TheOnerous's blog of failures

[TheOnerous]

Here's a few of my thoughts on the problem of achieving conscious awakenings:

So, I had a big brainstorming session about this problem yesterday.

The problem

It's a simple one - when I discovered indirect techniques, I succeeded a handful of times, then couldn't achieve a conscious waking to save my life. I put in a lot of effort and affirmations but it just didn't happen.

Thoughts

I was thinking about "hidden dreamsigns" and how it could be possible to look beyond the conventional thoughts on what a dreamsign can be. For example, usually I'd think of a dreamsign as being something like a person, a place (old friends and old schools etc). I wondered if it would be possible to view the waking (at the end of dream) as a dreamsign itself - a kind of universal dreamsign that is always present. So, if I treated the waking as being a dreamsign, would it make sense - when recalling dreams - to document the end of the dream, with the passage into waking (and getting up) as an integral, essential detail that MUST be included in a dream journal report. Here's an example:

Towards the end of the dream: The monster lurches towards me and opens it mouth ready to eat me
Waking: I wake up in bed sweating. I think, "thank god that was just a dream!"
Rising: I get out of bed, put my slippers on and go have a coffee.

So my dream journal emphasis there is on the ending of the dream and the waking and transition into day. The earlier parts of the dream are ignored.

The idea is, after a few dream journal entries over a few days (or weeks, or whatever) I become habituated to concentrating on the ending of dreams and the waking, and thus I am more likely to be able to achieve a conscious waking and thus separate?

Also

It's a good thing when you are in a dream and can detect that the dream is fading and dying. Would the dream journal approach above - the focus on the dream-end and waking - make these "aware you're in a fading dream" experiences more common?

Idea 2: "Moving without muscles" as a dreamsign.

So here, I was thinking that it could be possible to focus on occasions in dreams when you are "moving without muscles". It's pretty common - when you are non-lucid flying, falling, in a car or bus, in a plane, riding a horse etc.

So you would focus on instances of moving-without-muscles when you write a dream journal entry.

Would that make you more likely to attempt separation on waking?

Also

Would that also increase your awareness within dreams of instances when you are moving-without-muscles, thus you have a chance to become lucid within a dream, and also have a chance to separate on waking?

Idea 3: Finding what you want to find within dream memories

The idea here is that you would find whatever you want to in a dream memory.

Indirect technique

The ideal (indirect) is this: a dream dies, you find yourself waking in bed, you separate (by moving without muscles), fly off.

Could you find that sequence in any dream memory you choose to? So if part of a (non-lucid) dream memory went:

1) Walked into old school building
2) Old school friends were there
3) Realised I was the teacher
4) Was suddenly at Stonehenge (by an unconscious, non-deliberate teleport that I'm not aware of within the dream)
5) Climbed up the stones
6) Jumped off

I could find a waking, separation (movement without muscles) and flying in that memory. Thus:

4) At Stonehenge

is like a wakening, because I was in a new location and had a degree of awareness.

5) Climbed up the stones

is a kind of movement-without-muscles because it's almost like my brain achieves the goal of reaching the top of the stones and there's no muscle stress as there would be if I used muscles to climb in real life.

6) Jumped off

Is a kind of flying. (Maybe it could be said that all movement in non-lucid dreams is flying, because the floor you stand is a product of your mind and isn't tangible.)

Conclusion: So, over time, you become habituated to spotting the sequence of "wake up/separate/fly off" within dreams and the awareness carries over to dreams and increases your chances of either realising you're in a dream, or separating on waking.

[TheOnerous]

Went for the simple approach last night of hoping to see one dreamsign and become lucid from it. Dreamsign did appear in the dream, but didn't realise I was dreaming. Will stick with this idea of working with just the one dreamsign instead of trying to recognise about twenty!

[TheOnerous]

Hopefully my dreamsign will put in an appearance tonight along with lucidity.

[TheOnerous]

Nothing happened last night! Zero recall. Have had the pedal to the floor lately with lucidity experiments so maybe will take it gently today and see what happens tonight.

[TheOnerous]

Good night. Recall still ropey. Met my dreamsign in my last dream before waking and explained the idea of reality checking to him. Nice. A step closer. More of the same tonight.

[TheOnerous]

Recall has improved over the last couple of nights. Gives me more to work with.

[TheOnerous]

Back to disappointing recall again last night. Have a vague memory of discussing dreamsigns with someone but it's a very vague memory. I suppose there is a positive to be taken from that.

[TheOnerous]

A good night. Wanted to do a quick WBTB when I woke about 4 but couldn't get back to sleep again. Once I got back to sleep I went into an LD quickly. I nose pinched, which wasn't very conclusive, but knew it was a dream anyway and started palpating. Not much sensation in my hands but the visuals were quite strong. Didn't really have a plan of action so made palpating my plan of action. Went for a walk but found myself waking. Didn't attempt to separate on waking but if I can find myself getting regular LDs again I might strive to be more organised. Will take a break for a couple of days now.

[Summerlander]

That's wise. Well done!

[TheOnerous]

Thanks SL!

Excellent night again last night. One vivid LD, then another dream where I remembered to RC but unfortunately the RC wasn't conclusive. Need to have a good think about what I'm doing right or if it was just a fluke.

[TheOnerous]

Another successful night! Another LD, though it is probably more accurate to describe it as being a fake lucid with some pockets of proper lucidity. Hoping for three on the spin tonight!

[TheOnerous]

Planned WBTB for 4am but my little one had other ideas. Will break for the weekend now and hopefully come back fresh.

[TheOnerous]

Experimenting with a hybrid technique at the moment. Will it work? Probably not, but enjoying the journey anyway

[TheOnerous]

Been very busy but the good thing about LDing is you can still make attempts every night Not much progress but I'm starting to try different approaches and making some headway.

[TheOnerous]

Recall is quite good at the moment and dream content is interesting. Looking forward to seeing where my dreams take me tonight.

[TheOnerous]

Seems like my latest experiments may be good for inducing dreams of choice, but no real sign of lucidity as of yet. Will keep trying.

[NOVA]

What is "hybrid technique"? I don't recall this in the SOBT. Mike's techniques, as far as I can tell are the best way to enter the phase. If you are determined enough and don't give up...they work

[TheOnerous]

Hi Nova.

Well, I'm constantly experimenting with new ideas of my own and combining and toying with existing techniques. Indirect techs, MILD, WILD, DILD, recall, SSILD - everything gets chucked in and experimented with at some point. It's a great ride.

As much as indirect techniques naturally appeal to me, I cannot get them to work. I have left no stone unturned in my attempts to successfully separate on waking and cycle techniques, but I haven't been able to get it to work more than a handful of times. I would never say never though - if I think of a new angle on it I will try it.

My mentality is this: Even if Mr Raduga's techniques worked really well for me - and for everybody - I would still keep striving to improve them, and other techniques, as well as develop totally new techniques. The experimenting, for me, is just as much fun as becoming lucid itself.

[TheOnerous]

Excellent couple of nights. Have been managing to catch myself waking from dreams the past few nights. This means the door to using the indirect techniques is opening again. I'm really pleased about that because the indirect techniques naturally appeal to me.

[TheOnerous]

I tried a SSILD variation last night. Instead of doing cycles of seeing, hearing and body-sensing, I did cycles of: observing-sleepiness, observing the dark behind my eyes, and trying to separate. Interesting results. Very dream packed time from 3am to 7am. Will experiment with this again, but want to focus on conscious waking for indirect attempts for a while.

[TheOnerous]

My main obstacle to achieving consistent success with indirect techniques was catching myself waking. This was how I was thinking about the problem before (reflected in an affirmation):

I'll realise I'm waking, keep still and try to separate.

But I got to thinking that this doesn't reflect what actually happens in the "transition" from sleep to awake. It's more like the opposite actually happens: I'm "awake" in a dream (doing dreamy stuff like playing football with The Beatles etc) and then I transition into a sleepy, grouchy, confused state as a I slowly surface into the waking world.

So I thought I would change my approach into an approach that reflects this state of affairs and it's had some good results this week, with one lucid dream and a dramatic improvement in recall. My new mentality is "spot sleepy", where I spot the point where the waking transition reaches the point where I'm very sleepy but vaguely aware. Affirmation along the lines of:

I'll realise I'm sleepy, play dead and try to separate.

I'm also working on the idea that something else occurs with the sleepiness that will help me catch my wakings. So far I'm considering:

Grouchiness
Confusion
Having a dream memory
Becoming horizontal (after being vertical in the dream)
Becoming motionless after moving about
Becoming inactive after being active.
Becoming "blind" after seeing (in the dream)
Having closed eyes after having them open

[NOVA]

I too have trouble realising I am awake and still in the phase and not to move.
The thing that worked for me is telling myself over and over before I sleep is "don't move. don't move" so that is the first thing that comes into my head when I wake.
I had a great opp. this morning but unfortunately I had a pressing reason to get up and speak to another occupant in the house.
However Michael says one can still take the opportunity even if you have moved because you are still most likely in the phase even if you have moved.

[TheOnerous]

I tried the approaches in SOBT3 verbatim, religiously, but couldn't get them to work more than about six times at most. It wasn't a motivation issue - motivation remained strong throughout my attempts but I could never catch the wakings properly. I'm breaking this week and I'll go back to it this weekend but my new approach to it has worked to an improved degree and I'll keep working on the problem.

[TheOnerous]

My passion for experimenting with all things dream related has roared back into my life, just in time for Christmas. Let's see where we go this time

[Summerlander]

Don't forget the relaxed approach, the intention, and reviewing mistakes.

[TheOnerous]

Just two successes since LDing roared back into my life again. Both from (unintentional) afternoon naps. Quite disappointing considering my immersion in the subject, but I'm still enjoying the journey.

[TheOnerous]

14824 views of this blog. Wow.

[TheOnerous]

My last LD was on Christmas Day.

[TheOnerous]

Still trying to crack it! Keep feeling as though I'm a hair's breadth from cracking the DILD approach. A success this week has given me encouragement. I'm trusting the grey matter to come up with something so it all falls into place. Fun times in dreamland!

[TheOnerous]

Going back to basics at the moment and experimenting with separation. Have some new thoughts on conscious awakenings, but it's early days and there are many experiments to do. The lucid journey continues to fascinate me many years after discovering lucidity. Not many things in my life have done that.