The Labrynth of the Mind

Eating things

There is more to this dream, but I'm having a bit of trouble remembering it.

Anyway, I am either at my brother's house or on vacation. We are going to eat, and I start eating roofing shingles (or something like that. It may have been tarpaper.) I stuff a few of them in my mouth, chew them and swallow. They taste awful, but I'm hungry and somehow I either don't think there will be anything else to eat or I'm enjoying it in some way. Then I move on to cardboard. I eat a lot of this.

Then my family shows up with some real food. I think that perhaps the roofing material and cardboard might actually make me sick, so I decide to dilute the junk in my stomach with real food.

Training Camp

I have started my new job. In my dream, it is either a new job or school. Perhaps it is training for a job. Whatever it is, it involves combat and war. We learn about tanks, and military operations. We are also camped out somewhere, I think.

My grandfather is telling someone about my new job, and how I have made a friend that "I like more than family". I can't think of who that is. The closest person I have to a friend is some guy that I don't even like too much, but is always hanging around me.

The next day (in my dream) I go to training again. I realize that this isn't at all what I thought my job would be, and I don't particularly want to join the military right now. Apparently this has become training for the military, and I may have to sign up for 4 years if I don't leave soon. I think about how much like a dream this is, and what I would do if I were lucid. I think to myself that I'm probably not dreaming, but wonder if perhaps I should just act like I am since it's all so weird anyway.

All this time I am munching on a stick of salami. My "friend" comes over and joins me. I think to myself that he isn't such a bad guy, although I still don't like him more than family.

I realize I have to go to the bathroom. I am now with some girl, and we are talking together. I think for some reason that it will make me look bad if I let her know I have to use the bathroom, so I walk right past one and pretend I don't need to go. We walk to a place where there are some shelves, and things being sold on the shelves. There are a lot of clocks, and one or two little wind up toys. Kind of neat things, really. There are also chocolate covered coffee beans, which show up in the dream and we start munching on.

The girl goes somewhere, and I take the opportunity to stop in the nearest bathroom. The bathroom, like all dream bathrooms, is stupidly designed. It has a screen door, for one thing. There is a bunch of clutter laying around inside, so I find some to prop against the door in an attempt to get some privacy. Then I realize that most of the walls are screen, and I look around at the woods behind me thinking I should have just taken a walk out there where there was more privacy.

When I get out of the bathroom/outhouse thing, the girl comes back with some more candy. I am looking for a place to wash my hands, but for some reason I reach into a bag of candy first. I then think that was probably an unhygenic thing to do, but I figure if I was my hands now it will be OK.

Farm report

I am sleeping in bed (in my dream). I know that I have to get up at 4:00am to write the "Farm Report", and I keep watching the clock. At 4:00am, I apparently write the report and email it to people (something like that anyway) and then go back to sleep without remembering having done so. I wake up in the morning and see that I have completed the entire report while I was only half awake. I am now outside with my mother telling her about this. We are planting pine trees. I keep saying how I can't believe I wrote the whole Farm Report while only half awake. Eventually my mother gets annoyed, and says something sarcastic about me being "Mr. Humble".

Former professor's brother

I am on a field trip with some classmates. While on the trip, my professor talks on the telephone with his brother. Eventually he puts me on the line. My professor's brother is talking about chinese food that we ordered when we were on a trip a long time ago. He thinks that we ordered a lot of expensive food. "But that's OK," he says, "I just don't think you knew how expensive it was."

I can breathe. Interesting.

All I remember of this is a false awakening (I think). I walk out to the living room, and do a nose pinch RC. I can still breathe. Or at least it still seems like I'm breathing. Unlike other missed RC's, I don't justify why it seems like I can still breathe. I just think "huh, that's interesting, but I know I'm awake."

I don't remember much from last night, although I believe I had a decent amount of dream activity.

Tunnels and strange archetecture

I am at the bottom of a deep shaft. It is kind of dark here. I believe that this is some place within the lower parts of Aperture Laboratories. I think I am trying to find my way out or something. I remember dreaming of this place before. It isn't exactly like Aperture from Portal, but it could easily fit in. Anyway, there are long corridors, stairs, and things I have to jump over.

Amish pancake breakfast

I am serving pancakes to Amish people. There are a bunch of Amish kids, who say funny things that I can't remember. The pancakes look really good, and I am pretty hungry, but I can't eat until I am done serving. It seems like a lot of people have to be served, too.

At this point someone wakes me up in real life. At first I am a bit annoyed, because the pancakes looked really good and now I won't get any.

Another busy morning. As a result, I had to wait all day to journal so my recall isn't so good.

Weird vitamins

I am at my grandparent's house. Someone has made up packets of vitamins for myself and some family members. I look into the packet that I am given at the vitamins. There are some pills and odd looking herbs, and a worm. The longer I look, the more worms appear in the packet. Apparently the worms have medicinal properties and are good for us. I don't like the idea of eating them, but I think I do anyway. It doesn't taste too bad really. More like gummy worms than anything.

Meeting the Emperor

I am on a field trip or vacation of some sort. There is a girl there who is kind of cute, but a little odd. For one thing, she is dressed like a leprechaun. I can't tell if I think that is cute or weird, but she seems to like me. We sit near each other and now and then she holds my hand when we walk. We go into a building, going upstairs.

Somehow, I become a soldier in the revolutionary war. It is still the same setting and the same building, but a couple of centuries earlier apparently. I have to meet the "Emperor" of England to discuss the terms of the American Colonies. I go into a huge room, which is dark and apparently contains a lake. The Emperor is sitting on a throne in the middle of a lake, and people who have been granted and audience are expected to crawl to him along a path over the water. I refuse to crawl, and walk out to the Emperor even before he calls me. I don't like the guy's arrogance, and I'm an American anyway.

I tell him that the Colonists want independance. He tells me that I will have to schedule an appointment to talk to him. He says that it isn't so much his idea, but people will get mad at us if I don't get an appointment. Not only that, but he is apparently so great that only really extraordinary people can talk to him on such short notice. He suggests that I talk to his receptionist, and pretend that I was dead but came back to life, or something like that. Apparently that is the scale of importance that I have to meet to talk to him.

I go back into the hallway and find what I think is the receptionist's office. I think instead of saying I was dead and came back to life I will tell her I was blind but now I can see. It turns out though that this isn't the receptionist's office. The lady gives me directions to the receptionist.

"Go out this door and to your right," she says. "Take the elevator with the red door..." I forget the rest of the directions. I go out into the hallway again, but have some difficulty trying to find the rest of the way.

Michelle Bachman

I am visiting my grandparents. I have been spending a few nights at their place, and it is time for me to head home. My brother is going to do something first, and my grandfather (who is a retired pastor) is going to visit someone in the hospital. Apparently, Michelle Bachman has been visiting friends at my Uncle's church, and has had an accident. My grandfather explains that he is going to visit her.

I debate whether I should go with my brother or my grandfather, and decide that it would be neat to meet Michelle Bachman on such informal terms. I decide that since the hospital is not far out of the way for me, I should follow my grandfather there and then go home from the hospital.

There is a whole scene involving me and the GPS, looking for the power cord etc., which is too boring to try and recall right now. Cut to the hospital.

As we are driving I wonder if they will let us in to visit. After all, she is a presidential candidate, and it seems unlikely that people can just wander in when they want to. I worry about secret service people. But it seems that clergy has a special priveledge, and my grandfather says nobody will mind if my grandmother and I come along.

We arrive at the hospital. My grandparents and I sit in the waiting room. Ms. Bachman apparently has a few visitors already. I run over in my mind how to address her, realizing that I can't remember if she is a senator or a congresswoman. I decide to just say "hey".

Eventually, the nurse calls us back. Someone opens the hospital room door, and my grandfather ushers my grandmother and I in. I walk in behind my grandmother, and find that there is nobody in the room. There is some nice furniture, and it is set up almost like a living room. There are some chairs and a couch in front of a fireplace, and a sort of hospital bed in one corner. But apparently this is not the hospital room. It is kind of a waiting room that is part of a hospital room suite. Michelle is in another section, and once again we have to wait our turn.

I notice that there are some other people in the room waiting to see her as well. There are some kids in their late teens or early twenties with a trifold poster board, pracitcing a presentation on injuries. They figure that they can get Michelle Bachman to work on something to protect kids from sports injuries, counting on her recent experience in the hospital to give them traction.

My mother calls me back to the original waiting room for a second. I forget why. I tell her we are about to go back to see Ms. Bachman, and I try to show her the way back. But as we walk, the hospital seems to become confusing. It used to just be a short hallway and a door, but now there is a huge area set up like the inside of an airport. The more I walk, the more confusing it gets. I try to jog, but it is that frustrating kind of movement I always get when I try to move quickly in a dream. I retrace my steps, thinking I have overshot the original hallway that leads to the hospital room.

"Argh!" I think. "Of all times for Mom to show up and pull me away." Somehow I know that my grandfather is now visiting with Michelle, and I am missing the chance to visit. "This kind of thing is always happening to me. Why is it always like this? As soon as I get the chance of a lifetime, something happens to take me away, and then I can't find my way back. It's like one of those frustrating dreams I am always having!"

More out of frustration than anything, I decide to do a reality check. "Maybe this is a dream," I think. But I only think it in a frustrated way. I don't really think it is a dream, I'm just annoyed. I quickly count my fingers, and there are 5 of them. Nothing unusual there. I don't do any other reality check, because I "know" this is reality and I only did the RC to make a statement anyway. "I guess I'm awake," I say.

Then I wake up.

Sweet Shop

I get a job working in a candy store. This dream goes on for a while, but much of it seems to center around all the tasty things that I keep wanting to eat. There are sick kids too, who keep coughing near me. There is a dish of some kind of candy that I sneak bites of every once in a while. I think I am working with my brother.

Pathetically missed dreamsign

I go to use a public restroom. I am trying to find one with decent privacy. I wander into a men's room, and find a stall. The lights don't seem to work well in there, and part of the restroom is dark. Even where I am it is dimly lit. I have some uneasy thoughts about "things" lurking in the darkness. I comfort myself by thinking that I am in a light place, but I know that "the things can look at me out of the darkness"

Animals in the building

I am in a big building of some sort. On one floor, there are a whole lot of animals. It is like a pet store or a dog show. There is a short hallway, with one room containing the animals and a room behind a wall next to it where there are cages and a wide open space. This seems to be a kind of Green Room for the animals, I guess.

There are dogs in a small tubs on the floor, where people can pet them. The dogs are rather odd looking, like a cross between a dog and a ferret.

Somebody tells me to go to another floor. Their friend or relative is on floor 2, I believe. I am supposed to go to floor 2, walk straight down a hallway, make a left, and make a right and I will find him. Or something like that. I have a hard time following what the directions are.

I get to floor 2, which is rather chaotic. There are animals there, including a gorrilla, a cheeta, and a lion. There are people walking either on stilts or carrying people on their shoulders, so that they appear to be giants. Like you see sometimes at the fair or a circus. I follow the directions, but I can't find who I am looking for. I begin to think that the person I am looking for is a famous animal trainer or zookeeper. I go back to the elevator I came out of, and go the other direction down the hallway.

I come across a bench with about 5 or 6 dark skinned men of African desent sitting there waiting for something. Then a crowd of flashily dressed people flood the hallway (which was alread crowded with strangely dressed people). A parade is forming, with people in middle eastern/ancient Egyptian costumes carrying a large banner in the front. The parade is led by King David, who leads the parade singing praises to the Lord. Behind him are a lot of people carrying some kind of stretcher with food on it. Not wanting to be left out, I join the crowd and grab on to part of the stretcher. We advance down the hallway, and I notice a lot of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in front of me. I begin to eat one, although I notice that another person doesn't like something about how melty the chocolate chips are. I like that the best.

My focus has shifted to the cookies, and now comes back to my surroundings, which have changed. Instead of a parade I am now in my brother's house. Some family shows up and they go into the basement. I can hear partying going on but am preoccupied with something. Finally I get a chance to go down, but the part has mostly broken up. There are pieces of PVC pipe laying around, which apparently was part of something everyone was working on together. They were also listening to a rock and roll band, which is still playing, I think.

Phone call

My family and I are getting ready to go on vacation somewhere. I am going to spend a night somewhere to the south of us, having some obligation. It's a bit fuzzy here, and I'm not sure but it seems like I shouldn't go on vacation but am skipping some other obligation to do so.

We are outside and my cell phone rings. It is a lady that I am aquainted with, but don't know too well. I don't know why she would be calling me. I answer the phone, but the voice is too garbled to understand. She repeats her message, but I still can't understand her so I laugh and hang up.

Once again I was unable to journal when I woke up this morning. I had a lot of dreams last night, but I can't remember so much of them.

Food

I am in a big building, which I think is my former college. I go to a little cafe to buy some supper. I get a pizza or something. It seems to be a big decision.

More food

My family and I are somewhere, in a hotel or something. My parents want to buy a trailer/camper. They spend a lot of money on something, and we go to check it out. It turns out that what they buy is a little box, or a microwave, or something like that. Meanwhile, we look at a girl's pickup truck. The paint job on the pickup truck is weird, and has a strange texture that looks really weird close up.

We go to a tire store. In this store, there are cookies for sale. The cookies look really good to me, so I pick a few up. We go to check out, and the person behind the counter starts to add up the total. With each cookie (I only bought about 4) the price gets higher. The total comes to about $30, at least. It may even be more like $100. I get a little annoyed, but there isn't much I can do. I don't have the money, so I leave the cookies at the counter until I can come back with it.

I took 100mg of vitamin b-6 before bed. I also took some cough medication before bed, which may or may not have had an effect.

Job interview

I have an event going on on the same day as a job interview. The interview is at 3:30, and I want to be sure to leave the event (archaeology dig?) by 2:30 to get there. It is just across town, but it will take about a half an hour to get to where the interview will be.

When I arrive at the place where we are having the event, I find my grandmother baking something. Or at least mixing something in a big bowl. She tells me that what she is making required $1000 worth of maple syrup. She points to the bowl.

"$1000 worth, and this is all I got for it," she says. I look at all the bottles next to her.

"How many bottles did you get for $1000?" I ask.

"Twelve," she says. I see that there is some syrup left in some of the bottles, and suggest that she add some more, but she explains that the syrup has to be specially prepared in order to be used. You can't just pour it straight from a bottle. And apparently she doesn't use all of the syrup in each bottle. She asks me to pick up a new bottle from the store though.

I go out to do something with the other people there. One of the people is my former supervisor/co-worker. After we are working for a while, I remember that I have the job interview. I look at the clock, which I think says it is just after 2:00, but it really is after 3:00. I work for a bit longer until I realize it is about 3:30. I have 10 minutes until the interview, and I hop into the car and start driving.

I don't exactly know where I am headed, but I have a GPS. I try setting the GPS while I am driving, but I can't see what I am doing very well so I pull over. I still can't see what I am doing very well (because it involves reading and entering words and numbers in a dream, but I don't realize that). I think that perhaps I should call the place I am going to try to set up a different interview time, or push it ahead to 4:30. I look for the telephone number of the company, but I have a hard time finding that as well.

Light up night

The small town that my cousin lives in is having a light up night. They were lighting up a Christmas tree, which only had one or two bulbs on it. They light up other things, but in the end only a few bulbs are lit for light up night. I am talking to my cousin about this later.

Spock Meets the Woman

I am Spock. Or at least someone similar to Spock. I am exploring some planet, or at least some building strange enough to be a different planet. I'm doing something with energy beams (?). I enter a large domed room where a woman is. The woman appears to be some powerful alien entity, which I am fighting (?). She uses some strange weapon on me that can read my mind.

"This weapon", she explains, "Will turn your world into your greatest fear".

I wonder what my greatest fear is, and if I even have one since I am a Vulcan.

"Out that door is your greatest fear", the woman goes on, indicating a door next to me. I being to realize that my greatest fear is claustrophobia (which it isn't in real life as far as I know). I open the door, and find myself in a tunnel. All of my surroundings become kind of fractured, and I realize that I will have to navigate through this world of small spaces. Somehow though I don't seem to be too worried.

Dogs

I have a new dog. It is some kind of a terrier or Scotty dog, and white in color. The dog is really smart, and I find that I can easily train her to come when I call. My family doesn't believe that she is that smart, and I demonstrate how I have trained her to not only come when I call, but to leave a dog biscuit alone until I say when.

I am eating cheesy popcorn from a bag while I do this. It isn't the best popcorn in the world, but I keep eating it anyway.

I am in a campground heading back to our campsite. When I am almost back, I see a couple of our dogs (including mine) are in the campsite next to ours. I start to call them away, but my mother reminds me that if I do so the dogs will have to cross the neighboring campsite to reach me. I wait until I am back to our campsite and call, and the dogs obediently come to me.

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.

Sleeping In

I sleep in late. It is about 9:30 when I get up, and I go down to have breakfast in my pajamas. For breakfast, I have a bowl of soup that my mother keeps saying is too thin, and that she needs to add more water. While I am eating (I think the soup is pretty good, and hope that she doesn't add more water) a guy walks in to the kitchen. He is a plumber, and is working in the basement. I am a little annoyed, as it makes me look like a slob to be sitting around in my pajamas while people are working. Another guy comes into the room, who is the assistant. We talk about something plumbing related.

Mirror (fragment)

I am looking into a mirror. I am unable to get a clear image in the mirror, as I seem to keep going cross eyed (sort of).

I watched Inception last night for the first time. Not realizing how long the movie was, I put it on at 11:30pm, and did not get to be until after 2:00am. This having been the last thing on my mind, I decided to use the movie as a target for a visualization MILD. By this time, I was awfully tired though, and it ended up simply being an incubation attempt as it was easier to just tell myself what to dream.

Sleeping in Class

I am in Chemistry class. The professor is really, really boring and students are nodding off and going to sleep. I nod off as well...
...After a time of what seems to be actual unconscious sleep, I wake up in class. Other students are waking up too. I feel a little bad for sleeping through the lecture, but it feels as though I couldn't help myself.

Inception II

This dream is not easy to follow. I don't even know if I was lucid or not. I was sort of the main characters in the movie Inception, so I would have been dreaming that I was lucid. Since most of the dream took place with me believing the plot was real, it probably wasn't fully lucid. But in parts all I knew was that the dream was just a dream. So, I'll make it purple in color for hald lucid and half non-lucid. I don't even know where this dream starts, but here goes.

I am sitting on the couch, talking with my family. Someone is going to deliver a truck full of concrete. There is a snowstorm going on, which I had been lost in at one point.

I am trying to convince my parents that this is a dream. I seem to be slipping from the couch into another dream, or dream level. I retain "lucidity" as I do so. Then I go back to the couch. I have a pair of pants that I think are too soft. I fill them with sawdust, and shake the sawdust out outside the back door. My mother thinks this is weird, but I explain that it will make the pants less slippery. I realize that that is not a normal thing to do, and see that it is more evidence that I am dreaming.

We go into another "level" of the dream. Now we are at Niagara Falls. We are looking around the place, and are in some kind of a gift shop. In one room is a lot of candy, and I consider buying some. However, up a sort of a walkway is another building, and one I have not seen in over ten years since the last time I was in Niagara Falls in real life. I think that this may be one of my only chances to see it for a while. And besides, it's part of the mission.

I walk up the ramp to the building. I know that it is just a dream, but I figure that it is drawn from memory, so there should at least be similarities. I don't really remember anything about the building in waking life, but I look around to take in as much detail as I can to compare.

Some confusion here. We do some things related to our mission, possibly going into another "level". There is the old guy in the hospital bed, and some girl. The girl is part of it, and has to do something that makes her so upset that she almost vomits. We explain to her what we are doing, and she feels a lot better. Still, she goes back to the bathroom as though she is going to vomit again. We stop her from doing this.

I think we return to the Niagara Falls level after this.

I haven't been journalling for a few days, and this in addition to staying up too late has caused my recall to begin to weaken again. I had a bunch of dreams the night before last, but I can only remember bits and pieces.

02/09/11

I am at school. I am thinking about lucid dreaming, and decide to do a reality check. "How do I know if I am awake?" I ask myself. "I could be dreaming." I read a few lines of text on the powerpoint projector screen at the front of the class. Nothing unusual. I go back and read it again. Seems consistent. "Nose pinch RC has failed in the past," I think, "but reading text never fails. I must not be dreaming."

02/10/11

I am at home, and also in the Fun House (in Uru). I am thinking of doing a hack, and contemplate what I should do. I don't think I am good enough, but people keep encouraging me so I decide to try something. In the end, I decide to make my avatar look like Teddy Roosevelt and show up in character.

02/11/11

I am eating bologna. Lots and lots of bologna.

Failed RC

I am walking down a hallway in part of a much longer dream. This leads into a sort of place that is reminiscent of the food section of a fair. I recognize this as a dreamsign, and think that I had better do a reality check. I pinch my nose and try to breath. I can't but I try harder and for a little longer to be sure. I still can't breathe.

I think about trying to fly, but there are too many people around. I figure I would look silly trying to jump into the air, so I just decide to rely on the nose pinch RC.

Anyway, I continue walking in blissful ignorance down the hallway, and come to a set of stairs. Down these stairs is a little courtyard where supposedly I always go to get away from the crowded city. I don't remember it from real life, but I do know that there is something in my life that is like that place. It's a representation of something real. I think about going down to sit in the courtyard, but decide not to. There is a guy sitting down there on a picnic table. I look around, and see that there is graffiti all over the upper walls of the place. It detracts a little bit from the peacefullness, but I still like the courtyard.