Thread: Task of the Month for January 2011

Does it still count if i say if there is a God, may he strike me down before I get struck by lightning?

Hi, new member here. Short story is that a change in my work schedule about a month and a half ago led to an earlier and longer sleep schedule, which led to several vivid (non-lucid) dreams, a re-interest in lucid dreams (which I had heard about, but never actually tried), and to my lurking here. In that time, I've started a journal, and have had three dreams with any significant amount of lucidity, although they've all had rather poor quality.

In my last one, I think I completed this month's basic TotM:

This first bit is hazy, but I'm following an eccentric bearded man in tattered rags up a series of ladders through underground chambers filled with ancient Egyptian treasure. One room even has glossy white statues of mythological animal-headed men standing guard around the walls. Eventually, we emerge into an area at the base of the Great Pyramid.

The next thing I know, I'm leaving this area, going up a flight of stone stairs to a door that leads into the interior of the Pyramid, and I'm looking for something (maybe my guide?). In front of the door, and blocking it, is a round, nearly-spherical pottery vase, maybe two feet in diameter. It's a dark pink or mauve color, with multiple darker brown wavy stripes around it. I move it out of the way and open the door into the Pyramid.

Inside, a long hallway stretches to the left and right, with a maroon-colored carpet, and with lots of anonymous doors along the sides. It reminded me of the inside of a hotel. If I had followed the hallway around, I'm sure it would have formed a complete square around the base of the Pyramid. I'm pondering the hallway and all the doors, and trying to remember what I was looking for, when I realize that I've been in hallways like this in dreams before, and I suddenly become lucid.

I hadn't really been expecting a lucid dream, and I didn't think it would last very long before I woke up, so I didn't even try stabilizing it. I decided to just have a bit of fun waking up, and cause a nuclear explosion in the pyramid. Before I had a chance to do that, I remembered the Task of the Month – be struck by lightening from a thunderstorm. I knew that in order to get struck, I had to be outdoors at the highest point possible. (I'd also been wanting the chance for a while to definitively exit one of these dream mazes I seem to keep falling into, without being stuck wandering or searching aimlessly for the rest of the dream.) I resolved that, after rounding the next corner, the first door on the left would be an elevator taking me to the “roof” of the Pyramid.

I reach the door, and the dream skips ahead to me standing on the flattened, square, stone top of the pyramid. There's no thunderstorm, though, so I dramatically raise my arms skyward, and try to summon a storm. Suddenly, my POV switches to 3rd person, and the “camera” zooms way out to a long shot and starts slowly circling the top of the pyramid like a shot from a helicopter. Meanwhile, the sky grows darker. Soon its filled with clouds, and a bolt of lightening jolts me back into first person. I'm lying on my back – muscles tensed, back arched, unable to move – and lit up like a Van de Graff generator. It feels somehow intense, but oddly, neither particularly painful nor pleasurable. After what feels like a few seconds, it's over, and I summon a nuclear bomb strike on the pyramid. The world around me explodes into pieces as I wake up, 10 minutes before my alarm goes off, thinking, “Did I just do that!? That was awesome!”

(Edit: I find it hilarious that despite only being my third lucid, I almost couldn't think of anything to try doing except waking myself up. I haven't even tried basic flying yet!)

Aww dang just had two lucid dreams and forgot to do the task XD. I've had two each week this month but haven't been able to do the task. The month is only half way over so maybe I'll still have a chance to finally complete a task.

I accomplished the basic task last Wednesday night. At the time I was lying in a tiny cabana on a beach in Mexico with a fever and horrible indigestion, so my memory isn't that detailed. Here is an excerpt:

Later, I am sitting at a cafe table on the sidewalk. Across from me sits a dark-haired hipster guy with a suit coat and thick-rimmed glasses. I am telling him about my troubles with the car.
"But isn't your car an automatic?" he asks.*
I feel momentarily confused. "Yeah, I guess it is," I say. "It must be one of those dream cars."
"That's right. It's a dream car." the hipster says, and looks at me meaningfully.*
Everything suddenly snaps into place. "I'm dreaming!"
I jump up from the table and start running spastically down the street. I weave back and forth randomly and keep smacking my legs with my hands as I go. For some reason I thought this would stabilize me and for some reason it did, but in real life I would have looked like a total loon. I stop and remember I want to get hit by lightning. I look up and I am standing under the twin towers. They are no longer on fire. I decide the top of one would be a good place for lightning and I fly upward. As I reach the top of one of the towers I try to grab onto it, but something holds me back. The top of the building has become chrome, with intricately shifting geometric patterns on it. I am pushed backward and I hover in midair. Below me, I can see the lights of the city shrouded in fog. Above me are clouds. I will a bolt of lightning to form in the cloud and it does. It shoots down and hits me. I feel a sharp crackling current go through me and I see myself in third person as sparks fly off the soles of my boots. I wake up.*

By the way, good tasks this month. Much more inspiring.

My second basic TotM completion!
The following is from my dream journal - Jan 18th, 2011:

• Non-Dream • Dream • Lucid • Questions •

Nightmare fragments:

• Violent psychopath continually escaping
• House full of sharp razors, round serrated saw blades and chains
• Responsible people (doctors I think) snorting cocaine

My vivid memories begin mid-nightmare:

The psychopath was locked up in a room but he was about to break out to where I was.
I thought to myself, "he doesn't have to break out" and concentrated on believing I was safe and that he couldn't get out.

I think that's the point where I realised it was a nightmare. I left the room and made my way back through the house (knowing the sharp traps couldn't hurt me) and climbed out through a window.

I was now in an outdoor setting - perfect clear sky and green grass - except it was all a sketch... like a really simple, coloured-pencil drawing.

I also realised that while I was controlling my actions, I was still watching the dream from third person perspective. I tried to interact with items, touching and picking things up, but I couldn't seem to fully enter my body. ***

Despite that, I started thinking about Task of the Month.
I immediately created a thunderstorm overhead. Everything still looked like a sketch.
I looked up as I made a lightning bolt hit me (I was pleased at how easy this was!) and I was pulled up into the sky and ended on top of the pencil-drawn clouds. I remember thinking in my waking life that this is where I wanted to end up because then I could grow myself 10x down to the ground for the advanced task.
As I started to work on this, I felt myself slipping from the dream and I soon woke up from this strange, non-first-person lucid dream.

*** How can I enter my body in future?

Got the basic, here's the link
I complete the basic task for January - Dream Journals - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource

Completed the advanced one, as a side-effect of another task:

Back to sleep.

I’m walking down a destroyed house and then trip with some metal pole, while falling, realize I’m dreaming, but that doesn’t helps with the fact that I hit myself in the face with the pole and then it hurts, get up and then look at the place, this is the tower, and there is a plane, but there is a small problem, the tower is destroyed and we can’t go out, well, they can’t.

“I will go for help” I say, then jump and start destroying the roof, or roofs, since there were several levels to this thing. Once out, start flying really fast through the ocean, then see line in there that seems like the point where cold and warm water meet at, then at some point, I see a smaller line show up, it is far away and looks like it’s a small worm and a snake, compared to the other line, then I go down and look at the worm, which isn’t really a worm, but the sea-serpent from before, I was just really high, and fast, it took a while for the serpent to catch me once I was down, I ask what the problem is, then I tell the snake to follow me, but it’s too slow, and this ocean is long, as long as the Atlantic one, we won’t get anywhere if we are so slow, so I take it with telekinesis and then continue flying, then I see it bump towards the end of the beach, it bumps with the colliding waters though? That’s not normal, then the snake screeches and tries to get away from the telekinesis, so I let it so, then I see the line move… what!? It shouldn’t move so violently, that is when I see it, it isn’t a line but another sea serpent, one that is the size of a whole ocean! It is gigantic, its face alone is bigger than a building, and it nearly eats me but the other snake helps me, I think that’s dumb however, but it isn’t hurt, just eaten whole, I cut the head of the snake and then take the other one out, then get to the other side of the beach, as soon as I get there, I become bigger and suddenly am home, the ocean is nothing more than a small water body on my house and the island now looks like a mud-place with a small town, I go there, step on the town and take the people out, then restore the stuff humans didn’t build, yup, that should suffice.

Red = relevant to the task.

My first advanced task!
From my Dream Journal - 19th Jan, 2011.

• Non-Dream • Dream • Lucid •

Spoiler for Start of Dream (Non-TotM):

My memories begin at the end of one story – it had been an unpleasant dream but not a nightmare.
At the end, I was killed - pushed off a cliff - but instead of jolting awake, I seemed to leave my body and watch from a distance as I fell, like the end of a movie. Looking on, I saw it wasn’t my own body, but that of a man who looked very similar to Gary Oldman in this picture: http://img.listal.com/image/252176/600full-gary-oldman.jpg
A narrator began to speak about how I never believed in the afterlife so I was on my way to hell, and explained that the preceding dream had been all my worst memories flashing before my eyes. But my fall began to slow down until I came to a complete stop mid-air, and started floating upwards instead. I made it all the way up to heaven, which was an outdoor pool setting (recurring theme) with all the people I love greeting me, and all the people who've been important in my life, including a boy I knew who died of cancer in real life.

I realised it was a dream at this point, just as I felt myself starting to wake.
I thought to myself, “But if I stay asleep, I can have a lucid dream,” and the dream became more stable again.

I still wasn’t in my body (same problem as last lucid dream) but this time, I commanded that I enter my body and was immediately inside myself, with the most vivid, clear vision and presence I’ve had in a while.
I realised I was tiny; I was standing next to a doll’s house which was the size of regular 2-storey house in comparison to me. There was an opening next to it, covered in vines, so I peered through and saw a beautiful dream world awaiting me.

I went straight through and immediately thought of the advanced Task of the Month that I had woken during the night before. Since I was miniature, I was going to have to grow even more to trample a town and I started thinking about how I could do this. I decided it would be easier to shrink my surroundings, making myself a giant in comparison.
I extended my arms out in front of me and pulled my hands together. My dream world began to shrink and I felt myself growing. I continued to do this and each time, it made the sound of a balloon blowing up.

I was now enormous, big enough to trample the town. I kicked over buildings and stomped on cars. There were no people out that I could see so I got no reactions.
I kept trampling for a while until I came to the Colosseum. I trampled it and decided to go to the Eiffel Tower, and when I turned around, it was there.

As I moved towards it, I began thinking about the Task of the Year, but I haven’t actually seen any of the movies listed, so I started trying to remember the descriptions. For some reason, I thought one involved the moon, like that scene in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ where he says he’ll throw a lasso around the moon and pull it down.
I decided I wanted to go straight to the moon.

As I walked closer to the Eiffel Tower, it became life-sized. I leapt onto a platform a couple of storeys up where I met 4 guys who said they were all from DreamViews. I remember the names Hayden, P-Dogg and Pizzel.
I asked if they knew anything about shared dreaming and they seemed confused for a while before saying with the utmost surprise, “Ohh, is this a dream!?” and began inspecting themselves and picking flaws, like the colour of their hair, and exclaiming, “Of course! How did I not notice this before!?”

I must have forgotten about the moon because I invited the DV guys to fly to the pyramids with me. We all took off, soaring over beautiful grassy countryside, then desert, with the pyramids below us.

Then I remembered I had set a new personal task yesterday to experiment with wormholes, and I thought it would be quicker to land on a pyramid if I drew a circle in the sky with my finger and pushed straight through.

I started waking as I drew a circle though, and I couldn't get back despite my efforts to stay still and re-enter the dream.
I was a bit worried that if I started a natural dream by accident, I'd lose my memories of this one, so that probably contributed to me staying awake.

I didn't complete this yet. But thanks for the wings.

I succeeded in the basic task last night.

I was having fitful dreams, waking up frequently and having false awakenings. Finally I reached a stable dream in which I was in a house with no roof. I went outside and descended a staircase to the street. I walked to the end of a cul-de-sac and encountered a woman walking towards an expensive sports car. I asked her what it was like to be a character in my dream (this is something I've started doing during my waking life) and in doing so realized I was actually dreaming. I got into her car and we drove down the road a ways. She was trying to convince me that she was not a character in my dream, but I wasn't paying much attention to what she had to say. I started to think of tasks that I wanted to complete and remembered the tasks for January. I got out of her car and held my hand up to the sky. The stars were vivid but not quite right. A cloud off in the distance started to drift towards me. A lightning bolt came down from the cloud and struck my hand. It didn't feel like anything and didn't have any other consequences which was a bit disappointing. I then concentrated on growing myself, but was unable to do so. I spent the rest of the dream trying to make myself bigger to no avail.

Aww, my side-tracked task doesn't count?

Originally Posted by mikeac

Big Man, Small Town (lucid)
NON-DREAM NON-LUCID LUCID
I had exited a building, finding myself on a concrete field of nothing. I turned around, and the building is gone. I did a reality check and became lucid, but then the dream suddenly destabilizes. I rub my hands and try to observe the details of the nothing around me, and I see a city in the distance. I realize I have several tasks to do before the month is done. I decided to ignore the LPTC tasks and the DreamCatcher tasks, because they seemed to challenging for me right now. I settled on trying to do TOTM, but I couldn't seem to get a thunderstorm to come by, so I decided to do the Advanced task. I filled in the space in front of me with obstacles and ledges to free run on, as parkour could get me more focused. I swing around the bars and fly across the large gaps that my mind had auto-created, and I came across the busy city. It brought back nostalgic memories of when I lived in the city up in LA. I couldn't bring myself to grow 10 times larger for some reason, so another thought popped into my head.

I walked away back to the concrete nothingness and simply spun around. When I focused again, the city was about the size of a sheet of paper. I trampled on it, leaving only a small area which looked like water behind. I dived into the city and it became normal sized again, and I landed in a pool. I seemed to lose most of my lucidity, as I realized all my friends were staring at me underneath some shading. Jenny and my brother had pistols and were running into my house, but they were caught and arrested. I climbed out of the pool too, and a pistol fell out of my back pocket, and I got caught too, but all I had to do was go inside my house. I checked the kitchen counter and noticed my brother's work was on there, with scribbles of "I shouldn't ever point a gun anywhere again." I wrote something on that paper and walked into my bedroom to go to sleep.

I wake up, and realize, 'I'm still dreaming!' I run into the kitchen and my brother and my mom were discussing some sort of research topic. "Wanna hear what I'm researching, Mike?" "I already know, whatever, I gotta go!" I burst out the garage door and sprint down the street, trying to tear open a portal to get to somewhere. I dodge the cars and start yelling out location names while trying to rip open the air with my hands. "Apocalypse ship for 2012! Uh... Halo 3's Last Mission! No... Pyramids! A-" My mom stops me, "Hey! You're not dreaming anymore! You're wide awake!" "No, I'm-" "AWAKE!" she interrupts. "Really... Oh." I walk into one of the alleys in the street and I notice the moon is freakin huge on the horizon. I turn around and a man with a pigeon resting on his shoulder is muttering to himself. "It is pretty beautiful... It'll be even more amazing when the two moons combine... heh..." "Wha..?" I ask. "Look behind you." I turn around and there is a second smaller moon rising in front of the first one.

Hope this counts. *Crosses fingers*
This is for the advanced task. Blue is what's relevant to the task.

Oh, that might be it! I didn't grow larger, the town was smaller lol
Or didn't grow larger on purpose. Ah well.

Awesome ones, they should be all caught up soon.

I finally got the basic task after coming extremely close twice.

I was in a room that looked like my bedroom at my parents cottage, but the furniture was different, no bed, more chairs and a table. There was a group of people there talking about LDing. There was an old guy(LOL percy, this is you) leading the discussion. He said something about the next class, and a guy who was taking notes asked him a question. I realized this was a projection of the MILD class from last night and became lucid. I thought about what I was going to do and decided I was gonna jump out the window and go do the ToTm. I lookoed at the shade and watched as it turned darker outside like it would if a storm was approaching. I grabbed the shade and swung out the window tarzan style onto the porch.

(At this point A Flaming Lips song off At War With the Mystics starts playing in my head, super happy)
It was already raining but not that heavily. I looked up at the sky and felt the rain on my face to increase lucidity. Then I caught some rain in my mouth cause I was damn thirsty. I focused on making the clouds darker and watched as they thickened and grew darker. I got too focused on one spot and the clouds formed a kind of pyramid, with a super black cloud on top. The pyramid shot out a big orange blast of energy when I started thinking about lightning. I knew this wasn't gonna cut it for the TOTM despite how cool it looked, so I looked away at another part of the sky. I focused on the sound of the thunder and tried to make some lightning to go with it. At first there were just sparks up in the clouds, then some lightning shot downward but it never reached the ground. I felt myself losing control and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold the dream much longer, so I decided that the next lightning strike would hit me and it did. I didn't feel like much, almost like being hit by a column of air. I wasn't electrocuted nor felt anything tingly like I expected. But it did knock me on the ground. I laid there looking at the sky. Now things really started to come apart. I held the dream for about 10 secs and woke up.

Blue is the task

Nice

I see mine was updated. Thanks, but what about the others? I still think Hukif's should get credit.

I don't see a request in my permission requests. I'll get an admin to do it.

Oh okay. Thank you.

Suggestion for February:
Basic: Meet Dumbledore, and make him teach you magic
Advanced: Battle Voldemort (perhabs together with Dumbledore?)

Originally Posted by Klikko

Suggestion for February:
Basic: Meet Dumbledore, and make him teach you magic
Advanced: Battle Voldemort (perhabs together with Dumbledore?)

Those might be hard for people that don't know Harry Potter. And the tasks for February have already been decided.

Originally Posted by Klikko

Suggestion for February:
Basic: Meet Dumbledore, and make him teach you magic
Advanced: Battle Voldemort (perhabs together with Dumbledore?)

I personally think it would be more interesting if the two tasks were completely unrelated. But, like mikeac said, the tasks for February have already been decided.

I completed the basic lucid task.

30.01.2011

Doodle Storm! (MILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was on a mission, but my mission was not clear to me. The mission, however, led me to a girl's bathroom. The stalls were lined up in a row, each with a label saying GIRL on them. Only one of the stalls said BOY. Every stall was taken up, so I paced back and forth. I smelt weed in the bathroom. Right when I smelt it, a girl left a stall and I went into the stall. I peed, and then left the stall. I woke up.
My eyes were still closed when I woke up, so I began to imagine me walking out of the stall and doing a RC. Everytime I envisioned it, it became more vivid. I was back in the dream, and I left the stall after flushing. Next to the mirrors by the sink was the word DREAM in white font on red paper. I knew I was dreaming.
I didn't do a RC to become lucid. I knew I had to main tasks, so I decided to do the lucid task of the month first. I teleported to my house, since I didn't know how much control over the dream I would have. Everything in my house was normal, but my dog was locked outside. I ignored him as I went out the door and across the street. I screamed "It will now rain!". Instead of it raining, I was now a doodle on a piece of lined paper. Again, I shouted "It will rain!". It started to rain, but my strongest senses were my smell, touch, and hearing. I heard thunder, so I screamed out "A lightning bolt shall hit me, but not wake me up!". Of course, I looked down, and I felt the lightning hit my head and electricute me all to my toes. I did the task, but the lightning affected me.
I teleported back to across from my house, but everything was blurry! The lightning made my vision blurry. I walked to my house and felt the bricks. My vision wasn't any better. I then screamed "CLARITY NOW", but that did not work. My second personal task was to meet my Dream Guide. I said "When I open this door, my Dream Guide will be there." I opened the door, and I saw a very blurry figure. The only thing I can make out was a silver Bowser shell. The creature did not say anything to me, while most of my DCs do. It felt like it was just watching me.
My dog was still barking to come inside, so I went to the door where I saw his face. He looked like a vampire that wanted to eat me, so I left him outside. Then, I decided to wake myself up so I can remember everything.

dangit xD I have been not really focused on LDing since about November/October, I'm now getting back in the swing of things.
I wish I had seen this earlier....the advanced task sounds so fun