Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #232: Chasing Shadows I’m alone on a dirt road at night, and I know that this has to be a dream. The dirt road stretches forever in either direction, but that’s fine. I don’t intend to follow it anyway. I clearly remember my intent to summon Dreamer, and I extend my right hand. “I know you’re already here,” I say. I don’t feel anything just now, but I don’t worry about it. I look down at the road and see my shadow there below, alone. I look up and speak out loud to Dreamer about where I’m intending for us to go. I still don’t feel her hand but when I look down, there’s the vague shape of a woman’s shadow standing next to mine, her hand seemingly extended to where mine would be. Good enough, then. I jump into the air and start flying upward toward the stars. After a few moments something feels wrong and I fall into the void. I keep talking to Dreamer, reminding her and myself of where I’m going to take her in this dream, but I’m still missing that feel of a physical hand. I feel nervous that I’m spending too long in the void without a plan and I’ve forgotten what I’d intended to do in this situation. I bring my hands back together and start rubbing them. It feels like I’m giving up on the summon, and I feel a little frustrated. The hand keeps me in the dream as I fly through the void. It works for a good while, but I’ve lost touch with my plans for the dream now. I hold my hands up in front of my face, staring at them until I can make out their shape and a little bit of the detail. I’m lost, and without me driving the action forward, the dream ends.
This was the fifth of five lucid dreams from last night/this morning. Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #110: The Substitute I'm walking through a mall when I pass my friend "JR". Walking a bit further along, I pass by a yogurt place. Manning the counter is another person who looks almost exactly like JR. I think about how odd this is and after a moment's contemplationg, realize that this is a dream. My prospective memory is fully engaged and I immediately remember that I'm trying to meet up with Art. This time I don't even bother getting to the Alamo. I keep walking through the mall, extending my hand behind me, and say, "[NewArtemis], I know you're already here. Grab my hand when you're ready to go." Immediately, I see a female-looking shadow appear on the floor walking next to my shadow. Soon after that, there's a grip on my hand. Confident that the summon has worked, I turn to look and find myself shaking hands with... ...a complete stranger! She's in her mid-20s, black, short, and very friendly-looking. "Uh, how's it going?" I say. "Hey! I'm [NewArtemis' first name] Campbell!" "Ah, nice to meet you," I say. "I was actually calling up a friend of mine." I pause. "Are you the [NewArtemis] that I know, just with a different look? Are you Art?" "No," she says. "I'm sorry! You must be so disappointed." "Nah, it's all good. You seem cool. You want to hit Angel Falls with me? I can do Task of the Year there." Ms. Campbell agrees and as we approach the mall's exit, I realize that it's kind of weird that I'm still gripping her hand in a handshake (or has it turned into a hand-hold??) I turn to look at her but as I pass my gaze through the sunlight that's pouring in through the nearby glass door, she seems to vanish from the scene. This leaves me a little confused, so I pause for a moment, looking around the nearby area of the mall and wondering what I'll do next. As I'm looking, I see my friend "Fry-guy" loitering near a set of stairs. I go up to talk to him and I'm astonished when he greets me with a British accent. (Fry-guy is from middle America.) He starts speaking exuberantly about a history book that I lent him named Idiots that's all about the litany of crucial mistakes made by various idiots that have set civilization on a bad course. (There's no such book, as far as I know.) After that, I explain to him that I'm having a lucid dreaming, and we have a quick discussion about that next. Strangely, there's some classroom nearby taking a test, and a couple of the pupils keep stage-whispering to us to be quiet. I walk with him away from the class back toward the mall exit, continuing to talk lucid dreaming until the dream ends.