Thread: Tales From the Butler's Pantry

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Ok, this is officially the start of my dream journal. I had this dream last night that featured the Task of the Month, Dreamview member cameos, and low level lucidity. Threw me over the edge to finally start an online journal.

Alien beings have traveled from a far away planet to invade the earth. They are here to harvest humans as food. To do this, they have converted their spaceships into giant meat processing plants that grind humans down to pulp.

I find myself a prisoner in one of these huge meat processing concentration camps. I am there with several other people waiting in line to get shredded alive by a giant spherical meat grinder. Everyone except for me seems to be in a drugged trance. Like zombies walking to their horribly painful deaths. I am horrified, but somehow realize that this is a dream. I reason that I am lucid, but everyone else is still dreaming. This is why they are all zombified.

I start yelling at people, shaking them, trying to get them to realize that this is a dream, and they don't have to be killed. I try to save them. No one will listen to me. I watch helplessly as they are ripped apart one by one and ground down in giant pencil sharpeners. I remember the task of the month as a way to wake people up. I get up on a platform and yell to the crowd, "This is a dream! If you become Lucid like me, we can escape! I will prove it by jumping into this grinder, and coming out unharmed."

I lower myself into the top, and feel the wind from the spinning blades blow against my feet. I lower myself further down, and my foot gets ripped off in a spray of blood. I feel the pain, but it feels distant, so I am reassured this is a dream. I jump in all the way, and feel a thousand blades close in around me. They close in from the bottom up, and the outside in, like a giant pencil sharpener. My legs and arms are torn off first, then my entire body is ripped and sliced into a thousand pieces.

My consciousness remains, and I feel myself pass through the machine, and slop out the bottom in a pile of gore. I form the puddle of my remains back into a body, like the Terminator or Alex Mack. Somehow my survival has destroyed the machine. I see them failing all over the factory. The lights shut off, and alarms start to sound.

Everyone runs from the building, and I meet up with a group of survivors in a burned out house. I recognize several of the survivors as DV members. I recognize Adam, Burns, Twoshadows, and Aquanina We discuss our plans to retake the earth from the aliens, and save all the people who are still not Lucid. It appears that my lucidity destroyed all the meat plants all over the world, and the alien Alien spaceships. The aliens were planning on harvesting us as food and then returning to their home planets. Now that we destroyed their spaceships, they can not go home. They have given up on killing humans, and are now gathering all the world's energy and fuel to create portals home.

We scramble to pack our things. I run through the house gathering everything valuable to me. As I pass by a copy of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreams by Stephen Laberge, I am reminded that this is a dream. I look at the bag of dirty socks I am trying to stuff into my suitcase. I think of the other task of the month, and dump the socks out on the ground. As they fall, I will them to life. They turn into mice that still look like socks. They start squirming and inching all over the floor. Burns laughs, and pulls two kittens out of her suitcase. They chase the sock mice, and disappear under the furniture.

As I gather my things, I feel the dream slipping. I try to imagine what the outcome of this dream will be. How the story will end. I get brief flashes of the future, like a movie preview. Myself, Adam, Burns, Twoshadows, and Aquanina piled into a car on a road trip for the rest of our lives. We run from town to town in a post apocalyptic wasteland trying to find enough gasoline to keep driving. At one point, stuffed in the back seat with all our suitcases and pillows, I reach over and take Aquanina's hand. I know that we will have a love story that is crucial to the plot of the dream. I think how great this will be that we will all become such great friends.

I see a view of the closing credits. It's Burns's kitten walking to the car with my dirty sock in its mouth.

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Oops, I thought I already posted this dream...damn technology...evil robots...grumble

The Dance Party
I am relaxing with friends at an outdoor bar. We are facing a raised stage that doubles as a counter for the bartender. A band is playing, and people are milling around and dancing. I see a young Asian woman sitting with friends at a nearby table. The way she is looking at me creeps me out. She does not look familiar, but I recognize the look she is shooting me. Where do I know that look from?

The woman and her friends come and sit at our table. The Asian woman sits down between me and my friend. There is not enough room for her, and she has to sqeeze between us. She doesn't say a word, even when my friend tries to talk to her. He makes a joke about her just wanting free drinks from us guys. I playfully pull out a two dollar bill and put it on the table in front of her as part of the joke. She reaches over to me, and grabs my forearm. I am a little uncomfortable, because she still has not said a word. She is giving off this creepy vibe that feels so familiar. Her hand starts to wander, and soon it is in my lap. She starts grabbing me through my pants, and it is very uncomfortable.

Suddenly, I realize that she is a dream character. I pull away from her, and stand up, lucid. I look at her eyes, and there is something wrong with them. They look like an animal's eyes, or a mannequin. I feel much more calm now that I realize this is all a dream. I thank the woman for helping me become lucid, and no longer feel creeped out.

I look around myself, letting the lucidity wash over me. What a great party to be lucid at! A redheaded woman is leading a band, playing upbeat songs. There are tons of good looking girls and guys on the dance floor, and at the outdoor tables. I realize it is very similar to the wedding I was just at last week. I start dancing with some friends, and it feels really good. I am a much better dancer than in real life.

I get a perverted idea, and climb up on the table. I yell, "Everyone, listen up! Time to get Naked!! Girls on the left, Guys on the right! Chop chop people, its Naked Time!" Everyone starts undressing as the band plays. I only let people back on the dance floor when they have removed some clothing. The whole scene doesn't feel sexual at all. It is more of a fun joke. A story I want to tell people later.

I grab my girlfriend, and we keep dancing. I tell her that she and I are the only ones who don't have to get naked. People's clothes keep reappearing, and we have to keep walking around reminding them to take them off. There is a big mess somewhere in the middle of the dance floor where I joke with a couple about their body piercings and tattoos, and we compare the work we've had done. It escalates into a sexual situation, but we don't get far before I decide there is more fun to be had.

I jump up on the stage and yell, "Stop the music!" The record squeals comically, and everyone stops dancing like a bad movie. I turn to the band leader, and whisper to her , "Back to the Future, Baby!" She starts to argue, not knowing what that means. Instead of explaining, I then turn to the crowd, and say into the mic, "Next up, Karaoke."

My girlfriend climbs up on the stage, and starts to sing, "Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News." I jump back into the crowd, and continue dancing. I work the floor with a few windmills, then pop up on the table to do some head spins. I end up doing a hand stand between two tables, with one hand on either table. I then do a handstand push-up that launches me into the air. As my girlfriend belts it out on the mic, I float around the dance floor hovering in mid air, doing the worm and feeling pretty cool.

I wake up, back in bed. I head to the bathroom, and look at myself in the mirror. I look at my teeth, and notice a chip taken out of the front one. I think I must have done it at that great naked karaoke party last night. As I am thinking about the huge dentis bill, I see that all my teeth are transparent, like cheap plastic. I worry for a second, then remember, "Wait, that party was a lucid dream. This must be one too!" I wake up for real, back in bed.

I keep my eyes closed, and reenter the dream. I imagine the feeling of rubbing my hands together while looking at them. It works for a second, and I hear the music start up again. I then slip back awake. I try again, this time imagining rolling side to side. This works even better. I get a good rhythm going, and roll right off the bed and into a midair barrel roll. I throw my arms out to stop the roll, and find myself flying above a huge 2D map.

It looks like a map you would see on a GPS display. I fly down lower, and watch the view change to a street view, like a Google Map. I land in a busy city street, where my girlfriend and my friend Jen are talking. They are discussing what movie they want to see. I refuse to see a movie, saying, "Its my dream, and I don't want to waste it with a movie." Jen agrees, saying she has already seen the movie three times. She explains it is a film about Italian immigrints called Mama Mia. She then sings the annoying and catching stereotypically Italian song, "Mama mia, mama mia." She talks about how much she hates that movie, and hates the song even more. I agree that it is an annoying song.

My girlfriend decides that if we're not going to see the movie, she wants to get some Italian food. I refuse, still wanting to do something fun in my dream. She then pushes me down on the ground, and sits on me. She grows into an enormous fat man with curly hair. She looks like the fat guy from the TV show Lost. I start making fun of her saying, "You still want some food, fatty fatts a lot?" I then start singing the "Mama mia" song again, and reach up to pull her/him close to me. I wrap my arms around her lovingly and whisper in her ear, "Jen is going to hate this..."

That's an outstanding dream. I can lucid naturally, but I never have that kind of fun.

Fanny, thats a little freaky. Especially the part where you describe going down the tube, covered in fleshy slime. I really reminded me of what I experienced climbing into the machines, and getting run through all their pipes as a pile of blended goo. One thing I didn't mention, is that all the aliens in my dream were disguised as Indians, with Sikh turbins and the whole stereotypical deal. There was something about them using Indian restaurants as fronts for their meat processing. Maybe we are both tapped into some collective unconscious xenophobia.

Thanks one3rd, that dream was a lot of good unrestrained fun. I was at an awesome outdoor wedding right before having the dream, and I think I was still in party mode.

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Fanny, thats a little freaky. Especially the part where you describe going down the tube, covered in fleshy slime. I really reminded me of what I experienced climbing into the machines, and getting run through all their pipes as a pile of blended goo. One thing I didn't mention, is that all the aliens in my dream were disguised as Indians, with Sikh turbins and the whole stereotypical deal. There was something about them using Indian restaurants as fronts for their meat processing. Maybe we are both tapped into some collective unconscious xenophobia.

Thanks one3rd, that dream was a lot of good unrestrained fun. I was at an awesome outdoor wedding right before having the dream, and I think I was still in party mode.

Yeah, you said it best. Ya, know... My mind just doesn't think of these things in waking hours. It is so strange , but cool that we both have underling themes, and some of the same plots in our dreaming!! Awesome stuff!!

I may have been a prisoner, held underground against my will, but I was determined to make the most of it. There was a lot that could be learned from these people. The Accident forced them underground, away from the rest of society, but their isolation brought them together as a community. No outsider had ever been allowed into their secret world, and I felt honored to be among them, even if it was as their prisoner.

My first cellmate was a brilliant man. His mutation caused his brain to grow to tremendous size, until it was bursting out of his skull. With it came an intellect that caused him to be dangerous to the community. They locked him up, not knowing what to do with him. Unfortunately, they never had a chance to decide. The sirens started wailing, the earth trembled, and the ceiling of our cell exploded inward. I struggled to free myself from the rubble, and saw the creature attack my cellmate. It looked human until it opened it's horrible mutated mouth. The last thing I saw before I blacked out, was the monster tearing open my cellmate's head, and devoured his huge brain in one bite.

I came to, and crawled to the bloodied body of my cell mate. Surprisingly, he was still alive. He told me that his brain stem was also huge, so he could survive a while longer without the rest of his brain. He knew my secret. That the accident had mutated me into a Researcher, and he knew the true reason I was here. He gave me one final gift, and described what it was like to have his brain eaten. He said the monster drilled into his head with a spinning tooth, and floated his brain out like a fish in an aquarium suspended from the ceiling. I filed the story away in my DNA, and relaxed into a convulsion fit as I felt it change me.

I awoke in a room that looked like an indoor jungle. The canopy of hanging vines rustled, and I knew I was not alone. I moved to the door slowly and carefully. I did not want to draw the attention of whatever lived in the mess of vines and moss hanging from the ceiling. I reached for the cell door, knowing I was too late. The first creature leaped out of the canopy to cling to the wall just above the door. It was a green insect the size of a large dog. It had the head of a preying mantis, and the body of a raptor. Its exoskeleton crackled as it creeped along the wall, and I could see it's oozing green skin pulsing beneath the bony frame. It moved with surprising speed, and leaped towards my face. I reacted instinctually. I grabbed it by it's slimy insect head, and squeezed until I felt it's skull give way with a satisfying pop. More of the creatures surrounded me, and I fought them off with ease.

As I stood amongst the corpses, I knew my secret was out. I relaxed to let the insects' DNA enter mine, and wondered what the underground would do with me. The community would no longer be content holding me prisoner. They must have thought I was a spy from the surface, and put me in this cage to be eaten by the giant insects. Now they knew that I was not a human, but a mutant like them. It had been decades since the accident, and no one had been banished since the Cleansing. The damage had been more extensive than we imagined, and I was a sign that new mutations were starting to appear in the general population.

When I woke from my change, I was strapped to a gurney, propped upright in a lab. A team of white coated scientists were gathered in one corner of the room. One of them approached, and shined a bright light in my eye. My DNA responded, and my eye twisted into a reptile's and swelled to a monstrous size. The rest of my head followed, as my head stretched and scales sprouted from my skin. As my arms and legs grew, my leather bindings tore open like paper. Immediately, a high pitched siren exploded in my ears. It scrambled my brain. I started shape shifting uncontrollably. I flashed through several animals, before getting stuck as a baboon. I jumped towards the wall to escape, and melted right through the bricks.

I fell intoa lab filled with computer parts. A bald cyborg in a wheelchair was being pushed by a woman who I knew to be the leader of the underground people. She lifted the old cyborg man out of the chair, and into a new more powerful body. As soon as he took control of his new robot body, he went haywire. The sirens started blaring again. He started throwing lightning from his robot hands. Each bolt of lightning struck a mannequin and brought it to life. In seconds, he had an army of robot mannequins. They were stupid, but under his control. I knew I had to help stop him. I climbed into his discarded wheelchair, and felt myself shift. I could now control one mannequin at a time. I used my new subtle control to sabotage his army. They turned on him, and ripped him to robot pieces.

The queen of the underground people thanked me. She was impressed by my abilities. She had a partner who was painted green like the Incredible Hulk. She told me that if I could defeat him in one on one combat, I could join her team on a mission to invade the surface world. We began grappling, and I soon realized that the green man was no match for me. He was skinny, with painted on muscles. I pretended like he was stronger than he was, and faked the fight. I wanted to fit in, and didn't want to hurt his feelings. After a good show, I grabbed him with one hand and threw him easily through the brick wall.

I was introduced to my team, and we left for the surface. We exited through a hatch to the crowds of the sunny surface world. A group of people in green surrounded us, and started organizing into formation. We knew they were about to attack. As they circled, a member of my team rushed one of them. As he ran, I heard his gears grinding, and hydraulics hissing. I could see his mechanical frame moving beneath his false skin. He pulled a huge club from beneath his clothes, and hit one of the green shirted women directly in the chest. She collapsed, and her friends gathered around her to help. I now recognized them as a group of street performers and acrobats. I knew the leader from my old life on the surface.

The leader of the troop approached me in peace. He knelt down in the sand, and I leaned to see what he was doing. With his finger, he drew the outline of a door in the sand. He then pulled a key from his pocket, and inserted it into the sand. When he turned the key, the door opened like the entrance to a vault. Within the vault, was the explanation to the trick. There was a small air cannon buried in the ground that was set to blast out a puff of air to blow away the sand when the key was near.

For the past month or two, I've been trying to explore sex more in lucid dreams. Something I've never really been into until recently. Just in case you're wondering why all my dreams have been perv city, lately

I became lucid while having sex with my girlfriend. I didn't want to stop, but I didn't want to waste the dream either. My lucidity made her start to seem mechanical and unreal. My lucid DCs are normally pretty creepy and unsexy. Instead of stopping, I moved my consciousness into her body to experience it from her point of view. This didn't work out like I had planned. I found myself in her body, but when I looked back at myself, I saw that my old body had also turned into her. Now I was in my girlfriend's body, but still having sex with ... my girlfriend. It was weird, but still pretty enjoyable. We tried a few things, some I liked and some I did not. I ended up having to stop when she started using some sort of pump inflated sex toy on me. It was just too strange in a painful way. I decided to leave, and realized that I was in the parking lot at my office building. I felt embarrassed for a second, having weird hermaphrodite clone sex in a parking lot. I paused to think of something else to do.

As soon as I remembered the TV task of the month, I spontaneously found myself watching one of those crazy Japanese gladiator obstacle course shows. There was a team of men and women, dressed in skin tight orange/yellow swirled body suits, trying to tackle some challenge on a horizontal bar. The men were hanging from either end of the bar by their hands, and had their feet held out horizontally and locked together at the ankles. Each of the women then had to climb through the square formed by their bodies and the bar. They were having a hard time, laughing hysterically at getting tangled into a huge mess. The announcer was speaking in Japanese, obviously making jokes. There were wacky sound effects and a laugh track playing.

My girlfriend and I were watching this on an old school wood cabinet television. My girlfriend reached right through the TV screen, and lifted up one of the girl's bikini tops. I realized that the people were actually wearing bikinis and speedos, but had their skin painted in acrylic body paint. I reached in the TV screen also, and started playing with one of the girl's breasts while my girlfriend played with the other. It was as if we had stopped time in the show. Everyone else was frozen like mannequins. The Japanese girl was getting real into it, and she and my girlfriend started making out. I was still fondling her pretty obscenely, and at some point I realized she had three nipples. It was like her left breast had another smaller breast growing off of it. It was hard to tell through the body paint. Weird.

I got a little weirded out by her mutated triple breast, and suddenly smelled somethiing burning. I turned away from the TV, and found myself in the kitchen of my mother's old house. The TV was on the counter, still showing the scene with my girlfriend and the Japanese girl. There was a tray of food under the broiler that smelled like it was burning. I quickly opened the oven, and slid out a tray of really thick bacon with sliced zucchini and squash. I thought it was stupid to cook this all together, because the bacon was going to be undercooked while the squash would burn. I used my fingers to flip each piece of food over individually. I was surprised that I could feel my fingers burning even though it was a dream.

I slid the tray back in the oven, and turned around. I was startled by the one of the orange painted contestants from the show now standing in the corner of the kitchen. I started making out with her, but woke up before I got too far.

Woah..... and I thought my picture of the man and woman smelling her butt was odd... LOL... Very interesting!

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

I may have been a prisoner, held underground against my will, but I was determined to make the most of it. There was a lot that could be learned from these people. The Accident forced them underground, away from the rest of society, but their isolation brought them together as a community. No outsider had ever been allowed into their secret world, and I felt honored to be among them, even if it was as their prisoner.

...

The leader of the troop approached me in peace. He knelt down in the sand, and I leaned to see what he was doing. With his finger, he drew the outline of a door in the sand. He then pulled a key from his pocket, and inserted it into the sand. When he turned the key, the door opened like the entrance to a vault. Within the vault, was the explanation to the trick. There was a small air cannon buried in the ground that was set to blast out a puff of air to blow away the sand when the key was near.

That is epic. Have you ever considered writing a dream like this into a short story or screenplay?

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

I may have been a prisoner, held underground against my will, but I was determined to make the most of it...

I can't express how jealous I am of that recall/subconscious creativity. Did you know you were dreaming? And all that DNA and mutation stuff...was that from a tv show or movie or something or did your mind make it all up? That's ridiculous.

Originally Posted by fannyaliff101

Woah..... and I thought my picture of the man and woman smelling her butt was odd... LOL... Very interesting!

Yeah, that was a strange one. I've tried switching genders before, but this was way more intense. I've been trying to have more sex in my lucids, but it keeps turning out real trange like this.

Originally Posted by one3rd

That is epic. Have you ever considered writing a dream like this into a short story or screenplay?

I wish I had time for something like that. I draw pictures 8 hours a day, and the only thing I ever write are Architectural specs. Writing does not come as naturally as it did back in school. I always thought it would be fun to get together a collection of many people's lucid dreams rewritten in short story form. Then illustrate it, put an intro about lucid dreaming, and publish it. That would be a fun project to get the word out about lucid dreaming.

Originally Posted by Valwen

I can't express how jealous I am of that recall/subconscious creativity. Did you know you were dreaming? And all that DNA and mutation stuff...was that from a tv show or movie or something or did your mind make it all up? That's ridiculous.

I guess my mind just pieced it all together. I don't know from where. I don't watch TV or movies. I don't even have time to read anything but design rags and continuing education material. I think that there is some human need for creating stories. Maybe if you starve your brain of stories, it just starts coming up with its own?

Here's a Frustrating One:

Driving to work with my girlfriend, we pick up the guy I work with as a hitchhiker. We give him a hard time in the car, making fun of his Capricorn tattoo. It looks like a zebra with an elephant's ass. There is a huge smiley face on the elephant's ass. He talks about how it got infected and took forever to heal. He got a coupon for it at Baskin Robbins

We reach our destination, at a large department store. It is a dreaming store, and I am curious to see what they consider dreaming merchandise. I'm excited to see a whole department dedicated to lucid dreaming. This excitement soon turns to disdain, as I see that they only carry burgundy and brown old-man-sweaters. There are rows and rows of shelves with nothing but folded up sweaters. There are racks of these sweaters on hangers. I look at a few of them, and realize they are all the exact same sweater, with minor differences. Each one has a map of the United States printed on it in white puffy paint. One state on the map is filled in pure white, with the rest only outlined. Below the map is the phrase "Lucid in Texas!" or "Lucid in Nebraska" depending on which state is highlighted. I am mad that this is the best they can do for their lucid section. I think, "I hope this shit glows in the dark, at least!"

I visit the watch and jewelery counter, and see some neat trinkets. Most of the jewelery is new-age type stuff with crystal rings, amber, and zodiac charms. I am fascinated by a few old fashioned brass clockwork devices like sextants, mechanical astrolabes, and watches. I see one that is marked for lucid dreaming. It looks like an intricately carved brass globe, made of several sections that interlock but are still able to rotate and move. Attached to the front of it, is a metronome pendulum. There are prongs coming off the top of the globe. You can somehow use it to time your sleep cycles and alert you when you are entering REM sleep. It has an ancient, one of a kind, feel to it, and I really want to buy it.

DV Member Tragedy:

I am hiking along a swampy looking lakeside. It is raining, and the ground is treacherous and slippery. I am trying to catch up to Ninja and Two Shadows ahead. They round a corner, and jump down to the trail below. Suddenly, the whole hillside collapses in a mudslide, and I see them tumble into the lake. The landslide brings down trees and mud, and I know they are trapped under the water. I jump in to try and rescue them. I pull Ninja out right away, but T.S. is trapped somewhere under the debris. We dig out endless amounts of broken tree branches and bamboo, but she is nowhere to be found. I am horrified that she has been underwater so long. Even if we do find her, there is no way she will have survived this long. I call to ninja, in a panic, asking him if he knows CPR

"Lucid in Texas!"

Haha...that great. I want my "Lucid in Arizona" sweater.

It has an ancient, one of a kind, feel to it, and I really want to buy it.

Ooo...I want one of those too.

Ah...another one of these dreams with reference to lucidity....that doesn't actually cause lucidity. Why...why...why....?

I am hiking along a swampy looking lakeside. It is raining, and the ground is treacherous and slippery. I am trying to catch up to Ninja and Two Shadows ahead.

That sounds cool. I have never hiked in a swamp in the rain. And what a nice choice in hiking buddies...

I call to ninja, in a panic, asking him if he knows CPR

I'm sorry this had to end so badly. But I've noticed that emotional dreams stick with you longer.

Thanks for dreaming about me again....

What were me and TS doing up ahead of you? Oh, I want to swamp hike in the rain, sounds so blissful Glad I didn't die, but about TwoShadows.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

What were me and TS doing up ahead of you? Oh, I want to swamp hike in the rain, sounds so blissful Glad I didn't die, but about TwoShadows.

But didn't you know...I can breath underwater really well in dreams...indefinitely, actually. No need for tears.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

What were me and TS doing up ahead of you?

Trying to find some privacy, maybe? You seemed to be having a good time together...

Originally Posted by Twoshadows

But didn't you know...I can breath underwater really well in dreams...indefinitely, actually. No need for tears.

Good point That makes me feel better. Maybe you just swam off to explore an underwater cave. I think that conversation about cave diving was what created this dream.

This was a crazy long lucid. I actually got bored a couple times because the dream felt so real and lasted for so long. It's sort of a boring dream, but I'll post all the details anyways in case some of the themes tie into the message passing experiments.

A Message From the Beach
A new day spa opened down the street. Out back, they have a small cottage that they rent out as a bed and breakfast, and use for massages. Walking home with my coworker, we come across this cottage, and decide to see whats inside. The place is very empty feeling, and sparsely decorated. There are several life like dolls on display around the house like statues. They are robotic, and can move slightly to appear life like. One doll of a little girl can blink her eyes. The cat can wiggle it's tail. A sitting dog bobs his head up and down. In the back of the house, is a bedroom with a gigantic bed covered in lacy blue and white sheets. We lie down on the bed, and I doze off to sleep.

I am awakened by the sound of the front door closing. The owner of the house must be home. I'm going to be in big trouble. What am I even doing sleeping in this strange house? I hear a woman's voice speaking to my friend next to me in bed. She is yelling at my friend to get out of her house. My friend is shaking me and yelling at me to get up. We need to leave before this lady calls the police. I just woke up, and can't move. I think, "What a terrible time to be stuck in sleep paralysis." As this thought hits me, I realize sleep paralysis means a dream, and that this whole situation must be a dream. I still can not move, so I relax and try to fall asleep into a new dream.

I wake up, and am still in bed. I am terrified that I've been sleeping in this strange house. I get up, and walk to the bathroom. The room is a pale blue color, and there is a large brown haired Italian woman standing in front of the mirror. I am confused out of my mind! I try to apologize to her, and explain that I have no idea how I got here. As I explain waking up in bed unable to move, I remember that this is a dream. I look down at my hand, and see that I have only four fingers, and no thumb. I can still feel my thumb, and can wiggle it. It is just invisible for some reason.

I look back up at the woman, who is standing silently in the middle of the blue tile bathroom with a creepy grin on her face. I tell her, "Stay calm, this is a dream." She looks....wrong. Her eyes and her grin are growing more monstrous by the minute. Sort of like when you stare at yourself in the mirror for too long. I start to get frightened and creeped out. I say, out loud, "I am going to close this door, and when I open it, it will lead to the beach. This is how you teleport in a lucid dream." I close the bathroom door, tell her to shut her eyes, and then I open it. The door opens into a sandy beach. I have to lean into the door to push it open through the sand.

The beach looks like a cartoon. The colors are all too bright and plastic looking. It looks like the beach in Adam's long exposure photographs. I walk along the sand, and am amazed by how the water levels do not seem right. I think I am on a sand bar that is floating with the waves on the open ocean. I see other people on the beach. I walk by a young black man in his 20s or late teens. His casual, comfortable manner makes me think he is a native on this island. He is sitting on a low stone wall, calling out names. I continue walking past him, but soon hear him yell out my name. I stop dead in my tracks, and turn around. He is about 100 feet behind me, and staring right at me. I point at myself, and he silently mouths the word "Lucid?" I nod my head, yes. He waves over a group of girls who just got out of the ocean. The lead girl is an attractive Latina wearing a white tank top and jeans. He speaks with her briefly as I stand there watching like an idiot. The girl runs over to me, shakes my hand, and introduces herself.

She tells me that she knows me, and has a message for me. She tells me a story about a website that I apparently made. On this website, I posted baking recipes that I stole from her dreams. I get an image of a cake and some baked goods. We come to an outdoor restaurant in a train car. We sit down in a booth under a crystal chandelier, and continue talking. I ask her for more details (which I can't remember because this dream ended up being so long!). I have the feeling she is a police officer.

I decide I want to have more fun, so I spread my consciousness out to the train. I take control of the train as my robot body, and talk over the PA system. I say, "This is your new captain speaking, please fasten your seat belts. I am in complete control of the train!" I can feel the weight of the train cars as my arms and legs. I awkwardly stand up, and begin to climb a huge tree. I am heavy and clunky. As I grab branches with my train-car-hands, I snap them off. I want to reach the top of the canopy to see the sky, but the climb seems endless. Finally, I see some blue through the leaves above me. I look down, and realize I am hundreds of feet above the ground. I get vertigo for a second, and plummet towards the earth. I half fly, half fall, and crash into a city.

I climb out of the wreckage of my robot body, and walk the busy streets. I come across a toy store filled with imported Japanese toys and candy. I speak with the two owners of the shop, explaining to them how I got here, and the message I received on the beach.. They seem skeptical. I leave, with a few neat toys in hand.

Back on the street, I see a crowd of people gathered around the steps of a large white capitol building, or city hall. At first I think it is a group of street performers, and I reach for my wallet, fearing they will steal it out of my pocket (Damn Gypsies). It is missing, but I am not worried, because I still know it is a dream. I soon realize it is a crowd of people gathered around a dead body. There has been a murder, and they are closing off the street to track down the killer. I walk up to the police officer, and confess that I committed the crime. I explain, "This is my dream world, so if there was a murder, I must have committed it." I then create the memory in my mind, so I know exactly how it happened. The cop does not understand, so I show him. I lift my arms, and the dead body rises from his chalk outline. He seems disoriented for a second, confused at being raised from the dead. I don't give him time to figure it out. I reach in my belt, grab a pistol, and shoot him in the head. He dies again, and I say to the cop, "See, this is a dream, death does not mean anything. Everyone can leave. This is ridiculous."

I hear the Joy Division song in my head that the Killers recently covered, "In a room without a window, in the corner, I found truth..."

I return to the toy store, and find myself a new wallet. It is a bright turquoise rubber surfing wallet with a blue rubber shark on the front. I chat with the two owners again, trying to explain to them what it means to be lucid. I jump up on the counter, and run at the wall. I run right up the wall, and onto the ceiling. It is very confusing how my sense of up and down changes as I feel the gravity shift. I run along the ceiling tiles, yelling down to my new friends to join me. They laugh, now believing every word I have told them. I hop down, and one of the two men reaches behind the counter.

He brings out a sketchbook, and hands it to me. I recognize it as a sketchbook I had on one of my trips. I open it, and see page after page of pencil drawings done in a strange scribble style. I clearly remember drawing all of these amazing sketches while on an airplane. At the same time, I know these memories are fake. In the middle of the book, there are several pages ripped out. They are brightly colored sheets of construction paper that have shapes cut out of them. They have been ripped out of the spiral binding, leaving little bits of paper where the metal rings ripped through the sheet. I gather up these small pieces of paper in the palm of my hand. I think it is a huge waste to throw away all this good paper. I lift my closed fist to my face, open my hand, and blow the bits of colored paper into the air like confetti. They swirl around like a snow globe. I make the cloud of confetti grow denser and denser, swirling around me until I can feel the heaviness in the air. The air gets so thick with confetti, I can barely move.

Satisfied, I leave the store, and decide to go look for a book store. I am amazed by this sketchbook, and want to read some more books before I wake up. I then remember how long this dream has been, and I'm worried I will forget the important parts. I already can barely remember the message from the beach. So I wake myself up holding onto the image of the message - a stolen cake and baked goods.

I kind of wish you had gone down the creepy lady track. But I'm also into creepy dreams.

How do you dream for so long with so many details?

I get creeped out by most of my DCs. As soon as I get lucid, I feel strange knowing that everyone is fake. Thats one of the reasons I'm trying to give myself more tasks to interact with my DCs by questioning them, having sex with them, ect.

I think this dream was crazy long because I was so exhausted. I spent the whole day doing concrete work. That stuff is heavy! I also had quite a few drinks afterwards. Despite what most people say, alcohol gives me awesome dreams. It suppresses my REM early in the night, and then makes me sleep real light when it kicks in as a stimulant. Physical Exhaustion + REM Rebound + Stimulants = $$$

I might try going to bed with a buzz this weekend. Usually I have strange dreams when I do.

Wow. I had an unexpected lucid last night. It was hyper real. I don't know that I've ever been so lucid in such a stable dream. I was able to check the time before and after the dream, and I'm convinced it lasted over and hour and a half. I had to wake up super early yesterday to oversee a plumbing installation, so maybe I missed a REM cycle. Thank you REM rebound!

I was trying to fall back asleep after being woken up by my girlfriend jabbing on the phone with her mom in the middle of the night. Weirdo. I finally started to relax, and rolled onto my side. I immediately felt my body start to hum and vibrate. Shadows started to dance across the room, silhouetted in the light from the open doorway. I tried to tell my girlfriend what was happening, but could barely manage a slurred mumble through the paralysis. The shadows coalesced into a huge demon with horns that curled up to almost touch the ceiling. His body looked hulking and deformed as he advanced toward me through the darkness. When he was almost upon me, I picked up the telephone and yelled into the receiver, "I'm in sleep paralysis. Make me lucid. Make me lucid! I want to be lucid!."

Suddenly, I was standing in my lit bathroom, disoriented. Everything looked so clear and stable, I was surprised it was a dream. I leaned over the counter towards the mirror to inspect my reflection. Everything looked just as it should. My head was a little too large for my body, as if I was looking in a fun house mirror. I clasped my hands together in front of me, and flexed to push my shoulder blades out of my back. I felt them pop through the skin, freed from their confinement. I wiggled my shoulder blades, and watched in the mirror as they grew out horizontally into short white points. As they continued to grow, I shook them to unfurl the opalescent white feathers. I could feel the strength in my huge new wings as I gave them a little flap. It felt so natural. They draped all the way to the ground, like an angel. The room was too small for me to open them all the way. Instead, I turned to the side to admire the shiny pristine feathers in the mirror.

As I turned this way and that, I realized I could not see the doorway in the mirror. No matter how I changed my viewpoint, It remained hidden. I started to get a bit nervous, not knowing if someone was going to sneak up on me. As soon as I had this thought, I saw a heavyset man enter the room behind me. He stood next to me at the counter, and I looked at him reflected in the mirror. It felt a lot like being in a public bathroom, and watching someone walk up next to you to wash their hands. I said a few words to him, but something about his presence made me uncomfortable. I locked eyes with him, and commanded him, "Leave my bathroom right now, and instead, send in your hot sister." He grumbled in annoyance, but left. A few seconds later, a gorgeous blond woman entered. She had a real nasty attitude, which I found really attractive.

I followed her out the room, and down the hallway. She was stripping off her clothes slowly, one piece at a time, as I walked behind her. When she slipped off her skirt, I reached out with my soft feathered wing and slapped her on her naked rear teasingly. We came into a room with a pool table. All of the billiard balls were on the floor. The woman tried to show me how to play some game where you had to pop the balls back onto the table, and into the pockets. It was very complicated, and I wasn't interested. She made some vague promises of sexual rewards if I beat her in the game. I felt like this was a trap, and I knew she had already called the cops. I wanted to try out my new wings.

I looked out the window, and focused on creating a landscape to fly over. I tried to imagine a desert canyon like T.S. has photos of in her D.J. Instead, I managed to create a really bad, plastic looking 3D model of a mountain. It looked very fake, like a 3D landscape from the 1980s. As I struggled to make it more real, it started to move. The window I was looking through was now a camera, and the landscape was a terrible music video for Ronnie James Dio. I changed to channel to a TV crime drama set in a mansion. A Chinese man was trying to molest his young step daughter. Unknown to him, his wife accidentally witnessed the exchange, and turned him in to the police. I watched all this while hanging from the ceiling of the mansion. As the characters walked through the mansion, I had to swing around on the large tapestries that were hung from the high ceiling.

Next thing I remember, is being in an open air marketplace. I started to worry about being lucid for so long. I wanted to write down some of the conversations I had with the DCs, because I felt they had special meaning. I tried to wake myself up, but could not. The dream world was too stable. I was amazed at being able to read the signs, menus, and tags on all the booths. The words were very stable and unchanging. Several times, I looked down at my hands and body, amazed that everything was so perfect, even though I knew it was still a dream.

Looking at my hands reminded me of the DV task of the month. I was at the bottom of an outdoor flight of stairs, in a busy open air marketplace. I focused on my hands, and imagined what it would feel like to shoot fireworks from them. I imagined something like T.S. described, with fountains jetting out of my fingertips. Instead, I watched as my palms tore open painfully. I saw the tip of something shiny in the open wound, and realized it was a rocket. I flung my hand upwards to help dislodge the rocket. Blood splashed all over me from the grizzly gash in my palm, but I managed to fling the rocket free. It flipped up end over end into the air before I saw the back end of it ignite. It hesitated for a second, then shot up a few feet and burst into a cloud of brightly colored confetti. Not quite what I had in mind. I tried the other hand, which felt even more painful. It shot further than the first, and looked more like fireworks when it exploded high in the air. Unfortunately, as the sparks fell downward, they also turned into confetti. I knew I must look like an idiot to the people standing around watching. I felt like a bad street magician.

Now I was frustrated. I decided I had to make it dark, because I could not imagine what fireworks would look like in a daytime sky. The light slowly began to fade to dusk as I braced myself for another attempt. This time, I focused my attention to the tips of my fingers. I pointed my hands away from myself, and locked my vision on a place high in the sky. There was no pain this time, as a series of paper rockets blasted out of my fingertips rapid fire. I watched them as they disappeared into the distance. The sky had now settled to a dark indigo color. After a few seconds, the sky lit up to an impressive display of color. It looked like the end of a fireworks show, when they shoot off a ton of fireworks at once. The crowd cheered, and I was surprised by how amazing it looked. As the sparks settled, I noticed that they, too were turning into confetti. Not again!! I reached out to them with my consciousness, and all the millions of bits of confetti burst into fireworks of their own. The sky lit up with their brilliance, and I cheered along with the crowd.

A small man who looked like a Tarsier Monkey wearing white Buddhist robes approached me:

He excitedly asked me if I could read in this dream, too. I said that I could, and that I thought it was strange. He said it has always been his dream to visit the akashic records to research. He said he has been waiting for a dream where he could read before attempting. I shook his hand, and decided I better wake myself up to write this all down.

I woke up to my father yelling at me. He was angry that I had slept in. Apparently, we were supposed to pick up the blond pool-playing woman at the airport. We were really late. He made me look up her flight on Spirit Airways on the internet. Reading through the page, I was again amazed that I could read all the text. I knew it was a dream, but wanted to see where this was all going. I piled in my dad's car, and we sped off to the airport. He started driving like a total maniac. He was driving on the sides of the road, into oncoming traffic, and even on the sides of buildings. I was not afraid, because I was still hyper lucid. When we finally arrived at the airport, we had missed the flight. My dad was furious. I put my hand on his arm, and said, "Dad, don't worry. This has all been a dream." To prove it, I made him look at my right hand. I had 8 fingers all crammed onto my normal sized hand. He laughed as I waved my monstrous hand around, relieved that he did not forget our friend at the airport. I then told him to look at his own hand, because he was now lucid also. He had only two gigantic fingers, like a lobster claw.

We exited the car into a huge parking garage with ceilings so tall they disappeared into the darkness above. I wanted to go flying again, so I closed my eyes and imagined the 3D landscape I had created earlier. For a brief few seconds, I was flying over it. I could still feel myself standing in the parking garage, hearing the echoes of car doors slamming and horns beeping as their owners locked them remotely. I tried harder, feeling myself in both places at once. I felt something shift, and suddenly I was back in the outdoor marketplace.

I was at a stand with a man who was selling cacti. He explained that they were lucid cactus. If you distilled their nectar into a tea, you could become lucid whenever you wanted. My Tarsier Monkey friend approached us, still very excited. He said that he was finally able to complete his goal of reading 10,000 pages. I told him I was able to complete my goal also, of shooting fireworks out of my hand. We both thanked the cactus vendor for making us lucid.

I decided I really needed to wake up and record this before I forgot everything. I leaned forward, and smashed my face into the cactus. I felt the needles painfully puncture my cheeks and eyes. The eyes hurt especially bad, and I woke up.

I haven't read all the dreams you've written here yet but your dream writing and memory are really impressionable and encouraging. I think a hefty amount of credit has to go to your thinking process. I like the sense of humor that comes through some of your dreams. You've been able to do so much lucid dreaming- It must've taken a lot of work and you're an artist to boot!

Thanks for the encouragement! I've been real busy lately, so It is much needed. I've especially been letting my art slip. I need a real slap on the ass for that. I had big plans for all the great summer shows, but other (lame) obligations took over to dominate my summer.

I don't know if you can consider sleeping work. If you could, I would be the hardest worker on the planet I just really like sleeping and dreaming I've been lucid dreaming for around.. maybe 10 or 12 years? I guess it adds up real quick.

Everyone needs a little bit of petting from time to time! It sounds like you've been having it hard, so I hope it'll get better for you soon.
Haha, I guess most people are pretty hard workers then. However, I think your options towards retirement, sir, are expanding! =P

That was a well written and great dream. The monk is kind of weird.

The boy tried to put his body back together. The Elders took him apart in the ceremony, saying it would help stop the plague from spreading. Now he didn't know how to put it back together. The cuts looked clean when they removed his arms and legs. The thick black blood looked like it would work as glue to put him back together. If only the Elders would wake up. They would know what to do. But they had lain silent for days now, along with all the other adults.

The pounding of hooves shook the earth, and the boy hid, as he was taught to do. Strange men tore through the camp with torches and guns. They pulled the children out of hiding, separating them into two groups. They must have misinterpreted he boy's ceremonial dress and long braids as they threw him roughly in with the girl's group. They bound his hands and feet, and tethered him to a line with all the girls. They dragged him harshly from the blazing camp, yelling commands. He heard the guns, and turned to see the line of boys drop limply to the ground. The rope pulled him forward as he watched the strange men throw the small bodies into the fire to burn with the rest.

The woman had kind eyes, but looked defeated. She approached the boy last in line. She dipped her thumb into the small bowl of water, and roughly smeared the caked blood from his forehead. She made the shape of a cross, mumbling, "To cleanse you of your past, and be reborn anew..." She seemed shaken that he understood her, when he met her gaze, and replied in English, "Amen."

The men hauled the group of girls off to be washed. There was a commotion when they stripped the boy of his clothes for his turn, and realized their mistake. A large man seized him, and roughly dragged him towards the outskirts of the camp. The woman with kind eyes met them halfway. After much argument, the large man stormed off, and the boy was left alone with the woman. She bent down to look him over. "You are full of surprises. Here you are, a boy pretending to be a girl. Here I stand, a woman filling the duties normally reserved for men. It is a new world, indeed." Seeing clearly for the first time, the boy replied, "Like you, I have seen the future. This time, we can change it."