it during the day? I think it may take a while for the association to get transferred to your dreams, but it certainly will at some point, so don't give up.

Continuing with the totem sound, although not at night a the moment, hourly during the day. Regularly watching utube videos. I am trying amygdala clicking as it is supposed to help with lucid dreaming. No more lucid dreams yet though.

I think I need more sleep. When I wake any time from 5am onwards I tend to get up as I have too much to do and want to get on. This morning (Sunday) I decided to lie in, not easy, but eventually I got back to sleep after repeating a mantra to myself. No lucids but numerous dream fragments.

I'm spending hours every day thinking about lucid dreaming, reading about it, watching videos, doing reality checks, doing a WILD almost every day, setting intentions during meditation, keeping a dream diary. The lack of any progress is getting frustrating and it's been a few months now

I did a quick read on amygdala clicking and it makes sense that increased use of the frontal lobes can be beneficial for lucid dreaming. However, I'm still not quite sure how you perform these clicks?

I think you are making progress, it just takes a bit for these practices to become incorporated in dreams. In addition, you are certainly improving in all these areas you are doing the practices. Last but not least you are inspiring others around you.

NyxCC - Amygdala clicking apparently doesn't usually cause a 'click' as such. I have known about it for ages but only just bought one of Neil Slade's books on it (can't put a link on here!) and in it he says that once he clicked forward he started to spontaneously lucid dream and OBE. You 'tickle' your amydala with an imaginary feather.

And WHAT JUST HAPPENED THERE!?! I had a Sunday afternoon sleep, again lots of concentration on mantra, attempt at a WILD, woke several times into a dream like state. Then I woke with the feeling that someone was pulling my right sock hard trying to get the sock off and my leg was lifting up and I though what on earth is one of my children or wife playing at. Looked down and saw no-one was there and thought yes!! I'm going to OBE this time (not sure if I really opened my eyes I was probably in a false awakening), closed my eyes again to concentrate and felt all sorts of weird and very intense sensations including LOTS of rushing noises, it went on for ages several minutes definitely and I felt some movement of sliding out of my body but it was SO slow and intense, and thought 'I'm just going to let this happen don't mess it up again' and concentrated mostly on staying calm, then I started to feel sick and not well and pulled out and woke up.
I also remember hearing music playing next to the bed (it was quiet in the house) and had the feeling of someone being close and wanting to do something to me, I ignored both of those as I knew that people get all sorts of strange things happening at separation. It was certainly a very real and odd experience, and I want to do it again!
Basically I have just messed up totally haven't I? It's been so long since I have read about OBEs I totally forgot to actually DO anything and try to move or separate, it was so intense it caught me totally by surprise, and I concentrated on totally the wrong thing. Damn, I'm so annoyed now, I was so close AGAIN

Is the nausea normal?

Edit: Oh well, it was a learning experience. Next time: try to move my body up or down, try to move limbs and separate, ask for help from a spirit guide if I feel stuck, lastly just try to imagine being somewhere else, and RELAX I think I actually got quite tense (hence the nausea??), it is a scary intense experience, and in trying to relax I began to be aware of my breathing and eventually had to pull out for several reasons. Or even just open my eyes I would have probably been in a lucid dream at that point.

Another edit: I dreamt about my grandmother last night for the first time I can remember, she was talking about chewing gum but carrying marshmallows (she used to own a sweet shop) maybe that was a clue to try to help me become lucid. She is certainly one of my spirit guides and clairvoyants often see her with me. I think it was a sign that I am nearly ready to OBE or lucid dream. Maybe she was trying to help pull me out? Just maybe. It's a nice thought anyway.

Smudge, sounds like hypnogogic state thingy everyone says about...also sounds like a success that you managed to just "observe" for so long.
Well done.

btw Re previous post about observing 3D imagery, exactly same always happens to me...1st part that is...feel loss of control...pull out...but it happens so quickly like a knee jerk reaction. I will try and be patient and follow in your footsteps.

About the amygdala - so you basically visualize tickling with a feather? How interesting, I actually had a dream about a feather appearing in the sky on the day you posted this.

Sounds like you had a close wild/obe encounter. I think with a little more patience and perhaps trying to move your dream body, you would have made it.

The nausea - it's not the norm to have it but it's possible to feel it if there are excessive dream body movements or just with any movement. In my case, I have experienced it while spinning uncontrollably a few times. Luckily, this doesn't happen too often.

Changed from using WILD to SSILD. Day 4. On second day had a semi-lucid experience during the SSILD in the afternoon. Continuing to meditate and imagine myself becoming lucid in a dream during the meditation so setting a strong intention. I think perhaps meditating straight before sleep might help further.

I always get dreamlets during SSILD so it's working like a WILD, and often fall asleep properly before hitting 4 cycles, perhaps a bit more concentration might help but I'm not sure if that's what you are supposed to do or not. No proper lucids yet but it's working better for me than WILD so far.

I'm flagging on reality checks, had several days without doing any so really must get back to that.

It's quite possible to have a wild with the SSILD technique or get some FAs that can be turned into lds. If you would like an extra boost of awareness, try extending your wake time just before you do the SSILD.

Due to a sickness bug in the house I haven't had much sleep, although everyone is slowly getting better.

I read an interesting post in the dream diaries section about setting intention to dream about something. Last night I set my intention to dream about being naked in public (don't ask me why!) and I had a dream about finding myself in a situation where everyone else was naked, then I got undressed, so my intention setting actually worked! I felt comfortably warm during this, I noticed it in particular because I was expecting to feel cold as I got undressed, and I'm sure it was the feeling of warmth in my bed so there was some other level of awareness going on.

I'm going to try this again and make being naked in public a dream sign. Hopefully it's one that should be quite effective, although not one I can practice in real life of course!

Reading other people's success stories on here, and there have been several recently, is a real boost to my determinationto get a lucid dream.

Haha, Smudgefish, I like this intention setting experiment. Yes, you can definitely use this as a dream sign. I think some people try to incubate lds using a similar technique - visualize or intend to dream of something specific and then become lucid upon experiencing it.

I'M BACK!! I've been meaning to return to my attempts to lucid dream for a few months now but never really got around to it. For the last week I have started a dream diary again. Also I have been thinking about why it didn't work before and seeing what I can learn from that.

I managed to recall 5 dreams last night so the recall is starting to get better. Also I had a lucidish moment when I realised that the dream was becoming a nightmare, told myself that there was nothing to be frightened of, and managed to ignore an un-dead being behind me, except that I simply woke at that point, but it was some level of awareness and that's a start.

What I think I got wrong before:

1) Reality checking didn't work for me. It was too much of a chore and I wasn't really into it and therefore it never found it's way into my dreams.

2) I was trying all sorts of techniques but just kept on with them when they didn't work, usually doing all of them at once. I was also trying to astrally project so it was just too much.

3) I was just too excited about the whole thing and expected quick results. For me it's probably gong to take a long time so I need to be more patient and commited.

Plans for getting it right this time:

1) Concentrate on trying to cultivate some awareness in my dreams, reality checking is sort of secondary to this because I have to be at least able to question reality in a dream first before I can ever hope to do a reality check. I think that if I ever even get to the point of questionning reality I will know that I am dreaming and the next step would actually be to stabilise the dream. I will know if this is correct if I ever get to that point.

2) Be more persistent. I'm going to keep at the basics more consistently: particularly the dream diary, and trying to improve my awareness.

3) Keep reading about lucid dreaming. This definitely triggers me to think about dreaming whilst I am dreaming. Also reading my dream diary regularly and trying to think more carefully about my dream signs.

So.... another list. My plans are as follows:

1) Developing a lucid mindset - questioning reality as often as I can. I'm starting with the question 'What was I doing before this?' and asking myself that question at least every hour. If this doesn't work I will try a different question every few weeks until something works. I'm also just making myself aware of my surroundings and seeing if anything seems different or unusual wherever I am.

2) Using the Castaneda method of looking at hands regularly and particularly before sleep. I like the idea of this: it's simple and likely to work, and I want to keep it simple at the moment.

3) Being much more aware of my dream signs - these are without a doubt anything medical- particularly consulting with patients and surgical procedures, and driving a car. So from now on I'm going to concentrate on increasing my awareness during these situations in real life so that it might spill over into my dreams.

That's it for now. Thought I would write it all down as it helps keep my thoughts in order and make me more focused. Hopefully I will be reporting a lucid dream soon.

Trying to spend an hour or so playing Second Life every day when I get time. Had a few lucid moments after playing a similar game last year so maybe this will help.

Welcome back Smudgefish!

Over the last few nights I have had two nightmares.

In the first I told myself that it was a nightmare and there was nothing to be frightened of but immediately then found myself awake.

Last night I can't remember anything about the dream or what I was frightened of but again I remember waking and thinking 'that was fun' almost like being on a rollercoaster and I went straight back to sleep wanting to go back to the dream, which I did, then thought actually maybe it could be real and woke up properly. Bit of lucidity but the dream was in control not me.

I'm going to keep thinking through these as they are very close to having been lucid, next time if I can remember to do it I could turn a nightmare into a real lucid dream. Third time lucky?!

Also in all of my dreams now I can remember some very fine detail about what I saw. For instance I was looking up at a mountain and I remember seeing fine detail of the edges of the mountains, individual rocks, and patterns in the snow. I presume this is becasue I am trying to journal my dreams in detail and paying them a lot of notice, and also trying to have alucid mindset during the day of noticing as much as I can about my surroundings.

I keep trying to look at my hands during the day but have yet to remember to notice them in my dreams.

The first one was actually a lucid! It doesn't matter if you woke up after that - you knew you were dreaming. Recall that there can be different levels of lucidity. Sometimes I can be so overwhelmed with the emotional response following a nightmare that my first reaction is to exit the dream. It takes practice to learn to slow down and realize that nothing is actually after you.

Thanks NyxCC.

It's good to get some encouragement. Due to very poor dream recall yesterday (and today!) I was flagging a bit feeling that I was getting nowhere again. I need to keep my enthusiasm going. It's only been a few weeks of really putting much effort into this again so it's not going too badly I suppose.

Just an observation - I have had experience of one lucid dream as a teenager and I was 'fully' lucid then in that I felt fully concious of who I was and that I had control over what I was doing. I'm using this as a benchmark, once I hit that level of lucidity I will feel that I am truly lucid. It's encouraging that you say I was lucid and I have watched several youtube videos describing levels of lucidity but I won't really feel that I have acheived lucidity until I have something approaching what I had as a teenager.

I'm going to try the Laberge prospective memory exercises in addition to what I'm doing otherwise. Week off work next week so a chance to catch up on sleep and do plenty of reading.

Hi there,

I did the prospective memory exercise, started a thread in the Attaining Lucidity Forum. I made a pdf-form to keep track which I added to the first post. Maybe you'd like to use it? (thread: Remembering to do something (prospective memory))

Thanks Hirondelle! I will take a look and might use that.

I'm settling on doing the Castaneda method as a reality check, as well as thinking about what I have been doing in the last hour as often as I possibly can, and practicing a lucid mindset. Also now using an app to track my prospective memory tasks and using these as a trigger to look at my hands.
My dream recall is quite good now and it takes me quite some time every morning to write it all down!

I am seeing my dream signs at least every other night (driving and medical situations) often more than once but have yet to have this trigger me to look at my hands or think that I might be dreaming. Do you have any pointers as to how I could improve this??

Of note I think that one of the main reasons I failed at this before was because I became a bit disappointed after using about 1 week of any technique and sort of just lost interest and only half-heartedly continued with it. On this occasion I am trying to push through that barrier and keeping up with the practice. I don't really expect any results for at least a few weeks of using my current practice, and even then I know it could take longer, possibly months.

I'm hitting the disappointed stage again! Reading some success stories on here is difficult, and the posts of people who LD regularly. I have been trying so hard, for months overall and nothing really to write home about has happened yet.

I'm wondering whether a day or two off every now and then, without journalling or reality checking, might be a good idea. Thinking about trying that tomorrow as I'm at work. Maybe I will come back to it the next day feeling slightly more positive. Overall I'm determined to do this one day, but I'm frightened of becoming completely disillusioned again.

Originally Posted by Smudgefish

I'm hitting the disappointed stage again! ....... I'm frightened of becoming completely disillusioned again.

Just have to react to this..... already thought about doing that when reading your former message. I didn't because I don't have that much experience and don't want to sound like a know-it-all.

So now I'll write what I thought when I read about your RC's and dream signs: So your dream signs are "driving and medical situations", but you're using "random" prospective memory tasks to do your RC's. Shouldn't you be doing your RC's when you are driving and "in medical situations" in waking life?
Like (when driving): ok, I'm behind the wheel, could this be a dream? I know that I'm driving from A to B. In A, before leaving, I was (what were you doing?)......, when I get to B I will (what are you going to do).... and then pinch your nose and breathe, look at your hands, try to read something, try to levitate.....
Ofcourse I don't know what "in a medical situation" means, but maybe you could do the same thing there.

I know my own dreamsigns but I never encounter them in waking life so I can't do this.....

I'M SO HAPPY!! I QUESTIONNED REALITY IN A DREAM LAST NIGHT, FAILED A RC, BUT AT LAST SOMETHING IS WORKING... I cried when I woke up I was so happy, and I was so excited I couldn't get back to sleep.

I was having a very vivid dream. I came to a door in a strange room and found it was locked, then thought to myself 'this is just what would happen in a dream', thought no I'm not dreaming but I will just look at my hands anyway - I had 2 thumbs, so I thought it can't be! Looked back again and had 2 of all my fingers, then I tried to remember what I had been doing in the last few minutes and remembered I had been in a pub (so failed a memory test), and thought how tired I was so I was obviously seeing double. I looked at my other hand and there was 2 of everything there as well, so I thought I really am tired, and just carried on with my dream.

I was obsessively reality checking yesterday, doing prospective memory exercises, reading these forums a lot, and did MILD as I fell asleep ('The next thing I see will be a dream, and I will remember to look at my hands')

I can't believe that after 6 months something has finally happened and I REALLY thought I might be dreaming, and questionned it properly. I'm not in the slightest bit disappointed I didn't get lucid, it's a major step forward anyway. My hard work has paid off at last, and I feel like I'm in the club now. This has made me even more determined to keep going!! It's reality checking all day long for me now.

Thanks Hirondelle for your comments. I am reality checking every time I'm driving, and I'm a doctor so I'm in 'medical situations' all the time! I think the prospective memory exercises are working by the way, and maybe it's given me the breakthrough so I am forever in your debt - thanks for that pointer.