Death's Other Kingdom

I'm trying to get into dream yoga. It's hard for me to stay focused that long, but I'm making progress if my recall from last night has anything to say about it.

07.05.2014

Unjustified Anger (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

After helping my co-worker's elderly grandfather move some heavy furniture, then taking an ill-advised trip to the airport on a whim, I somehow manage to make it to work half an hour early. "Well, I guess I'm early today," I say with surprise as I walk in the front door.

Our receptionist, Anita, glares at me. "I guess you are," she mutters, scribbling angrily on a sticky note. I'm surprised by her reaction.

"Wait, don't be mad. If you don't want me here early, I could just wait outside until I'm supposed to be here..."

She glowers at me again. "I'm not mad."

"Um, really? I think you are. You keep scowling at me..."

"Okay, you're right. I AM mad."

I spend the rest of the dream thinking up ways to get back on her good side.

07.05.2014

Footsteps (SP)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

((I consider my SP episodes to be lucid, as long as I realize I'm in SP, because it's somehow a state of dreaming while I'm caught between being asleep and awake. I can see the real world if I open my eyes, but it is intermingled with hallucinations--- like a dual layer of reality.))

I wake up in SP for the second night in a row. Weird how it acts up more when I'm focusing on LDing. I hear my bedroom door open and footsteps on the carpet leading towards my bed. Someone is in here. Then, my mom's voice: "Lola?"

Oh no. My mom and stepdad are home early. WHY are they here? I left a huge mess that I intended to clean up before they returned. Now they'll think I'm a slob.

Wanting to explain myself and question their early arrival, I struggle to move. As usual, only my foot seems operable. I shake it back and forth as quickly as I can manage, but I'm still having problems coming out of it. I struggle to keep my eyes open, which usually helps. I can see the wall and the window whenever I manage to force my eyes open. I feel my mom standing over my bed staring at me. She's probably wondering why I'm shaking my foot like this.

Finally, the motion is enough to jar me awake. I realize that I'm here alone. My mom was never in the room--- once again, just a hallucination.

07.05.2014

Questionable Content (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Much of this is lost, but it was a pretty extensive dream. Mostly I remember the house of a man I had some kind of conflict with. There are several instances where the image of the house is the prominent focus of the dream. The man seems to be Ned Flanders from the Simpsons. Apparently he was never actually a Christian, but was secretly doing neo-Pagan rituals in his house and cursing the Simpsons. This amuses me greatly. However, he seems to be depressed because of something to do with his wife. She died, perhaps. I also believe he may have blamed me for whatever it was. At some point, this results in an epic battle in the street against his mecha form.

07.05.2014

DJ Academy (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm in a place that could be straight out of an anime. A girl is leading me and a small group of other girls around a huge radio company, explaining that we're all going to be DJs for these reality talk shows. Everyone here has their own show, in many different genres. "You'll learn what kind of DJ you are pretty quickly," our guide tells us. I'm a little confused as to how I got here. When she concludes the tour, our guide asks if we have any questions.

I raise my hand. "What exactly is this place?" I ask. I realize how stupid this sounds when she gives me a 'were-you-even-listening-to-a-word-I-just-said' glare. I am now somewhat lucid, though at a very low level. "I mean, I KNOW this is a radio station, but I don't know how I got here. And um, I think I missed the first part of the tour? Is this like a DJ academy?"

She explains that no, it is not. We are to start our own specific style of show with our individual skill sets, which we'll learn as we go.

((Starting from this point, I awake and re-enter the dream many times due to irritating dogs barking right outside my window.))

I'm exploring the station and checking out the various different studios and DJs. Everyone here is their own special brand of crazy, I realize. I'm in the studio of a very pale girl with white hair and red eyes. She's dressed in Lolita style clothing and seems just like an anime character. She talks like a little kid, though she's probably my age. The directer (our tour guide from earlier), is standing in the doorway observing. I suddenly notice a familiar container on the Lolita's book stand--- my medicine! "Hey, these are mine!" I snatch up the pills before she can take them. "How did you get these?"

She tries to deny stealing them, saying their hers, but the director cuts in. "What have I told you about taking other people's things, [girl's name]?"

((Awake. Re-enter.))

I am participating as a guest in one of the DJ's studios. There is a large swimming pool with rows of intertubes. Some of the tubes have people in them. Playing against another newbie, I have to throw bean bags and hit the people. I think it's going to be like Bingo or Tic-Tac-Toe, but it turns out to be more like shuffleboard with no clear rules. The people in the intertubes are swimming around, making it even harder. I lose horribly, and the girls sitting by the pool watching make fun of me.

((Awake. Re-enter.))

This part is rather vague. Something about a dude with rabbit ears who needs my help getting out of a fix with a demon (who happens to be one of the DJs).

((Awake. Re-enter.))

The rabbit-eared guy walks out the door of the demon's studio, leaving me to deal with the angry DJ. I'm very slightly lucid--- I "remember" having this dream before. I know that the demon is going to spew sludge on me, so I guard my face with my hat. The rest of me gets covered in slimy demon puke. He's supposed to do this four times, according to my "memory" of the supposed previous dream that never actually happened. On the third time, the feeling of the cold slime on the back of my neck jars me awake.

Much better recall and clarity last night. I've been reading and meditating before bed instead of mindlessly scrolling through the internet, so that seems to be helping. Also, I fell asleep listening to some binaural beats that claim to "Access powerful super consciousness connection."

07.02.2014

Office Space (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I am at work talking to my fellow student worker, only she's not the same girl who works with me irl. I don't remember what we're talking about. Suddenly, the girl grins mischievously and starts kissing me, backing me up to sit on the counter and grinding against me. It feels great, but this is not the best place for such activity. Especially if Brandon catches us--- I'd never hear the end of it from that perv.

"Not at work," I say, pushing her off of me. It seems that we're actually dating, so we have plenty of other opportunities for making out in places that won't get us fired. Still, she takes my rejection the wrong way.

"What, are you ashamed of me!?" she snarls. I'm kind of surprised by her anger.

"No, no! It's just not professional to do that here..."

At this point, a customer walks in. Normally our front desk person would take care of walk-ins, but she's out for the moment. My angry girlfriend goes to the front to see what the woman needs. She seems to be retired professor who needs access to her old email account. My girlfriend YELLS at her that she has to create a ticket and to stop bothering us with her stupidity. I rush to the front as the old woman is about to burst into tears. "It's okay, I can help you, Ma'am." My girlfriend stomps back to the work room to sulk. "I am SO sorry about my coworker. She's.... having a bad day and taking it out on the wrong people."

07.02.2014

Facing Team Rocket (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm wondering around campus in the dark, enjoying the solitude. Near the back of the psychology building, I gleefully roll down the hill like a little kid at a playground. Soon, though, I hear the sounds of another person nearby. I cannot see them in the darkness, but I know I am no longer alone. I have the feeling that I'm about to be attacked. Though not afraid, I decide to avoid the trouble. I run back tothe main part of campus. Running feels so great, I never want to stop!

*memory lapse*

At some point, I "wake up" with my aunt talking loudly over me with her oldest daughter. She's saying that she's going to start making me do a bunch of chores in order to provoke "a conection with Jesus Christ" within me. She also says some really mean things, some of which are potentially true, such as that I take myself too seriously.

By now, I'm hurt and angry. Doesn't she realize I can her her? I think to myself furiously. Still, I pretend to sleep so that I don't have to talk to her.

Later, a couple who look just like Jessie and James from Pokemon are after my brother. If I understand their yammering correctly, they wish to hand him over to Lord Voldemort. They're in our old house, holding us at gunpoint. I suddenly become lucid.

I grab my brother's hand and pull him through the (closed) window behind us. He seems way too reluctant to run. "Come on, you idiot!" I yell, practically dragging him behind me. "This way!"

I intend to run down the gravel road behind our house to hide in the field of tall grass. When I get there, however, I'm dismayed to find that the field has been mowed. While we still have a head start, I do my best to make more grass appear. Every time I succeed, though, we lose our head start and Team Rocket spots us, making my newly formed hiding place utterly useless.

Abandoning the grass idea, we bolt off into the woods instead. I pull my brother into a giant hollowed out log. Team Rocket seems to know exactly where we're hidden. They drag us out from the log and point the gun at us once again.

This time, I have a gun of my own. I fire at them--- and miss! When I pull the trigger again, all I hear is the empty clicking noise.

But suddenly, there are two more shots. I think they've shot my brother until they both drop to the ground, dead.

I look up to see a man that I'd met in an earlier part of the dream that I can no longer remember. He smiles, winks at me, and turns around to walk off. I think he's going to leave, but he suddenly turns back and starts purposefully towards me.

"What are you doing?" I ask him.

"What do you think?" He pulls me into his arms and kisses me passionately. This is some kind of dramatic continuation from our earlier conversation, so for the sake of the plot I kiss him back. It sparks absolutely nothing within me. I think to myself, If I actually still liked guys, this would be an epic ending to the dream.

11.24.2012

Shenanigans in the Sky (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I am going in for work early, but the tech office is not in it's normal location: it is in a palace in the sky. This does not strike me as unusual in the slightest. I take the elevator and come out in a vast expanse of cloud, which I easily walk across to get to the palace.

In the tech office, Maria (my supervisor) is really frazzled about some new crisis that's going on. She runs out, leaving me to watch the phone. It seems that Her Majesty Queen Victoria is angry at the King, and it is causing all sorts of problems for everyone. When Maria returns, she charges me with the duty of trying to make peace between the two quarreling monarchs.

I am very reluctant to do this, but I begin writing a letter to the Queen anyway. A non-vampire version of Marceline from Adventure Time shows up to assist me. (We seem to have been friends prior to these events.) She says that a letter is not going to do any good: we'll have to have audience with the Queen herself and personally talk some sense into her.

We both sneak past the guards and enter the throne room, where the Queen and King are still arguing loudly. We approach the throne and bow. Queen Victoria rolls her eyes at this display of formality, considering we are somewhat friends with her due to events that took place prior to the dream.

We reason with the Queen, telling her that this fight is hurting everyone in the kingdom. We ask her to make up with her husband. She finally relents, much to our delight.

Now Marceline and I are sitting on a guest couch, still in the throne room. She looks at me and begins mumbling and stuttering something, clearly nervous. "What is it?" I ask her, curious at her rare display of uncertainty.

She admits that she has feelings for me and wants to know if I feel the same way. To answer her question, I lean forward and kiss her, pushing her down on the couch and snuggling closer to her. She laughs. "I'll take that as a yes." We continue to kiss for a while until the Queen says we need to find a more appropriate place to display our affections.