A Long Strange Trip... into Ashraen's Twisted Psyche

non-lucid
lucid
Serial RPG
notes

I was playing football with some family/friends outside my grandparents' house, when I got poked in the eye and couldn't see. I went into the house to wash my eye out, but when I looked in the mirror, there was nothing wrong with my eye and I could suddenly see perfectly out of it.. so I realized I must be dreaming. I looked over at the hand towel and tried to levitate it.. it worked.. lucid

I walked outside and proclaimed loudly to all the DCs in the area that I was lucid dreaming. They seemed unimpressed, so I took to the air to fly around and figure out what to do. I flew away from my grandparents' house and began to throw fireballs at the surrounding landscape. I hadn't done this in awhile (lucid drought), so it took some practice to get back in the groove. As I continued to manipulate the fire with my mind, I realized I had flown to a forest.. in fact, it was the Forest of Denn!

I landed and checked out my surroundings. I appeared to be near a clearing in the forest where there was a small lake, covered in fog. I walked toward the lake and noticed a giant dragon worm. It rose up out of the lake, with the body of a giant worm, about 15 feet wide and rising about 35 feet out of the water. I call it a dragon worm, because the head was shaped like a dragon's, with a lizard tongue that was slashing about and hissing as it oscillated slowly back and forth, as if dancing. I recalled my current task to slay a beast and began to charge the dragon worm with a snarl growing in my throat.

I reached the edge of the lake and jumped/flew into the dragon, colliding with the side of the massive beast and latching onto its leathery skin. I forgot completely about the armor I had bought previously, and was solely focusing on the attack. It quickly became apparent that I *would* need my weapon, so I closed my eyes and visualized my glowing orange shardblade in my hands. As soon as I felt the grip in my fingers, I opened my eyes and began slashing at the worm while still holding on with my left hand and legs.

Even tho I was making gashes in the thick skin, the worm didn't seem to even notice. It continued to sway, but now started spinning around, as if trying to sling me off. I realized that I needed to attack it at a weak point. From where I was latched on, I could see a small hollow at the base of its throat which appeared to be a good place to start, but it was out of my reach, and the worm was spinning and swaying too violently for me to climb up to it. Then, I had an idea..

I collected myself as the monster continued to gyrate, and then let go, allowing myself to be slung free from its body. As I did, I turned and locked my eyes on the hollow of the throat. When I reached the apex of my flight - before I started to fall down to the lake - I launched myself straight at the beast, sword outstretched and focused intently on the hollow of the throat.

When I reached the body, my sword thrust deep into the throat with a slurping sound. The worm began to gurgle and flop around even more frantically.. then it slowed and hissed as it fell away into the lake. I jumped from the body and hovered over the lake as it fell and watched it slap the water's surface and sink down. Something caught my attention and I glanced at the shore. A very small dragon was flying over to inspect the drowning worm. It's head was identical to the beast's I had just slain, but it had a full dragon body and not that of a worm. It flapped it tiny wings rapidly as it cocked its head from side to side, a puzzled look on it's face. It hit me that this must be the giant dragon worm's offspring.

I remembered that my next task was to tame a beast... so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do just that. I flew closer to the little dragon and it backed away, seeming to notice me for the first time. "What's your name, cowboy?" I asked. Suddenly the word 'Chomper' was spoken in my mind - a high-pitched but masculine voice resonating - as the dragon cocked its head.

"Ok, Chomper, I think we should be friends.." I said, as I moved closer. The dragon seemed unsure, but didn't pull back. As I got close enough to touch Chomper, he shot some fire breath at my hand. I jerked back reflexively, but then moved forward again. He put out a continuous gout of flame at my hand, a hint of frustration in his eyes. As my hand began to touch the flame, I slowly caused the fire to fizzle and disperse, until there was no fire left and my hand was up against Chomper's nose. He cocked his head and stared at me incredulously as I stroked his nose.. then he began to giggle and laughed out loud, showing all his teeth in a large smile.

Chomper flew over and alit on my shoulder, playfully expelling a puff of flame that singed my eyebrows. I flew over to the lake shore and dropped to my feet. Chomper hopped down as well. I felt confident that I had my new companion, but he sure was small for battling monsters and the like, so I decided to try something.. "Chomper, GROW!" I said out loud. And he did. As I continued to look at him, I willed him to grow to about 3 times my size.

I looked around for something for us to fight. There was nothing. Wait... There was something down the shoreline crouching low behind a tree. It looked like a panther laying in wait for an ambush.. I stared straight at the animal and said
"Chomper, BURN!" He then let out a burst of flame that took out half of the shoreline of trees in the direction I was looking. I couldn't help laughing out loud. I walked over to where the panther had been to find everything - including the panther - charred and smoldering. Chomper seemed quite pleased with himself.

I was about to feed the roast panther to Chomper when the dream started to fade.. and I decided to just let it.

This was the most fun LD I've had in awhile. I had been in a drought for the last couple of weeks, but this was the 2nd in 3 days, so hopefully it will put me back in the groove

non-lucid
lucid
TOTM

I woke up in my bed at the hotel.. only there was a girl in my room (thought it was the maid at first) walking toward my bed. She actually got onto the bed and kissed me on the forehead.. at which point I thought 'this might be a dream,' but I wasn't convinced yet. I looked at the door and noticed some weird, round things mounted on the wall where the light switch should be. They weren't clocks, but they had digital displays.. I tried to make the numbers on the display change.. it worked- lucid.

I remembered the TOTM was to Trick or Treat, and I figured this would be easy since I was in my room at the hotel. I went outside and knocked on the door 1 room over where my co-worker Chad was staying. When he opened the door, I yelled 'Trick or Treat!' He asked me 'What flavor?' I was confused for a minute, but then I replied 'Chocolate.' He then gave me a bag of chocolate-covered doughnuts that were sitting on his desk.

After he closed the door, I walked about in the common area between the hotel rooms, munching on my doughnuts (which tasted quite delicious, btw). I decided to try the advanced TOTM, becoming one of the gods. I was going to be Zeus. I started by trying to make myself much bigger than my surroundings (not strictly necessary to complete the task, but it's how I wanted to do it). This scaling is something I have done quite often, but this time I couldn't seem to make it happen.

After trying for a good bit (probably should have stabilized at this point, but I did not), I just flew up on the rooftop to relax and enjoy the lucidity. The dream faded as I was sitting on high, watching people swim in the hotel pool below.

non-lucid
lucid
TOTM
notes

I am at a party where there is dancing and music. The guest of honor is announced as 'Adam Sandler,' but it's really my old soccer coach Joe, who actually looks alot like Adam. The spotlight is put on him, and he's trying to take a nap, which everyone thinks is hilarious. I am swordfighting with some people with long balloon swords.

I walk outside to get some fresh air, and it's dark. There are some people here and there, milling about, doing the types of things that people generally duck outside of a party to do, and I decide to start walking home. Suddenly, it's morning and I am driving down the road. There is a limo pulling out, and I slow down in order to let them on the road.. but the driver waves me on. As I pass the limo, I see that Mayor Royce from The Wire is riding in it, wearing a tuxedo with the tie undone and all disheveled looking.

When I see my turn off the road, I start to slow down, but I realize I'm not slowing down fast enough to make the turn. I try to slow down more, but it doesn't seem to work. This type of thing is common in my dreams, and it hits me that I might be dreaming. I quit trying to slow down and try to fly instead... the car lifts off the ground and I become lucid

I shed the car and keep flying for awhile, passing farmhouses and livestock, streams, hills, and fields. I'm looking for something but I don't seem to know what. I see a tall white tower on the side of a hill which looks very out of place, so I fly down to check it out. When I land on the roof, it becomes clear that the tower is very small - on a different scale than me. I am far too big to actually go inside.

I try to scale myself down - and it's working - but I can't seem to get quite small enough to actually go inside. The building seems to be scaling down a little as I do, altho I'm definitely getting smaller faster (in other words, the building was shrinking, but not as fast as I was). I decide to give up on this little adventure and find something else to do.

I fly over to to a large tree stump where a hispanic guy with a hat and sunglasses is sitting. I say 'Hola amigo, como estas?' He looks at me and says 'You must finish the quest.' I am confused by this.

NOTE: Upon waking, I realized this was my subconscious telling me to finish the quest I started the night before in the Serial Dream RPG. I even went to bed trying to incubate this... but sadly I didn't realize it in this lucid.

I look over and see a small pond with a rail fence around half of it. I have been trying (and failing) to walk on water for several attempts over a few months, so I decide I should walk on the water. Successfully this time. I fly over to the water, wave my hand to send a couple of sheep flying off in the distance (this is almost force of habit now. If I have a DC - human or animal - near me while I'm about to attempt something, I dismissively send them flying away from me immediately).

I had an idea of how to make the water walking work while in the waking world. I'm good at flying/floating, so I figured I would start by floating on the top of the water, then try walking. I grabbed the rail fence and stepped onto the water, keeping myself hovering over it. I lowered myself until I could feel the water touching my feet, then I let go of the fence and started to walk.. It was working! Finally!

As I crossed the pond, I began to every-so-slowly sink into the water a bit. I focused on levitating myself up a couple of inches, and continued to walk until I crossed the pond. At the other side, I took a deep breath, stabilized, and repeated the process. This time I made it back across without a hitch. I was so excited that the dream started to fade... I sat patiently, telling myself that it would come back as my world faded to black..

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I was now awake, laying in bed, but I still hadn't moved or opened my eyes from the previous LD. I knew if I was patient, the dream would return. I began to hear sounds in the distance, and a dreamscape (my room) began to form out of the darkness. I got up, levitated the fan on the desk in my room just to be sure I was dreaming (it worked), and walked to my door. I decided to walk through the door instead of opening it (sometimes I can do this easily, sometimes not). As I pressed against the door, the door resisted and I felt my dream fading. I stubbornly kept trying to force myself through the door... and I woke up.

Take that water walking!! I was so sick of mastering all kinds of crazy dream powers (even successfully made a portal the other night) and not be able to do this one simple thing.. but now I've done it and I have the confidence of knowing that I can. DEILD chained me into a very short LD unfortunately, but that was because of my stubbornness with the door. If I had stopped and stabilized, it would have extended. All in all, good morning of dreaming

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I was in a restaurant with my family eating. It was time to leave, and I left in my car with my mom driving. The parking lot was crowded, and my mom was squeezing over to the side to get by some cars. There was a large tree overhanging into the parking lot, and I was worried that we would wreck. Instead, we just drove right THRU the tree. I thought 'that was weird,' and as we got onto the highway, I tried to levitate the whole car into the air (a little RC I've been doing on my looooong weekend trips for work). It worked, confirming my suspicion that I was lucid dreaming

I moved thru the car door (without opening it) to the road and stood there for a minute, stabilizing. The road stretched out ahead of me, and the sky was a beautiful pink-orange, so I started running down the road, trying for super-speed. It wasn't working, when I remembered that it was much harder for me to do if I was actually moving my legs. So, I started floating forward, imagining the world moving quickly past me, and I began to pick up speed until I was cruising very fast!

After a bit of this, I stopped and thought about what to do next. I was standing on the road, with scrub land spreading out all around me. I decided to try to make a portal. I have tried this before with no luck, but I tried to eliminate doubt and expect it to work. I wanted to continue my quest in the Land of Aud, so I attempted to make a portal that would take me to the Market in Denn.

As I watched, a blue mist began to materialize before me in the air, expanding into a circle about 4 feet in diameter. I closed my eyes and backed through the portal (for some reason, at the time this method of entering seemed like the most promising for success )

It worked! When I backed through the portal, the sounds around me changed, the temperature changed, and when I opened my eyes, I was in the marketplace in Denn! The sky went from clear and pink-orange to cloudy and purple. There were small shops criss-crossed by dirt paths, with small rectangular pools of water smattered about. I walked over to a pool and looked at my reflection. I wasn't in character, so I changed into my brown wide-brimmed hat, white linen shirt, and brown leather pants. It's getting much easier to do this

Because I've been having a tough time walking on water (made 2 attempts even before it was the TOTM), I decided to give it a quick go while I was staring at some... and failed. and failed. and then said screw it!

Now, I needed some armor and a weapon. I ducked down an alley and found several aisles of armor. I walked down a couple of them, surveying the selection. There was mail, plate, boiled leather, and things I had never seen before, all in crazy colors (even polka dot). I found some burnt-orange colored armor that looked interesting. It looked almost like a robotic suit of armor, but lightweight.

As I slipped my legs into the bottom part, they snapped tightly around my legs, forming to the contours and glowing slightly. They were lightweight but felt very sturdy. I still had great flexibility. I put on the breastplate and gauntlets (this was all hanging together as one suit), and began to jump around and move, testing the armor. I was able to move like I had nothing on, but I felt incredibly well-protected, and everything was lightly glowing a dark orange. There was a helmet but I decided I didn't need it

I remembered that I needed a weapon. I realized that the armor I was wearing resembled the 'shardplate' armor suits that I had read about in The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. In that book, shard bearers (those wearing the shardplate) were able to summon a shardblade with their minds. I closed my eyes, took three slow breaths (actually, I think it takes 10 breaths in the books, but this didn't deter me at the time), and opened my eyes as I felt something in my right hand.

I was holding the grip of a brilliant orange sword, glowing. The blade came out of the grip and curved around my hand and out in front of me. It was about 3.5 feet long and looked kinda like the sword from Halo. I took a few practice swipes, and it whistled as it sliced through the air. I just stood there for a few minutes, sort of in awe at the whole situation.. feeling pretty invincible

It was time to find a beast to slay! I took off back up the alley I had ducked into to find the armor. When I reached the place where the broad street had been before, it was now a stream bordered on the other side by a forest. I headed in a trot and made a flying leap to cross the stream.. and woke up.. d'oh!

This was really fun. I'm so glad I found this site, because I was pretty bored with my lucid dreaming when I last focused on it (a few years ago). The creative adventures of the peeps on this board have given me all kinds of new ideas, and I have developed dream powers I had never even thought of in the brief couple of months I have been a member. Damn that water walking tho.. I'm gonna get that one eventually!

non-lucid
lucid
totm
notes

Actually had this dream Thursday night, just now getting the chance to journal it here.

I was riding in a van to my grandparents house. My grandfather (who died a few months ago) was driving, and my cousin was in the passenger seat, although he looked like my granddad. There wasn't really anything that triggered my lucidity- not even the fact that my grandfather is dead- but I suddenly realized that I was dreaming. I didn't even need an RC, because once I *did* realize it, I looked at grandaddy, and knowing he had passed was RC enough.

I told him to stop the van, and I got out, smelling the air, stabilizing, and deciding what to do. I was at a corner near my grandparent's house, where there was a drive-thru burger joint and a small clear pond surrounded by trees. I decided to do the TOTM. I have had trouble before walking on water, so I decided to go straight to the advanced.

I began by summoning some wind, feeling it pick up around me. I started to make it swirl in a giant cyclone around the pond. I jumped into it and let it buffet me upward, riding the cyclone in a circle to the top. I caused it to become more of a whirlpool and let it suck me down to the water, then made it buffet me back up.

As I rode along the top of the cyclone, I began shooting fireballs from my hands. At first they were small and hard to see, but slowly I focused on making bigger and bigger fireballs, setting the trees that ringed the pond on fire, continuing to ride around the circumference of the cyclone. I began to manipulate the existing fires in the trees, causing them to grow and jump at my command.

After awhile, I floated back down and let the cyclone subside. I know I had done 2 elements, but I had planned to go ahead and do all 4 while I was at it, so I went for earth. I walked over to the burger joint drive thru, and saw some cracks in the asphalt. I caused the cracks to widen, and the earth to split apart. I did this several times, including some cracks in front of a car in the drive thru. I opened a large hole underneath the car and caused it (and its occupants, who screamed in terror) to to fall into the earth, closing the hole back up over the top.

There was a sexy girl standing at the drive thru, so I took a timeout to make some dream lovin

Then I walked back over to the pond, which was rippling as the wind was still blowing fairly strongly. I stilled the waters, which allowed me to see a fish. I tried to send a lightning bolt at the fish (something I have never done) with no luck. I caused the waters to become rough again, splashing and swirling. I figured I might as well try to walk on it... I couldn't. So I froze the water and rolled a ball across the surface in hopes of helping me believe I could walk on it. It rolled for a bit, but then fell in, which wasn't ideal. I tried to walk on the the frozen part, but I fell through. D'oh! I swear I'm gonna do this one one day!

Then I woke up.

That was a REALLY fun lucid! Destroyed the advanced task, but still can't walk on water. I can fly, morph, send objects flying through the air, shoot fireballs, create cyclones that lift me up, open holes in the ground, walk through walls, and yet I can't seem to friggin walk on water! Gotta love dream control

I laid down for a nap this afternoon, and quickly found out it was only going to be a light one. I did my body awareness relaxation, and even dozed off for a bit. I woke up, but I decided I didn't want to get up yet, so I kept laying there, doing my relaxation. I soon noticed I was at the transition phase of a WILD (I hadn't been planning on trying one), drifting in and out of sleep and HI, so I thought- might as well attempt one!

I tentatively tried to open my eyes or move my legs to get up a few times, but each time noticed that it was breaking me out of the transition and abandoned it, sinking deeper into the hallucinations. I didn't count or do anything like that, but it was firmly implanted in my mind that I would pay attention to the HI and focus on drawing myself into it. I am in a hotel room, and after awhile I noticed my dog over in the corner. He was flickering in and out (not unusual for HI), so I focused on making him solid with the thought that 'he is a part of a dream, if I keep him here, I am in a dream.'

At some point of doing this, I felt my legs 'drop' over the edge of the bed. Part of me knew this could only mean I was feeling my dream body, but I still didn't wanna mess it up. Slowly, the scene around me changed from my room to outside. I was standing on the road. Tentatively, I tried to walk (hoping the scene wouldn't vanish as has happened before), and I could. I felt the wind blow and levitated to make sure I was indeed lucid dreaming.. I was!

I marveled at the clarity of mind I had. It was even sharper than my other WILDs. I've WILDed a couple of times, but neither time was I able to fully witness the transition. I always kinda lost it for a few moments before realization. This was different. This was way cooler Unfortunately, just when I was about to knock out the TOTM, my freaking alarm went off

I feel like this should help me with future WILDing, as I find myself in that transition phase often, and now I have the knowledge and experience that I *can* see it fully through. Some people tell you they never fully witness the transition, that they always lose consciousness some. Others say they see the dreamscape form around them. I never knew for sure if this was possible - at least for me - but now I do.

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I am with my buddy Jake, and we're going somewhere for lunch. We go into a hotel first, a very tall building with a large lobby full of people. He leaves me by a podium (like where the hostesses might be in a restaurant) and tells me to wait there, he'll be right back.

As I am waiting, I start seeing lots of people that I know walking around, out of the elevators, milling in the lobby, heading outside. Some of my old HS friends walk up to me. The guys are wearing their football uniforms (but no pads, as if for pictures), and the girls are in either cheerleader outfits or prom dresses. They mostly shake my hand (guys) or hug me (girls) and move past, but one girl doesn't want to break our hug, and we sorta walk over to the side, still semi-hugging. Another girl comes over with her, and we all talk for a few minutes, but nothing I can really remember.

They finally leave, and I see other people I know. A couple of friends take me outside the hotel on a golf cart, and we go for a ride, but I keep telling them 'I gotta get back, Jake will be ready to leave at any time.' When I get back to the hotel, I continue to wait around. I think, it sure is taking him him forever to get back.. I wonder if I am dreaming. I try to levitate the first person I see.. and it works. Lucid.

I stop and stabilize, rubbing my hands together. The hand-rubbing thing is actually a fairly new thing for me to try, so I do it vigorously, really paying attention to how well it works, how well I stabilize. I decide to get in character for my Dream RPG. I turn away from the large windows in the hotel lobby, get a picture in my head of what I should look like, then turn back to the windows to see my reflection.. Wide-brimmed brown hat, white button-up linen shirt, brown leather pants.. looks pretty good. I also have leather straps around my shoulders, which appear to be some sort of holster/weapons storage.. I didn't explicitly try to create this, but it is definitely in keeping with the character.

I know my task is to find the market in Denn and get some armor and a weapon, but for some reason I go ahead and imagine a sawed-off shotgun in my hands.. and it's there. I practice firing it a bit, but there is no muzzle fire and bullet coming out. I have had this problem before, where I had to explicitly imagine the bullet firing for it to work. In the previous lucid, once I imagined it right the first time, it became automatic. This time, however, I seem to be having trouble doing so.

After a few practice shots, I see some outlaws approaching the hotel from the sidewalk. As I still haven't gotten the gun working yet, I retreated around a corner and up some stairs, still trying to get the gun working. I know that I just have to believe it will fire, but at this point I think I'm mostly convinced I'm not gonna be able to get it working. The posse comes around the corner and I aim at them and fire.. The trigger clicks and there is a slight recoil, but no projectile.. As they get to point-blank range and I still haven't been able to get a shot off, I wake up.

Ack! Maybe next time I'll just go to Denn and get some blades to use instead Until I joined this site a little over a month ago, I had never really tried to fight things in my lucid dreams, so it's a new experience for me. I'm sure I'll get better at it with practice. On the positive side, my ability to change my appearance was much improved over last time!

non-lucid
lucid
Forest of Denn
notes

I started a new job this week where I have to drive 6 hours on monday morning, spend the week working out of a courthouse and sleeping at a deer lease, then drive back on friday afternoon. As a result, I didn't get enough sleep or have time to dream log, but I finally had a few lucids last night and was able to work on my skillz a bit.

I pulled into my Grandmother's 2 car garage in my car. It has 2 separate doors, and I pulled into the right door and then parked over on the left side (lol). Thought that was funny. We had a conversation that I don't remember much about, then I headed out in my car again.

As I was driving near some water- kind of like a Venetian canal- my car started to go airborne and I began to lose control. This is something that happens in my dreams often. For some reason, my car gets in the air and heads toward water, and I find myself unable to keep it from slowly floating down into the water. As the car hit the water, I was suddenly outside the car watching it sink. I began to panic and thought 'surely that didn't really just happen!' ... then.. 'Oh, it's a dream!' I did a RC (levitated some nearby object, don't remember what) as I sunk down into the water myself, and it worked

After looking around underwater (and not seeing much that interested me), I levitated myself up and out of the water. I stopped, pulled some eye drops out of my pocket, and put them in. As things began to clear up, I collected myself to stabilize the dream, reminded myself a few times that I was dreaming, and then started walking alongside the canal. I decided to try superspeed, one of my dream goals.

At first, it was the same ol', same ol. No luck. Then I stopped trying to 'move' fast, and started focusing on the landscape that passed by as I walked. I tried to imagine what it would look like if I were moving fast, and it worked! I didn't go as fast as I'd like to, so it's still a work in progress, but I definitely gained a significant amount of speed. Next time, I'll focus on the world moving past me in a blur, and I think I should be able to keep gaining speed.

After awhile, I slowed down and noticed a DC walking at my side. We were entering a downtown-type area with tall skyscrapers, so I decided to try making us giants. Nothing happened at first, but when I tried to make us bigger while simultaneously trying to shrink the buildings, we quickly outsized the architecture. When this happened, I was suddenly aware of flying creatures filling the air. Some looked like birds, some gryphons, and others appeared to be pterodactyls, varying in size and zooming all around us.

Without thinking, I extended my arm and threw my hand at one of the creatures. To my surprise, a small fireball flew from hand! This is a power I have never even attempted (nor thought to attempt) before. I started throwing out fireballs left and right, some hitting the flying monsters and others striking the surrounding buildings. I thought to myself 'these should be burning the things they hit' .. and suddenly they were. I wanted to make a bigger fireball, so I tried using both hands in tandem to toss one.. and it was twice as big.

I continued throwing fireballs around until almost everything around me was on fire, and there were smoldering carcasses littering the ground. I was laughing hysterically (and maniacally) as my dream faded.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The next thing I remember, I was in the hallway of a large school building, much like one of the halls at the university I attended. I entered a classroom that had many clocks, both on the walls and sitting on shelves. I suddenly made one fly across the room and smash into the wall... and then I thought 'how did I do that? I'm not lucid dreaming!' .. and then I realized that I was

I turned to my friend Andy (who was in the room) and exclaimed 'hey, I'm lucid dreaming! Check out what I can do!' I continued flinging the clocks around with my mind, then we went into the hallway (which now had extremely high ceilings and resembled the same skyscraper scene from my earlier dream except indoors) and I bent the end of the hallway vertically up into the air (like the scene in inception. I did something similar in a previous LD and had told my friend about it. This time, I did it exactly like the movie).

We entered another room and his sister was there. I started telling her that I was lucid dreaming and then I asked Andy if he was lucid. He said 'yes,' so I started explaining excitedly to Emily (his sis) that we were having a shared dream! (I don't really think this was a shared dream, but I told her so anyway). As I got into the shared dreaming discussion, I lost lucidity.

We went back into the hallway (which now looked more like a normal hallway again), and I began looking for my guitar, but couldn't find it. I walked past a pool table and started chatting with a friend who was playing. I noticed a dude with a crazy looking knife.. like a butcher knife but it was blood red with black zebra-type stripes all over it. There was a grove of trees near the pool table, and a large bird sitting there. The guy said something like 'Is that the great mother? Should I kill her?" He sliced the bird's neck open with his knife and drank some of the blood (yes, it was disturbing), then stood there with a wicked grin on his face, lips bright red from the blood.

I decided to move away from this guy, and I continued looking for my guitar... I saw my friend Leigh, and she had my guitar! She gave it to me and told me 'Good luck tonite! Do good so my sis won't have to spend her money on someone else!' As I walked away from her down the hall, I remembered that I had recently been having a lucid dream.. and became lucid again

I stood for a second, rubbing my hands together and stabilizing, then I decided to try to shapeshift. I looked at a nearby mirror and saw myself. I appeared normal. I tried to change into.. anything. Nothing happened until I tried to change my skin tone.. I suddenly had dark black skin, and then my face changed! I didn't look like any person I knew, but I definitely looked different. As I did this, the mirror reminded me to find the Forest of Denn!

I began walking the hallways, loudly proclaiming that I wanted to find the Forest of Denn. I started asking DCs if they knew where it was. Finally, I got a bright idea.. 'I should check the library!' I rounded the corner and entered a library, loudly asking 'Where is the librarian?' 'Over here,' came a voice from the other side of a bookshelf.

I turned the corner and she was there. Dark black hair, pale skin, and glasses. 'Do you know how I can find the Forest of Denn?' I asked. 'Right over there,' she replied, and pointed. I headed in that direction, and everything started to turn green. There were desks and bookshelves, but they were all like shrubbery, covered in verdant green leaves. I saw a father and his son. The son was hooked in to what appeared to be some type of Virtual Reality Equipment, and they both saw me and said 'Hey, use this!'

Immediately, the VR equipment disappeared, and a green forest began to emerge in front of me, like the tide rolling out to reveal a landscape that had been hidden before. I found myself in a very lush clearing with trees all around. There was a small cottage with a smoking chimney, and all kinds of wildlife- strange looking creatures, graceful but odd, like cougars with horns and brightly colored tigers (like purple and green).

I remembered that I was supposed to find a free standing mirror, so I walked to the other side of the cottage and there was one there. When I looked into it, I saw my familiar face (with a light scruffy beard, which is not unusual for me), but I was wearing a white cloth with a blue braided cord encircling my head, and a loose fitting white robe hanging loosely over my body- the kind of garb you might see in the deserts of the Middle East.

I didn't think this fit the scene very well, so I changed it to a straw cowboy hat with a folded up brim and a long feather sticking out of the band, which was the same blue braided cord. I gave myself a white linen long-sleeve shirt- loose fitting and not much different from the fabric of my previous outfit- and brown leather pants. I remained barefoot. I'm not sure why I changed into this particular getup, I just wanted something that seemed less out of place in a forest, and this is what came out.

I didn't look down at my actual body to see if resembled the reflection, but this was close enough to 'shapeshifting' (which I had been attempting earlier in the dream) to excite me. Too much so, I guess, because I woke up!

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I tried listening to binaural tones for the first time last night. About 10 minutes before bed, then about 10 minutes again about 4 hours later, before returning to sleep. It's too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions, but I'm definitely going to continue trying it.

I didn't log my first LD before returning to sleep and having the second, so there was a good bit of dream before I became lucid that I don't remember now. I also drank too much last night (celebrating new job), so my recall isn't as sharp as normal.

I was in a large school building, walking down a crowded hallway toward the office. I entered the office and there were alot of people inside, lots of chatter. The ladies working behind the counter were all young (20s) and extremely attractive. One of them, in particular, was going out of her way to flirt with me. I thought- 'Man, I wish this were a dream.. I would make love to that beautiful thing right here on the countertop.' So I did an RC just for the hell of it- my usual attempt to levitate something- and the stapler on the counter lifted into the air. Oh snap! It IS a dream

At this point, I obviously *could* have followed through with my initial urge, but I have other dream goals these days (plus I used to do it all the time when lucid, so I've grown a little bored with that particular bit of dream fun). So I went back out into the hallway, looked around, stood still to collect myself and stabilize. I even rubbed my hands together some based on stuff I have read on DV, but it didn't seem to add much to my stabilization.

I decided to try to find the Forest of Denn to complete the first task in WakingNomad's Dream RPG. I began speaking out loud 'I want to go to the Forest of Denn!' I saw a microwave and put my hand on it, closed my eyes and said 'Take me to the Forest of Denn.' I opened my eyes hoping (but alas, not really expecting- d'oh!) to be in the forest, but instead I was still in the hallway and 2 large (and by large I mean tall and very fat) men were coming my way with rather ominous looks on their faces and severe purpose to their gait.

Even though I was lucid, I was still afraid of them. Perhaps the searching I was doing had me too into the dream, but whatever the reason, I scrambled up some scaffolding on the hallway wall to put distance between us. I said 'I'm dreaming, you can't do anything to me.' They just smiled vicious grins, and one of them said 'Is that right?' I wasn't taking any chances, so I thrust my hand out at them, and an invisible wall of energy threw them backward through the air. They hit the ground and bounced unceremoniously to a halt.

I didn't wait around to see them get up, I knew they were going to come after me. I took to the air from my perch on the scaffolding and was flying down the hallway, dodging archways, lockers, and other obstacles. I tried to fly faster, but for some reason I could only maintain my current speed, which was a little slow for my taste! I could feel the brutes chasing me, but I never turned back.

I saw sunlight through an entryway ahead, and banked to the right, emerging onto a grassy mall with scattered benches and people chatting. I looked ahead to the other side of the mall and saw some trees. I thought- 'Hey, maybe that's the Forest of Denn.' As I neared the trees, however, I woke up.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After waking from the previous lucid, I thought about putting the headphones back on to listen to binaural tones, but I was tired and a little groggy from the wine still, so I just said some mantras for a couple of minutes and dozed off..

I was in a largish room with lots of people, mostly old friends that I hadn't seen in a awhile. My friend Haley came in with her husband and introduced me, but I shook the wrong person's hand. This made me feel embarrassed, so I got up to leave the room. Her husband (his face had changed at this point) came up to shake my hand and tell me not to feel embarrassed. At this point I left the main room and entered a small hallway that resembled a travel-trailer.

I went through a side door in the travel-trailer hallway, and my friend Kody and his wife were sitting on a sofa inside. Haley was also there, standing next to a microwave (dunno what the deal was with microwaves last night). I tried to levitate the microwave (for no reason. this is one of the few times in dreams that I have just randomly done the RC without first suspecting it might be a dream), and it worked!

I told everyone around that I was dreaming, and went back into the hallway, which still looked like the inside of a travel-trailer. As I moved down the hallway, I was suddenly in a boat with Haley and Kody, and we 'sailed' down and around a tight U-turn, toward a large room. I had lost lucidity at this point, but when Kody told me to get out of the boat, I realized 'Wait a tick, I was lucid dreaming!' and regained lucidity.

I exited the hallway via the travel-trailer door, and emerged outside. I stabilized, looking around, rubbing my hands together, reminding myself that I was dreaming. I was on a bluff with a beautiful view overlooking a large canyon surrounded by mountains. I thought that this was the canyon that housed the Dream Views Academy I had visited a couple of times already, but for some reason I decided not to go. There were lots of trees covering the mountains in front of me, so I figured the Forest of Denn might be there.

I started to take flight, but for some reason I was having trouble. I can almost always fly with ease, but I occasionally have this issue. I should have just summoned a flying mount, but I've only recently discovered that ability and it didn't come to mind. Instead, I tried to *pull* the distance mountainside to me, as a sort of hackish way to 'teleport' there. This didn't work, but I found I WAS able to do something interesting. I was able to lift the bluff I was on much higher into the air, causing me to be able to look down onto the opposite mountain.

The earth I was standing on didn't change in any way, I just sort of bent the whole scene around me to where I was at a higher vantage point. I found this pretty cool and attempted to reverse the process, dropping down while lifting the mountainside on the other side of the canyon higher. It worked, and as I lifted it, I was able to sort of 'curl' the mountainside closer to me. As it got closer, the mountainside became more defined, and I was able to make out more distinct formations of trees and rocks on the other side.

It then occurred to me that I was probably close enough to make a super dream jump to the other side.. and my alarm went off. D'oh!

I hadn't had a LD for a couple of nights, so perhaps these 2 would have happened without the binaural tones, or maybe the tones had a part in it. Not sure, but I will definitely keep using them for awhile and see what happens. Also, I started doing lots of RCs yesterday, because I was unhappy with having no LDs for a couple of days. I did A LOT of them in the few hours before bed too, so I think this may have had an effect as well.

Too bad I drank too much last night, because it hurt my recall, and I actually think I had a third LD that I couldn't remember. Mayhap it will come to me later in the day

non-lucid
lucid
TOTM
notes

After waking up to my early alarm, I went to the bathroom, replied to a couple of threads on DreamViews, and decided to attempt to WILD after being up about 30 minutes or so. I laid down on my back, head slightly elevated and tilted back, and I lay one hand on my stomach on top of the comforter, and the other hand underneath it, but also UNDERNEATH the covers, so that my hands weren't touching skin to skin.

My body was pretty relaxed except for a sore spot in my lower back, so I focused my awareness on the tension.. and HI began almost immediately. Mostly swirls and and static, but with faint hazy and fleeting images mixed in. As I watched it (mostly passively, but I admit with a little excitement at the fact that I was getting images but still aware that I was trying to WILD), I knew I was close to SP from the way my body felt (I have gotten this close a great many times), and was going to start a counting anchor, but I noticed that my hands seemed to be touching. Like actually touching skin to skin, even though I knew they were not. I began to focus on my dream hands, trying to move them, rub them together, pull them apart. They felt very heavy, so I didn't think I was quite ready to try opening my eyes, but I WAS making progress.

Then, I heard a voice speaking my name.. it was my mother. She was telling me to get up, more urgently with each repetition. I thought- 'oh man, I'm so close to a WILD right now, leave me alone!' and I continued to focus on my hands, hoping that if I ignored her long enough she would give up trying to wake me. She did not stop.. Her voice wasn't coming from inside my room though, it was coming from outside my door. I thought it was odd that she would be trying to wake me from the other room, but she WOULD NOT STOP. Finally, I breathed a big sigh, opened my eyes, and prepared to say 'Thanks for ruining my WILD attempt!' loud enough for her to hear me..

But her voice had stopped. No one was there. I was about to close my eyes again, but something caused me to try a RC. I attempted to levitate the fan on my desk and.. it worked! I was dreaming!

At this point, let me interject that I completely forgot that I was trying to WILD. I was only aware that I was dreaming and lucid. After I actually woke up and began recall (which was difficult because this LD led to 2 more), I remembered the transition from thinking my WILD was ruined to realizing it was a dream. It actually took me a few min into recall to suddenly exclaim out loud- 'Oh, I did it!' Very excited. anyway..

I got up and just stood there, looking around, stabilizing the dream (one of the threads I replied to right before WILDing was lucidmax telling me in my journal to work more on stabilization.. so this was my #1 priority throughout). I went into the living room, and my mom was there, so I told her I was lucid dreaming. We had a brief conversation that I don't really remember, as I was focusing on the environment. I recently read about dream mapping, and this was my #2 priority after stabilization.

I decided to explore the other rooms and found them to be as I remembered them growing up. I noticed a bag of candy in my sister's room, and I never eat in LDs, so I figured hey, why not, and began eating the candy as I walked around. Cool thing I noticed was that as I took candy from the bag, I could never empty it.. never-ending bag of candy

I went back into the living room, and then I remembered (finally!) the basic TOTM to ask a DC to sing to me. My mom was still there so I asked her to sing, but she seemed to not know what to sing, and in the end started singing something I had never heard. It was gibberish, and I thought 'I'll never be able to remember the tune or any of these words, I don't know if I'll get credit for TOTM'

So I went BACK to the back bedroom (my parents') and my sis was there this time. I asked her to sing to me, so she turned on the stereo and began to sing along with the song that was playing.. it was a song I haven't heard in 10+ years.. 'Waterfalls' by TLC (don't go chasin waterfalls / please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to / I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all / but I think you're moving too fast..) I sang along with her and we danced like nerds for a bit.

At this point I decided to head out back to see what was in the back yard. As I started to open the back door, I remembered something I read in a post on DreamViews and tried to pass through the door without opening it. Of course, it worked, and I was outside.

The view was BEAUTIFUL. I was on one mountaintop among many, with canyons, valleys, hills all laid out in front of me as far as I could see, mostly covered with lush green trees. I hopped into the air, and then took to flight, marveling at the scenery. After flying around for a bit, I saw a soccer complex in a clearing where many DCs were playing (in full uniform, with spectators looking on, so they were games, not just practice). I swooped down to talk to one of the players. However, as I neared the ground.. I woke up. Or so I thought..

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I woke up, disappointed about my LD being cut short. I got up and started to go to the bathroom. On a whim, I tried to levitate my guitar from the floor.. and it worked!

Ha! False awakening. After having a chain of FAs Sunday morning and NEVER becoming lucid in any of them (argh!), I felt some satisfaction in catching this one in time. The thought also occurred to me that I may have gotten up and gone to the bathroom many times before during FAs, never realizing I wasn't awake.

I went into the living room again and started looking around- working on my dream cartography again. The room was mostly the same, but this time there was a Christmas tree and a few presents, and Christmas decorations all around. I checked out the kitchen, then the hall closet, which seemed normal enough, but way too big to actually fit in the hall. There was no one around, so I decided to head out back again. I tried going through the back door without opening it again... and couldn't. I tried, and tried, and still couldn't. I should have stabilized again at this point, but I did not. Suddenly, I woke up. Or did I..

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I woke up and my eyes were crusted with sleep. I was on my side, and still frustrated from failing at walking through the door and waking up from my lucid. Then I noticed a small puppy was in the bed next to me and my head was wet, very odd. After rooting out the false awakening before, I was onto its tricks and levitated the puppy. Sure enough, STILL dreaming!

As I stood up, my eyelids were heavy and still crusted with sleep. I wanted to rub them and open them wider, but I had this nagging feeling that if I tried to hard, I would open my REAL eyes and be awake. I don't know if this is the case, but I believed it at the time. So I closed my eyes, steadied myself, rubbed the sleep out, and gently re-opened them. I levitated a book on my desk.. and it worked.. Still dreaming. Things were still a bit hazy, though, so I grabbed my glasses from the night stand (I take out my contacts to sleep) and put them on. There, all better!

This time, I went into the living room and it was still Christmas. I thought- 'I wonder if I have alot of dreams about Christmastime' My mom was there this time, under the tree wrapping presents. She said to me (jokingly) 'Better be good or I'll take another present away!' LOL I also noticed my mom appeared much younger than she is in real life.. like I was looking at an old photo.

I went back into the other rooms, and noticed some differences. My sister's room was the same, but filled with boxes and what appeared to be the tops of a couple of pine trees, except almost all green 'leaves' and very few branches. I went into the other bedroom and my dad and sister were in there. Sis looked like she does now, except not pregnant (in real life she is 34 weeks preggo). Dad appeared as he does now, but with a long fu-manchu instead of his normal mustache.

The room was filled with sacks, and Dad and sis were pulling fireworks out of them. Dad started telling me about how he was going to beat her in the firework contest, and started rattling off the names of all the fireworks he had bought and how he would win. It was pretty much nonsense, but his point was clear.. he would win!

At this point, I headed back into the other room, intent on doing some more discovery outside the house, but I woke up. For real this time. D'oh!

My recall isn't as good as it normally it because of the FA's, so probably more will come to me about the exploration of my house and conversations with my DCs. I'm still pumped about my first WILD tho, and I hope this will carry over to future attempts.

It was also interesting to note the subtle changes in the house from one LD to the next. They all happened in quick succession in the same house, but there were furniture rearrangements, and even slight differences in room sizes and walls from one LD to the next. I'm just getting started with dream mapping, but I am definitely intrigued.

non-lucid
lucid
notes

This comes in an afternoon nap (failed WILD, but was able to DEILD after an unmemorable non-lucid just a few minutes into the nap). I had 3 lucids the night before, so this puts me on a hot streak

I am in the living room of my house, and my entire family is there. My sister (who is 8 months preggo in real life) has two newborns laying on a pillow on the floor. My parents' dog Kobe (a black lab) and my sis's dog Murphy (a basset) are playing with the young ones. I reach over to hold one, and then put it back down. Kobe starts to mess with it, so I move Kobe way and try to roll the baby over.. but something is wrong. They are tiny and I seem to have messed up the face of one! My dad tells me that I poked out its eyeball!! but he seems unconcerned and starts 'fixing' it. I feel terrified that I have irreparably harmed my nephew (or niece, can't tell in the dream), but then I think.. surely I didn't actually poke out his eyeball.. surely... I'm dreaming!

Now lucid, I walk outside and decide to try making a portal- something I have never done. At first, I can't even make a portal of any kind. Finally, I'm able to create a purple swirl in the air. I go through it hoping (but alas, not really expecting) to be transported to a different place. It doesn't work, but *something* DOES happen. As I go through, I begin to feel like I'm moving through clear gel. The air around me is gooey and I find it a little difficult to move. However, I make it through the goo and find myself in the same place (my yard) as before. Meh.

I decide to try walking on water, so I head over to the pool out back. I can't seem to walk on the water, so I decide to try freezing the water under my feet and at least floating or moving around on the ice. I succeed in creating a block of ice, but it's not thick enough, so when I actually try to put all my weight on it, I still sink down into the water. Meh, again.

At this point I say 'screw this' and decide to head off to the Dream World Academy again (I finally made it inside the walls last night). I take off in flight (no mount this time, just me) and quickly see the canyon. I head into it and find the Academy. The castle looks the same, but the water that covered the roof seems to be drained out, leaving a big empty pit with the same octagonal platforms scattered throughout. With no water there, I realize that each platform is also a lift. For some reason, there are no DCs there, whereas last night it was swarming with activity (perhaps because this is an afternoon dream).

As I hop on one of the platforms to take the lift down, DCs suddenly 'phase' into my view. Not as many as before, but some. Some are the same alien-looking beings from before, some appear human. As I ride the lift down, I find myself in a sort of hallway that runs around the perimeter of the castle directly under the walkway that lines the top of the castle walls. I notice a small creature on the lift with me.. a rather owlish looking thing wearing thick black glasses that seem too big for its head. It is very short, almost penguin-like in stature, but with the face and beak of an owl.

I ask the owlkin what its name is.. it says Aloysius (owl-o-wish-us). The word play with 'owl' doesn't occur to me until after the dream. I ask it what its job is here at the Academy, but it simply cocks its head to the side and says very cryptically- 'Many have come before me.' As I begin to ponder this answer, I wake up.

Failed at portals and failed at walking on water.. altho the ice thing wasn't a complete bust. Plus, I now have confidence that I can visit the Academy at any time (after spending 2 dreams simply searching for it). Let's hope the hot streak continues! And perhaps next time I will remember to do the TOTM!! The basic one is so easy but I haven't been able to remember to do it yet

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I was leaving a convenience store with a drink, and I got into a truck with a few old friends. I was in the back (extended cab) with another guy, and there were two in the front seats also. As we pulled out of the parking lot, I saw that the 'road' ahead of us was not much of a road at all, but a mountainside with sheer drop-offs into water and extremely rocky terrain. My friend Joe, who was driving, decided to take us straight down into the worst of it.. prompting us all to grab on tightly to the handholds on the ceiling of the truck. What ensued was a crazy ride that had us all yelling and cussing- partly from excitement and partly from fear.

Then, rather suddenly, I was sitting in the truck- alone- out back behind my house. My close friends Luke and Jake (who are brothers) were outside, and a train was coming through my backyard. Now, there are train tracks very close to my house, but this was a separate set that was coming right through where the swimming pool should have been. They both pointed it out to me and asked "Isn't that odd?" At first, I rationalized it in the dream and told them that the railroad had recently added those tracks.. Then I realized that NONE of the old pool stuff was there, the deck, etc, like it was back to the way it was before the pool even went in. The thought occurred to me that "surely they weren't able to make it look like that stuff had never been here.. and so quickly.." That's when it hit me.. lucid!

I didn't even do my normal immediate RC, I just told them all that I was dreaming. I started to summon myself a flying mount (thanks to my cool experience with one in my last lucid). I spent a good bit of time experimenting with different mounts, and practiced resizing them (and resizing myself some too) to make them fit. I summoned a small dog, then made him big enough for me to ride. I also tried summoning a zebra, but it kept having a dog's head. I was having a hard time envisioning a zebra head, then I looked to the ground and saw little zebra-head plants everywhere (lol), which allowed me to shape the head properly.

During this time I also remembered to try eye drops, so I fished some out of my pocket (I always carry eye drops in my pocket anyway, so this was no dream magic or anything) and put them in. I didn't notice any immediate effect, but after a few minutes, the dream world did become much clearer and more vivid. I think this was probably all in my expectation. I have lamented the fact before that it takes eye drops a few minutes to actually clear my eyes in real life, so that's no doubt why it took awhile in the dream (I was acting on KingYoshi's suggestion to try eye drops in his dream control class).

Anyway, I finally crafted myself a gryphon (of sorts) to fly on, and I headed out to find the Dream World Academy (for real this time, not just get close to it like I have done twice before). I reached the canyon in which the Academy lay rather quickly, but as I got close, I felt myself being pulled down- as if I were having trouble maintaining my flight. I have had some issues with flying in my last couple of lucids (which is unusual for me), and I feared I was having trouble again. However, I looked back and noticed that there was actually *something* hanging onto my foot and pulling me down. I couldn't get a good look at it (I was riding a gryphon after all), but I kicked it loose and suddenly was flying smoothly again.

Almost immediately the forest canopy on the canyon floor (which had harbored the academy before) disappeared and the Academy was in full view! The architecture did not appear to be normal human construction. I was directly over the 'castle,' and was unable to see how tall it was or how the sides looked. It had 6 sides, but was not a regular hexagon. Instead, it was shaped like a triangle except that the 3 'points' of the triangle were actually straight lines, as if the 'points' had been flattened out. There were towers at each of these points, and the walls of the Academy were wide enough for several people to walk abreast freely between the towers.

The top of the Academy inside the walls was covered in a giant pool of sparkling blue water. I couldn't tell how deep the water was, but it covered the entire area inside the triangular walls. There were octagonal platforms scattered throughout the water, connected by a network of small footpaths. These platforms were COVERED with people, conversing with each other in some alien tongue (I say alien because it did not sound like any human language that I have ever heard), and generally busying about, conducting their work. The 'people' were also alien-looking.. light-blue skinned with intense and brightly colored eyes. Several seemed alarmed at my descent onto the Castle-top, and began speaking loudly and excitedly at me in that strange language. With their intense eyes and crazy words, they were a bit intimidating.

Finally, I noticed a large floor lift near one of the corner towers (it had a weird, angular shape. sort of octagonal but not exactly). I hopped on it, and it lowered me down into the bowels of the Academy. I walked off the lift, through a short sloping hallway with a semi-arched ceiling into what appeared to be some type of "control room," though I can't really say what the room was for. It was here that I finally saw humans, including a woman who appeared to be 'Mariel,' whom I had encountered on my previous search for the Academy.

At this point, I got so into the dream and what was around me that I began to lose lucidity. I felt woozy and laid down on a bench along the wall. Mariel began to stroke my back and reassure me that everything was OK. I lost all lucidity at this point, then quickly remembered myself and closed my eyes, relaxed, and opened them expecting to find myself in the same room. I did, but all the people there had changed from DCs that I had not recognized into people very familiar to me. Then.. WAAH WAHH WAAHH, my alarm went off and woke me up! d'oh!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After waking, I used the bathroom and went back to bed (the alarm was an early one that I intentionally set a few hours before I actually have to get up). I went back to sleep with the intention/expectation of having another lucid dream..

I found myself riding in a car with some younger kids that I didn't know. I got out my cell phone and one of them warned me about a new law that made it illegal to text in a car, even if you weren't driving. I said that was complete BS, but they insisted it was true. I am an attorney, so I asked them where they heard that and exactly what the law said. They handed me a flier, and I was reading it as I got out of the car and walked with them to a swimming pool where a party was going on.

I was looking around at the people at the party, and I noticed that Miley Cyrus was one of them.. I thought to myself.. "I don't know Miley Cyrus.. this is a dream!"

I was already at the pool, so I decided to try some crazy dives using my dream powers. I lept WAY up in the air and did at least 3 somersaults, planning on squeezing in at least 5 before splashdown.. Problem is.. I closed my eyes during the jump and the spinning motion caused me to lose the dream AND my lucidity. This seems strange now since dream spinning has worked to PROLONG LDs for me in the past, but that is what happened.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Next thing I knew, I was in a new (non-lucid) dream walking down some stairs, but I was holding the same pamphlet about the cell phone law that I was given earlier. I thought 'I was just having a lucid dream a few minutes ago, I wonder if I am dreaming now..' but that didn't stick and I kept walking- remaining in a non-lucid dream.

My phone rang, and the name said Andy Bargo.. I thought 'I don't know an Andy Bargo.. Oh, it must be one of the kids I met earlier in the car." I answered, and it was a different person- an older man that I knew was having some medical issues. He told me a story about insurance companies dicking him around, and asked if we had grounds to sue them. I was thinking that his story seemed pretty ridiculous, and then I remembered (for the second time) that I had been having an LD just a few minutes ago. This time, it DID hit me that I must be in another dream.

I told him he was crazy and I was dreaming, hung up the phone, and starting a convo with the nearest DC about how I was dreaming. He said that was cool, but seemed uninterested. I looked out and saw a pink and purple bicycle laying on it's side on the grass and levitated it. I asked him "Is that bike levitating for you?" He said "No, it's just sitting on the grass..." I started to run some other similar tests to see how he would react to my dream control, but alas, I woke up.

All in all, interesting night. First time I can remember that I had 3 distinct LDs in one night, although the 2nd two were much shorter than the first. I'm glad I finally found the Academy, but I definitely still have some work to do with stabilizing and allowing myself to get into the dream (i.e. play a role and use passive control) without losing lucidity. I can see how people chain LDs from this experience, as my memory of an earlier LD was instrumental in causing me to become lucid again.

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I was at my grandparents house, and I went outside to get a Dr. Pepper from the fridge. All the cans had little holes in them, so the DP tasted flat. While I was out there, my aunt was rifling through a bunch of bags for a purse my cousin had lost. She kept asking me if I knew which one she had lost, but I had no clue.

When I went back inside, my other cousin told me "I bet that DP is flat, Granddad has been draining them." I looked over at the chair where my grandfather always sat, and sure enough, he was there. Well, my grandfather passed away about a month and half ago, so I realized it was a dream.

I levitated the TV to make sure, then explained to all the DCs in the room that I was dreaming. I went outside and attempted to float up to the roof to clear my head and enjoy the lucidity. For some reason, I had some trouble flying up there. Normally, I am an excellent flier in LDs, but I have had some problems in the last couple. I looked around and saw a horse, and then remembered that one of my dream goals was to use a vehicle or animal to fly, so i jumped on the horse and tried it... and lifted into the air effortlessly.

I began to fly around my grandparents' property (30+ acres), delighting in the novelty of cruising the skies on a horse. I was in the air a pretty long time, mostly just checking out the dreamscape and experimenting with my flying mount (accelerating, decelerating, banking, diving, climbing, etc.). A couple of interesting things were that I kept hitting a "ceiling" in the sky (the white particle board type that you see in office buildings) at certain places around the house. I was able to fly through it sometimes, bounce off sometimes, and make it disappear sometimes. I also saw my acoustic guitar in the field among some trees, just sitting on its end, neck pointing upwards, kinda like the "sword in the stone." When I landed in the grove of trees to look around, my mount disappeared...

So I summoned another horse (I'm not the best at summoning usually, but I did this fairly easily). Then I decided... why just ride on a horse.. how about a zebra? I turned the horse into a zebra in a fluid process, much like I was 'painting' it with a brush (altho I did not use my hands, just my mind). Then I hopped on and was back in the skies on my zebra mount!

At this point, I could hear my uncle and my dad talking, but I couldn't actually see them. The voices seemed to come out of the air around me. Mostly nonsensical talk, but then my uncle told me to look at the sky. I said "I've been flying in it the whole dream!" He replied, "No, LOOK at the sky, and the moon too!"

I looked at the moon, and noticed it was shaped like a yin-yang, with 2 separate halves. It was also extremely luminescent and shimmering like it was coated with multi-colored glitter. As I watched the moon, the two halves began to spin and intertwine, then separate again, almost like they were dancing with each other. It was quite mesmerizing, and held my interest for 5 or 10 minutes.

At this point, I FINALLY thought about dream goals. I was about to do the TOTM for July, but then realized it was already August and I hadn't looked up the new TOTMs yet! Then I remembered to go check out the Dream World Academy. I flew north to the canyon I had visited before, and when I landed on the edge, I lost my mount again. However, I saw a very large and regal looking zebra (much taller and with a shinier coat than the one I had summoned earlier) approaching me with a tall red-headed woman walking beside it. The zebra strode up to me and I hopped on it's back. I asked the woman her name, she said "Mariel." I asked if she was from the Academy, and she just gave me a knowing smile as if to say "you know that I am."

I pulled her onto the zebra's back behind me (it feels strange to call this creature a zebra even though it had the stripes, because it was by far the largest and most majestic zebra I could ever imagine), and we rose into the air, circling the canyon and heading down to the floor, where the Academy lay. I noticed the landscape around me was extra vivid, much like the world in "What Dreams May Come" when they are basically in a painting. As the Academy began to emerge into my view amidst a forest on the canyon floor... I woke up. Bummer.

So 2 LDs now I have sought the Academy and gotten close, but no cigar. I think my subconscious (I am an avid fantasy book reader) is enjoying making this a "quest" and playing with me. It's probably my own fault for remembering to look for the academy so late in the dream (this was a rather long LD, seeming to last well over an hour). Either way, next time I'm actually going to make it there...hopefully

Regardless, flying on a mount was cool and definitely something I'll try again (especially if I have trouble flying by myself again).

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I hadn't had a LD in almost a week, which is a bit of a slump for me. This one was a bit lacking in lucidity (not great awareness or control), but it'll do for a slumpbuster!

I was in my old bedroom at my parent's house when I heard moaning sex sounds coming from outside. I look out and see a lady I know unloading her car with computer stuff. I look around for the origin of the moaning, but I never find it. I hear the lady enter the living room and discussion with my dad about fixing her computer. My grandfather comes into my room and starts moving things around to clear space for the "software" that she had brought. I go into the living room and see computers set up by the door, my dad stocking the refrigerator, and a couple of people milling about the living room.

I notice that the house doesn't look right, and in my dream I seem to realize that this is a new house that my parents are thinking of buying. I think "why am I here now though?" Suddenly, I realize it must be a dream. I make a chair levitate with my mind (my usual RC) and loudly proclaim "This is a dream!"

I start talking to one of the DC's - a family friend - telling him that it's a dream and asking him what he is up to. This is one of my current dream goals- to interact more thoroughly with my DCs. He is inspecting some things on a desk but he says "Just hanging out, what are you up to?" I feel like I am not going to get much out of him, so I go outside and fly around a bit, talking to some random DCs, getting pretty much nonsense replies.

Sadly, I do not remember to go to the Dream World Academy, but I DO remember that I wanted to work on fighting in LDs, so I start with some punches and kicks to DCs near me. The punches actually hurt my hand, and I am lucid enough to find this odd, but not quite lucid enough to make the pain completely disappear. My contact also makes funny sounds- like badly done special effects, overly loud and crunchy, like I am breaking bones with each hit.

I decide to try some matrix-style fighting, and do some spinning kicks, propelling myself with each spin to the next DC. I get bored with this, so I decide to try running really fast. I am having a little trouble flying in this LD, which is unusual for me, as I am normally very adept. I think this explains my trouble with running fast- I wasn't really very lucid. My first attempt at running fast causes me to run out of my shoes and trip and almost fall. My dog Kobe, however, is running around superfast in front of me, as if to show me how to do it.

I try a few more times, but my legs seem heavy and unworkable, much like a non-lucid dream when I am trying to flee and can't run. I go over to my pool and try to walk on the water, but can't seem to do it. Each time I fall, I am able lift myself up out of the water and on top, but then my next step plunges me back down into the water.

I give up on this, and walk over to where my Mom and Dad are talking about being out of "Trailmix," even though the "Trailmix" was clearly dog food in dog food bags. My sister's basset hound runs up to me. Mom yells at him, calling him a "drunk" (which I thought was very odd), and I decide to have some fun with him. I toss him across the yard (with super-strength, which was another dream goal I wanted to achieve) with his ears straight out like wings and he goes flying, but before I see him smash into the house, I wake up.

Pretty weak lucid dream overall, but I did get in some fighting practice, was able to do some matrix-style stuff. Also made first attempts at running fast and walking on water, but clearly failed at them. I feel like most of this was due to my weak lucidity to begin with (like I said, flying took some real effort in this LD, and normally I'm a pro at it). Plus, I didn't do enough periodic RCs and didn't remind myself enough that I was in a dream world. Hopefully next time will be better

non-lucid
lucid
notes

This dream constitutes my first in the quest for the Dream World Academy. The end of this dream tied directly into a continuing dream experience, but here I have logged only the portion pertinent to the quest.

I was in a bar, drinking with some old friends, when I had a realization. The forums on this website had me thinking about dream signs, and I remembered that MANY of the posts on the Dream Signs thread mentioned old friends that the dreamer hadn't been around in a long time. As I scanned the group assembled at the bar in my dream, I decided that this must be one of my dream signs too. I did my old trusty 'make someone levitate' Reality Check, and it worked. Bingo- time for fun.

I started telling all my friends how this was a dream- levitating them, making things change shape with my mind, and generally just sinking into the lucidity, allowing myself to delight in the sheer fun of it all. After a few dream minutes of this, I remembered the quest I had been assigned- to find and explore the Dream World Academy. I knew the scrubs I was drinking with didn't know anything about this , so I headed out the door and into the fresh country air.

I figured the best way to start was to take an aerial approach. I decided to fly high over the countryside, searching for anything out-of-the-ordinary, or just anything of interest at all. I read one of the logs of another Dream Views Academy member in his search where he used a television to take him to the Dream World Academy Portal. For some reason, however, that method just didn't seem right for me. As an avid fantasy reader, my subconscious is well-versed in the type of questing one finds in those books, so it just felt right to approach it the fantasy way. As I began to lift into the air, my friends came pouring out of the tavern we had been carousing in. They called to me and told me they wanted to help me on my quest- my very own posse!

My good friend Andy remarked 'Well how nice for you that you can fly, I guess we'll just follow along on foot!' He said this with no small measure of sarcasm, so I got the hint and put them all into the air with me. We rose high into the air, and like a flock of birds, we began to move as a group, scouring the world below with eagle eyes.

We headed north, and the country was beautiful. Streams, meadows, forests, all these things passed beneath us as we lazily made our way to wherever fate was leading us. Soon, we came upon a massive canyon, rimmed with giant white rock, and criss-crossed with rivers and streams. It was hard to really get a sense of the scale of the canyon from the great height at which we flew, but it seemed a continent of its own! Sensing that this was worth exploring, we glided over to a rocky outcropping on the canyon rim where a sprawling oak tree had somehow sprung out of the stony ground. My posse and I took shelter in its shade, and surveyed the canyon floor with wonder.

I noticed a large sturdy limb, low to the ground, that reached out over the rim, and I decided to climb out onto it and settle in for some reconnaissance. As I lay flat on my stomach, I noticed that the limb split into two small branches out over the canyon - making a perfect crosshairs. This intrigued me, so I focused my vision through the crosshairs and found that I was looking at a particularly green section of the canyon floor, noticeably more lush and wooded than the surrounding area. Many of the streams (or rivers, hard to tell from this distance) seemed to converge in this area as well.

As I studied the wooded area more intently, I detected movement- a great sweeping motion, agile, smooth, and certain. After some time, I could tell that the movement was getting closer. In fact, something was flying directly at my crosshairs! I began to feel a little anxious. I knew I was in a dream, but I was very much into the quest, so it didn't seem to calm my nervousness that this large flying object was headed straight for me. In a gigantic canyon with myriad formations, something was headed directly my way.

As it came closer, I saw that it was a gryphon- a rather large one it seemed- and it was still coming right at me. I can't say exactly why, but I got the sense that it was a sentry that was coming to check on us intruders. I could see that it was mostly black, with deep purple wing feathers, a dark grey chest, a dark silver beak and talons (almost like gleaming iron). As it continued to approach, I decided that I was not quite ready to meet this flying creature. I can't say why, exactly, as I was still quite lucid and aware that it was only a dream, but I made the decision to shroud my posse and I in a bubble that would prevent the gryphon from seeing us. It's an old trick that I use mainly in non-lucid or partially lucid dreams when I am being chased and cannot outrun my attackers.

I created the shroud around the oak tree and closed my eyes to concentrate as the gryphon neared. I felt it pass overhead- it must have been truly massive- bank to my left, and move off in the direction from which it had come. When I opened my eyes, I could see the creature flying back down into the canyon, but I could also feel the world becoming hazy and my lucidity fading. I quickly hopped to the ground (the limb was rather low-lying) and did the 'spin' technique I read about on this site. It helped, and I was able to watch the gryphon as it disappeared back into the wooded area on the canyon floor.

Suddenly, though, my posse was gone and I felt an uncomfortable tingling in my left arm. I awoke to find my left arm above me with my head pressing into my biceps. As anyone knows who ever sleeps in this position occasionally, the blood drains after awhile and the arm begins to throb. This turned out to be a false awakening- something I would discover later- but that is for another dream journal entry.

This marks the end of the beginning of my quest. I didn't see the Academy. I didn't speak to anyone about the Academy. But I know- somehow I am 100% certain- that the way to the Academy lies in the wooded area on that canyon floor. Maybe the Academy itself is there, or maybe the journey to it only begins there, but I have no doubt that that it is The Way. Next time, I will know to head north to the canyon. I will find the stony outcropping with the sprawling oak tree. From there I need only follow the crosshairs made by the low-lying limb. Next time, I will be prepared to face the gryphon- should it come- be it friend, foe, or otherwise.