task of the month

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..

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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
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
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..

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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..

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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.