The Lab Notebook

Non-lucid, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I'm in a long, rectangular yard with a lawn, behind a building. I find myself flying backward over the grass. Recognizing the familiar dream occurrence, I mentally grab hold of the situation and wrench my movement into my conscious control. First, I start to fly forward, and then I just land and start walking across the grass toward the building, just because I'll have better and more reliable control that way. As I walk, I say something along the lines of, “If it gets me there faster, I'll just walk.”

Inside the building, I walk through several rooms until I find one that contains a table and a bunch of people. [I think they were people I know in real life, but I'm not sure who.] We all sit down around the round table and have a meeting. [I don't remember now what we talked about, but we were all talking about something.] During the meeting, I focus on staying in the present moment, paying attention to it, because I want the dream to go on for as long as possible. It works, for a bit, but then I start thinking, I wonder how much REM time I have left? I don't want to wake up. Of course, the dream starts to collapse and I find myself waking up shortly after thinking about that.

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Side notes:

I achieved this MILD by focusing intently on my feelings of intention and desire to have a lucid dream, mostly without thinking in words, and for a sustained period of several minutes. When I did think in words, they were, Lucid dreaming is easy. Everyone can do it, even me. I had this dream after several nights in a row without any dream recall at all, which made those feelings of intention and desire particularly intense and easy to focus on.

Awake, Non-lucid, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I'm on a dark ride at Disneyland. When I concentrate on the images that are moving vertically in front of me, I can accept and maintain the optical illusion that traditional animation is taking place right there in the space in front of me on the ride.

Later, I'm in a dream version of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. This version is two-story and walk-through, with a large, rectangular open space in the center of the house where you can see the walkway that runs in front of the entrances to the second-floor rooms. I think, They've redone this entire place again? It's actually this realization that makes me aware that I'm dreaming. I've dreamed about this attraction many, many times before, and it's different every single time, so if I'm on yet another new version, I must be dreaming. I continue to make my way through the house, being scared [in the good way] by some of the ghosts that jump out at me.

I somehow end up in the landscaped outdoor area around what appears to be a shopping mall. I look at my hands and see that they look normal [I've been doing this a lot in reality lately], but don't lose lucidity. I'm pleased to find that the dream is stable, my dream self feels real and normal, and that I'm not aware of my real body at all. I then remember my current personal dream goal and decide to start trying to walk through a wall. I see the orange-tan-colored outer wall of some restaurant and think, Maybe it'll be easier to go through if I don't know in advance what's supposed to be on the other side. [I don't even know.] I don't end up going through it, though. [If I attempted to, I don't remember it now.]

While walking around the outdoor area, I touch a metal hand rail and find that it feels real. I also try to walk through a low, rectangular concrete wall intended for seating, but it's just as real and solid to me as it would be in reality. [I think I just haven't fully convinced myself that I can walk through things like a ghost yet.]

I continue walking and find a small, amphitheater-like concrete area where there are big concert speakers set up, playing hip-hop or rap music. Facing the speakers is a picnic table with a bunch of teenagers sitting on it, all of whom are really into the music. One girl, however, is sitting on a bench off to the side by herself, reading a book. On the opposite side of the table from the speakers is a grassy lawn. Fifty or so yards away at the other end of the lawn, a live rock band is playing on another stage. I think it's kind of sad that the poorly-designed setup of the area, with the big speakers so nearby, means that no one is paying the band any attention. [What is it with me and rock concerts in my dreams lately? I don't have any plans to go to one in reality.] I think about talking to one of the teenagers there, but [for some unknown reason] decide not to.

The back of my left thigh started to itch, which made me aware of my real body again, which caused the dream to dissolve. I scratched it, now awake and disappointed at the interruption.