lucid

Hello,

My name is Mandy and I finally got around to joining the website. One of my good friends recommended it to me after a few chats about dreams. I never really looked up much about lucid dreaming and have had some interesting experiences without realizing what is going on. To start, I will post a few dreams I have had in the past and then just keep updating with dreams I do have.

You may see a pattern with my posting and know that I only have weird dreams and nightmares. My dreams have been that way since I was younger so most of the graphic/scary things are very normal for me.

09/22/10

One gigantic funeral/conspiracy dream I don't remember. Moving on.



I think I'd been dreaming about dolls. There was, of course, something entirely creepy about them. Also, dog trainers, road trips, and friends of Zoe.

I'm walking down a short flight of carpeted steps, into the entrance hallway of a house somewhere. My foot hits the bottom step, and Oh, I think. I'm dreaming.

Reality check. I need to get back into the habit. Finger count: six.

I'mlucidI'mlucidI'mlucid, I repeat to myself, concentrating. What did I want to do, again?

Oh yeah. "Do nothing."

I sit down on the light grey carpet and place my hands palms up over my knees. I take a deep breath, and close my eyes briefly.

Everything turns a swirly grey. Alarmed, thinking I'm going to lose the dream, I open my eyes and begin touching all the surfaces in the room. Carpet, wooden bench, painted walls.

I feel that the dream is secured, and walk out through a screen door. The screen door pulls around me, warping, and I push through it.

I find myself at the entrance to a meeting place. A gym, or something. Apparently, it's for members of Nomad's shared dreaming class.

I introduce myself as "Sam", and chat with some of the other students. One girl's avatar or userpic was very pink. We ended up making out on a couch.

I'm losing lucidity, and I don't notice. One of the students is an old friend of mine, who died a couple years ago. Elaine sits beside me and whispers something in my ear.

I'm hungry. We're sitting in a cafeteria, and I have to get back to class soon. I want some vegetarian food, but the Thai place is closed, and the sushi place doesn't have anything without fish in it. Someone brings a Saskatoon Berry Pie from the restaurant next door.

Scare Factor: 2/10
Rating: 3/10

September 22, 2010

G/C night. 4/200 taken with a liquid shot of L-theanine, 200mg. Also followed by a small stick of marble cheese because I always need to eat food with pills. The shot was really gross, btw Melatonin taken 1-hour before bed.

Pre-WBTB

Excited fragments - Lucid - 4/5
I was having random burst of images and general excitement at the impending G/C. I don't remember much about this other than it being so awesome to watch that I wondered even needing the G/C tonight.

Interrupted by Jack coming to bed. I did my best not to check the time, but he was restless and keeping me up. I wondered if he'd still be awake by 3:30? Tried to let it go, and he finally settled down.

Odd mish-mash - Partial Lucid - 1/5
Starts out in this psych house. It’s literally a psych house. There are psychologists roaming around booking hour long appointments with patients who are all milling around waiting. I think I must be scheduling them, and one of the doctors gets frustrated with me, because I keep getting his name wrong.

The Beatles (younger, yay!) just kind of appear out of nowhere. Shit happens. Some of it was random, like Paul and I writing notes to each other... and I summoned one of Jack's cousins. Some of it didn't really turn out how I wanted it too... >.>

We rejoin the rest of the guys. “It’s time to leave,” I announce.

“We just got here!” George protests.

We’re outside and I ask George if they want to explore around the house, as it looks a little…ramshackle!

We went around to the back, and it gets fuzzy. Dream changes at some point, and the guys are gone. I lose lucidity getting whirled into a new scene.

I'm now at a children’s party, and some MM members are there, too. We have this pretty awesome bear costume that takes a lot of maneuvering to get in and out of. I get in it and test out some movements. You can even wiggle your own toes, and it wiggles the bear toes! I go to a circle of kids. They’re totally delighted, and I say, “Are you not scared?”

“No!!”

“Well, maybe I haven’t ROARED enough!!” I didn’t really want to scare them though, cos they were kind of young, so I found this kid who was the spitting image of my oldest nephew (when he was still a toddler) and roared into his tummy and tickled him.

I passed off the suit to Snowy. The party was dissolving into another scene, as I hear mental recount Snowy arriving late to the party (he was humoured by it). She came in the rain and demanded clean clothes. And was given a bear costume.

In the new scene, I notice Joe is now living with mum, Jack and I. He’s finally come out of his room (false memories told me he’d been hiding away) to socialize. I remember him removing a personal journal from an end table so no one could read it.

I also recall hearing mental telling us something about how Joe is doing really well in spite of the schizophrenia (he does have it), and that we should praise and not judge him.

WBTB from 3:30-4:30am. Popped the G/C and L-theanine now...

Ended up popping a 0.5mg melatonin at 5am cos I was feeling sleepy or relaxed at all... :Oo:

Umm... so that was uneventful...

I settled in for a WILD... vibrations, came and I was feeling kind of swirly and pleasant... Then, I decided to WILD from my side, cos that's how it worked last time. I passed in and out of sleep with nothing exciting happening. No music, no string of FA's... just me and some scenes I can't recall now. I was feeling too hot, so I pushed off my blankets. More sleep. Woke up at some point really cold, brought the blankets back... Over all, just really sucked.

Battleground
I was in a war, as a foot soldier. Things were exploding around me everywhere, the ground was shaking, and all that. Then, I was looking from the eyes of a villager the soldiers were trying to save. They were running in to get us, only, they would reach a certain point, expand abnormally large and then collapse and die.

Cutlery fragment
Sorting out spoons, knives and forks for washing. Hurrah! Also, from this scene, is attached this feeling of borrowing something. Like I was borrowing the house from someone, or a vehicle, or something...

This is the first time I have been able to control my flying. Usually, I just bump along the ground, and can't gain any altitude. That changed tonight. I should have written this down when I woke up, but I was in a hurry to get to work.

I am in some kind of high school locker room. Everyone is in top shape but me, and they are clothed in street clothes. I am walking around in jeans with no shirt on. I am embarrased. People are looking at me in disgust. I am ashamed, but continue to walk. The dreamscape changes and I am in a casino. I still do not have a shirt on, and now I realize I can't possibly meet a girl dressed like I am. I begin to despair, and people are still looking at me with disgust. The dreamscape changes again, and I am in Modern Warfare 2: Invasion. I am looking around, and although it is a map from a game, it looks completely real. Also, it's just a regular scene, the destruction seems normal, and people are going about their business. I try to talk to girls, but an old former friend whom I do not like or associate with comes up to me and starts telling me that I will never find a woman, that I will be alone forever, and women don't like me. I grow from despairing to downright depressed. I am wraught with sadness, and I begin to weep in my dream.

I stand up and look around. For some reason, I can't see far enough away. I feel somewhat trapped. It starts to dawn on me that I am in a constructed reality, so I begin looking for flaws or dream signs. Still not lucid yet, I peak around the side of a van, and see the sky stretching out forever. The sky is both below and above me and both sides. I am standing on the edge of the map which seems to to be suspended very high up in the air. I have found the end of the map. Wait a minute!

This can't be real, I am dreaming! I smile and know exactly what I want to do. I leap off the edge of the map into the sky spreading my arms like wings. I begin to fall and then gently rise to flight. I am amazed! I did it! I look down, and the ground is so far down, I can't really make it out through the clouds. I am very high up (I estimate about 40,000 ft) and flying like an eagle, making crazing banks, nose dives, and soaring. I am going very fast. I see a sunset ahead of me with a very rough round opening in the sky itself. It is black, and seems to be some sort of portal. the colors around it are just like a sunset. I fly towards it, but never seem to get any closer. It is hundreds of miles away. I am completely euphoric, and almost forget my despair. It creeps back, but is dulled by my joy. I continue to fly, thinking what I should do next.

I look down and see the ocean. I raise up my head, soar up a bit, and then bank left and dive straight down. The wind is blowing past my ears, and I am diving fast and headed straight for the ocean. I feel no fear. I know I am dreaming, and I am now in a euphoric state. I hit the water and dive straight down. I see fish from my aquariums in the sea. It is very dark blue, but I can see. I stop and stand on the bottom of the ocean. How cool is this. I then lose lucidity.

I dreamt and became lucid two more times that night. 3 lucids in a row. I cannot remember anything about the other two. They were very short, and the lucidity was only mild. Just aware, not trying to control. None of the dreams were related, which seems odd.

Conditions: 2400 mg of Omega 3-6 Fish Oil daily
Fell asleep: 1:00 am
Lucid aids: none

COMMENT LUCID NON LUCID DREAM SIGN

I just broke my 2 week no recall! I just had a 2 and about a half hour of a lucid!
Like, 4th or 5th DILD.
Heres what happened, all lucid.

I get into my dream, and I'm already lucid. I start with a hat in my hand and 2 very wealthy looking people to my sides. They are bidding on the hat. I tell them what to bid, and then the many to the right of me begins to get angry after about 20 minutes of conversation. He walks away to the bar in the building we are at, and I follow him, saying, "Are you sure about the hat?" He tells me that the hat is worth more that I think it is, and at this point, I had been stabilizing throughout the whole thing, so I decided to go outside, out from what kinda looked like a bowling alley to me.

Once outside, I meet a little kid, who seems much like a character in a book I finished yesterday. I'm talking to him, and then I told him that I could breathe fire. He went ballistic. Although when I tried to breathe fire, all that came out was a thin smoke... Anyways, I tried a few more times to no avail, and then I decided I wanted to try to fly now, and finish one of my personal challenges. So I focused on flying, and then I ran and jumped, and flew for about three seconds, then fell and ate the dirt lol. I guess I wasn't using correct techniques for both. I decided to go with my newly met friend, who was on his bike. He asked me if I could run the like 5 miles to where we were going, and I said, "Don't worry, I'll just super run there." So we ran for about 5 minutes, all the while me rubbing my hands together and saying to myself, "I'm dreaming." And touching the trees and stuff that we were passing. We were going through what seemed like a REALLY nice house complex.

Finally, (I'm starting to remember less now...) I got to a place where I could jump really high in the air with him, and I remembered something on here that says you can't taste in Lucids. I took out a pack of gum, and I ate 2 pieces. I couldn't taste it. I confirm this! I then somehow got into the theatre that I act in, and I saw a bunch of my friends, then I decided to move on. I then went to my grandmother's house. I was there with my little friend, and I was trying to summon a girl that I know. She's my friend, and I wanted to be able to tell her. "I summoned you!" just for the lulz. I couldn't so it though... Shortly after this, and seeing my grandmother and talking a little, I left, and then I had a FALSE AWAKENING!

More lucid. I woke up in my room, and then I looked around, I got up and started doing what I normally do, but I was still kinda lucid and stuff. I was like, having less gravity, and stuff. Then finally, I woke up.

YAY! FIRST STABLE LUCID!!!! WOOOO!

[INDENT][RIGHT][SIZE="1"][COLOR="#4682B4"]21.09.2010[/COLOR][/SIZE][/RIGHT]
[SIZE="4"][COLOR="Red"][B]Kind Of An Elevator[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE="1"][COLOR="#4682B4"](DILD)[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[COLOR="Blue"][B][SIZE="3"]Lucid 5[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR="#4682B4"]NON-DREAM[/COLOR] [COLOR="#800080"]DREAM[/COLOR] [COLOR="#00008B"]LUCID[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[COLOR="#4682B4"][/COLOR][COLOR="#4682B4"]I attempted to do the basic TOTM, but it turned out weird, hopefully this counts.

[/COLOR][COLOR="#00008B"]I can only remember from when I was lucid, I was in a construction lot and saw an english telephone booth. [/COLOR][COLOR="#4682B4"](???) [/COLOR][COLOR="#00008B"]I went inside it and looked out, and I saw a person staring at me, which kinda freaked me out, I imagined the booth rising up and it started levitating. It levitated until I was on a different level of the construction lot. I looked and I was in an unfinished room and that guy from before was there and he whipped me. [/COLOR][COLOR="#4682B4"](???) [/COLOR][COLOR="#00008B"]I moved away, but he continued whipping me, as I was running it suddenly occurred to me, "Why am I running?" I turned around and threw him of the edge of the room.[/COLOR][COLOR="#4682B4"]

[/COLOR][/INDENT]

So I was in my livingroom at the place I used to live. I took a RC. This was a resoult of doing RC irl I think so I'm happy with that. I saw that there was 2 of my dog. One of them was responding to me. The other one was ignoring me so I guessed that one was a fake. It was a bit dark so I tried turning on the lights, but it didn't work. I stabilized the dream by looking around. It worked fine.Suddenly the fake one flew out of the window. I didn't really care. Then my real dog got all intense like she always do when some one is coming. I heard a car drive in outside. I head for the door hoping to se my dream guide, but I used the term subconscious. When I opened the door I saw a person come out of the shadows. I was really exited since I haven't met my dream guide yet. But it only was this guy I know. He was wearing a suite and glasses so he seemed really smart. He said: You are under arrest. You will have a death sentence for what you have done. He took some handcuffs and I took them on voluntarily. Then my dream started to fade and I woke up, something that really sucked since I'm pretty curious to what I did to deserve a death sentence.

Good night but a strange night. My cycles were about 60 minutes instead of 90. And for a period before the lucid, I was drifting in and out of sleep for about 5 minutes at a time. That's how I managed to count 5 dreams in only about 6 hours of sleep. I probably had 3 or 4 more tiny dreams that I didn't record. I think I would become a bit lucid in them and I would instantly drift into wake. I'd do an RC but I'd be in my bed every time.

0400: Finally asleep. It took me almost 2 hours, during which time I got up for a while and read.

0459: D. First cycle! But might notes are illegible. Here's what I decipher: Seems like I was asleep for a long time. I dreamed about my billy. I wants see if my buys construed. This is mad with me bran verses. Like my dreams are changed on my waterbed? Um yeah. No idea.

0559: C. I'm at a beach house next to a rocky ocean coast. Oregon, maybe. I'm outside. It's bright but just a bit hazy. I'm alone but I feel my father is around and that the house belongs to a friend of his who were are visiting. I'm using a laptop, paying bills. I have a physical letter that is some kind of offer to bid on a house for $200,000. I fill out the form online but stop to think before submitting it. I decide not too. My father walks out and asks if I'm getting an error on my computer. Something about "Phone recognized". He says it happens when you close a window. I close the window and see several error popup windows cascade across the screen and then close one by one. The owner of the beach house also comes out and explains they probably need to restart the router. We try to determine when exactly the problem started. But I hadn't closed a window while I was working so I only saw it after my father asked me to try.

0648: D. This was one of the really short dreams while drifting in and out of sleep. I'm on a computer. I'm programming while Alt+Tabbing back and forth to a movie. My sister sees the movie and is upset. Then the cat jump on my lap.

0730: D. I'm in the Daisetta house watching a basketball game. It's night outside but the lights are on inside. Lance is in the room, working on a computer. Both basketball teams are wearing red and it's confusing. I find this strange. I try to talk to Lance but he's focused on his work and isn't interested in the game. The game is important, like a playoff game. Lance gets up and put on a coat to leave. He's dressed for rainy weather.

0821: B. I'm driving home at night. I pull into the parking lot and Hugh is waiting for me. We talk about the plan for me to pick him up from the airport. I think, wait, aren't you supposed to be out of town? I'm picking you up, not dropping you off. This is weird and I become semi-lucid. But the parking lot is familiar and nothing else strange is happening. So I lose it. I walk to the elevator. There are a few old Asian ladies. One tries to talk to me in sign language.

I get on the elevator alone and head up to my floor. As it stops, I hear a creaking noise. The elevator slowly starts to tip over to the right with me in it, like a sinking ship. Oh, I'm dreaming. God I hope I'm dreaming. I stay cool. "This is my world and I can do anything!" As the elevator turns horizontal, I jump out and hover in the elevator shaft. The car falls to the ground. I'm looking in to the building and it's looks dark and damaged, like on Star Trek when they take heavy damage with smoke and broken pipes in the corridors. Three superheroes fly out of the corridor and hit me while I'm still hovering in the elevator shaft. This knocks we out of the building and into the dark downtown Los Angeles skyline.

My stability and control aren't great. I look at my hands and that helps a lot. I'm still flying. I look around and see rooftops and buildings below. This is cool. Now the three superheroes are zooming around and attacking me with fireballs. They are dressed in brightly colored tights, but I don't recognized them specifically. I think, "Am I the good guy or the bad guy"? Oh well. I fight back with my fireballs (they are blue today) and fire breath.

I try the flying backward somersault with mixed success. As I'm upside-down, my vision goes black and disoriented. I recover. I keep defending myself with fireballs. At one point, 5 mirror images of Spider-Man jump out and attack me too. I throw a Street Fighter Guile Sonic Boom.

False awakening. I'm in my own bed. I know I'm dreaming but I feel like I'm in my physical body. I can feel the sleep paralysis of my physical body. I look down and see my foot with distorted toes wiggling. I try to move my dream arms. I try to focus. Dream fades and I end up moving my physical arms.

Method: DILD
Recall: average
Lucid Ability: not tested
Vividness: good
Dream Length:Long

I was a Fort Irwin heading to a night time field training exercise. I thought it was really convenient how I ended up at the starting location after practicably wondering around the desert lost. There were a lot of soldiers there, and we were all in our desert camouflage.

I noticed that I didn't have my beret on so I started looking in my rucksack for it. I pulled out one that had sergeants rank on it, and I pulled out another that wasn't mine also. I told the sergeant to look at his beret and see if it's mine. He swore up and down that it wasn't, and took the one I was holding. I started looking for the other one and I couldn't pull it out again. Some officers walked by and I saluted them, and they told us the mission was about to begin.

We headed into a building, so there really wasn't a need for headgear. And we were issued M9s, and given water canteens. Each room had a different objective. The first one involved treating patients and fighting germs. There were these bugs on the wall that everyone was firing dummy rounds at. We headed to the next room, and this guy started lecturing us. I placed all my stuff on the ground, and the teacher asked me was I sure that I was going to leave my stuff there, and I asked him how long was the class. "About 30 minutes", he replied, so I told him yes. He started talking about a scenario and asked me if I was use my water, and I told him yes, and I drank it. He said the water actually had something I can't remember inside it, and I died from it. He said I failed, and everyone else failed because they didn't say anything throughout the lecture.

We get to another section that involves some natural water slide. At the top the water is very foamy, but down at the bottom, the water was clear. I went all the way down, and some girl was asking me if I'd drink it. I told her no, because of how it looked up top. There were rows of tables where we were at, and I was looking for a place to sit. I sat next to a girl who looked familiar. She had the last name "Augmon" written on her uniform. Everyone was singing a song about something, and things just got a little weird.

scene change

They're showing this one guy kill all of these middle eastern people on tv. He climbs up a building and starts shooting them, but non of them are running. There is a radio tower that looks like it has collapsed that he starts shooting at until it falls into the crowd. I see my pops come out there and start talking to the man peacefully, and I'm trying to get what he's saying, but the people in the room are being to noisy. I shhsh them, and I realize that I'm back in the previous class room, but theres cake and other food sat out for a party. The way the guy killed all of those people seemed too unrealistic. I still don't get it yet, until I start looking for clues.

My rucksack has my papers from when I got out of the military, so I'm searching for them. I pull out something that has the date, and it looks like a receipt. Some sergeant comes up, and tells me to do something, and I tell him that I already got out. I hand him the papers, and he tells me that I'm still supposed to be in until next year. I look at the papers, and I cant read them, but they've completely changed. There are random papers on the desk. I look at them, look away, and look back at them, and I notice entire paragraphs and handwriting have changed. I told him that I was dreaming. The guy doesn't believe me, so I ask him to read the paper. He starts mumbling off what it says, and I stop him mid sentence and say "okay, look away, and look back at the paper". He does so, and he's just about to read it, but he can't. Now he thinks I did something to the paper. I told him If i wasn't dreaming why would I be able to do this, and slapped him in the face as hard as possible.

Another sergeant came up, and I showed him the same paper. He was even more difficult to convince, but eventually he realized that he was just a part of my dream. I walked around a little bit, and the dream started fading.

I had 4 dreams last night, but only one of them really matters! My first dream of the night, and my first true lucid! I believe it was a WILD as i was trying something i read on the forums a couple days ago. The thread suggested to speak lyrics in your head to keep your mind awake and focused. I wasn't exactly using lyrics, I was more or less reciting a book i read lately but it worked all the same.

Everything was black at first, and i was still speaking in my head the lines from the book. I then looked around, and there was flooring, tile floors. I stopped reciting, I knew I was dreaming because when I started reciting I was face down in my pillows. I looked around, and The there were walls. I smiled, and the dream began to destabilize. I didn't have time to do anything before i was jerked from my body. I was pulled upward. I saw everything from above. My dream was a maze. I managed to make it back to my dream body, and with some effort i began to walk. I wanted to try something. I put my hands up, parallel to the ground, and held my palm flat up towards the wall. I wanted it to move, and it took a shit ton of effort at first but the wall pushed open like a door, and locked back into place against the wall behind it. I remember doing this until i got bored. I rememper trying to do other thigns but everything else failed, so i relaxed.

I let myself slip in to 3 other dreams. I became lucid again in the 4th dream, but i wasn't doing much. Only walking around and looking at what my mind had created, and chasing some foxy ladies. D: even my dream girl know that my wife would kick some ass if I even tired to flirt. NOT FAIR! lol

Didn't have time to write this up this morning and after work I've been playing Civ 5 all day so there's been a bit of a delay getting this documented proper. I managed to go lucid for this one, but unfortunately I think I set a new record for how short it lasted. I'm still going to add it to the pile in light of the daunting lack of lucid dreams thus far this month.

As the dream started I was arriving to work at Metro Drug (where I recently spent a rotation), only the inside looked slightly different. Behind the pharmacy area was a larger, warehouse-like area. I'd managed to arrive before Mike and I didn't really want to see him so I hid in this back area around a corner where I couldn't be seen unless someone came all the way back there. After some time, a female intern I didn't recognize came back there and was browsing around the supplies there, taking some of them for herself. At first I interjected that she shouldn't be doing that, but then it occurred to me that I don't particularly care for Metro Drug and decided to join her in stealing supplies. Up in the pharmacy, it's apparently very busy and Mike is there alone. I realize that I'm not on rotation there any more and am thus under no obligation to help him. Somehow this transitions into the realization that I shouldn't be there, which calls the reality check. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, I suppose I feel I wasn't ready to go lucid at that particular moment. I closed my eyes for a second, but realize quickly that this ruined previous lucid realizations so I open my eyes but it seemed it was too late; everything was fading into gray. I tried to put my palm on a counter to connect to the dream to attempt to stabilize it but with no success.

<Click here to read Part 2>

I had the sensation of time passing, although it was an instantaneous transition from the zombie attack to what was presumably days later. My friends and I were gathered around in the apartment building to discuss what had happened. The closet door was still shut and had remained so since the zombie attack because we knew that the portal to the zombie homeworld was still open behind us. Something had to be done about that, and I also mentioned the little girl that had tried to escape them.

"We don't know how many prisoners they're keeping or why," I told everyone, "but it's up to us to get them the heck out of there. We've got to take the fight to the zombies and wipe them out once and for all."

Jane Doe looked up at me with a hint of admiration in her eye. I suddenly had the sensation that our relationship had grown over the past few days as well.

As it turned out, this would become more than just a sensation. The closet room had been converted into our battle station where we could enter and exit the battle zone at will as long as we controlled the door (which was guaranteed since the room was outfitted with other defenses now, as well). There were a few tiny rooms (just a bunk and a wall in a metal box for protection, nothing more) that we could rest in, and we did so every night to keep ourselves sharp for the next day's warfare. Even though we had proper weapons this time, it was slow going to raid the zombies since we had to filter out who was dead and who was alive, because there was no external difference that we could perceive.

Anyway, one night after about (what false memory said was) a week or so of battle, Jane and I had a little talk in one of those rooms. We'd been growing closer that whole time, and although I don't remember exactly what transpired, but we concluded that we loved each other and had to be together. So rather than sleep that night, we simply stayed inside that little room and talked or just sat in silence with our arms around each other.

But the night always has to end eventually. In the morning was another day of battle. When it was time for everyone to get up, Jane and I went out to brief everyone on the day's mission. We sat next to each other in the circle of our friends, and I moved up close and put my arm around her. The relief of being able to do that instead of refrain from it in order not to offend Jane (as would have been the case back when we were just friends) was phenomenal. I'd never felt like that before.

"Thanks." she said, as if to say 'it's nice to feel secure and have something happy for once in this bad situation.'

I briefed everyone and then we all started to head through the closet door. However, I stopped Jane before she could get through, pulled her around, and gave her a long kiss.

"I love you." I said (intended connotation: 'be careful out there')

"I will." Came the reply (intended connotation: 'I get your connotation')

And then we went out to battle. Since by now this is incredibly long, I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say we won with heavy casualties, and those who were alive were beaten and worn out. We had freed as many prisoners as we could, but some were killed in the action. However, most of all, I was just glad the fight was over. Still...there was one last problem that found its way to me right after I killed the last zombie. A baby that had been imprisoned there lay on the ground, crying. I picked it up and ran out of the portal back to the closet room just before the portal closed up, sealing us off forever from that dreaded zombie world.

Next thing I know, I'm in the streets of the steampunk city again, several areas in ruins from the zombie attack of a few days ago. My little army of friends passed by me in line as they exited the apartment, all of them dirty and bruised. I waited anxiously for Jane, as I intended to give the baby into her care, but she never came through the line. Frantically I ran to find someone in her squad.

"What about Jane? Where is she?" I asked.

"Jane?" They replied. "I...well...she...I never saw her come out. I'm sorry."

"No." I said firmly. "She's alive. Where is she?"

"I can't help you there."

Determined, I walked back to see if I could find her myself. But just as I did, down the stairs walked none other than a very beat up Jane Doe. I ran up to her, put the baby in her arms, then let her collapse against me as we kissed and I supported her. I knew people were watching, but I didn't care. This was my Jane; nothing was going to stop me from being with her now.

"We have to go now." She said after a long while and lots of 'I love you''s were exchanged between us.

"Go where?" I asked (intended connotation: 'I don't care where as long as we're together')

"No, I mean we have to wake up. We're all dreamers here, remember? Now just...wake up."

And I did wake up. I know that doesn't seem all that exciting now that it's written down, but trust me, the love in that dream was real and strong enough to make it incredible a thousand times over. The cool steampunk/sci-fi environment was just a bonus. And the intense battles were neat, too. Unfortunately, all that doesn't translate into plain text very well...oh well. This is an experience I know I shall not forget.

<Click here to read part 1>

Once inside the upstairs room with the closet, I reached over to the nearest lamp and hit the switch. The lights didn't come on. I hit the switch again. No good. So I went to a different light and tried it, but got the same result. "Oh, that means it's a dream!"

Now if you know me, you know that I like to use doors to teleport places in lucid dreams. But my lucidity was not strong even now, and so when I opened the closet door, I did nothing but shatter everything...and lose lucidity.

All the lights and lamps in the room (which were many) flickered strange colors, as if there was an electrical issue. I didn't know what was going on, so I decided to just grab the gift boxes and go. There was an eerie blue light inside the closet that was good enough for me to just barely be able to make out what was inside. However, one step further inside, and the whole place shook as if from an earthquake. I stumbled and fell, expecting to hit the back of the closet...but instead I fell right through where the back wall should have been.

When I looked up, I was flat on the ground of a vast mass of red, mars-like sand. It was dark in the sky, so I couldn't see far, but I could feel in the air that something was wrong about this place. My feelings were confirmed when a little kid ran up to me screaming for help as she apparently fled from something...just before hands reached out of the darkness, grabbed her, pulled her into the darkness, and then...instant silence.

And now all the attention was on me.

"The portal!" A rough voice shouted from the distance. "It's open! Move, now, let's GO!"

I tried to get up and run, but I ended up being carried back through the closet by the oncoming flood of bodies that rushed through it. Once they'd gotten through and changed their course, momentum flung me into the air and into the middle of the forest of lamps that stood in the closet room. Because it was dark and there were too many lamps to comfortably navigate, nobody paid attention to me, and I watched in horror as dozens of 7-foot tall, burly, rough men rushed into the room and down the hallway right to where my friends were. Many of them brandished weapons...I knew that no one would stand a chance against them.

As soon as I found my footing, I got out of the lamps and threw myself at the closet door. I managed to shut it, but in the process cut off the finger of one of the tall men as he stuck out his hand to try and stop the door from closing. I was surprised at first to see that there was no blood...it was just a skeleton and dried up, gray insides in that finger. But then it all made sense. These were the living zombies I had heard about; those who were internally dead but externally still strong as ever. Fully mindless, ruthless bodies.

Jane Doe was the first thing to come to my mind. No matter what happened, I just couldn't let the living zombies get to her. She didn't know how I felt about her, but our relationship had a lot of potential that I intended to take advantage of when the right time came, and I wasn't about to lose my chances now.

Suddenly I had knives on my belt, so I pulled them out, ran for the stairs (which was where the zombies were by now) and with expert handling began to lodge the blades into the zombies' dead bodies. It wasn't exactly one knife = one kill, but it distracted the zombies long enough for my friends to get weapons of their own.

The battle raged for what seemed like hours. It was not an easy victory, but we did eventually destroy the zombies' bodies bad enough that they really and truly died. I remember the last zombie's death in particular...I was running out of knives, when I had gotten backed into the closet room by one final zombie. I had a couple minor wounds, so I was being cautious--not to mention this thing was huge and mighty and had brass knuckles. I landed one knife into the zombie's shirtless chest, but it merely groaned in pain and kept coming my way. I threw another one and it landed right next to the first knife, but still it didn't bleed and it got close enough to land a blow that threw me back several feet.

I was out of knives. Frantically I searched my belt, but there was none. However, after a glance behind me, I saw a blade sticking out of a dead zombie's back, grabbed it, and hurled it towards the live zombie, expecting a triumphal, last-minute kill.

It didn't happen. Despite three knives in its chest, the beast was still as alive as ever, and heading my way. I really thought this was the end...

**BANG!**

A bullet shot echoed through the halls. The zombie collapsed onto its knees, two holes through it in addition to my knives. It cussed and swore in pain, but still didn't die.

"Finish him off!" I called to the one with the gun (who was on my side, obviously).

He emptied out his clip on the zombie, but it wasn't until easily two-dozen bullets later that the thing finally died. Still...it was over. We'd fought off the zombies.

<Continue to Part 3>

^(yep, I started a new, more descriptive title format )^

(Ok, I noticed that this one is going to be really freaking long, so I split it up to make things easier for you all)

Last night was one of the best dream nights I have had in a loooong time. It was one of those dreams that you wake up from and you just lie there and don't know what to say but..."woah." I mean this was a truly awesome experience. The level of detail throughout the whole dream was so intense that it was my biggest obstacle to lucidity. There were other things that should have convinced me of my dreaming state, but I'm actually rather glad I only stayed semi-lucid the whole time, with short bursts of true lucidity at key moments. I think things wouldn't have been as imaginative had I just tried to think things up on my own, but I had a good enough idea that I was dreaming to not be afraid of anything.

Anyway, enough rambling about the dream; I'll start from the beginning. Pretty much the whole thing will be teal this time, instead of trying to figure out everywhere I wasn't lucid and everywhere I was and where I was in-between.

Remember that girl from my first great WILD, and that rather romantic flying dream, not to mention some others? Well, she's back, and was in an apartment building with me and a ton of my other friends from real life when the dream began. (Actually, she's been in every dream I've had this past week, though none of them were so memorable as this one) I'm not exactly sure what we were doing all gathered together there, but it sure was a cool place to have a party. The apartment building itself was a very sci-fi-looking place; everything about the building spoke of sophisticated technology. The walls were metal and doors were automatic, etc.

However, once outside this building, the world transitioned into a very steampunk environment. In sharp contrast to the bright interior of the apartment, things trended towards darkness except for all the lights of the city, which was large, but mostly inside one big structure of glass that sheltered everyone from the continually harsh weather outside. The atmosphere of walking through that city was incredible.

At first in the dream, that's about all I did...just walk through the city and explore. There were certainly plenty of things to see and places to go. I started out a couple stories up (walkways wound all through the city) and walked down a blue-lit spiral staircase to the ground level. Along each side of this walkway were lines of businesses--major and personal and everything in between. It resembled a street, except no cars drove on it. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing a car anywhere.

As I first began my walk through the amazing city, my awe was interrupted by a merchant lady running a personal business about ten feet away from me.

"Excuse me, sir." She said. "Would you like to buy some cupcakes?"

"Hm? What?" I replied as I turned around to see where the voice came from. "Oh. No thank you."

And I proceeded onward, putting on a steampunk-ish cloak to avoid drawing more attention. The city was amazing, but darkness still was its most prominent feature, and you could either be in constant fear of it or use it to your advantage. I chose to do the latter.

The first place I stopped at and went inside was some kind of nightclub-ish restaurant. The walls were illuminated an ominous red, but other than that, the whole place was dark. I could see only silhouettes around me. I got a drink (nothing alcoholic, mind you ) but while I was sitting there listening to the techno music playing I overheard two rough-sounding men discussing rumors that some people in the city were not actually alive.

That got my attention.

As I listened, I gathered that there were zombies that were totally dead on the inside, but still animated and un-decayed externally, appearing to have life. They were also rumored to be the most dangerous creatures in existence.

"And the worst part," the man on the right concluded, "is that you never know which they are--dead or alive--until it's far too late."

I left in silence, as undetected on my way out as I had been on my way in, and returned to the apartment. Of course, when I passed the cupcake stand, the lady again spoke up.

"Excuse me sir, would you like to buy some cupcakes?"

"No."

However, no sooner had I gotten back into the apartment than my friends (and that girl I mentioned earlier, in particular, who will now be referred to as Jane Doe) asked me to go buy some supplies for the party that we were having the next day. False memory told me I remembered what they were talking about, and I agreed to go back out.

Again I passed the cupcake lady, and again she asked:

"Excuse me sir, would you like to buy some cupcakes?"

At first I was annoyed, but then I realized that would actually make my trip shorter to just buy from her--and maybe it would get her to shut up whenever she saw me next.

"Yes, actually, I would." I replied.

She showed me the flavors and toppings and all that and I made my decisions and told her what quantities I needed.

"Ok, I'll have to make a special batch for that many," she said, "but they'll be ready tomorrow morning. If I can just get the phone number of the person the party is for I'll get started on it right away."

That kind of flustered me. I wasn't sure of the phone number for several reasons. One: I didn't really know who the party was for now that I thought about it, and two: I didn't recall seeing any phones in the city or in the apartment. I had very nearly figured out it was a dream when the DC interrupted:

"Oh, I gotcha. You don't know the phone number. Well, I'll tell you what. I'll go ahead and make the cupcakes and you can get the phone number from your friend and when you pick them up tomorrow morning you can get the number to me. Sound good?"

"Oh. Yeah, that works."

"Ok, well I'll see you tomorrow morning, then!"

"Yeah. Thanks." I replied as I walked off, still slightly confused at what transpired.

I went right back to the apartment to inform everybody of the cupcake situation. I felt like I had kind of failed, coming back empty-handed like that, but nobody else thought so.

"I can go pick them up while I'm out tomorrow morning." Jane Doe told me. "That will work perfectly! Now, would you mind going upstairs and getting some gift boxes for me?"

"Sure." I replied.

<Continue to Part 2>

This morning about 4:00 am I awoke. I looked at my clock and knew I had an hour before my alarm would go off. So I rolled over trying to stay calm and not wake up too much.

I kept still, trying to slip into a wake induced lucid dream. I've never attempted this before but I had read a little about it recently.
As I layed there, I began to feel the vibrations you get before you fall asleep. I've tinkered in astral projection awhile back so I knew what was happening, so I took advantage of it and tried to astral project.
I did the rope trick (imaging yourself of pulling yourself up a rope), and I also tried rolling over.

The next thing I knew I was standing at the foot of my bed. I was fully lucid. I said to myself "I did it!". To stay calm I looked at my astral hands (this always works for me if I want to stay in a lucid dream).
I looked at the bed and I saw my wife and myself sleeping. I tried an experiment. I waved at myself. LOL, and I saw myself from bed waving back, synchronized, like a mirror image.
I didn't want to hang around too long. I've read where people will come out of a projection if they see them self or get too close. So I went to our bedroom door and opened it to leave.
The room I entered was no longer my house. I walked through various connecting rooms passing and interacting with people I have never seen before. Trying to soak up and remember the environment.

I then thought of another dream experiment. I found a sign with writing on it. So I tried to read it, look away and look back. sure enough it changed.

I eventually made it outside and I picked up a piece of paper. I began to read it. I could see the letters so clear, however it wasn't in English.

The letters appeared to be hieroglyphics. I tried to focus on a few of them to remember what they looked like so I could bring them out of the dream with me, and then I could write it down, but I think they kept changing on me so that didn't work.

I then felt myself fading out of the dream, and I woke up. I think If I wrote down everything at that moment I would have remember more detail, but I really wanted to get some more sleep before the alarm went off.