The Labrynth of the Mind

I forgot a lot of my dreams from last night. I'm starting to get lazy about jounrnalling I'm afraid. Anyway, here's what I remember. I think it was lucid, but even then I'm not 100 sure.

Lucid Jumping

I am standing on top of a tall building, when I apparently become lucid. I look at the long distance down, and decide to jump off and fly. I dive off the building gracefully, and swoop up into the air. I fall towards the ground, I think I am intending to dive down and swoop up at the last minute. But then I become curious about what would happen if I hit the ground while I am dreaming. Since it's a dream, I know I can't get hurt.

When I hit the ground, I apparently bounce up into the air. I fly up backwards and drift to my right, towards some pillars of the building. These look painful, but when I hit them I just pass right through them as though they were a hologram.

After having been waking up at 3:45am for about a week, I am back on the afternoon shift at work and am sleeping in. As a consequence, I am having a lot of dreams. Now I have to try and recall them, but they are kind of weird.

Mirror (Lucid)

I am in a restroom. Finally, my habit of doing a RC every time I enter a restroom in waking life carries over to my dreams, and I do a nose pinch. I can still breathe. I double check by looking at my reflection in the mirror, which looks odd (a bit like a charachter I created for myself on Wii). I'm dreaming.

I climb onto the sink, repeating to myself "am I dreaming?" or "is this a dream?" to keep the question in my mind. The dream doesn't seem as unstable as others in the past, but it isn't very vivid. I think about flying, but a strange thing happens. I have been reading advice to lucid dreamers about how to fly in lucid dreams. It seems that others have a problem with this. Until now, I never thought about it but just did it when I wanted to. But now a doubt was created in my mind about whether or not it was easy to fly. Overanalysis seemed to interfere with me, and I had difficulty in flying.

Part of the problem was likely due to the ceiling though, because I had a hard time getting through. Anyway, I wake up somewhere along the way.

Caves, chasing, anxiety stuff

I am driving somewhere down a dark winding road. At one point, someone jumped out in front of me and I killed him. But I kept on going because since I wasn't responsible never having seen him coming. Later I go back to the area for some reason. It may have been to buy a Christmas tree, but I am kind of fuzzy on what was going on here. There was a whole part of this dream that had significance that I can't remember.

Anyway, we end up going into a huge building/cave thing. In this building there is a killer or monster or something, and much shooting and running. My brother (?) and I are trying to escape. I wish I could remember more, because this journal is not doing the dream justice. These things are just vague impressions that might not be the actual dream plot.

Superman (fragment)

I am in front of a mirror again. I put on some glasses that I find, and I like how I look with them on. I look again and I seem to look a lot like Christopher Reeves as Superman (or rather as Clark Kent). My face is stretched though, and I find that I can distort it with my fingers.

Mars

I am getting out of a car, going towards a school. I am talking with someone about Christmas stocking candy. I think there is significance in what we are saying, and there may possibly have been a big voice in the sky saying "stocking candy". I have the impression of something like that although I can't quite remember.

We go into the school, which turns out to be my old high school. We are getting ready to go on a field trip to the planet Mars. I decide to go to the library and find a book about Mars, preferably a science fiction story by Edgar Rice Burroughs (who wrote several series of science fiction stories that partially inspired Star Wars). The librarian shows me a small cart of books, which seems to be the only books that one can check out. There are lots of books on the other book shelves, but we don't seem to be able to check out those.

I walk down the aisles, which turn into the aisles of some store. There is shiny tinsle on some of the shelves, and other Christmas like things. As I continue walking, I find myself outside, following a small creek. I am in a kayak on the creek. As I paddle, the creek widens out. It looks familiar in a way, and I realize it is the upper end of a small river that runs into a nearby lake. I have a feeling that there may be a waterfall up ahead, so I decide to beach my kayak and get out. I get out of the current, and look back the way I was headed. Sure enough, there is a large waterfall ahead. It is rather scary to look at, considering how close I was to it. I quickly pull myself to shore by a kind of plastic lining to the creek. I start to walk back to where I started, knowing that it will likely be a long walk. But it's better than getting killed.

Up a little late last night, and the night before. My sleep patterns are out of whack again, so my dream recall is suffering. Here are some bits and pieces that I can remember.

Various fragments

I am outside with a group of people. We seem to be explorers or adventurers. Our quest involves crossing mountains and/or big buildings in a city. It takes forever to get to the other side, and I am exhausted by the end. We go into a hospital, and I decide I want to take the elevator to the top floor and look back at the distance we just covered. I get into the elevator (hospitals and elevators are both dreamsigns, but I don't remember to do a RC). As I am riding up, I seem to lose my clothes. By the time I reach the top I am completely naked, but I don't seem to think much about it. I crawl out of the elevator, which has shrunk to the size of a small box. I end up in the sink of another hospital room. Or the elevator may have turned into the sink...

... I am at a wedding. There is some tension here that I can't quite remember. I do remember that I had to use the bathroom, and there are two bathroom doors side by side. They both say "men", but I know that one of them is actually the women's restroom that has lost the "w" and "o". Someone comes out of the door on my right, but he/she is so ugly I can't tell if it is a man or a woman. Somehow I decide that this is the men's restroom, and I go in. Immediately inside the door I see that the two restrooms are connected and I peek around the corner of the division between the two sections to make sure I am in the right place. I assume that I am, because there is only a stall in the other half, and there are urinals in the half I am in. I set about finding a more private section of the restroom with a toilet that can't be seen by passers by (I am always having to do this in my dreams. Another obvious and yet failed dreamsign.) I find a nice one that not only is in a stall (more rare than one would think in my dreams), but is also blocked from view by an even larger toilet. There are several toilets to each stall here.

Michelle Bachman

I am visiting my grandparents. I have been spending a few nights at their place, and it is time for me to head home. My brother is going to do something first, and my grandfather (who is a retired pastor) is going to visit someone in the hospital. Apparently, Michelle Bachman has been visiting friends at my Uncle's church, and has had an accident. My grandfather explains that he is going to visit her.

I debate whether I should go with my brother or my grandfather, and decide that it would be neat to meet Michelle Bachman on such informal terms. I decide that since the hospital is not far out of the way for me, I should follow my grandfather there and then go home from the hospital.

There is a whole scene involving me and the GPS, looking for the power cord etc., which is too boring to try and recall right now. Cut to the hospital.

As we are driving I wonder if they will let us in to visit. After all, she is a presidential candidate, and it seems unlikely that people can just wander in when they want to. I worry about secret service people. But it seems that clergy has a special priveledge, and my grandfather says nobody will mind if my grandmother and I come along.

We arrive at the hospital. My grandparents and I sit in the waiting room. Ms. Bachman apparently has a few visitors already. I run over in my mind how to address her, realizing that I can't remember if she is a senator or a congresswoman. I decide to just say "hey".

Eventually, the nurse calls us back. Someone opens the hospital room door, and my grandfather ushers my grandmother and I in. I walk in behind my grandmother, and find that there is nobody in the room. There is some nice furniture, and it is set up almost like a living room. There are some chairs and a couch in front of a fireplace, and a sort of hospital bed in one corner. But apparently this is not the hospital room. It is kind of a waiting room that is part of a hospital room suite. Michelle is in another section, and once again we have to wait our turn.

I notice that there are some other people in the room waiting to see her as well. There are some kids in their late teens or early twenties with a trifold poster board, pracitcing a presentation on injuries. They figure that they can get Michelle Bachman to work on something to protect kids from sports injuries, counting on her recent experience in the hospital to give them traction.

My mother calls me back to the original waiting room for a second. I forget why. I tell her we are about to go back to see Ms. Bachman, and I try to show her the way back. But as we walk, the hospital seems to become confusing. It used to just be a short hallway and a door, but now there is a huge area set up like the inside of an airport. The more I walk, the more confusing it gets. I try to jog, but it is that frustrating kind of movement I always get when I try to move quickly in a dream. I retrace my steps, thinking I have overshot the original hallway that leads to the hospital room.

"Argh!" I think. "Of all times for Mom to show up and pull me away." Somehow I know that my grandfather is now visiting with Michelle, and I am missing the chance to visit. "This kind of thing is always happening to me. Why is it always like this? As soon as I get the chance of a lifetime, something happens to take me away, and then I can't find my way back. It's like one of those frustrating dreams I am always having!"

More out of frustration than anything, I decide to do a reality check. "Maybe this is a dream," I think. But I only think it in a frustrated way. I don't really think it is a dream, I'm just annoyed. I quickly count my fingers, and there are 5 of them. Nothing unusual there. I don't do any other reality check, because I "know" this is reality and I only did the RC to make a statement anyway. "I guess I'm awake," I say.

Then I wake up.

Sweet Shop

I get a job working in a candy store. This dream goes on for a while, but much of it seems to center around all the tasty things that I keep wanting to eat. There are sick kids too, who keep coughing near me. There is a dish of some kind of candy that I sneak bites of every once in a while. I think I am working with my brother.

Pathetically missed dreamsign

I go to use a public restroom. I am trying to find one with decent privacy. I wander into a men's room, and find a stall. The lights don't seem to work well in there, and part of the restroom is dark. Even where I am it is dimly lit. I have some uneasy thoughts about "things" lurking in the darkness. I comfort myself by thinking that I am in a light place, but I know that "the things can look at me out of the darkness"

Animals in the building

I am in a big building of some sort. On one floor, there are a whole lot of animals. It is like a pet store or a dog show. There is a short hallway, with one room containing the animals and a room behind a wall next to it where there are cages and a wide open space. This seems to be a kind of Green Room for the animals, I guess.

There are dogs in a small tubs on the floor, where people can pet them. The dogs are rather odd looking, like a cross between a dog and a ferret.

Somebody tells me to go to another floor. Their friend or relative is on floor 2, I believe. I am supposed to go to floor 2, walk straight down a hallway, make a left, and make a right and I will find him. Or something like that. I have a hard time following what the directions are.

I get to floor 2, which is rather chaotic. There are animals there, including a gorrilla, a cheeta, and a lion. There are people walking either on stilts or carrying people on their shoulders, so that they appear to be giants. Like you see sometimes at the fair or a circus. I follow the directions, but I can't find who I am looking for. I begin to think that the person I am looking for is a famous animal trainer or zookeeper. I go back to the elevator I came out of, and go the other direction down the hallway.

I come across a bench with about 5 or 6 dark skinned men of African desent sitting there waiting for something. Then a crowd of flashily dressed people flood the hallway (which was alread crowded with strangely dressed people). A parade is forming, with people in middle eastern/ancient Egyptian costumes carrying a large banner in the front. The parade is led by King David, who leads the parade singing praises to the Lord. Behind him are a lot of people carrying some kind of stretcher with food on it. Not wanting to be left out, I join the crowd and grab on to part of the stretcher. We advance down the hallway, and I notice a lot of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in front of me. I begin to eat one, although I notice that another person doesn't like something about how melty the chocolate chips are. I like that the best.

My focus has shifted to the cookies, and now comes back to my surroundings, which have changed. Instead of a parade I am now in my brother's house. Some family shows up and they go into the basement. I can hear partying going on but am preoccupied with something. Finally I get a chance to go down, but the part has mostly broken up. There are pieces of PVC pipe laying around, which apparently was part of something everyone was working on together. They were also listening to a rock and roll band, which is still playing, I think.

Phone call

My family and I are getting ready to go on vacation somewhere. I am going to spend a night somewhere to the south of us, having some obligation. It's a bit fuzzy here, and I'm not sure but it seems like I shouldn't go on vacation but am skipping some other obligation to do so.

We are outside and my cell phone rings. It is a lady that I am aquainted with, but don't know too well. I don't know why she would be calling me. I answer the phone, but the voice is too garbled to understand. She repeats her message, but I still can't understand her so I laugh and hang up.