• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




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    The Lab Notebook

    Like many others, I was attracted to lucid dreaming by Inception. Unlike some others, I was very quick to let go of the misconceptions it offers, and to learn and embrace the lingo, the practices, and the understanding of dreaming that are accepted by the community of real people I found here.

    I titled my dream journal "The Lab Notebook" because of the way I'm naturally inclined to write the portions of my dream journal entries that are commentary and side notes on my dreams. I always write with the vocabulary, style, and mindset of a scientist recording the observations she's made during her experiments. That's the framework in which I can best make sense of what I'm learning about dreaming.

    I always write about dreams in the present tense, because I remember reading somewhere that doing so helps the events of the dream seem more immediate and real to you, and helps you recall them.

    The color-coding system I use in my dream journal is:

    Dark red: Things I did while awake
    Teal: Non-lucid portions of the dream
    Deep sky blue: Semi-lucid portions of the dream
    Dark orchid: Lucid portions of the dream (because it's my favorite color)
    [Black within square brackets:] Commentary added by me while I was writing the dream journal entry

    1. Doctor Who-Themed Dream Fragment

      by , 09-30-2014 at 05:03 PM (The Lab Notebook)
      Non-lucid, Lucid, [Commentary written while awake]

      I'm in an episode of Doctor Who that takes place in a big, artificial, vertical column that connects the center of the earth with outer space. I am the current companion, but I'm still me. The conflict in the episode centers around whether or not to set off a bomb at the bottom of the shaft that will blow up the Earth. Different characters present convincing arguments for both setting it off and not setting it off. The Doctor and I, of course, are trying to stop it from being set off. Also, there's a time loop, so we get to go back to earlier in time and get a second chance at stopping it from being set off. At some point [I think during the second loop], I become lucid and enjoy the experience. At the top of the shaft, which is in space, I have to jump through empty space and through a small, circular hole to get into an enclosed space that has air. It's a little scary, but I make it.

      [This was a pretty cool dream, and I wish I could remember it in more detail.]
    2. Portables, A Mission, and Bicycles (December 24-27)

      by , 01-16-2011 at 02:29 AM (The Lab Notebook)
      Awake, Non-lucid, Lucid, Dream within a dream, [Commentary made while awake]

      [This is a catch-up post. These dreams are from December 24-27, 2010.]

      Night of December 23-24

      I'm playing Neopets, and I somehow obtain an item that makes a particular level of a particular Flash game easier.

      I'm with P. in a hotel/bookstore. It's 12:30 A.M., according to an analog clock. [That's what my handwritten notes say, anyway.]

      I'm at my high school, once again visiting the second row of portables located a little distance to the west of the main campus. [These portables don't exist in real life, but did appear in a previous dream, namely, the last dream in this DJ entry.] I'm walking around with no shoes on. As I climb up the steps into one of those distant portables, I wonder whether I'm going to get in trouble for that.

      Night of December 24-25

      [I only have a very vague memory of this dream, especially now that I'm reconstructing it from handwritten notes this long after the fact (1/15/11). I've reconstructed it from my handwritten notes as best I can.]

      I'm at dream!Disneyland, watching a video in a theater. I also have a lucid dream within a normal one. When I first realize that I'm dreaming, I try to fly, but I can't. There are three DCs there, one of whom introduces himself to me and to the other two, and says something about how he isn't sure if we've met in reality or not. [Hmmmm... very interesting.] I actually tell the three of them that I'm dreaming. I get a second shot at completing a mission, and this time, I succeed. The mission involves saving the son of some teacher from someone. To complete it, I have to go into a room full of computer workstations and press a red, rectangular button that I find on someone's workstation. I couldn't find it the first time. At the end, when everything around me is blowing up [I think], I'm lying face down, going, “Please be a dream... please be a dream...” because I'm convinced that it's reality.

      I wake up out of my lucid, back into the regular, non-lucid dream I'd been having before.


      Night of December 26-27

      I'm riding along on my bicycle. A mechanical arm attached to an overhead conveyor belt grabs my bike and pulls it into this big, elaborate, two-story construct that's a combination of a maze, a play structure, and an amusement-park ride, with me still on the bike. I think, I thought things like this only existed in dreams! I didn't think anyone had actually built one as a ride! [LOL, more dream sign fail...] I'm excited to be going into it, though, because I know it's an amusement-park ride/activity and it'll be fun. The conveyor belt goes up at an angle, taking me up to the second floor. When I get there, I get off my bike and go inside a room. Other people are there, including some real-life friends [I think; I don't really remember who now]. We're all role-playing that we're scientists in a laboratory [I think], because that's part of the ride.

      The next thing I remember is realizing that being put in
      [artificial] danger is also part of the ride. I run toward the double doors through which I came into the room and open them by punching them. They swing outward, and I see that I've opened them just in the nick of time – just after the doors open, I see a locking bolt on one of the doors shoot out automatically. If I hadn't opened the doors when I did, we would have been locked inside.

      [I don't remember the transition to the next scene.] I'm in a large bike repair shop. My red bike [the one I have in real life right now] has been taken here, and I want it back. The female DC who runs the bike repair shop gives it back to me, along with a brand-new pair of long black-and-gray bicycle shorts, which are lying in a particular spot on the floor, waiting for me.

      [Fragment] Something about a [different] female DC who is infected with some kind of microbes that, when active, cause her body to become excessively warm.

      Updated 01-16-2011 at 02:37 AM by 37356 (fixing a color tag)

      Categories
      lucid , non-lucid , nightmare , false awakening , dream fragment