Threecat's Dreamtime

Really need to start my waking life journal again, as the day residue is getting a little ridiculous. Due to my conversation with Sageous concerning the breath in dreams, I incubated this little gem:

I am at a restaurant. My sister is frying me fish in a small pond inside the restaurant. She has the fish pressed into a corner of the pond, and the water around the fish is boiling vigorously, as though it were frying in hot oil. The fish is supposed to be for my throat, which is apparently bothering me in the dream. My wife then explains to me that if I don't want to eat the fish, I can take an entire bottle of liquid medicine, which will have the same effect.

I am now standing in front of a mirror in a bathroom. Have just read the label on the bottle and am now trying to breathe. This is incredibly difficult. I try to breathe but feel like my throat is closing. I am also coughing, which is doing zilch to clear up my throat. My throat continues to close until I can't breathe at all. I then wake up.

Hurray for choking dreams!

This lucid was particularly long, and I was quite caught up in the action, so parts of my memory are foggy--will do the best that I can!

I am in a futuristic society, and am experiencing this dream via observation (I have no body). A traitor is being drawn out of hiding by his friend, a high-ranking politician. They are sitting in a living room, having a chat, when the politician friend pulls a surprise interrogation. The traitor is caught of guard and does not know how to respond. The politician is very friendly, and suggests that even if the friend confesses, he can use his influence to get him out of trouble. It seems that the traitor has been teaching a young kid how to LD, and the dream seems to compare this to watching stars--very innocent with a bit of wonder. They have been having 33 minute long lucid dreams together.

Transition to a fellow walking down the street (may have been LouaiB, though I am not entirely sure about this). It is night, and then neighborhood scene is very peaceful and lovely. Suddenly, this man stops and says, "This is a dream!" He then realizes he has had six lucid dreams that night, and he's very put out about this, as he feels he has "stayed awake most of the night lucid dreaming"

The next moment I am aware, I am in darkness, surrounded by a myriad of loud voices coming from all different directions. "Stop!" I finally shout. "I know this is a dream!" Everyone stops shouting, except for one small voice. Hanging there in space, I decide to focus on this one voice, and use it to help me rebuild the dream from out of darkness. Slowly, listening to the voice, I find myself lying in bed (but still in total blackness). I then begin to feel my body sliding backward, and off the back edge of the bed, as though the whole thing had been tipped upwards. I realize that this is just dream sensation (similar to a WILD) and decide to help the dream by slipping backward off of the bed. I fall through darkness.

As I am falling, Al Bundy's head (from Married with Children) appears in front of me, laughing:

I continue falling, wondering what in the hell incubated this dream and realize I am in some sort of air duct. Looking up, I see some falling object, breaking the laws of gravity as they fall faster than I do: pillows! I get really excited about this, and start punching pillows. I feel my excitement begin to rise, however, and try to calm down a bit so that I don't wake up. I finally end my fall by landing in a huge pile of pillows.

I find that by directing my awareness to the pillows, I can make them explode into clouds of feathers. I do this several times, before trying to channel energy into a pillow for the same effect. This doesn't work (although the pillow does heat up) in part, I think, because I am thinking too much about it. I don't care enough to keep trying though, and toss the pillow away.

I exit the pillow room through a metal hallway. Off to the right is a small room, with my dream guide (!) sleeping in a chair. His feet are up and he has a snooze bubble expanding and contracting from his nostril. While this may have been a false memory (as I have no memories of ever having met a dream guide), I think it was actually part of the dream that I had forgotten from earlier. I decide not to wake him up, as we had already had some kind of interaction earlier in the dream.

I walk up three short steps, and enter into a large make-up room (with mirrors like you would see in an actress's make-up room). There are mirrors all around, but this make-up room has no walls, and it is not possible to explain what is around the make-up room--it is just nothing at all. I see a woman on the other side of one these big mirrors and tables, and decide to see if she is good looking. As I move to get a better look, I realize it is my sister I say hi to her, and she replies, "Good, you're up."

"Nope," I say, moving past her, "Still dreaming." I make a note that the dream is trying to send me false awakenings. I manage to see my own reflection in the mirror: I am wearing a grody white nightgown, my hair looks unwashed, and my eyes are bloodshot. Basically look like I've fallen off the wagon.

I exit this area into a smaller living room, where I see some people from waking life that I know. They are all prepared to go to a wedding, and are dressed very nicely. At this point, I receive a false memory about needing to be awake for a wedding, but I am not fooled. Two of the people are an old crush and her husband. I take this opportunity to tell old crush how beautiful she looks. The husband tries to shake my hand, but he is super tall in dream, which pulls my arm way up into the air. I pull his arm down and shrink him a bit I then pat the third person, a kid playing with a dog, on the back. The kid tells me to wait until he is done petting the dog. The dog is groaning and basically enjoying being pet. As I am watching the dog, the dream begins to destabilize. I stop for a moment to feel whether or not this is real instability, or made up instability, but it is real and I wake up.

All in all, I slept an entire sleep cycle, and estimate I was lucid for approximately 25-30 minutes. Probably one of the most novel adventures ever, especially falling through the air duct. I am constantly amazed at the creative power of the dreaming mind.

Woke up around 6:00 AM, DJed a bit and then MILDed for about five minutes. Drifted off to sleep and had this:

7:45 AM: Maybe a FA? My wife tells me to not worry about having an LD: "It will happen soon." I am in some broken down, burned up city scape (day residue from watching clips of The Matrix yesterday) fighting colossal enemies that grow out of the ground. I am using one of the pole blasters from the movie Stargate. In the dream, the weapon is given to me by a hermanubis:



I blast one of the creatures a few times, then point the pole at some lit up squares above me on a burned out building. This activates an elevator. I plan to use the elevator to travel underground and attack the enemy's legs. At some point during this bit, I become aware that I am either dreaming or watching someone else's dream (??? C/R exactly).

I am running down some hallways. I see an odd-shaped item behind glass used for fires. I cannot tell if it is a fire extinguisher or an oxygen mask. I remove it and spray some gas out. I inhale some of this. It smells quite odd but seems safe enough. Not sure what happens after this.

After awaking from this, and feeling a bit worn out of trying to MILD, I decide to give myself a friendly auto-suggestion (as I have done in the past) and then practice SSILD. I practice SSILD for a little while. During this time, my wife wakes up and gets ready for work, the construction men are walking all over the roof doing who knows what, and I am just lying there.

Things seem to calm down though. My wife stops in to say goodbye, and I decide to roll over and sleep. As I roll over though, I decide to give SSILD one last shot. I do the visuals, then the auditory senses, and then come to my body. Here though I decide to just rest (instead of repeating the cycle). I suddenly feel the onset of REM--sort of like rushing sensation, but also a bit like a heaviness. I feel my body starting to slump over. "No, body--do not fall over!" I think--I don't want this to mess up the WILD! But of course, it isn't my waking body, but my dream body, and I begin to feel myself rolling outward in a semi-circle. At this point I realizewhat is going on--we're WILDing!

When I cease rolling, I have landed in some beautiful master bedroom--not my own!--and slowly get to my feet. I wait for a few moments, in case the dream is not set yet. I then carefully nose pinch. I a little air blockage but not a big deal because I am already sure I am dreaming. I immediately remember my 3-step task and begin to complete the fourth step. However, as I usually use my pocketses to summon items, imagine my dismay when I realize I am in my underwear! I still attempt to summon my phone from my underwear. I reach in, and pull my hand out real fast, saying "phone: be there!" I momentarily see the black outline of the phone in my palm, but then it disappears. I try this a few more times. I finally decide to do some other stuff, since Sensei said the goals for fourth step do not need to be completed in order. Before leaving the master bedroom, however, I decide to take off my underwear (?) as I feel they are useless to me

I place my hand on the wall of the bedroom, phase it through, and then phase through the entire wall. I then think of what else I wanted to do. I decide to look for StephL. This house is very nice--lots of wood and glass and sculpture and art around, and the floor is marble--and I feel odd shouting. I decide to contact StephL telepathically:

StephL, I think. StephL! I try a trick. Ah yes, I think, I remember now--I look around a bit and see a cabinet--StephL was definitely in that cabinet! I run over to the cabinet, but as I approach it becomes smaller--too small for anyone to fit inside. I realize it is unlikely she will be in here, but I open the tiny door anyway--empty!

I continue my rounds. I suddenly feel something bump inside my pocket (wait--pockets! WTF! I thought I was commando! ). Hey, I think--I bet that is my totem! I reach into my pocket and BAM! pull out my f***** totem. Fourth task complete. I am quite pleased as I know I have managed to get some points now. I pass a life-size version of my totem resting on the ground, and squat down in front of it. I feel it in both hands, still quite pleased with myself. I then continue my search.

I enter another master bedroom. On a very large bed--probably king sized--my wife is sitting, nude, wrapped up in sheets. She is smiling at me. I begin to walk over to her, but then remember I am on a quest. Sorry sweetheart! I turn and walk out of some glass doors into a screened-in pool area. Coming up out of the water is a beautiful, porcelain-skinned girl with long, blonde hair. She looks at me but doesn't seem ready to talk.

"Are you StephL?" I ask.

"No," she says. "My name is Katerina : some Russian patronymic that I don't entirely catch. She is treading water, and her mouth goes under the surface while she is talking, so I miss that bit.

"Can I swim too?" I ask. So much for my quest.

"Yes," she says, "But I am getting out."

I jump into the water, come up and then swim over to her. My fingers somehow get tangled in her hair. I pull them away gently, as I do not want to pull her hair. She lets me touch her. She is wearing a full-body, dark teal wet suit. She then says something demeaning to me, or kicks off of me, or something. This gets me kind of riled up

"I like girls who are a little mean to me," I say.

She is now climbing out of the pool, but she lingers a minute. "You're lucky I like retards," she says.

I laugh. "What?"

"Yeah," she says, "Retards--boys I can be mean to."

We are now sitting on a ledge, still in the water. I move in close and slide my hands along her waist. She feels nice. I suddenly remember the contest. What was I supposed to be doing? I slide back a bit, because I have thought of a good final task.

"Do you mind if I try something?" I ask. She shrugs. I quickly and forcefully push my hands out at her, with the intention of using TK to knock her backward into the water. Nothing happens. I try a few more times, and remember how CanisLucidus knocked over a speedboat rather effortlessly. I try doing the motion lazily, not caring. The girl looks bored. Oh well.

I move in close again.

And I think that is enough, Dreamviews.

I will say that the dream ended with me feeling like things were destabilizing; I focused a bit on my senses and managed to hold it together a few more moments before I woke up.

Lucid
DV Member
FA

5:17 AM: I am making a t-shirt for my club. I want it to feature quotes from Metallica, and I feel our members will like this. I show some designs: it is a chessboard with the words RED and BLACK stenciled on first row of squares. Writing is in red and black, lol. I know I will have to pay for this, especially to use Metallica's words and music, as they are so serious about being reimbursed (Napster!). A club member discusses the pros and cons of the project. In particular, he discusses how many people we are trying to reach are not being so due to poor storytelling skills on Sensei's part. Sensei favors good vs. evil conflicts, with good always prevailing. My club member (a WL friend) gives an example here discussing the merits of a literary work, in particular, a work in which Tannhauser (in this work, evil) has his "flesh tanned" at a Christmas dinner (some kind of medieval punishment). He then becomes a good guy and wins "the curried Christmas turkey breast" in some sort of competition (a joust, maybe) and defeats someone evil in single combat (swords). The idea is that Sensei's rigid preference for good over evil is excluding people from the club. Due to Sensei's popularity, this literary work is not nearly as damning as the club member hoped it would be. It is also expressed to me that I should use different Metallica material as this is the last time I will be combining Metallica and club slogans, for some reason (I've chosen stuff from Kill Them All but now consider whether it would be better to use Garage Inc. or And Justice for All. Multiple WL friends appear in this dream.

7:11 AM: My father and I have a heart-to-heart (day residue). He is writing a blog about President George W. Bush leaving office; president is spelled "presdent"-- I sigh at my father's poor spelling! He calls my mother and begins talking on the phone. He is trying to explain about new cellphones, but uses a lot of technical jargon to sound smart. She says, "Speak English, man!" He then suggests taking a Vicodin to "calm herself." I shake my head. He sees this and asks what is wrong. I tell him he is being really rude. He hangs up on my mom; he does not think he has been rude. I put it to him this way: "If someone told you to take drugs every time you got annoyed, you'd be pissed." He still is not getting it. "Dad, I need to say this," I say, and make it clear I don't want to be interrupted. I then have a personal conversation with my dad that I would rather not relate on the Internet!

1st fragment: I am riding my bike at my workplace. My boss is discussing new for the fiscal year with a bunch of suits outside in our courtyard. I am riding around them on my bike, not a care in the world. I am surprised at how light I feel, and jump the front tire over concrete steps and bumps. I notice that I am not riding my wife's bike, and am surprised--the tires are different. I also realize I have no helmet on and decide to be extra careful while riding. I almost fall from the bike from riding down too steep an incline, but manage to catch myself very lightly. Again, I think this amazing, but don't make the connection

2nd fragment: I am with my wife. She is hiding folded up dollar bills (day residue) in the little door of the car gas tank, for if we ever need money for gas. I begin to tell my sister where the money is, then decide not to.

FA: I feel I have woken from all of these dreams. My wife awakes, excited. "Did that really just happen!? Did I really dream that!?!?" she asks. "Tell me that was real!" She is crying happily as she gets her DJ out. I assume she has had some poignant experience and I say nothing, so that she will not be distracted and forget. She then gets up and uses the RR. I am worried she will forget her dream before writing it down; I don't want her to lose her dream and be sad.

(WBTB and WILD attempt--7:30ish)

8:29 AM: I am riding in the car with my mom on the interstate. I suddenly become cognizant that I am dreaming. I nose pinch to confirm. "Isn't it funny," I ask her, "that none of this is real?" I then nose pinch again (just to be sure--leaping from a speeding vehicle is almost never a good idea) and then open the door. The pavement and road shoulder are moving incredibly fast. I just step out, and the world slows down around me; I land safely on my feet. I manage to fly around a little bit! I get up in the air, and say "Look, I am higher! I'm higher!" Each time I say this I am lifted higher into the sky, or rather, the ground drops farther and farther away. It comes into my mind that I am tricking the dream (doh!) and the ground resumes its normal position. I am messing around with flying some more when I remember my 3-step task. I reach into my pocket and summon my cellphone; it is there. I open the lock screen and read some texts; some stuff from my dad, but all gibberish. I toss the phone away. I approach the wall of a building and phase my hand through; it passes through like a ghost, which has never happened before. I am already phasing my body through the wall, and the normal feeling of passing through jello or plasma or whatever returns

Inside is an odd shaped room--sort of bottle-necked with a square body and long-necked hallways. I can't remember exactly what occurred in this room, but I know I did not encounter any DCs or eat anything . . . lol. I see a mirror and wonder if phasing through a mirror is a task (old TotM, I believe--heard about it from podcasts). I phase through (a first for me, actually) but C/R what was on the other side. I suddenly realize I've been running about for a bit and have not seen any DCs--I forgot about my mom at this point. I leave this building and decide to summon a WL friend. "Jane (not her real name) be around this corner!" I say. I run around the brick side of the building, onto a cement patio with a picnic table. Sitting on the picnic table is my friend. She appears for a moment, and then changes into an old crush from high school. She looks really good and I almost lose it, lol. Her DC is stable, and looks exactly as she does in WL, except for dream glamour that always makes distracting DCs incredibly beautiful. We have a conversation.

"Hey (insert my WL name, lol,) it's really great to see you! you look good!" she says. She is wearing short shorts and her feet and legs are sandy, as though she's been walking at the beach. "You look good, too," I say, though I am cognizant that she is not real. She notices me oggling her and offers to have sex with me (which started out as one of my NL goals in several lucid dreams). I begin to comply, but then back away. I say, "I've been trying really hard not to get distracted during dreams, so I think I won't this time." She smiles and gives me a thumbs up. "Good job," she says, and then begins talking about her life and stuff. Admittedly I lose interest at this point and begin thinking about the tasks. I realize I should listen attentively (dream yoga and all) but then think, "I don't have time for this." I interrupt her: "What are some good lucid tasks for me to accomplish?" She sits for a moment and thinks. "How about flying?" she asks. I groan. "I'm terrible at flying." I look at her. "Do you know how?" She smiles and nods. "Show me, please!" I say. She holds out her hand and I take it and we walk out to an open area. I am very excited: I am finally going to get to advanced flying, and my crush from high school is going to teach me. Sweet! She looks up into the sky and then jumps. Nothing happens. She tries a couple more times and shrugs. I leave, annoyed, and decide to find someone who does know how to fly in this damn dream.

I run about the dream landscape, doing lots of high jumping (onto the backs of cars, up onto buildings and such). I find a hotel that seems to have people in it. I enter; it is packed with DCs. I look around at all of them: who would know how to fly? I ask one. She gives me a weird look and says she does not know how. I see a headless woman carrying a tray of something; surely a headless DC would know how to fly? I approach and ask, and she replies, "Um, I don't think I want to buy any," as though I am a salesperson. I ask a man and he looks disgustedly at me and says, "Oh, a dream question." I finally look around and shout, "Quiet!" Everyone stops talking and looks at me. There is still music and laughter coming from the ball room. "Tell them to be quiet in there too," I say (C/R if they shut up or not, lol). I say, "Who in here knows how to fly?" The DCs look around at each other. Finally a girl my age raises her hand and says, "I do." She asks me if this is the only way "Santa will bring me wings for Christmas" (A DV reference). She agrees to show me, and then proceeds to waste a lot of dream time screwing around, looking out of windows, rummaging through stuff. I keep asking her to hurry, because the dream will end soon, and she tells me to be patient or something. At some point, I begin to feel odd tactile sensations--someone brushing my hair, and tickling my body. I am not sure if these are random dream sensations or my wife trying to wake me up IRL. I move away from the area I am standing in and the sensations fade. I realize the dream will end soon and I quickly try to scan back through the events, in order to remember the dream better. As I am doing this I wake up. I think to DEILD, but then realize I will forget this dream (In all, this LD lasted about 45 minutes!)

3rd fragment: I am trying to open a car door. The handle snaps off in my hand. I flip it around and put it back on backwards; the handle works fine even though it isn't installed properly. I realize this is odd and wake up.

4th fragment: I have a somewhat lengthy dream, but am under the impression that I am merely deep in thought. In the dream, I am teaching a class on lucid dreaming. My students and I are back in the previous LD environment, with one of my WL friends leading the pack, lol, explaining what she wants to see in a dream. I look out of a window and tease them by saying, "I think I see a rat catcher!" We are walking through a beautiful wood-floor home, with many staircases and sunlit hallways. My high school crush passes again, and we meet eyes. She pats my stomach as she passes. I am suddenly aware that I am actually dreaming, and not merely deep in thought imagining myself to be dreaming, but I run out of REM time and wake up.

4 fragments: 2
3 dreams: 3
1 LD: 5

WBTB (sako!): 2
WILD (unsuccessful): 1

Basic
RC/stabilize: 1
Interact with dream character: 2
flying: 4
basic summoning: 4
Gain invulnerability: 4
Hand through object: 4
Use electronic device: 4

Advanced
Phase through object: 8

Three-step task
Summon phone, hand through object, walk through wall: 30

I am getting 73 total points. Let me know if this is not correct!

Red: DV members
Blue: Lucid

2:10 AM: Fragment. In an enchanted garden at night. All of the creatures here (mainly butterflies) are constructs, and are designed to "find out" thing about people (listening at the proper moment, or asking particular questions). This has something to do with sleep and dreaming but C/R (can't remember).

5:43 AM: (FA) I attempt WILD, which initiates missed FA. gab sees me trying to WILD and decides to help. She explains her method of WILDing: she visualizes Naruto in meditative posture (yeah right) before a big battle. She says the moment Naruto gets into meditative posture, he begins telling her he is ready to WILD. "I can see people fighting," he says. "The closest fight is the best one!" and "I'm ready right now," and "I'm still ready" and finally, if gab misses these cues, "I've woken up!" I marvel at how easy it is for gab to WILD!

The dream transitions to a false WBTB (lol) where I am ordering pizza with Sensei and a coworker. I have to walk down a long dirt road to get to my room, but am excited about having pizza. I explain to my coworker and Sensei that I will probably not have any soda because I need to return to bed for the competition. I also look at myself in the mirror at some point. Nothing weird; I just look tired. I contemplate taking Galantamine, then remember that it was hard to fall back asleep after a lucid dream. I reassure myself by remembering that we've just purchased some blackout curtains and I can sleep as late as I need to. I then take the Galantamine (?) but cannot remember a moment later if I took it or not. I ask my coworker if I took it. He says he thinks so. I tell him this is important, and is he sure? He assures me he is certain, and says, "You took something from that bottle." I am satisfied. I ask him if he wants one and he declines, saying he has heard it is ineffective. I assure him it has worked for me in the past, though he chalks this up to my "good recall." He admits his recall is very bad. I say mine has not been so great either lately.

(WBTB, WILD attempt 2)

7:24 AM: Meeting a Tibetan medicine student in a grocery store. We have an argument about how best to induce lucid dreams. He is trying to sell me some junk medicine. He then says that "half of the mind is dark" when travelling in different countries, which is why I am not remembering dreams. I tell him this is ridiculous and that the mind is never "dark." He becomes angry and says he cannot teach me anything. I try to calm him down. "Can't we have a discussion?" I ask. "Is homeopathy always right?"

"Yes," he says. He storms off. He then returns and says he is going to inform my "carlo" (no idea what that is) and my lama as to my rudeness. He also says he is going to find "all of the people that love me" and inform them too. I begin to get angry now to the point of violence. I implore him not to contact my friends and family, and get involved in my affairs. I also explain to him that our relationship is business, so do not make it personal. "Tell me you are understanding reality right now," I say.

A child I know wants to get past me to the drink cooler. I move out of the way. I am conscious now of making a scene, and decide to walk away. I head over to the freezer section, thinking I will preemptively call my lama and inform him of some lunatic who will be calling soon. I doubt he'll be mad at all. I meet a little old lady in the freezer section, and she asks for help finding the "orange juice with sugar." I begin digging through the freezer trying to find it. She tells me she completed "three years" of something "in three days." I politely ask how this is possible, because I feel she may have dementia. She explains how her personal business fell apart due to internal conflict. Dream (mercifully) ends.

8:58 AM: At a lake with a high school friend. He sees me and asks me to come over. I do. He then ignores me to talk to someone else (rather typical of him, I'm afraid). He sees an overweight girl walk past. Apparently she looks at him, because he says to the other guy, "Do you see this girl looking at me?" They then make fun of her. The other guy says, "Tell her to go inside, turn on the AC, and press the button that says 'food.'" They laugh then. I am disgusted, because they chose to make fun of her because maybe she found my friend attractive for a moment. I wonder why I am sitting her being ignored and then it hits me: Oh yes. This is a dream. I nose pinch to RC. I am about to set off to take care of my tasks, but I cannot pass up this opportunity.

I truly look at my friend for the first time, and his eyes bug out and seems a bit cartoony. I look away and he stabilizes into himself. He tells me we are going somewhere else now. While he is talking, I am listening, and start to lose lucidity. I mentally repeat, "This is a dream" to stabilize. Lucidity returns. I tell him I'm not going. He asks why not. I say, "Because you're supposed to be my friend, but being around you is neither friendly nor fun." I then walk away. He tries to follow me, but I start running (quite elated actually) and jump high over a 9ft fence or so and easily land on the other side. Escaped!

I then set to the tasks. I attempt the basic flying task. I leap into the air, high again, and yank branches down off of a pine tree. I swim my arms a bit, but don't see any real flying. For some reason, in dream, I become convinced that I have satisfied the basic flying task, but C/R when I wake up. Oh well.

I then attempt advanced flying. I peer up at the sky. It is very far away, blue, with white clouds. It seems impossible. I tell myself, "This is just your mind. You can fly right up into those clouds." I remember StephL saying that advanced flying seemed kind of scary, and I empathize with that thought. I jump into the air, staring straight up, and fall right back down. I try a couple more times. Nope. I decide to do the basic dream control task and set off.

I run down to my school building where I went to school as a child, and see a bolt in the wall (at this point I attempt advanced flying again, but still no success). I begin to shape the bolt with my hands, expanding it, and willing it to change into something else. It transforms into a combination lock. The lock looks more like a paperweight than a real lock, but it certainly is no longer a bolt. I am satisfied. I turn to find something else to mess around with and the dream ends.

So I tallied my points and it's actually 18.5:

2 NLD: 2
1 frag: 1/2
1 lucid: 5

RC/Stabilize: 1
Interact w/ DC: 2
Basic Object changing: 4

WBTB: 2
WILD: 1

If anyone has any advice on flying and advanced flying, I would love to learn. It's one of the things I want to do more than anything, and one of the things I have been least successful at in the past. Sometimes I am OK at basic flying, but most often it has been challenging. I am much more adept at manipulating the environment.