DJ Comments

Amazing dream all the way around. Incredibly well-written too!

The premise behind the apocalypse was really chilling. It wasn't just your typical birds and snakes, an aeroplane, and hey look, the world just split in two. Here the apocalypse just sauntered up right out in the open, took its sweet letting the world dread what was coming. (And presented people with some awful choices.)

I drop the curtain, reminding myself that it this is how it was before, just after the storm. Now the landscape is alive and green and the clouds blown away.

I really like this part. The entire dreamscape turned into a metaphor for how you're the one who ultimately wields all the power in your dreams, even if you can't even recognize it in the moment. Just a little change of viewpoint, a fleeting thought, and the whole world changes.

With this casual comfort he has quelled the storm in my chest, replaced with a pulsating feeling of well-being and lightness. It's beautiful.

Oh man, what a beautiful encounter! I love that you were able to take that moment and that feeling back with you into waking life!

If your latest DJ entries are any indication, you're trending away from fragments already. Maybe the return to DV (welcome back, btw! ) and a renewed focus on journaling has your subconscious now offering up the richer, more interesting material that you expect of it.

I am happy I got to punch something hahaha. It's just...I don't know, I can count the good dreams I've had this year on one hand. Considering that I remember most of them, and that very few of them were fragments, I wonder if I should be concerned. At least my nightmares have full storylines, and I can usually see them as interesting once I wake up.

Very interesting dream. Lots of duality and ambiguity. The character of the killer never settled on one clear identity long enough to leave you any certainty whether to trust attraction or fear. And both of those forces are so powerful in dreams!

Don't worry! Remember that your dreams really will get better and that this won't last forever. If you can drift off to sleep with that little bit of relaxed but happy anticipation of a night of great dreams, I'm sure that your dreaming brain will come through for you.

And hey, at least you got to punch something.

Don't worry, we all have periods of fragments, and a fragment is better than nothing. Use the tag system to research dream signs in the future.

It's funny...when I had a wreck in real life, I briefly tried to wake up for a split second. I got T-boned and knocked hard up onto the sidewalk. Despite my wishful thinking, I quickly realized this was reality. Then I felt what a tenuous thing time was and thought about how little energy it would take to back up only about 5 seconds and alter my decision to make that turn. But that was all a fleeting fantasy, because I knew consciously that once a decision is written into the history of reality, there's no backing up.

I know!! Remembering is by far the hardest bit, at least for me. It's so much easier to describe this stuff than to do it in the moment. As far as I can tell, it must be all down to practice, and apparently I've still got dues to pay!

I hear you on the flying. Once I started with that, that was it. I would start flying around at the drop of a hat. It just always sounded like the fun thing to do and if I'm outside, I'm often up in the air before I can really think too much more about it. Phasing was that way, too, once I finally got used to doing it. I guess there's something fun and empowering about having that much freedom and breaking the constraints that the physical world places on our waking lives.

And yeah, between all the flying and rescuing, it looks like you're edging toward "superhero".

Thank you so much for the advice, I'll just have to remember to give it a try!

And I totally get you on wanting to do right by DCs and keep bad things from happening to them! The characters we read about in stories or watch on television are "just characters", but we care what happens to them. (Sometimes very deeply.) And books and television don't compare in vividness to dreams. And these characters are ours.

Damn straight they're ours. Maybe it's significant somehow, you know, that I feel I need to rescue or comfort a part of my subconscious. Or maybe it just means that I want to be a superhero.
You know, I never thought I would enjoy flying. I've always liked having my feet on the ground, but recently it feels like it's all I do in my lucid dreams. It also seems like I climb out a lot of windows. o.O

Haha thanks! It seems that I have trouble finding the switch that turns on my LD abilities, like not being able to fly when I needed to. There must be a way to fix that. I know it's just a dream, but I'd've liked to have saved him.

It sounds crazy, but the approach that has worked most often for me is to simply be in total denial that the problem is happening. Once I direct my mental energy toward thoughts like, "No, I'm actually flying just fine. Ah here, we go, a little updraft. Let me just assume the Iron Man position and start rocketing around everywhere." I like to just pretend it's already working rather than even thinking that it will work. It sounds a bit dumb but it really does the trick for me.

For me at least, both positive and negative thoughts have a way of building on their own energy and getting bigger and bigger. The trick I find is just remembering that we have the power to feed or starve whichever thoughts we wish.

And I totally get you on wanting to do right by DCs and keep bad things from happening to them! The characters we read about in stories or watch on television are "just characters", but we care what happens to them. (Sometimes very deeply.) And books and television don't compare in vividness to dreams. And these characters are ours.

Haha thanks! It seems that I have trouble finding the switch that turns on my LD abilities, like not being able to fly when I needed to. There must be a way to fix that. I know it's just a dream, but I'd've liked to have saved him.

Poor Nate, if it was caustic to my skin can you imagine what it felt like coming up? *shudders*

Congratulations on the great lucid! It sounded like it was going to crumble on you there for a bit but you held it together nicely in the end.

The rescue part was very cool. DCs are so very interesting and amusing to interact with, even when they are barfing caustic black God-knows-what all over you when you try to save them.

Great recall, BTW!

You mean like, keeping the characters? Like making them come back for more dream time to further the story?

Sure, particularly if any of the characters really resonates for you! It's been a long time since I did any serious writing, but I remember that for the best characters it felt more like I was getting them to tell me their story rather than the other way around. Kind of like they continue to exist as a background process somewhere in my mental hardware. (Now that I've seen more of what the subconscious is capable of, this version of the storytelling process seems very natural to me. Seemed a little weird at the time though. )

Hey, thanks =). I've thought about maybe turning them into short stories but I have absolutely no drive.

Or maybe even incubating some basic plot points or dream characters and seeing where things go?

You mean like, keeping the characters? Like making them come back for more dream time to further the story?

You know, I actually read this dream a few weeks back when you published it, but didn't comment at the time. Felt rushed or something or some other such excuse. But before I forget, I've gotta say -- really amazing recall and story coherence in this one! Just great.

I've got a buddy that says he gets most of his ideas for films from his dreams. I'm impressed/jealous about how well he can tap into raw creative energy but actually have it take a coherent shape. It seems like you might have the same kind of thing going on with in-dream storytelling where your raw dreams can offer up a good story arc that covers long time periods, several events, etc. Did you ever think about taking one of your dreams and fleshing it out into a broader work? Or maybe even incubating some basic plot points or dream characters and seeing where things go?

I have hopes of one day squeezing some creative coherence out of my dreamworld, but for now it seems to be for entertainment purposes only.

...if I'd been myself, I might have called him a Jackass and then started giggling at my 'wit'.

Great recall! I have to work so hard at recalling dialogue, even in my lucids. The entire dreamwalk storyline was a great way to get guided straight into that lucid portion. Love when the dream just sets that kind of thing up.

I really liked that too, I've never had something snap into place that way. As for the dialogue it might be because I do a lot of reading, though when I was younger DCs didn't really talk I just understood exactly what they meant.

Heh. This strikes me as a very "Jack from Lost" moment.

I thought so too. My subconscious managed to catch his body language/expressions perfectly.

This amused me for some reason even though I didn't fully understand it. Was it the idea of marriage that made you feel terrible, having to rush out and leave, or something else?

I'm in a relationship but I sincerely doubt we're ever getting married. Usually in dreams when marriage is in the storyline, I don't want anything to do with it, but I feel pressured to do it anyway. So the 'archway' is my fantastical way of providing an escape for something I don't want.

Great recall! I have to work so hard at recalling dialogue, even in my lucids. The entire dreamwalk storyline was a great way to get guided straight into that lucid portion. Love when the dream just sets that kind of thing up.

After a moment he drops his head like he's trying to hide his amusement. He briefly smiles at the ground and says, "You couldn't close the van door because you're too short."

Heh. This strikes me as a very "Jack from Lost" moment.

I need to leave, I'm getting married tonight. (Really not, but my subconscious likes to use that as an excuse to make me feel terrible.)

This amused me for some reason even though I didn't fully understand it. Was it the idea of marriage that made you feel terrible, having to rush out and leave, or something else?

Real life equivalent? Hmm... probably a combination of both. If it was a horrible real event, the craziness might come from the sudden denial of the situation. You can't come to terms with what has happened so you separate yourself from it and continue to insist that the horrible event isn't real...which part of your mind knows is real.
If you go crazy because you see things that you know can't be real, you can't separate yourself from the outside influence of your hallucinations, so it drives you crazy because you can't come to terms with something that seems so real but you know isn't.

In the dream my lucidity was thread thin, like I was standing on the edge of a cliff and every time she looked at me I thought I was going to go tumbling off. >.< It was so creepy! I HATE POSSESSION NIGHTMARES.

Jeez, that sucks. Glad you were able to keep a grip. What's the waking life equivilant of a lucid nightmare? Would it be like going crazy since you know it isn't real, or is it still like a horrible real event? Sorry if my question doesn't totally make sense. I've never had the two combined.