nightmare

04.09.2010

Launch (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This was just the end of a long dream I can't remember much about.

I was on an old, rickety bus, travelling through a hot, dry country. All the windows on the bus were down, and I had my head out to cool down. The sun was scorching, and the light reflecting off the light soil was making me feel slightly dizzy. The ride was uncomfortable. I felt every rock the bus drove over. After a while though, it stopped and I got off. I found myself beside a shack. I think it was a public toilet. As I walked into the shade cast by the building, I noticed (with worry) the vast quantity of snakes and huge spiders around. They were everywhere. Enormous snakes coiled on trees and around rocks were looking at me and baring their fangs. I backed away from the trees only to find myself up against a monstrous bird-eating spider. (Only the biggest hairiest fucking spider in the world... yes it does eat birds)



I turned around again, and finding more unsavoury creatures, looked for an escape route. I would up with my back to a lake (infested with eels and crocodiles of course) and paused. If I paused to think a bit more often in dreams I'd be far better off. Why were there so many stereotypically scary animals after me? The situation was ridiculous, I didn't need to reality-check. I stepped onto the air and floated out over the lake. The mood of the dream had changed dramatically. The sun was no longer scorching, just pleasant. The lake was flat and smooth, with tiny ripples appearing below me wherever I floated. There was an island in the middle of the lake with two 50m high trees on it. Seemed nice. I floated around the lake a bit more just taking everything in. Then I spread my arms wide before throwing them downwards. There was a bang, and I was launched skyward at a breakneck speed. The water below me was displaced as if a metor had landed. I shot up to twice the height of the tallest trees, and got the now-familiar stomach-in-mouth feeling that always comes with high-speed flight. I landed in the upper branches of the tree, then woke up.

26.04.2010

"Help me out here" (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I WILDed by accident this morning. Well, once I noticed I was heading into sleep paralysis I went for it, but it wasn't my original intention! I've heard scary reports of hallucinatory/SP/dreams involving a figure standing over the bed menacingly, but have been pretty lucky so far- having never had it happen to me. Today that changed... yaayy...

I was lying on my back (which is easy-street for lucidity if the conditions are right), with my head leaning to the right. When I felt sleep paralysis come along, my eyes did something funny. My attention was focused directly in front of me, but it felt like my eyes were moving from side to side. I could feel them underneath my eyelids- but couldn't feel the muscles working to move my eyes. Might just have been a hallucination. Anyway, I thought I'd failed my attempt when I "woke up". I had a glance round my room and looked at the painting of a cow which is usually opposite my bed. It had become warped and distorted- a bit like a shape was coming out of the picture. I assumed I was dreaming and slid out of bed. I jumped down all the stairs in one go, saying,
"Nice, fully lucid!" I headed straight out the front door and out onto the street. The street was totally different to what I was expecting. There were tall, thick trees on either side of the road, and a big red London bus was passing by. I ran alongside it, planning to cling to the side and hitch a ride, but it fell over out of the blue. It wasn't a massive crash or anything, it just went over onto its side. I was puzzled, and put it back on its wheels just by thinking it. I seemed to have very good direct control here. That could have been the reason why I got a reset-style false awakening.

I turned my head, thinking I'd woken up. Then I glanced up in the direction of the painting. In front of it was a monster. I can't remember whether it even had a body, I was so focused on the head. The head was green and black, made up of the green of the grass and black of the cow from the painting. The colours were mashed together to create a hideous visage and evil expression- and it was glaring right at me. For a second I just froze with fear. It was so incredibly real. It was like it was actually in my room. I shut my eyes and had another FA.


This really doesn't do it justice at all. Add several degrees of scariness and a bit of masculinity to this one.

There it was again. My heart started thumping as soon as I realised it was still there. I tried my absolute hardest to get out of bed, but it was like all my muscles only half worked. My back barely did at all- making it very hard to sit up. I had an idea. I raised my arm to the monster and said,
"Wanna help me out here mate?" Its head moved slightly, seemingly considering my request. Then it took my hand. Its arms looked like they were made of a pale white plastic, but its hand felt human, if a bit clammy. It pulled me out of the bed and I tried to stand. Unsuccessfully. I fell onto the floor. Looking up, I saw my girlfriend had mysteriously appeared. I was about to have semi-paralysed sex with her but I had yet another false awakening.

By now I was getting used to the monster's face, so I looked round ready for it. He had a new trick up his sleeve this time though. The face of a snarling dog now accompanied him, and they were both a lot closer than before. Scared as I was, I asked him for help once more, and he obliged. For some reason, he started to remind me of my friend Hugh. This time I could stand a bit better, which improved even more when I took a few steps whilst rubbing my hands. I looked around my room, which had grown to about three times its normal size. My friend Mark was brushing the floor. I had the idea to try the advanced task of the month- "stand on your head"- literally with your head under your foot.
"All right Mark," I said. "Decapitate me."
"Uh... how?" he asked.
"Ehh... use the brush maybe? Or smash that clock in half and use it as a blade." I pointed at a big glass clock on my wall which I binned in real life years ago. I tried to walk over to Mark, but kept getting pulled back towards my bed by an invisible force. It was really frustrating, and through fighting it too hard, I woke up.

19.04.2010

Bad Zombies (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I've always been of the opinion that any dream about zombies is awesome, but this one was scary! This occurred in the middle of the night, which is quite rare as my DILDs go, so my memory of it is terrible. I can basically just remember that it happened.

I was flying on a hanglider through a city. I weaved through skyscrapers, trying to stay in the air at all costs. Why? Because every square inch of the ground below was covered in bloodthirsty mutant zombies. It was a terrible, gory sight. Some zombies had grown into grotesque, tentacled abomnations, and they were all piled on top of each other in the street, there were so many of them. I was descending, much to my dismay, towards the horde. So I set my sights on a mid-sized skyscraper that I reckoned I could still make it onto the roof of. It was just ten or so metres beyond the reach of the monsters below. I landed and let go of the hanglider, which floated over the opposite edge. Now I was trapped, and becoming fearful. Out of nowhere, I reassured myself.
"Don't worry, it's just a dream," I thought. It was a revelation, to say the least, but I still felt like I was in a horror movie. I knew I shouldn't be scared, but I was surrounded by such an overwhelming mass of monsters that I still felt kind of powerless. I couldn't drown out their roaring. "But this isn't even real!" I said, out loud this time. I looked at my hands, two extra fingers. Rather than stay within the bounds of the dream plot, I tried to initiate a complete change of direction. Trying not to think about the beasts below, I turned and walked across the roof of the building. There was a door leading downstairs. I assumed if I opened it, I would be in a mundane but comparitively harmless office. I strode confidently over and turned the handle. No sooner had the door opened a crack, several thick slimy tentacles burst out. The zombies roared louder.
"Fuck this," I said, scowling. I woke myself up.

04.03.2010

Bug Hunt (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was playing the new Aliens vs Predator game the other day, no doubt that was the cause of this dream.

I was a marine, hunting Xenomorphs in an estate near my house. It was night time, and no streetlights were working. All I had for light was a torch attached to the end of my rifle. Every now and again I would catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye, or a reflective glint of light bouncing off a shiny alien head, but I never got a clear shot at one of them. I was getting quite panicky, and using up a lot of ammo, hitting nothing. I eventually got to my last clip when I arrived at the top of a dark lane which I knew to be dodgy in normal circumstances, never mind when there were aliens about. I made my way down the lane. There were wire fences on either side of me, and behind the fence to my right was a hedge wall. I could hear scuttling and hissing coming from the other side of it. I attained some low level lucidity here. I recognised that it was just a dream, but only really enough to allay my fears of getting chomped on by an alien's mouth-within-its-mouth. Then I saw one clearly for the first time. It came into view just a few metres in front of me. I squeezed the trigger and let off the last of my ammo into its oversized head. It cracked like an eggshell, and I was careful to avoid the spray of its acidic blood. I threw down my empty gun just as another alien hopped over the fence from my left. I notice that I sometimes have great dream control with only minor lucidity. This was one of those times. I discovered that I could shoot fire out the end of my hands if I held them out flat and aimed at a target. I knew from playing the AvP game that the aliens hated fire, and I thought it was quite handy that I should manifest this ability at that moment.



I went on for a while, chargrilling aliens as I walked down the lane. They properly sizzled. When I was near the bottom, I heard a commotion from my right. I paused to investigate, and saw that several aliens had made a hole in the hedge and were trying to pull down the fence to get at me. I was in a "bring it on" kind of mood, so I just let them. The fence fell to reveal an open field beyond. I ran out into the middle, and was instantly surrounded by variations of the alien. One particularly unusual form looked a lot like a millipede. I woke up as they overwhelmed me!

30.12.2009

In Da Club (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I had a great many lucids in an afternoon nap today. Too much of a good thing, I think- I can't remember them in very great detail.

I had a FA in bed in my old house. I was so drowsy I didn't notice where I was right away. I tried to DEILD, thinking I had woken up for real. I fancied a party, as I was looking forward to new year's eve, so I imagined myself in a nightclub. An absolutely awesome song was playing. It was completely made up by my mind, I'd never heard it before. It was of the same hip-hop/pop genre they play in a lot of clubs (specifically my ususal one). I'm not really a huge fan of that type of music, being more of a rocker myself, but to me it sounds like partyin'. The song went on for about three minutes, and even had a chorus! I danced a path around the club looking for someone I knew, but no luck. The stability started to go a bit, so I grabbed onto a metal pole to "feel my way back in".

Gradually, I was back in the bed like before, but I could still feel the pole in my hand. I was gripping it quite tightly. (yes ha ha.) I was however, still dreaming that I was awake. Since it felt like I still had the pole in my hand as I went to sit up, I reasoned that it must be a FA. I felt some pressure on my leg and looked down. There was a dude with blonde hair and glasses sitting there. No sooner had I seen him than he shot up towards me. His head turned into that of a tiger and he snarled viciously. He was a centimetre from my face- it was as vivid as real life. I knew it was a dream but it still shocked me awake.

24.12.2009

Bus Ride (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

A major dream sign I've noted (can't believe I didn't see it before) is buses. No exaggeration, since starting this DJ, I've had about 10 dreams involving buses. That's like 12%. I'll be keeping an eye out for them in future.

I've been having decent success with DILD's the last few days. I think of it as a lazy approach. I wake up in the morning, then just go back to sleep as if it were a WBTB, but fall asleep normally. I tend to become lucid naturally near the start of a dream.

FA in my old caravan. It was night time, and very dark. There were no lights on outside. My brother Andrew was asleep in a bed across the room. I saw a shape move on the other side of the door. (The door is made of frosted glass) A huge brown dog phased through and was now in the room with us. I nearly shat a brick. I'm not afraid of dogs at all in real life, but there was something terrifying about this enormous one which had found me in the middle of the night. I became semi lucid as it advanced on me. I was sitting up in bed and made up my mind not to run away from it. I leaned down so my face was level with the dog's and stared it out. It got closer and closer and I kept glaring at it. Soon our noses were nearly touching, and the dog's face was all I could see. Then it vanished.



I woke up Andrew, who had slept through the dog's intrusion. I told him that this was a dream, but he seemed reluctant to accept it. I looked at my hand and saw way too many fingers. I showed it to Andrew and asked him what he could see- but he didn't give me a solid answer. I considered the possibility of this being a shared dream since it really seemed like him, but I doubt it was.

I looked out the caravan window to my left. There was a double decker, open-topped bus parked outside. I closed my eyes and tried to teleport on board. At first, I was pretty sure it hadn't worked, but when I opened my eyes, I was on the upper level, at the front. Andrew was with me. The bus started moving, driven by Idon'tknowwho. I kept looking at my deformed hand and trying to get Andrew to comment on it, but to no avail. We held on to the railing at the front of the bus as it went far too fast over bumps and round corners- it was like a roller coaster.

19.12.2009

Ask Hell! (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This one was straight up-weird and very dark. Not like my normal dreams at all. I can barely remember it, but what I do remember is strange.

I was in the upstairs of my granny's old house. There were a couple of other people around, I don't know who, but they were definitely female. Somebody had just died, and I needed to talk to them. One of the people I was with said I should "Ask Hell," if I could speak to them. The way to do this was to get a tin can, fill it with water, then talk to it. I did as instructed, and looked down at the water in the can. The world around me went dark, shadowy-black. I could vaguely see what was around me, but it all looked like an old sepia photo. A demonic face appeared in the water, and it started to boil. I asked about the person I wanted to get in contact with, but my request to speak to them was denied. The face talked (in a hissing/rumbling voice) about how people in hell don't get those kind of privileges, and started laughing. For some reason I started crying. The water in the tin was nearly boiled all the way to the bottom. As it was disappearing, I asked,
"Am I going to hell when I die?" The fizzing remains of the water-faced demon shook its head. Then the scene went back to normal and the water was gone. I felt extremely relieved, I was genuinely expecting the demon to say yes.

13.12.2009

Dog Attack (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was on top of a grassy hill in a public park with a fitness trainer. Apparently I was too fat, and needed to lose weight, so we had brought my dog with us for a run. I should have realised this was a dream, if anything I need to fatten up! We were taking a rest of top of this hill, and I commented on how peaceful it was with no-one around.
"Usually this park is swarming with dogs," I said. Not ten seconds later, four sheep dogs, a rottweiler and numerous other breeds I didn't recognise came out of the trees at the bottom of the hill. I got up to put my dog on the lead, in case he got into a fight with another dog. I couldn't catch him, and as usual, he ran straight over to the other dogs to say hello. He's big, friendly and stupid, my dog, but unfortunately not all other dogs are the same. Two of them attacked him, and I ran over to try and pull them off. I was annoyed at myself for taking off my socks and shoes, because one dog kept biting my feet. I had to punch one dog in the head to get it off. Another one tried to bite my dog's ear off. I woke up with my heart pounding!

08.12.2009

Mutilation (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Tons of dreams last night, absolutely tons. Can't remember them though! Bollocks. Got one fragment which is truly fucked up!

I was tied down with two other people on the floor of a hotel room. We were being held prisoner by some kind of psycho killer who was into mutilating his victims before finishing them off. I was in the middle of the two other people, one was a girl and the other was a guy. I won't go into details, cuz it's a bit sick, but none of us had a lot of skin left after 15 minutes! No pain or blood though!

We eventually escaped and ran downstairs and outside. I realised I was missing one of my front teeth. The lack of that tooth was making the one beside it loose too, for some reason. I was pretty raging about losing that tooth. Apparently I had suffered no lasting damage from the skinning. Weeeeeiiirrrd shit.

I had three or four epically long dreams last night, which I don't know if I can be bothered typing up. It would literally take about two hours!
(All non-lucids)
In case I decide to later, here's some reminders for myself...

Dream 1: Invited to special screening of a movie. The host planned to kill everybody once inside, so I skipped it. Persued by host, lost him. Big entertainment centre on a hill above a town. I explore with some friends. Host tries to gas us with dog fart.

Dream 2: I'm part of an excavation team in Egypt. Dug up a big monument. At sunset, the light shines over the hill in such a way it makes thousands of stones sparkle. V. spectacular. Hop on a boat shaped like a hot dog to other monument. Rest of the team gets on other boats. Everybody gets lost.

Dream 3: Evil Santa invades supermarket, captures somebody and flies away. Me and a few others fly out through the roof after him, all the way to NYC. I have to hold on to two other people flying because I'm scared of heights. We "borrow" a disused mansion on the outskirts which belonged to some distinguised family. We somehow become like the Addams Family. Sort of ghostly/paranormal traits. Government tries to hunt us down, so we take control of the bodies of a random couple and walk into town. Nearly get run over by a tank.

Dream 4: (Fragment) My old neighborhood became a huge hill. I flew in standing position down to the bottom, where a weird cat woman was waiting.

22.11.2009

Held Prisoner in my Own Mind (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

So far in my lucidity-chasing, all my dreams have been quite light-hearted affairs, and I haven't had a nightmare in about four years. This one was different. I was actually trapped in a scary situation, with the full knowledge that I was dreaming, wanting to wake up.

A bit of background. I'm hungover to the max today. Last night's binge would account for the tiredness and massive REM rebound I got as soon as I went to sleep in the evening. I was also maybe not in the most positive frame of mind, which could have been a factor in all this.

I was sitting on a farm talking to my brothers. I saw smoke rising in the distance. After a while I could see flames. The fire was getting very high, and soon after, fire engines pulled up near me. I noticed one of the firefighters was my friend's dad, who I haven't seen for years. My mum pulled up, driving a minivan, packed with people I knew. She said everybody was going to visit somebody who lived near where the inferno was, to make sure she was ok. I got in too, and we drove off. The car was packed out with people, and it was a bit of a tight squeeze, but there were enough seats.

Instead of driving towards the fire, which was up the hill a bit, we drove downhill, and ended up at a beach. My mum tried to drive up a sand dune unsuccessfully. Next thing I knew, I was out of the car, standing in the middle of the beach. The sun was setting, and the waves were quite high, but very far away. There was a vast expanse of flat beach between me and the water. I turned round to walk up the beach, but out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. A single wave, about 2 feet high was sweeping silently (and very quickly) up the beach towards me. I tried to outrun it, but it got me. It soaked my phone in my pocket. I recognised the dream sign, and became lucid. I marvelled at how real my cold and wet clothes felt now that the water had receeded. I then had the desire to get off the beach. There was something eerie about standing alone in the middle of such an enormous wide open space in semi-darkness. I'm not agoraphobic in real life, but something wasn't quite right here. I tried to run up to the top of the beach, but I realised I was running but not actually getting anywhere. This was a bit scary, and I just wanted to wake up.

Then I had a false awakening. I was in my bed, and actually thought I had woken up. I was like, "Thank god that's over!" I looked down at my left hand and saw that it was glowing a purply-pink colour. "Shit," I thought. I got out of bed and wandered around to see where I was. I was in what looked like a big hotel room. Except there were no doors or windows, and the walls and floor were made of wood. There wasn't much light, but I could see black square panels around the room. I got a bit closer, and saw that they were holographic pictures. As in, if you moved, the picture changed. What was on them was pictures of my friends' heads. Their heads weren't quite solid, they were grey on a black background. As I moved across the room, they appeared to be shouting something at me quite desperately. I really didn't like this scenario at all. I went to look in a mirror out of curiosity. I was wearing my dressing gown in the mirror, and my hair was a lot shorter than it is now.

I then had another false awakening. I looked at my hand, which had an indeterminate number of fingers. I was getting a bit worried now. I got out of bed and walked out into the room. There was some sort of gameshow going on in the middle. I didn't want to take part, but the host forced me to.

Then I had ANOTHER false awakening. I was really relieved because I thought it was for real this time. I looked at my hand, and it didn't even look like a hand. This time, when I realised I was still dreaming, the music from The Twilight Zone played.

Listen to this shit...

This freaked me right out, and I started shouting things like "Wake up!" and just screaming in general. No such luck.

Yet another FA. This time I was in my own room, trapped in my bed and unable to move. I could hear my mum outside the door. I yelled, "Wake me up! Get in here and wake me up!" She never did come in, and the Twilight Zone music played again.

Another one. I was back in the windowless hotel room. There were two guys doing some measuring. I said, "Fuck this, I'm not playing the game any more," and decided to kill myself. Handily enough, a noose was hanging from the celing. I stood on a desk and put it round my neck. Yep, it's getting a bit heavy! As soon as I jumped off, the scene went into reverse. Everything literally rewound around me, and there was even a "rewinding" indicator at the bottom of my view.

I had, maybe 15 false awakenings, and each time my hand was different. The Twilight Zone music played every time I looked at it. One time it was fat, then the hand of an old man, flashing psychadelically, missing altogether... the list goes on. One time it looked normal until I realised I was actually missing a finger. There was a stump. I nearly shat myself at the music that time. I became increasingly desperate, and even tried holding my breath, in case that meant I was actually holding my breath in real life, and I might wake myself up by nearly suffocating. It didn't work.

Eventually, of course, I did wake up, only 2 or 3 hours after I went to bed. I very reluctantly checked my hand and it was fine. I ran straight out of my room and downstairs. I'm totally exhausted now, and maybe a bit afraid to go back to sleep! Also, still enormously hung over and it's killing me. I really hope I never have a repeat of that episode. Like being stuck in the matrix and not being able to find a fucking phone!

EDIT: Had about 5 DILDs after that last night but each one of them caused a knee-jerk reaction of waking up instantly!

16.11.2009

The FACE (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This was the creepy result of a false awakening and the position of a certain painting in my room.
There is a painting of a cow on the wall opposite my bed, so I can see it when I lie on my back. This invaded my dreams.

I had a false awakening in my own bed, and I looked at the wall opposite me. I saw that the painting on my wall was not a cow as I had always imagined, but a face in disguise. When I looked at the painting when I woke up, in semi-darkness, I could see where it might me mistaken for a scary face. In the light it's just a cow, and I can no longer make out a face other than the cow's. The face had come halfway out of the painting- its nose was about 3 inches from the canvas. It looked a bit like this, only scowling more.




Even worse, it was alive. I was lying in bed and it started insulting me, telling me it had been watching me ever since the painting had been put there (over a year). It then proceeded to list off all my worst fears and telling me they were true, and laughing at me. It had a posh but gravelly English accent and a wheezy laugh/cackle.

It was truly hideous. I decided enough was enough, I'm going to burn it. I knew there was a fire in the fireplace downstairs at the minute and I planned to stuff the painting in it. To shut him up I wrapped a brown towel round the whole painting and held his face to my chest. I was kind of worried about him biting me.

Then I had another false awakening! This time the painting was actually of the pokemon Venonat.

06.11.2009

Attack of the Giant Hand (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was the character of Chev Chelios from the "Crank" movies. I was in a car chase- I was doing the chasing. Some woman was talking to me in an earpiece I was wearing, telling me where to go. I reached a huge spaghetti juntion, and the car I was chasing sped off up a ramp, which had a barrier put in front of it immediately, preventing me from going that way. The voice in my ear told me to keep following the road I was on; it would lead me to the same junction as the other car was approaching from a different direction.





As I got closer to this junction, I began to question my driving skills. In real life, I can't drive, and I quickly lost confidence in my ability. It was the fact that I was driving which slowly brought me to lucidity. (Becoming lucid in this case was not as immediate as the colour change implies!)

I discovered that I could have fun driving, and totally forgot about the people I was chasing. I weaved between lanes, pissing off other drivers, and had several near-misses. Before long, it was getting dark and I was driving in countryside. There was a narrow bridge going over a river that my car could just about fit over (turns out it was a 4x4), and I put the boot down to fly over it. As, I landed, I saw a white van pulling out of a field to my right, and I had to swerve dangerously to miss it. I ended up flipping the car into a field on the left. It landed upright however, and undamaged. By some miracle it stopped just before hitting a caravan which was parked beside me. I was a bit shaken, and decided to take a rest in the back seat. It was now night time.

I happened to glance out the left window, and saw a horrifying sight. It was a giant, disembodied hand, crawling over the top of the caravan. It was like a giant (non-green) version of the hand from the Addams Family. It was scuttling about like a huge spider, then it made right for me. I was shit scared, and although I knew I could make it disappear if I wanted, it seemed like less effort to force myself awake. For half a second, I could see the spider-hand on the car window "overlaid" on my duvet. Kinda weird.