CanisLucidus

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #172: Bedroom Mirror

I either DILD or WILD into a scene where I'm walking with my oldest son E across a parking lot. There are only a few cars here but there are a huge number of DCs wandering around. It looks like the parking lot is immediately adjacent to an Olympic pool that's surrounded by a high chainlink fence, so I decide to head that way.

As we're walking along, I spy my friend F. He and E haven't gotten to see each other in person for a while, so I think it'd be fun to have their DCs interact. "Hey F!" I say. "We're heading for the pool. Walk with us."

"Sure thing, man!" he says and immediately bolts off ahead of me, hopping around like a kid. Each of his "hops" have him bounding around about 6 feet up in the air. Meanwhile E stays obediently close by, and I find the role reversal amusing.

Walking all the way to the pool takes a distressingly long time and I start feeling like I'm overcommiting to this one scenario. I see it through, though, and when we get to the pool, E and F start running around. There are a lot of people here and the two of them are quickly lost in the crowd. I think I could find them again if I put my mind to it, but I decide to just flow into a different set of goals. I notice a football stadium a ways off past the pool, so I fly over to that to investigate, thinking I can make the switch of stadium to Colosseum for Task of the Year.

I land in a broad, grassy field near the stadium. The crowd's even thicker here but one extremely attractive woman catches my eye as she walks past. She's Asian, about 30, and strangely dressed, wearing a long, purple, velvety coat that reaches down to her knees. For a moment I return to my Colosseum idea but just can't get the DC off of my mind, so I decide to spend some time with her instead.

When I turn back she's still, looking at me with a bit of confusion. I explain what I have in mind and she nods slowly, her eyes narrowing in concentration as if it's really hard to make sense of what I'm saying. But eventually she gets the picture and approaches me. We make out for a second and then we fly off together to get away from the crowd.

Somehow we wind up in a huge, elegant, marbled bedroom and very vivid sexytime begins. After about a minute or so of great fun, I notice that there’s a large, angled mirror on part of the wall, and I check whether I can see us in it. In the mirror I see another couple doing the same thing we’re doing, but they’re completely different people (an Asian male and a totally different Asian female.) The woman from the mirror and I stare at each other in shock and amusement for a moment.

I notice another mirror on a different part of the wall and when I check it I see an entirely new scene -- it’s the same couple from the other mirror, now grown old and sitting together on a bench, their hands clasped together. The old couple shares a laugh and look into each other’s eyes as the dream ends.

This was a fun little WILD and attempt at Advanced Task of the Month. It's been a while since I've had to navigate my house and I'd forgotten how challenging it can be. Darkness seems to lurk around every corner and I'm always trying to just get out. Couldn't do that for this Task of the Month -- had to head further in.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #78: The DreamViews Drive

I'm getting consistent hypnagogic imagery of the den of our house, so I feel like I'm getting close. I focus on staying aware, and after a few more flashes of the den, a fully three-dimensional picture emerges. I will myself to roll off of the couch, and my dream body complies. I check my hands and feet and everything looks normal. No extra fingers or troll feet. The carpet feels very realistic as well and I mentally confirm that there's no reason I would have fallen asleep downstairs.

I give the coffee table a little shove with my foot and it glides over the carpet. Okay, now I'm really sure it's a dream. I walk through the den past my computer, stepping on a bunch of the kids' toys as I go. Strangely, there's a laundry basket in the middle of the floor. I give the laundry basket a hefty kick and it goes sailing into the air and flies straight out the window. I'm quite amused with myself.

Outside there's just a hint of light, like it's the early morning. I don't think it's possible that the sun's up yet, but it makes me feel more urgent and focused. Since I'm in the house, I want to find the note that I left for myself for Advanced Task of the Month. I have to get back up to our bedroom. I wonder whether I'll find myself there. The thought of my sleeping body makes me feel a little wobbly, so I imagine instead that Wife is lying in the bed by herself. I wonder whether Wife's DC will be interested in "victory celebrations" if I can complete Advanced Task of the Month. (Menthol, is that you?)

I walk through the kitchen, dining room, and den, past the pool table to the stairs. For a moment I think about trying a pool shot, but decide that I'd better stay focused. I'm pleased that the baby gate is missing from the bottom of the stairs. Halfway up, though, I see that this dream house has the baby gate installed in the middle of the stairs. "That's not real," I think, and phase through it.

The upstairs looks really, really dark. I notice a light switch on the wall next to me. I try both of the switches several times, but each of them just controls the air conditioner instead of the lights! Every time I flip one of them, the air conditioning rumbles to life and I feel a light stir of wind.

I'm not sure what to do, so I just charge ahead. The darkness starts to get really bad, and I realize that I'm about to lose the dream. I grab onto the banister as darkness sweeps over me. I produce a gladius in my right hand and start swinging it around in the void, still clutching the banister. I stay like this for quite some time, not losing the dream but also not going anywhere. It feels like at least 30 seconds. I fail to formulate a good transition to a new scene (or a way back into the existing scene), and I either fade to black or lose lucidity...

It's a clear morning. Wife and I are in a car, pulling up to a two-story brick house to pick up my best friend F. F greets us at the door and comes out to inspect the car we're driving, an amazing classic car that looks a bit like a '55 Chevy Belair. Wife goes inside the house and I tell F that he and I should go for a ride. I hand him the keys and he drives.



As we start down the street, I tell F, "Man, I just had a lucid dream before we came over here. I've got to enter it into DreamViews." He says cool. There's something like an old-style typewriter embedded in the car's console. I know that if I type the dream into this typewriter it'll automatically get posted to DreamViews. I marvel at how convenient this is. I congratulate myself for renting such a wonderful car.

While I peck randomly at the keys, I ask F whether he's had any lucid dreams lately when he's commuting on the train. He says no, and we talk dreaming for a bit. I say something about dream signs and I mention that one of mine is "really bad driving." He laughs and says, "You mean like this?" He hits a quick 3-point turn and floors the accelerator, sending us streaking back toward the house.

"It's a rental!" I whine. "Be careful, man!" It's a residential street and he's doing 60 mph, easy. We're almost back to the house now and he hasn't slowed down one bit. I'm distracted, too, because I'm still trying to type my DJ entry into the car's typewriter-thing. Now I realize that I don't have a seat belt. I alternate between blubbering "It's a rental!!" and "There's no seat belt!!" As we hit the driveway, I throw in, "I don't want to die!!"

F cuts the wheel hard to the left. There's a squeal of rubber and the car stops a few feet from the house. I'm relieved to be alive. I'm not angry because I assume that he just didn't hear my complaints. "I was trying to tell you, man. I don't think my side has a seat belt!"

He laughts. "Nothing's going to happen to you, man!" I get out of the car and see that it's turned into a convertible. I get it now. "F! This is a dream, isn't it?" He's walking inside the house and I hurry after him, the dream growing dark. Fade to black...

This LD started off with some incredible promise. But for reasons that still aren't clear, I wasted the majority of it yammering about lucid dreaming. A strange and extremely embarrassing mistake, but live and (hopefully) learn!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #25: A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action

My very close friend F is a famous rap star and I'm his manager. I'm driving him to the marina in a black Escalade, arguing with him not to buy a helicopter for "one million dollars". He's adamant that he needs this helicopter and he brushes off all of my objections about his spending vs. his record sales. As I park the Escalade, I suddenly remember that F is an IT consultant with two kids, not a rapper -- now I'm lucid.

We get out of the Escalade and I see that we're parked near an absolutely pimptastic white yacht. The day is bright and clear and the sun is high over a calm ocean. And in spite of my earlier helicopter-related harangues, there's also a nearby helipad with a helicopter waiting on it. F and I have been friends since we were kids, so I'm psyched to be hanging with him in an LD. And with all of these cool toys just lying around!

I follow F as he heads toward the yacht. I stop him on the gangway, saying, "Hey man, I'm having a lucid dream." He nods and says, "Cool." But F and I have never discussed lucid dreaming IWL. For some reason, I'm overcome with the desire to explain it to him right now. I ask him whether he knows what LD is and he tells me not to worry about it.

But for some reason, I cannot let it go. I go into the whole thing, talking about the sleeping brain, how consciousness is activated, the role of serotonin, all kinds of stuff. At one point I even start rambling about acetylcholinesterase and its role both in dreaming and nerve gas. I'm feeling terribly pleased with myself for recalling all of this information while having an LD and I've lost all regard for my "audience" or my own experience.

Suddenly, a shudder seems to run through the whole dream world. The gangway starts to shake and the sky flashes black for a moment. F grabs the handrails and shouts some kind of profanity. The dream ends immediately afterward. I try to DEILD back in but I come up dry. Curses!