• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




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    Alyzarin

    Reward for Journaling! :D

    by , 05-04-2013 at 04:11 PM (1207 Views)
    #1 - Missed Opportunity!! [DILD]

    I was in a warehouse setting where I was doing something that I feel like I would have wanted to remember, but I can't recall it very well. This is most likely because it was my first dream of the night and I fell asleep high because I had smoked to get rid of a good deal of stomach pain. I vaguely remember a couple quick, nondescript but tauntingly awesome looking flashes of it and then I went though this big opening to be standing outside of a small building waaay up high on a cliff. It basically looked, from my perspective, like it was a cliff looking down into the Grand Canyon, it was so far away. I could also see a bustling city in the center of it in the distance, and I decided that it would be really cool if I got to the city by doing a running jump and roll off over the cliff and just bounce all the way down there. I wanted to get a good shot so I climbed up to the top of the building I was next to (somehow...) so I would have more running space, but as soon as I turned back around to get the view again the whole scenery had changed to just be a city around me. Damn it!!

    I was sad but then I heard a mysterious evil voice saying that they had kidnapped someone and hid them on a tall rooftop, so I scanned the area and found them. I flew over to the roof and this guy was just stuck up there and he was grateful to be saved but seemed really unstable. He was really paranoid about being touched and backed away from me when I tried to approach him, and then things got really psychedelic before my eyes. He was rapidly transforming into different humanoid shapes, the only one I can really remember being a LEGO body, but I knew that it was just because the dream was falling apart.


    #2 - Star Wars Restaurant [DILD]

    I was with some girl at a Star Wars themed restaurant, and there was a dream leading up to it I'm pretty certain, but I can't really remember how we got there. I became lucid as I was just looking at her, but then shortly after that I woke up.

    Not the most exciting thing, but still a lucid.

    #3 - One Gathering After Another [DILD]

    I was hanging out in this big building in some room that was supposed to be like a chatroom except in person, and it was for DV users. Unfortunately I don't really remember anything that happened in this room , but afterwards I met up with my friend M and went with her to a party downstairs. There were lots of people I knew there, including this guy GL that I hugged, and when I was there I started becoming lucid. I noticed that there were far too many things in my pockets to be comfortable, like significantly more than they could actually hold since they're pretty small, so I decide to go find somewhere I could safely put them down. As I was leaving I saw this girl S and her girlfriend P who I had just met recently at a meeting of BDSM people around here. Somehow I decided that they must be good lucid dreamers, so I had them come with me.

    We all three walked out of the room and then flew up and phased through the ceiling up to the next floor. I was taking us back to the chatroom, but we had to walk through this fancy party (almost like a ball with royal dresses) to get there and we lost S along the way. I got to the room and noticed that there were lots of people I knew from growing up there now like this girl AH I met in kindergarten instead of people from that forum. I wasn't phased and just started emptying my pockets there, but in the meantime my lips began to swell and were feeling very bizarre. I tried to distract myself from the sensation but it was very solid. I turned around and P told me that we needed to grab S before we went back to the party, but we would have to find her first because she had shapeshifted into a girl in a fancy dress in that room. I see this short girl in black and suddenly know that it's her, so I just walk up to her and grab her around the waist and say come on and she gives in.

    I think this dream could have gone on longer, but the lips thing was becoming worse and worse and I started trying to move my tongue around to see if I could get my real body to do it and see if I was lying on my face in an uncomfortable way or something, but I couldn't tell so I just said to hell with it, time to wake up.
    I opened my eyes seconds later and, of course, there was nothing wrong.

    #4 - Time Flowing Backwards [Non-Lucid]

    I got up in the morning and I was using my cannabidiol oil, and the first thing I noticed was the clock in my room. The second hand was moving backwards, and I became slightly concerned about it. Not enough to really spring into action, though. I went into the bathroom to start putting the drops on my tongue, and saw that the clock in there was still moving normally. I was suspicious of it though, and didn't think of it as enough evidence to convince me that time wasn't flowing backwards.

    #5 - Depth? Who Needs It? [DILD]

    I was in a class in what appeared to be something like high school, but I was communicating with someone I only met this semester in college, this girl in my humanities class named C who sits two seats to the right of me. She wasn't actually in the class though, while this guy SJ from high school was, I was just talking to her remotely. Depending on when it was in the dream I was either typing an email or instant message to her or something or I was writing on a piece of paper that magically functioned like that and filled in messages whenever we wrote them. She was talking about mushrooms and I told her they were really cool. She said she secretly wanted to try them but she was afraid of getting into it all, and she used this metaphor where she said for example that a reason that she wouldn't want to use amphetamine is because it speeds you up and she wants to experience her thoughts at the natural pace, she doesn't want any of her life to race by and when it came to mushrooms she felt the same way about her creativity.

    Around this time Rob Huebel and Rob Riggle walked into the room and I perceived them as cops based on their comedy routine that they showed in Super High Me. At that time I suddenly noticed that I had a bong in my hands and was hiding it under the table, and they never saw it though it should have been really obvious. I became a bit nervous and sort of forgot about my communication with C, but then
    I started to become lucid. I got up and hurled the bong at the wall and watched it shatter, and in the process I accidentally knocked my cellphone forward off of the table. I stretched out over it and tried to reach down and back to reach it but it was too far away, but then I got an idea. I did that trick like where a cartoon character will act like the moon actually is really tiny and right there in the sky and they'll just put their fingers right around it in their point of view and grab it, and it worked perfectly. My phone was a little bit smaller than normal but I still had it in my hand, so I put it in my pocket and started walking off.

    I could tell that the dream was starting to fade away, and I saw this large girl in blue scrubs around my age who reminds me of someone I've seen before at school leaving the classroom. I jumped up on to her and just hugged and squeezed her, but as she started taking us out of the room things were getting very dark and all I could really still do was hear people talking in the halls. I started making out with her and could feel it a bit and I had hoped that this might revive the dream, but no luck.


    When I woke up I really wanted to go back to bed and try to keep this crazy ride going, but I had a friend who crashed here overnight and I didn't want to be rude by just staying passed out all morning, so maybe next time!
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    Comments

    1. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Wow!! Was this all from one night? Three lucids? I mean, are you kidding me? Wow, congratulations on such an awesome night!

      I'm especially impressed by how you took three DCs along with you as persistent companions. Yeah, you did lose one of them at one point, but it's cool that it was no problem for your brain to keep track of the extra characters moving through the dream scenery with you. I guess that come to think of it, I've moved over significant periods of time with my wife and kids, but I sort of view them as a unit since we're often traveling together. At some point I may have to try to up the count of dream companions and see where that leads me.

      Hey, this grab the moon technique sounds great! That gives me an idea for the "North America" portion of Task of the Year, which involves transforming into King Kong and climbing up to the top of the Empire State Building for a showdown with the military. If you approach a building from some distance and start climbing it when it's small and distant, it seems natural to think of yourself as actually close but very, very big. I like the way you altered scale like that. Very handy trick!

      Anyway, great night for you! I hope you get a bunch more like this. And I hope I get a bunch like this!
      Alyzarin likes this.
    2. Alyzarin's Avatar
      Hehehe yep, four if you count the micro. (I'm borrowing your cool word. =P) I was ready to go for five and make it a full-on binge, but I had company and things to do. I don't know if I would have been able to go back to sleep by then anyway though, I was pretty energized.

      Having dream companions is fun! =D You should try it more often lol. I've actually had entire crowds of DCs follow me for a bit, I can usually get them to start singing or chanting with me. I think it's just because in waking life I generally try to stay particularly aware of the group I'm in and where everyone is and what they're doing, so I can move around and talk to people and not have anyone feeling left out. Maybe that helps with them staying solid in my dreams?

      That would be a cool way to go about that task! Good luck if you give it a shot. Hehe, I just thought it would be a good idea in the moment! I had actually thought about it before but I think this was my first time putting into effect in my dreams. Back when I used to trip a lot I went through a phase of some derealization where you start to see your perceptions as just that, rather than really feeling incorporated into the world, and ever since then I've had a big interest in the way the visual system works. Length and width are solid parameters of everything we see, but ultimately that's all it is, just a flat image that we work with... depth is just an illusion, defined entirely by our perceptions of the external world. Given this, in a dream length and width are still very real, but there's no such thing as depth. Everything is just a trick of the mind, that third dimension is set up however you want to think of it....

      But thanks! I hope you get some too, because this night kicked ass!
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    3. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Hehehe yep, four if you count the micro. (I'm borrowing your cool word. =P) I was ready to go for five and make it a full-on binge, but I had company and things to do. I don't know if I would have been able to go back to sleep by then anyway though, I was pretty energized.
      Nice, you were really on fire there! Good of you to stop at 5... gotta save some for the rest of us. =)

      Having dream companions is fun! =D You should try it more often lol. I've actually had entire crowds of DCs follow me for a bit, I can usually get them to start singing or chanting with me. I think it's just because in waking life I generally try to stay particularly aware of the group I'm in and where everyone is and what they're doing, so I can move around and talk to people and not have anyone feeling left out. Maybe that helps with them staying solid in my dreams?
      Couldn't agree more! DCs have gotten more and more fun over time. While I haven't worked out quite yet what makes some DCs relatively flat and others so interesting and autonomous, but like everything else I imagine that it's down to expectation. There's some real magic there, though. You don't consciously write the dialogue for them, but there's no need -- the subC seems to do a better job with that stuff anyway!

      That would be a cool way to go about that task! Good luck if you give it a shot. Hehe, I just thought it would be a good idea in the moment! I had actually thought about it before but I think this was my first time putting into effect in my dreams. Back when I used to trip a lot I went through a phase of some derealization where you start to see your perceptions as just that, rather than really feeling incorporated into the world, and ever since then I've had a big interest in the way the visual system works. Length and width are solid parameters of everything we see, but ultimately that's all it is, just a flat image that we work with... depth is just an illusion, defined entirely by our perceptions of the external world. Given this, in a dream length and width are still very real, but there's no such thing as depth. Everything is just a trick of the mind, that third dimension is set up however you want to think of it....
      Thanks! And while I'm sure that the experience of derealization (I just learned a new word) was horrifying, that sort of mindset is probably exactly what you need for good dream control. Do you think that experiences like this helped you to be a bit more of a natural at dream control? For most, the idea that everything you see is really just a perception and not tied to any solid "reality"... that's pretty brain-bending. I mean, I BS'd about that kind of stuff with my buddies in the dorm or whatever, but to really feel that? Very novel experience, but exactly what you have to be aware of in the dream world.

      But thanks! I hope you get some too, because this night kicked ass!
      Thanks, and congratulations again on the home run!
      Alyzarin likes this.
    4. Alyzarin's Avatar
      Nice, you were really on fire there! Good of you to stop at 5... gotta save some for the rest of us. =)
      Of course! I wouldn't be that greedy.

      Couldn't agree more! DCs have gotten more and more fun over time. While I haven't worked out quite yet what makes some DCs relatively flat and others so interesting and autonomous, but like everything else I imagine that it's down to expectation. There's some real magic there, though. You don't consciously write the dialogue for them, but there's no need -- the subC seems to do a better job with that stuff anyway!
      I tend to think of them like tulpas - the more work you put into them, the more developed they are. The main difference is that a tulpa you have to force into existence because you're awake, but when you're dreaming your mind is already pumping out shells for various personalities to inhabit. Whether it comes down to being someone you know, or being a stereotype that you're just very familiar with, the more you add to those schema with your experiences, whether consciously or subconsciously, the more depth the DC will have, and the less others will by comparison.... Does that ring true with your dreams?

      Thanks! And while I'm sure that the experience of derealization (I just learned a new word) was horrifying, that sort of mindset is probably exactly what you need for good dream control. Do you think that experiences like this helped you to be a bit more of a natural at dream control? For most, the idea that everything you see is really just a perception and not tied to any solid "reality"... that's pretty brain-bending. I mean, I BS'd about that kind of stuff with my buddies in the dorm or whatever, but to really feel that? Very novel experience, but exactly what you have to be aware of in the dream world.
      It was a bizarre feeling for sure, and definitely didn't make me feel good, but from what I can tell my case was relatively minor, at least on the emotional side. Luckily I stopped going so crazy with it when I realized what was starting to happen.... But yes, it definitely did add to my dream control, at least I think it did. See, I'm back to my old ways of experiencing waking reality, but my lucid dreams are just like the world was at those times. Nothing that happens to me in a dream seems completely real, no matter how vivid it is. Remember when I had that crazy vivid one before and I said it was almost like I was too lucid to forget I was dreaming? It's sort of related to that because it's like no matter what I do I can't not realize that the dream world is nothing but a simulated perception. I guess that's why lots of different powers come so naturally to me now. Of course, even though I don't experience my waking reality like that anymore I still always think about it based on those experiences anyway, so my understanding of it just increases over time and I think that adds to the dream control too. It definitely gives a unique perspective....

      Thanks, and congratulations again on the home run!
      And thanks again!
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    5. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      I tend to think of them like tulpas - the more work you put into them, the more developed they are. The main difference is that a tulpa you have to force into existence because you're awake, but when you're dreaming your mind is already pumping out shells for various personalities to inhabit. Whether it comes down to being someone you know, or being a stereotype that you're just very familiar with, the more you add to those schema with your experiences, whether consciously or subconsciously, the more depth the DC will have, and the less others will by comparison.... Does that ring true with your dreams?
      You know, that really makes a lot of sense. Of course, all of this happens subconsciously, so you can't definitively put the pieces together and say "Oh that talking cat? Totally a cross between Aunt Matilda, Xanous, and Robin Williams." But both Xanous and I have both found that by simply expecting for DCs to be intelligent and interesting, you make it so. Just like with any other aspect of dream control, but even more surprising IMO... it's one thing to "expect" to fly and then do it. IMO it's quite another to "expect" a DC to be interesting and communicative... and for your mind to fill all of that in.

      I'm excited by this idea that expectation can be so non-specific and that your subconscious will give you so much. It hints at a great potential for all of us to shape our dream content in ways that will give us what we want yet still be interesting and surprising.

      It was a bizarre feeling for sure, and definitely didn't make me feel good, but from what I can tell my case was relatively minor, at least on the emotional side. Luckily I stopped going so crazy with it when I realized what was starting to happen.... But yes, it definitely did add to my dream control, at least I think it did. See, I'm back to my old ways of experiencing waking reality, but my lucid dreams are just like the world was at those times. Nothing that happens to me in a dream seems completely real, no matter how vivid it is. Remember when I had that crazy vivid one before and I said it was almost like I was too lucid to forget I was dreaming? It's sort of related to that because it's like no matter what I do I can't not realize that the dream world is nothing but a simulated perception. I guess that's why lots of different powers come so naturally to me now. Of course, even though I don't experience my waking reality like that anymore I still always think about it based on those experiences anyway, so my understanding of it just increases over time and I think that adds to the dream control too. It definitely gives a unique perspective....
      That really is interesting. For me, lucids feel a lot like reality. Yeah, something's off for sure, but I must keep in mind that I'm dreaming or I'm in serious danger of getting swept up in some emotion, dream plot element, or DC connivance and forgetting that it's all a dream. Your perception sounds like a good trait for becoming lucid and exercising dream control, for sure.

      And in a sense, I guess that gives you a special appreciation for your NLDs, where the illusion is still intact...
      Alyzarin likes this.
    6. Alyzarin's Avatar
      You know, that really makes a lot of sense. Of course, all of this happens subconsciously, so you can't definitively put the pieces together and say "Oh that talking cat? Totally a cross between Aunt Matilda, Xanous, and Robin Williams." But both Xanous and I have both found that by simply expecting for DCs to be intelligent and interesting, you make it so. Just like with any other aspect of dream control, but even more surprising IMO... it's one thing to "expect" to fly and then do it. IMO it's quite another to "expect" a DC to be interesting and communicative... and for your mind to fill all of that in.

      I'm excited by this idea that expectation can be so non-specific and that your subconscious will give you so much. It hints at a great potential for all of us to shape our dream content in ways that will give us what we want yet still be interesting and surprising.
      I wholeheartedly agree! But really, you're just practicing the same old learning techniques you've been using your whole life. The same ones that prevented you from walking through walls. This is how I think about it, anyway.... You see that DCs can be smart, and so you both start expecting them to be that way, as you said.... So now you've both got the "DCs are intelligent." schema. And the second you become lucid, it kicks in because your brain instantly realizes (assuming you're aware enough) that everyone you talk that it's generating is a DC and, therefor, intelligent. You know? If you stopped thinking that and just ignored them they would just stop being smart or disappear all together, just like how the walls stop being solid. By focusing on their intelligence you give power to it. Makes enough sense to me!

      That really is interesting. For me, lucids feel a lot like reality. Yeah, something's off for sure, but I must keep in mind that I'm dreaming or I'm in serious danger of getting swept up in some emotion, dream plot element, or DC connivance and forgetting that it's all a dream. Your perception sounds like a good trait for becoming lucid and exercising dream control, for sure.

      And in a sense, I guess that gives you a special appreciation for your NLDs, where the illusion is still intact...
      Yeah, people never get it when I tell them a non-lucid can be even better than a lucid, but really being aware of the illusory nature of dreams just puts a different perspective on it for me I guess. But I think it's just true anyway, even if most people haven't had the proper dreams to experience it. The one I usually reference is the the non-lucid where I truly believed I had died and gone to some sort of heaven. What an incredible feeling.... You won't get that from a lucid.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    7. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      I wholeheartedly agree! But really, you're just practicing the same old learning techniques you've been using your whole life. The same ones that prevented you from walking through walls. This is how I think about it, anyway.... You see that DCs can be smart, and so you both start expecting them to be that way, as you said.... So now you've both got the "DCs are intelligent." schema. And the second you become lucid, it kicks in because your brain instantly realizes (assuming you're aware enough) that everyone you talk that it's generating is a DC and, therefor, intelligent. You know? If you stopped thinking that and just ignored them they would just stop being smart or disappear all together, just like how the walls stop being solid. By focusing on their intelligence you give power to it. Makes enough sense to me!
      You're right! What's amazing to me is how good the mind is at filling in very complex pieces, such as all of the wit, personality, and expressive nuance required to build a truly intelligent, interesting DC. It makes you realize that the subconscious can fulfill some very complex, demanding orders.

      Makes me think of those times when my mind will randomly start blaring some totally badass soundtrack and I'm just rolling with it, thinking in the back of my mind, Now where the hell did that come from? I need to ask for an awesome soundtrack in the next dream. And that's just the start of what I'd like to see the subC draw up...

      Yeah, people never get it when I tell them a non-lucid can be even better than a lucid, but really being aware of the illusory nature of dreams just puts a different perspective on it for me I guess. But I think it's just true anyway, even if most people haven't had the proper dreams to experience it. The one I usually reference is the the non-lucid where I truly believed I had died and gone to some sort of heaven. What an incredible feeling.... You won't get that from a lucid.
      Wow, great example. I'm pro-LD all the way, but I see what you mean about certain NLDs. If the NLD convinces you that the world is different in some fundamental way, it really is giving you something that an LD never could. In this case, the illusion of the scenario being real is the whole trick. When you take that away, the fantasy is spoiled.

      Those are the sorts of dreams it's kind of devastating to wake up from. I had one sort of like that a few weeks back.
      Alyzarin likes this.
    8. Alyzarin's Avatar
      You're right! What's amazing to me is how good the mind is at filling in very complex pieces, such as all of the wit, personality, and expressive nuance required to build a truly intelligent, interesting DC. It makes you realize that the subconscious can fulfill some very complex, demanding orders.

      Makes me think of those times when my mind will randomly start blaring some totally badass soundtrack and I'm just rolling with it, thinking in the back of my mind, Now where the hell did that come from? I need to ask for an awesome soundtrack in the next dream. And that's just the start of what I'd like to see the subC draw up...
      You know, I've been thinking a lot about this lately.... There are people who say that there really is no such thing as the "conscious" and "subconscious" mind, that they're really just one thing, and I think I'm starting to agree with them. 'Cause see, I used to think of it as the prefrontal cortex was sort of like your conscious mind and the amygdala was your subconscious mind, but now I'm thinking those might be misnomers.... Perhaps a better way to put it would be the lucid mind and the non-lucid mind, where the amygdala is the one and only "mind" and the prefrontal cortex is simply one of its important power generators. That is to say, the prefrontal cortex is what makes your mind become more complex and intricate, going from the reptilian brain mode of constantly trying to figure out what to do next to a point where you can think on a higher level and make choices, like choosing not to think at all. The reason I put it that way is because... well, you know, by default it would seem that being awake you're able to choose whether or not to think which gives you the "conscious" choice and when you're in a dream your "thoughts" (the dream world) are happening on their own which makes them subconscious, but it's not really that at all, it's just that you don't realize that you have a choice, because when you become lucid you can just stop doing anything and the dream, or your thoughts, will end.... In that way, it would make perfect sense to me that your mind can pump out such complex demands because it's the exact same mind that you have while you're awake only it's even more active, and when you become lucid it even gains access to the same levels of intricacy. The dream is just you thinking to an incredible extreme, and since we're able to come up with these kinds of fantasies on our own when awake there's no reason we shouldn't be able to in dreams as well. After all, it's not like the dreams are even places we actually are, the "us" that we perceive ourselves as in the dream is just another part of the thought process, like picturing a situation that you're in while awake but strong enough that you're actually visualizing it from your own point of view.... And honestly, even when I think about thinks like expectations, even the ones we don't put effort into, it all comes together. People blame their subconscious, but really, you're consciously creating the dream world as you live it, because even when you're non-lucid the only things that will exist in the dream are the things that you're aware of on some level....

      I don't know.... Am I making any sense?

      I definitely agree about the music though, I've heard some pretty awesome songs in my dreams lol. But the really frustrating part about them is when you wake up and they immediately vanish from memory.

      Wow, great example. I'm pro-LD all the way, but I see what you mean about certain NLDs. If the NLD convinces you that the world is different in some fundamental way, it really is giving you something that an LD never could. In this case, the illusion of the scenario being real is the whole trick. When you take that away, the fantasy is spoiled.

      Those are the sorts of dreams it's kind of devastating to wake up from. I had one sort of like that a few weeks back.
      Yep yep. That's what I really enjoy about hallucinogens too, and like I've said before, being in that in between phase where you don't know what's real and what isn't.... It's crazy stuff.

      What was your dream about, if you don't me asking?
      Updated 05-08-2013 at 11:05 PM by Alyzarin
    9. Alyzarin's Avatar
      Actually, another thing that comes to mind is this study I read a while back.... They put cameras on peoples' heads and basically what they did is had two different people with cameras wearing goggles that were hooked up to the other person's cameras look down at their body.... So basically, they were seeing each others' bodies from the same angle you would expect to see your own in while looking down. Then, they did something like poking the same part of each of their body with a pen or pencil or something like that, and brushing their fingers in the same spots at the same time, and they were able to give the people the fully real sensation that they had actually switched bodies. Their brains just took all of it in and thought "Oh, so I guess this is who I am now." and made it feel real. Is there any reason at all that it couldn't easily just be doing the same thing with our simulated point of view in our dream/intensified thought process, to solidify the delusion and make us think it's real?