The Labrynth of the Mind

Challenge Course Level 1

I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Since it is the middle of the night, I think it is probably a good idea to do a reality check. I plug my nose, and find that I can still breathe. I pinch my nose harder to be sure, but since I can still breathe I realize that I am dreaming.

I look at myself in the mirror for some reason (I don't exactly remember what the mirror had to do with it) then I go out into the sunroom. It is now daytime, and I think of what I should do. First, I try to summon monsters to fight, but nothing happens. I try this once or twice with no luck, and then walk into the kitchen. I remember the challenge course, and realize that this is a great opportunity to try it. I try to create the first chamber around me, and end up using a technique of walking out of the kitchen into the pantry, but with the idea that the next room will be the first chamber of the course. At the same time, I seem to be a little outside of the dream, because I can imagine my surroundings a bit more freely (at the cost of some vividness of the dream).

I find myself in the chamber, but already standing on the ledge that is supposed to be high up above me. The chamber is like a large cavern, possibly with water and plants but at least very much like a cave in nature. Across the cave from me on the wall is the door to the next chamber. It it smallish, and square, more like a large window. It is also higher up on the wall than I imagined, and already opened. Around here I either wake up or lose lucidity.

Boats and Computers

I am driving somewhere at night. I have to park my car some distance from where I am staying, and walk along a partially wooded path. I start down the path, but then I realize that I could just as easily be driving my car down this dark path. I turn around and head back to the car, just making it as I hear some voices nearby...

...Somehow I find myself on a boat, in some marshy area. There are places where there is open water, and I am discussing how the boat is built so that one can use it even in the shallow, overgrown areas. In one area I stop to fish...

...Somehow I find myself in a store, and my father is looking at computers. He either wants to buy one, or wants to find a good video game to play. This becomes more involved, but I don't remember all of the details.

Sometimes I'm too lazy to do it, but WBTB is definitely worth the trouble. Another 2 or 3 lucid dreams in a row, seperated by a few FA's so it's difficult to tell how many different dreams there were. Too bad my recall isn't any better.

Friend's house

I am at a friend's house. I don't know what tips me off, but I do a nose pince RC and realize that I can breathe. I become lucid, and work on stabilizing the dream. I also work on trying to convince my friend that this is a dream. My friend doesn't believe it. He looks into the living room next to us.

"I think I'll turn on a light in there, unless you can do it with your 'magical powers'" he says in a sarcastic tone.

I think about trying to turn the lights on just by thinking about it, but I'm not sure how. Instead, I run into the room and try a bit of anti-gravity tricks. My friend still doesn't believe me. He walks to the light switch on the wall. I run up to the wall and onto the wall like Spiderman. I climb up to the ceiling. My friend is still skeptical.

We go into the kitchen. There is a woman sitting at the table who looks like my mother. Perhaps she is my mother. Things get a bit fuzzy after this. I believe that I tried summoning Monk to try the dream avatar posession technique again, but it doesn't work too well. I also try slowly doing a 360 degree turn, examining everything around me, which I read in someone's dream journal was a good technique. This helps a little.

Back home

I wake up. Wary of FA's, I do a nose pinch RC. Things look normal around me, but to my surprise I can still breathe. I think of ways to increase dream time or stability, and notice a stopwatch next to my bed. I pick it up, and watch the hands ticking. Interestingly, they tick regularly, just like in real life. To be honest, they skip a beat now and then, but for the most part the watch ticks like normal. I remember someone's post on Dreamviews about watching a clock, and how it extended dream time. I lay in my bed, and watch the second hand.

tick-tick-tick-tick, it ticks like normal. I watch it for 30 seconds, surprised that dream clock could work so regularly. I wonder if this will increase dream time. Already it has given me a stable dream for about 30 seconds.

I get out of bed, holding the stopwatch to my ear and hearing the ticking. Whenever it stops ticking, which it does every once in a while, I point at it and say "tick" and it starts again. I keep counting the ticks trying to use this to anchor me to the dream. I concentrate on increasing the vividness and stability of the dream. On my way out the door of my bedroom, I see a hand made sign posted next to my door that says "remember to increase vividness".

I chuckle to myself and start downstairs, all the while repeating the commands "increase vividness" and "increase stability" and now and then demanding another "tick" from the watch. I run my hand along the railing to try to anchor myself. Much of this dream centers on me walking around the house trying to increase the vividness of the dream. I try summoning Monk again, once in the kitchen and once in the living room, but it doesn't seem to work. I seem to have a mental block about controlling some things in dreams, even though I know it is a dream. Still, this dream seems to last a bit longer than dreams have been for a while. Maybe it was the watch that helped.

False Awakening

I wake up. I go downstairs to the bathroom and brush my teeth. As I turn to leave the bathroom, I notice something is weird with my vision. I seem to be taller than the door, and then I notice that my head bumps against the ceiling. I think something about the possibility of a dream, but I decide to do an RC to make sure. I pick up a bottle of hand soap and try to read the ingredients. Nothing makes sense. I'm dreaming.

I leave the bathroom, and decide to go outside and have some fun. For some reason, I feel that I should be quiet going out so I don't wake everyone up. I unlock the back door, and slip out into the sunshine. I decide to try some flying, and jump into the air. I bounce around a bit on the ground, which is fun too. I realize that it helps to stabilize the dream and increase vividness by running and being active, so I run around like a mad man.

I find myself driving in a car. This is a false awakening, because I have forgotten all about the lucid dream. This may even have happened later in the morning, but I seem to feel that it happened after the last lucid part ended. I am listening to a call in talk show on the radio, and the man talking is broadcasting from near where I am driving. People are pulling over to talk to him, or else pulling into the driveway of a park off to the left to turn around. I pull into the park behind them.

I do a nose pince RC for some reason, and find that I can breathe. This is rather unexpected, and I am a bit skeptical. I pinch harder, but can still breathe. "OK kiddies," I say out loud, "if these failed RC's continue I am going to have to pull over and figure this out." I look at my digital clock, which is wrong when I'm awake anyway but is consitent. It looks OK, but when I look again it has changed, and even displays the letter "F".I'm dreaming.

I pull over, and turn off the car. Getting out, I think of what to do. I remember that staying active and moving is helpful in maintaining the dream, and also how exhillerating it felt in my other dream to bounce into the ground and splash through puddles. I jump onto the hood of my car, onto a picknick table, and into the tree above me. I remember feeling as though I had to prove this was a dream (I may have still had mental reservations), and I am a bit concerned because I'm not floating as well as usual. Gravity seems to be OK. But then I jump from the tree and launch myself into the air, and flying works decently. I aim for a few puddles, and splash into them, bouncing up into the air as though the puddles were springboards. Water does that for some reason in my dreams. Then I skim low across the ground until I wake up. Just before waking up, I remember hearing the man on the radio (or some voice) talking to someone. I can hear him saying, "you say you have nothing against Mormonism, so why are you talking about demon possession while you are talking about Mormons?"

Before bed I took 800mg of valerian and 0.25mg of melatonin.

Fragments from early REM period

I am walking around the halls of my university. There are a lot of people in the halls with me. I believe that I am on my way to class...

... I am part of Uru again. There is a linking book somewhere, I think...

... I am looking at a computer screen. There is a picture of something entitled "dreamsign". It looks like the logo for one of the filmmaking companies. The kind of Celtic looking thing. As I look at it, it looks more like the Yeesha symbol from Uru...

Going to my Grandparents'

I am on my way to visit my Grandparents' house. There seems to be a time constraint on this, and my mother and I are trying to figure out the best way for me to get there. In the end, we decide that I will drive part way there, and when I am almost to their house to park the car and take a ferry across a small lake along the way. Somehow I think that this will be cost effective and possibly save time. I will call and schedule the ferry while I am driving.

Former Workplace

My mother and I are at my former workplace (a toy store) looking for a specific toy. We look in a few places for this thing (some kind of military hovercraft) but can't find quite what we are looking for. Then I remember that it is probably in the action figure section. I take her over to that area, but when we get there we see that all but one of the shelves are missing. I ask one of the current stockers what happened to the other shelves. He doesn't know (he is new). I ask another employee, but he doesn't know either.

Lucid at the Fair

I am walking down the road in the middle of our county fair. It is late in the season, and there are not many people visiting. Many of the stands are closing up for the year, and I look as I walk for familiar games and people. I am in my uniform (as though I were there to staff the public relations booth as I did when I was a park ranger). I am not there as a park ranger, but I have some other reason to go to the fairs. I think how nice it is that I get to go back to these old familiar places, and walk down the road feeling at ease.

I try to think of why I am at the fair. I can't exactly remember. Then I remember that being at the fair is a dreamsign. I stop walking, and turn to look behind me. Things look OK, but I am beginning to realize that I am dreaming.
I try to justify my being at the fair, but I can't. "So this is a dream," I say.

I look up at a concession stand to my right. As I do, I become aware that the dream is losing realism. I am in danger of losing the dream, and consider either preparing for a DEILD or hoping to WILD when I wake up. Then I decide to try my Dream Posession technique to stabilize it, and attempt to summon Monk. I am vaguely aware of somebody's presence at my side, and try to take posession of their body. This is partly sucessful, and I blink a few times to try to get the vision clear.

I decide to fly, hoping this will further put me in the dream. I float up into the air, and then come down through the top of the concession stand. There is a woman working in there. She is not overly beautiful, but she is pleasing to look at. I decide to kiss her, and do so. Around here I loose the dream.

Archaeology

I am with one of my colleagues at an archeological excavation. We are back at a rockshelter where we were two years ago, and are at first digging through snow. My colleague, Dr. B., points to a birdbath in the middle of a field and tells me how much he dislikes it. Then he describes a statue that used to sit in it, and how much he hated that. I think the birdbath is kind of attractive, and like the idea of the statue.

We continue digging through the snow. We try not to make too many footprints in it, but Dr. B. seems to be making a lot. Now the snow is moss, and we are removing layers of it. Now we are no longer excavating, but pulling weeds. And now we are digging through dirt looking for trash.

There is a lot of trash in the dirt, and we move down a line sorting through rubbish to throw away. I come across a pile of items, with some electronic equipment and stacks of old records. I am happy with this find, since I get to keep whatever I come across.

Driving to Class

It is 2:00pm (I know the time because I have to leave home to make a long commute to college to take a class). A few things happen to delay me about 15 minutes, and I can finally leave. My father comes along, and decides that he is coming with me. We hop in my car and start the commute. A little way down the road I point out to him that my class goes until about 9:30 or 10:00 at night. He was going with me to do one little thing down the road from the school. I don't think he really wants to wait around for 6 hours or so until I am done with class. He realizes this isn't a good idea, so we decide to turn off the main road and go to a town called "Augusta", or something similar. Whatever the name is, it isn't there in real life though I think it represents a town that is.

The plan is that my mother and brother will meet us in Augusta and pick up my father. It seems that much of the dream from here on consists of driving around in circles and gets a little monotonous and frustrating.

The Detectives

I am a little unclear as to the details of this dream. It just came back to my mind after journalling the last one. I am a detective. Also, I am with my family and we are trying to pick out a movie to watch tonight. There are four of them, two new movies and two classic movies. I can't tell the ratings on the new movies, but I don't know if they contain any objectionable material or not.

Now I'm eating french fries. There is a lot of ketchup on the french fries. Way too much ketchup. However, an attractive lady is also eating the french fries. Then I realize I have been looking for her, because she is the one I have to arrest. But I'm also hungry (this dream took place in the early morning). The dream seems to be half about eating and half about arresting this woman. She is sad about being arrested and I feel a little bad about it.

Skydiving (fragment)

I don't remember much of this dream. It may have been the result of an incubation attempt. All I remember is skydiving.