CanisLucidus

Another fun effort at Task of the Year. I just need to wind up in the right stadium next time. Again, with the gladius-waving DEILD tech that Xanous and I worked out. What a breakthrough that's been!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #61: It Has to Be the Colosseum!

I'm standing in front of a hotel, holding my 3-year-old son E. A van pulls up nearby and a gang of suspicious-looking men pours out. It looks to me like they're planning a robbery and I wonder what to do.

E points at the men and bleats, "Want to know what they are doing!" The men turn toward us, eyes narrowed. I feel like they're thinking, "Witnesses." I'm scared. I feel like they'll see us as loose ends to tie off, and I hustle back into the hotel lobby with E in my arms.

As I'm casting about for some place to hide, I realize that it's all a dream. I head toward a huge window at the back of the lobby, planning to phase out of the lobby and get into the air for a task. Everything has started to feel unstable and low-fidelity. The sunlight pouring in through the lobby window has started to look like one big blur. E no longer feels heavy and squirmy like a toddler. It feels more like I'm holding a backpack.

I relax and prepare myself for DEILD, and the dream soon goes black. Like I've done so often recently, I imagine that I'm holding a gladius in my right hand and start madly swinging it around. It takes a few tries to convince myself, but the feeling soon takes hold.

In a few more seconds, I hear a roaring crowd of spectators all around me. I know that I'm already out in the middle of the arena. Some people in the crowd seem to be counting -- don't know what to make of that.

All at once, the whole scene falls into place visually. I'm in a completely cel-shaded, cartoony world, and standing in the middle of an enormous football stadium, right on the 50-yard line. An Asian lady in a business suit walks hurriedly toward me saying, "Great, you're here. Let's get going."

My new handler looks in every way like a cartoon character, as does the crowd, the field, the stadium, and everyone in it. Some sort of production crew is wandering around on the field setting up camera and lighting equipment. This is so close to being what I need, but for Task of the Year, I need to be in the Colosseum.

I plead with her that, "It has to be the Colosseum!" but she doesn't seem to hear me. I repeat myself, "I know you're trying, but this isn't quite right. It has to be the Colosseum! Nothing else will work!"

Nobody hears me, though. Everyone seems to be too busy getting this cel-shaded sporting event ready and can't pay me any mind. I'm thinking about how I can change things in my favor, but I'm not far into this when I wake up.

This was a fairly short little lucid, but I did get some phasing in and felt really happy throughout. And I guess I really like galantamine. LOL.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #60: It's Just a Phase

I'm walking around in my childhood bedroom, practicing lucid dreaming skills. Somehow, though, I'm not actually lucid. (This was a strange feeling.) I'm trying to fly around the room but keep bouncing off of the walls and ceilings. I try shouting "L-dopa!!" like in my previous lucid dream, but even this doesn't do much.

After a while, I feel discouraged. I'm standing by the window wondering what to do when I realize that I wasn't really lucid yet, and everything that had gone before was just me robotically acting out some sort of pseudo-lucid script.

I'm suddenly on the bed again, and everything now feels really vivid. It feels like an OBE except that I'm getting up out of my childhood bed, not the one my physical body's actually occupying. I move to the window again and look out into the street.

The mini-blinds are partially closed but I decide to phase through both them and the glass, get outside, and go play. I push myself through the window, right hand first and pop out in the front yard. It's pretty dark out but when I look at my hands, they're clear and detailed. (Undistorted, too, just like the previous lucid dream.)

I start running, overcome with joy. As I race down the empty street, I gush without a hint of irony: "Galantamine, how I love you!" (That is so freakin embarrassing to type now! ) Darkness descends before I get very far, I don't properly prep for DEILD, and the dream ends.

After trying and failing so much in the last several weeks, I finally made it to the Great Pyramid! I didn't complete the Task of the Year, but I had one fantastic lucid dream.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #59: On the Back of the Sphinx

I'm standing by a hedgerow on a suburban street, waiting for the hedges to part and let me in. Through these hedges is the party I'm supposed to attend. The hedges part for me, then close as I move toward them. "No problem," I say, covering up a sting of rejection. "I'll come back when you're ready for me."

I wander across the street to wait. I wonder whether I'm dreaming. I decide that I'll reality check "in a few minutes". (You slacker!) No -- I don't need to reality check. This is a dream! I look at my hands. No distortion, waviness, extra fingers, or discoloration. Still, I'm sure that I'm dreaming.

The dream feels sharp, vivid, and stable. I feel like I have tons of time and potential. I sprint across the street, leap over the hedgerow, and with a shout I soar into the sky. I'm flying over a rain forest now and my skyrocketing confidence level makes me shout, "L-dopa!!!" (Although I was displaying behavior in line with high dopamine levels, I've never taken L-dopa. Don't know what got into me.) After flying over the rain forest for a while, I wind up in a cloud bank and lose my bearings. Afraid of getting stuck here, I turn back toward the neighborhood, content to take a different direction.

I fly back out of the cloud bank, but a fierce gust of wind kicks up from the other direction and pushes me back toward the clouds. "Okay," I say. "You're taking me to the Pyramid." I relax as I pass back through the cloud bank, emerging over an ocean. I let the wind push me further on and soon I'm flying thousands of feet over a desert dotted with stones. It's dark, and the sand looks as gray as a moonscape. I descend headfirst toward the sand, sure that I'm going to find what I'm looking for.

It's nighttime when I land. I look to my right, and there's the Pyramid, illuminated by artificial light! I'm no more than twenty feet from it. The sphinx lies directly at the base of the Pyramid. I note that in the physical world she'd be further east toward Cairo, but the inconsistency doesn't bother me. Instead it reminds me even more strongly that this is my world.

The sphinx's stony skin is white like alabaster and she has Asian characters tattooed along all four legs and in a single stripe along each side of her body. She's far smaller than I'd expected, no more than thirty feet long. Her entire face has crumbled away (not just her nose.) I'm overcome with this urge to help her. Even setting aside Task of the Year, this is now something I badly want to do.

I press my palms against her face and say, "I'm going to fix you." I feel the stone first roiling then smoothing out against my hands. In a few seconds her face is repaired and her head starts to move. Her face looks mostly feline but there's still a vaguely humanoid quality to it. She licks my hand once and her tongue is the fleshy, rough tongue of a cat. Her head turns vaguely toward my face but her eyes are pupil-less, blank alabaster so I can't tell whether she's looking straight at me.

I swing my leg across her back and ask her to "Take me to the top of the Pyramid." She gets to her feet and starts walking around to the other side of the Pyramid. Her route takes us through a restaurant and bar where a number of women are dancing to this really amazing piece of world music. The melody is from some sort of brass instrument and it's backed by the mouth harp. (I had to google to even figure out what this instrument is called -- here's a good example of the mouth harp in action. I think it was in my memory banks from a video game I played about 15 years ago.)

As I ride through the dance floor, the music and dancing begin to draw me in. One particularly stunning dancer, an ebony-skinned young woman of about 25, is driving me to distraction. I feel the sphinx slowing down and things start to feel unstable. I try to refocus on the task at hand, but the dream falls apart.

This lucid was fueled by pure desperation. I've never fought this hard to save an LD that was going bad, but it paid off. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of this gladius thing.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #58: Generosity and Giants

A young woman named "Crystal Fleming" is collecting money for a charity, and I've pledged $33.13. I'm proud of my "generosity" and totally thrilled that I've found exact change down to the penny. But now I can't find Crystal. It's night, and I trudge across a snowy field to a picnic table where I think she might be waiting. But rather than Crystal, seated at the table is my friend W.

This is unexpected, and as soon as I question whether I'm dreaming, I know that I am. I tell W, "Gotta go, this is a lucid dream." His face is harshly lit, stony, and expressionless. I realize we're in a small, dark room now, getting darker by the moment. I head for the exit, but the scene fades...

Now I'm in the dark. I'm desperate for a lucid dream, though, so there's no way I'm letting this one go. I start swinging a gladius (ancient Roman sword) and willing myself to be in the Colosseum for Task of the Year. On top of this I shout, "This is still a lucid dream!"

I hear Wife muttering and rolling over nearby, and now I'm scared that I'm really yelling and waving my arms around in the bedroom. I want a lucid too badly to stop trying, though, so I jam the index and middle finger of my left hand into my mouth and start chewing on them. This all feels totally real, but I decide to ride it out to the end. If I look like a psycho, I look like a psycho. I'm not dropping this LD.

Suddenly, a sharp new dream scene forms: I'm standing on our bed, fingers in my mouth, swordless right hand swinging madly. The scene's extremely vivid, but there's a slight motion to everything that I see, like I'm slightly drunk. I hop down from the bed and run out into the hall.

The hallway outside of our bedroom is totally transformed. The carpeting is bright pink and the room is decorated floor to ceiling with stuffed animals. There's an exit to the right that doesn't exist IWL, so I explore it, curious where it leads. I find myself in a new hallway with a tall picture window overlooking an early morning street scene.

I phase through the glass out onto the street. The street is wet as if it rained overnight. A few cars pass by, headlights on. It looks like a work day that's just beginning. I fly up into the air, but my confidence isn't what it should be. My altitude is low and my speed's really pitiful. There's an entrance to a mall food court nearby, and the dream seems to be ushering me toward it. I don't resist.

In spite of the early hours, this food court is packed. It's a two story mall, so I try flying again, getting about 6 feet off of the ground and doing that slow drift again. I spot my reflection in the exit door on the opposite side of the food court. Except the reflection isn't me flying -- it's my 6'8" Uncle J walking toward the door with me flying over his shoulder. He looks solid, substantial, and real, while I look like some kind of phantasm. I look down, and he's not there. But in the glass's reflection, he's solid-looking and completely realistic.

Now I can't decide whether I'm me flying toward the door or if I'm my gigantic uncle, lumbering toward the exit on foot. I switch between feeling like I'm the one flying... then the one on foot... then both...

I raise my hand to phase through the door. Uncle J's reflection does the same. The phase fails. From below, an attractive DC calls to me, saying, "Hi! Come down here." The LD's starting to feel thin and I float down. The DC is about 30 with long, dark hair, and attractive almost to the point of absurdity. I remember reading Waggoner during my WBTB and want to ask her what she represents. I feel weak and insubstantial, though, and my voice is just a hoarse whisper. She looks at me, arms crossed, a wry smile on her face and the scene fades to black.

This lucid was long enough that I became legitimately concerned about remembering it. This worry wound up being a bit of a downfall, but it still took me in interesting directions.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #57: Gladius and Darkness

I'm experiencing deja vu as I walk through an airport terminal, sure that I've dreamed of this place before. I note all of these little details that I believe my mind left out of the dream version of this place -- the color of the carpeting, the man arguing at the ticket counter, the way that the ceiling curves into a dome in this room. Then I hear the sound of hurried little footsteps. Someone tells me "E is looking for you!" (E is my oldest son.) Now I'm lucid.

I hear E shout playfully from somewhere further down the terminal: "Looking for Daaaaddy!" I know that we're playing hide and seek. I eagerly set off, loving the idea of playing like this in an LD. I move through the terminal and wind up in a series of twisting, narrow office hallways. Other children run by me, possibly engaged in their own games of hide and seek.

As I'm moving through these hallways, a little hand swipes the back of my leg and E declares, "I got Daaaaddy!" I move toward E to scoop him up but he laughs and runs in the opposite direction. I follow but almost immediately I've lost him in the hallways.

I wind up back in the airport terminal and wander through there a while longer before coming to a craft table. Wife is standing at this table wearing a smock and molding some sort of clay. I walk up to the table but she doesn't acknowledge me. I grab a piece of clay and tell her, "I'm having a lucid dream." She responds in essence that I should "show her" what that means. (I don't remember her exact words.)

As I begin molding the clay, it starts foaming and fizzing until the entire surface is covered in a layer of foam. I wipe the foam away bit by bit and underneath is a carved image of a human face. Wife looks astonished. I tell her, "I'm telling you, being lucid is the way to go."

She hands me a round piece of glass. "Make me a picture of a Christmas tree." I nod, take the glass from her, and rub my hand across it once. Instead of a Christmas tree, I produce a little stained glass picture of an eye.

Wife looks at it. "Nice. But that's not a Christmas tree. I thought you said you were having a lucid dream."

A bit baffled, I shrug and say, "I don't know what to tell you." She goes back to her crafts and I walk further along in the airport terminal. I'm loving the experience of being lucid again and I suddenly fret that I'll forget everything that's happened. I try to recall everything that's happened up to this point, but this destabilizes the scene. Everything collapses into darkness.

I remember that Xanous had talked about handling "dark scenes" by acting out some action like riding a bike or running. I want to perform a Task of the Year, so I will myself to have a gladius in my hand. (The gladius is a sword of ancient Rome.) I swing the sword back and forth in the darkness, imagining that I'm locked in a dark tunnel underneath the Colosseum. I can hear the crowd now, and I know that the gates will open any moment to let me out for my match. I'm nervous with anticipation. I try to remember whether I have to kill for this task, and think that I do.



I see a blob of light forming in the corner of my vision. I'm filled with fear and nervous tension. But just as I'm bursting with anticipation, the crowd noise dies down and the blob of light forms into a high window in the hallway of a university. My vision is badly distorted around the edges, almost as if I'm wearing a shredded contact lens.

The window is about 15 feet above me, and I float up to it to start phasing through the glass. The phasing is difficult and awkward. It feels like I'm dragging my body through thick plastic wrap. I finally make it through and then I'm flying over a park in the mid-afternoon. The dream feels thin now, and I fly only a short distance before waking up.

I'm glad to be in a patch of more peaceful, relaxed lucids that are geared toward exploration. These are usually among my favorites and tend to provide more opportunity for completing tasks. (Not that I was successful completing anything in this dream, of course, but theoretically...)

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #56: The Kangarant

I'm in a small prop plane flying over a high, snowy mountain range. There are two other guys in the plane with me, both in their 20s. There are no seats -- everyone is standing. Nobody appears to be piloting the aircraft.

The plane barrels toward a mountain peak, and I shout, "Agggh, watch out!!" But the plane clears the peak (though just barely) and the two guys high five. They look at me like they don't get why I'm being such a baby.

"Where are we?" I ask. One of the guys ponders this for a moment and says, "California." California? "No way," I think, and become lucid.

The plane goes into a hard, sickening turn to the right and starts losing altitude. My two companions think this is great, but I want off. I phase my left hand through one of the plane's windows. After a brief pause, the rest of my body follows and I'm flying outside in the clouds, the plane buzzing off into the distance.

I'm descending pretty rapidly but I feel like I'm in control. Unexpectedly, I pass by a gray-haired man who's dressed in an Army Service Uniform. He looks extremely high-ranking, almost certainly a general. He's staying still while I'm moving so I whoosh right by him. He's muttering something as I fly by, but I can't make it out.

My descent slows and I land in an airfield. Some planes are taxiing on runways while others are refueling. There's even a rocket set up nearby! It looks vaguely like a Saturn V but it's way too small.

Stranger still are the animals roaming everywhere across this airfield. Each has at least one human handler. I spot camels for sure, and several other types that I can't remember. But the animal that really grabs my attention is something that I can only describe as the cross between a kangaroo and an elephant. (Kangarant? Eleroo?)

This animal is about 30-feet tall, gray-skinned like an elephant, but with the powerful hind legs and dainty forelimbs of a kangaroo. It has a marsupial pouch but its head has tusks and a modest trunk. The head is elephant-like, but sleeker and longer than an elephant's. I watch this beast in fascination for a while. A handler on a raised platform is passing it some kind of hay to eat. The kangarant munches away, passive and content.

I start thinking about tasks and I fly past the airfield to see what's out there. I come to a beach where several vendors have stalls set up. I decide that this is Australia and that I should do the Australia Task of the Year. I remember something about Mel Gibson. Actual task: ("Hitch a ride on a sea turtle, dolphin, or humpback whale and explore the Great Barrier Reef. Bite a great white shark and don't die. ") I decide that since I don't know what I'm doing I had better try something else. I decide to figure out some kind of way to travel to the Colosseum and have my gladiator battle.

I convince myself that a time machine will appear behind me. I turn around, shouting, "Time machine!" This fails to do anything but make me feel stupid.

A girl who looks like she's about nine walks up to me. I think she's perhaps Philippina. I ask, "Can you show me the way to the time machine?"

She nods, looking a little cross with me. "But I'm not a girl! I'm a boy!" She glares at me, waiting for me to make this right. I don't really know how to respond, since she can apparently read my mind (and I still think she's a girl.)

"Sorry...?" I offer, and this seems to satisfy her. She starts running inland across a nearby road and I follow. We've only gone a short distance when I wake up.

Had a nice sense of freedom in this one, which left me feeling liberated enough to do Basic Task of the Month. This one was light and fun the entire way through, and even my flight malfunctions didn't get me too upset.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #55: Number Games and Ninja

Wife and I are seated on the floor with a dozen or so small children. The kids are probably 5 or 6 years old, but for some reason we're all taking a Japanese class together. We're working on a craft project while some unseen teacher barks simple instructions which Wife and all of the little kids easily follow. Not me, though. I'm fumbling around trying to glue something onto a paper plate and looking like quite the idiot.

The kids titter at my ineptitude. Wife shoots me a look of disbelief. The unseen teacher bellows more instructions and again I'm the only one who's not getting it. It's all really embarrassing and I think, "Well, I'd better hope this is all a dream. Because otherwise, this is humiliating." I use the nose pinch RC and become lucid.

Wife seems to have vanished, so I walk out of the room while the class continues to work. I seem to be in some kind of apartment, and I turn down a short hallway into a semi-dark, rather sparse bedroom. My friend "Leroy" is wandering around in here and I say, "Hey, [Leroy]! It's another lucid dream!" He ignores me, though, and seems to be looking for something.

A large window overlooks a nighttime city scene. It looks like we're about 10 stories up. I phase through the glass and step out onto a ledge, preparing to fly. I leap away from the building, ready to take to the sky... and give a little yelp as I plummet to the street below. I land pretty softly, narrowly missing a parked car. I relax my mind for a moment and then take to the air again.

I'm flying over a huge, grassy field that I think is supposed to be this city's equivalent of Central Park. The grass is short and extremely well-manicured. Golf course grass. Even though it's night, the park itself is strangely well-lit, and a few DCs are wandering through it. I see a couple of fancy archways and a miniature replica of the Arc de Triomphe.

Most interestingly of all, I see a ninja crouched behind a boulder, hiding in the shadows. Perhaps another forty feet away, there's an Imperial Stormtrooper and a man dressed like a World War I-era pilot searching carefully around the park, presumably looking for the ninja.

I remember the Task of the Month -- have a DC guess a number between 1 and 100. I swoop down to where the ninja is hiding and say, "Hey! I'm thinking of a number from 1 to 100. Guess what it is." The ninja seems horrified to see me. He presses his palms to the sides of his head, in disbelief that I would so bumblingly blow his cover. He points excitedly behind me at the Stormtrooper and the pilot. Guess they really are looking for him. "Oh, I see!" I tell him. "Sorry about that. Let me ask them instead."

I'm worried that the Stormtrooper will sound too garbled, so I address the World War I-era pilot. "Hey! I'm thinking of a number from 1 to 100. What is it?"

He thinks for a moment. "22?"

It occurs to me that I didn't actually think of a number from 1 to 100. I feel like a bit of a dummy. Okay, 38. 38 38 38. "Hey, man, sorry about that. I forgot to think of a number before I asked. Will you guess again?"

He pauses. Then a slightly sheepish guess of "Uh... 23?"

"No, but that's okay. Thanks!" The pilot and the Stormtrooper move toward the boulder, but I see that the ninja is long gone. The Stormtrooper growls something angry and garbled and I think how glad I am that I didn't try to play the guessing game with him.

I wander the park a bit more. The sun has apparently started to rise because it looks like early morning now. The number of DCs has picked up. I know that there's something I should be doing in New York, but I can't remember the task. (Task I was trying to think of: Transform into King Kong, climb the Empire State Building, and battle the military.) I think it's Task of the Year, but I incorrectly believe that there's something I should be doing in Central Park. I turn a corner past a food vendor, and rub my hands together. It doesn't feel as real as I'd expect. Things feel like they're slipping and I wake up.

This was the second of two LDs from last night.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #54: Into the Gray Matter

I'm seated on a train, looking out the window as a grassy landscape rolls by. An older lady sits down on the seat directly across from me so that we face each other. She tells me that she’s AH's mom. (AH is a friend from way back that I've lost touch with.) I'd never met her mom before, and we chat pleasantly for a bit. But soon I realize that AH's mother passed away before I'd even met AH herself.

The mother looks at me suspiciously the moment that I become lucid. She starts rocking in her seat, waving her finger at me, and hectoring me about why I chose that seat on the train and what business did I have on her train, anyway? She's speaking to me so aggressively and angrily that I'm taken aback. My fresh lucidity can't bear up and the scene blacks out. I refuse to believe that the LD is over, though, and I wait just a moment before I hear voices.

Through the darkness, I clearly hear Wife saying, “Sorry, guys, it’s time for bed.” I can hear my kids laughing and running around. It’s very loud and sounds incredibly real. Out loud, I say, “I know that I’m still asleep and that this is still a dream.” My voice, too, sounds shockingly real, and I can’t help but worry that I’m saying all of this in waking life as well.

I feel the kids hopping around me on the bed, but I remind myself that this is just my dream body feeling this, not my real one. My son E bounces nearby, gleefully saying, "Daddy's sleepin! Daddy's sleeeeeepin!" It seems so real that I feel like my lucidity is in jeopardy. I raise my voice until I'm almost shouting, "This is a lucid dream" over and over.

Suddenly, the voices stop and I find myself viewing a simple office that contains only a swivel chair and a desk with a hologram projected over the top of it. The hologram is a fully 3-d, semi-transparent projection of a human brain. I find that by thinking about it, I can rotate this hologram to the left or right.

I have no dream body, but as my curiosity grows, I find that I can move my viewpoint throughout the room, and I zoom in close on the brain. My perspective sinks into the brain itself and I zoom closer and closer until finally I can perceive individual synapses. I see neurotransmitters flowing across the synaptic cleft! To me they look like small, clear beads or little bubbles. I wonder what kind of neurotransmitter I'm looking at.

I watch this strange interplay for a moment, wondering whether I’m looking at my own brain or someone else’s. I travel around inside of this brain for a while before I wake up.

Nowhere near a success, but at least the Task of the Year is on my mind!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #53: The Cestus

I’m in a bathroom, looking for a stall to use. I don't feel desperate, but I'm not being very careful as I swing one open. Inside I find a guy standing there peeing right into the drain on the floor. I bleat, "Sorry! Sorry!" as I try to hurriedly close the door. But unfortunately, the stall door has completely disappeared, leaving me no escape from this excruciating situation.

I’m embarrassed for him peeing into the drain like a barbarian and I’m embarrassed for me throwing open the door like an idiot. I stand there marinating in the awkwardness for a moment before it becomes so painful that I have a false awakening into...

...the same bathroom. I don't buy that I woke up in a bathroom, and I become lucid. The bathroom is empty now and I’m standing by a sink looking into a mirror. I note that the stall doors are all closed again and that I badly need a shave. I cannot handle the idea of leaving a bathroom without washing my hands, so I'm glad that the faucet works. I don't see soap anywhere but fortunately I manage to get over this.

I head outside into the hall and it looks like the hallway of a dark hotel, deep blue carpeting and flickering fluorescent lights. I can go left or right and I choose left. When I head to the left, though, I see a writhing black cloud of smoke at the end of the hall. It looks like the smoke monster from Lost. I mutter, “I’ll pass...” and head back the other way down the hall.

The electric lights flicker for a moment and then the whole scene starts to darken and press down on me. I rub my hands together and the details feel real, down to the deadlift calluses at the pinky, ring, and middle finger joints. When I do this, there’s an electric crackle and the lights come back on. I walk for a long way down the hall but somehow it just seems to get longer and longer. I want to either find a DC for basic Task of the Month or get to Rome for the Colosseum battle Task of the Year. I start to feel fretful that I'm going nowhere and the scene fades to black.

I feel it coming, though, and I relax and prep for DEILD. Another scene begins to form. I’m walking through a concrete structure that looks like a parking garage or the innards of a stadium. I’m wearing something like a cestus, a nasty-looking, studded leather wrapping around my hand. This isn’t the Colosseum, but I feel like I can turn this into the “Europe” Task of the Year. I’m armed and the location seems like something I could massage into the Colosseum with a little effort.



But I notice that I feel like I’m no longer able to breathe. The breath simply doesn't feel like it's coming anymore. I know it has to be an illusion but the sensation is terrifying. I try to relax and wait for this to play itself out but some part of me panics and I wake up.

This was the second of two lucid dreams from the morning of New Year's Day.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #52: The Obsidian Tower

I'm in a doctor's office, waiting awkwardly nearby while he examines some patient that I don't know. I'm a bit bored, so I think about the morning's previous lucid dream and how close I came to not recognizing that I'm dreaming. Things start to feel strange to me, so I hit the nose-pinch and become lucid.

I walk out of the office into a hallway and start looking for "Exit" signs. I'm excited to see one at the end of the hallway. I follow it and happily, there's another leading me further on. A tightly-packed group of DCs strolls through the hallway, taking up the entire thing. I "excuse me, excuse me" my way through them and work my way to the next "Exit" sign. This one points me toward a stairwell.

I begin to worry that I'm very high up so I decide that I need to get downstairs as efficiently as possible. I leap over the railing, intent on jumping my way to the bottom. Unfortunately, I just land in an untidy heap. A lady walking up the stairs nearby yelps when I crash-land. She hurries toward me and asks, "Are you okay?" It's pretty embarrassing. I tell her, "Thanks, but you don't need to worry about me."

I hop back up and then leap over the next railing. It goes much better this time, and I hop all the way to the bottom like this, and it's probably 6-8 stories' worth of stairs. There's a long hallway at the bottom and as I walk along it, two boys of about 12 go running past me, one chasing the other. The boy in front is holding a handwritten note and the boy in pursuit says, "Give that back!" I stop them both, saying, "That's mine now", and pluck the note out of the first kid's hands. They register no objection to this and quickly wander away.

The note has 6 bullet points, each with a sentence. At the bottom is a phone number with the area code "666". (Yikes!) I read every sentence and try to memorize them, but they're very random and strange. One was something about the sky. I really work at the memorization task but the content is so random that it feels hopeless. After I've read the note, I follow another "Exit" sign that leads me outside.

I'm in a large, outdoor courtyard on a foggy morning. Across the courtyard from me is an obsidian tower made entirely of glass. It rises high into the fog and its top is entirely out of sight. I remember my goal of seeing the Pyramid, but this tower has really grabbed my interest. I float up into the air and start guiding myself toward it. One lady in the courtyard shouts, "Wait, how are you so tall?" I wonder for a moment whether I'm just growing to an enormous height and not flying at all. I double-check -- nope, there are my feet. (Oddly, they are clad in loafers.)

I start involuntarily flying backward away from the tower instead of forward toward it. I decide to see what happens if I simply turn around and put my back to the tower. Fortunately, this works well and I keep drifting toward the tower (now at my back) as I rise. I whip through several layers of fog before perching on the tower's stone roof.

My friend AJ is seated up there, looking out over the city. "Congratulations!" she says. "It's a great view from up here." I have to agree. The sky is brilliantly red now, and somehow I can see the courtyard far below, almost as if the fog was one-way. I can in fact see a great deal of the city from here. I wonder whether the people that I'm looking at can see me back.

"So what am I doing all the way up here?" she says.

"I'm not sure, but I think you've got it pretty good. I had to work my ass off to get up here!"

She laughs and soon my vision fades to black. I try to DEILD but then AJ says, "Hey, you're actually still up here. You just can't see anything." I try to think about what I could do to get my sight back, but in a few more seconds, I'm really awake.

This was the first of two lucid dreams from the morning of New Year's Day. What is it with me and holiday lucid dreaming?

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #51: The Thragian Age

I'm walking around a museum during a special event about "The Thragian Age". There are cool, semi-magical artifacts displayed all around, including a floating stone wheel that turns on its own and glows with strange white energy. A waitress offers me a drink from a tray. She's dressed in a sparkling blue skirt and a jeweled mask that I assume is also from the Thragian Age. I wish that I was better studied in this "Thragian Age" (or had heard of it at all.)

Wife walks up to me dressed in running shorts and a t-shirt and says that she feels "underdressed". I say, "Me too. And I'm tired. Let's nap." We curl up under a nearby table. I feel momentarily frisky but quickly reconsider when I remember where we are. I decide that while I'm sleeping, I might as well try to WILD. I close my eyes, wait for a dream scene to form and...

...find myself walking outside along an empty road, fully aware that I'm dreaming. It's also clear to me now that the previous scene was also a dream. I feel happy and confident as I jog along the road and start narrating to myself: "I'm in a lucid dream and I'm going to fly to the Great Pyramid." I take to the air near an overpass, swoop under it, and head for a distant set of mountains.

I fly for a while when the wind starts blowing against me. I really try not to fight so hard this time, saying, "Show me what you want to show me." I relax, and the wind turns me back toward the city. I fly for a while over houses, tree-lined streets, and people milling about in their yards.

The sun is bright and the wind is cool against my skin. A gust from the side makes me bank toward the city's downtown. I'm no longer concerned with visiting the Pyramid and I'm just enjoying the peace and the moment. I fly for a while longer, but before I reach downtown, the dream ends.

This was the third of my LDs from early Christmas morning. This WILD was rather nightmarish, but in the end pretty amazing. Hands down, the most hostile DCs that I've encountered.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #50: The Gauntlet of Greed

The WILD drops me into a wood-paneled room. There's a door in front of me, and behind me is a frosted glass window through which sunlight illuminates the room. In the middle of the room is a huge, square pile of $100 bills. It has to be, at minimum, something like $30 million. Probably more.

Someone starts shouting and hammering on the door. I feel grasping and suspicious that it's someone who is after my money. They slip a note under the door that simply reads, "You're broke, bitch." I should find this funny, but instead I feel insulted, entitled and petty. Not in my LD, not when I'm sitting on this much cash. There's a chorus of angry voices outside of the door now and fists and feet are slamming into the door. It's about to rattle off the hinges.

I throw the door open and I'm stunned to see a broad hallway filled with literally hundreds of hostile dream characters. The enraged mob (all male) is armed to the teeth, aggressive and bristling with guns. Somebody punches me in the face just as a mobster aims a lupara-style sawed-off shotgun at me. The crowd howls, and I see AKs, handguns, machine pistols, and every other manner of gun pointing my way.

They open fire and I feel a spray of bullets trace across my body. Buckshot rakes the left side of my face. Everything is chaos as stray bullets rip into DCs, who fall to the floor and are trampled by the others as they run toward me. I know that nothing can hurt me but I'm still gripped with aggression, fear and nervous energy. A man in a trench coat is unlucky to get close and I punch him as hard as I can. He goes flying, crashes into the wall, and lies still.

The chaos is getting to be too much for me and I feel lucidity slipping. I hate that I'm fighting and the madness of the whole situation dawns on me. Am I even sure that this is my money? Do I really want to go to war with some unknown element of my subconscious over this worthless pile of dream cash? I decide to just walk forward, leave the money behind, and separate myself from the riot going on all around me.

DCs continue to run past, firing at me and occasionally striking me with fists and feet, but as more and more of them run into the room behind me, the hallway ahead clears out. I hear some kind of frantic melee going on in the money room but I ignore it. The few remaining DCs that run past now ignore me and as I continue forward through the hall, I soon find myself alone. I feel calm again, and the thought of the Pyramid refocuses me on my goals.

I pass a large window on my right that gives me a view into a busy newsroom. Reporters run excitedly from desk to desk but I don't investigate further. The exit is up ahead, and I find that it is the same set of automatic doors from the last dream. I again imagine that the Great Pyramid lies just beyond the door, but this time the dream fades just as I approach the doors.

This was the second of the three LDs I had early Christmas morning.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #49: Turtles All the Way Down

I'm sitting in a large classroom with a bunch of friends and coworkers. The teacher hasn't arrived, but it's all right -- we're seated at long desks that are covered with candy like turtles, caramels, M&M cookies, miniature pecan pies, Reese's... all kinds of goodies. Everyone is stuffing their face and having a great time.

I suddenly have a false awakening into a small dormitory room with a cot. I feel like I'm late for something so I spring right up and walk out the door, emerging in the same classroom that I just left. Everyone is still feasting.

I sit down next to my friend "Leroy" and tell him and several other friends and coworkers nearby that "You're not going to believe this, but I had a dream that this would happen. The classroom, the candy... everything!" Everyone seems happy to hear this and they plow into the turtles, caramels, and other goodies with even greater abandon. It suddenly occurs to me that this is also a dream, and I could keep "waking up" into this room of candy forever.

I turn to Leroy and tell him that this is a lucid dream, inviting him to follow along. He eagerly hops up and we stride out into the hallway. I hesitate for a moment when I realize that I forgot to try any of the food, but decide to focus on getting outside.

We get to a set of automatic doors and I imagine that outside these doors is the Great Pyramid. As I approach the doors, I catch sight of the Pyramid... it's just through the door, stretching so high that I can't see the top. But as the doors slide open, the Pyramid suddenly changes into just another generic city building. I feel a little surge of emotion but it dies out quickly. We keep going.

Leroy and I turn right and continue down the street past some food carts. I see people from my past and I explain to M who they are and why they're appearing in the dream. "That girl across the street? That's JG. I went to middle school and high school with her but haven't seen her since graduation. I still run into her brother sometimes." Now JG's brother appears. "Oop, there he is."

There's a stadium up ahead and to our left. I tell Leroy, "That's the stadium from when we were in school but it looks like I've placed it next to a side street like the one by my high school stadium." I turn to look at Leroy and see that he's trailing far behind, looking lost and unfocused. I realize that I'm not giving him much attention and it's probably time to cut him loose. It isn't long before he fades entirely from the scene.

I reach a parking lot from which I think that I see the Pyramid on the far horizon. I leap up into the air and start floating but can't seem to get any forward momentum for flight. As I will myself to fly forward, a counterwind blows against me, and I totally lose my cool. It's only seconds before the dream collapses.

This was the first of three LDs from early Christmas morning. This was my first time directly experiencing a creative work of my subconscious. I was grateful for the few minutes that I got, but I'd have enjoyed more. Some other night!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #48: The Arcade of the Subconscious

I am "in" a side-scrolling video game that's drawn in the style of a pencil sketch. My avatar is a small stick-figure man who runs, jumps, and shoots his way across a grassy landscape where boulders roll and hop all around, presenting a constant danger of smashing him flat.

I dart back and forth as boulders bounce over my head when I randomly realize that this is all a dream. The dream stays perfectly stable and I am able to continue playing further into the game. I (or my stick figure man) shoot at a boulder that's rolling toward me and find that within four shots it bursts into harmless fragments.

I continue running further along the track and all the while more and more boulders make their way onto the playfield. It's getting difficult to avoid them and I'm starting to feel pretty stressed by the difficulty. A new enemy presents itself, some sort of mole that tunnels underneath the floor where I'm walking and blasts a huge column of dirt up at me. It's a big distraction, and it's not long before a boulder strikes my player, knocking him horizontal (and presumably dead.)

The game ends immediately and cuts to a title screen. Why can't I remember the title? I watch the title screen, hopeful that it'll let me continue playing. After a few seconds of this, the game switches to a demo mode where I am no longer in control. I'm contemplating what to do about this when the dream ends.

This was the second of my galantamine dreams from last night. The beginning and middle were fun. The end? Not too good.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #47: Lost in America

The wind is loud outside but the noise suddenly settles into a murmur. I know that I'm close to a WILD, and soon... I'm in a light rail station, holding hands with my son E. The floor is red brick and the sky above us is clear. Tall buildings surround us on all sides. I don't recognize the buildings, but for some reason I believe that this is New York.

I tell E, "Well, buddy, we're in New York. This is... well, this isn't real, but it's a train station." He hops around, pointing gleefully at the train. I walk with him to the opposite end of the station.

The train starts to move, and E suddenly breaks away from my grip and runs toward it! I'm panicked at the site of him running carelessly toward that train and I run after him. He stops short of actual danger and I grab onto his hand, making sure I've got a good grip this time. "E, you can't do things like that! If you're going to run off, we can't be here."

I take him with me out to a parking lot and our family car is waiting there. There's a small memory gap here, but I'm pretty sure that the car didn't have child seats, but I just ignored this. We're driving in the neighborhood where I grew up. E is there at first but after a few blocks I look back and he's gone.

I pass a set of kids that look like they're fighting. I can't tell what's going on but it looks like someone might be taking a beating. I jump out of the car, forgetting that it's still moving. To my dismay, the car keeps going, turns the corner by itself and drives out of sight. The kids disperse, and nobody seems upset anymore. There's another memory gap before I find myself being shown a house by a real estate agent who looks kind of like CSI's Marg Helgenberger. She calls herself "Madge" and the house has a beautiful, open interior. I'm impressed with the place and wonder if it's similar to any other houses I've seen IWL.

When she takes me into the back of the house, though, things take a horrible turn. The rooms in the back are dark and smoky with makeshift drapes blocking out the sunlight. Drug addicts are passed out all around the place, laying on beds, floors and furniture. Some of them twitch occasionally and I see one man whose leg is streaked with blood. Madge seems mildly embarrassed and says, "It does need a little fixing up."

When we get to the bathroom, I see a clearly dead man lying in the tub. I panic, probably lose lucidity, and run back down the hall. Madge is running too, but the hallways have all changed. I can't find my way back to the sane part of the house and my panic collapses the dream.