CanisLucidus

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #240: Voices

I’m relaxing in a cabin with Wife and my kids E and R. I step outside through a wooden door, catching a view of a beautiful, placid lake. It feels dreamlike, and when I consider my situation, I realize that I’m dreaming.

I decide that I want to attempt the patronus task again with Dreamer to once and for all answer the question of whether I’ll produce a magnificent mythical creature… or the dreaded “pootronus” that she has promised me. “Dreamer, you’re here!” I call out, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

I walk around the edge of the lake and see a distant wooden fenceline. “Ah okay, you’re right behind that fence!” I say, and a woman steps out from behind the fence and begins walking away toward a large wooden building in the distance. She’s got purple hair, so I’m sure that it’s Dreamer!

I hop and fly after her, ending up in the wooden building with her. She’s still somewhat distant so I call out something to her about wanting to do the patronus task. She turns around and calls out, “First say something in your accent voice!” I take this to mean that she wants me to say something in an Australian accent.

“Let’s see how my accent voice sounds,” I say, sounding totally Aussie. Way better than waking life. I kind of talk over Dreamer saying something about “singing”, which I don’t catch.

She grins. “Oooh, how about something in your noise voice?” I’m not sure what she means by a "noise voice" but I notice how precisely her voice matches her waking life voice. I move closer to her, thinking what a “noise voice” could be, and as I’m lost in this question, Dreamer disappears.

I look around, calling out for her until a woman in her late 20s with glasses and dark, curly hair emerges from nearby a stack of hay. As she walks toward me, I say, “What am I worried about? You’re right over here.” She seems to be somewhat agreeable to getting transformed, but when I get close, she’s trying to say something that I can’t quite hear. I reach out but my hand passes through her shoulder.

I keep looking, calling out here and there without much of a plan, but no DCs appear this time. I say a rather pathetic, “Come back, I miss you!” not long before the dream ends.

I managed to hit another Task of the Year item! This one's from the morning of 5/11/2014.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #209: Aladdin

I’m standing on a long stone pathway that cuts through the middle of a vast lake. People pass by me on either side, and as I watch them go, I think about my intent to have a lucid dream. It quickly dawns on me that one has just begun.

I look out over the lake,.seeing numerous Greek-styled marble columns sticking up out of the water. I take flight to get a better view of the water and it’s just as striking from higher up. I go up and up, preparing for some peaceful exploration, but I accidentally cut through some low cloud cover and lose sight of the lake. A flock of birds crosses in front of me and for no discernible reason, the frame rate of the dream briefly dips. I’m briefly amused that my brain seemed to have had trouble with that relatively simple scene.

I head back down through the cloud cover, regaining sight of the lake. I fly lower, studying DCs as I go. All of the flight finally reminds me of the Aladdin Task of the Year, and I land, mentally gathering the details of what I’m supposed to do.

First, summon that lamp. I try several behind the back summons, but I keep botching them. This is annoying me a bit, but I finally manage to get the sense of an object in my hand even though I can’t see it. I wiggle my fingers a bit like a magician and the lamp “paints” itself in from top to bottom as I watch.

I make my wish for a magic carpet, and immediately one scoops me up from underneath. I remember my first attempt at this task and again ask the lamp for a “delicious cookie”. Right away a cookie appears in my left hand and I don’t hesitate before cramming it in my mouth. It’s really good! The chocolate chips are just a little small for the “perfect cookie” but it’s still excellent.



I’m apparently stuck on a “delicious food” theme so I immediately wish for “delicious hot chocolate”. I bring my hand back into view to find it holding a china cup full of hot chocolate. I guzzle it down. It’s way colder than it should be and there are odd clumpy patches in it like it didn’t mix well, but still tasty. Okay, done!

I continue flying the carpet for a bit, staying about 10 feet off the ground. I come to a section that looks like the exit to an amusement park. There’s a woman waving goodbye to me and the other people as we leave. I don’t get much further before the dream ends.

This was a a very vivid, pleasant lucid dream. My Task of the Month attempt didn't succeed, but it was a beautiful experience nonetheless. Also, this is the third time that my dad's DC has hinted to me that I'm dreaming and finally I listened!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #86: Rock Candy

I'm standing at the door of a lakehouse with Dad, recounting an extraordinarily vivid dream from earlier in the night. I lean against the doorframe, looking out over the water. "I can't believe how much of this stuff you remember," he says. "And then that whole 'vivid dreaming' thing you do."

"Yeah," I respond. "It's actually called 'lucid dreaming'." It hits me that this is all a dream. I step outside to a wooden walkway, leap over the railing and take flight over the lake. "I'm dreaming right now!" I shout over my shoulder.

"That's amazing," I hear him say as I cruise away over the lake. I pass through a cypress canopy and get high enough to survey the lake. The lake stretches as far as I can see, its surface criss-crossed by dirt paths that are decorated with beautiful marble archways.

I land on one of these paths and walk along for a while, enjoying the serenity of the moment. I pass a bulbous, bright blue flower that's the size of a basketball. Its petals ripple gently in the sun and give off a glow that looks like a bloom effect you'd find in a video game. Just before I come to a marble archway, I find a pile of rocks and think of the Task of the Month (find a piece of coal and change it into a diamond.)

I dig through the rock pile, hunting for coal. The closest thing that I can find is a black, rectangular hunk of glassy, volcanic-looking rock. It looks too crystalline so I get the bright idea of crushing it into coal by popping it in my mouth and chewing it up. I bite a hunk of the rock off and begin to chew. The taste is amazing! It's like a homemade raisin bar with just a hint of chocolate. I'm immediately reminded of the goodies Mom would bake when I was a kid.

I wander the paths for a long while, contentedly passing under the shadows of archways, walking by strange, brightly glowing plants, and happily biting off pieces of this delicious black rock. I feel immensely pleased with what I've created for myself and unmotivated to change anything.

Eventually my path takes me to an ancient-looking stone wall. Oddly, there is a working escalator alongside the wall, and I board it, curious where it leads. As I ride up, I pass many people that I know, most memorably my friend DX (who I recently saw for the first time in over a year.) His short hair has been replaced by an enormous ball afro. We swap greetings, but the escalator quickly moves us past one another.

At the top of the escalator, I remember Task of the Month and spit out a bit of the black rock to see if it's coal-like enough to work. Unfortunately, it's more like slightly sticky, finely-chewed glass. I look back at the escalator and see Fedora, a guy that I used to know in college but was never friends with. I say, "Fedora, go ahead and give me that piece of coal you have." It works! Fedora hands me a perfect lump of coal and I get to work on squeezing it. It's becoming smaller and smaller, and I feel like a tiny diamond is beginning to form. Fedora demands that I give him the diamond when I'm finished since it's "his". I'm about to tell him that this is fine when the dream gets really unstable.

I prepare to DEILD, and it goes black. I'm very aware of my body now, almost awake. I release all awareness of my body and try to let the dream take me under. Apparently I let my self-awareness go too, because I'm shortly back in the dream, but no longer lucid.

I'm standing about twenty feet from the escalator talking with my friend The Schwartz and another person that I can no longer recall. "So what went wrong?" asks The Schwartz. I walk them through the last portion of the dream in detail. As I'm describing what happened, I see an attractive stranger in her early 20s eyeing me. She smiles and waves me over. Excited, I begin walking toward her but suddenly feel super guilty. I remember that I'm married and feel like a dirtbag. Then I remember that I'm dreaming and feel awesome again. The stranger smiles and turns away, an older guy (her boyfriend?) draping his arm over her shoulder and walking away with her. I start thinking about Task of the Month again, but the dream fades...

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #31: The Edge of Venice

I’m in line at a cafeteria salad bar, waiting behind a middle-aged lady. The salad bar is utilitarian, old, and no-frills, like something you’d find in a high school lunchroom. I suddenly notice that my noise-canceling headphones are draped over the top of the salad bar. “Great!” I think. “I’ve been looking for those.”

The lady in front of me grabs the headphones off of the salad bar. They turn into salad tongs and she begins using them to pile lettuce onto her plate. “Hey!” I complain. “Those are my headphones! You're gonna ruin them!” The lady just looks at me. I get a sense of how ridiculous this is and realize that I’m dreaming.

The lady continues to stare at me and I head for the cafeteria's exit door. It’s a bright, clear day and now that I'm outside, I see that the restaurant sits on the shores of a lake. The lake is dotted with rowboats and stretches away toward a mountain range. I pause to look at the rowboats and see that most of them are manned by little DC families of four, two parents and two kids.

I rise into the air and turn to the left, ready to explore. There's a huge cloud bank that rests against the mountains and extends almost all the way to the ground. The cloud is strange, and I realize that a) it’s pink and b) it appears to be much more solid and substantial than a typical cloud. After looking at it for a moment I realize that it’s actually a gigantic, super-detailed loofah.

I try to circle around the loofah but for some reason turning feels difficult. I sort of feel like I should be turning but nothing’s really happening. I don’t make a big deal out of it and fly around on the left side of the loofah. Up ahead I see a Venice-like city of canals. Gondola operators mill about on the docks as I drift by, relaxing in the sun and managing their boats. One of these DCs looks up at me as I fly overhead, raising one hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

I see buildings and a whole network of canals ahead of me and begin flying toward them, eager to explore this Dream Venice. Unfortuantely, I awaken abruptly. The dream was really vivid at this point so the awakening was an unpleasant surprise.