VVoVV's Blog

[VVoVV]

This is the start of my blog tracking my practice and experiments in the Phase/Lucid Dreaming.

For context, I'm 47 years old, I've been engaging in spiritual practices that include (more or less in chronological order):

• Wicca
• Taoism
• Buddhism
• Hermetic Kabbalah'
• pataphysics

These days my spirituality is best described as: I can get along with a Buddhist, have a vigorous argument about Kabbalah, and suspect you may be dreaming.

While in my personal practice I'm firmly of a mystical mindset, where I prioritize unique personal experience over universal rule, I'm inclined to look toward repeatable, well sourced information when learning how to find those experiences.

I've been actively treating Lucid Dreaming as part of my spiritual practice since the start of 2023. As of today I've had 30 lucid dreams total. I encountered "The Phase" through Rudaga's 2021 paper on the subject and have dived in.

In the early portions of this blog I'll be recording my attempts using the Phase/DCIM technique, and the methods I'm using to enhance my practice. As I progress in skill and experience I hope to also detail my findings in the Lucid/Phase state.

[VVoVV]

In fact I started the work last week. Thus, I'm a bit behind, so I will include the first record I have.

2024-05-01 - 3rd attempt
Methods:

• Phantom wiggle
• Forehead Dot
• Forced Sleep

No LD's.

I only managed one cycle, had considerable trouble falling asleep and not great quality sleep. From the cycle I did I got some moderate sensation, but nothing that felt close to a Phase state.

2024-05-03 - 4th attempt
Methods:

• Flying: I could actually feel my skin get cold from the wind.
• Straining Brain Technique: I got a distinctive sensation of pulsing in my skull.
• Forced Sleep

No LD's.

I managed about 4 rounds of it before I decided I was too tired and really needed the sleep more than practice.

For the first couple of rounds I had considerable trouble falling back asleep. I think part of the problem was trying for more than 1 minute. I need to focus on speed of my cycles in meditation sessions.

Sensations:

• At one point I had a vivid hallucination of approaching the end of a tunnel going outside.
• I felt what I think they call vibrations, in almost a pulsing pattern during the straining technique.
• I had a very distinct sensation as though my whole body were swelling like a balloon.

Analysis and revision:

• I started at the front of the night, and burned all my energy at the least productive time, I'm going to set an alarm mid way through my sleep to indicate when to start the practice.
• I suspect the combination of the Flying and Straining Brain Technique are too similar for my use, they both relate to physical sensation. Since the Straining technique has given a strong result, I'm going to keep that and add a more visual. For tonight I'm adding the "creating vision" technique.

[VVoVV]

2024-05-05 - 5th attempt

Induction Methods:

• Brain Strain
• Creating Vision
• Forced Sleep

No LD's

I went to bed 2 hours later than planned and had a bed mate, neither of which felt conducive to the work.

I set an alarm for 3.5 hours after I went to sleep. I woke a few minutes before the alarm went off. Got up, visited the little dreamers room, finished my glass of water and got another. I considered doing a 30 second plank to increase awareness, but felt at the right level of alertness.

I did at least 4 attempts through the night, and at least one of them was 3+ cycles. There was a point where, projecting myself to my target, I had some sensation, but it was consciously imagined.

Physical and mental exhaustion took their toll this time, I think it's worth repeating the exact same on Tuesday.

I need to lean into doing full attempts inside of a minute in my meditation practice, both to get the feel for what it's like, and to make the flow of it reflex. The problem with that approach is to keep from making it a mindless ritual and continue to look for hints of "the phase."

[VVoVV]

2024-05-07 - 6th Attempt

Induction Methods:

• Brain Strain
• Observing Images
• Forced Sleep

I went to bed at roughly 1am and slept until 9:30. I set an alarm to wake me at 5am to get uninterrupted sleep.

• At ~6am I woke up for the first time, but missed doing the process entirely.
• From that point I woke up roughly every hour until 8am. I had anything from a full cycle of 4 attempts with the induction methods to only getting 1 or 2 in before losing focus.
• After 8am the cycles were closer to every 20 minutes. During one of these I became lucid.

The overall feeling of the cycles was flat this time. In a previous attempt I had vivid hallucinations using these techniques. This time I didn't get much response at all. At one point I abandoned the Brain Strain technique because when I did the 'just getting up' dissociation technique it felt natural to continue, so I vividly imagined walking down the stairs and to my bathroom. It felt like active imagining as opposed to a dream.

Lucid

At one point, I got up out of bed, but rising felt too easy. I stood up, but there was no effort involved. I was reasonably confident I was in a dream. It felt like my eyes were gummed up with something, I rubbed them but couldn't clear my vision. I rubbed my hands together and blew on them, trying to stabalize the dream. I opened my eyes and was in my bed.