Character Assisted Lucid Dreaming...CALD part VI

So last night I noticed that The Doctor (now pictured in my avatar) is much more vivid during our pre-sleep conversations, and he also seems to be significantly more independent than when I started out with him. Last night in our conversation we were walking through my old neighborhood. It felt pretty neat showing him the sights, though I’m sure he would have preferred being atop Mt. Everest or exploring some foreign world.

He’s really started to come into his, making sure to distinguish himself from other characters in my dreams/daydreams. He’s also given me some insights on this whole CALD thing that I would really like to share. He and I have come up with the theory that these independent characters are still in some way a part of us. Getting in touch with them is like forming a bond with our SC, or something even deeper.

I’ve personally always believed that we humans have multiple parts. They could be called many thing; Body, Spirit and Soul (my personal belief); Mind, Will and Emotions; Id, Ego and Superego; really anything you can think of for these parts would work. I think we’re in touch with these first two parts, but not the third (or fourth/fifth depending on some beliefs). Perhaps these characters are a way of finally giving these parts a voice.

Of course this is all speculation. It will take a lot of time before The Doctor and I really figure out what is happening.

… Wow C: That’s cool. I’ve always had an interest in doing a bit of research on psycology-philosophy(soul and spirit) based…stuff? myself. You two spark curiousity in me. I’m glad to hear things are going well, you two seem to have a more vivid experience together than what I’ve seen before. So what part of you do you believe The Doctor is (or helps you to connect with)?

Really, I don’t know what it is he represents. For all I know, he could be a culmination of many different parts of my SC. I do know he is many things I’ve always wanted to be. He’s a very sound, logical person, can travel where ever/when ever he wants, and most of all he is undeniably good.

I don’t know… my theory is no where ready to be put out yet. I will say, however, that I believe our characters do always remain a part of us. This is a very fascinating concept, and someday I’ll be glad to share the rest of this little experiment of mine.

Yeah, sure! I’m always happy to share my insights.

Over the last few days I’ve been really busy so I have forgotten to try the technique. On Wednesday I saw Avatar (which is an incredible film) and I came back really late so I forgot to try the method. However, I did have some weird Avatar related dream…I think I was lucid at some points.

So I’m back now and I can let you people know about my progress.

A few nights ago I initiated a conversation with my characters. I could see a brief image of where I was, and I was so tired that I could actually hear their voices (probably HI). It was quite interesting to listen to. I’m going to try again tonight, get into a really deep state like that and try the VILD-CALD method.

Very cool. I’ve never gotten to the point where I can hear The Doctor (well, not with my ears, but I have had some HI where I was able to see his face without having to purposfully trying to picture it). It sounds like it would be awesome.

Rhewin: Well, soon enough you’ll know what The Doctor is to you-- and I hope it’ll be a useful realization for you. What I know is that Characters will always live through our perception, and be confined within our perception and mind. What I wonder is if that makes them any less valid? But yes. Have fun with his development C:

Teraflare8866: I’m glad you got to enjoy Avatar. Wicked movie isn’t it? C: Good luck with the trance-hearing. Actualy, that’s how CALD started, I tried a conversation with Naknus while REALLY tired :P. I hope you get to experience some more interesting things-- Seeing my character’s physiques and hearing their voices in dreams was amazing, having an adventure with them is much more so awesome! C: As I said to Rhewin, have fun! C:

Yeah, it’s such a great movie. I might visit Pandora with my characters in a future LD.

A couple of years ago I was suffering from frequent HH episodes that used to leave me stricken with insomnia. The HH were really disturbing - when I opened my eyes I began seeing turtles, spiders and snakes walking across my wall. At one point I saw a human eye staring at me. Creepy stuff. Fortunately I’ve come to terms with the HH and know how to ‘get rid of it’ and know how to prevent myself from seeing it.

The deepest I’ve ever got in HI was one night (Christmas) when I was trying to sleep. I closed my eyes and saw a very vivid image of this actor. It was like he was in front of me. When I opened my eyes (it was dark and when its dark I can’t get rid of the HH) I saw loads of disturbing HI like mutants and scary things, and even a minature person.

Now that I know how to control HI I can use that to my advantage to speak to my characters. It takes some determination though - I get scared because I might have another HH episode (the difference between the two is that HH is when I see visuals with my eyes open, and HI is hallucinations with my eyes closed). I’ll experiment with it tonight and see how I do - it’s getting late where I am so I’ll be bed in less than an hour.

Wow-- That’s really frightening. I’m fortunate I’ve never had a HH, I’ll be sure to look it up to be ready-- I’m sure it’ll be cool if you can see your chars vividly, though C:

I have a lot to report - this might turn out to be a long post.

To start off, I went to bed as usual and then began daydreaming about my characters. It wasn’t very vivid like the time I had a few nights ago but it was still fun. During that ‘episode,’ I suddenly told my characters to make me lucid. I made it very abrupt and short, and then I continued the conversation as usual.

That night, I managed to have a lucid dream. It was very short and I had little to no control, but it was still a LD. At one point, a DC tried to distract me. When he did, I told him off for distracting me and then resumed the dream. I shortly had a FA and did not become lucid afterwards.

Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I decided to continuously fall asleep with my mantras and asked my characters to make me lucid. After immediately waking up, I tried to visualise a scene but I think I moved too much. I fell asleep shortly afterwards though.

The dream started with me and some of my friends talking about LDs in a port town at night (it reminded me of the port me and my characters stayed at when we were travelling to the Galtean province’s capital). I had this object, and when I pointed it towards the sky I could change the shape of the object, and it made a huge shadow of the sky of a random object. I continued having fun with this, and came lucid shortly after.

I immediately remembered about my characters - and I invented a method of summoning them. With my fingers, I trace a circle across the ground (I don’t actually put my fingers on the ground, but I draw it in air in relation to where I want it on the ground) and then summon a huge beam of light, and when that light fades my characters should appear. I decided to do so once at a time. First I summoned Shadow. When I saw him, he looked slightly different to what I imagine him to look like. He began talking to me, asking me how I was, and we had a little conversation. My friends came over and I introduced Shadow to them, and they looked puzzled.

I thought it was time to summon another characters. I summoned a female character using the same method, but she looked someone like I knew in real life. I tried to change her but I couldn’t. Because it didn’t work, I decided to banish the puppet by tracing a hole in the ground, and making her fall down it. I laughed and realised this power could be used in later LDs. Shortly after, she emerged from the ground again. My mistake - I knew she was a powerful magic user (in my daydreams).

Because my friends were there I felt as if I would get embarassed showing them the rest of my characters, so I decided not to (I was annoyed at myself when I woke up). I woke up shortly after and tried the VILD method.

I got very close. Whilst imagining a scene, I felt a huge surge of energy pulling at me and it was as if I was being pulled into the dream scene. At first I thought it was SP, so I decided to stop because it was pretty scary. I didn’t have any more LDs so I decided to wake up and post my experience here.

I’m happy that I managed to have 2 Lucid Dreams in one night thanks to CALD - and I still have something to try - meeting with all of my characters! And, next time I VILD I’ll try not to get scared like I did this morning.

@Teraflare8866, first off, that is unspeakably awesome. Good for you!

There must have been something in the air last night, because I had an LD as well. The Doctor and I have been talking about them for a while, and he’s always said that he would do what he can. This morning, I had an LD as well. Unfortunately I was not able to find The Doctor. Though the dream was extremely vivid, I had little control and was unable to will him to me. Also, the other DC’s were less than helpful.

I struck up a conversation with The Doctor after I woke up and was just laying in bed (has the same effect as when I’m falling asleep). While he didn’t take credit for the dream, he did confirm that he was trying to find me as well. He described a kind of barrier keeping him out of my dreams, though he was able to hear me calling out his name. I wonder what that means

Anywho, I’m gonna have to keep looking for him in my dreams. In the meantime, I’m not sure if I would call this RCILD or CALD.

Teraflare: Wow, that’s… exciting! C: I’m sure it’ll be eventful in later times-- good for you for all of your progress! You’ve achieved a fair bit. What else can I say but keep up the good work? C:

Rhewin: I’ve never heard of a ‘barrier’ keeping characters away in dreams, Hopefully you’ll find him in another dream soon, but congrats on the LD C: Perhaps this LD is attributed to both? CALD is usually counted when there is character involvement in the process of attaining a LD. C: Hope you get to see him soon in your dreams.

So far nothing yet,but then again I don’t think I was trying that hard because I was excited I pre-ordered this game I wanted.

Don’t worry, just try to put some time in when you can, you can still achieve LDs passively-- But try to continue Reality Checks and your dream journal, yeah? C:

Darn it, I have a unique problem . I’ve been thinking he was in the dream itself, but I was stuck somewhere else. I know it sounds wierd, but I’ve always felt that my SC has been a tad antagonistic against me in my dreams. I often feel that it does things to prevent me from becoming lucid. It would make sense that it would try to keep The Doctor away. Hopefully the two of us can work this out.

This technique keeps working for me! I had another LD last night, but didn’t remember to summon my characters thanks to the nature of the dream. First of all, the dream went really unstable, so I began rubbing my hands together and shouted “increase lucidity” and “clarity, now!” The dream became stable, but the scene changed. I ended up in my house, but something was telling me I was in a futuristic city. I checked the time, and it was the year 2030. It didn’t look much different though.

The dream was pretty frightening after that, because I was alone in my house at night, and this woman in a black cloak came up to me and told me my parents had been killed. Another weird thing was, that each time I tried to talk the woman, I kept being sick and that prevented me from doing anything.

But I’m still happy that I managed to have a LD! I’m just 18 LDs away from achieving my goal of 50 Lucids!

Rhewin: Well, if you feel that the issue may be difficult to deal with-- ask your dreams! Often times when we go lucid, when we choose to use the dream for self-reflections and to get answers, we get very useful, and often unexpected results.

It should be as easy as “Why can’t I see The Doctor in my dreams?”, which you could ask your sub. As a note, approaching figure in a kind way rather than aggressive has always (in my experience and reading others) lead to a more positive end. Try it out! C: Meanwhile, try pondering yourself and see what you find C:

Teraflare8866: You’re on a hot streak! C: Congratulations. I’m glad you’re making such great strides towards mastering your own personal LD inductions. Everyone has their own way to consistently LD, and you’re really getting yours C: .

I hope you won’t have such frightening dreams in the future. Try to remember that you are in control, and that it is entirely within your power to do what you like. I think you know that having constructive dialogues with DC like that often leads to resolution within the dream, as well as some interesting revelations-- That’s why you were trying to talk to her, yeah? C: . Great Job!

I sure hope this hot streak continues, because it’s still going - I managed to have another LD last night! It was short but was very vivid. I had a FA that was a notch below lifelike for its vividness. My RCs failed, and my reflection looked normal in the mirror. Wish I became lucid from that

Sometimes when I have frightening dreams I try to wake myself up rather than resolve the conflict. Next time I have a nightmare, I’ll combat it with lucidity.

Well it would seem whatever issues I had before I was able to get over. This morning, after starting an LD via MILD, I got to meet the doctor. Here’s the exerpt from my DJ. Now up to this point, the drean had some stability issues as my RL left eye kept trying to open, and I had to save the dream on various occasions. I did take a dream pill (which tasted like chalk), to help me control my dream and find The Doctor.

It’s funny, because he was a tad older than in my avatar pictures, more like he was in a few guest appearances later in the series. Of course, that may also be because that’s what I was picturing when trying to imagine him. Anyway, it was an awesome experience. I can’t tell you how happy I was after I awoke. I’m still smiling

Edit: @Teraflare8866, I’m noticing a pretty big increase in LD’s as well this month. I’m up to 3 vivid and 2 hazy, which is way more than my previous record. I think it’s safe to say that CALD is relatively effective .

I read most of thread one and two and this technique seems pretty effective. I created a character named Josh. I drew him since my visualization skills aren’t that great, good thing I’m good at drawing though. lol

My character still seems pretty “puppet-like”, but I’ve been trying that automatic writing I think it is, and it’s been helping a little bit. Oh yea, I wanted to ask you Talon, when your characters talk to you, do there voices sound like different…if you know what I mean. Sorry if that doesn’t really make sense, I don’t know how to word it right now. XD

Teraflare8866: Rockin. C: I remember reading about how to combat FAs, a part of it is doing RCs when waking up-- I hope you have fun taking apart your next nightmare!

Rhewin: Dream pill? That’s new. I am interested. I’m glad you got to meet the doctor! I have noticed that characters are always a bit different in dreams, versus how you’d imagine them. this can be exciting too, since I couldn’t imagine my characters realistically-- to see them in dreams was great.

Ch3rry: It’s good that you’re adept at drawing C: It can be useful. As for their voices-- I don’t actually hear anything I’d call verbal. It’s more… just a sense of understanding of what’s being said. Like in my own thoughts. Sorry if that didn’t help ^^; But! In dreams, their voices are exactly as I’d imagine them to be C: