LD4all Quest 62: Be your own Guru

[Puce]

Finally WBTB worked for me. I’ve been trying to do it for more than a month now (although only on weekends) and tonight I either found the perfect timing or the fact that coffee helps a lot. I went to sleep at midnight (and I must’ve fallen asleep pretty quickly) and woke up with my alarm at 4:20. I made myself a cup of coffee and read an engaging book for an hour and then I went back to sleep at exactly 5:20. By the time I had woken up at 6:00, I’d had a lucid dream.

So here is me completing the monthly task (I’m not typing the whole dream down, because it was pretty long, most of it has nothing to do with the mothly task and I remember many details but this is the part in which I did the task):

(I was lucid in the dream by this time) I was walking on the streets of the city my home’s in, although it was not a place I recognized. Everywhere looked deserted except for me, a few people from my school and a group of (maybe 4 or 5) around 9 years old children with very sullen faces. They were walking without speaking or doing anything else at all. So I grabbed a few candies from a shop and gave them those. They did not speak nor show any emotion. Remembering of the task, I asked them if they knew how to smile. They pulled the ends of their lips upwards to create misshaped smiles on their faces. I told them it was not the way they were supposed to do it and explained how they could smile instead. They were actually very fast learners, all of them could do it properly by the time I was finished with my quick lesson. We then exchanged farewells and I went to the people from my school.

That’s it.

[bquips]

WOW!! I love the idea of this. I am back after a brief visit a few years ago when I was trying to understand what was happening to me when I fell asleep as it was getting a bit scary. Since then my “problem” has recurred and I am having those funny dream experiences again rather frequently so I came back here to find some answers after discovering that I may actually be having OOBE entangled with LD!!?
Not sure what exactly to call my night adventures but not as scared as I first was, although there is still a very real and intense fear.
Seeing this quest I think I’ll have a go, trying to avoid my dreams by staying up so late etc isnt working so perhaps if I have a focus it will help me control what is going on better and thus lessen the anxiety. I dont have to try hard to enter LD state, it seems to happen spontaneously without any specific trigger but if I think about and focus on it before going to sleep that increases the likelihood of it happening. I’ll give it a go tonight, putting myself into that state of consciousness may increase the control I have over what I see, feel and do. Can’t hurt! will update progress tomorrow if any success, otherwise as and when!

[Carnun]

I think I have finally achieved some success in completeing this quest…although… its a little up to interpretation as I had a different idea of what the quest involved.

Attacked by some giant old men
I am in a sort of platform leading into a large doorway. Its relatively dark, but a little futuristic also. I am looking at my hands, and I realize I am dreaming! Yes… I am lucid… my hands look incredibly detailed and sharp, like they are under some microscope – the lines are deep and heavy. I float a little off the ground, pleased that I am dreaming – giant older men start walking through the doorway towards me. They are dressed in suits, deliberately trying to get in my way. But, hey… I am lucid so I can do whatever I want! I try to elbow one of them, kick out at another – it takes more effort than I realize to actually hit them, or even stop their momentum in my direction. They feel threatening, and when hitting out at them doesn’t seem to work, I feel slightly panicked about what else I can do in this situation. At this moment, I vividly remember this month’s quest, ‘Be your own Guru!’ – I thought instead of attacking these old men, I will just ask myself why they are here and learn what it means. I ask out in a loud voice, “ Why are these men here?” my disembodied voice replies “They represent the students you work with - they are disproportionately bigger than you because you perceive them that way”
The dream begins to fade, I look at my hands again and I bring the dream back into focus. I practice this technique a few times and find it quite successful in prolonging the dream. I think to myself, “why does looking at your hands have this effect in people’s lucid dreams?” - I was actually just a question of curiosity, but my disembodied voice replies anyway “paying attention to your hands activates the ‘hands’ area of the homunculus– the largest area of the motor cortex therefore creating the maximum amount of stimulation without over stimulating yourself awake!” That was not expected?! (Although, it’s a theory I have come up in waking life before!)
I lie back and let myself lazily float a little bit more – the old men have gone now, I think what to do next… well… it wouldn’t be my lucid dream if I didn’t get naked!!

I have to admit, I didn’t actually read the Quest details before, I had only looked at the title on the homepage – Be your own Guru – which I thought was pretty self explanatory – ask yourself a question and see what answer you get. I didn’t realize you had to teach a dream character something… in an essence, I was teaching my own dream character something about my waking life situation, and then about the brain mechanisms of sleep and dreaming… so, I leave this one open to the jury. I feel I did complete the quest based on the information I understood at the time. And at the end , aren’t we all just but characters in a dream?

[bquips]

weyhey thats awesome. I too had some success in this one although its fairly new to me to be in control in my LD I usually end up floating about, trying to jump out the window and scaring myself awake. I’ll try and explain it as best I can, the violet colour is the dream and the blue colour is just me RL talking.
In the early hours of this morning I was wide awake having had about 2 hours sleep only (and I know this doesnt fit with the usual rule but what can I say, I have to say it as it happened) I went online, had a cuppa and eventually felt tired enough to go back to bed and try to get back to sleep. I hadnt had any dreams that I recall at this point.
Anyway, I settled down and thought about some of the stuff I had read and figured now was as good a time as any to put it into practice. I dont have to try and get myself into the right state to LD I quite often end up there by accident. So, I lay down and read a little and as I started to feel myself getting increasingly drowsy I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply to stay relaxed. Somewhere I heard a doorbell go but didnt open my eyes and focussed on relaxing. I heard a loud wind like rushing noise and saw patterns of light flashes of colours-
I am standing on my bed, which is odd because I dont remember getting up, I have that slightly unsettled feeling and my stomach is in knots. I lift one foot and the rest of me follows I know absolutely that I am asleep.
Usually when this happens I waste the whole dream trying to wake up but this was somehow different. Something familiar I couldnt quite place. So I jump and sure enough the rest of my body goes with it and I’m very quickly and easily above my bed looking at the room. The room is the same, not unusual in my dreams, the clock says 605, I know it was about 0545 when I last looked at the clock while I was reading,
I never know the significance of this so I cant explain any of it becasuse I dont understand it.
Something in my mind is trying to get me to do something and I find myself looking at my hands. Oooop, that wasnt there when I went to bed, wow its true, I am in a LD and I know I am, I try to bring to mind a girl its a girl Ive dreamt about for a long time now, she often appears in my dreams, the first time was when I was very ill and in hospital. I saw this girl, dressed in blue and white checked long dress, long brown hair in plaits on each side of her head. A pretty, unassuming, sweet face. I always imagined it was my daughter grown up. It really helped me get well the first time I saw her because I figured if I was seeing her at this age, around 8yrs old, that must mean I was going to see her in RL which meant I had to get better didnt I? Since she was only 4yrs in RL I figured I had at least 4yrs of life left. That was a good thing, it helped me get well.
Anyway, I thought about this young girl, I focused on what she looked like, how I remember seeing her last and she was there with me. Sitting on the end of my bed. The clock still says 0605hrs but it feels like time has passed. Its hard to explain. I try and talk to her but cant move my mouth, I feel panicky again until I concentrate on telling myself I am trying to move my RL mouth, thats why I cant, I need to concentrate on speaking to her within the dream not within my physical body. Somehow words are spoken. I tell her to come up here and join me but she looks incredulous as if I was crazy. “Its fine” I tell her “just jump youll be up here with me then i can talk to you more easily.” She stands up and puts one foot on the bed but looks unsure. “Just jump” I tell her again. She jumps, hovers a short while and then lands with both feet on the bed. Again, my mind is trying to tell me something, something I know, “picture yourself as a bird, concentrate on where you want to be and you’ll be there.” I say. There is a strange sound, like a whirring noise, I look at my hands again as everything starts to kind of get dim, but we’re back, and she is there, with me, high above the bed. She looks at me with an excited smile on her face. I have this idea to flap my arms about a bit (of course I read that on here when I was trying to learn how to control what I was dreaming) and all of a sudden I am moving about the room. Its amazing, I am not scared, I am in control, I Iook over to the girl but she is gone and I start to spin around like I did when I was little and trying to make myself giddy but somehow I lost my concentration, things start to dim again quite quickly until there is just a blackness. I am suddenly aware of the pressure of my mattress on my back, the pillow under my head, my nose is tickly, I look at the clock-its 0615hrs.

I cant explain what happened, or how so little time passed while I think I was dreaming. But I fully believe it was a LD and that I was aware and in control to some extent. Whilst the girl did float up to join me (so I think that would qualify as teaching her something) I also learnt how to move about within the dream…to fly if you like. That was totally new to me. Incredible. It may be common place for you but I actually taught myself something within my dream. I dont mind if you think this wasnt the task. I taught the DC and myself something and that suits me absolutely fine. Im very happy about it and looking forward to trying it out again.

[Qu (aka pasQuale)]

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Congratulations

kristaps
Tggtt
Black Bird
Puce
bquips

for earning your wings with this Quest!

Well done, Wyvern for completing the Quest, extra cookies and invisible wings added!

@Carnun: the jury thinks you haven’t officially completed this Quest, even though you remembered the title, you haven’t done the exact Quest that belonged to it… So next time read the Quest as well! Although for the next one the title of the Quest says it all

and well done for everyone who tried but didn’t succeed this time
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This Quest is now officially over, which means you cannot earn your wings anymore by completing it.

Another opportunity to earn your wings in the next Quest

[Wulf (Running wolf)]

I always take longer then a month to complete a Quest… but I am satisfied with myself that I completed it .

My preparations:
I wanted to go to Calla, and teach Ansie who the wolves are.

Here is my dream of this evening:
Me and Ansie are running to catch the train, and want to climb over the fence to take a shortcut. I suddenly stop, and Ansie stops as well. I told Ansie that I was lucid (exact words: ‘I am Lucid!’). She looks at me with big eyes, but before she can say something I continue. ‘I want to teach you’. And I teach her something which I can’t recall any more, but it all made perfect sense. To be sure Ansie understood me and that I had completed my Lucid Quest, I asked: ‘Did I teach you?’ She replied: ‘Yes’.

There I lost lucidness, and we tried to get on the train again .