CanisLucidus

Man do I miss Dreamviews... warmest greetings to everyone here, old and new! I recently had this high-level LD which featured my good friend, dreaming partner, and virtuoso LDer Dreamer and I was inspired by her recent DJ entry to post one myself!

This dream took place on August 3rd, 2024.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #3??: Johann (August 3rd, 2024)

I’m walking through a tunnel underground, and it reminds me of a dream I had earlier where I bumped into a guy, a black man, late 40s dressed in a suit. I see him up ahead and wonder whether my other dream was a premonition! I feel a rush of excitement.

But then as I’m walking toward him, someone else bumps into him, some other guy in a suit. The man apologizes and they begin conversing. I wander away, feeling a little confused. Was I supposed to be a part of that? I walk up a ramp toward a rickety old elevator, and a young guy signals me from inside. “Hey,” he says, “I think I can help you!”

I join him in the elevator. He’s a fair skinned guy of about 20 with chin length blond hair. He says his name is Johann, that he’s friends with Dreamer, and can help me figure out what’s going on. He tells me he knows that I’m confused and can help me get it sorted out.

The elevator takes us into a vast, circular stone chamber, elegantly decorated but dusty and abandoned. A spiral staircase wraps all the way around the sides of this chamber, twisting up to a shaft of light above.

I start slowly making my way up this staircase but Johann races ahead, sprinting on the wall itself at incredible speeds! I shout something like Good Lord! in disbelief. He pauses about halfway up and looks down at me. I tell him that I’d want to do that in a lucid dream and explain that I’ll be working on a lucid later on when I go to sleep. The thought of lucid dreaming prompts me to reality check, so I nose pinch and breathe right through! This seems crazy so I do it again, and now I am LUCID!

I take off after Johann, trying to wall run, and I am just ok at it, more bouncing along the side like a balloon than moving like parkour, but even amateurish lucid wall running is still lucid wall running! I then start cheating and just run straight up the wall. Johann still beats me by a mile though.

I emerge in a supermarket, and Dreamer is here! (Johann is gone.) We greet one another with a long, full hug, and afterward I tell her that this dream feels different, really stable, and that I think we have tons of time. So let’s explore the supermarket and try to figure out where we are!

At first we talk about whether it’s the supermarket from when she and AnotherDreamer visited but we quickly spot lots of differences, so no, this one’s just ours. It’s very long, almost seems too long to walk, and it’s divided into an area with aisles and another area with hand-placed shelves featuring non-grocery goods like antiques. As we’re walking past one display, some part of my dream body catches on a shelf and pulls it down, smashing pottery and making a huge racket. I feel quite lucid and unconcerned about this causing any real harm but do feel a little clumsy.

We keep wandering aisles and so much of it is canned goods like meaty dog food, things that will be extremely unappealing as a treat or to offer as a snack! Ah good, now we’re in the chocolate aisle! I grab a pack of Reese’s peanut butter cups for myself when I see it, wonder whether Dreamer likes these. Are they vegan? I can’t remember! Can’t seem to read the label very well. Ah, here is Hershey’s special dark. I’ll bet these are vegan and I know they’re great! I offer her a pack and she says thanks but she doesn’t like dark chocolate. I am skeptical that this matches waking life but no worries, doesn’t matter!

Dreamer says that we should go outside to our ride. Out the automatic doors onto a seaside street, the morning misty and cool. There’s a streetcar waiting here and we hop aboard. I talk with Dreamer about the dream so far and about Johann, ask her whether she remembers anyone like that. She says there’s one guy with a fuzzy beard who is maybe a little like that but that he is not very adventurous and quite unfit.

We talk about the dream itself, about REM, about how long this could go on. I speculate that there might be a 2 hour maximum for a period of REM. Talk about how locked in I feel. The dream is extremely realistic -- I even feel the nervousness of making sure that I'm being interesting and not obsessing about boring subjects to Dreamer! There’s even just a tiny bit of detectable anxiousness in her as well, just the slightest amount, like a waking life interaction, something usually absent from dreams.

She says that the next part up ahead is going to feel dangerous but that we’re perfectly safe. That there’s something that has to be done. A young Corbin Bernsen climbs a short ladder and mounts up on some sort of ballista behind a shield. The streetcar trundles past a hulking old wooden factory labeled The Dog Factory. Corbin Bernsen fires the ballista, spraying the Dog Factory with a scattershot of bolts that collapses the roof! How does this weapon even work?

I assume that this place was doing something terrible like making dogs into food, and don’t worry about it too much. I also assume it was empty. I can sense a dream plot building up, and as the street car pulls into a dusty, abandoned building with a small group of likable paramilitary rebels out of central casting, I see it continuing here. Everyone looks cool and relatable, clean, relatively young, more like a Hollywood version of scrappy rebels.

Dreamer has vanished now. As I converse with these rebels I learn that they all consider her to be not the leader but an important senior figure. I talk about how this is all part of a lucid dream that I’m having and that I can teach them lucid powers to help with their cause. I try to teach them parkour and get caught up gushing about how much better Johann is than I am! I show them how to float upward, claiming to be really good at this, but then can’t stop, and float high into some kind of bell tower!

Jon Lovitz is here and I tell him about lucid dreaming as well. I prepare a little demonstration where I will ask him what he had for breakfast and then make him say “waffles”. But instead, even though I will him to say waffles, instead he says “lunch!” I laugh, tell him this is a great Jon Lovitz reply and that he’s a funny guy. He tells me that he is always happy to help the cause. I move to float away and explore more as the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #2??: Rocket-Powered Flight

I’m standing at the corner where two long, endless hallways meet in an elbow bend. I’m trying to demonstrate to an audience how to rearchitect it, so I “select” part of the hallway as if this were all taking place inside of a 3D computer graphics program like Blender or 3DS Max. It lights up bright green. I want to shorten it, so I “select all” and the entire length of one hallway now glows bright green as far as I can see.

I take a moment to appreciate this power, and as I consider what I’m doing, I realize that I’m dreaming! The dream starts to fade on me, but I’m determined not to lose it. I vigorously rub my hands together and start belting out a song: “I’m not going to lose this dreeeeeam!” I sing a few more lines about lucidity, and in one line declare (with no real supporting evidence) that Dreamer is also here.

Suddenly I emerge outside in a brightly-colored world that has the look and color scheme of a classic video game from the Nintendo 8-bit era. I’m on a large, green plane that I think is supposed to be an abstract representation of grass. Nearby there’s a small pond filled with realistic-looking water, and a fair number of brightly-colored but mostly realistic DCs wander nearby.

There’s an old-fashioned looking stereo nearby that seems to be producing the game world’s music, which is a pleasant, catchy chiptune soundtrack. On the side of the stereo in black letters, I see “????? Sound System”. (Can’t remember the name!) I think about how I’ll definitely want to remember this name when I wake up.

I feel pressure in my stomach and absentmindedly push out a big fart. Rather than a brief event, though, the gas continues in a loud, embarrassing, seemingly unstoppable stream. I figure that since this is a dream, it may just go on forever (which it seems to be doing.) I get a sour look from one DC, a man with a dark mustache, who glares at me and walks away.

I suddenly recall that I received a lucid dare to engage in fart-powered flight (seriously!), so I decide that now is pretty much the perfect time to try. I think of myself being propelled upward and I blast easily up into the air! It’s some of the most effortless flying I’ve ever done. I wonder whether I should just fly like this all the time.

I soar happily back and forth through the sky, my “rocket propulsion” continuing all the while. Suddenly, Dreamer streaks quickly past me, flying in the same gas-powered manner that I am! I see and hear her “hee-hee-hee!”ing as she shoots by and I start laughing too, enjoying the hilarity and immaturity of this dream.

I fly up to a large tree, easily a couple of hundred feet tall. I shoot quickly to the top and land on one of the branches, seeing a sloping wooden hallway that leads into the interior of the tree. I walk into it, curious about what this tree is and where it leads. I hear a snatch of conversation, PercyLucid saying something about wanting to trade lucid dares with me and some other people “for a few hours” so he can do some of ours. Very shortly after this, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #261: Have a Badass Day

I’m standing in a store that looks like a cross between a barber shop and a clothing store. There’s a mirror on every wall and as I catch sight of my own reflection, I see that Dreamer is standing just behind me and to the right. She acknowledges me with a casual nod, like it’s totally normal that we’re both here.

Dreamer goes back to shopping and as I think about how she might have gotten here, I realize thatthis has to be a dream.

“[Dreamer], I’m having a lucid dream!” I say.

She gives me a skeptical look and says something like, “Right now? You’re sure?” Dreamer looks about ten years older than in waking life, and I notice that her hair is short, very light blonde but shot through with streaks of purple.

At first I think about working to convince her, but decide that no, once things get rolling, she’ll believe it too. I grab her hand and we run toward the store’s exit. There’s no door, just an open air exit that leads out to a street made of interlocking stones.

There’s a high stone wall ahead, and we have to turn left to make it around. There’s a shaft of yellow sunlight covering the road where we need to go, and for a moment I wonder whether it’ll block us. As I think this it shimmers like a glass barrier. We have some quick discussion about this as we approach it, and I say something about this “will be easy to phase through.” There’s a moment of pressure as we cross this threshold and then we’ve phased through.

We emerge on a dusty street that has a Mad Max vibe to it, like we’re in a post-apocalyptic desert. It looks a bit like something out of screenshots I’ve seen from Rage.



There’s an enclosed tunnel of metal and glass that stretches across the dusty road, and I become curious what’s inside. Still gripping Dreamer’s hand, I try to fly up there. There’s a little sticking point, though, and as I narrate my intent, for some reason I get the urge to sing. I start belting out whatever comes to mind, and an electric guitar immediately starts playing along in the background. (Yes, these are the actual lyrics... I "performed" them into my phone upon waking. )

I want you to know that I’m happy to be here,
Let’s fly up in the sky,
And have a badass day!

I really belt out the last part. I try to keep going, but I’m too busy laughing about the very silly lyrics that I’ve already sung. We manage to fly up just a bit above the tunnel, and as I’m trying to get a view of the rest of the town, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #259: Flurries on the 58th Floor

I’m an operative infiltrating an office building. My enemies have seen me before and know my face, so I have to enter as stealthily as I can. I enter through some side entrance high up on a section of rooftop, and I have a vague memory of arriving by helicopter. There’s a huge “59” written on the wall -- this is the 59th floor.

I run up, but it’s a dead end that leads back out to another roof. Okay, down instead. As I arrive at the 58th floor, I hear a door open nearby and a security guard steps into view. He looks like an easygoing family man, black, mid-40s, naturally cheerful face. But I can’t let myself get found out. “I’m sorry,” I say, and I rush forward, punching him in the face and then kicking him in the chest.

He somehow bounces away down the hall and I lose track of him. I run down the hall after him, and it twists and turns confusingly as I go. This all seems so strange and I remember that I must be having a lucid dream. In preparation for this dream, I used Dreamer’s goal-chaining technique, and as I become lucid, the excitement of lucidity is followed by the sense of cold, and I remember my intent to summon snow for Dreamer. (She’s never seen snow in waking life!)

I walk through the hall, spending a little time examining my surroundings and narrating out loud that “this is a lucid dream.” Once I feel settled, I tell Dreamer that she’s here in this office building too. She doesn’t appear right away, though, so for now I focus on summoning some snow. I imagine myself smushing up snow in my hand to form a snowball, and as I do that, snow begins gently falling around me as well. The snowball is a little too small and rock-like to be fun, so I discard it.

I walk into an office enclosed by glass walls, and a group of 4 or 5 women follow closely behind me. One of them is Dreamer! She’s pushing a stroller! She looks like herself but older, maybe ten years older than she is now, and she’s wearing a purple head scarf like she came prepared for the cold.



The other women are close friends or relatives, and they’re all here on some kind of important business to do with the baby in the stroller. Amazingly, I don’t look to see who or what is inside the stroller! I say to Dreamer “You’re here!” and do a little ta-daaaa with my hands. “I’m having a lucid dream!”

She laughs like I’m joking and says no, she’s got to focus. This meeting is really important to her. I insist that this is a dream, saying something like: “I was infiltrating this place and then bam! Lucidity! I used your goal-chaining technique, just like the last lucid!”

“Ah,” she says, “like when I had the [???] series!” The other women nod and smile at the apparent memory. “We had some fun with that one!”

“Yeah!” I tell her. “I wanted to show you this!” And the snowfall begins again.

Dreamer looks up and smiles. “Is that snow?” She looks excited and torn between enjoying the snow and following through with the story behind the dream plot. She looks like she's toying with the idea of opening her mouth toward the ceiling and letting snowflakes fall onto her tongue.

I see a handful of people dressed in suits waiting at a desk for the meeting with Dreamer and her posse. I ignore the suits, focusing my energy on the snow, and hoping they’ll fade into the background. There’s a bit more quiet snowfall before the dream ends.

A little background: earlier today, Dreamer and I were having a conversation where she explained that since her LD rate has dipped a little in the last couple of months, she feels hesitant and less confident about giving advice to others than she once did. This inspired me to remind her how excellent her techniques are!

A few minutes before falling asleep for an afternoon nap today, I quickly used the goal memory and lucidity induction technique Dreamer employed for amazing lucid dreams like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. (Seriously, if you haven’t read these dreams of hers, they’re literally some of the best LD work I've ever seen!) Please don’t compare my very modest goals to these.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #258: Exemplar

I’m walking past a bus circle at night, and as I’m passing under an awning, I feel this strong desire to have a lucid dream, and lucidity begins immediately.

The doorway is either open air or nearly-transparent glass and now I’m standing in a high-ceilinged entranceway to a fancy house. A pair of staircases frame the room, one on the left and one on the right. A pair of women in their late 20s are standing in the middle of the room talking, each of them wearing these sort of Christmas-y looking sweaters.

“This is a lucid dream!” I announce both to them and to myself. They turn toward me, curious and interested.

I remember using Dreamer’s technique to tie the excitement of lucidity to another feeling: gratitude. (Gratitude because I know that if I’m lucid, it means that the technique worked!) Now I remember what my next step was. I turn behind me, addressing Dreamer. I don’t see her right away, but get this sense that she’s nearby. It doesn’t really matter whether she’s physically present in the dream, so I continue.

I say something along the lines of “[Dreamer], the fact that I’m here proves that you’re awesome.” I start to say something about how I’m here in a lucid dream thanks to her technique, but I’m losing the dream just a bit. I catch sight of a darkened room up ahead lit by a pair of tall, flickering candlesticks before the dream ends.

I got out the main point of what I was trying to say, but I’d intended to add something like: “Always remember how good you are at helping people. This lucid dream only exists thanks to your advice!”

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #255: Narcissus at the Symphony

I’m standing in the kitchen with Wife and my two boys E and R. I feel incredibly tired, like I can barely keep my eyes open or even stand. The exhaustion gets the better of me and I collapse, falling flat on my face. “Oh my God! Are you okay?” asks Wife, rushing to my side to help me up. I feel embarrassed that I’ve worried everybody when I’m only tired… surely I could have stopped myself from falling like that!

I stagger over to the sink, noticing that I’m wearing glasses (extremely rare in waking life.) I lean against the sink, noticing odd patterns and spots in my vision. Something’s definitely wrong with me, but I feel like it’ll all be better if I can just fall asleep. It occurs to me to look for the dream and when I hit the nose pinch reality check, I become lucid.

I’m shocked that this is all a dream, and I say out loud, “That countertop right there -- that looks exactly like waking life.” I run my hands over it. It’s in a different configuration from waking life, but the texture, the look, it’s all perfect. Amazing. I catch my reflection in the mirror. I look like me, but my movements are just a bit delayed from my dream body’s movements. I wave my arms above my head and watch in amusement.

I remember Jenkees’ dare to play an orchestral soundtrack. I raise my arms in the air, willing one to arise. I hear something! But it’s very faint, sounding like nothing more than an orchestra tuning up before a concert. Yes, that makes sense, cool soundtrack will come from doing cool stuff.

I walk toward my den but now I’m somehow in the hall of a building, walking past a big mirror. Hey look, I’m shirtless! I look just like myself but with just that little added bit of dream buffness. I flex for a little while, shamelessly indulging in vanity. This goes on for much longer than it should and then I continue along the hall out into a balcony where well-dressed DCs go wandering by. Hey, I bet that I’m at a concert hall! I decide that I should attend a symphony concert to complete Jenkees dare.

I find another mirror and think to summon Dreamer. I don’t want to get too fixated on immediate success, so I say, “Hey, [Dreamer], you can join me if you feel like it!” And in the mirror, Dreamer appears next to me! She sports the usual purple hair, but a heavier build than waking life. I look to my right to catch a direct view of her, but instead of Dreamer, I see my friend “Topspin”! He bears not the slightest resemblance to Dreamer in appearance or personality, being a dude of a completely different height, race, face shape, and demeanor from her. I look back and forth from Dreamer to Topspin. Both of them are smiling at me in amusement and I laugh, saying something like, “Okay, follow along with me if you like!” (Nobody does.)



I walk further along the balcony and see a brown-haired woman in her mid-20s pretending to take pictures by forming her hand into a camera shape. She points her “camera” at me and I’m caught by surprise when it flashes and making a picture-taking noise! I laugh at this and say “Nice one!” She springs up and does these amusing, highly exaggerated photographer poses while taking a few more pictures.

I think she’s hilarious and attractive, and I kiss her. Things turn sexual, but as we head this direction I notice that her reactions are almost precise mirrors of my own. The experience is fun but feels artificial somehow, and I decide to let the dream go in another direction. We’re on a crowded street at daytime now. I give the photographer a hug and afterward she turns around and wanders away. I start down the road, but after a little bit, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #250: Open Your Eyes

There’s a long sequence where I help set up a first date between a male friend and the twin sister of a female friend. Proud of having helped, I wander off to a hallway adjacent to where they’re having their date. There’s an old lady here staring at a set of wall hooks and commenting about how she’s a lucid dreamer and always checks wall hooks “just in case she’s dreaming.”

Interesting idea, I say, and notice that the shape of the hooks keeps changing. I spot a wadded up piece of paper and decide to make it float, just to see. It takes some effort, but float it does, and now I’m lucid. I walk through a nearby door into a warehouse stacked with boxes, intending to encounter Dreamer here.

As soon as I enter the room, I see Dreamer carrying some huge, heavy-looking cardboard box. She seems to be doing grunt work for some kind of retail job and there’s a disagreeable-looking young woman behind her shouting at her to hurry up her work. Dreamer sees me and gives me an apologetic look as this supervisor hustles her along. I approach the pair of them and tell the supervisor, “She’s all done with her work now, isn’t she?” The supervisor seems to accept this and wanders away.

I grab Dreamer’s hand and we run as I babble to her about how this is all a lucid dream. We leave the way I came in, but now it’s a marble entrance hall. Then we’re out on a crowded street, people walking in either direction down the sidewalk and cars rolling up and down the street. I shout something bold to the dream world about how this is my dream and nobody’s going to cause me any trouble. A lot of the DCs stop and turn to me at this, and one of the cars veers off of the street and comes rolling toward us.

Dreamer and I leap onto the hood of the car, run along the top of it, and jump into the air as we reach the trunk. She hangs on as we take flight, wrapping her arms around my neck and left shoulder. I comment on how silly it was of me to start thinking about dreamworld hostility when everything had been absolutely fine. Fortunately, none of it feels like a big deal, and we say something about how it should sort itself out.

The flight’s a lot of fun but at some point I lose my sight. Dreamer says, “The dream is still here. Open your eyes.” I’m nervous about this, but I try it. For a second they feel like they’re glued shut and I think this has to be my real eyes opening. But a little more effort and they’re open! We’re high above the clouds now, and I do a hard dive back to earth, determined that this time everything will be easy and peaceful. I somehow hit the ground sooner than expected and faceplant in some grass. Dreamer seems to be gone now.

I feel the grass a bit with my hands, and it feels phony, like mini-golf grass. A couple of DCs I know from another dream pass by, greet me, and I follow them into a building, through halls into a glass-walled office on the 2nd story. Somehow it’s night outside. An easy-going guy named Gary (black dude, friendly, on the tall side) joins us and I incorrectly remember that the Task of the Month is to pull a prank on a DC! (Oops, this is one from a previous month! )

As a prank, I decide to pretend that the window is sucking me out into the night. I act scared and start shouting as I phase through, landing on the corner of a nearby section of roof. I complete the prank by humping the corner of the roof. The guys inside start laughing uncontrollably and I float down to an outdoor restaurant patio that’s just below.

I think about whether I’ve got a chance to encounter Dreamer again and think about doing either another task or whatever the heck I feel like. As I think this, a woman seated at one of the patio tables turns to face me, and it’s Dreamer! She’s wearing a dress and has long blond hair, but otherwise looks and seems like herself. I talk a bit about tasks, but again lose my vision.

In response to this, she starts singing a strange Australian song about “marching around” and tells me to try marching around myself. As I’m flailing about, I feel myself kick over a table or two and I hear some people shout in surprise. “See how silly that is?” she says. “Just open your eyes!” I have some trouble at first, but after a little encouragement, my eyes come open just fine and I’m still in the same scene. Dreamer runs up and gives me a big hug before we walk off together, talking again about what we should do next. We never get around to anything before the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #249: Long Shot

I’m hanging out with Dreamer in a sparsely-decorated apartment. She’s wearing a dark jumper with the hood pulled up over her head. We’re joking around and coming up with silly games and dares. Dreamer comes up with a really really crazy one that gets us laughing. Warning: It is pretty gross!

Spoiler for Very gross dare -- not for the squeamish!:

I’m talking to Dreamer about how I’ve got some kind of pimple on the right side of my nose. (True IWL! ) Dreamer says hey, she’s got one too and that we should have a contest where each of us pops our pimple and sees who can shoot their pimple juice the farthest.

We laugh and laugh about this and finally decide to do it. We worry about what happens if the other person’s aim is bad and we accidentally pimple-juice each other. To help with this, I find a huge sheet of plexiglass for each of us to hide behind while the other person goes. As I’m setting the plexiglass up, the idea of the dare is so unbelievably disgusting that...

... I become lucid. I feel sleepy and out if it, and I tell Dreamer that I’m really happy to have become lucid so soon after going to sleep, but that I feel really groggy. We both stand up and Dreamer is super tall, easily 7 feet. We talk for a bit, my brain moving slowly during the conversation. Her accent is entirely American during the conversation, which strikes me as one of those strange details that I figure will work itself out.

I finally remember my intent to do the “play a musical instrument that doesn’t exist in waking life” task and ask Dreamer if she has an instrument for me. She says, “Well, I have this violin!” She produces a violin from out of nowhere and somehow plays a few notes with no bow. Now she plucks 3 notes pizzicato.

I tell her that this is cool but that we need to have an instrument that doesn’t exist in waking life. I know that I should be able to flow into the task from here but I feel really slow-witted. I get a little confused what to do next, and Dreamer walks up to me (still enormously tall) and wraps me in a hug. Since I don’t know what to do anyway, I just stay still for a moment and enjoy this. After a bit, I get the sensation of falling asleep, and …

… I emerge in a false awakening in the same room. Dreamer isn’t here, but I have a vision of her sitting on the edge of a table with a model train set on it. In this mental image she’s wearing the same trackies and dark jumper from the previous part of the dream, but now she seems to be her normal height. I wander around the apartment, eventually finding the table, but Dreamer isn’t there. The dream ends fairly quickly after that.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #245: The Third Arm

I’m sitting next to Wife at a little craft table, both of us working on our laptops. I don’t know what she’s doing, but I seem to be writing some code for the game. My iPod is laying on the desk next to me, and I try to cue up some music on it. I swipe and poke randomly at the screen, and a song starts playing. Horrifyingly, the performer in the song is me! I’m braying out some horrible-sounding song that’s a cross between “Tribute” and just random squawking.

I desperately stab at the screen to try to make this stop. Now some British synth-pop is playing instead, much better. I note how strange the screen appears, and I remember to look for the dream. I stand up, and find that both Wife and the craft table appear to have vanished. I remember my intention to summon Dreamer and attempt the bonus Task of the Month (to find and play a musical instrument that doesn’t exist in waking life.)

For some reason, I have this very strong belief that the dream is taking place in my childhood home and that it’s completely empty. I affirm that Dreamer is already here in the room with me but I don’t believe it. I walk from room to room, saying things like, “[Dreamer], you’re right around the corner…” but never quite believing it.

I look down at my hands and say, “[Dreamer], you’re walking right beside me.” As I say this, a third arm extends right out of my chest, lining up its palm with my own palms. The upper part of the arm is covered by the sleeve of a purple polo shirt. I wonder whether this is Dreamer’s arm…? The purple sleeve seems really promising, but the arm kinda has a man-hand that looks more like mine. I think about what I can do with this to complete the summon, but can’t quite figure anything out before the arm vanishes.

I proceed into the den, saying out loud again that I’m expecting to find “[Dreamer]” here (using her waking life name.) I say something about her being “purple”, and expect to see her. As I turn my gaze around the room, I spy a purple director’s chair in the corner, but no Dreamer sitting in it.

Again I expect to see “purple” Dreamer, but instead I summon a purple trampoline, leaned up against the wall! And now look, there’s a purple wall hanging over one of the windows. I peer through the window, seeing only darkness beyond. I feel like there’s no certain dreamworld beyond this house right now, and even though I consider the idea of leaving, I feel nervous about trying this.

Maybe I just need to try calling her “Dreamer” instead of using her waking life name. I try this for a while, too, but I’m having a terrible time shaking this idea that the house is empty. I sense that I’ve let myself get stuck and that I should be able to think my way out of this. I call out a few more times, noting that I’ve actually had quite a bit of dream time. I worry that I should have done more with the third arm or that cool-looking purple trampoline. It isn’t long before the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #244: Headphone Cornucopia

I’m in some kind of big apartment with Wife, who sends me to the other side of the place to take care of some task. I stop in a hallway with a wall mirror, noticing that hey, I have a pair of headphones on my head and music’s playing! I stand there, just appreciating the music, enjoying myself and completely slacking on my assigned task.

Eventually I start feeling guilty that I’ve been loafing around while Wife waits for me, so I take the headphones off and throw them on the floor. But somehow the music keeps playing and I still have headphones on! Okay,this must be a dream! I take off this pair of headphones and toss them, amusing myself that fresh headphones keep appearing on my head. I do this 5 or 6 more times before finally deciding to move on. I decide that the tune was only “pretty good” so I don’t get too obsessed with bringing it back to waking life.

I walk down through a doorway and turn to my left to find myself in a large, rectangular hallways with a floor of red industrial carpet. What were my tasks? Ah right, to play a musical instrument that doesn’t exist in waking life. I walk through to the end of the hall and find myself in a large movie theater facing the screen. I turn to my left to look out over the audience. There’s a good crowd for the show, but fortunately the theater is so huge that it’s not exceedingly crowded.

I look out over the crowd, deciding that Dreamer will be seated somewhere in this theater. I point at the crowd, sweeping my finger left and saying, “There you are, Dreamer!” Yep, there she is! She’s seated in the middle of a long row further back, maybe 30 feet away. She’s blond rather than purple-haired and her hair is pulled back into a bun. She’s sitting with her feet on the chair, her knees pulled up to her chest. She grins when I point her out.

I float up, stepping lightly from the back of one chair to the other. I say, “[Dreamer], you’ve got an instrument for me!” Her grin bends into a knowing smile and she sits up in her chair, her right hand reaching across her body toward some unseen object on her left side. I keep hopping along, but I don’t quite reach her before the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #243: Silent Lucidity

I’m hanging out with Dreamer in a carpeted den and we’re talking excitedly about how a group of us (Dreamer, Jenkees, anotherdreamer, and I) made audio recordings that make us sound like complete idiots. (This is a true waking life memory! I recorded myself using a special audio trick that Dreamer found which made me sound like a complete idiot. The others made their recordings overnight and Dreamer skyped me about this during WBTB.)

Nearby there’s a statue of a tall, naked, muscular woman striding forward while extending her arm toward the sky. The woman is wearing a basket across her lower back and there are three towel-like bundles in the basket. Dreamer tells me that these bundles are the “idiot” voice recordings and that they’ll be ready soon. Dreamer and I lay on the carpeted floor maybe ten feet apart, facing each other and propped up on an elbow. We talk for a while about various things, mostly related to dreaming. I consider the idea that I’m dreaming right now and yes, this is a dream!

I tell Dreamer that all of this is a dream and she smiles, calmly agreeing. We talk a little about the voice recordings, and then I tell her that I can’t remember my goals right now, but I’m content to just chat for a while. She asks me why I’m not wearing my SleepPhones to bed and I tell her that those are fleece and it still doesn’t feel cold enough. I tell her, “And you only know about the SleepPhones because this is a dream!” (Meaning that she knows I'm not wearing them.) She laughs.

I remember that I had a goal of facing a fear. Dreamer and I had recently discussed how we’re both very fearful about awkward silences with friends. I allow the conversation to pause. Dreamer seems to understand what I’m doing and her eyes flick once nervously to the left before locking back on to mine for good. I feel a sharp flutter of panic at first and I’m tempted to blah-blah-blah the moment away, but I resist it and maintain our eye contact. My hands knead the carpet to help keep the dream stable. After I’m past the initial fear, my mantra “Look for the dream” returns to me. Dreamer’s mouth turns up in a half smile as my fear gives way to calm.

After a while, I say, “[Jenkees] must be here, right? I really want to meet him!” Dreamer grins at this idea and agrees. We both stand up and I gesture toward the adjacent hallway, saying, “Ah look, [Jenkees] is even here right now!” A rather doughy, pasty guy who looks nothing like Jenkees walks through the door and joins us in the den.

I notice that he’s way too short. “[Jenkees], you’re supposed to be so much taller than this!” The guy smiles sheepishly and starts shrinking even more until he’s only waist height.

Dreamer and I laugh at how badly I’ve botched this summon. “Sorry, [Jenkees],” I say. “I’ll do better with this next time!”

Dreamer and I try to talk a bit more about dream goals, but it isn’t long before the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #242: The Return of the Rabbit

I’m riding in the back of a Suburban with several of my business partners. “PM” is the man behind the wheel and we’re driving slowly around a dirt loop, listening to the soundtrack from the video game that we’re working on. The music for our battle scene concludes and breaks into a slower section.

There’s a new part, a soft solo of a guitar-like stringed instrument that I’ve never heard before. It's beautiful! PM turns back to say, “I thought this part sounded fucking badass.” I enthusiastically agree that the new music sounds “all badass”. PM’s driving very erratically but not very concerned about it. I become semi-lucid, noting that this is probably a dream. I start laughing when he plows right over a stop sign and now I’m sure that this is a dream. PM is laughing too, and stops the car.

We all get out and there are several of the guys here, PM, “Leroy”, and probably “Z” as well as maybe more. I put my hand on PM’s upper back/shoulder and kind of massage it, wanting to stay really connected to the dream. “Hey man,” I say, “this is a lucid dream. This is the first time that you've been in one of these with me. I’m really happy you’re here!” I feel very happy to have these guys here with me and I enjoy the swell of positive emotions. I tell PM that I’ll do my best to remember the new parts of the song and that I wonder whether he’ll remember them too.

We walk down a dirt path through some trees and night falls quickly. We’re moving through an industrial area by the water and I think that I’d like to summon Dreamer. I look down to see that there are 4 shadows in the group. Must be me, PM, Leroy, and Z? I hold out my left hand, imagining that Dreamer will take hold of it. I feel something vaguely like a hand, then look down again to see a fifth shadow (in a dress!) holding onto my hand.

I look over and Dreamer is standing next to me! Her hair is blond rather than purple now and very short, the bangs bluntly chopped almost in the form of a bowl cut. She’s just wearing a shirt and some kind of pants, though, not a dress. We smile at each other. “Hey guys, this is…” and then attempt to introduce Dreamer several times. I’m mortified that twice in a row I completely goof her waking life name before finally getting it right. I feel awful about this, very embarrassed.

The guys continue ahead and Dreamer and I walk just behind, coming to an abandoned wharf. I recall that we had recent, very specific plans for this dream (to try to heal one another’s sniffles, ha ha…) I ask her whether she remembers and she replies, but I have a hard time understanding her. I move really close to Dreamer’s face, trying to understand her or read her lips or anything, but it’s not working. For a moment I wonder whether there was a kissing task, but no, that wasn’t it, maybe that was someone else’s lucid dare. (Correct, actually -- this was a dare that Dreamer completed a while back!) I quit focusing on her lips and on this mumbling problem, assuming that her speech will sort itself out if I just quit worrying about it.

As we walk further along the water, we talk about how nice it is to just stroll through the dreamworld. I tell her that I’m glad that we’re getting to hang out in such a stable dream and how relaxing this is. I feel peaceful and happy, which reminds me of the patronus task. I tell Dreamer that I want to try the patronus and she moves close to wrap me up in a hug. I extend my right arm and she places her left hand under my wrist, almost to support it. I tell her that I feel super happy in this dream and that I think the patronus is going to be easy! She enthusiastically agrees.



Immediately, pulses of blue energy pour out of my fingers and float to the ground in a big ball. And now scampering along the ground near our feet is my bunny patronus. “Oh, he is cute!” says Dreamer. As he hops around, the bunny turns from a blue, glowy patronus into a real bunny. He hops further along the wharf. Dreamer grabs my hand and pulls me along to follow him. We follow him for a while through an old, crumbling breezeway until the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #241: Not Quite Movie Night

I wander into a still-lit movie theater and see my cousin “SU” sitting next to one of his close college friends on his right, his two children on the left. How cool that they’re here! I’m looking forward to joining them for the movie, and the positive emotions remind me of dreaming, making me lucid.

Even though I’m lucid, I still want to walk down and join them for the movie just the same. As I’m about to head down, though, I realize that I’m not wearing a shirt. This bothers me, so I turn around, expecting to find a shirt on the seats behind me.

And there it is, a black polo shirt! Unfortunately, there’s also a discarded condom lying next to it. It doesn’t look obviously “used” but still, eww. I force-push it away with a wave of my hand and it sails out of sight. Unfortunately, even though I don’t physically touch it, I still feel it slap the back of my hand. Gross, glad that’s over!

I grab the shirt and put it on over my head. It’s getting hung up on my big head and just generally twisting around and seeming to go on forever no matter how much I pull it down. I remember my intent to perform a Task of the Month with Dreamer and start getting really antsy that I’m stuck doing this silly errand instead.

I address Dreamer, saying something like, “I can’t believe this! I’m really trying to find you!”

I flail around in the shirt and Dreamer’s voice responds: “Relax, stop struggling…” Yeah, she’s right… I relax my mind and put my arms up in a confident show-off pose and the shirt slips right on! The theater is still the same, but feels a little less stable now. I lunge for the back of someone’s seat, feeling a little worried about how stable the scene is, and the dream darkens into the void.

I open my eyes and see a dresser with a strange shape on it. Even closer to me is Wife, the two of us lying on our stomachs, facing one another during the nap. (I’m still dreaming, but this is precisely how we fell asleep together for this nap.) Wife looks completely lifelike, but I know I’m still dreaming and that this is a false awakening. I try to move my left arm, but I can’t... my mind has even simulated REM atonia! I marvel for a moment at the deadened feeling of my left arm before attempting an OBE-style roll out of my body. The dream doesn’t hold together through this, though, and I wake up.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #240: Voices

I’m relaxing in a cabin with Wife and my kids E and R. I step outside through a wooden door, catching a view of a beautiful, placid lake. It feels dreamlike, and when I consider my situation, I realize that I’m dreaming.

I decide that I want to attempt the patronus task again with Dreamer to once and for all answer the question of whether I’ll produce a magnificent mythical creature… or the dreaded “pootronus” that she has promised me. “Dreamer, you’re here!” I call out, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

I walk around the edge of the lake and see a distant wooden fenceline. “Ah okay, you’re right behind that fence!” I say, and a woman steps out from behind the fence and begins walking away toward a large wooden building in the distance. She’s got purple hair, so I’m sure that it’s Dreamer!

I hop and fly after her, ending up in the wooden building with her. She’s still somewhat distant so I call out something to her about wanting to do the patronus task. She turns around and calls out, “First say something in your accent voice!” I take this to mean that she wants me to say something in an Australian accent.

“Let’s see how my accent voice sounds,” I say, sounding totally Aussie. Way better than waking life. I kind of talk over Dreamer saying something about “singing”, which I don’t catch.

She grins. “Oooh, how about something in your noise voice?” I’m not sure what she means by a "noise voice" but I notice how precisely her voice matches her waking life voice. I move closer to her, thinking what a “noise voice” could be, and as I’m lost in this question, Dreamer disappears.

I look around, calling out for her until a woman in her late 20s with glasses and dark, curly hair emerges from nearby a stack of hay. As she walks toward me, I say, “What am I worried about? You’re right over here.” She seems to be somewhat agreeable to getting transformed, but when I get close, she’s trying to say something that I can’t quite hear. I reach out but my hand passes through her shoulder.

I keep looking, calling out here and there without much of a plan, but no DCs appear this time. I say a rather pathetic, “Come back, I miss you!” not long before the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #238: Patronus Interruptus

I'm standing in a busy hotel lobby thinking about how I need a mini-USB cable to charge my phone. I reach down and dig one out of my backpack but realize that I’ve actually just stolen it from this other guy crouched nearby. “Sorry about that, dude!” I say, clapping him on the back. He turns to me and smiles politely. He’s an Indian guy and I recognize him as a random guy from the shopping area where I met Wife for lunch earlier in the week. I realize that I’m dreaming.

I’m excited to be lucid and the overreaction starts pulling me out of the dream and into the void. I rub my hands together, determined not to lose the dream. My hands feel stiff and oddly angled and I start tumbling forward over and over. I keep at it, though, saying something like, “I am having this lucid dream!”

After a bit of a fight, the scene resolves itself into a room on the second story house with two windows. I move toward the first window, attempting to phase, but the window feels stiff and resistant. I move to the other window and attempt it again, once again having trouble. This irritates me and makes me stubborn, so I head right for the wall this time instead, saying out loud that “There’s nothing there, you know.” I cut cleanly through the wall this time and float down to the front yard.

I remember my intent to summon Dreamer and say, “[Dreamer], yeah, you’re just… you’re right over there!” and gesture at the front entrance of the house. Dreamer steps out from the shadow of the front entrance. She looks like herself apart from her hair being pink rather than purple. She’s wearing a purple jumper that looks like fleece.

We approach one another and I realize that something seems off about her personality. She seems not to have much personality at all yet but I feel relaxed about this and that if we keep talking she’ll get set right. I give her a peck on the bridge of her nose and she reacts with surprise, smiles, and runs off down the street. I jog along behind her, and start telling her about her appearance in a previous non-lucid from that night. “Hey, in this last dream, you’d written a book!”

Dreamer stops. The area we’re in looks abandoned and urban. Now she has a huge smile on her face and seems like herself. “Tell me about this book!”

“Oh, I almost forgot!” I say, and give her a hug. It’s nice and I remember how she used thoughts of our friendship to produce her patronus. I also remember her words of “encouragement” a few nights ago for my own patronus attempt:

“I wonder if your patronus will be a giant turd!”

Chuckling a little, I extend my left hand out while continuing the hug with my right arm. Dreamer and I are both watching my outstretched fingers with anticipation but when I try to shout, “Expecto patronum!” I do a choking gurgle instead. I get antsy and lose the dream.