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Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Once again, it's been far too long since I last put an entry in here. I'll try to start updating more frequently again, but...no promises

I seem to have developed a weird mental block about lucid dreams. You may remember my post about how we can become unsuccessful with lucid dreams simply because we subconsciously believe them to be difficult. Since this realization, my amount of naturally-occurring lucid dreams has sky-rocketed to nearly 100% of all recent lucid dreams...but I haven't had as many lucid dreams what with not putting a lot of work into a particular method, so that percentage is really not so impressive as it may initially seem.

The problem is, I'll find myself thinking with two minds in a dream. There's my 'dream mind' which is caught up with the bizarre events of the dream story, and there's my subconscious mind that clearly realizes I'm dreaming, but due to being asleep, illogically thinks: "Oh, I'm dreaming! Too bad this isn't a lucid dream..." often resulting in a dream where I have all the powers of lucidity and I understand that I cannot be hurt and things like that, but without really ever understanding why.

It's starting to become quite annoying. If I could get myself to make the right conclusion at the moment I realize I'm non-lucid dreaming, I seriously could have multiple LDs every night without putting any more effort into it than simply reminding myself about it before I go to sleep!

Anyway, I guess fixing that starts with maintaining good dream recall, so here's what I remember of last night's dream:

I was in some party house, and I was preparing (you guessed it) a party. The interior of the place resembled my real house in layout, but everything about the rooms was vastly different. All the walls and many ceilings and floors were painted black, with brightly-colored symbols and images painted on top in random places. Under a black light, they looked quite cool.

At first, everything was going smoothly. I got disco balls and club lights mounted, music started playing, food and drinks set out...and then at one moment, I slipped on a ladder and caught the palm of my right hand on a sharp point as I fell.

When I looked at the damage, my entire palm had been split, and now my thumb and a large piece of skin from my hand were dangling loose, nearly to fall off at any moment. With my other hand, I tried to pull everything back together, but multiple attempts proved unsuccessful for one reason or another. My first try, I managed to get the skin lined up correctly, but I hadn't fit my thumb bones back into their place properly, so my actual thumb was hollow and the bones for it were being pinned down beneath the skin of my palm.

I tried pulling the skin back then, which hurt like crazy, but I knew it had to be done, else I'd be without a functioning thumb. I slid the bones and muscles back inside the hollow skin of the thumb and then tried replacing the skin. For some reason I had difficulty lining it back up this time, and so it pulled too far, squishing my entire hand together into a shape much thinner than it should be.

Finally, one of my friends arrived and saw the trouble. The solution we ended up with was that I would get the skin into place, and then hold it there while my friend wrapped tape around it to hold things together long enough for me to see a doctor. It seemed to work.

"It's too bad this dream isn't a lucid dream." I said to myself.

The party went on, but the pain in my hand increased, and eventually the tape wouldn't hold any more, giving me the same issue as before with my thumb potentially falling off. At one point, the pain grew so intense that I collapsed on the ground. That sure didn't help anything! I landed wrong, which made the bones and muscles in my thumb rip right through the skin, making things worse than ever before. I rolled over, writhing in pain, and grabbed my hand, now awake IRL.

Strangely enough, it did hurt around my palm and thumb. Not sure why. But of course it wasn't cut open and about to fall off

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Woke up at about 6:00 this morning and realized I hadn't had any lucid dreams yet. Since it was early, I still had time for another REM cycle, and I wasn't about to lose that chance, so I rolled over and decided to WILD.

Instead, I just passed out, but it ended up working out ok.

First thing I know, I'm standing on the rail of my backyard deck, looking down at the ground below. I knew I was in a dream already, so I just jumped and tried to fly off. As I flew, I also did a couple other things to improve the dream experience. First, I pinched my nose and tried to breath in so that there would be no doubt as to my state and I wouldn't lose lucididty. Then, I shouted: "Time: SLOW DOWN!" So that even if I only slept for 5 real minutes, it would feel like hours to me (just a little idea I spontaneously thought up, and it's not a bad one, if I may say so myself).

For some reason, though, in the middle of flight, I also teleported unintentionally. So as I was landing from flying, I saw the place I had flown to. But the moment I hit the ground, I was inside a building with a huge ceiling made entirely of glass. The walls and floor were of metal and not glass, but they still had a high reflectivity level, and everything looked very clean.

To my left was a teacher who was standing and giving a lecture, pacing back and forth and being very emphatic. To my right were two rows of students, obviously college-age. It didn't take long to figure out that this was a specialty class, what with the nice building, distinguished-looking teacher, and the fact that there weren't many students compared to the huge room.

Still, knowing it was a dream, I held no respect for the situation, and I walked right in front of the teacher and looked over the students to see if there was anyone there that I recognized. Eventually one girl I know IRL (whom I shall refer to as Jane Doe) waved and said 'hi'.(This was also the girl I flew around in my first real WILD, and that has appeared in my dreams a couple times since then) I figured she'd be perfect to go around with again, so I walked over to her, literally threw aside the school materials, and asked her to come with me. I was half surprised that she didn't object due to being in school. Of course...the teacher hadn't skipped a beat in his droning lecture since I came in, so apparently it wasn't that hard for people there to ignore certain things.

I led Jane to a big window at the back of the room.

"You want to see something fun?" I asked.

"Sure!" came the reply.

So in one motion, I jumped, picked her up, and smashed through the window (not that the window needed to break; I could have just phased through it, but c'mon, what's more dramatic? Phasing, or seeing a million particles of glass fly everywhere?) We then fell down for several stories, picking up speed the whole time. Then, at the last moment, I slowed down my descent just enough so that I could comfortably land without it feeling like I'd actually altered our fall.

I turned to Jane, whom I was still holding. She didn't look impressed.

"What? I just jumped out of a building and fell for like 500 feet, and you didn't find that fun?"

"It was fun...I suppose. But that kind of scared me! I don't usually jump out of buildings for fun and expect it to work out ok."

"If you were lucid dreaming you'd probably appreciate it more, I suppose." I muttered under my breath. Then, speaking up, "Well, how about this, then?"

I jumped up and started to fly again, then looked over at Jane. She was smiling this time; it just wasn't the same since we have gone flying so many times now. When I looked back in front of me, I realized we had teleported again. Now we were back to the place I had landed at prior to the first unintentional teleport. By now, the sun was setting and there was some sort of party going on. One of my co-workers was there, and she approached me.

"You realize you're going to be in this dream for four years." She said.

"What?"

"Since you slowed the time down...it will feel like four years."

"Oh. Ok. That's fine with me."

Really, it was. Things were going well. I wouldn't have minded four years of lucidity. But I still didn't believe her. Generally, don't take lucid dreaming tips from a DC. They don't know what they're talking about. I just was trying to get to the table where the food and drinks were, and not get stopped any more along the way.

So I grabbed Jane's hand and led her through the small crowd to one of the tables and picked up a couple glasses of punch. IRL, I hate punch, but who says it has to taste bad in an LD?

It gets a little hazy around here...Jane and I separated from the crowd and I asked her about our relationship...and I don't remember her answer, but she hugged me, so it must not have been too bad.

And next thing I remember, my alarm is going off and I'm waking up.

Stupid alarm clocks. Oh well, I suppose I should be thankful I don't get to work late

Oh, and I really recommend slowing down time every time you lucid dream. It really felt like several hours even though now it seems like only a few minutes

25.02.2009

Jennifer Aniston & Her Husband [Fragments] (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Mom, dad, and I where walking through a park. We were on are way to see Jennifer Aniston and her husband. We didn't make it in time, but mom and dad had some special access or what ever and got us into see them anyway.

Recall ends.

I'm running around in this creepy hunted castle. I'm going through some old air ducts.

Recall ends.

Now I'm right out side in our old car at the gas station. Harry Potter is playing on the TV in side. I'm not sure what happens, but I think the actors come out of the TV!

Yet again, I can't remember anymore.

I'm standing out side not too far from the gate at the end of our driveway. My brother hops in dads van that's facing the road, he drives it over to the far right corner of the fence but he can't stop, so he drives it through the fence and busts it open. Finally he gets it to stop. Then when I and mom are not looking he gets on the lawn mower. He drives it down to the same spot in the fence he broke but randomly turns it around and comes back towards me! I jump out of the way and fly back over and grab him. Since his weight is no longer on the seat anymore the lawn mower shuts off.

Recall ends.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I didn't really plan on WILDing last night, but I woke up shortly before 5:00 and just rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

I didn't move a whole lot, so it wasn't long before I started to feel the loss of sensation in my hands (these always go first, for me). Since I'd gotten that far, I thought "Well, why not see if I can make it?" So I just focused on keeping my mind conscious enough to WILD and letting everything else fall asleep.

Strangely, I didn't have any HI this time. It was even a pretty calm ride as far as vibrations and other weird sensations were concerned. I just noticed after a while that I really couldn't move...it wasn't just a loss of sensation anymore, I really couldn't move. "Here we go, then!"

It was like I sank down out of my body then, but I could still feel both it and the dream body my mind had created. But being in the dream now, it was like a single wave passing across me, starting from my toes and moving up to my head, was erasing those last sensations of my real body so that I was completely in the dream.

I could already open my eyes and look around me at this point, but I waited until the wave had passed before I tried to move anything so I didn't lose the dream. I was still in my bedroom, laying down, but everything was much darker than it should have been, so I knew I hadn't failed the WILD.

Once all the vibrations had ceased and I felt I was securely in the dream, I did a reality check and tested to be dreaming, and then immediately got up and tried to fly out of my house and on to things more exciting.

I had a slight and temporary problem at the outset; I could fly no problem, but as soon as I focused on moving through a wall or the ceiling, I'd lose my flying concentration and so begin to descend. This only lasted a few seconds though, as I quickly figured out to focus on flying through the wall, a singular thing, not flying and phasing through.

And then the last wall to my house was a bit of a bugger, too. Instead of simply letting me pass through it, at first it tried to stretch out and hold me inside, like it was made of elastic.

"Oh, come on, I'm outside already." I said for the sake of convincing my subconscious to let me go.

The wall snapped back through me and into its place then, leaving me hovering outside, looking down on my neighborhood exactly as it looks IRL. I had planned no dream goals for this WILD, so rather than go to any place in particular, I just picked a direction and decided to fly at lightspeed for a little while and just see where I ended up.

I've never flown that fast before. It was awesome. Way better than teleporting, because I actually got to see everything that I flew over, which was really impressive considering all of it was a dream. There were houses, tall buildings, cars, people, birds, trees...I saw it all for what felt like miles of nearly instant travel.

I might have kept on going, but then I heard a call.

"Hey! Down here!"

Couldn't tell who it was from my distance, but I figured I might as well go and check it out. I slowed down, flew low, and finally landed on the ground in a really strange kind of place.

Everything was tropical, and yet, industrial. There was no grass, no roads, just sand. There were many buildings of the style that you see around beaches, and they all had water features that pooled into streams which flowed all throughout the city, using the sand to form intricate pathways of their own. But at the same time, it looked planned out, since several of these little streams went into the base of a big fountain at the center of the place. This fountain's job was apparently to spray the water all the way back up to the top of all the buildings, spewing out a stream in every direction so every building was continually re-using the water.

"This would be a pretty cool place to go on a dream date in..."

After taking all this in for a short while, the person who had stopped me walked up and thanked me for coming. I could see now that it was a woman. That gave me another idea.

"I wonder if I could take over this DC's body and go on a date from the female perspective? That would be interesting..."

So I began to ask the woman some questions, like where the best restaurant was. Once everything was answered and I had a plan, I was just about to make my first attempt at DC possession when something else came to mind.

"Oh, and one last thing. How old are you?" I asked.

"58." Was her reply.

She didn't look nearly that old at first glance, but once I actually thought about it, she certainly didn't look young anymore.

"58! But...that just won't do. Would you mind if I took some of those years away from you?"

She was repulsed by the offer.

"I'd really rather you didn't. In fact, I must be going now. Goodbye."

"Ok...I suppose I'll just look for someone else, then."

Problem was, there weren't a whole lot of people around. I had to just walk around for a minute before I saw anybody, and even then, it was a guy this time. He didn't look to be old, so I approached him.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"32."

"32, not bad at all. Still, would you mind if I took off about 10 years from that number?"

"Go right ahead, those were the best 10 years of my life! I wouldn't mind living them again!"

So I held my hands out towards him and through willpower caused him to grow just a bit younger. There wasn't a whole lot of visual difference, but there was some. Enough to make one guess his age would lie in the early 20's instead of the early 30's.

"Dude, I feel great! Thanks!"

Before I could ask the guy if he knew of any young woman who might be around, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see a VERY old woman standing there in front of me.

"What you just did for that man...would you do that for me?" She asked.

Now, I would have guessed that this woman was in her late 80's, and near death. Her skin was almost colorless. Hair completely white, and thin. Skin wrinkled something awful.

But it was just so crazy I had to give it a shot.

"Alright, I'll do it."

I held out my hands and began the transformation. It must have been a shocking feeling, because the instant change began to happen, the old woman grabbed onto my wrists and held on tightly.

It was a crazy thing to watch. The wrinkles tightened up, her hair grew thick and long as it simultaneously turned to a glossy dark brown, a healthy pink flooded into her pale skin, and many other such things as well.

When I was finally finished, the now-young woman brushed her hair out of her face and smiled brightly at the change. I couldn't believe how amazing she looked. I mean, this girl was a TKO! I wondered if I should simply take her out on a date myself instead of take her over...

I held on to the girl's hand and led her to the guy I had transformed a minute ago, and he immediately began to ask her out. I was just getting ready to take possession, one way or the other, when...

I woke up.

Since I was awake, I didn't try to DEILD for fear that I would fail and then not have recalled the past dream at all. So instead I went back through the dream in my memory until I had it in my mind pretty well and then I rolled over and tried to WILD again.

Once more, it was a pretty easy ride to the dream. All I felt was the inability to move, and then a wave-like transition into the dream body, and then...


Dream 2:

I was standing in a room with a crowd of people, but somehow they all seemed dull in color and liveliness compared to one person right in front of me. He seemed different than the rest of the people around. Not that his actions were spectacular; he simply was taking pictures with a really nice camera. Eventually he noticed me looking at him, but it didn't seem to bother him. He just waved and said 'hi'.

But there was something weird that happened during that short event. From the moment we made eye contact, I heard a faint whisper and saw ghost-like words scroll across my vision, both saying the same thing: "Man of Shred"

"No way, Man of Shred?" I thought. "I've got to find out!"

I tried to run towards him and get his attention, but he had seen someone else and was making his way through the crowd to get to them.

"Hey! Wait! It's LiveInTheDream!"

Yes, I woke up in the middle of that last sentence. And I finished saying it out loud, IRL. It was weird...like I had gotten kicked out of the dream. Usually there's a split-second sensation of "oh crap I'm waking up", but not this time. One moment I was in the dream, the next I was fully awake.

And I felt like I was being watched. Seriously. As in, I wouldn't have been a bit surprised if I had turned around and found someone standing right next to my bed. It was that real a feeling to me.

So now the question is...was that really Man of Shred I saw, or just an imposter of a dream character?

You can be sure I'll look further into this one. MoSh, you've got a PM heading your way...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Hoo boy has it ever been too long since I wrote a dream in here. It's not that I haven't been having good recall, but I've been kind of working on a personal experiment to test out a theory I have as to why I don't lucid dream every night now that I can go lucid without any special method or really any work during the day. You can check it out here. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the theory!

But I'm sure everyone is going to want to hear some results, as well. Actually, I have several nights of lucid dreams that came from all this, but unfortunately I didn't always have time to write them down. I managed to get something from last night down on my computer before leaving for work today, though, so once again I will be creating a new entry in this dream journal!

Last night's lucid dream was a bit unusual in that my own dream goals never came to mind; I never once considered changing my circumstances to form a whole new story. I didn't even turn the story I was in into something supernatural, although I did do things that I wouldn't be able to IRL.

So here's what happened. A bunch of friends and I had gathered together to make a movie to raise money for something. I can't recall the details of the movie or what we were doing it for, but it was a good cause and a big deal to everyone involved. Though everyone had some say in how the production went, this one girl and I quickly rose to the top as directors.

There's a big hole in my memory right after there...I know a lot happened, whole weeks went by (though I didn't see every moment of every day), and we got a lot done.

Then I remember talking to this girl about music. Since we were going to be getting money for the movie, all the music had to be original. She was wondering how we'd make the music anywhere near as good as a standard production's.

“Oh, that's no problem.” I said. “This is just a dream. I can whip out an instrument and just start playing.”

“Really?” She replied, apparently taking no notice of the mention of being in a dream.

To prove it, I waved my hand in the air as if I was picking up a violin, and as soon as I held the imaginary instrument to my neck, a violin materialized. At first I didn't sound that great, but within a couple more tries at playing I was doing Viva la Vida in perfect pitch. (Why that song? Just cuz it's the first thing that came to mind, I guess)

Of course she was most impressed and pleased with it, especially when I told her that I'd never really played a violin before. The rest of that night was mostly spent just playing songs for the girl as she requested them, but I didn't mind.

As production went on, I could sense something happening between her and me. It wasn't that we talked more or hung out more or anything like that...only that when we did all those things, we were much closer than before. We were more open with each other.

Then there came that one fateful night when the group was supposed to meet for more shooting, and I was at home, getting ready to leave. For some reason my mom was there, and she was telling me how foolish I was being for participating in such a project, and said I was ignoring all of life's responsibilities for the sake of that movie. I tried to reason with her at first, but being in a dream, I knew I didn't really have to show respect. So I just walked past her, grabbed the car keys, and...she tried to physically block me from leaving. I just teleported into the car and left. (Don't ask why I didn't just teleport to the meeting spot...I don't know why that didn't come to mind in the first place.)

Since I had hurried to get away, I arrived at the meeting place early, so only a couple other people were there yet. I checked around to make sure all the sets were in place and all the cameras were running, and even listened to a sample of music that I had supposedly done all the instruments to (even though I only ever actually did the violin). I laughed to myself at the obvious dream plot hole, being the only person there who understood how that happened.

Just then, I happened to look through the window and see a bunch of people arriving. I hurried to the door and held it open for the ladies. They all thanked me and then moved on...well, almost all of them.

This particular girl that I had grown fond of walked in the door last, thanked me for holding it, then just looked at me for a few seconds. The impulse to look away came, but I ignored it. Then she just winked and began to walk off. But I knew what that meant. We'd come a long ways.

I walked after the girl and grabbed her by the hand. She turned around, but now looked nervous. I put my other hand in hers, and we stood there, just holding hands. Then I started trying to move closer, but she took a step back each time I took a step forward.

“Are you sure you want this?” She asked, suddenly fumbling with words and stuttering left and right.

“I'm sure." I replied calmly. "Don't you?”

“Well, yes, but...but how do we know this is the...the right thing? For us?”

“I think we both know the answer to that one.”

She took a look behind her, but continued to step back. She was running out of room.

“I just...I don't know...I don't want to worry...”

Then she stepped up against a wall, and could back up no further.

“Oh...I...uh...” she continued.

“Don't worry. Everything's alright.”

I slowly reached up and caressed her cheek, which seemed to ignite something inside her. She jumped up and flung her arms around my neck, holding on so tightly that I was the only thing holding her up off the ground.

My memory fades after that...maybe that's when my alarm went off; I can't remember exactly.

Anyway, not the best example of a lucid dream, but it does offer some proof to my theory that the only reason I don't lucid dream every night is because I've presently trained myself to think that lucid dreaming is something difficult to achieve. The past few nights I've been focusing on consciously unlearning that, and as you can see, it has indeed worked. With time, I'm sure I'll come to better control things and become a full-fledged natural LDer

Wish me luck!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Again, work is why I haven't written in a while. So far I simply haven't figured out a way to maintain good recall on nights before work...or keep my mind from thinking about the day ahead and thus killing my remembrance to RC in dreams.

But today is a day off of work, so it was a day on for lucid dreaming!

And guess what? This time, it was another WILD.

I first woke up and I was on the floor. RC'd to be awake. Not sure how I got to be on the floor, but WILDing was on my mind, so I didn't stop to think about it. See, I had this little memory from a past dream. Someone had just told me "just relax and let your mind drift" for explaining how to WILD. So that's what I did. I didn't move somewhere else first, I just lay down where I was and stopped consciously forming thought processes.

Within moments, I saw light flashes, then images. Memories. Flashing by like lightning. Then there was this huge tingling sensation that overtook me. It was so powerful it almost hurt! And then...sounds, tons of different sounds all mixing together. Voices, mostly. I felt myself being pulled out of my body and into my dream body. Unintentionally, I rolled out of my physical self into my dream self. My eyes were still shut, though. But since I knew I was in a dream, I tried to open my dream eyes.

Instead, I opened my real eyes. I tried to just let my mind drift and relax and re-enter the dream, but nothing happened. So I stood up, shook my head a bit to wake me up enough to get fully out of the dream state, and then went back down to the floor and tried to force my mind into a dream, all within a few second. It worked. Lights, memory flashes, voices, and then the sensation of a second body all came back. My vision came to me, but I was still in my room, laying on the floor. This time I stood up in the second body, and I could see my real body laying on the floor.

It was a remarkable feeling, that transition from body to body. The dream body felt colder, yet not in an unpleasant way. Certainly not like the cold of a dead body. On the contrary, it was a vibrant chill that felt far more alive than what I feel during waking life. And since there's no dust or dirt whatsoever in dreams, the dream body felt clean in a way that's impossible to achieve IRL.

But anyway, there I was, in the dream. I was still in my room, looking down at the body I'd just left, and so I did an RC, and I could breath through my pinched nose easily. I trusted the RC to be true, but I couldn't believe how real everything around me was. It made me think about my last really good WILD, and once again I appreciated just how much more realistic WILDs are than other lucid dreams. There was simply nothing around me save reality checks that didn't feel and look 100% real. I walked down the hallway to look out the window. For some reason, walking in the dream body was a little awkward at first, but I got it figured out pretty quick. And when I looked out the window, I saw tons of snow, further confirming it to be a dream, although it was nonetheless real-looking. I tried teleporting short distances across the rooom then for the sake of practice, but strangely, I couldn't.

Of course, I didn't want to spend the whole dream in my house, so I went to the bathroom and flipped the light switch. Nothing happened.

"Oh, come on, I don't have this problem." I said to myself. "That's what other lucid dreamers complain about, but I've never had trouble with a light switch before."

I flipped the switch again. Still, nothing happened.

"Look, I know what this place should look like with light on, now just TURN ON!"

I flipped the switch one more time, and the lights came on...even though the switch was in the 'off' position.

"Well, that works."

Then I went inside and shut the door. There were people around the house that had tried to talk to me already, and I wanted them to leave me alone. You never know how DC's are going to react to teleporting somewhere, which is what I had in mind.

Except, now that I thought about it...there was something I had meant to do in my lucid dream, someplace I had meant to be, and I knew it, but I couldn't remember where!

When I gave up trying to remember the place, I decided to just go wherever I could go. It didn't matter to me where, since I couldn't remember any of my goals anyway. For the sake of doing things differently, I stepped into the shower and stood right on the drain. Then I imagined myself being sucked down in, and within moments, that's precisely what happened! My body swirled around, getting smaller by the second, then rushed down into the pipe like water.

I slid through pipes for quite some time, but when I finally came out, I was full size already, and so was everything around me. I had fallen from the ceiling into some sort of industrial looking store...kind of like Home Depot or Lowes. Only the stuff they had here was for anything but home improvement. In front of me was a huge display of video games, and there were better things than that around me. Guns, lightsabers, tanks, jeeps with mounted guns, etc.

Speaking of which, right at that moment someone came flying over a display in one such jeep and started trying to shoot me. I could have just stood there and been fine considering the bullets weren't real and I knew it, but my reaction was to teleport to the nearest cover, which I was able to do without trouble this time. Once the gun had stopped firing, I ran out and jumped onto the vehicle before the guy in it could drive away, also accidentally teleporting us both to some lush planet with a cool, color-filled sky and bright light on the ground even though there was no sun. I tried to reach the driver and take him out, but he whipped around a corner so fast that I lost my grip and flew over the side of a cliff as we were driving past it.

Of course I teleported myself again before I hit the ground, and wasn't surprised to have come back to the store. Only this time there was a girl there; one I know IRL. She had a camera, and held it out to me.

"Could you take a picture for me?" She asked.

I nodded and took the camera.

But then I also realized an interesting opportunity. If it is possible to bring things back from dreams into real life, what better thing to do it with than a picture? So I willed the camera to come back with me when I woke up, then snapped the picture.

Yet another intriguing thing happened, then. When I looked at the picture on the camera screen, I realized I had seen the picture before IRL. It was true to the dream, in that she really had posed exactly as the picture showed (while still remaining in life-like motion, I should add...she didn't freeze up like the picture or something), but it was also true to real life, in that even the background matched up with the real picture.

"Either I just time traveled and took this picture and I bring it back with me, or this is one impressively strong memory." I said to myself.

Obviously, I assume the latter.

Unfortunately, the dream began to fade at this point, and since I was holding the camera, my hands were too occupied to be rubbed together in time, and I didn't have time to spin or do anything else to save the dream.

It was like the dream body was somehow on a tether that my real body was pulling on, drawing them back together. I saw blurs, heard wooshing noises, and the feeling of my real body began to take over the vibrant chill of the dream one.

I woke up, and was now in bed. RC'd to be awake. How I got back in bed while WILDing I don't know. And no, neither the camera nor the picture came back with me.

But at least it was a highly lucid dream with a plot that wasn't too shabby. Could have been much better, though. Gotta work on remembering those dream goals!

I originally didn't think that this dream was deserving of it's own separate entry, but I like the use of my terraskating power in it, so I decided to write the whole thing out.

I was swimming in some lake. The whole dream has this sort of grey, foggy atmosphere. I am near the shore, that just seems to be a grassy hill. There is a fallen decayed tree in the water, not too far from where I am, with an elderly woman on it.
The woman explains that she is a "flowerbender". (So I guess it's like the elemental benders in ATLA) and that gives her the power to make flowers grow as well as move fully grown flowers. She makes a number of flowers grow out of a crevasse in the fallen log, and tells me to grab onto them.
I look to my right and see an advancing wave. Well, it's not really a wave so much as it is just a wall of water. This used to be one of my childhood dream signs. To be at a lake or beach, and these sort of waves would advance on me, causing me to have dreams where I would be washed around barely able to keep my head above water.
And, because I'm so familiar with this dream sign, I get lucid. I decide that the lady's advice is obviously crap, so I decide to do my own thing. I get up and start moving my feet like I'm skating, and I begin to run along the surface of the water, easily going fifty miles an hour.
I stay away from the shore, and realize that the lake is actually sort of U shaped. The grassy shore I see is the indent of the U. The rest of the lake is surrounded by a more forest-like biome, though the trees seem to be dead or lacking leaves. I skate around the entire "U" barely clipping the inside bend. Until I get to the other end of the lake. I run onto shore, muddy and devoid of grass, but keep going with the ice-skating motion.
I pass over a road that goes through the woods. 5-10 dream characters are there, and they all watch in amazement as I pass them at 30-50mph. After I cross the road, I am going down a dirt path between a cornfield and the forest. I make a hard right and go down a separate path.
I put my hands down to my side and project my "energy" out of them and begin flying on jets of blue fire. The dream fades and I wake up.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, it's been a while...between work and an otherwise busy schedule, I just haven't had time to write here lately! Not that there was much to tell...but keeping up with any dreams will help recall, so it's a bit of a shame nonetheless.

But today I've got the time, and last night I had a little lucid dream, so here we go again!

I was working in a department of a huge mall. At first everything was normal...just work as usual. I was talking to my manager, when all of a sudden, some guy with a mask ran in and started shooting! Got my manager two or three times. Strange thing was, though, he didn't get me.

See, as soon as that bullet had fired, it was like the dream went into slow-motion. I whirled around and saw the bullet tearing through the air and was able to dodge it without a problem. This clearly upset the killer, because he suddenly forgot about everyone else and just went after me. But I worked my way up closer and closer to him, dodging bullets all the way, and then eventually I let out a punch that threw him half-way across the room!

That was when I realized I was dreaming.

"Oh, why didn't I just use some psionic ability to take him down?" I thought out loud.

With a thought, I brought my manager back to life and then walked out of the store.

"Since this is a dream," I thought, "I should try some moves..."

So I did. Right in the middle of the mall, I started doing handsprings (front and back), aerials, flips, and other fun stuff. In the middle of all this, though, I got interrupted by an older lady who wanted some packages delivered. At first I tried to just make excuses and leave, but she was persistent, and I couldn't see why it would take long to deliver packages in a lucid dream, so eventually I gave in. I flew around the mall and tried to find the people to deliver the packages to, but it was actually harder than I thought to locate them. I caused everyone's names to appear over their heads so I'd know who to find, but I still just couldn't find everyone.

Eventually I did find one person, so I landed and delivered it to her, but then she turned around and told me about something she wanted me to do. I can't remember where exactly my lucidity faded, but every time I delivered a package, there would be another mini-quest thing that I was supposed to do, and eventually the dream was more of an RPG than anything. I still had lucid powers and I retained my moves (both of which I used frequently), but the realization of being in a dream was gone.

I can't remember all that I did...but it ranged from deliveries to rescuing people out of burning buildings to taking down assassins before they could reach their target. Most of it was kind of hazy from this point on, but that burning building experience was very clear. It was difficult to get inside, but eventually I managed to rip away a garbage chute that was coming out of the side of the building and get inside that way. Once in, I could feel the heat building up, the loud rumble of the flames, the boards beneath me rotting away...the entire building nearly collapsed with me inside. It began to fall, tilting the entire place, but I used telekinesis to hold the place up long enough for me to find the little girl I was sent to find and bring her out alive.

Well, it certainly took long enough, but eventually I had all mini-quests cleared and all packages delivered. I walked back to the place I had started at, told my manager what a crazy day I'd had, and soon woke up.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Still no luck with the shared dreaming experiment, but I came close to being lucid last night.

I was in my livingroom, practicing my kicks and the like. All of a sudden, however, I had this impulse to do a backflip, and the knowledge of how to do it right just came to me. So I gave it a shot, and succeeded!

"Woah, I can do backflips!"

I tried again, and succeeded again. Now confident of my jumping ability, I began to think through the Matrix fight between Neo and Morpheus to see what else I should try.

I got a little running start, then jumped, triple-kicked, and then landed with plenty of time to spare.

"I've never been able to get three kicks in before...only two, and that was cutting it close!"

After that I further discovered I could lay on the ground and roll straight backwards, springing off my hands onto my feet, do wallflips with multiple upward steps, and a number of other cool things.

That's the part where I almost went lucid. I should have known to reality check then, but I certainly recognized the situation as not being normal, every day life. It didn't continue, though.

Next thing I know, there's a world-famous runner taking on the most dangerous course ever. I showed up to the race as a competitor, totally unknown by the crowd watching, and the subject of the champion runner's mockery. Even famous people weren't as fast as he was...so he was sure I wouldn't come close to matching his speed. I just smiled and let him bash me with his words, knowing I had a secret he was unaware of.

As soon as the race started, I took off running. Since I was a late entry, I started dead last, but within thirty seconds I had cleared all opponents other than the champ himself. It was just the two of us on the cameras that followed us down the track.

Very soon the paved part of the track ended and we were in a canyon area. Rocks were everywhere...it would have been easy to trip. The champ and I were neck-and-neck, and he decided it was time to lose me, so he began to run to the side to push me into the rock wall. I just took a step up the wall, did a flip, and landed on the other side of the champ, still running at full speed. He was so surprised that he tripped, and I took the lead for a long time.

From here it gets hazy, but there was a lot more to the race. The champ caught up eventually, but not enough to win. The track also involved a lot harder stuff, like chasms that had to be crossed by swinging across bars, rock walls that had to actually be climbed, etc.

Soon after I woke up from that dream, I realized that I had unintentionally entered SP. Before long I was feeling my dream body and making movements with full sensation, but my real body wasn't even twitching. Multiple times I even saw things and interacted with them briefly, but a full dream never formed. I'm quite sure that with time it would have, but it was getting late, and I knew I couldn't afford to sleep through another REM cycle, so I had to wake up.

But at least I now have a better idea of when to try to get into SP! If I could just go to bed a bit earlier so that I get the same amount of sleep earlier in the night and then WILD...maybe that would finally get me another super lucid dream!

★

Plastic house

I remember standing outside my house and talking to someone who was saying that he drove up log roads. He pointed to one nearby. The road looked like a bunch of flattened plastic trees. Me and some other people drove up this road an came upon a house. It was empty, yet it was filled with furniture, TV sets, everything... you name it... everything was in place. I remember seeing a fake guitar made of plastic. I left the others and entered a room. It was super vivid. for some reason I was in a rush to leave the room.

24.02.2009

River Foam & the Cullen Car Trip (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I start out looking at a battle field from a chopper's point of view. I see one side out in an open field, and the other sort of fenced off by hedges. It was like the civil war, it looked like something from the 1920s.

I find my self with the group hidden behind the hedges. And I'm one of the men there. They tell me to go put one of the horses in the stable, so I do. Later on that day after the battle's over, I lost something or forgot something in the stable. I walk over to it with a friend who was helping me fetch the lost object. For some reason we are not aloud to be there at that time of day but we sneak over anyway.

When we got there we had to cross over on this metal grating that let the horse droppings fall through. We walked up to the stable door and I tried to open it. The vertical boards on the door held together by steel bands were loose, so I just slid them up. We walk in and get what ever it was that we needed. Bit just then a few of the horses escaped and ran out onto the grating. We drop the unknown object on the grating though the horses are too wild and mad to approach. So I have get under the grating and start pushing the grating up where the object, (some sort of canister?) and try to roll it to safety.

So there I am laying in a bunch of horse crap trying to save something that I have no clue what it even is or does. And on top of all that my fingers keep sliding through the grating almost getting stepped on by horses.

Shortly after we get found by the guard and they get me out of there and take me down to a river the next day. At the river there's a man with a broom down in the shallow parts of the river. He's sweeping up all of the green foam created by the river water and he's pushing it up to the bank. The man that took me there sends me to the bank where the man with the broom is now. I don't know where the friend/DC I was with is any more. The man hands me a broom and tells me to go get the foam from the deeper parts of the river.

He tells me to do it slowly so that I don't pop all of the bubbles in it. I walk out there and start to sweep it up, getting deeper into the water as I go. Then as I'm taking another step back the current gets me and starts to wash me away. I save my self by grabbing a tree branch in the water but my head is still under. I was about to let go because it was pulling so hard. This is the clearest part of my dream, I managed to pull my self to shore.

Though the dream shifts shortly after and now I'm walking down a dirt road (bare foot) with my DC friend. We go to this cabin-like hotel and buy a ticket to stay the night. Then my friend gets mad and tells me that he didn't know that it was "this kind of hotel" and that we just paid for a patch of dirt to sleep on. I don't care and lay down to fall asleep.

Now I fall into another dream. I'm at the Cullen's house and I'm standing out side with Jasper, who is very close to me for some reason. I only say that since he can't get close to humans very easily. We were talking, and I remember asking him how can he be so close to me, but I don't remember his answer.

He walks inside and I'm out front all alone when suddenly James is chasing me. So I run to the right side of the house, and see a little two sided ladder up against the side of the house, I crawl under it and James has me pined. Then Edward comes up behind James in a split second. (It was all going very fast, but was in slow motion for me.) Edward seemed to be waiting for James to make a move - James was still facing me. I watch and see Edward cock his head to the side with an curious look on his face, he's assessing the situation. All of a sudden he comes around and knocks James out of the way! Jasper grabs me and hands me to Esme, then Jasper runs back to help Edward.

Shifting again:

Now I remember getting in a car with Esme. Alice and Jasper get in the back seat, while Edward got in on the drivers side. So I'm sitting on Esme's lap as if I were a small child. Even though we where just in a fight with the late James, everyone was happy and joking and laughing. Soon I got tired and fell asleep in her arms.

Dream ends.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I might have just discovered a great gem of lucid dreaming. I call it: RC-MILD, since you basically just MILD, but replace a mantra with one solid, thorough RC.

So I thought up this new method, then got in bed and just tried to go to sleep normally. But I was watching myself, that I didn't actually fall asleep. I just wanted to be near sleep so that the RC would be the last thing I remembered doing. When I felt close to being asleep, I sat up, did the full RC, and then laid back down and next thing I know, I'm asleep.

In the dream I entered, I was watching some video on youtube. Nothing unusual was going on; there was really nothing to indicate that it was a dream. And yet, all of a sudden I had this impulse to to a reality check, and upon pinching my nose, I tested out to be dreaming! I was a bit surprised at the immediate success of RC-MILD, and couldn't think up something original to do now that I was lucid. So I just decided to practice my shapeshifting more.

I turned around and found myself suddenly outside some mansion, which I ignored and went on to the shape shifting. People passed by me doing that as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Eventually I must have tried to go too far with a stretch or something, because the dream started to fade big time. So I rubbed hands, rubbed hands, rubbed hands...and it came back in full force, the shapeshifts still being part of me!

I tried to walk around after that and just see what I could see, but eventually my lucidity faded, all the shapeshifts just literally fell off of my body, leaving a normal me behind, and the dream continued on, turning into some strange videogame-like experience

Not a bad start for my first time with a new method...I must go start a thread about this now!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Ok, FINALLY got some recall and a lucid dream in!

Dream 1: I started a fantasy novel on google docs, but apparently should have paid more attention to the security settings. Soon, a whole bunch of people were writing in it, and so when I suddenly was inside the story, it caused a whole bunch of chaos. Writers tried to kill off other writers by writing monsters and magicians and all that into the story, and there was a ton of blood...I once threw my sword into the eye of a giant troll and blood squirted everywhere, including all over the writer who had spawned him in the first place. I wrote another sword into the story and took down that writer, too.

A lot of such things happened...I can't remember them all. But at the end, I was the only writer still standing, and I was sucked out of the story back to my desk...and the google docs novel had been completely erased

I woke up for a brief moment after that and went back to sleep.

Dream 2: A false awakening, only in the past. I was probably 14 or 15. I was compelled somehow to get up out of bed and sneak downstairs to get something, but I can't remember what anymore. I knew I couldn't get caught, though, whatever it was.

I made it downstairs easily enough, but then my dad started to head down as well, since he was getting ready to leave for work. I hid beneath a table and hoped he wouldn't see me. But he did...and yet, didn't react at all to my presence. So I got out from hiding and sneaked around the place, got what I needed, and then headed back upstairs just as my dad left. He could have seen me several times, but it was like I was invisible to him. I thought it was weird, but didn't realize I was dreaming.

This time I woke up and realized it. I forced my eyes open for a short while and then attempted a WILD. Got everything still, saw a bit of HI, and then...FLASH! Woosh!

Dream 3: I was in a false awakening again, but in the present day. I couldn't focus at all...I couldn't move...had to pinch my nose. Had to! Forced my arm up with much difficulty, pinched, breathed through...

and then things jumped into better clarity. Only, my vision was still screwy, like being cross-eyed and not able to fix it. After trying just to correct my vision a bit without results, I decided I would teleport. "1...2...3!" I said, building up my energy and then thrusting my head forward through the pillow, shutting my eyes.

When I opened them again, I was just outside my house, floating in mid-air. Suddenly an idea came to mind: "I wonder what's beyond the sky?" I thought. "I should find out!" So I flew straight up, not to go into space, but to the top of the sky, as if it were just a skybox in a video game.

I went through it once and all was just black, so I ducked back down into the sky, waited a moment, and then went back through it again.

This time I came up out of water, and looking around me, I found myself to be at a beach where all the water was the sky, and if you swam down very far, you'd fall down into the world. But I didn't want that, of course, so I climbed onto the sand and walked around a bit. Everything was so real it was crazy...every plant, every grain of sand--it all astounded me.

Pretty soon a girl came up to me...she was like a combination of people from real life that I've seen, but not met. Of course, being lucid, I didn't hesitate to go up and talk to her. We ended up sitting down together on a couple beach chairs, but that was a mistake. The moment I stopped moving and started to only focus on one thing (the girl), I started to lose the dream. My vision began to switch to the false awakening again, even though I could still feel my dream body at that beach with the girl. I pinched my nose and moved my head, which brought things back up for a little while, but it didn't last long.

Not as good as my last WILD, but it'll do. There are a couple private matters I left out that made the dream worthwhile

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

YES!! Finally a decent lucid dream again!

I've had several recent lucids before this, yes, but as of late they have been more like playing a video game than being physically present in the dream. This one was like being physically present again, which is awesome!

First thing I know, I'm flat on the ground in the snow. Only it isn't cold, just pleasantly chilly. After getting up onto my feet, I looked around me, and found I was in the most stunning landscape I have ever seen. Right before me was a cliff that dropped down several hundred feet. Extending beyond that was miles and miles of rocky terrain with various elements at random points throughout. A little bit of green here, a little pool of water there...it really compensated for the rockiness, making the area feel very lush despite its overall gray appearance.

And then there was the volcano. Out in the distance, a huge mountain stood high above the rest of the place, spewing out its lava high into the deep, deep blue sky. Bluer sky than I've ever seen before. And when the lava collided with the atmosphere, it totally transformed, causing a super-nova-like ball of light to hover in the sky, followed by curvy contrails of dusty steam spreading all over, making the sky seem full of stars even though it was still daytime.

As I beheld this magnificent display, there was no question in my mind. "This is a dream." I said. "It has to be." I pinched my nose and breathed in, and sure enough, air passed right through.

I almost wasn't sure if I wanted to leave. This place was so magnificent I gladly would have just studied and memorized it for the duration of the dream, but I figured there were better things to do.

The first thing that came to mind was to try and summon a friend and see if it would result in a shared dream. I tried the "when I turn around, so-and-so will be there" thing, but it didn't work (in fact, I can't seem to get that to work any place but a WILD) so I tried transforming a rock as I'd done before. That almost worked. As I slowly raised my hands, simultaneously willing the rock to grow and turn into a person, the ground shook beneath me and the terrain deformed a bit, but no person came. Maybe the rock wasn't distinct enough, considering everything else around me was rock, too.

Eventually I gave up on that idea and so I took off into the air to fly someplace interesting. Before long, I came to a very industrial-looking city; really cool place. In the very middle of that city was an arena, and this caught my attention. It had a big sign over the entrance that read: "Shared Game."

As I walked inside, I was greeted by a rather tall guy who asked me straight out: "Do you know that you're dreaming?"

"Yep, I do. So is this place what I think it is?"

"We're all lucid dreamers, here. We come to play the Game, but only lucid dreamers are allowed inside. Non-lucid people just get pounded in there."

"How do you play?"

"There aren't really any rules. The object of the game is just to get the ball from the other team and get it to the other side of the field, which scores you a point. How you get it to the other side and how you keep the other team from doing so is up to you."

"Sounds cool, can I just join in right now?"

"Of course! Have fun!"

So I went into the arena, was welcomed by a huge group of people who all claimed to be lucid dreamers, chose a team to side with, and we played. It was the craziest game I've ever played. The ball was constantly being changed hands. Teleportation, flying, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, whatever--all of it was allowed and frequently used. Points weren't scored very often, but eventually the other team did get to 5 (which I learned was the winning score). I believe my team ended up at 3, though, so we didn't do too bad.

After that game, I said goodbye and left the arena with a personal dream goal in mind: to skydive without a parachute or a plane. I just took off right there, looking down at the world below, the buildings, the arena and the dreamers who were still playing the game...it was all so real!

Once I reached a good height, I stopped flying and let myself enter freefall. It was a short trip back down, but a lot of fun! I landed smack on the ground, right on my face, but quickly got back up.

Problem was, for that moment that I was laying down, the dream started to fade, like I had put myself in the position that I was sleeping in IRL. So I did another nose RC to clear things up a bit longer, but I was losing control fast by now. Before long, I was completely non-lucid, and the dream transformed into a confusing plot about a guy trying to take over the world using cows.

All in all, for being a ton shorter than it had to be, that was really a great LD. Next time I won't skydive I guess...unless I can land on my feet. The realism was really great, though. All the scenery was very dramatic and the lighting was odd, but it gave a cool effect. And I would really love to learn if those were actually other lucid dreamers playing that game.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, last night I went to bed trying out a new MP3 to see if it would help me wake up at the right time to WILD.

The MP3 definitely worked; I didn't wear headphones all night, but I turned the volume all the way up and then wrapped the earbud cords around my bed post and then slid the buds down into all the cord loops so they stayed in place pointing right at my head.

It woke me up two times in the night, but only on the first time did I get anything good out of it. My memory served me well enough; I noticed as soon as I woke up, but didn't rush to a billion thoughts that would wake me up. I simply rolled over, got into a comfortable position, and then went completely still. It wasn't long before I saw HI and felt SP...and yet, I must have lost consciousness at some point, because the next thing I remember is everything being totally black and me being totally unaware of my body. I don't recall ever seeing flashing lights or feeling the ground shake, which happen every time I WILD, or even just get close to succeeding at one.

But at least I regained consciousness at this point, body asleep, mind awake, and in a dreamless state. So I decided to try and make one of my own.

"A character is appearing in front of me."

Sure enough, a moment later, I saw a DC turn her head out of the darkness (yes, it was a girl). Suddenly I felt as if I were sinking, drawing closer to her. The girl's eyes shot open and stared at me as if from afar. I continued to sink inward, and as I did so, more than the girl's head faded into view.

She reached her hand out to me, almost robotically, as the sinking began to slow down. I felt as if I would lose the dream; like I was momentarily to rocket back upward and wake up. But I reached out and managed to just barely grab hold of her hand, and she pulled, breaking the opposing force suspending me in the air and causing me to freefall down into the dream.

After falling what felt like ten or fifteen feet, I collided with something, and instantly the dream was in full view. I had hit a bed, and now I bounced off and landed on the floor. The girl had been on the other side of the bed than the one that I fell on, and the impact had effectively knocked her out as well.

She was startled, like she hadn't seen me before. Maybe she thought what had just happened was a dream for her or something.

"Who...who are you?" She asked, holding up a blanket to cover herself.

"I'm..." I paused to quickly think up a title that wouldn't give everything away to her as a dream. I didn't know her well enough yet to know if she'd respond well to that or not.

"...a friend."

Her entire countenance changed immediately, then. I wish now that I had just told her the truth, though, because as soon as I ignored my connection to real life, I lost it completely.

"Oh! And you haven't even been given a place to sleep!"

"That won't be necessary. I'm...really not tired, to be honest."

"Well you must at least need something to eat or drink! Come, this way!"

The girl then hurried down the hallway, pulling the blanket around herself as she went. Not knowing what else to do, I followed. Her house was very futuristic; technology not (yet) existent was everywhere. Eventually we made it to a small kitchen with a round table to one side.

"Please, sit." She said, handing me a glass of something to drink.

It suddenly struck me how sweet this girl was...no doubt about it, I was falling in love.

"So," the girl began. "Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself?"

"Sure, but...I still don't even know your name." (funny that I would say this, since she still didn't know my name)

"Oh! I'm so sorry. My name is Avina."

After that I told her about my past, which was now a bunch of false memories telling me I had been a soldier in the Alliance Military that was sent to guard the city and I had fallen through Avina's roof by mistake.

"I feel so terrible!" Avina exclaimed when I had finished my story.

"What? Why?"

"I've kept you up this whole time! Didn't even give you the option of waiting until morning!"

"It...kind of is morning, Avina." I replied after seeing a nearby clock read 3:00am

"Right. There's another bed in my room; you may use that if you want to. Feel free to wake me up if you need anything else!"

And next thing I know, I'm in a bed beneath a large window in Avina's room, and I can't fall asleep or take my eyes off of her. Eventually I couldn't resist any longer. Slowly, quietly, I walked over to her bed and just watched her sleep a moment.

Before I knew it, my hand had found its way down, and I was stroking her hair, caressing the side of her face, and then leaning down for a kiss. Of course that woke Avina right up, but she didn't fight or anything. Rather she reached her arms around me and stood up. We continued kissing for quite a while, but then Avina leaned back and said:

"I will be yours. Always."

After that things kind of blur together. My duties with the Alliance Military frequently pulled us apart, but we always made every effort to be together. Travel distance or cost didn't matter.

One point that stands out in my mind is when a huge crowd was before the Citadel Council discussing Alliance plans for the future. As it is typically with politics, everything was going down the tubes as far as I was concerned. What needed to be done seemed so simple to me, and yet everyone was bickering over complex things and not getting anything accomplished.

As I sat there, listening to all this, I noticed Avina come in the side door and take a seat next to me. She could see the frustration on my face.

"You should speak. Many people here respect you." She whispered.

"But that doesn't mean anyone will stand with me! What I say is useless without backup."

"I'll stand with you." Avina said.

That was all I needed. I stood up, interrupting an official far more important than I, and stated my opinion on the matter. The council, as expected, told me I was out of my mind and to sit back down. I continued, however, and asked for anyone who agreed with my plan to stand with me. At first, no one did. But then Avina stood, which soon encouraged another to stand, and another, and another, until the intimidation of the council was broken and the entire room of men and women was standing in my favor, opposed to the council. They had no choice but to accept my plan for the Alliance Military, then.

Gets blurry again...next thing I remember, Avina and I were arriving at her house after being married. It was late, but there was no chance we could sleep.

"Tell me this isn't a dream!" Avina said. "I cannot believe all this...it is just too wonderful!"

"This isn't a dream!" I said. "It's just us--forever!"

Then we lay down in the same bed this time and...well, you can probably figure out what.

We didn't get a wink of sleep that night, but neither of us cared. I don't think we ever even let go of each other before dawn.


Well...make of that what you will. It was an incredible experience for me, anyway. Doubt anyone else will really appreciate it the same way.