side notes

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

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

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.