First time Dream Yoga, 3rd LD

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This morning I did Dream Yoga for the first time.

Here is the dream:

I was in a house during the day time, and there was a beautiful blond woman in a white dress, laying on the bench window of the house. I dont remember what triggered the lucidity, but we were having a conversation about dreaming and how powerful it was. I was trying to convince her of its monumental impacts, both i n the sleep states and waking reality, but she did not believe me. So I used telekinesis to lift her up in the air with my mind, as she was floating, I moved her body over to me in the air, and had her land on my finger tips, still laying down, like she was lighter than a feather.

Then had her land at my side, and decided to show her that we could walk through walls. I grabbed her by the hand, walked up to the wall of the house, and reached my other hand out to try and stick it through. It did not go, the wall was completley solid. Discouraged but still determined, we turned around together, and walked backwards into the wall. Doing this method, we went throught the wall like it was jelly, darkness at first and then the light of the outside world appeared. As the light appeared the dream began to destabilize fast, and I woke before I could attempt to restabilize it.

This marks my 7th month of being a member on this site, and I have had 3 lucid dreams as a result. Very happy with the progress, but it has been slow and tedious at times. It was very discouraging in the begining, and took me about 91 days to have my first lucid dream of the year. If there are other members out there who are new to this, keep with it, it will take time, and lots of patience, but it will pay off big in the long run. :star_struck:

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Great that you remembered to do this. Youā€™re on track for 6-7 over the course of a year, but people who have been doing it much longer have had fewer than that. Hey, you are one in a row today. Letā€™s see what this week brings!

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Appreciate you saying that, yeah I feel very fortunate to have experienced these dreams, they were well worth the wait.

I need to up my meditation game, and remember to do it both in the morning and at night. I increased it this week, perhaps that is what helped fascilitate the dream.

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Great! Keep it up. Stay strong in the foundational practices: lucid awareness of the dream-like nature of experience and reaction to experience, build and maintain the strongest intent possible to achieve lucidity in dream, and memory reviews of the day and nightā€™s experiences. Remember what TWR writes in TYoDaS:

The importance of the day practices to the later stages of dream yoga cannot be overstated. They are much more powerful than they may appear to be.

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Yes I think you are absolutely right with the foundational practices. When I got the book 2 weeks ago, I decided to start saying ā€œthis is a dreamā€ and meaning it, rather than my old question of ā€œam I dreamingā€. I also began meditating more than I usually do last week. I need to work on my intention of achieveing lucidity in the dreams, and also need to do the memory reviews of the day experiences much more. Thank you, great tips!

That quote from TWR is so TRUE. I really appreciate you recommending his new book, it is worth its weight in gold, and then some. :slightly_smiling_face:

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What I notice when I regularly perform purposeful meditation sessions (where you set aside everything else and focus on your chosen practice) is that I am much more likely to spontaneously enter a meditative or near meditative state during the day, and to recognize and release tension (physical and mental) throughout the day. Iā€™m focusing now on the zhine meditation (with and without an external object, open eyed), and learning tummo tibetan tantric meditation (very powerful energy work) at the same time.

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Everything that appears in the dream is an aspect of yourself. I have found this Jung concept especially helpful. I would suggest that the woman in your dream is your animus, your female aspect, in white (a wedding dress?) and already at your fingertips ready to come forward in your life. Are you backing into a situation ā€” work or relationshipā€” that may be breaking down metaphorical walls for you? Keep going!!

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At your suggestion, I went and read chapter 11 in TWRs book. He said if you do not have a way to print out the copy, you can also draw the letter A by hand. I will start doing this meditation and the meditation with the lotus flower that you gave me. I really like how he said in the book that as a symbol of this, they would use a red cloth, and a clear transparent crystal, and place the crystal on the cloth to symbolize awareness.

Still have a great deal more of the book to read, I have been taking my time. Appreciate your help, thank you

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After reading your post it reminded me, that in my 2nd lucid dream this year, there was also a young woman, (she had black hair) In that dream she was sleeping, and I was trying to wake her by touching her face and shaking her body, but she would not wake. I wanted to tell her that i was Lucid dreaming, and flying, how bizzare that I did not realize she was a part of the dream, and it was pointless to tell her.

It wasnt a wedding dress, less formal, but not as slutty as lingerie, but of similar type of faberic, very silky, expensive, and comfortable.

She could definely be a part of my animus or subconscious. But when I woke and thought about it, I was compelled to google ā€œwhite buddhist goddessā€ or dakinis, but forgot tomdo it. Then @_Barry brought up the White Tara in one of your dream threads, and it reminded me to do the search again. The synchronicity of these two events, makes me think it was possibly her, represented in a more American format (I had never heard of White Tara before). Heres what I found about her:

ā€œShe symbolizes purity and is often represented standing at the right hand of her consort, Avalokiteshvara, or seated with legs crossed, holding a full-blown lotus. She is generally shown with a third eye. Tara is also sometimes shown with eyes on the soles of her feet and the palms of her hands (then she is called ā€œTara of the Seven Eyes,ā€ a form of the goddess popular in Mongolia).ā€

I think the white dress may have symbolized purity and peace (comfort). Reading this quote reminded me she was at my right hand side in the dream when I first tried to walk through the wall. Also the synchronicity of the hand with an eye in it, and your first forum post here, where you posted a really cool pic of the hive in the hand that made me post the NA pics of hands with eyes in them.
Lots of coincidences, which makes me think there may be something deeper at play:

" Like Avalokiteshvara, she is a [compassionate], succouring deity who helps men ā€œcross to the other shore.ā€ She is the protectress of navigation and earthly travel, as well as of spiritual travel along the path to enlightenment."

This is very fitting. While she was not a guide directly, without her ā€˜helpā€™ and presence in the dream, I would not have been compelled to do the Dream Yoga practices. Talk about being a teacher and guide in disguise!

And the fact that she accompanied me through the walls is really worth noting. Talk about very meaningful ā€œspiritual travelā€. This is definitely a metaphorical wall I have been trying to break through for over 3 years. Part of me thought I would never be able to do this! While it may seem like a small step for most Lucid dreamers, for me it was a giant leap along the spiritual path! :star_struck:

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Fantastic! I also like your words of encouragement. ā†’

If there are other members out there who are new to this, keep with it, it will take time, and lots of patience, but it will pay off big in the long run. :star_struck:

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@py_by_the_bay

No doubt patience pays off. I have heard Andrew say having LDs is like trying to get a big pot of water to boil, depending on the size of the pot (your karma) and the size of the flame (your practices and study) that will determine the time it takes to boil. I think my pot was the size of a few dozen olympic swimming pools :upside_down_face:

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I also think that what we do in the daytime can directly affect our dreaming, so when people report their dreams I often wonder what they have been reading, watching, practicing, thinking, in the day(s) before. I watched Slumberland and Pinocchio on Netflix recently and I think both influenced my dreams the past few nights, the ones I can remember.

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Undoubtedly my karma pot is large and full, too. Many years of accumulated very strong unconscious conditioning. And itā€™s not just a matter of turning up the flame as high as you can ā€“ you have to find the delicate balance where you donā€™t use too much power and trip the breakers and have to go back a few steps and resume at a lower intensity level. As TWR writes in TYoDaS (p.140 chapter 16 2022 edition): ā€œThe secret teaching is ā€“ relax.ā€

I did that this morning at a late-ish waking (7th hour after bed, probably 6 hours of sleep) where I debated getting up. I decided instead to try for some LDs. ā€œTryingā€ didnā€™t go anywhere, as usual. So I decided instead to just practice maximal relaxation and some light visualization and just ā€œlet whatever will happen, happen.ā€ After some while of continual physical and mental relaxation, I eventually drifted off for what felt like a full sleep cycle full of non-lucid dreams, and then some 3 separate lucid dreams/events. They were quite fun, and inspiring. These occurred about 20 days since my last lucid dream events, so my dry spells are, just maybe, beginning to shrink down to under a month. It seems the water is starting to warm up at last!

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This is a pretty crazy phenomena, even things that are trivial experiences seem to get swept into the dream world, along with the noval and unique experiences.

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ALL 3 of my LDs this year occured by this method. How ironic that by not trying, it allows you to achieve what you have been trying so hard for.

What did you do for your maximal relaxation practice?

Congratulations, that is some big news. Sounds like your efforts are paying off.

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Relaxation is something Iā€™m continually working on improving, but Iā€™ve had some success in the past. I usually start with 4 deep 4-7-8 breaths, then try to settle breathing into a very light, comfortable, sleep-y pattern where the exhale is longer than the inhale. On all of the exhales I release all physical and mental tension simultaneously (I usually donā€™t do body scans, I find them stimulating, trying to keep track of where Iā€™ve been and where Iā€™m going). I pay particular attention to the head/face tension: tongue, jaw, eyes. It helps to have the ā€œsurrender/give upā€ mindset, and not be trying to make anything happen with the relaxation, other than to relax more and more. Think how wonderful it is to be soooo relaxed, smile a bit even, perhaps, briefly (release the tension from your cheeks!).

I usually experiment with other things if this is not enough: breath focus (e.g., sensation on the nostrils).

The astral projection literature (Iā€™m particularly thinking of Master Astral Projection, a nice step-by-step day-by-day practice guide, teaching relaxation, body awareness, and separation techniques) has decent relaxation ideas.

The trick to having success in getting back to sleep via relaxation is really dedicating yourself to it. ā€œJust say noā€ to following thought chains. The closer to wake-up time, the tricker this is for me, as my mind really starts revving things up: to-do lists, planning, worries, etc. Making a (relaxed!) concerted effort, maybe just ā€œdedicationā€ is a better word, to only relaxing, can bring success, Iā€™ve found.

Thanks! I had another (low level) LD last night, even with my crazy late bedtime (01:30, several hours behind usual schedule).

Itā€™s really important to keep the whole practice, daytime and night-time, as something that results in openness, lightness, spaciousness. The emphasis is on resting in vivid, lucid awareness, with a calm, quiet mind. TWR uses that phrase a lot.

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He also terms the waking state our ā€œpain bodyā€ which is an interesting focus for approaching daytime practice.

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Great tips. I do not do the breath work enough, thank you for the reminder on how powerful ot is, especially for pre sleep practice.

Have you had any success with doing Astral Projection? I have never been able to do it, but believe it is possible.

Kind of a crazy synchronicity, last night I had a dream about you, we were talking in a building about lucid dreaming, and I know I was really close to becoming lucid, but did not achieve it. Going to write a thread about the dreams of that night because I had some success with incubation, which I have not had in the past

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I have heard Ekhart Tolle use the term pain body as well in his youtube videos. Definitely worth checking out if you havent seen his channel, its a goldmine.

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Long exhale breathing is really worth developing, as this stimulates the vagus nerve and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (puts the body into rest mode, out of flight-or-fight mode).
I donā€™t do the 4-7-8 for long, as the breath holding I consider not all that comfortable or restful, but you can feel the heartrate slowing during the hold. After just a few 4-7-8ā€™s (sometimes I donā€™t hold that long, but just do bigger breaths with longer exhales), I settle into 2-4 or 2-3 even, just with the emphasis on a slightly longer exhale.
I used this successfully again last night to get back to sleep at a middle of the night waking where my drowsiness was mostly gone. Another great tip against insomnia is: do NOT look at the time. I ended up sleeping until 11:00, with a bedtime of 01:00. (Too long, but nice to know I can do it still. Winter is good for long sleeps).

No. Iā€™m agnostic about whether AP is just LD. But never having had any, I remain open. I lean towards thinking that AP is just WILD. My reasoning is that the AP literature reads practically word for word like a WILD guide, and that AP proponents seem to need to resort to more and more complicated reasoning for why AP is not LD. But Iā€™m not going to argue about that, not having had any experiences myself.

Nice! I missed two opportunities for LDs last night, but still feel good about being close: one where I tried to fly (the urge to fly is a very strong dream sign) but fell (a new phenomenon which I donā€™t particularly like, I love flying, lucid or not, so that will probably take some day visualization work to remedy), and later when I observed dancing patterns of light in the sky [another BIG dream sign] that resolved into dogfighting planes, one of which landed right next to me on the street and was the size of a large model airplane. Yeah, how I missed that, Iā€™m not sure!

Incubation is powerful and fairly simple. Just think about a topic/image as you fall asleep, even just right before bed. When Iā€™ve tried that recently, Iā€™ve almost always ended up having at least one dream about that subject.

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