The Labrynth of the Mind

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.

Went to bed at about 1:00am, and took some melatonin to help me sleep. I remember having many dreams, but have a hard time recalling them. The following is the longest coherent stretch I can remember:

New Boss

I am working at the Greenhouse again. I walk in the door, and I see that our boss is there. In waking life, my boss was a big jerk. Here, however, it is Rand Miller, the creator of Myst. I wave hello, and walk up to the group of fellow workers. Rand starts to give orders, the way my old boss used to, and tells me to follow him. We walk down a narrow aisle of plants, and he shows me a spot where he wants me to wait. He points up into the sky outside, at either a large star or a small moon.

"Line up your sight from this pole," he points to a support for the greenhouse roof, "to that star".

He goes back into a back room somewhere, and begins fiddling with controls. I begin to hear a mechanical grating sound, and the sky outside of the tent begins to change. It changes colors, fading from the night sky to a lighter blue, then to a reddish pink as though the sun were rising.

"OK, it's changing!" I call to him, thinking that it was my duty to let him know if I saw anything. Then I realize I have lost my line of sight with the star, and try to get back. Rand continues to run the machine, changing the sky outside. I think to myself how working for Cyan is a whole lot of fun. Apparently I am now working at one of Cyan's offices. Originally I thought it was their headquarters, but their headquarters is in Spokane Washington and we are in New Mexico...

... I walk down a hallway, and sit down in a chair. Barbara Eden, who played Jeannie on I Dream of Jeannie, sits in a chair next to me. There are a few of us sitting in chairs in the hallway, and we do something that I can't remember.

Don't know if this was a lucid or not (fragment)

I am somewhere. I am up high, I think. I am shouting "more lucidity!" and "more vividness". Meanwhile, the landscape gets brighter and more vivid around me.

Note: The above fragment followed a visualization I did as I was falling asleep. An obvious incubation success, and possibly a successful MILD, but I don't remember if it was really lucid or not.

Also, the appearance of Jeannie in my dream is interesting because this morning my parents were talking about their upcoming vacation. They are planning a visit to Cocoa Beach.

Just another day at work?

I am at my former job as a Park Ranger. My coworker and I are on patrol, and we come to a launch ramp at one of our lakes. President Obama is there, fiddling with the lock on a gate that leads to the water. We get out, and get after him because no one is allowed through the gate. I forget what his excuse is, but the other ranger and I believe that he has come back to clean up some evidence. Apparently, there has been a murder committed here, and we think Obama did it.

Walking back from our encounter with the President, we notice how hot the sun is, and how much work this has all been. We decide to go swimming. There is no beach here, just a launch ramp and parking lot. We go into the water anyway, at the edge of the concrete. Not wanting to get our clothes wet, we go skinny dipping. I can see fish swimming around us, and the moss covered rocks at the bottom. The water is very refreshing, but we realize that we are supposed to be working so we decide to get back to our vehicle. Walking naked through the busy parking lot, I see a white SUV approaching us. It appears to have government plates, and I'm afraid it is another ranger, or even worse our boss.

We dash across the lot and jump into the vehicle. It turns out the SUV was not a government vehicle at all.

"Can you imagine if one of our coworkers really did come along, and wanted to talk to us now?" asks my coworker, laughing.
"Yeah, or what if that was our boss?" I say. The one I am referring to was a woman, and a no-nonsense type of person. We both crack up thinking about her reaction upon looking in the window of the Jeep. We pull away, and I put my clothes back on (my fellow ranger apparently sees no reason to get dressed again).

Skydiving with Annabelle (what, again?)

I am "skydiving" with Annabelle once again. We are down by the local hardware store this time, not in Uru. We get up to the top of a high platform, and she jumps off. There are a couple of other people with us, and they jump off too. Annabelle is now laying on a bed at the base of the platform, and wants me to jump on her (yeah, I know there's an innuendo here). I am a little afraid to do so, as it is pretty far down. I inch down a ladder at the edge of the platform, until I am not too far off the ground. I'm about ready to jump, but now I'm afraid of hurting her if I do so.

From here on out the dream makes less coherent sense.

Rand's Computer

I am in a big fancy house somewhere. It is Rand's house apparently, and he tells me to check his email. I am a little bewildered at first, because I can't find the email program on his computer screen. Eventually I do find it right on the desktop after some hunting, and open it up. The inbox is full of female models, sending him riskee pictures. Somebody explains to me that Rand is also a professional in some kind of business involving these pictures. I am not so sure.

Upon closing the mailbox, I look at the computer desktop. He has succeeded in getting a Desktop KI to work, and I decide that I need to get one too. The KI is in the lower left hand corner of the screen.

The Torso

I am out walking behind "my" house. The property is familiar, but it isn't like the house I live in now, or any other house I can think of at the moment. It is a little like my Grandparents' house where I used to spend time when I was really little, and where my family lived for a little while. Anyway, I decide to do some volunteer work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, finding posts that mark boundaries for flood control.

I get to the top of a hill, and see some posts down in the woods. However, I also see a bag full of a human torso, and some body parts. Obviously, there has been a murder. I think to myself "I don't have much of an excuse to be out here. If the cops investigate this, they will find that I was in the area. I don't trust the legal system to not find me guilty of murder, even if there is no evidence".

I decide that the wisest course of action is to move the bag of torso to a different place. I do so, and then return to looking for posts.

My family goes somewhere. When we return, the police have found the bag, and are investigating. We go somewhere else, and when we come back the police are at the top of the hill where I was, with dogs. The dogs have traced the scent of the bag back to its original position. Then, I realize that I didn't wear gloves when I moved the back. I shudder, thinking that (a) I didn't use gloves to move the bloody mess and (b) my fingerprints are now all over the bag!

I consider the matter further. An ond bag has lots of fingerprints on it, right? How could they prove I had anything to do with the murder? And besides, if they did discover that I had had anything to do with the body, I could just tell them the truth. I think about my story, and how flimsy it will sound. I consider confessing to the police what I did. I think maybe I should send them an email, explaining that I moved the bag but didn't have anything to do with the murder. But then I think again that the justice system will probably find me guilty no matter what. I decide to leave things alone. It has been a few days, maybe this will become just another cold case.

Another experiment with valerian, B-6, and melatonin. Did not seem to work overly well this time.

Hired Back

I am going to be hired back to my former job. This time, however, the job seems to involve working underwater. This does not seem unusual to me, but the office is now in a town that is about an hour away from the old office. This is actually not bad, because it may be a shorter commute for me...

...A lot of things having to do with water. Now my cousin's relatives are coming to our family reunion. That seems odd to me.

Band in the Desert

There is a big tent in the desert. There is a band playing in the tent. There are also camels, but most people are driving cars.

Marker Quest

I am at my grandparents' house. I am with my brother. We are walking in front of my grandparent's car. Their car doesn't have very good brakes, and I try to convince my brother to walk faster (we are going down hill). We reach the bottom of the hill and I am doing a marker quest (as in Uru). The markers lead out into the main road that this road intersects. I try to dash out quickly to pick up the markers, but as in dreams it is difficult to dash quickly. I eventually get to the other side.

I pick up one marker that says to examine the original scene more carefully. By this I know it means Eder Gira. I look around where I am a while longer, and find another marker under my kitchen table (it is by the road for some reason).

Before bed I took 400mg valerian, 50mg vitamin B-6 and 0.5mg melatonin. I woke up at 3:30 am and did a WBTB. I also performed a MILD before sleeping. In addition, I attempted to incubate a dream about Myst Uru.

Uru Marker Quest

I am in D'ni, doing a marker quest (this takes a while to explain if you don't know what I'm talking about. You can google these things if you're curious). I am in a big room "upstairs" (a vauge dreaming impression, I don't know what building I may have been in). I follow the markers "downstairs" into a large dark blue grey room. It is a little reminiscent of somewhere in Kadesh Tolesa. The marker quest is describing a murder mystery (taken from waking memory. I was on such a marker quest before going to bed, and it was a location I was at during this quest that I was trying to incubate). The markers tell me about a group of people who "explore the walls". They seem to be suspicious, and I look around the walls of the room. I also call someone on the telephone. One guy in particular does not have a telephone. For some reason this makes him even more suspicious.

The County Fair

In this dream, I am back at my old job with the Army Corps. I am working at the public relations booth at a local county fair.

My former boss is supposed to call me (taken from waking life. I had to call my present boss this morning because he was supposed to call me and didn't). I am at home, but I know he is talking to someone about my phone number. He can't remember my number, and therefore can't call me. I somehow walk into his office as he is saying this.

"You need my number?" I ask, surprising him. We exchange greetings, since we haven't seen each other in a while. Then he sends me out to the county fair.

It is cold and rainy, and many vendors have pulled out of the fair. I myself am a little disgusted with the fair for some reason. I am hungry and decide to get something to eat. I stop at a booth selling hot dogs. I order a hot dog since it is only 75 cents. Then I decide to order french fries too, even though I wasn't going to at first. I fall into conversation with the vendor while he prepares my food, who is also disgusted with the fair.

"This fair ain't like it used to be" he says, squirting ketchup and mustard into a plate and then dumping fries in. "Look at all the people who have pulled out".

"I know," I say, "I think this is going to be our last year here." In fact, I know it is, because I am the one who schedules the fairs. He hands me my food. The fries have onions and peppers mixed in with them. It looks pretty tasty.

I walk for a while, and come to some railroad tracks. There are some people walking on the tracks. What they do is wait for the warning lights to flash on the track signalling a train is coming. Then they jump on the tracks and walk, as though that is the safe time to walk. I try to warn them not to do this (though I seem to be walking on the tracks with them). I describe to them how "two of my relatives - or ancestors, I guess" were killed doing this.

The above dreams were recorded at 3:30AM during the WBTB. The following dreams I recorded this morning.

Western Christmas Carol

I am with some bad guy, in a sheriff's office of the Wild West. The bad guy has a rather distinctive face, looking like a typical bad guy. While we are waiting for the sheriff, another guy walks in and leans on a counter in front of us. Those of us waiting in the office are startled to see how much this new guy looks like the villain. They could be twins, except this new person is much younger. Then a second person walks in and leans on the counter next to the first person. He too looks exactly like the villain, but he has a big bushy beard. Those of us waiting (the villain, myself, some other person, and Peter Lorre - I don't know how he fit in) talk about the coincidence. Then the villain starts reliving past memories.

The past memories are brought on by the fact that the first look-alike reminded him of his own youth. It is like the Ghost of Christmas Past for him, and he begins to soften up by remembering how he used to be. Then, when he sees the second look-alike, he thinks of the present, and how things could have been different. This then, is the Ghost of Christmas Present.

Then the sheriff walks in. If we were surprised before, imagine our shock at seeing the sheriff - an exact double of our villain, except for the badge and hat. This is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, with the ominous foreshadowing of a hanging.

Sad Dream

This dream may have been part of the Western Christmas Carol dream, as it started out in a similar scene. It deals with some issues from the waking life that are sad and personal to some close friends, so I won't go into much detail in the first part. It cheers up a bit by the end, though.

A man, falsely accused of a crime or imprisoned for a petty crime, has a heart attack while in prison. They could have let him out to go to the doctor, but they didn't. He dies. This makes the following events even more tragic and frustrating for the family. Some other things happen (taken from waking memories) that add to the family's grief. There are some scenes of sadness.

Somehow the scenes above lead into a story of three guys who go to Russia. They send a letter to the United States' government threatening to do something extreme. This causes the government to go into a tizzy, and then reports come that the three guys have taken over Russia. What actually happened is that they claimed Russia and nobody bothered to argue with them. It was so silly that it wasn't worth Russia's effort. However, the newspapers pick up the story and blow it out of proportion. Some of us get a big laugh out of that. "Then violence spreads" as it was said in my dream. I am sort of writing this as a story and living it at the same time. Everything disintegrates into a big fight and mass destruction. I buy candy.

The Minivan in the Kitchen (Lucid)

I am walking down the hallwau in my house towards the kitchen. I enter the kitchen, and on the left where the table is supposed to be is a large minivan. This isn't right, and I realize that I am dreamin. This realization seems to cause me to jump, and I wake up...

...But it's a false awakening. I find myself walking down the same hallway, and enter the kitchen again. I look to my left, and there is the minivan sitting there. This reminds me that I'm dreaming. Once again I jerk when I realize that, and either wake up, have a FA, or something. I can't remember anything else.

My Baby

I have a baby. My wife (I have no idea who this is, since I am not married in real life) is away somewhere, and left me instructions on how to care for the baby. This baby is kept in a drawer in the wall, and I open it up now and then to do various things with the infant. I open the drawer at one point to feed the baby. I begin to feed him mashed potatoes or something similar, which is a little difficult because I can't find a spoon but only a fork...

...I go somewhere. This requires going into a cave, up a long set of stone steps, and through a tunnel. On the other side of this tunnel is a wide open space. Here I come across Frankenstein's monster...

...A little later I am leading an expedition up the same path. As we near the top of the tunnel I proceed cautiously because I know the Monster could be lurking about. Sure enough, as we round a bend I catch sight of him. I think he sees me too, because our group begins running back down the tunnel. I know there is one part where there is a narrow doorway that if we can just make it through the Monster will be unable to follow. Of course, it is difficult to run, as it always is in these dreams. Fortunately, the Monster doesn't seem to be that interested in chasing us anyway and we never see him again.

Now I'm on my own, and I continue to walk through the tunnel. I come into a library. There are people going through files and books. They (and now myself as well) are writing a research paper.

But then, I remember about the baby! I was in the middle of feeding him, and he hasn't eaten anything else for a day or two now. I rush back home, wondering how long a baby can go without eating. With relief, I find the baby happily sitting in his high chair/drawer looking at the bowl of food in front of him. I begin to feed him again, wondering if and how should change his diaper before my wife gets home.

It's too late. My wife is already home! She came back while I was gone, and I just didn't see her. I wonder if I am in trouble.

Working with Dirty Clothes

I show up for work at my former workplace. I stand in front of my boss, waiting for direction. He and a coworker are arguing, and I figure out what my job is. Fortunately, it involves traveling about an hour from the office. I hope in the company vehicle, and head down. Then I realize I am not wearing my work uniform. I have it with me, but I can't change while driving. I look for a place to pull over so I can change.

I drive up a road into the woods, and find a place to get out. There are some ruins of houses on the hillside, and people are digging around as though they were archaeologists. I duck behind a box truck and change clothes. Then I see a few people I know, and go up to see them. They are digging around the foundation of what I find out is my great-great grandmother's house. Some old prospector is looking for shale (presumably for oil), but we are just looking for artifacts. We dig up some picture viewing device that is referred to as a "melodian".

Now I am in my uniform, but my clothes are dirty. Oh well, my workplace doesn't care as long as I'm in uniform.

My Baby

I have a baby. My wife (I have no idea who this is, since I am not married in real life) is away somewhere, and left me instructions on how to care for the baby. This baby is kept in a drawer in the wall, and I open it up now and then to do various things with the infant. I open the drawer at one point to feed the baby. I begin to feed him mashed potatoes or something similar, which is a little difficult because I can't find a spoon but only a fork...

...I go somewhere. This requires going into a cave, up a long set of stone steps, and through a tunnel. On the other side of this tunnel is a wide open space. Here I come across Frankenstein's monster...

...A little later I am leading an expedition up the same path. As we near the top of the tunnel I proceed cautiously because I know the Monster could be lurking about. Sure enough, as we round a bend I catch sight of him. I think he sees me too, because our group begins running back down the tunnel. I know there is one part where there is a narrow doorway that if we can just make it through the Monster will be unable to follow. Of course, it is difficult to run, as it always is in these dreams. Fortunately, the Monster doesn't seem to be that interested in chasing us anyway and we never see him again.

Now I'm on my own, and I continue to walk through the tunnel. I come into a library. There are people going through files and books. They (and now myself as well) are writing a research paper.

But then, I remember about the baby! I was in the middle of feeding him, and he hasn't eaten anything else for a day or two now. I rush back home, wondering how long a baby can go without eating. With relief, I find the baby happily sitting in his high chair/drawer looking at the bowl of food in front of him. I begin to feed him again, wondering if and how should change his diaper before my wife gets home.

It's too late. My wife is already home! She came back while I was gone, and I just didn't see her. I wonder if I am in trouble.

Working with Dirty Clothes

I show up for work at my former workplace. I stand in front of my boss, waiting for direction. He and a coworker are arguing, and I figure out what my job is. Fortunately, it involves traveling about an hour from the office. I hope in the company vehicle, and head down. Then I realize I am not wearing my work uniform. I have it with me, but I can't change while driving. I look for a place to pull over so I can change.

I drive up a road into the woods, and find a place to get out. There are some ruins of houses on the hillside, and people are digging around as though they were archaeologists. I duck behind a box truck and change clothes. Then I see a few people I know, and go up to see them. They are digging around the foundation of what I find out is my great-great grandmother's house. Some old prospector is looking for shale (presumably for oil), but we are just looking for artifacts. We dig up some picture viewing device that is referred to as a "melodian".

Now I am in my uniform, but my clothes are dirty. Oh well, my workplace doesn't care as long as I'm in uniform.

There is a lot more to this dream, but I was exhausted last night and have poor dream recall this morning

I am working for the Army Corps of Engineers, who I used to work for. We are driving a white government truck, with a magnetic sign on the side that has somebody's name on it. Some of my co-workers go inside and I am left outside with the truck. I am messing around with somebody else (maybe a co-worker, but I don't remember). I take off the magnetic sign. I pretend to be someone who is looking for the Army Corps truck, but is stupid. I hold the magnetic sign to my forehead and say "gee, I wonder who owns this truck". For some reason i think this is very funny.

I hold the magnetic sign down in the bed of the truck. The metal of the truck bed pulls at the sign, and I let go. It goes flying across the bed towards the other guy who is with me. Smacking against the side, part of the sign breaks off.

I seem to forget about it for a time, but then I realize that my co-workers will be coming outside before too long. What is more, there is a funeral going on. This in itself wouldn't be too bad, but the sign has now changed from saying "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" to displaying the dead person's name. It is some kind of a memorial, and I broke it by messing around!

"That's OK," I think. "The sign isn't too badly damaged, I can just pop the letters back in" (Here the sign seems to have taken on a different form than in real life. In actuality it was just a magnetic strip, like any magnetic truck sign). "Even if I don't get it fixed in time, I'll just explain that it wasn't really my fault". I know it was my fault, since I was messing around and shouldn't have been.

I look around in the bed of the truck for the letters "F" and "O". The more I look, the harder it becomes. Originally, the truck bed was empty. Now it is becoming filled with junk. Not only that, but the missing pieces of the sign are becoming more numerous and complex. Now I am looking for gears, screws and wheels, along with the letters. I dig through a toolbox filled with similar parts, knowing most of them do not go with the sign. It's hopeless now, but I go on looking...