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

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!