Post ritual energy loss
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@Jim Eshelman said
"All sorts of possible reasons. I'd start with looking at those things in your life (sleep, diet, etc.) which usually affect this."
I have thought of that. I get plenty of sleep, eat well, and take regular exercise. As far as I know I'm in perfect health.
@Jim Eshelman said
"But, the basics ruled out, this usually means that there is something in subconsciousness that is trying to get your attention and, failing other means, is trying to drag you down into sleep (while costing energy because you are living at odds with yourself)."
Actually I've been told the exact same thing by someone else. And was also advised to pay attention to my dreams. This made laugh a little because...... I don't dream.
If my subconscious wants to get in touch with me it's going to have to find some other way. 
@Jim Eshelman said
"Do you include meditation periods with your ritual practice?"
I do practice meditation but not during my evening ritual practice. Establishing a regular meditation practice has been both difficult and frustrating due to the problem of noise.
Practicing rituals with a little noise from next door or outside (or even the people four doors down with their 8000 watt sub-woofer. ) is no real problem because of magick's active nature. But noise and meditation don't mix. (I have tried ear plugs. But they turned out to be more of a distraction than a help. ) I would describe my meditation practice as opportunist. -
@Her said
"I don't dream"
Sure you do - unless you have something very odd going on - you just don't recall them. As someone with pretty good recall (usually 4 or 5 dreams each night), I can suggest some simple things to develop it if you're interested.
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I also "didn't dream" till I started a dream journal! A great book to develope dream recall and lucid dreaming is called Lucid Dreaming by some doctor (I forget) from the Stanford Dream Research Center.
As for diet, you may be ingesting something you don't even know. Check your foods for Nutrisweet, Splenda, etc. There are over 5,000 products using these. Just an example--you really need to read labels these days!
So suggestion: Keep a Food Diary and Dream journal! Crowley said we must keep records, and with good reason!
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@sasha said
"Sure you do "
Yeah, I know I really do dream. But it is very rare that I ever remember them. I guess it's because I'm such a deep sleeper. Actually I doubt that I sleep, I think I fall into an 8 hour coma every night.
@sasha said
"I can suggest some simple things to develop it if you're interested."
Yeah, sure.
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@Her said
"
@sasha said
"I can suggest some simple things to develop it if you're interested."
Yeah, sure.
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Like DavidH said, keep a dream journal. Our dream-maker seems to appreciate it when we care enough to write them down. In exchange, it gives us more dreams.
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If you don't recall any dreams that morning/afternoon/whenever, then write, "Recalled no dreams" or something like that. It keeps you in the practice of writing and will speed up your recall development. I swear! Really, this is important.
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Keep a note pad and pen by the bed. Write down any dreams you recall when you wake up in the middle of the night, morning, or whenever. You may or may not find this desirable, but you will then probably begin to wake up more frequently after dreams, enabling you to recall more of them. And don't think you'll remember the dreams in the morning if you don't write them down then. I occasionally can't even remember a dream after reading my notes!
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Don't just write down your dreams. Go back over your journal periodically and look for common images, themes, etc. Get to know them. Not much point otherwise.
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Spend a couple of weeks reading about dreams and dreaming before going to sleep.
The book DavidH may have meant...
Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. A good, cheap book. But, remember, you first have to learn dream recall to take advantage of lucid dreaming.
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Putting the last few posts in perspective: The point I was making was that subconsciousness is trying to commuicate something. "Not dreaming" simply reinforces this liklihood. Meditation of the kind I'm referencing here need not be seriously impacted by surrounding noise - the key point is for you to be in a state receptive to what is passing through your mind. I suggest simply half an hour a day of no (controllable) distractions while "sitting visiting with yourself" with diary and pen at hand in case you get moved to write.
Unfortunately my essay on rehabilitating subconsciousness (Black Pearl I:9) is out of print, but the main point is that rehabilitating your relationship with subconsciousness is probably the single most useful thing that you can do in your pesonal growth - and nearly all "occult exercises and practices" (so-called) have this rehabilitation as a primary goal or at least side effect.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Unfortunately my essay on rehabilitating subconsciousness (Black Pearl I:9) is out of print "
Fortunately the recording from the Bodhi tree lecture features you reading it, and a few CD set are still available for purchase.....
In fact at that lecture you also mentioned the "lucid dreaming by snooze alarm" (or something along those lines) method which might be worth a try for someone who can't recall their dreams....
Jim, could you please remind me how long after falling asleep the alarm should go off for ideal effects? In fact I did this last night for the first time in forever, so its interesting to come across this thread and the "no-dreams" dilemma right now... -
Try 10 minutes.
And thanks for the reminder - I forgot that I read that whole article into that recording!
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only 10 minutes??
i was thinking more along the lines of a couple of hours !how long does it take to go into real dreamstate?
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@Herr Sorath said
"only 10 minutes??
i was thinking more along the lines of a couple of hours !how long does it take to go into real dreamstate?"
The idea here is that you don't want to get into that - you want to hover half way between awake and asleep. So having the clock go off every 10 minutes are so for half an hour (when you're already awaking from likely REM-level sleep) can keep you hovering there.