CanisLucidus

This was the fourth of five lucid dreams from last night/this morning.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #109: Metroid

When I complete this WILD, the dream imagery forms into a video game screen. I'm controlling a video game like Metroid where me (or my avatar) can leap, shoot, or curl up into a ball and roll.



I'm fighting my way through some alien mountain range where I'm engaged in battle with some slug-looking creature with a whip-like tail that can cause avalanches to come crashing down. I fire and fire at the slug, and it flashes colors every time I hit it, just like I'd expect it to in a video game. After doing enough damage, the slug whips its tail into the side of the mountain and a wall of snow comes roaring down the mountain toward me. I instinctively know to curl up into a ball and slide down for a ways in order to avoid it.

After this happens a few times, it starts to feel hopeless. I don't want to spend all of my time fighting this thing, so I flee by hopping to the next mountain over. I know that normally this isn't something that the "game" would allow but I give myself enough semi-flying extra buoyancy that I easily make it over.

The slug doesn't follow me and this next mountain over is quiet and peaceful. I run along the snowy mountainside for a while, enjoying the view of the purple alien sky. After some time, I come to a segment of snow that crumbles away, revealing the mouth of a cave. As I step into the cave, I feel myself waking up, but amazingly the dream hangs in there. I'm now very aware of my physical body in waking life, but the dream is still playing, so I roll with it.

The cave is filled with green-hued stalagmites and stalactites that give off a glow that's strong enough to dimly illuminate the cavern. I walk further into the cavern, just enjoying what I'm seeing since it feels like the dream is on borrowed time. Eventually the scene gives out and I'm awake.

This was the first of two lucid dreams from the morning of New Year's Day. What is it with me and holiday lucid dreaming?

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #51: The Thragian Age

I'm walking around a museum during a special event about "The Thragian Age". There are cool, semi-magical artifacts displayed all around, including a floating stone wheel that turns on its own and glows with strange white energy. A waitress offers me a drink from a tray. She's dressed in a sparkling blue skirt and a jeweled mask that I assume is also from the Thragian Age. I wish that I was better studied in this "Thragian Age" (or had heard of it at all.)

Wife walks up to me dressed in running shorts and a t-shirt and says that she feels "underdressed". I say, "Me too. And I'm tired. Let's nap." We curl up under a nearby table. I feel momentarily frisky but quickly reconsider when I remember where we are. I decide that while I'm sleeping, I might as well try to WILD. I close my eyes, wait for a dream scene to form and...

...find myself walking outside along an empty road, fully aware that I'm dreaming. It's also clear to me now that the previous scene was also a dream. I feel happy and confident as I jog along the road and start narrating to myself: "I'm in a lucid dream and I'm going to fly to the Great Pyramid." I take to the air near an overpass, swoop under it, and head for a distant set of mountains.

I fly for a while when the wind starts blowing against me. I really try not to fight so hard this time, saying, "Show me what you want to show me." I relax, and the wind turns me back toward the city. I fly for a while over houses, tree-lined streets, and people milling about in their yards.

The sun is bright and the wind is cool against my skin. A gust from the side makes me bank toward the city's downtown. I'm no longer concerned with visiting the Pyramid and I'm just enjoying the peace and the moment. I fly for a while longer, but before I reach downtown, the dream ends.

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.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #28: REBMEVON rejected

I'm watching as Breaking Bad's Walter White (dressed as Heisenberg) plans to set fire to a Jeep full of laughing teenagers. He pours gasoline all over the kids in the car but they don't react, somehow not understanding what's going on. I'm panicked and horrified and feel like I can't let him get away with this. The intense emotion makes me lucid and the scene vanishes.

Now I'm sitting in what looks like a log cabin, staring at a simple television that's no longer switched on. I see daylight through a nearby doorway so I run outside, passing through a short alleyway before I emerge in a grassland with mountains on the distant horizon. It's a beautiful scene and I'm so relieved to be free of the nightmare that I start flying.

I've been in the air for only a couple of seconds when the Task of the Month occurs to me -- I need to write "November" backwards. I've created a mnemonic device that instantly brings the correct word ("REBMEVON") to mind. (My chosen mnemonic device is my friend Von introducing himself to Reba McIntyre.)

I try to produce a pen and paper from behind my back but only manage a pen at first. I try writing on my hand but can only fit "REB". That won't do, so I do another "behind the back" object creation to get a notebook. I try to write the word but end up getting sudden strings of garbage characters like "REBhjklhlhlh". I scratch it out and try again, but only get a similar string of garbage characters as soon as I get past "REB".

I can see the word perfectly in my mind so the garbage character problem starts making me feel agitated and doubtful. It's not long before I wake up.