Lakona

PART 1 - CROCODILE DODGING WITH G

I'm walking through a water filled area with my friend G. I have to swim from one platform to another to stay above. When I get there, G informs me there are crocodiles in the water.

A bit further, walking along, a crocodile lunges out of a small puddle at me, about three times... but it's kind of moving in slow motion, and isn't coming at me full force, almost as if it's "pulling its punch."

I tell G that, "I need to get my old narcissism back, become A (old nickname from HS), I've become too understanding."

ANALYSIS

The crocodiles "pulling their punch" makes me think of a sheltered environment, being coddled, not exposed to "the real."

The narcissism bit seems literal. I actually do think that sometimes.

- - -

PART 2 - CAPTURED

I'm walking home, turning a corner just down the street, it's dark... a shady character starts coming right my direction from the other side of the street.

When he gets close, I say, "you lookin'?" referring to drugs, to make him think I might be useful somehow, so he won't attack.

He says, "what you got?" I hesitate, wanting to leave options open, making sure he thinks I have something he wants so he won't attack. "Uh, could be anything..."

He realizes I'm lying and decides to mug me. I take out some money and say I'll leave it on the ground for him to pick up once he backs up a certain distance, to ensure I can escape.

He goes along with it at first and gets close anyway and holds me down. I'm held captive, and taken to his group's apartment. I look around for anyone who might sympathize with my plight, but no one shows any sign.

In the light I see the original attacker guy is buff, bulky, with a buzz cut. I remember one other guy, skinny, wife beater, tattoos. There were others, sort of a party atmosphere.

I'm able to get a look out a window, but I see that the next building is too far away to jump to, we're too high up.

I either escape or am rescued, I don't remember. I'm now at the apartment of the "good guys." Similar party atmosphere, everyone is just chilling. They're into magic.

I see someone who looks like someone I work with, K. She is a "good person" and would fit into this culture. It turns out to be her twin sister, my hope for some type of familiarity is dashed.

Someone suggests I call the cops. I wonder why I hadn't thought of that.

I'm on the street (downtown somewhere). I see a cop, 50s, gray hair, mustache, cop hat... I tell him what happened. I don't remember his response. I don't remember at what point in the timeline this took place, it may have been later.

I'm back at the "good guys" place, and the "bad guys" break in - turns out they know magic too, except they're way more powerful than the good guys with it.

The original guy who attacked me is riding a flaming horse. I'm helpless, and think this is probably it for me.

ANALYSIS

This is the second time in a row there's been a shady character who I've tried to fool by leading them on with drugs associated with this same corner near my home! The previous time was on July 30th, before I started recording my dreams online.

"I'm walking down the street to work, it's dark, a shady Muslim dude (in full gear) heads in my direction presumably to mug me. I distract him by asking if he knows where I can find $1000 of weed to play on his self interest. He goes along with it, says we would have to leave the country. We drive the rest of the way and park outside my work. I ask how I would contact him in the future to make him think I was interested in the long term, so that he'll let me go for now. He knew I was lying all along, however, and became angry."

I feel like trying to "trick" the "attackers" is what got me sucked into the web (captured in last night's case)... like I was being punished for being deceptive. They both went along with it at first... like a test to see how deep I would dig my own hole.

This may link up with the message promoting sincerity from the "free beer" dream two days back. I feel this is applicable to me in that I tend to be hyper-aware of managing the impression others have of me, fundamentally out of fear that they won't like me.

The message that stands out, in essence: being deceptive out of fear is a trap that creates your own personal hell from which no one else can ever save you. This must be my "conscience."

I should focus on cultivating honesty; asking myself more in making decisions, "Do I feel good about doing this?"

PART 1 - FREE BEER AND UNDERCOVER COPS

I'm walking down the street across from where I work, it's night. Some girl, mid 20s, black hair, wearing a professional navy colored suit, is handing out cans of beer - like how some people hand out promotional flyers to everyone who passes by, except it's cans of beer half as tall as a normal can. I take it even though I don't drink. The top is already open when she hands it to me.

I continue down the road and these two older guys start following me, late 30s, one has very light blond hair, almost white, especially his eyebrows, mostly bald... reminds me of Hank from the show Breaking Bad. Don't remember anything about the other guy.

They keep within my personal space, and somehow I figure they must be undercover cops. I look at the Hank guy and call it out, "so, you must be..." He pretends not to know what I'm getting at. I say "nevermind" and cross the street toward work, they follow me.

When we get to the other side, they reveal their identity and ask about the beer, if I've been drinking or plan to. I say that I hadn't drank any and have no intentions of doing so, which is true. They hear the sincerity and conviction in my voice, believe me, and leave me be.

ANALYSIS

The thing that stands out most to me is my conviction when I told them I wasn't going to drink, and the fact that they believed me.

Perhaps a message about the importance of sincerity.

- - -

PART 2 - BAR ZOMBIES

I go to a bar with my dad. There are couches... all of the patrons are sitting silently, staring off awkwardly. Men and women in their 40s, at least some of them are dad's family. I realize that they're just there because they don't want to be alone.

There was a much more complex storyline involving dad as well, but can't remember...

ANALYSIS

I think the important part of this one was the realization that they just didn't want to be alone.

It makes me think of how people will lower their standards in relationships (romantic or otherwise) just to avoid loneliness.

I was feeling oddly lonely yesterday and spoke to someone who I'd previously dismissed as too irritatingly trivial to interact with, just to talk to someone, anyone. I did so more on my own terms than before, however, not changing the way I acted to match theirs. Instead, they changed to match mine. It actually did make me feel better.

- - -

PART 3 - FAIL AT FEMALE DANCE CLASS

I'm in a dance class meant for females. I can't do the movement properly for some reason, I keep swaying back and forth with my arms, but it's not correct. When the session ends, I do a backward roll over my left shoulder.

Teacher is in mid to late 40s, neck length brown hair, taught face with some wrinkles.

ANALYSIS

I generally consider myself fairly feminine in certain ways.

I'm not sure what would trigger that sense of not being able to "get it right," however.

Except perhaps losing repetitively as Zerg in Starcraft, but that seems a bit of a stretch. Oh well, I always try to come up with at least one possibility for each part.

- - -

PART 4 - INFUSING MOVEMENT WITH FEELING IN PAINTING

I think this is the same class as the one above.

A male teacher - 40s, quite fat, longer hair (ponytail?) - challenged by a student that they "can't paint," demonstrates in front of the class by making 2 simple marks of a dark blue. They're very slow and deliberate, he twists the brush to make two marks each conveying movement into the other, like a yin yang. I can see he's infusing much feeling into the movements.

I'm able to recognize it because this is something I do naturally. I allow the feeling to take over my hands. I remember clearly the feeling of my arms moving involuntarily with the brush in the air.

ANALYSIS

The feeling or lack there of conveyed in movement is something I notice in people at all times.

Perhaps this theme of feeling in movement was the result of being quite focused on the sensation of swaying my arms in the previous part.

In fact, thinking about it now, I was really quite aware of it in the moment. I think this may be the first sign of greater dream awareness. It makes sense that it would begin kinesthetically for me. Focusing on body awareness first in dreams may be my personal key to achieving lucidity.

I feel that this is a very important discovery. Progress!

- - -

FRAGMENT

Walking down a street, cars and shops, downtown in some city, night. Someone is impersonating Immortal Technique, one of their lines ends with "poke them in the eye," I think this is weak and not something they would say.

ANALYSIS

Possibly triggered by a post I made on here mentioning IT.

When I first woke up, I thought I would have no dreams to report today. It seems to take some time for me to recall.

For me it's not a matter of "getting it all onto paper quickly before I forget," it's more "keep waiting around until some random thought triggers a memory, which triggers another one..." and so on.