CanisLucidus

I finally made it into space! Even though I had no idea how to handle myself once I got there, the fact that I flew up there was a huge milestone. Before this, stable flight had been a bit elusive for me. Big step forward!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #20: The Unprepared Astronaut

I'm a graduating senior in college, following around a guy who seems to think we're close friends. I feel pretty guilty because I have no memory of him at all. I'm accompanying him so he can say his post-college goodbyes to his girlfriend. We meet her outside of a dormitory, and I recognize her as a girl that I know from high school. I recognize how weird this is and quickly find myself lucid.

Both of the dream characters freeze in place, looking into one another's eyes. I decide to leave the love birds alone while I take another pass at Task of the Month. (In this case, I'm going to be trying to remove my head and replace it with a pumpkin.) I try to will a mirror onto the outer dormitory wall but nothing appears.

I remember how much more dream control success I have when I'm detailed and thorough. I try again, this time imagining an ornate mirror that's been worn by time, the paint on its frame beginning to chip and flake off. This time I get my mirror!

I look into the mirror but it's dirty and cloudy-looking. The reflection looks like a shirtless me but it's very hard to make out any detail. I wipe at the mirror but it just doesn't make any difference. Rather than get hung up here and waste a lucid dream doing glass-cleaning, I decide to spend my time trying out other things.

I leave the grounds of the dormitory and head out onto a quiet, empty street. The morning feels chilly and the city is covered with a blanket of fog. I wonder what this fog looks like from above, so I decide to try flying above it. This time, I focus on the little details. The chill of humid air against my fingertips. The breeze flowing past my hair and tickling my scalp. Concentrating on these sensations leaves me no time for doubt and I smoothly rise up into the fog.

The fog swallows me whole as I rise. I wonder how long it will take me to pierce it. I feel myself going faster and faster and soon I'm rocketing up through the atmosphere. The fog never seems to end and I feel like I must be high above the Earth.

Suddenly I break through into blackness. I stop rising, my momentum suddenly gone. I'm in the blackness of space and the fog is now a floor below me. I realize that it isn't just the city that was covered in fog -- it's the entire planet. I am able to breathe but I somehow can't keep myself from doing so in these desperate, shallow gasps.

My flight abilities have stopped working and my arms and legs flail helplessly. I will myself a pair of rocket shoes but I get confused trying to work the lever that turns them on. I start losing my cool and my breathing becomes even gaspier until I wake up.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #15: A Leaf on the Wind

Wife and I are staying in this huge, luxurious hotel room somewhere on vacation. It's daylight outside. Wife is putting away groceries in the hotel fridge but all I want to do is sleep. I curl up in the bed and nap. Seconds later, though, I'm awake and Wife is still putting away groceries.

I'm frustrated that my nap was so short and I nose pinch RC out of habit. I'm astonished that I am actually able to breathe. I blow it off, assuming that I simply didn't pinch hard enough. On the second try I get a deep, clear breath and I'm dragged into lucidity.

I want to get out of the room and go for Task of the Month (swim in the Cretaceous-era sea.) I tell Wife that I'm having a lucid dream and that I need to leave for a while. She looks skeptical. "You and your dreams. What about our vacation?" I tell her that I'll try to get back after I finish up but I know it's very, very unlikely that I'll be able to make a roundtrip across millions of years back. Better than her getting eaten by a mosasaur. Wife asks me to "at least help me put away the groceries" but I leave before she can suck me back into the dream plot. Even though I know it's a dream I feel guilty leaving all the work for her to do.

Daylight is streaming through the door at the end of the hallway and I walk outside. There's a wobble in my vision as I cross the threshold. I paw my hands through my hair and lick my arm and the dream scene snaps back into stability.

It's clear and cool like midday in Northern California. Across a broad field of grass I see a river snaking its way toward the horizon. I imagine that this river leads to the Cretaceous ocean and will myself to rise up into the air and fly. The wind buffets me as I soar into the air and my dream body feels light, insubstantial, and kite-like. I rise higher and higher into the air and tantalizingly I see the sparkle of the sea maybe just a mile further along the river.

I will myself to fly toward the ocean but the wind is just tossing me around as I rise higher into the air. I have no more mass than a leaf or a piece of paper. I try imagine that I have on rocket shoes but they just make this weak fizzling noise and the wind noise increases to a roar. Frustration gets the best of me and I either lose lucidity or fade to oblivion.