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

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.

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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