CanisLucidus

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #248: Zed

I’m at the office at night, talking to my friend “Z” about the game we’re working on. Z says something about how he’s getting a special financial arrangement worked out with his “partner”. Then I realize that he’s talking about his wife, and it seems strange that he said it this way. Then I notice that Z has hair when he normally keeps his head shaved all the time, and now I become lucid.

“Hey Z, I’m dreaming right now,” I say, standing up. I make some comment to him about how now he has hair and he chuckles. I continue: “Was there anything else that you wanted to tell me before I go?”

“Yeah!” he says, and fires up a projector that’s sitting on his desk, pointing it at the wall, and beginning a presentation about video game art design.

Even though she hasn't physically appeared yet, I say to Dreamer, “Hey, this is cool! You’re finally getting to meet [Z]!” I make the motion of draping an arm over Dreamer’s shoulder, thinking this might result in a summon. It feels sort of correct for a second, but then there’s nothing. Instead I imagine that she’s standing behind me. I hear a small shuffle of feet behind me. I decide not to push my luck just yet and instead watch a little more of Z’s presentation.

Z splashes up some cool screenshot with all of these effects that use additive blending. Then the next slide is some text, but it’s too unclear to read. Z starts hitting the side of the projector, trying to fix it. “Here, let me try,” I say. I make a square shape with the thumb and forefinger or each hand and “zoom” it in and out to focus the image. Now it’s sharp but the text is something odd that keeps changing.

I look out the window and notice that dawn is starting to break. My point-of-view moves out through the window, briefly flying over another part of the city before the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #242: The Return of the Rabbit

I’m riding in the back of a Suburban with several of my business partners. “PM” is the man behind the wheel and we’re driving slowly around a dirt loop, listening to the soundtrack from the video game that we’re working on. The music for our battle scene concludes and breaks into a slower section.

There’s a new part, a soft solo of a guitar-like stringed instrument that I’ve never heard before. It's beautiful! PM turns back to say, “I thought this part sounded fucking badass.” I enthusiastically agree that the new music sounds “all badass”. PM’s driving very erratically but not very concerned about it. I become semi-lucid, noting that this is probably a dream. I start laughing when he plows right over a stop sign and now I’m sure that this is a dream. PM is laughing too, and stops the car.

We all get out and there are several of the guys here, PM, “Leroy”, and probably “Z” as well as maybe more. I put my hand on PM’s upper back/shoulder and kind of massage it, wanting to stay really connected to the dream. “Hey man,” I say, “this is a lucid dream. This is the first time that you've been in one of these with me. I’m really happy you’re here!” I feel very happy to have these guys here with me and I enjoy the swell of positive emotions. I tell PM that I’ll do my best to remember the new parts of the song and that I wonder whether he’ll remember them too.

We walk down a dirt path through some trees and night falls quickly. We’re moving through an industrial area by the water and I think that I’d like to summon Dreamer. I look down to see that there are 4 shadows in the group. Must be me, PM, Leroy, and Z? I hold out my left hand, imagining that Dreamer will take hold of it. I feel something vaguely like a hand, then look down again to see a fifth shadow (in a dress!) holding onto my hand.

I look over and Dreamer is standing next to me! Her hair is blond rather than purple now and very short, the bangs bluntly chopped almost in the form of a bowl cut. She’s just wearing a shirt and some kind of pants, though, not a dress. We smile at each other. “Hey guys, this is…” and then attempt to introduce Dreamer several times. I’m mortified that twice in a row I completely goof her waking life name before finally getting it right. I feel awful about this, very embarrassed.

The guys continue ahead and Dreamer and I walk just behind, coming to an abandoned wharf. I recall that we had recent, very specific plans for this dream (to try to heal one another’s sniffles, ha ha…) I ask her whether she remembers and she replies, but I have a hard time understanding her. I move really close to Dreamer’s face, trying to understand her or read her lips or anything, but it’s not working. For a moment I wonder whether there was a kissing task, but no, that wasn’t it, maybe that was someone else’s lucid dare. (Correct, actually -- this was a dare that Dreamer completed a while back!) I quit focusing on her lips and on this mumbling problem, assuming that her speech will sort itself out if I just quit worrying about it.

As we walk further along the water, we talk about how nice it is to just stroll through the dreamworld. I tell her that I’m glad that we’re getting to hang out in such a stable dream and how relaxing this is. I feel peaceful and happy, which reminds me of the patronus task. I tell Dreamer that I want to try the patronus and she moves close to wrap me up in a hug. I extend my right arm and she places her left hand under my wrist, almost to support it. I tell her that I feel super happy in this dream and that I think the patronus is going to be easy! She enthusiastically agrees.



Immediately, pulses of blue energy pour out of my fingers and float to the ground in a big ball. And now scampering along the ground near our feet is my bunny patronus. “Oh, he is cute!” says Dreamer. As he hops around, the bunny turns from a blue, glowy patronus into a real bunny. He hops further along the wharf. Dreamer grabs my hand and pulls me along to follow him. We follow him for a while through an old, crumbling breezeway until the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #215: Hubris

I’m in the office with my friend Z, talking to him about lucid dreaming. I’m in my rolling chair pulled up next to his desk, my foot rudely up on the wall like I was raised in a barn.

I’m telling a story about a guy who was trying to do shared dreaming. I tell Z, “And what he didn’t even realize is that she was in a completely different time zone!” I say this like it’s some kind of punchline and wait for him to laugh. He doesn’t react and I think, Wait, that’s not funny. Not even a little bit. I check my state and realize that I’m dreaming.

Z has vanished, so I get up out of the chair, thinking over my goals. Okay, take things slow at the beginning, then summon Dreamer. I hit the nose pinch reality check and breathe right through. I keep the nose pinch clamped on and enjoy the feeling of breathing in and out through pinched fingers.

I wander slowly around the office, which has grown to about three times its normal size. There are cardboard boxes of paper scattered here and there, something I’ve never seen in the actual office. I walk over to the kitchen, look out at the fridge and spot an extra water cooler that wasn’t there before.

When I return to the office there are more and more boxes of paper. When I notice this, they seem to multiply every direction that I look. An older guy, a well-dressed, gray-haired man in his early 50s, walks through the door and nods a greeting at me before wandering off.

Suddenly I become obsessed with keeping the dream stable and start congratulating myself on what a bang-up job I’m doing of keeping all of this held together. I start thinking of my sleeping body back in bed and wonder what position I’m sleeping in. How cool it is that I’m here and “it’s” over there! I wonder if I’m sleeping on my side right now. Am I breathing in and out at the same rate as I am in the dream?

This stream of boastful thoughts continues for a while until my self-congratulation peters out into... an awakening in my bed.