CanisLucidus

During my two-month dry spell between LD#1 and LD#2, I'd come up with a long list of experiments that I wanted to perform in a lucid dream. I managed to try the "level of detail" ones here.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid Experimentation (June 24th, 2012)

I'm attending a black tie party with Wife at some palatial estate. While we're exploring the grounds, I decide that I need to use the restroom. I tell Wife I'll meet with her later and go in search of the facilities.

I find them at the top of a long walkway filled with classic arcade machines ("Millipede" was definitely there.) Through the walkway door is an enormous, low-lit video arcade filled with machines and players. I find a light switch and flip it so that I can see better. Instead of lighting the room, this winds up turning off every machine in the arcade and the angry patrons look around, cursing. Badly embarrassed, I duck into the bathroom.

A Japanese couple follows me into the bathroom but instead of berating me for my stupidity, they request help with a tapioca pudding recipe that they're working on. I suggest that we return to my kitchen to work on it. We somehow blink into the kitchen and I immediately realize that this is a dream. I push my finger through my palm to RC and the left hand stretches like taffy around my finger. The Japanese couple smiles broadly and stands back to wait for me to try whatever it was I had in mind.

I experiment with clarity, committing to memory my in-dream assessment of how detailed / realistic everything appears. I say that everything looks crystal clear and can be viewed to an arbitrary level of detail. I am unprepared for how clear everything is. I study my hands (which have an unusual bend and one extra finger on the left) as well as the brushed metal refrigerator (which I assess as 100% realistic at every level of detail I try.)

My vision briefly collapses into milky gray but I manage to restabilize by rubbing my hands over my forearms. I quickly realize that the Japanese DCs still need my help. I will their tapioca pudding recipe to be fixed and they laugh, smiling gratefully. I then think about how I can rejoin Wife at the party since I no longer know how to get there. Soon afterward, though, I find myself awake back in bed.

I quickly grab the dream journal and start excitedly writing. About three lines in, I notice unusual notations in the margin. I don't understand them and have no memory of making them. Scanning back over what I've already written, I realize I can no longer make sense of any of it. I wonder whether I am actually awake. I immediately wake up (for real this time), reality check and go for the dream journal. A great way to break a dry spell!