New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

Note: The final presentation is done and over, so the only thing to do for now was to try to get my dream control and recall back So with every intention of recalling dreams tonight, no special plans except to relax a bit after working so hard, and an attempt to WILD, I fell asleep with my light / sound machine on. Unfortunately I was unable to get into my WILD…

I was on a beach, it was nearly sunset, and the only sounds I could hear were the sounds of the waves hitting the shore, the cries of seagulls in the distance, and the sound of a gentle wind blowing in off of the ocean. The scene was very relaxing, which felt good. Even though I didn't realize I was dreaming, I still felt a need for relaxation and rest, so I sat down on the warm sand and stared out over the waves and into the colorful sky with the reds and oranges of the sunset, it was beautiful. I'm not sure how long I sat there and relaxed before I sensed that I was not alone there, there was someone else on the beach with me. I knew I wouldn't necessarily have the beach to myself for long, but I did want to see who I was sharing it with, if it was someone hot… someone creepy… someone with a dog… a psychotic looking clown… yes, that thought did enter my mind… What I did see when I turned around was an older man, he didn't look threatening or psychotic, he was by himself, he looked like an American Indian, and he was gazing off into the sunset just as I was. So I turned my attention from the man and back to the waves, birds, and the sunset.

I now sensed that the Indian man was right behind me, I could feel his gaze as he was looking right at me, and this caused me to turn around again. He was, indeed, staring at me now, and he had a disapproving look on his face. My first thought was that I was trespassing on a private beach, that would definitely explain why there weren't any other people there. He probably wanted me to leave. I felt a mixture of foolishness for wandering onto private property and annoyance at having to leave since I clearly wasn't hurting anything, but I got up, brushed sand off my pants, apologized to the man for trespassing on his beach, and started to walk away. He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, he said he did not own the beach, no one owned the beach. Whew, that was good, so there was really nothing wrong with me being there. The man pointed out to the sea, asking if I saw something wrong. I said no, since I had been staring and not seeing anything wrong. He told me to look again, more closely. I did. The sun was hanging over the ocean, the sky was bright reds and oranges, fading to deep purple and blue overhead, and the waves flowed steadily out to sea… huh? The waves were weird… wrong somehow… I looked closer, and the water seemed to be emerging from the sand itself and flowing out to sea… that wasn't normal, so I did a RC and found I was dreaming…

I looked back at the man now, he said it was about time I became lucid, I found the way he said it to be a bit annoying, but he had made me lucid so I brushed it off. I asked him who he was, he said I should already know that now that I was lucid, unless of course I was completely blind, he said I should look at him and actually see who he was. I was getting a bit more impatient with his attitude, but I still didn't respond to that, resisting an impulse to call him an ass… there couldn't be any benefit to that. I looked at the man, focusing on seeing his energy this time, and I finally decided I was looking at don Juan, but there was something about his energy that was a bit off… right as I thought his energy was off, the frequency conformed to what I thought it should be, he said now I could see him. He pointed back out at the ocean and asked what I saw there… I saw dolphins swimming out in the ocean, so I watched them for a bit and told don Juan about the dolphins I saw even thought I thought he should be able to see them for himself.

I was watching the dolphins still when don Juan slipped a cold glass into my hand, I looked at it and it was full of a drink of some kind, he said to drink it… I sniffed the stuff, wondering what it could be, maybe I'd get my penticon implant to do a spectral analysis on the stuff before drinking it, that way I could be sure it wasn't dangerous… then that felt a bit dumb, I was in a dream, I could eat a cyanide and arsenic sandwich with cobra venom on it and a glass of bleach to wash it down, and it wouldn't be dangerous. It would be disgusting, but not dangerous… besides, I didn't remember any time where don Juan had seemed hostile, so I took a sip of the drink. It was actually pretty good, sweet and fruity, so I drank a bit more and looked back out over the ocean to see if the dolphins were still there.

The red sun was just about gone beneath the surface of the waves, and the full moon was rising a bit to the right of the sun… wtf? How could the moon be rising from the same direction the sun was setting? I rubbed my eyes, looked again, and the sun was rising now, and the moon was setting. Um… ok… well, it was a dream after all… so anything is possible in a dream, the laws of physics are not applicable here. I was absent mindedly drinking the juice when I noticed I felt strange, a bit light headed… wait a minute… the world was spinning, I was losing the dream! Damn! I focused on the moon and willed the dream to stabilize, I wasn't ready to wake up… The sun turned into a giant pacman with fangs and tore a large mouthful out of the moon, red color that looked like blood came out of the torn moon and added even brighter reds to the sky, and it caused the ocean itself to look like it was on fire. The sun ate the rest of the moon in one bite, then hundreds of stars fell from the sky and ate the sun until there was nothing left but a dark night sky filled with stars, although some of those stars were notably fatter than the others. I was just staring at that in silence until I finally muttered a, "What the FUCK was that all about?"

I took another drink and stared at the night sky for a bit longer, waiting for anything else odd to happen, and I felt something bite my lip. I looked in the glass and saw there was not much of the drink left, and there were weird worm things with lots of teeth squirming on the bottom of the glass, looking up at me and snarling, jumping to get to me to bite, one of them was hanging off of my face. I removed the worm, put it back in the glass, and felt like vomiting at the idea I might have actually swallowed one of those things… as I said, things like that won't hurt me in a dream, but it can still be extremely disgusting. I felt light headed and nauseated, what the fuck? I had been poisoned after all, though this guy hadn't seemed hostile in any way, I had been poisoned, I looked over where I knew don Juan was and I saw a clown… a weird clown with so many razor sharp fangs, blood dripping from his fangs… what the FUCK? I thought I was on a beach with don Juan, not Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's It! The clown was grinning at me in a very evil manner, which was weird since the energy I sensed from the clown was still not hostile, maybe a bit amused, but not hostile. My penticon implant spoke to me, saying the foreign substance had been identified and was being neutralized… I closed my eyes and waited until the computer said the neutralization was complete… then I opened my eyes and looked around.

It was dark out now, there were stars in the sky, no sign of the moon, there was a faint red glow on the horizon, dolphins were playing in the ocean as the waves rolled in from the ocean instead of out to the ocean… and don Juan was standing beside me, not Pennywise the Clown, although he did look amused. I realized I was still holding the glass that had the juice in it, but when I looked it was just a bit of juice left, no worms or anything inside it. Hmmm… it seemed I was the butt of some kind of joke here… I took a deep breath and looked over at don Juan, I asked him what the point of that had been, because if it was a poison, he should know I can't be poisoned in the dream state… He looked into my eyes and got a strange look on his face. I had no doubt in my mind that the drink had been poisoned… my penticon said the drink would be safe now, since the substance to neutralize the poison was already in my system. Don Juan was still staring… I commented it's rude to stare… I then commented that the fruit drink was good, asked if he had any more of it… he said sure, and filled my glass from a flask, so I drank down the poison then deliberately smirked… then accidently burped… a long, loud, and embarrassing one that smelled like fruit… I said, "Excuse me," out of habit.

Don Juan asked if I could sense all the different way things are… he said I should be doing it effortlessly now, but… he seemed a bit puzzled… He said I have already done it in dreams, I have seen many worlds at once in the dream state… he indicated the ocean, I saw don Juan standing in front of the ocean (a gunslinger at the edge of a desert) (an old hic at the edge of a swamp) (a fire elemental beside an ocean of lava) (and Indian shaman at a fire at the edge of a thick forest) (a desolate ocean bed with a vampire in front of it) (a massive storm that was blowing with intense force, no sign of don Juan or anyone else) (a battlefield with many dead and dying soldiers lying everywhere, one not far from me was screaming as a vulture was eating him while he still lived as a soldier beside me pointed and laughed) (a field of colorful flowers and a country man standing beside me) (a vast level area of land with an army of Goa'uld marching across it, Teal'c was beside me) There were so many different versions I wasn't able to focus enough to take action in any of them, it was quite disorienting…

Then I heard don Juan speaking to me, focused on that, and pulled myself back into one world, seeing one place, one time… The beach was completely dark now, illuminated only by the dim glow of the stars, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see don Juan was still there, and he was speaking. He said I have the ability to see into many worlds at once when in the dream state, and with practice, to take a different action in each one of those worlds, so why hadn't I yet tried to exist in even two worlds simultaneously while awake? I said it was because I would never believe it or trust it to be real. He asked why not, I said I would have no way of being certain I was having an effect on another world or just pulling fictional shit out of my ass. He said I have to learn not to question what my own senses tell me, be they physical senses or other senses, it is completely normal for a nagual to see many planes and interact with them simultaneously… ok, there's your problem… I am not a nagual, if you want to talk to a nagual, maybe I could bring MoSh to this dream… He said he will find MoSh on his own when it is time, but now he was telling me to use the powers I have IWL… I said I have no powers IWL. He said I do have powers there, he said my friend thinks he is full of shit, so was I saying I agree with that, was I also saying he was full of shit? I wondered how he was so sure I have a friend who thinks he is full of shit… he said he wasn't blind, and that is fine if she wants to think that, she will find her own path. So, did my opinion match hers? That he was full of shit? I wasn't sure what to say, I didn't want to be rude and say yes, he's full of shit, but I know I have no powers IWL… so I said nothing.

After waiting for a short time, don Juan said again to use my powers IWL, I repeated I have no power IWL, to me we were both starting to sound like broken records, repeating over and over and over… I was getting impatient. I said of course I have no powers IWL, that's why they locked me into the trash hole of a dimension where I am now imprisoned. I'm not sure why I said someone sealed me in my home dimension… he said the prison couldn't be secure if I was there, on that beach, with him right now… I said apparently there is a breach that allows for dream travels… but on the physical plane, any powers I had have been sealed. He asked who had sealed my powers. I said I didn't know, maybe the Templars? He laughed, said not even close. He said the only one who had sealed my powers in my waking world was me, sealed it with doubt and disbelief, self doubt and refusal to believe in myself, because without those two things nothing will ever be possible. Or, of course, if I prefer to think he is full of shit, then go ask someone else and they will say the same things using different words. I really wasn't sure what to say right now, but I didn't have a chance to say anything before the dream faded and I woke.

Note: The only real plans I had this night was to meet up with Tigress for an Oblivion dream, although I still have continuing plans that have to do with the TotY and MoSh meeting up with don Juan, who says he wants to have continuing dreams with MoSh until MoSh can get the memories of the dream on his own rather than through me. He seems to think that is important. So with these things in mind I fell asleep with my light / sound machine on and slipped into a WILD…

I found myself starting this dream in the biodome by the koi pond. I wondered if there might be someone meeting me there… I stayed around for a while, looking to see if anyone might show up, but no one came. When I got to the point where I thought I might lose the dream if I continued doing nothing much longer I decided to head off to my next goal, which was to take MoSh to don Juan. I knew I hadn't arranged this with MoSh ahead of time, so I wasn't sure if he would be there, but it wouldn't be any extra trouble to check. I opened a portal and went through it into MoSh's inner world, into the front yard of his house.

When I stepped out of the portal I didn't see any sign of MoSh, but that isn't really that unusual since he's not usually there waiting for me to arrive. I went over to the door to the house and knocked, the door opened almost right away and I saw it was Asuka. She gave me a friendly greeting and said she hadn't been expecting me, thus there were no cookies, I said that was fine. I did some small talk with Asuka such as how is she doing, how are the kids doing, and then I asked her if MoSh was here. She said MoSh wasn't dreaming at the present time, but he could show up at any minute if I wanted to wait for him. I said I would wait for a short time, but if I spent much more of this dream doing basically nothing I was afraid I would lose lucidity or even lose the dream entirely. I didn't have to wait long, however, before MoSh appeared as if from nowhere. I told him he was dreaming and should do a reality check, he just looked at me strangely, then at Asuka. He pinched his nose and said he was not dreaming. I told him that he was, and I had come here to take him to go see don Juan. MoSh looked at me, looking much more interested now, he asked if I knew where don Juan was. I said I could most likely find him pretty easily. I had already told MoSh to do a reality check a couple of times, I didn't figure telling him more would do any good, so I opened a portal with the focus of finding don Juan.

MoSh and I emerged from the portal inside a building, it was pretty dark and I couldn't see much of what it was, but I did see don Juan was there looking at us as we entered. Don Juan looked at me and said he would be seeing me again soon, but this time was for MoSh alone. I was hoping I wasn't in the middle of something urgent when don Juan decided it was a good time to drop by, what if I was on my way to help someone and I was short on time, then instead of my portal tracking that person I ended up with don Juan… then someone got hurt or killed… Don Juan said that's not possible and I know it, since I can be on many planes at the same time. It seemed like he was waiting until I left, so I went through the portal back into MoSh's inner world and it closed behind me. I opened a portal back to the biodome, to the location beside the koi pond, figuring I would check there again before moving on to my next goal.

To be continued in the next post…

Note: This night was another night like last night in that I had an epic WILD all crammed into one hour followed by the rest of the night with CRS. I don't know what the cause of this is, but it does seem to result in epic recall for my WILD, which I will post in a few different parts here.

I fell asleep with goals including getting MoSh to meet with his spirit guide and don Juan, and Tigress suggested MoSh might benefit from discovering his animal guide. Additionally I am still going with the goal of sharing a DDO or Oblivion dream with Tigress as well as completing the TotY. I used my light / sound device and slipped into my WILD…

I started this WILD as so many of them start, which is inside MoSh's inner world right in front of his house. In just a short time I had met up with MoSh and he said he was ready to go, but I said there was something extra that I wanted to do that might also help him. He asked what that was, I told him we would go find his animal guide. He asked why he needed to find an animal guide when he had already found his spirit guide. I told him that an animal guide can help you with different things than a spirit guide, I told him I am not as familiar with these things as Tigress, but I understand enough to know each guide has something special to tell us if we will just listen.

I led MoSh into the area behind his house where there were trees, though some of the trees, and to a nice meadow, which we sat down in the middle of it. I told him to focus on calling his spirit animal to us, and when the animal comes to us, we will know what animal it is. MoSh sat there for a bit, he appeared to be focusing on something, but nothing was happening. No animals were emerging from the forest. MoSh seemed to be getting impatient, he said he wanted to get going to talk to his spirit guide and don Juan before he woke up, he didn't want to spend the whole dream waiting here for some animal that might not come. I figured it would be pointless to just sit there if the animal guide wasn't going to present itself, so I told MoSh we could move on as long as we could look for his animal guide again later. MoSh said fine, and he got up.

That was when an animal did finally enter the meadow and headed straight for us. It was a fox! Could MoSh's animal guide be a fox? I remembered that Pablo's animal is a fox… The fox came closer to us, not showing any fear or hesitation, and then proceeded to jump directly into the air at me. The animal looked friendly, and I caught it in the air, pulling the cute fox into my arms and stroking the soft fur. Then I looked at the fox closer, MoSh wanted to know why his animal guide had gone straight to me, I said that was because the fox was Pablo, who had told me he might be showing up in my dreams in his fox form. So as MoSh and I went looking for MoSh's spirit guide, whom he calls Victor, I brought the purring fox with me, stroking silky soft fur.

MoSh and I searched for Victor, and the search led us to a night club or bar or something, they sold drinks, but they also had a live music going on there. We found Victor, but the music was much too loud to hear him over, so we just motioned to him that we wanted to talk to him, but we would have to do it outside. The three of us went outside where it was quieter, the bar must have had excellent sound insulation, because I couldn't hear a bit of the music outside. Victor asked MoSh how it had been going, MoSh said he had some questions, Victor said he would do his best to answer those questions. MoSh asked how he could increase his recall of his deep dream state. Victor asked if MoSh can't hear him at all while awake, because he had been trying to help MoSh remember some of what had happened in the deep dream state.

Victor said that the memory is a lot like a muscle in some ways, the more you use it, the stronger it will get, and when it comes to MoSh's memory of the deep dream state, that really needs some good exercise. He said the idea was to help MoSh with recalling deep dream memories only as much as needed, if that meant channeling the entire dream for now, then it did, but as MoSh did it more, Victor would have to tell him less and less of the dream until just giving MoSh a dream symbol would trigger the memory and finally MoSh wouldn't need Victor's help at all to recall all of his dreams. And even better, as MoSh gets better at recalling the deep dream state, his regular dream recall will also improve since his overall memory will get stronger. Victor went on to say that anything MoSh can do to improve his waking life memory will help him recall dreams, too… memory games, supplements, he rattled off a list of supplements here that a lot of them I didn't recognize including B vitamins, Omega 3 fats, antioxidants… I knew I would never remember the ones I have never heard of… but one of the best things MoSh could probably do would be to get a key piece of information from Victor and then meditate on it, letting the images flow freely and without questioning them, and if he had any doubts, he should just check with Victor who would confirm or deny if they were correct.

MoSh seemed to be thinking about that a bit, he said his ability to hear Victor in waking life is not consistent, Victor said the more they communicate in that manner, the better it will get. He looked over at me, I did a double take, not sure what I was supposed to do to improve MoSh's contact with Victor, he said that I have an excellent connection with my guardian and my guide, it is something that develops over time. I confirmed that, telling MoSh that when I first started hearing Hetfield, my guardian, I was not really hearing words, I would just sometimes get feelings and images, now I can hear him quite clearly, down to the last expletive… I thought about Hetfield letting out a stream of nasty words when he gets angry at something… Victor said that events occurring in the deep dream state weren't originally meant to be remembered, because that's where the subconscious mind deals with things that might be too extreme for the conscious mind to handle, so it takes some work to make it come easily, but it can be done. He looked at his wrist as if consulting a watch that wasn't there, then he said we had better be on our way to see don Juan before MoSh or I woke up. I noticed the fox in my arms disappeared. I didn't want to also wake up before finding don Juan, so I opened a portal focused on locating don Juan, MoSh and I went through it.

On the other side we were in the same kind of desert setting I had found don Juan last time when I dreamed on four planes simultaneously, controlling each of them separately but at the same time. Don Juan saw the portal and he saw us emerge, then he turned his attention to MoSh, almost seeming to not notice me at all. I knew that wasn't the case, he was just focusing his attention on MoSh. He said he had been expecting us, and that he and MoSh had much to discuss. Crap, I hoped I would be able to remember it all… I stood near them, trying to focus on what don Juan was saying… but he wasn't saying anything. He looked over at me. He said there is no offense meant in it, but as what he had to discuss with me was done with just the two of us was as it should be between him and MoSh. MoSh hesitated, then said no, he needed me there to remember. Don Juan said that a man who lets another support him all the time will not learn to walk on his own. Don Juan and MoSh both disappeared, not in a flash of light, not through a portal, they just vanished, one instant they were there, then they were gone.

I felt the dream slipping, and I didn't want to lose it yet. I thought maybe I could follow don Juan and MoSh, and just only tell MoSh what had happened if all other attempts had failed. To maintain the dream I did a time dilation, which stabilized the dream. I focused on following don Juan and MoSh, tried to open a portal, but nothing happened… hmmm… maybe I was really not meant to follow them. I figured I might as well continue to another goal for the night…

Note: This dream is continued in the next post

There was an aged Indian shaman here wearing a hat and looking at me with a very intense gaze, I wondered who that was and why he was here while Tigress didn't seem to be. Since the man seemed so focused on me, I walked over towards him… I recognized his energy. Somehow, instead of ending up in Tigress' dream, I had ended up locating don Juan…

I surveyed my surroundings a bit more, searching for any sign of why I had ended up here instead of where I had intended to go. Don Juan was silently watching me as if he was expecting something interesting to happen, such as me growing wings and suddenly flying away, I figured I could make that happen, but I wanted to know what was going on here. So I went over closer to don Juan and asked him if he knew why I was there, I had not intended to be there. He asked if I wanted to be elsewhere, I said yes, I had dream goals I was completing that included meeting Tigress for a shared dream since we're still working on a confirmed one. He said I didn't need to be anywhere else, I needed to be right here, right now, to stretch my mind outward into the other realms because a mind that is not stretched will collapse in on itself. I was most likely giving him a blank look, since I didn't know where all of that had come from or what the purpose was, then he said I obviously wouldn't see it until it was right in front of me, so here it is.

The scene around me shifted completely to something a bit disorienting, but I focused and was able to get my bearings… I will try to relate it as clearly as possible. There were now four separate scenes going on around me all at the same time, all different… two of the scenes were similar to each other, the other two were also similar to each other, but the two pairs were vastly different. I was now standing at the entrance to a small village (the entrance to a grave yard) (the entrance to a volcanic cave) (the entrance to a park) where I was looking at Callisto from the Xena series (Demona from the Gargoyles series) (a demonic looking Callisto) (a zombie Demona) with an army of raiders (zombies) (demonic entities) (more zombies) following them. Now that I think the complexity of these parallel events is conveyed sufficiently, I will split the four separate dreams out…

*Callisto's Party*
I was at the entrance to a village like those found in RPG's. I was looking out of the village at the road leading into town, it looked like the main road going into town and through the village. This road was now blocked by a woman warrior and a group of ruffians that looked like a street gang decked out in leather and spikes. Now, for people reading this dream that didn't know already, Callisto is the first person I ever used my soul healing on, that was when I was just discovering the ability. Callisto had been driven insane by the violent deaths of her family and at this point is filled with nothing but anger, hate, and a lust for revenge.

So I knew what to do about this. Callisto ordered her goons to attack the town, and leave no one alive… or maybe leave one alive to tell everyone that she would keep killing until Xena showed herself. The raiders moved towards the village, I formed my Witchblade sword and attacked the raiders. My Witchblade armor blocked their attacks, my Witchblade sword cut through their armor, and with the speed I got training with Vegeta I was fast enough to keep them all out of the village.

When all of the thugs were dead, Callisto was still in the road looking exasperated. She said she should have known better than to think anyone Aries could dig up would have any skill, all of them losing to one woman, who did I think I am, Xena? She moved in and attacked me, saying she was clearly going to have to do everything herself. I fought back in defensive mode, just blocking her attacks and not attacking her in return. I focused on the song Until It Sleeps by Metallica, which I use to put hatred and anger and a need for revenge to rest. The song played through and had a visible calming effect on Callisto, she no longer looked as crazy as she had just moments ago… She looked a bit disoriented, which is normal for someone who has just had their heart healed, then she looked at me strangely and said she had been wasting her time chasing Xena when she should be following up the rumor that her sister still lived. She mounted a horse I hadn't noticed until now and rode away.

*Demona's Hoard*
I was at the entrance to a graveyard that was filled with zombies, more zombies were clawing their way out of the graves, all of them were filthy and decaying. Only one person there was still alive, and that person was Demona from the animated series Gargoyles.

The zombies were gathering around Demona as if waiting for orders of some kind, she indicated the gate to the graveyard where I was standing and told the zombies to spread their curse until the whole of humanity had been destroyed. The first thing I thought of was that it was good she was only after people… but that wasn't even the point. The point was she was filled with anger and hate, and she needed to have her heart healed just as her twinners had needed when I was finding them long ago. I had to fight my way through the zombie hoard to get to Demona, but zombies have never given me much trouble, and I used my Witchblade sword to cut through them all until the zombies were dead… again… and I was facing Demona. So now I focused on Until It sleeps, which is the song I always used to use on Demona's twinners when I found them, evading Demona's attacks as I used the song spell. When it was finished, Demona looked visibly calmer and somewhat disoriented. Without a word she took to the sky and disappeared from sight. Though she hadn't said anything I was confident her heart was now free from hate.

*Aries' Army*
I was at the entrance to a large cave that was illuminated with a strange red light, and it was filled with people who looked sort of like humans but not quite. Something was off about them, that was it… they all had pale gray skin and glowing red eyes, they all looked possessed. They were also all stamping their feet and growling and snarling in a menacing fashion, they were clearly ready to go and just needed to be given the sign to move out. A woman emerged from the middle of the group, it was Callisto off of the Xena series, but there was something wrong with her, too. She didn't just look crazy, she looked totally demonic with glowing red eyes, actual horns protruding from her head, although those were small, and a fiery aura around her, she indicated to the demonic army to go forth and burn everything to the ground, let no living thing remain, this world would be hers now, and she would remake it in her own design, but one exception… bring Xena back alive, she had special plans for Xena, then she laughed an evil sounding laugh.

Since these people all looked possessed, the first healing song I thought of was Liberate by Disturbed, although I have never actually used that spell on Callisto that I could remember. So as I was standing in the cave entrance, completely confusing the possessed warriors as to who would be stupid enough to do that, I focused on Liberate. The song played, and I focused on defending myself as the possessed warriors were trying to kill me. I didn't want to fight them if they were being controlled against their will… The spell had its intended effect, the possessed soldiers stopped attacking me and looked disoriented. Due to certain parts of the Liberate song, "All the hate in your heart will be leaving you blind!" and "To take away all the hatred that darkens the light in your eye!" it also had the effect of cleansing the hate and anger from Callisto's heart. This spell didn't go unnoticed, however. There was a flash of fire and Aries appeared, looking the way he looked on the Xena television show, and he looked angry. He was looking around the room, asked the warriors what they thought they were doing, get to battle! A few of them seemed energized by the thought of going to battle, most of them said there was no reason to wage war. Aries said they should wage war because he commands it, but there was apparently enough of the healing energy still in them that they could not be controlled so easily.

Aries rolled his eyes with obvious annoyance and then said they should kill the bitch, pointing at me, he added that if they needed a reason why he had a large bag of gold to go to whoever got my head first. Most of the warriors left, some of them attacked me, so I figured they were fair game since they were acting off their own greed this time. I quickly dispatched them with my Witchblade sword, Callisto killed a couple of them, too. Now Callisto was mad at Aries, angry at him for using her and tricking her, Aries just said that he knows she likes to be used and abused. Callisto said she would not allow Aries to use her any longer. Aries said then both Callisto and I would die. He said we should know better than to fuck with a god. I said I didn't see how anyone so pathetic could pass for a god, but whatever. Aries was using dark energy, as was to be expected, and it wasn't very stable, which was also to be expected. So the plan would be to hit him with light energy. He was throwing fire with his hands, I used my own fire spell, but used pure light energy on it. The light energy surrounded Aries, clearly draining his energy. When it was done he was pissed but also looked quite weakened. Then a small imp appeared in a burst of fire beside Aries, trying to get his attention, Aries asked what in an annoyed voice that made the imp flinch. I couldn't hear much of what the imp said, but it had something to do with Hades… Aries then told Callisto and me that we were lucky, he had pressing matters to attend to, but our time would come and we would be begging for mercy. Aries and the imp both vanished in a blast of fire.

*The Zombie Queen*
I was now at the entrance to a park at night, there were dim street lights illuminating small areas of the park just enough that I could see movement. I used my ocular Borg implant to enhance my vision so I could see well in the dark and then I realized the park was crawling with zombies! So it was time for a zombie hunt. That sounded good to me, so I formed my Witchblade sword and headed into the park taking down zombies one and two at a time as I came across them. I was making my way through the park, feeling out the distinct energy of the zombies and eliminating them, when I came across a particularly strange zombie… this zombie wasn't a human zombie, it was a gargoyle zombie, particularly Demona! WTF? I didn't see how a gargoyle could become a zombie. Was there any way I could fix this? Now that she was already a zombie? I didn't see any way… and while I was thinking about it she was attacking me. I saw no option but to fight back, and I ended up killing her. After that I went through the rest of the park and hunted down the remaining zombies, at least some of which still thought they were hunting me…

*Back to don Juan*
Now I was back in the desert with don Juan, he was giving me an odd look, I asked him if any of those had even been real… he said of course they were real, they were other planes of existence as I well know, so stop playing dumb since I wasn't even doing a very good job at it. He said I had stretched my mind into four different worlds simultaneously, keep it up and this will be possible IWL. I couldn't stop the spurt of laughter before it got out, oops… I hadn't actually intended to laugh in his face… he didn't look annoyed, he just looked at me as if waiting for an explanation of what I had found amusing. I told him that before he wastes any more time on me, he might want to know I can't do shit IWL, so if that was the goal it was pointless. He just shook his head and said I already have power in my waking life, and so does my friend MoSh, all we have to do is allow ourselves to use it, which is the goal of expanding one's mind. He said I am already seeing beings on the shadow plane, getting visions from other planes, how long would I deny the evidence given to me by my own senses? I don't know if the question was rhetorical or not, but I woke before I could answer.

Note: My first goal for the night, the one I used my WILD for, was to go meet MoSh and then we were going to go back and view a dream he had a while back where he was speaking to don Juan. In this dream don Juan had told MoSh he had a message for me, but I would have to find him first, and the instructions for finding him were in that dream if I could get them. Other goals are the same as other nights. I fell asleep with my light / sound machine and slipped into an unusually vivid WILD…

I was in MoSh's inner world. I surveyed my surroundings and saw everything looked like it always does, nothing seemed out of place. Sometimes it is difficult to keep the beginnings of these dreams separate since the dreams where I go to get MoSh before doing anything else are starting to merge together in my mind. I found MoSh, and we went through a portal back to my inner world.

MoSh and I emerged from the portal into the living room of my house, the first thing I saw was a cat running when we appeared suddenly. The cat, Amber, peeked around a corner as if to see if it was safe to come out, and seeing it was MoSh and me, she came back out right away. I booted up the laptop that was sitting on the couch and logged into the dream journal program right away. I searched through the list of MoSh's dreams and found the correct one, which was labeled "Don Juan At My Picnic Table," and clicked on that one. Everything was working smoothly as the hologram started up and we were transported to a virtual recreation of MoSh's dream.

I looked around the area, nothing was remarkable, what I was looking at was a park of some kind with a picnic table there, MoSh was sitting on one side of the picnic table with what appeared to be an Indian shaman sitting across from him. The present day MoSh and I got closer so we could hear what was being said. I actually sat on the left side of the MoSh at the picnic table, and the present day MoSh was beside me, and there was a dark specter floating over the shaman… wtf? There was no dark specter… the day was bright and sunny, a great day for a picnic, and there was no sign of anything creepy… except for the dark fog seeping out of the… gopher hole?! That wasn't dark fog… it was a cute little gopher baring it's razor sharp fangs as it tore the head off of a small lizard and swallowed the thing whole… um… ok… my mind was running away from me a bit here… I focused my attention on the shaman, who I knew right away was don Juan, and listened to him and MoSh talking to each other.

Don Juan was talking to MoSh about getting a message to me regarding how to find him, when don Juan said that he took a glance to MoSh's left, directly at me, as if he was looking at me. But that couldn't be, this was a hologram, it wasn't even like we'd traveled through time to view it in person. Don Juan's gaze strayed to the present day MoSh and then returned to the MoSh he was speaking with. MoSh said something about me not having the power to reach don Juan, but don Juan said it has nothing to do with power, what I was lacking was the belief in myself, I have too much doubt about myself to find him, which I thought was odd since I was now sitting across from him… I snickered, which somehow seemed to get his attention again… don Juan looked at me for a bit longer this time, I had the distinct feeling I was actually being watched, so I silenced myself, I wasn't here to interfere, after all… but I wasn't here at all! I put my attention back on don Juan right as a large black form with huge razor teeth reared up behind don Juan and was preparing to bite his head off, or that's what it appeared to be… I instinctive stood up and yelled at don Juan to look out, and right at that time don Juan leaned over to pick something up from the ground… the creature's teeth clamped down on nothing and the thing dissipated into the air like smoke.

After that, the other MoSh was still not paying any attention to me, the present MoSh was looking at me strangely, and don Juan also seemed to be watching me… was this not just a hologram? Were we actually there? I didn't have any answers to those questions for certain, but it definitely looked like don Juan was responding to my actions… so now I just straight out asked don Juan if he could see me, was he actually looking at me like it appeared he was looking at me. He didn't say anything, but he focused his gaze right into my eyes briefly before looking back at the past version of MoSh. So he was seeing me! I had no doubt in my mind of that now, somehow he was seeing me, which would indicate this was not just a hologram.

So the dream went on this way, the past MoSh and don Juan spoke a bit more, don Juan said something about telling me things then I could write them down… at the same time as I was seeing don Juan and MoSh talking in a park I was seeing someplace much more disturbing, a dark and dreary place with strange mutant creatures crawling through the shadows, often coming out and feeding on one another… I couldn't hide a look of 'yuck' when a smaller creature jumped on a larger one, tore into the stomach of the larger one, ate the soft tissue within, then ran off leaving the larger creature still alive, but inevitably dying an unpleasant death, and making the most horrible noises as it died… this caused me to not hear all of what don Juan and MoSh were saying to each other, but don Juan seemed to find my reactions interesting, as he looked over in my direction several times. Smaller ant like mutants, mouse sized ants, came out and began eating the creature before it had finished its slow demise, creating the loudest and most horrible cries of pain yet…

Once the pathetic creature was dead I was able to return my attention to MoSh and don Juan, the latter of the two was looking back at me… I saw movement off to my left and looked over just in time to see MoSh disappear from the picnic bench, that must be where he woke up, and now there was something else there… sort of a version of MoSh, but it had razor sharp fangs and teeth, talons on his hands, and the eyes of a goat… meaning his pupils were horizontal and square shaped, looked really kind of creepy. That version of MoSh hissed at me like a snake and then made to bite me with his sharp fangs, I held him back from biting me, and then he disappeared just as the normal MoSh had done. I looked over at the present day MoSh, and he was looking over at don Juan… hadn't he seen what had just happened? Hadn't he seen the really creepy version of himself? I was getting the idea he hadn't, which seemed really strange that he could have missed it…

Don Juan was looking directly at me now, no longer trying for the illusion that he couldn't see me, it was obvious to anyone looking that he was looking right at me… both of him were looking right at me… There appeared to be two of him, one lying barely beneath the surface of the other, creating a somewhat blurred image of him… I wondered if there was another don Juan within the inner don Juan… I looked closer and could see there indeed was, and another… and another… and another… and then I stopped looking deeper because it was starting to give me a headache… like looking into infinity. I felt like the dream was going to slip away from me, but that was the last thing I wanted to do… I looked away from the many dimensional don Juan and looked at my own hands, trying to stabilize my dream, and I did a double take… I had talons?! Or at least one version of my hands had talons… another had long red fingernails, another looked normal but had blue skin… ok, enough of seeing all of this, to stabilize the dream… I closed my eyes and used the time dilation method Allura showed me, and as I dilated time the dream stabilized.

With the dream stabilized, I looked back up at don Juan, I asked what the message was that he had for me. He said nothing for a short time, and then, "The fact that you are here proves you already understand the message." I was sitting there looking at him with what was no doubt a blank look, the different versions of don Juan were responding differently, one was snickering, one had no expression, one was frowning, one was outright laughing his ass off, one was shaking his head, one was nodding, one was… ok… that was too many don Juans again… I was getting disoriented. He asked exactly what I thought I was seeing, I figured he meant the fact I was seeing many versions of the same thing, so that's what I answered, that it was different versions of the same things from multiple planes of existence. He said I was only seeing a few of the many ways that things are, but let's see if I was really seeing anything at all…

Before I could put meaning to that, however, the scene around me changed. I surveyed my new surroundings and saw I was standing in a forest clearing (barren desert landscape) where there was one person there beside myself. That person looked like an Indian shaman (weird crazy old man) with long white hair hanging down to about the middle of his back (sticking out in every possible direction) and an old wizened face (with wild colored paint all over it)… I was seeing two versions of this person at the same time…

Version One:
I was in a barren desert landscape with very little sign of life anywhere, and the crazy looking shaman was staring at me with an insane look in his eyes. I focused on him for a bit, not sure what I was supposed to do about this situation, he attacked me with a wind spell, he formed a tornado and basically sent it at me. I jumped out of the way and flew over to the other side of the crazy shaman, looking at him to see what the best course of action was… and his spark was something I couldn't miss, so I would heal him. The song I thought I needed to use was Touch My Heart, so I focused on that while evading another wind attack, this one had wind blasts compressed so tightly that they were like spears, the song played through and golden energy flowed through the shaman, I had directed the spell to match the shaman's own energy. The song finished playing, the shaman looked normal now, he nodded at me and was gone.

Version Two:
I was in the forest clearing, there was an Indian shaman looking at me with a calm expression on his face, he also had an evil glint in his eyes. I wondered if he was up to something, I thought there was something strange about his aura, it seemed ice cold. I heard him chuckle, and then there was an explosion of activity as animals charged from every direction attacking me, they seemed to be under the shaman's control. They were innocent animals, I didn't want to hurt them, so I took to the sky to avoid an assortment of birds dive bombed me from the sky, to free the animals I would have to deal with the shaman quickly. I searched him, I figured I would find the spark, but I saw nothing… could that be? I looked a little deeper, still nothing, I looked as much as I could… I was attacked more, and I had still seen no sign of a spark in this man. Since I could see nothing to heal in there I just went for straight defending myself… He was attacking me with a staff that had a blade on each end as the animals continued attacking me from behind, I saw no choice but to counter attack with my Witchblade sword, and I ended up killing him. Once he was dead, the animals dispersed, then I saw a ghost rise from the body and both were gone.

Ok… now things looked normal again, what had that been all about? I was going to say something to don Juan, who was there in front of me again, but I didn't get a chance to before everything changed again. I was inside a room now, that looked like the interior of an old type building that might have been used by native Americans… There was yet another shaman standing in front of me, he had long braided gray hair (long black hair pulled back into a pony tail) (I couldn't see his hair because of a hood over his head)… I was seeing three versions of things now…

Version One:
I was looking at the shaman with long gray hair that was in braids on both sides of his face. He attacked me with fire, forming a fireball in each hand and throwing it at me. I countered the fire with a blast of ice, to extinguish the flames so the place wouldn't burn to the ground with us in it… though this man was attacking me, he had a spark… so I would heal him. A ring of fire formed around the man, expanding to burn all in its path including me… I focused on the song Touch My heart, which felt right for this situation, and the healing energy flowed through the man. He nodded, then disappeared.

Version Two:
The shaman had long black hair that was pulled back into a pony tail, his eyes were creepily red and looked a bit crazed… He was attacking me with ice, throwing icicles at me like spears, I shattered them with my Witchblade sword while checking this guy for a spark, which I saw burning inside him, so I focused on the healing spell that felt right, and that one was the song Frozen by Madonna. The song played and golden energy flowed through the shaman, having the intended effect. This shaman also nodded his head and then disappeared.

Version Three
I was facing a shaman with blood red robes on, his face was mostly concealed within the red hood, but I could see his eyes, and they were burning like they had fire in them… it sounded like he was growling from inside the hood. I'm not sure if it was real or imagined, but I thought I saw fangs inside the hood, the light glinted off his fangs… He was attacking me with dark energy, it looked like his base energy was dark energy, he was throwing balls of dark energy at me. I deflected the energy balls back at him and he absorbed them back into himself. Now I could clearly hear he was laughing at me… I was about to start fighting him, but no… he also had a spark… I needed another healing spell… I focused on the one that seemed right for the situation, and that one was Until It Sleeps by Metallica. The song played through, and the healing took its effect as in the previous two situations. My Until It Sleeps spell was using dark energy, which was clearly the shaman's base energy, and the spell had automatically matched that energy. The stable dark energy flowed through the shaman, bring about the healing effect. Once healed, the shaman removed his hood, nodded his head, then disappeared.

I was now back in the park with the present day MoSh and the don Juan from his dream. MoSh was looking at me strangely, I wondered if I had been gone very long, I wondered if it had even been noticeable that I had been gone… I looked over at don Juan, I was going to say something, but I didn't get a chance before five spirits appeared, the five from the shamans I had encountered, they were all standing in a circle around don Juan. One by one, the shaman spirits merged into each other until there was just one left, and he was no longer a spirit, he looked very solid. And don Juan seemed to know this man, it looked like they were friends. I wondered who this new man was, I wondered how he (they?) had known don Juan. The other man turned around and disappeared into thin air as he walked away, and then don Juan turned back to me. I was wondering what the message had been, I asked him… he said that if I was to examine the events of this dream more closely that the message hidden within would become clear to me. He said now it was time for me to wake up, I had been doing a lot of dreaming in just a single hour of sleep… just an hour? I wondered if that was possible, and then I woke and found I truly had only been sleeping for an hour…