false awakening

I had a lucid dream again, I can't believe it.
My mother wakes me up by shifting the curtains, it is very bright outside. It is so bright I cannot keep my eyes closed. My brother has started his computer and is playing loud music now, I stand up and get angry. The house has features of my current and old home. I talk to my mother about something. Next thing I know is that we are at a night festival. There are men performing on a stage, they are naked but colored in paint. They do something like free dance. It is very interesting. After the show is over, three giants appear, and dance. Two of them are dancing together, the other one seems lonely, and dances alone. He soon leaves again. It is time for the final part now. Somehow I know what it is: A golden ring will appear on the field, and the crowd will look for it. The one who finds it is then chased by the others in a cheerful manner. Suddenly, a big frog is speaking: "It is the 25th of the month, full moon, and a meteor will appear at the sky tonight. Could it be...?" I see the full moon, there are no clouds at the sky. And then the meteor, crashes down before me, the golden ring lands before my feet. I know now that I am dreaming. I pick up the ring, and start to walk in the direction of the moon. OR is with me now, he notices that I have the ring, and asks me how I found it. I say "because it is a dream" I throw the ring to him, he fails to catch it, but reflects it back to me with some stupid movement. I kick the ring upwards so it won't reach the ground, and then catch it, thinking "things like this are possible in a dream, huh". Now the crowd approaches me, we sit on the ground. I explain to various people that we are in a dream, and demonstrate it by stretching the ring like a rubber strap. The ring has a weird consistence now, something like very viscuos liquid. I ask a person who looks like a politician what he would do if this would be a dream and he could do what he wants. He walks away, saying that he doesn't believe in things like that.

I am at a beach with my brother and a man. We are disguised as apes( or are apes), and my brother is carrying a big piece of meat, or adead animal. As we wander across the beach, we see other apes in our way, they are far more. I am concerned about our meat, so I advice my brother and the man to be careful. We try to avoid the other apes, and soon decide to travel along the dike on the right. It is more a wall than a dike. I look at the other side, there are men with their pets, apparently only big cats like tigers, pumas, and so on. Later on, there is a way connecting the beach and the field, and we get scared of the big cats. I wonder what to do (meanwhile, we aren't apes anymore). After a while thinking how to aproach a curious tiger, I see that my brother wlked ahead carelessly, but I think that this is the right way, so I follow him.
I am alone now, on my way to town. I get to an area left to the way, and wonder what is here. I look back and get a grasp of how I got here, and then think I should get away fast. Too late, in the trees above me appears a woman in a weird device, she looks (or feels) asian, and says: "run away". I do so, but men notice me and run after me. I get to town, and think that they won't get me here because I know the shortcuts. I run to my house (not IRL), go to my room, and settle on my loft bed. Soon the men with their boss arrive in my room, and try to intimidate me. The boss asks me where the codes are. I suddenly get angry and shout that I don't have any codes. I go further and acuse them of breaking in my house, nad ask them to leave immediately, and on top of that, they have to buy me corn flakes for apology. The boss seems surprised by my ability to grasp the situation, and leaves grinding his teeth "Cornflakes...". Our house seems like a kindergarden, I join a few kids playing a boardgame with characters from sesam street. Later, I go around town, and notice the boss having a conversation with some nobelman. They make a plan to lure in my mother (not IRL, she looks like my old polish teacher). The boss leaves, the nobleman starts an evil laugh. I pack his throat with my left arm interrupting him, and threathen him to never again even think about something like that. I run back to my house, and see how the boss is leaving with my mother. I grasp the situation, it looks like he told her that I am in danger and she has to come with him. I run to them and push him away, saying to my mother that I am okay. She is reluctant, but I tell her she should consider how I would feel if she offers herself to save me.

I have nice recall lately, maybe it is because I started the practice of natural light.

The following occurred last night as I was attempting a visual MILD. The fact that the dream world reacted to my commands and thoughts, at least partially, is an encouraging sign for me; it is the first time I have exercised any measure of control in my dreams. Additionally, the fact that my logic center kicked in in this dream to recognize a DS is another encouraging fact. I found the visions that permeated the transition from the dream to the waking world, and then stayed with me in the waking world for a short time, to be disconcerting but not frightening in any way. Maybe a false awakening?

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I enter a cave that is lit by the daylight pouring through the gaping opening. The walls appear reddish, as if maybe made partially of clay. I have entered the cave with a group of children; feels like I am leading a field trip. On the walls of the cave is writing that appears to have been smeared on with some sort of green substance, maybe paint?

Directly ahead, the path in the cave splits in two; one path, the one to the right, continues on straight ahead and the one to the left continues downward. My “class” stays to the right, on the straight path and I can hear their playful yells back and forth as they all appear to be having a good time. I begin to walk down the downward sloping path to the left. A few feet down the grade I kneel down for some reason, as if to tie my shoe. I suddenly think to myself “thank God for that sunlight. This cave would be pretty damn spooky if it were nighttime outside.” As I think that, the light from the cave’s mouth vanishes and I am cast in darkness and overcome with a feeling of dread.

I tilt my head up and suddenly realize “I am dreaming. There is no way the light would just vanish at the very thought of it in the middle of the day were I awake.” I stand up and run my hand along the wall to my left (I am facing back the way I came, up the path towards the cave’s mouth). I can feel the moisture of the cave’s wall on my fingertips. I still hear my “class” yelling and playing on the path above me and to me left. I no longer feel any fear whatsoever, though I must admit that the echoing sound of children playing in a damp cave completely bathed in darkness is a bit creepy.

I say aloud “I have no class and those children do not exist.” The sounds of the children fade away into a background humming that won’t seem to stop. I then state, forcefully “illuminate!” Nothing happens. This time I yell “Light damnit!” The cave is not illuminated, but I can now somehow see only the wall to my left and just make out the green markings.

The humming noise has grown increasingly louder and I realize that it is coming from the humidifier in my bedroom in the waking world. I am once again bathed in complete blackness and I yell aloud “No! Keep it together! Stay in this dream!” But the world has gone completely black and the sound of the humidifier has grown louder. I no longer feel like I am standing anywhere, let alone a cave. I only see complete blackness. Before my eyes I do see visions of luminescent skeletons dancing about and then strange faces that I cannot identify.

My eyes shoot open and I am lying in my bed. The visions of the faces and skeletons are still in my line of sight. I shut my eyes quickly, the visions are still there, and re-open them, they are gone. I roll over on my back and perform my RC, confirming that I am now awake.

I woke up in my bedroom and my husband was lying next to me, still asleep. A voice told me that they would explain why I no longer had the vivid dreams that I had most of my life. (IRL I have had frequent, vivid dreams my whole life, but a few years back, I stopping remembering all but some very lame dreams with no plot. I want my dreams back) Then, a transparent screen appeared in the middle of the room that took up most of the room. The voice said "This is the dream your husband is having now. Then a small screen appeared right in front of me. It was about the size of a computer screen and had several small pictures on it like you might see in a google image search. The voice said "These are the dreams that you had last night." "Notice how much smaller they are than his dream." I looked over the images and put my hand through the image of a golden retriever. The dream played and was over in a few seconds. There was nothing worth remembering in it. The voice then explained that because my husband was now having such large dreams, there was not enough room for me to have large dreams too. The dreams that I saw in front of me were as big as they could get next to my husband's big dreams. The dreams that I used to have were even bigger than the dream that my husband was having and that is why they were so vivid and real to me. At that time my husband could not remember any of his dreams.

My dream recall would have been pretty good last night. Except I only wrote them down in a FA dream journal and not in real life.

Balls.

I'm going to colour code this slightly differently than normal just to make it all a bit clearer.

Waking Life (Top Level)
Semi-Lucid Dream (Middle Level)
Lucid Dream (Bottom Level)

I am walking down a stone spiral staircase with my old media teacher. I know that I am dreaming and don't need to reality check as the environment is one of the clearest I've experienced. The excitement that I may have a vivid, lucid dream for the first time in a while ends this fragment of the dream.
I am in a grand lecture theatre/exam hall. It is all on one level and the walls look a lot like the Great Hall in Harry Potter. There are red drapes and the seats have red cushions on them. I am sitting next to T_ S_ and realise that she is extremely beautiful. I lean in to her and realise I am lucid. "Breath on me," I say "And poke me". She asks why and I tell her it's just extremely important that she does so - I use the sensations to ground myself within the dream and everything becomes extremely vivid. I ask her to kiss me and she does so, it was amazing - better than any kiss I've ever had in real life. Despite the fact we're in the somewhat busy lecture hall we start to make love.
I wake up in what I think is my bed, making love to a brunette girl. She seems shocked I'm doing this and I quickly explain that I was having a lucid dream and that the actions must have carried over to waking life. I am still semi-aware that I'm dreaming as you can see in the rest of this dream extract. We are back in the building with the stone steps and the girl takes me to her class, it seems to have a similar atmosphere to the dream in the lecture hall. I watch from the back for a while and then, when class is over, we head back up the stone steps and emerge at the top of a hill in the desert. Her friend has joined us and we turn to close the large wooden door. As we do so a zombie comes running up the hallway, we just about manage to lock it out.
I have the sudden urge to help and a presence (dream guide?) tells me that I can. I need to find a particular seed and feed it to the zombie people to return them to a human state. Whilst being told this the zombie breaks through the door and bites the brunette girl's friend. She quickly becomes a zombie and I fight her off, trying to protect the brunette. I can't hold them off for long forever before she gets a small scratch. I vividly remember seeing her right eye developing a white sheen and before long she is one of them.
At this point I fly off the hill and over the desert, searching for the seed. When I find it I see that it looks like the head of a venus fly trap but purple, with pink spines sticking out of it. I quickly return with three of these and feed them to the three zombies. Two of them become the seeds themselves and start chatting (I blindly accept this) and when I give the third one to the brunette she recovers as quickly as she changed.
The next thing I know I have taken the two girls back to their dorms and am saying goodbye as I plan to leave for another adventure - the advanced task of the month. I try to teleport there but the dream ends.

Definitely dipped in and out of lucidity in the last part of the dream there but it was definitely one of the best LD's I've ever had! It has also occurred to me that the voice I heard that told me to get the seeds may be my dream guide. I felt a sort of presence (as I have read about countless times) when I was being told this information.

I really hope I find a dream guide, not for the advice, but so that I have a companion on my adventures to share the fun with.

awesome series of lucids/semis last night. i think the lucids may only have started on a slight awakening. i was flying when i woke, so all i tried to do was to forget about my real body and put all my focus into aggressively swimming through the air with my dream body. this worked brilliantly and i was back flying. the most memorable parts were being in school and preparing for a dance-off. somehow winning respect off lots of younger students. dont remember dancing though... then i was going on a night out/festival with mel and ryan, very old friends from school. after that i thought i had woken up in the dream. mel was on telly and i was saying how it was odd that i had dreamt about her and here she was on telly........ anyway i think she was getting famous for singing or something although on the tv she was being played by this older wag type lady.... i went to the computer to see if it was actually her. this was a very odd and long little false awakening so i must do more to remember to check where i am when waking and especially when recounting a dream as i often seem to do this in non lucid falsies... hmm alot more been forgotten.. may add more...

There was a beginning to this dream that I forget. I recall I entered a fancy spa while it was still broad daylight.

I woke up in a male only wash room sauna/wash area, inside a large blue tiled steam room. There were a few guys in towels in the general area and they were waking up and walking out. There was a video intercom on. I could see and hear a group of female employees talking together about working at the spa... The video quality was low, like a low-res security cam.

One of the ladies was saying how there were a lot of gay men that absolutely loved this place. That they liked to linger until the place closed to hookup with other guys. -I became alarmed. I looked around and it appeared to be closing time! There were a few older looking guys with nothing but towels on. I wanted to leave asap.

I quickly ran up the stairs to a lobby area. There was that same group of girls talking. They went dead silent as I walked in wearing only shorts and a towel. They all turned and looked at me straight faced. I said:

"Oh hey ladies. I was just hanging out late because some of the guys seemed really depressed and I wanted to cheer them up."

-They looked at me really funny. I realized my explanation had not helped the situation. I wondered how I ended up falling asleep here in the first place. (Low level reality testing.)

But, the place was vivid and awesome looking. Polished wood and marble floors. Soft track lighting. As I looked around for my clothes and stuff, I heard a missed call from my girlfriend. I couldn't find my things but I felt embarrassed enough to leave without them. I decided to call my girlfriend back. Instead of the call connecting, a recorded message played: it was a strong male voice. This is an exact quote (I text'd it to my GF the instant I woke up):

"You have crossed the signal line and are unable to get through. I assure you, it is nothing."

--At this exact moment, my girlfriend text me and woke me up. (PRECOGNITIVE)

Dreams have a real penchant for embarrassing us. This one was hilarious to me when I woke. I am straight. Like my last recorded dream (Stalked in Dreamland), there was a shocking trickster element.

The voice on the phone bore a strong resemblance to my own voice. I have unrecorded dream fragments about reaching a prerecorded message left by myself. One other recording in a dream sounded like something I said in real life to someone. I couldn't recall the exact words.

This reminds me of Dream #043

I got this vivid dream, after my alarm sounded and I went back to sleep because I still had some time before I had to go to college.

In the dream I immediately woke up again, and panicked when I saw the time. 1 pm! My class was starting right at that moment! I had to be in college and it's a 1,5 hour trip to get there. I texted some classmates I was going to be quite late.
To my disbelieve, the moment I stepped out the door, rain came pouring down like a true tropical storm.
I asked my dad to drive me to the train station, but he refused. At that moment I decided to stay home and call in sick. But before I could do that-after a scene I can't remember- I was suddenly outside, and the sun had already set.

This last, short part is a lot more interesting, weird and vivid.
I found myself outside, alone in the rain, in the dark, and I was only wearing boxers for some reason. I didn’t mind being half naked. Even though I was soaking wet, it wasn’t cold and there was no-one in sight. I ran down the street in which water was gushing down trough. After a short while I arrived at a weird looking building. It was quite modern and had a big glass wall near the entrance. From ouside you could see the big hall and some stairs along the sides. Some kids in nothing but blue plastic raincoats where walking up and down the stairs. The kids walking around at this late hour seemed to be boys around the age of 6-8. One boy in particular caught my eye. He was standing next to the door and staring right at me with his hands up against the glass.
Suddenly I got cold and I decided to take shelter from the rain in the building which had already intrigued me. It had an eerie feel to it. I thought it was some kind of nursery/day-care because of all the children, but there clearly where no supervisors around. I entered the strange building which also had a sort of hospital-feel surrounding it.

The place was flooded by the rain. The water was ankle-deep and the lights in the floor made it look quite pretty. The boys walking up and down the stairs didn’t pay me any attention and kept walking as if hypnotized. Only the boy by the door noticed me and kept staring. It wasn’t creepy, I was in awe of the place. It looked abandoned but still had something serene about it. I walked through the water, opened the door immediately to my right. It led to the toilet, a big bathroom with 3 stalls and a door at the other end. The place was not as well-lit as the hall, and a tiny bit creepy. The wall separating this room from the hall was made out of glass as well. I could see the boy staring at me again, trough the wall, his hands up against the glass. I turned to my right, towards the outer wall. There was a sink, with a mirror above it.
At that point I remembered the reality-check technique for lucid dreaming vaguely. I started wondering if I was dreaming and looked into the mirror. I can’t remember anything weird. Aside from the fact of being half-naked in a flooded, dark day-care, I looked quite normal. The technique didn’t work. I looked away, and into the mirror again. Nothing.

I looked away, to my left, for a second time. A little girl startled me. She wasn’t there a second ago, and was now standing right beside me. She looked up at me and had the weirdest of smiles. She was a bit older than the boys, probably around the age of 13-14. Unlike the boys in the hall, she was wearing normal clothes. Behind her, I could see the door at the other end of the bathroom. It was cracked open and golden light shined trough it, reflecting in the water.
I turned around and noticed every child was now staring at me, not just the boy at the entrance.
I got creeped out a little (though not a whole lot, considering the situation) and woke up soon after.

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This time I failed again to grasp the fact that I'm dreaming properly.

I'm having a long dream about school, I the early parts I only remember fragments. I'm in a gym with other kids, running laps counterclockwise. Later, I sit at a table outside with PT and two girls from school. One was the same year as me, the other one below. She wears a big hat, I can't see much of her face, but I know who it is. We talk about graduation and other stuff. Later, I am lying on a couch and relaxing, talking with another guy about DSA. There's going to be a party at night, I'm wondering if I should go there. I decide not to go, go talk to the person responsible for DSA. Apparently I'll be going to the southcoast of australia, to watch and study whales. I take my bike and ride home (it isn't my real home). There, I fall asleep on my bed.I wake up, in front of me is my laptop. I think "maybe this is a dream", but I fail to think it out further. I look at my glowing laptop, dreamviews is on. I hear my father outside the room, I don't want him to notice me. He comes in and tells me "what are you doing, go back to sleep". I do so, and wake up in my previous dream.While awakening I think "that really was a dream just now". I go back to school to ask how the party was. I see cars transporting big musikboxes and washing mashines, and think "that was a big party"

First Post in the dream journal, and newold revelations.

Lately, I've been having very vivid, very realistic non-lucid dreams. And because of spring break, I've been able to focus more on lucid dreaming. I have decided to honor my New Year's resolution and really make more of an effort with lucid dreaming. In the past, I have put forth little but some effort and have gotten a nice response.. So I'm certain if I put forth the effort that I SHOULD toward lucid dreaming, that I could do amazing things. And honestly? It's worth it. It's MORE than worth it. Any little thing I do in my waking life to secure having ample time in my dream world to do the things I can't or only dream of doing is not just worth it.. But it has almost become a necessity. Not only do I NEED this, but I want this more than anything, and I know I can do it. I know I can open my inner eyes to this new world, so it's time to get started.

And the first step? Dream Journaling.

Preparation: Last night, I decided to try a PBild. This really isn't a technique, but a great excuse to eat peanut butter before bed :]. I ate half a sandwich while reading a book, and the other half shortly thereafter before laying down. I also had my nightly Multivitamin + B12 + Fish Oil + Cinnamon.

My Recall: Minimal: Lately I've had incredible recall, anywhere from 1-4 full-blown dreams a night. Last night I must have been too tired, or too something.
I had a false awakening at around 8 am. I could feel myself waking up, and I had thought that I turned to look at my clock to see that it was almost noon. I remember thinking "Crap.. Well, so much for that DEILD, I moved! And bummer, I didn't get to lucid!" Then, I really turned over, and saw that it was only 8.
I was super bummed for about a minute, thinking I had ruined my chances, but I got up to go to the bathroom and thought about performing a WBTB or a mixture. I repeated: "My mind will stay conscious as my body falls to sleep. I will realize when I am dreaming.." And quickly fell to sleep. =/
Dream: It wasn't really much of a dream, and a non-lucid one at that. I'm sure that there was more to it, but the part that I remember was walking in my mom's room and seeing my mom and brother watching TV. I remember bounding in and jumping over my brother to sandwich myself in between the two.. And that's about it. Not much of a night for dreaming. =/
Edit: I also remember my mother telling me not to dump something on the new tile. xD Yep, tres interesting.

Dream - Lucid - AP

Well, I'm back from vacation! It was much-needed . And now, to the dreams!

I was outside somewhere. It was nighttime, and I was being chased by these crazy sorority and fraternity members who wanted to kill me. I remember them standing on a bridge. I also remember watching Chris run away; he was wearing the white shirt from one of my LDs. I only saw his back.

Then, I somehow knew I was dreaming. I composed myself so I wouldn't just fly away and wake up. I saw someone standing next to me. He looked like he was maybe in his late 30s, and had dark brown hair that was slicked back. I asked him if he would remember this dream. I don't remember his response.

I started to look around while walking. I was now inside in some garden. The ground below me was gray rock, and to my left was a creek. Sitting by the entrance to the creek was Santa. I walked into the creek. I said something to Santa and he replied, though I don't remember what. I do remember him saying "ho ho ho" at some point.

I kept walking in the creek. I feel like Chris was in front of me the whole time, some distance ahead of me. I looked down, and the water looked like it was dyed red with food coloring. I kept on walking, and heard a Chinese lady start talking. She was to my left on a stage-type thing that jutted out into the creek. She was middle-aged. There were a few people standing around her. She was speaking Chinese.

I was still walking down the creek, and I noticed above me all these digital clocks. I would look away and look back to them and they had all changed. Then, to my left, there were all these pictures on the wall. They were Christmas photos, and the people and animals in the pictures were moving, like in Harry Potter. One of them I remember being animal faces (dogs and cats) on human bodies wearing Santa hats.

As I exited the creek, I started walking up a winding stone path. I decided to try to make a kitten from one of my previous dreams appear. The kitten was white with pastel spots on her back, and her name was Sparkles. I cradled my arms and concentrated. I looked down, and an infant kitten with her eyes still closed was cradled in my arms. She was white with the pastel spots on her back. I said "Sparkles!". She crawled into my hand, and then I woke up.

~

I was going from one guys house to the next, where they gave me cake and apparently we had sex, though I don't remember ever having sex in the dream. I do remember eating the cake though. At one of the houses I went to, Mary Katherine was with me. The chocolate cake I was eating was very dry. MK was not happy about what I was doing, but she stayed silent.

Then, I was at Austin's old apartment. I was in the car with him at some point, and he said to me
"Krista, you can't make up your mind. I don't like it."
He was referring to the fact that I was hanging out with him, but had a boyfriend. Austin still had feelings for me. I replied
"I have a boyfriend.", or something along those lines.
We were then inside again, and sitting on the couch. A large black man was there with us. Austin said to him
"You should go to the store and get (something, I can't remember), and while you're out, grab some weed."
I got up and took some dishes to the sink. The black man was doing the dishes. I left.

~

I woke up at some point this morning, rolled over, and went back to sleep, immediately entering a dream.

I got up out of bed, and there was someone standing next to me, though I can't remember who it was. It was very hard for me to keep my eyes open. There was a mirror in front of me, and when I walked over to see my reflection, I could see it, but it was not aligned with my body. I went to the mirror again, and the same thing happened.

Then, I had an FA, but I can't quite remember what happened in it.

~

I was working 2 jobs; one at a sports bar and one at a sandwich restaurant. I had to take peoples orders at some other restaurant, go back to the bar, make the drinks, then walk back. I remember taking someone's order and then going to get the drink, then going back. Then, I took a table of 3's orders. There was a white guy with glasses, a black man, and an overweight woman. The black man ordered a lemonade. I asked him if he wanted a spiked lemonade, and he said no. Then, he called it a weird name. The woman ordered a sweet tea, and the white man ordered some crazy complicated drink, that was like 1/3 vodka, and a couple of other things. He used weird names for the measurements. I asked him to write it down for me, and he just stared. I said "Ok, I'll write it down then." He repeated his order as I wrote it down on a napkin with a pencil, and I left. I was walking down the street, thinking about his order.

At some point, I was sitting down at a table, talking to a man about my 2 jobs. I told him I did catering at one of them.

I have slacked off a bit with my dream journal, but I had vivid dreams all this while. Today I had many dreams, but I only remember the last one good.

I meet up with my old class from school, we are going on a school trip. First, I am running around town with PT. We are in what looks like a mall, and meet JS. I ask him what he's doing and how his study is going, but I can't remember his answer. We part, PT needs to get money from the bank. He goes to the counter, I notice an old man collapsing. I run to him, put him in a bag and transport him to the doctor, telling him what happened. The doctor takes the patient to another room. I go back to the bank, SI is working there. When customers are coming in, he asks the a question whether they are a member or not, the say no, he then says: "Then I can't help you". I think that he is rather unfriendly, and think about what would happen if the guys at the military would know about this. A doctor announces that the patient died. PT and I join up with our class again, having a nice time outside on chairs, under a tree. The sun is shining, we chat about something. Later, it gets dark, we all sit against a wall, leaning our heads on each others shoulders, and try to sleep. The person I got my shoulder on itches a bit, I notice that I have my earphones on and hear music. I try to shut the player off, but as I do, it still plays. I disconnect the earphones from the plyer and my ears, it still plays music. I wake up.

Or so I thought. I am now in a place near my house, the sun is shining, it's warm. I am wearing pants and a t-shirt, wondering how the dream just now was a dream. I decide to go back to my house, it strikes me weird that I am at this place only in underwear. I go in the direction of my house, and notice many police cars riding around. First, I think about whether they will stop me, because I am half-naked. But the cars have no interest in me. I notice that they have weird forms, and think that they are testing new kinds of shapes for police cars. Then, two bicycles pass by me, one of them is the postwoman. I start to run, trying to outrun them, we have an epic race, with many jumps. In one jump, i even kick one rider in midair. That was fun.

Then I really wake up. I am annoyed at my lack of skill, this dream had so many dreamsigns and oddities, it was almost like the dream wanted me to get lucid. But I am amazed by the length of the dream, it was only a 30 minutes long nap.

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I was in a huge grocery store. At some point I was in the produce section. A boy and girl and possibly one more child, all siblings, stood at some stand displaying apples or some other kind of fruit. One of the children may have been writing on a piece of paper that was resting on the apples.

Dream #2

I was in a dim room that was full of people. The place was like a club mixed with a museum. I sat on a really low chair or sofa made of red leather.

A bunch of little kids would come up and sit with me. They didn't know me. They just thought I was interesting. I was kind of flattered. A few of the kids were Asian. Their dad was nearby, looking at paintings and talking to people. One of the Asian kids looked like an old person. He had longish hair, but he was balding on top.

I and one little boy were now watching what was supposed to be Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on a video screen in the floor. The screen was about the size of a small TV screen.

In one scene, Marilyn Monroe walks into a fountain at night. She was apparently naked, and she apparently said "bon appetit," though I did't hear or see any of this. The boy asked me what bon appetit means.

I tried to explain to the boy that it didn't mean anything bad. The scene now replayed itself. I thought, there's no way Marilyn Monroe was naked in this movie. They wouldn't have allowed it!

Marilyn now walked into the fountain, which was an enormous pool of water at the foot of a staircase before a huge building. She was wearing a thin, body-length dress. The soaked dress became kind of, but not extremely, see-through.

Marilyn now swam up to the camera, which was positioned at the side of the huge fountain, and said "bon appetit."

Now all kinds of weird blue and green digital drawings blotted onto the screen like crude versions of fireworks.

Dream #3

I was walking home at night. But somehow I had lost my way. I was walking through some kind of suburban neighborhood. I would turn down streets and think I was finally in the right place. But then I'd see I was still in the wrong place.

At one point I got to a streetcorner which looked exactly like a streetcorner near my house. But it was completely empty, and the buildings were all shut down and featureless, maybe even windowless. I wondered what had happened to my neighborhood. But I suddenly realized this wasn't my neighborhood. The buildings I was looking at were part of some huge hospital.

I turned around and walked another way. I was now in the parking lot of some area like a church. I felt like I might not even have been in the right borough. I turned to walk out of the parking lot. I grabbed my phone, which was my old phone, to try to get an idea of where I was.

I wondered how I'd gotten so lost. It didn't seem possible. I thought, Maybe I'm dreaming. I didn't think it was possible, but I tested myself anyway. I jumped up into the air to see if I could fly. I began floating a little bit. So I was dreaming.

I couldn't control my flight. I was floating backwards. I managed to get floating forward, about 3m off the ground. I was coasting through some suburban neighborhood. I still didn't know where I was. I told myself, You can't see where you are because it's dark. If this is your dream, then make it light.

So I made it light outside. But the world suddenly got very blurry.

I was now floating down toward something. I thought I had woken from my dream. I floated past one of my co-workers, C, who was giving some self-important lecture about something.

I was down in the frozen food section of some grocery store. I was looking at some children's picture book or some piece of paper on which I'd scrawled some stuff. I was still thinking to myself what a disappointment it was that I'd woken from my lucid dream.

I was in the car with my dad driving. We were on a one way road and had to stop at an intersection. He pulled around the cars in front of us and parked the car in front of a huge, bright screen mounted to the curb. The front of the car bumped the underside of the screen. I looked up at the screen itself, and my vision warped.

I was in my bedroom on the computer. Like some kind of background train of logic slipped into place, I suddenly realized I was dreaming. I laughed at the strange sequence of events… What did my computer have to do with my dad driving around? I wondered how long I had been dreaming. Not very long, I realized. I immediately felt the dream fading as it always does, but I transformed myself into a wolf to put pressure on my hands and feet. I felt that would help. After a brief jog through a forest, I started flying around the world in one frame of reference. In the bedroom, I was gently floating through the air. I laughed when I saw what I was doing in the room. This was the dumbest stabilization technique I’d ever come up with. I turned back into a human. I had brief sexual thoughts, but I reminded myself not to pursue them this time. I would learn much more from experimenting with the dream state. I drifted down to a sitting position and rubbed my hands together. I brought them into view and saw that I was wearing black leather gloves. That explained why my skin felt so leathery. I pulled the gloves off and tried rubbing my hands again. It worked. The skin on my hands was so finely detailed afterward… I noticed every little stretch in the skin. I reminded myself not to get lost staring into them. I pinched myself in an attempt to inflict minor pain. I wanted to ground myself further in the dream. My hand just felt numb. I tried my arm, too – also numb. Whatever, I thought, at least pain wouldn’t distract me. As soon as I started toward the door, things became fuzzy and blacked out. I patiently waited without mental comment.

“Furley?” I heard my mom calling Austin from downstairs – that was her nickname for him around the house when we were younger. Her voice caused me to lose a little lucidity for a moment. Time to get up, I thought… Wait! My mom wouldn’t be in my dorm room, I reasoned. Vision rapidly came back, and my lucidity was back to where it had been before.

I “respawned” at my computer desk after a few moments. Chelsea walked into the room and handed me a soft drink from a fast food restaurant. About half of the drink remained.

“Are you done with that?” I asked, taking it from her. I wanted to try Coca Cola in a dream. I haven’t had it in a long, long time in waking life because it’s so acidic. The taste was convincing, and getting a drink was refreshing since my throat was so dry. I checked my hands… No gloves. Good! I noticed I was really warm because I was wearing my hoodie. I took that off and tossed it on the floor. Keeping myself warm wasn’t at all necessary… If anything, staying cold would keep me alert. Chelsea gave me a weird look when I pushed the chair back. She had been talking to me about something, but I wasn’t listening. I felt a little guilty, but it didn’t seem like it was that important. If it had been, I wouldn’t have been able to ignore it.

“Come with me…” I said. I grabbed her hand and led her out of the room. We went down a flight of stairs. I recognized our old house in Texas from the general layout, so I knew where to expect the front door. It was wide open. Clearly, I was on the right path.

“Where are we going?” Chelsea asked. I figured I could tell her she was a dream character, or I could let her see that we were in a dream for herself. I chose the latter option.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll see.” I wasn’t sure myself. When we reached the door, I saw that it was raining. I smiled. I love rainstorms. “You don’t need shoes,” I told her, urging her out of the house even though she was barefoot. I didn’t notice I was wearing socks until I stepped onto the wet driveway. Just intending for them to go away was difficult, but I knew it would be better if I could feel the cold driveway under my feet. Chelsea was hanging back by the door to avoid going into the rain. “What’s wrong? Come on!”

“We do need shoes,” she objected. Sighing, I grabbed her arm and pulled her outside. “Wait!” she objected again. “We have to close the door!”

“There’s no one else in that house,” I laughed. “Stop worrying. Look at all of this!” Where there should have been houses, the terrain was just flat. It was nostalgic in ways – the same trees were there – but with all the buildings missing, it was so foreign. As we walked into the rain, the dream rapidly faded.

I found myself in my computer chair in my dorm room. I relaxed in the chair, attempting to go back to sleep. I wasn’t aware that this was a false awakening. A program called Dream Apache tracked my dreams from the previous night. It even listed the durations of each dream so I could determine the order in which I had them. I waited almost a full minute (53 seconds) in this relaxed state before my head seemed to swell. Was this what it was like to cross the threshold, I wondered? Tunnel vision went to darkness, eclipsing the blinking message on the screen that said “DREAM ACTIVE.” The program even told me where my dream body had gone, but I didn’t pay attention to that.

I felt hands grip my ankles. Interesting… I was dreaming again for sure. The hands were soft, but the force behind them was strong. I felt a forward tug. I was being pulled somewhere.

The rest has been omitted.

Totoro Encounter

I wake up to a phone call. It’s a little boy saying my dog is outside. I don’t have a dog, but I go check anyways.

Outside, a golden retriever is laying in my yard. His name is Rusty and in waking life he belongs to my friend Martin but in this dream, he belongs to my neighbor Bill. The kid got confused. I look for the boy but I see no one in sight, and the dog is just sleeping. He thought he was hurt.

I peep downwards. On the other side of the screen door is a little white totoro with a cute red cap on and little red mittens! I let him in.

He runs around for a moment and then I lift him up. Wait, this could be a trick. My anxiety kicks in and I think of what this could be: a weird listening device robot and someone is hearing on the other end what I am talking to it about? I put my finger in its mouth. It’s wet, and I feel a few baby teeth. I pat all around it, it’s fur is very very soft, like a shaved cat belly. It seems soft on the inside: no mechanical parts.



It doesn’t like this patting though and it hops out of my hands and runs under my couch. I’m sad because now I know it’s real, and I already fucked up our first meeting! I get on my hands and knees and peep under the couch and lure it out.

I hold the cute little thing in my hands. He takes his hat and mittens off and I cuddle him a little. I then remember my two cats. Shit. They smell it, and come from upstairs. He hops out of my hands and the chase begins. I feel so bad for him, I can’t catch either my cats or him. At one point, I see something ruffling under a big blanket and I think it’s my cat. I tap my foot to lure her out, and she jumps at my foot, clawing it. She feels bad and kind of walks around me in apology.

I find the totoro and scoop him up and run to the door. I am about to set him free when my cats come and think I put him out already, so they’re eager to leave. They both go out and the totoro is safe. I set him down. He begins to cry softly. I feel so bad and squeeze him lightly, apologizing.

He is very in the moment and stops crying when I cheer him up and he realizes there’s no cats. He doesn’t seem to be hurt. He scurries back under the couch with his hat and mittens. He keeps smiling at me someone even though his mouth isn’t really like that.

I false awaken. Both my cats are on my bed. A shimmer of light shines through my window and all three of us go and watch the beautiful sun set.

Both of my cats were on my bed sleeping all night. Maybe we shared these dreams

Fantasy Cousins

I am in a parking lot with my mom and my cousin Catie. We’re going to go somewhere, like Portland or something, even though it’s really late and it’s two hours there, two hours back. Catie says Patrick, her brother/my other cousin, has to come too. I like Patrick in waking life, but I scream really loud in my dream when I hear this. I don’t say anything, I’m just screaming.
Before we go to Portland, we have to stop at Heathers house for some reason and wait a long time. Catie and Patrick awkwardly sit in the living room. The house is very different than waking life. I peep into Heathers room and she’s sleeping. I go in.
She’s having a dream and she’s smiling so big. She’s talks too, occasionally. I’ve never seen anyone have such an in depth dream. I wake her and apologize because her dream sounded cool, but she said it just ended.

We all leave together. The scene changes to a very weird room, cramped and full of people. We seem to be “regular” people, while there are more “noble” people. One is an old man, very strict and military-esque while appearing wise and mystic as well. He has a long beard like a stereotypical Chinese guy. The other noble is a young girl. She’s giving everyone weird creatures to ride on. Patrick gets on back of one that kind of looks like a bear, but is clearly nocturnal for some reason and has jagged limb structures. I want to get on one, but the girl explains it’s only for males. Heather, Catie and I sit down, and I feel really mad.
The scene changes to just me and Patrick walking up this big hill. He starts to dance kind of, just moving his body in a strange rhythmic way. On the ground below us, ice forms as he dances in a beautiful pattern. I join, and the pattern becomes more intricate. We get to the top.


Fragment

I’m at school. Our classroom moves to the teachers secret library. It’s a tilting room that I’m afraid will tip over. I sit in the back, closest to the exit. The ceiling is extremely high and there are bookshelves that reach it, toppling with books. I hate myself because I keep saying absolutely everything on my mind, whether it makes sense or not. I blame it on being really tired.
Later, we go to a gym. The gym has a giant weird rotating machine in the middle. The teacher comes up to me with a paper I made, and instead of an essay we drew pictures. Mine had a wand made of a marijuana plant, and she said I shouldn’t be so risqué.


Fragment

My mom wants weed, so I call up my friend Dylan and ask about it. He says some obscure date, but my mom goes and visits his apartment anyway. Outside there is a sack of seeds and she thinks its hers. She goes in and he says it’s not, so we leave.


Fragment
I'm shopping with Heather and Tyler. In one store, Heather buys me a jacket. In another, we all look at a display case of jewelry. There is a watermelon mood ring that Tyler wants. Heather wants some earrings (her ears aren't pierced), and I want a little hand clasp with an eye on the palm.