memorable

This was simply the most amazing lucid dream I've ever had. The description is long, but it's as abbreviated as I could get it -- the dream itself felt like it lasted an hour and a half! Absolutely unreal.

Just the thought of having another LD like this might be enough motivation to last me forever. All I can be is grateful.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #26: Transcendental Turkey Shoot

I'm a spectator in an arena where dueling teams of wizards battle it out with fire and ice spells. I'm ranting with another spectator about how terribly they're playing. The spectator says that "it's like they have no awareness!" Hearing about "awareness" instantly makes me lucid (thanks, subconscious!) and I run out of the stands into an outer hallway that's filled with dream characters.

I want to perform the Task of the Month which requires shooting turkeys with 17th century weaponry. I imagine that I have a huge bundle of preloaded flintlock muskets strapped to my back and it isn't long before turkeys start darting around in the crowd in front of me. I reach over my right shoulder, grab a musket, and aim it at a nearby turkey. I carefully aim and fire, the musket thundering and kicking my shoulder. The shot's a clean miss, and the DC's in the scene start running and screaming.

I toss my old musket aside and grab a new one from my "bundle". I keep catching sight of turkeys up ahead and I run after them, firing and missing time after time. I chase them onto the arena floor itself, the magical combat still raging wildly around me. I skate across a field of ice that's melting beneath the heat of a raging volcano, the floor nearly collapsing beneath me. It's vivid and exciting but what really has my attention is getting one of these turkeys.

I take a side door that leads me into a golden elevator. The elevator begins rising the moment that I enter and through its ornate viewing portals I see the shore of an island. I sense that this is an island filled with turkeys and I immediately dive through the portal, plunging headfirst toward the shallow water along the shoreline. I manage to float just in time to avoid a jarring landing and immediately spot a turkey ahead in the distance.

I run for miles, grabbing musket after musket off of my back and tossing them aside each time that I miss or get a "close call" that yields nothing but a puff of feathers. I even manage to cleanly hit 2 or 3 of them, but each time that I draw close I see that they were really just large pigeons. At one point I reach a narrow valley that's painted with brilliant, cartoon-like colors. I laugh, feeling elated and invincible, like I can run here forever.

After some time I chase a turkey deep underground through an old barrow. Dream characters join me and leave at times, all strangers. Eventually I run through a weapons display area that's arranged around a giant upright sarcophagus, but all the weaponry appears to be from the Egyptian Bronze Age, not the 17th century.

In the next room I stumble upon a sad, sullen group of friends and coworkers arranged around a board room table. They're being lorded over by some obnoxious stranger named "Rod" who announces that he's taking over our company and that I should "sit down and shut up". This annoys me, and I slap him so hard that it leaves a handprint on his face. He orders me not to do that, and in response I slap him hard enough to send him sprawling out of his chair. The others around the table applaud, and I jog out of the room, spotting daylight up ahead.

I emerge onto a dirt road and lean against the guardrail for a moment, thinking about how this is the first time that I've ever attacked a DC. I reflect on how thin my justification was and wonder how this relates to dream yoga's description of playing out negative "karmic traces". Unable to really digest the concept of karma in the dream state, I walk further along the road.

At the end of the road stands a Roman arch with golden light spilling out of the arch onto the roadway. The arch is designed roughly like the Arch of Constantine:



When I approach the arch, an enormous flock of brilliantly glowing turkeys goes flying through the arch, passing right overhead! It must be hundreds of them. This kicks up a rush of wind that picks me up off of the road, lays me flat on my back, and carries me gently backward as the stream of turkeys goes flying by above me. It's beautiful and serene and I'm overcome with bliss and elation. I can't stop laughing at how incredible it all is.

The wind sets me down some distance from the arch and my friend A is standing nearby, smiling at my reaction. He asks how much longer I think this LD can last. I say that I don't know but that it feels like it's been an hour and a half. I tell him that I took some B6 and wonder whether that will change the dream's length. Gently, I wake up, still blown away by what I just experienced.

Hit my longest lucid yet this morning! It felt like it might have gone 20 minutes. Very exciting! Go go Intro Class!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #10: The Horschwager Olympics (Early this morning)

I'm at home in the master bedroom and something tips me off that I'm having a dream. Fortunately, it's daytime but I still feel compelled to leave the house as quickly as I can. (I've been getting stuck in the first scene very often lately.) After having trouble getting out of my upstairs window last time, I decide to dash downstairs and try the front door.

The second floor is a perfect reconstruction of my house, seemingly down to the smallest details. I even have to fiddle with the baby gate to get downstairs. The ground floor, though, has changed into a hot, stifling gaggle of steam tunnels with no obvious exits.

I notice a mirror on the wall and check my reflection. I look like myself but with a pudgier face and feathered, rather flamboyant 90s-looking hair. (Still dashing, of course!)

I return to looking for an exit and spy an old-school cast iron stove against the wall. I see that it has a vent/chimney sticking out of the top that I imagine must lead to the outside. It's only a few inches in diameter but I decide that I can squeeze myself up it and make my escape via reverse Santa Claus.

I crawl through the oven and start willing my way up the vent. It's ultra-confining and hot to the point where I feel some mild pain on my skin during the trek upward. What a way to travel! Why didn't I take the mirror? I operate with a noticeably reduced IQ in my LDs, I'm afraid!

I finally emerge in daylight on a coastal city on a bright, clear morning. It's like a cross between San Francisco and Nice, France. Wife jogs past me and I jog after her through a bustle of dream characters.

As we run along, Wife hands me her iPod and tells me to listen. It's playing some catchy pop number with a female vocalist. It's not my style but it's got this great hook that I can't resist humming along to. As I hum, Wife and all of the other dream characters that we pass start singing as well. The sort of thing that only happens on cheesy television programs and my lucid dreams, I think.

Eventually, the road breaks away from the coast and Wife stops to rest. I decide to go off on my own and try to compete in the Olympics (recent goal.) I walk through the door of a nearby building, expecting to find the Olympics.

A greeter DC guides me into an enormous room that's a combination locker room and ice skating rink. I'm somewhat perturbed to find myself in the Winter Olympics but figure that I can change this later. I grab a duffel bag out of one of the lockers and carry it with me. A harried-looking receptionist and "E" (IWL friend) direct me to go to the second floor via elevator. I ask them what city this Olympics is taking place in. They respond that it is in "Horschwager" this year.

The elevators look dilapidated and out of service. (Doors hanging off loosely, bare shafts visible, etc.) I decide to take the stairs. The stairs, however, are a confusing maze of narrow bridges and snaking archways with sheer drop-offs all around. I wander this maze for a good while, reminding myself that "I'm in a lucid dream, about to compete in the Olympics" but the clock eventually runs out just as I reach a strange, glass-enclosed room. I wake up.

Easily my favorite lucid dream. Ironically, began as a lucid nightmare. Very satisfying and got about 10 minutes out of it.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #6: Seaside Escape (July 24, 2012)

Wife and I are walking along a wharf late at night with a man that we believe is our friend. I begin to realize that this man is not who he says he is and I'm growing more and more agitated. Suddenly, Wife screams, "It’s a setup! We’re being ambushed! Run!" and tears off running ahead of me.

I run after her and I hear the footsteps of our pursuers behind me. There are now many of them after us and this has become a full-blown nightmare. I know that the men behind me intend to kill us both.

Wife is running along the wharf ahead of me but she's approaching its end (or at least a bend) that leads straight into the ocean. We have nowhere left to go and I become lucid.

I run forward faster and faster to catch up with her. As my speed increases, I realized that I am soaring a couple of feet above the ground. I catch her under the arms and jumped up into the sky with her, flying several hundred feet into the air. We fly together over the ocean, splashing down far away from the wharf and our pursuers. The sea is choppy but it's a beautiful night. I'm completely unafraid.

I jump several more times until we end up in shallower water by a brightly-lit, festive boardwalk. The water is crowded with swimmers. It’s still night and we swim together through the crowd. I look closely at the faces of these other swimmers as we pass by. Vivid, detailed and varied, often with literally dozens of dream characters in the scene at once. I study them all, enjoying their detail. Most of them look like realistic people but one child has a very large head with an exceptionally large chin and lips. I commit his face to memory because it is so notable. He has curly blonde hair and somewhat pale skin.

We emerge from the water into the boardwalk’s shopping area, which looks very much like a mall food court. This area, too, is bustling with dream characters. I realize that I’ve lost track of Wife now. I feel that she’s safe and has to be nearby. At this point I sense I am at risk of being drawn too much into the "dream plot" and start talking to the characters around me, telling them that I am having a lucid dream.

I stop at a coffee shop. The girl who is the cashier there presides over a display case of poppy seed muffins. I feel bold and pushy so I tell the cashier that "This is my dream and you will do what I say!" Her hands drop to her sides and she looks ahead, suddenly no longer independently animated. I tell her to leave the cash register and walk out into the food court. She does. Some other DCs are watching, seemingly unsure what to make of this. I'm deciding whether to try to turn the cashier into Wife or try to see how many dream characters I can control at once.

A feeling of frailty suddenly sweeps over me and my voice becomes a whisper. Moments later, I'm awake.

This was just a great LD. I was riding high for days from this one.