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    The Lab Notebook

    Like many others, I was attracted to lucid dreaming by Inception. Unlike some others, I was very quick to let go of the misconceptions it offers, and to learn and embrace the lingo, the practices, and the understanding of dreaming that are accepted by the community of real people I found here.

    I titled my dream journal "The Lab Notebook" because of the way I'm naturally inclined to write the portions of my dream journal entries that are commentary and side notes on my dreams. I always write with the vocabulary, style, and mindset of a scientist recording the observations she's made during her experiments. That's the framework in which I can best make sense of what I'm learning about dreaming.

    I always write about dreams in the present tense, because I remember reading somewhere that doing so helps the events of the dream seem more immediate and real to you, and helps you recall them.

    The color-coding system I use in my dream journal is:

    Dark red: Things I did while awake
    Teal: Non-lucid portions of the dream
    Deep sky blue: Semi-lucid portions of the dream
    Dark orchid: Lucid portions of the dream (because it's my favorite color)
    [Black within square brackets:] Commentary added by me while I was writing the dream journal entry

    1. Death and Theme Park Rides (Night of June 12-15)

      by , 07-09-2011 at 05:59 AM (The Lab Notebook)
      [This is a catch-up post. These dreams are from the nights of June 12-13 and 14-15, 2011.]

      Night of June 12-13

      There is a murder investigation taking place in a house that looks a lot like my grandparents' house. I am directly involved, and the investigation is highly elaborate and has a detailed plot, with lots of dialog. [Of course, I can't remember any of the specifics now.] Partway through, the dream morphs from live-action into a Tim Burton stop-motion movie featuring the Grim Reaper, who “kills” me. I somehow know I'm not really dead, though. I fall over backwards from the force of the scythe-blow and land in a sling, suspended from a moving, overhead track; it's part of a theme park ride. The ride takes me through “heaven” and ends with me exchanging salutes with Weird Al, who is standing in for Jesus on the ride.

      Night of June 14-15

      [Bizarre, Disneyland-related dreams FTW! This time,] I'm with a vivacious traveling companion, and we have time-traveled to the year 2011. [Whether backward or forward, I do not know.] We wonder how we know what year it is, until we come up with the obvious answer: “Because that's the year we set the time machine for?”

      The entrance to the new version of Star Tours is in a rotating building with revolving doors.
      [This dream was in anticipation of the upcoming weekend; I was planning to go to Disneyland to ride the new Star Tours the following Sunday, June 19th, and I did.] Inside, there is a loading/staging area for the ride with circular staging zones.

      “Abilene!” I say to a 1-year-old girl who is in the staging area with me. “You know you can't be on the end
      [of the row of seats]!” I take her spot in the staging area, making her and the other little kids move over along the row, toward the outside of the circle.
    2. The Bank-Restaurant (Night of June 11)

      by , 07-09-2011 at 05:54 AM (The Lab Notebook)
      [This is a catch-up post. This dream is from the night of June 10-11, 2011.]

      I'm in the car with my mom. We're driving along dirt roads, checking our location against photos we have of landmarks along the way. We're on our way to JJ's party. [This dream was in anticipation of what I was going to do that evening – exactly the same thing, only without the photos or my mom.]

      I'm in the parking lot outside the old Pomona First Federal branch in Ontario. It's a sunny day. I'm picking up many coins (quarters, dimes, and pennies) from the parking lot. I think, It's a bank, so it makes sense that there would be coins in the parking lot. Some real-life friends of mine [I think they may have been T and G, but I'm not sure] walk past me. There are many other people there.

      I enter the building. The entryway is a high-ceilinged, airy room with tall windows and a grand, sweeping staircase. There is a freestanding sign at the bottom of the stairs saying that the Joy Laow
      [I think] room, the meeting room at the top of the stairs, is available for rent for meetings.

      I go further into the building. The main part of the building is a large, long, rectangular, carpeted room with a high ceiling. It is a Marie Callender's restaurant. There is another part of the restaurant floor with a lower ceiling. This area has a small stage, where a loud rock band is playing. My family is sitting around a table near the stage, next to the sound-mixing board, which is sitting on another table. I join them at their table. P. orders another Pepsi from our server, and I order a glass of water. Shortly after I arrive at the table, the band takes a break. I'm relieved that I won't have their music blasting my ears out throughout dinner.

      I wander off from the table and through the large, carpeted room. There's a lot of empty space in it for a restaurant seating area; there are only a few rectangular tables, arranged in a line. I enter a train-station-like lobby area off to one side of the room, where I see an ad
      [?] for the Scott Pilgrim video game, in mirror image. I know RD wants to play it. I see a group of people there discussing video games, and I join in.