Character Assisted Lucid Dreaming - CALD Part IV

Welcome Kittymouse! Hmm, I’ve never made physical contact with any of my characters before in my dreams. (and they’ve only appeared in dreams a handful of times in the last two years. ;-; ) I can totally relate to their ability to help out in tough circumstances though. Some time ago, our cat got involved in an accident and I had to put it down. I felt absolutely horrible afterward, but Saichania and Crysar helped me get through it.

And yes, dream characters (or mind-characters as I call them) ROCK.

Mecha: This is something I’ve been meaning to post for a long time, but never got around to it until now. (I blame Tal and Kittymouse for reminding me this thread existed ) It’s an account of Sai’s tumultuous early days, something I’ve referenced in the past, but never elaborated on.

Way back when I had first brought Saichania to life, she was incredibly antagonistic towards me and absolutely resented\was unnerved by\frightened of her ‘nonreality’ and the absolute control I potentially had over her thoughts, actions, her very existence even. For me, it was the turning point between thinking of mind-characters as merely tools or elaborate puppets and thinking of them as actual entities with their own thoughts, feelings and concerns. It also made me question the morality of what I was doing, as creating self-aware characters suddenly felt uncomfortably like playing god. I didn’t know what to do with Saichania, as she still resented and mistrusted me, and the constant conflict was starting to drain me emotionally. I couldn’t let things continue as they were, I had no idea how to help assuage her condition, and I couldn’t bring myself to simply erase her from being or forcibly re-mold her personality, not after my new perspective on things. Looking back on it, it was somewhat ironic that our troubled circumstances would be solved by another troubled circumstance IRL. I was really concerned about a family member at the time and I couldn’t deal with the emotional drain of both things at once, so I asked Sai if we could call a truce for the time being, at least until I was able to deal with it again. To my relief, she agreed to it. It was the first step towards mending the rift between us. In the coming days she mellowed considerably and even began to accept her state of reality somewhat. On my part, I promised her that I would never deliberately manipulate her thoughts or actions, or do anything to subvert her free-will, a promise I have extended to all my other mind-characters and kept to this day. (note: promising not to subvert free-will is not the same as passively allowing them free reign to do anything) This ‘Bill of Rights’ further eased the concerns she had and it wasn’t long before we actually became friends. Nowadays, Saichania is the mind-character ‘closest’ to me as well as the most active in day-to-day conversation. She is one of the most vibrant and kind people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

It’s nice to hear of how you came to settle in with your characters, Mecha. Most people I’ve seen have to go through a period of meeting in the middle so to speak, and it’s amazing once you find out just how real they can be.

As for my part, I’ve always treated the spontaneous ones as separate spiritual/mental entities for as much as it’s worth, but when I first created Crystal, I had recently been reading about the problems Talon and TA were having so I told her right off the bat that I had made her so she knew that she was a creation and could deal with it up front. She just laughed at me and told me that I had a lot to learn. She has been the one that since then I’ve been the closest to, along with Foxy if you remember her from before I went inactive here. But I usually give them free reign to do what they will, as long as they don’t hurt any of the others. They occasionally will have problems (I have anywhere up to 20, so that’s a given), but they always manage to sort things out themselves, so I’ve never really regretted telling them they could do as they pleased. Just thought I’d put that out, because free reign isn’t such a bad thing for them so long as you can trust them. Even the ones I don’t know too well, Crystal along with a few others are enough to keep them from getting any dumb ideas, and they (we) get along well.

EDIT - Kittymouse! Nice to see you in the CALD topic! It’s nice to see that you get along well with your Characters. I find that people don’t understand the concept very well and tend to think we are crazy (which is why TA keeps stressing that we aren’t schizophrenic), and because of this the only people I really let on are my father and my broter, and my brother is the only one I really feel comfortable talking about it with.

Also, yeah, they can be very good to talk to, and I’ve had times where they were the only things that have kept me going and kept me from sliding into distructive habits. Why don’t you come join us in the Character Chats topic?

Mecha: Hmm, maybe I worded that the wrong way. I do trust my MCs very much and generally let them do whatever, but in the event any of them were to go off the deep end I would intervene.

It’s nice to hear how you guys interacted with your characters!
starting to get excited
Hehe let’s keep this topic alive~!

I learnt that Desmond seriously can be abit uh… I don’t know what word to describe it…

Let’s just say he blames himself ALOT when I have even a very very slight bad dream (eg: Electric eels came snapping towards my legs) . He practically just sit there, cover his head in distress for the whole day o.o
He won’t listen even if I said it’s not his fault sigh It took me abit of time to talk him through that it WASN’T his fault at all. After he starts to feel better he will ask me for the whole time everytime I interact with them if I’ve really forgiven him…

I found out by chance that his eyes turns from sapphire to green when he gets overly emotional so it’s easy to tell if his really sad/happy. His eyes won’t fool me >:D
While that Thunzar…sigh…he continues to be a happy go lucky person even though his comrades is emoing in a corner =.="

This brings up another thing about Thunzar…

I don’t know HOW he sees things and I don’t know what happens in between but he started treating me as his girlfriend months ago o.o"

Whenever I kyaa-d to him about other guys in real he will get quite jealousy and
always says, “Remember it well, you ARE MINE” … he actually emphasized that o.o
Note that the relation thingy and speeches are solely by him and I did not made him say that lol X.X" Gee… I wonder how I’m going to survive with him in the future when I have a boyfriend in real life.

It’s kinda fun to see the changes in emotions in characters… most are just unpredictable Looks like I have alot of things to find out…

EDIT: Just wondering if you guys actually roams around with your characters in the planet you made them stay?
I know I do XD
Thunzar became a very very famous singer/actor, apart from that he actually attends Luna Academy, the same dream school as me only for students with what I call “powers” it’s kinda similar to the anima Gakuen Alice lol XD
I’ve changed school once along with him. First is Sakura High… I can’t stand his fans x.x
At last, I reached a school without people paying much attention to him! Muahaha no more screaming fans holding signboards saying “I <3 Thunzar”.
This also reminds me, I once broke the friendship between Thunzar and Dawn (his best friend somehow lol) not intentionally. She got jealous and set up a fan club in school specially for hating me (I must blame my mind for this kind of situation!)
Thunzar caught her red-handed one day when she was trying to warn me to stay away from him. All he say was,
“You better watch out, I don’t want to see you ever again Dawn!”
after that I got pulled along with him to the canteen where he sat there fuming… poof…friendship between them gone. Gee it makes me wonders why my mind put me through all these situations x.x
There was also one time when his co-actress, ( I forgot who, Thunzar forgotten who she is too since he claimed he work with WAAY too many girls =.
JOINED Sakura High too… talk about suprise… the girls in the school actually supported them to be together lol and I can sense that the girl actually hoped that what happened in the movie they acted in happened to them in “real” too…she started sticking close to him even during breaks.
Thunzar rejected her though
After that off we go to the very peaceful Luna Academy where he bombs stuffs up…almost everytime.

Apart from that in the world they lived, I’m actually a very new “singer” too but of cause instead of soloing I went with three other dream characters. They are not part of my family though just some other girls not as developed and talk to only when we were together. One of them is a pair of twin Miu and Miyuki and last but not least Akira XD Apart form that, Thunzar somehow became our mentor -.-"
It’s amazing isn’t it… but Thunzar mostly skips our “lessons” and much prefer to treat us to ice cream instead.

It’s still fascinated me the different stuffs that can possibly happen when you are with your characters. I’m not sure what is going to happen tonight…

Gee I sure seems to have alot to tell o.o
All this have been hiding in me long enough. I’m glad there’s a place to let it all off, to share this little secret that people might think we are insane. Whew.

Haha, Wow guys! This topic’s really sprung to life :3
It’s great to hear everybody’s interactions with their chars! :3

I like the transition you and Sai went through Mech :3 It’s a pleasent thing to hear you actively let the new ideas test your beliefs, and that something good comes from it.

I’m proud of everybody here! We’re all here to test new grounds of thought and to have fun :3
I know that alot of us can get quite excited to share what we’ve created ^^~ It’s fun that we can work towards having this assist in fruther development in dreams yah?

Also-- For the record, I stress that we’re not schizo, as the fundamental theory of sentience in a non-physical form isn’t crazy, but blurring the lines of reality can lead one to be :C
Everyone here should have good bounds on that, and not let it get out of hand though :3 Especially Mecha since I’ve known him the longest :3
So we should all be fine

Great to see the thread so active lately! :3

~Happy lucids,
Tal

Okay guys! Sorry for not being active in the forum XD I’m currently in Hong Kong on a holiday so yeah just got the internet working in my laptop.

During the first night I woke in the middle of the night at 3 am because my wound on my finger started to itch. So I talked to them lol. Desmond did relieve the itching alittle somehow o,o" He just say to believe in the mind and everything will be fine.
After that I fell asleep . My dream is pretty much violent LOL.
I dreamt I was the son (omg I’m a guy?!) of a rich man who run a very successful furniture store LOL. I was actually doing a business behind “my father” 's back secretly competing with a rival company. Just as me and “my friend” exited our hotel room we saw boards placed neatly on the wall (somehow this trigger a warning sign that their warning us to watch out that there are killing us)
So my friend decided to press the lift and then pressed 66 so as to trick the enemies before we take the staircase exit. To our surprise, a killer was waiting at the staircasefor us! He started whacking my friend till she’s unconcious then he pushed me down to the ground. He stabbed me multiples of time lol and seems to enjoy it. I was really terrified but just than I somehow wasn’t that character anymore I was just seeing it from a birds-eye view while Desmond spoke to me. I didn’t see him though only heard his voice from my right ear (since both of their voices are smiliar I made Thunzar to speak through the left ear while Desmond takes the right)
Desmond was trying to soothe and calm me down by saying, “Don’t be scared Melody it’s only just a dream, you will not be hurt, we will protect you!”
At this point I think Thunzar got hurt or something cause from my left ear he let out a sound of pain lol XC

Then… I woke up o.o"

When I asked Thunzar he said he was hurt by the killer lol… somehow I guess he took my role and became the person who got stabbed? Anyway, he has healed all right up thanks to Desmond’s healing power XD I really gave both of them a big bear hug after all that XD

This shows that… they really cared about me XD

Is feeling happy after typing XD
Alright I gotta sleep now goodnight guys~!

Wow cool! I was born in HK How is it?

It’s nice that your characters came to your rescue! Very cool that you can keep up casual interaction so easily C:
Why not start a dream journal? That way all of your dreams with them can be in one place-- Ofcourse, you should always come back and update us too
Good going! Waiting to hear more!
~Happy lucids,
Tal

The locals are friendly when asking for directions and the food there is very nice ( I put on 2 kg after 5 days x.x)

It’s sounds like splendid idea to keep a dream journal online XD
Okay, I will still keep you guys updated don’t worry~! XD

Great to hear! :3
Hope to hear from you soon! :3 You inspire me to do more with my lucid dreaming :3 Which is great cause’ I haven’t been too motivated ^^;
Thanks!

~Happy lucids!
Tal

i just wanted to say that you might have created the most fun tech./method ever. i LOVE having DC’s!–friends wherever i go ^^. so far, i have two. bobby and jack, with jack being the most recent.

Bobby: You hear that, Jack? I was first!

Jack: Grrrrr…

Bobby: ;O_O;

bobby was an imaginary friend i had some months ago…i sort of lost connection with him back in october–

Bobby: Yeah, when you FORGOT to share your Halloween candy!!

–so i thought i’d bring him back.

jack was a random demon i created in the middle of my japanese class…i don’t really know where he came from . it took me all day to talk to him, because he was playing hide-and-seek–i had to send bobby into the deeper parts of my mind to find him… despite his intimidating appearance, he’s very friendly…and loves to do me favors, as long as i never take advantage of that ;D.

Jack: If I help you get lucid tonight, you owe me seafood.

;

i’ll try to show pictures, but i can’t find the camera. >_<

Bobby: Your mother probably has it. It’s hers, after all.

Jack: Do you HAVE to know everything??

Bobby: Jealous >=D

Jack: Don’t make me come over there.

[yeah…bobby’s a bit afraid of jack]

Bobby: Oh, sure! Tell the WHOLE world!! D:<

Hey, Crooked, it’s nice to see how much you three are like a family. Perhaps you should get Bobby some candy to make up for halloween? Be sure to check in often and give us updates okay?

wow, somebody posted. usually, it’s really quiet whenever i post. O.o

but thanks. i tried going lucid last night by talking to bobby and jack as i was sleeping, but they both ended up falling asleep [laziness is a common problem among us], but we got a good night’s sleep.

Bobby: It was Jack’s fault. I was going to help, but he told me he’d handle it…and he fell asleep!

Jack: You should have woken me up!

Bobby: You’re so grumpy when you get woken up–I don’t need any injuries, thank you very much.

anyways, though, i thought we’d just chat every now and then today. bobby is still a bit puppet-like–

Bobby: I take offense to that.

–so i’m trying to talk to him more. jack seems well-developed, but he could still use some work.

Jack: You make it sound like I need surgery >>.

i’m still trying to find that dumb camera. -_-

Aww, but that’s about how it goes for me as well. They say my dreams are too hard for them to get into, and when one of them managed to make it finally, she was only 6" tall in the dream. DX

Mostly though we just chat IWL and every now and again I’ll meditate and ‘step into’ their world.

talking to them IWL is amazing. i can sit on the school bus, or in my desk, and i start talking to them; after a few minutes, it’s like i’m talking to someone on the phone. i’ve spaced out so many times…thank goodness my teachers haven’t noticed.

Bobby: It’s your fault if you get in trouble. We take no blame.

Jack: I blame Bobby.

Bobby: Just because you talk less–

Jack: You talk too much!

bobby actually does talk more than jack, mostly because all jack does is growls–

Jack: Hey, I can do more than growl, you know.

–so bobby does most of the talking.

i say that i’ll give up on lucid dreaming for the weekend, and concentrate on remembering my dreams. what say you, guys?

Bobby: If Jack doesn’t fall asleep again.

Jack: I told you to wake me!! >:O

Bobby: …Get rid of your claws and your teeth and three of your tentacles, and then we’ll see.

Jack: Wimp.

it’s so much fun to hear them argue. they could go on for hours ^^.

Jack: Grrrrr…

Bobby: No comment.

Jack: That WAS a comment

Bobby: Shut up.

Hey Crooked! Nice to see you up in the CALD thread!
I’m glad things seem to be meshing well, as Wolvendeer said :3

Keep us updated on your progress! But Bobby and Jack should try and really chat more actively at the character chats-- The CALD thread is discussion on technique and progress :3 It’s nice to have a place where all the chars can stay, and if makes it easier to scan for progress!
You have the link, I’ll see you there!

~Tal

oh, yes, sorry about that.

update:
so, bobby’s in a bit of a mood, because he got mad with me, and now i forgot why, which only makes him want to avoid me more. jack is good, he’s trying to reason with bobby, so i am sitting here while they discuss me. O.o

i’m trying to have at least one lucid dream, so i can talk to them better. then afterwards, they can help me go lucid more often and we can hang out more. jack really wants to explore a haunted house [i dislike horror, so it will be a not-super-scary haunted house] and bobby wants to create an island for us to meet in LD’s [after he’s done being mad at me, that is].

Great to hear! [Not about Bobby’s mood, but the good plans ahead :3]
I’m glad you’re so motivated to get lucid! It can be thrilling, but I’m sure you realized that already :3

Remember, variety is the spice of life! I think every member of LD4ALL that has tried CALD has always used other methods as well. It’s been acknowledged that CALD is rather character-development heavy, and that lucidity is a nice product that can come from use of CALD :3.
It’s definitely something that’s more useful in conjunction with other methods, though it can be used on it’s own. Much like WBTB.

I personally usually only get DILDs myself, but I used frequent reality checks as my way into lucidity. Characters can be helpful in reminding yourself to do reality checks, just so that it becomes routine, even in dreams. :3
Look into other methods you might like to use as well! I promise it can be fun to set your mind on doing something, with the challenge of excecuting mostly thought (or there lack of) based methods :3

I hope you come back to us with an update of lucidity! Good luck!

~Happy lucids,
Tal

yes, i am using WBTB method, and i found an interesting website that suggested i take a dream i just had [after waking up in the middle of the night from WBTB], re-write the ending so that i notice a dreamsign/do a RC/become lucid, and then concentrate on that as i fall asleep. MILD? or something else, idk.

i hope that jack and bobby can help me remember to do RC’s throughout the day, because i usually forget… just for a couple days, until i can do it naturally.

so yeah. i’ll try out the LD method tonight, and see where it gets me. i’ll probably do FILD if this doesn’t seem to be working well.

Cool. :3 You definitely do your research! I think you might be the sort to introduce interesting information about CALD into things if you care to :3

Who knows, maybe someone around here will become the next writerscube-prodigy

~Tal