lucid

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Sorry there was no entry yesterday. I've been overtaken by really bad allergies, and I couldn't sleep that night...so obviously, I had no real dreams, just vague images here and there.

Last night I fared a bit better; sleep didn't come easily, but it did come, and brought dreams with it. Still, my discomfort messed up recall a bit, so only the lucid part really stands out in my memory.

I was in what was like a mix of real life and Mass Effect. That is, there were people and locations from real life, but I was actually Commander Shepherd and I remember even mentioning to a few people that I was a Spectre as well. When I would talk to people, frequently (though not always) I would choose my sentences from a circle of options, just like in the game. I also remember adjusting my equipment selection from a 'screen' that perfectly mimicked the original Mass Effect screen.

And I had a Palm Pre, which totally made my day

Although I don't recall there being any fights, at one point a DC who looked a lot like a certain friend of mine came up and said:

"That was a pretty slick move you made back there."

For some reason that seemed to ring a bell in my head, and I could just feel in the air that I could pull off any moves I attempted. That much figured out, it was only a moment later before I figured out why...

"Oh right! This is a dream!" I whispered quietly to myself. Then I cleared my throat and spoke up. "Dude, I am the ONE! I can do anything!"

"Really?" The DC asked. "Show me."

"Ok. Watch."

I then ran a few steps and did a flip that landed me perfectly on my feet.

"And I can't even do flips! Not in real life, anyway."

Someone clapped, even though I never saw who. Figured it was worth going on if they'd enjoy a show, though. Since I couldn't really injure myself, it seemed a good time to try something that would kill me IRL.

I ran another few steps and did a flip and a half, this time landing directly on my head. Then I just stood like that, maintaining balance without my hands, even, and even though I was surprised to find that it did hurt, I wasn't actually wounded, so it didn't bother me.

After that, I did everything I could think of to show off; butterfly twists, wall runs, handsprings...a lot of stuff requested by the onlooking DC's.

Maybe I just went too crazy and flung my head around so much that the dream faded, I don't know. But for whatever reason, just like I went lucid in order to start pulling off moves, I stopped pulling off moves and lost lucidity.

The dream only went on a little while after that anyway, so I didn't miss out on much.

Seems weird that I just don't RC in my dreams anymore. I do RCs faithfully every day for weeks, and then in the dreams that end up being lucid, I just...go lucid. It's very unfortunate, actually. I have the presence of mind to understand that I can do things that I can't do IRL, but my mind is still absent enough to not be very creative; I usually just keep doing whatever I was doing in the non-lucid part of the dream, just in a more extraordinary way. And it doesn't really feel like lucidity should...more like the feeling of playing a video game that I have total control over than feeling physically present in the dream.

I'll have to work on that...maybe I should start RCing assuming that I've already gone lucid, so that when I naturally go lucid in dreams, my first action will be to RC and thus improve my state of mind.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

In recent weeks, my ability to LD has seemed to wane as lucid dreams grew fewer and farther between, not to mention that the quality of each one has been on a downward scale as well.

Last night, I may have discovered both the 'why' and the 'how' concerning fixing the issue!

Since I've been RCing consistently for nearly two weeks now with no RC-induced lucid dreams behind me, I decided to try MILD. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of beginning the mantra while lying on my back. I can't sleep on my back, and for some reason, whatever position I begin a MILD in is what I'll revert to once I fall asleep. So I kept rolling over onto my back and waking up, preventing any very deep lucids, but like I said, I did learn a bit!

I had made a video mocking the president and I was sneaking around with a few buddies to literally deliver it right to his office on a DVD. It was tough avoiding security guards, but all the cameras were taken out via computer hacks. We made it to the office, the president was gone, and I set the DVD on the desk.

*BEEP* *BEEP*

Alarms went off and an army of guards rushed to the scene with the president shortly behind them (only he looked nothing like Obama; more like Einstein with tanned skin). We put our hands up, but suddenly my mind started racing. "I'm not lucid! What can I do? Wait a second, if this already is a dream, I can just go lucid!"

I put my hands down, and nobody fired at me. I just stood there a moment, smiling at the guards, enjoying their utter powerlessness. My buddies thought I was crazy.

"Go ahead, fire." I said.

One of them did, and the bullet just went right through me, not leaving a mark. Everyone's eyes were bugging out in shock.

"Don't you get it? This is a dream!"

Suddenly the president went crazy.

"It's a dream! It's a dream!" He shouted and sang, dancing around the room, even on the walls, until he ended up right in front of me and started to shake my hand vigorously.

I started losing the dream at this point, but I heard the president saying that he respected me for successfully reaching his desk unnoticed and that I would be highly rewarded.

Woke up as he was saying that, but quickly rolled off my back and DEILDed.

I was now in a parade that the president had to celebrate. He was riding on the front of the float I was on, still shouting and singing "It's a dream! This is a dream!" People were everywhere around me.

I stood up and waved, which got a lot of applause, and then I shouted:

"Look at me everybody I'M LUCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!"

The crowds roared with cheers and applause as I held out that last word. And then, just because I could, I jumped off the float, did a flip, and landed on the ground. The parade cleared away to give me space, and then I performed various tricks that are absolutely impossible IRL.

Woke up again, due to rolling onto my back. This time was for a little bit longer, so I couldn't DEILD. But still, I wasn't done LDing for the night now! When I fell back asleep...

...I found myself in Walmart in 1995. Only I had memories from 2010 still. It was like I had time traveled; the building, the ads, the decorations...all of it looked exactly like it had IRL in 1995. "Hah! This is all old stuff!" I said to myself as I walked through the place. "I wonder if I'm dreaming...but how can I find that out without drawing a lot of attention, in case this is real?"

I settled on getting something off the top shelf without any assistance. I figured the shelf was too high for me to normally be able to jump up and reach, so I'd definitely be dreaming if I could pull the object down. So I got ready, jumped, and made it far higher than the shelf, and in fact, landed on my feet right on top!

"This is definitely a dream! How cool!"

"What are you doing up there!?" A woman called. "You're going to kill yourself!"

"No I'm not, I'm dreaming!" I replied, jumping off and landing with a roll to the ground, completely unhurt. "See?"

Apparently I offended her, cuz she stormed off.

I ignored it.

"Now to update this place!"

I didn't even reach out my hands; I just thought about everything in the store changing to its present-day state, and as I watched, signs everywhere began to flip around with new ads and decorations, shelves and aisles rearranged themselves, and products morphed into their current versions.

Satisfied, I turned around and found myself staring at my ceiling. Once again, on my back, waking myself up...

Writing those dreams makes me feel a lot more in control than I felt actually going through them. I really was aware that I was dreaming, but because I kept waking up, I still felt disconnected from my dream body, and thus the dreams felt 'shallow'...if that's the right descriptor.

But anyway, it seems I was having trouble lucid dreaming because my brain somehow wasn't making the connection between non-lucid dreams and lucid dreams. It was apparently expecting to be lucid from the beginning or not at all, since I practically had to force it to accept the fact that I was in a dream at first, and go from non-lucid to being lucid. But after that, I was conscious of being in a dream far easier, so maybe I just needed to shatter that mental concept and now I'll be back to lucid dreaming every night!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

FINALLY had another lucid last night, short though it was. And actually, it still didn't come from my reality checks, which is really surprising to me. It used to be that if I RC'd for a week, I'd have a lot of LD's, but this time, I've only even come close a couple times!

This time I actually WILDed after WBTB, but unfortunately it didn't end up being as amazing as my last WBTB WILD.

Dream 1: There was a time during the WILD when sleep suddenly overtook me, and I momentarily lost consciousness. But then I suddenly snapped back into mental awareness, like my mind said: "Wait! This is what you were supposed to be looking for!"

Next thing I know, I'm outside in my backyard, lying down in the same position that I had been in my bed...only now I was on top of a fence. Yes, just a fence. I wasn't even laying across it; my body and the fence were going in perpendicular directions, and I wasn't falling down. There was no doubt that I was dreaming with something obvious like that staring me in the face! "I made it!" I thought. So I stood up, but my logical mind got the better of me and I couldn't balance on the fence.

For several seconds I wobbled back and forth, trying to stabilize or lean so that I could jump off and land nicely. But then I had a better idea. "Fly!" I shouted to no one in particular as I lifted off into the air.

The wind was strong beneath me; I could feel it rushing up onto my hands, my face, rippling through my clothes, and even in my hair. "So real!" I whispered.

By this point I had well stabilized my flight, so I was ready to go around and see what I could see. But sadly, excitement at finally being in a lucid dream grew too strong and in an instant, I woke up.

I tried just to DEILD at this point, and it almost worked.

Dream 2: I found myself talking to a friend about lucid dreaming. Now this friend knows very little about it IRL, so I was surprised to hear him so knowledgeable about things.

"I even discovered a way to instantly WILD every single time I try." He told me.

"Really? Could you show me? That would be so awesome to LD like that!"

"Yeah, sure, it's really easy."

So he got down on his knees, leaned his head down to the ground, left his butt sticking up in the air, and then pulled a blanket over himself.

"And then," I heard his muffled voice say, "you just close your eyes and WILD."

In another instant, he was totally still, and didn't respond if I tried to talk to him. After about five minutes, though, he suddenly started shouting and thrashing about!

"Wake up! Gah! Wake up! Wake up!"

Of course he did wake himself up that way. Apparently the dream had turned into a nightmare

"Did it work?" I asked once he had calmed down.

"Yeah, of course it did."

I decided to ignore how stupid a position it was to be in; if it got WILDs that well, it was worth it. So I took the blanket and gave it a shot.

Next thing I know after closing my eyes, I'm in a huge underground auditorium with thousands of people all around. The room was a cave, really, and the stage a huge diamond that was carved into. "No way! It worked! I'm in a lucid dream!"

But then my friend decided to shake me back awake...in the non-lucid dream.

"Well, did it work?"

"You bloody well bet it did! Why'd you wake me up!? Couldn't you have waited until I finished the dream?"

Then I woke up for real. (and by the way, I'm not counting that second lucid part as another LD in my sig just cuz it was so short)

Dream 3: There was another dream I remember too, but it came earlier on in the night. I just wanted to get the more interesting dreams written first . Basically, the doctor told me that because my vision isn't 20/20, I should get my eyes replaced with a new camera device that looked like a real eye and could be fit in an empty eye socket. I didn't want to go through with it.

"My eyes aren't that bad, and what if the surgery fails? Then I'll have no vision at all!" I protested.

"But if it succeeds, you'll have 20/20 for life!"

"Through machines, though, and machines are known to mess up once in a while. I don't want to have to go through eye maintenance all the time when my eyes were nearly fine to begin with."

"But you could have 20/20!" The doctor repeated.

Eventually I just left, but then I kept running into family and friends and they all told me the same things as the doctor and really wanted me to get the artificial eyes. One of them even mentioned they had artificial lungs and the surgery went without a hitch...all just to get me to replace my eyes that are not that bad. It drove me crazy! When I still refused to everyone who told me to get my eyes replaced, they decided to kidnap me and force me to comply with the doctor.

Thankfully, I woke up from that one before they could. I don't exactly want to have my eyes removed, even in a dream. I know exactly what made me dream this, though: Immortel ad vitam. It's a movie I recently watched that has most people with artificial parts and one guy mentions his lungs being replaced...don't recommend that movie at all. It was such a waste of time. Pointless and confusing.

Dream 4: This also happened earlier in the night. Don't remember much about this one. There was a woman who was crazed...trying to take over the world or something. We heard tell of her moving through the country, taking cities over wherever she went. Eventually, she was in my neighborhood, and then, in my house. I grabbed the first weapon I could get to: my sword. (yes, I have a sword IRL, and that's the one I grabbed, only the hilt was longer in the dream than it really is)

I fearlessly walked up to the woman with the sword in my hand and shouted: "Get! Back!" The gem on the sword's pommel began to glow, and as terror overtook the woman's gaze, she crumpled to the ground onto her knees.

"You...have...my sword!"

"What are you talking about, this is my sword! And I will use it unless you give this up!"

"No, that once was my sword, many hundreds of years ago...it is where I get my power from, but I lost it once, and so I now am searching the earth for it."

I thought then that she would grab it out of my hand and turn into some monster of unstoppable power, but she didn't.

"That sword lies in the hands of a brave man, now. I can never reclaim it."

That said, she stood up slowly, walked out silently, her vast armies scattering, and no one ever heard from her again.

That one could almost be in a movie or book or something...interesting concept.

Well, not a bad night for dreaming! Four recalls, a little bit of lucidity...still room for improvement, though!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I'm getting pretty tired of not having decent lucids, so I'm going back to the constantly-RC method. I'll keep trying WILDs here and there cuz they're so much better when they work, but I'm not getting them to work consistently enough for me.

Since an important part of DILD is dream recall, I thought I had better write down what I remember of last night.

I wasn't actually in the dream; it was like a mental movie. There was a guy (I think his name was Martin) who was staying in a room at his girlfriend's house because he had no job and no money. The gf was some sort of psychiatrist or something like that, and was trying to get Martin a job with her, but he needed specific training before he could. So he got the details, packed what little he had, and headed off to different locations for the training.

It wasn't but a day after he left that his gf got a phone call from her boss. "You may want to tell Martin to look elsewhere." She said. "We've found someone for the job." Martin's gf was shocked. "And this person has all the necessary training for the position?" She asked. "Well...no." Boss replied. "Actually, she has no training at all. But she's got what it takes; you just have to see her with a patient! I think she'll end up teaching us, not the other way around." Now the gf was really distressed. Not only had the spot for Martin been filled contrary to previous plans, and he was getting training he couldn't afford without getting the job as well, but it was all happening for someone with no training! After a brief silence, the boss added, "You should probably meet her. Could I send her over to your place tomorrow? I think it would be a nicer place for a chat than at the office." "Uh, yeah...sure."

Next thing I know, the scene 'cut' to a different person. It was yet another girl (pretty sweet way to dream, right?) who lurked in the shadows (ok maybe not) and was watching Martin's girlfriend's boss at her desk. At first there were other people there, talking to her, but as soon as they all left, the lurker woman walked out and started speaking in commands. "You will not hire the new girl. You will tell her there has been a mistake and she cannot work here." As she spoke, the boss's eyes seemed to roll back in her head and black streaks appeared in both of them, swirling around. I could tell the boss was being controlled. But fortunately, the newcomer appeared just then. She was a pretty brunette that wore glasses; nothing at all like the other, rather dumpy people in the dream. "Let her go!" The newcomer shouted. Her words seemed to throw the evil woman back with a force, and she ran off first chance she got. The boss's eyes returned to normal. "What was that?" The boss asked. "I was totally unable to control myself!" "I don't know," the newcomer replied, "but I don't think we've seen the end of this one."

Again the scene 'cut' to a different location; this time a public phone in a train station. Martin was calling his gf. I can't remember all their dialogue, but she told him about the job no longer being available, and meeting with the newcomer the next day. She said that the whole thing sounded weird, and if possible, she would try to convince the boss not to hire the new girl because of her lack of experience. But still, it wasn't much comfort to Martin. He knew that without a job, he was financially screwed.

It was the following day, then, and the newcomer was knocking at the door of Martin's gf. She was suddenly in an apartment now instead of a house. "Come in." The reply to the knock came. But it wasn't Martin's gf's voice. The newcomer opened the door, and found Martin's gf standing there, motionless, black swirls in her eyes. Next to her was the evil woman. "Now you listen to me." The evil woman said. Martin's gf robotically spoke the same words at the same time; it was like their brains had been connected, and the evil woman's was the dominant of the two. "Do what I say, or she <Martin's gf> dies." The newcomer was strangely able to resist the mind-controlling power of the evil woman. "You don't have to live this way." She told the evil woman. "I can help you." The evil woman laughed, which also made Martin's motionless girlfriend laugh in an emotionless and robotic tone. The two laughs combined were chilling. "Help me? I'm doing this for you." The newcomer raised a single eyebrow in confusion at the evil woman's saying. "I'm doing this for her!" She continued, pointing at Martin's gf. But then something really weird happened. The evil woman looked not just in my direction as the spectator, but at me, even though I wasn't there. I could feel my real body for a moment, but then it got sucked in, and I was standing in that apartment room, also motionless and unable to move of my own accord. "I'm doing it...for him!" I then felt my eyes rolling back into my head, unstoppably, and black swirls began to cover my vision. But then I heard the newcomer start panicking. "No! Don't!" She cried. "He controls the dream; if you control him, you'll kill us all! We can't exist without him being the one in control!" The evil woman snapped back (the gf still saying all of her words at the same time: "Idiot! We'll stop existing as soon as he wakes up!" Then I felt myself uncontrollably begin to say the same things as the evil woman as well. "If I take control of him, we can continue existing forever! None of us have to die! I'm saving us all!" But at the same time as the evil woman was talking, I was thinking about what the newcomer had said about it being a dream. Pretty soon, I realized...it was a dream! Summoning all my energy into one panicked move, I thrust my head forward, said, "Not today!" (which the gf said at the same time as me, this time) and with one jerk of my head (the only thing I could move), I broke the dream like a pane of glass, and woke myself up.

Such a weird, weird concept...a DC being afraid of dying, and thereby attempting to take control of my mind so I wouldn't wake up?? I don't think I want to dwell on that one...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Had an interesting experience last night. I may have discovered a sleeping position that significantly increases my chance of lucid dreaming.

As some of you know, I've been attempting for some time now to WILD right from going to bed rather than employing WBTB. Last night I finally did it, and this is how: by laying down completely flat on my face. I propped up my forehead and chest with two pillows so that I wouldn't suffocate, and then put my arms to my sides and began the WILD attempt. Surprisingly, I didn't hear or see much during the entry. For a brief second I felt a tingly feeling, but I completed my attention-switching at that moment so my bodily sensations were no longer being registered. Then the darkness of my eyelids seemed to expand far beyond my field of vision. The blackness took on a depth despite the fact that it was all dark and there was not really anything to give it depth.

And then I saw a tower. It was a purple-y color, as all of my beginning hypnagogic hallucinations are. I was looking down at it from above, and slowly drawing nearer to it. Whether I was moving towards it or it was moving towards me I do not know, but my mind got the cue, and I thought, "Oh! It's time to enter the dream now!" I then was rushed downward, past the building, into further blackness.

Next thing I know, I'm standing up in my room next to my bed. "That's weird, I don't remember standing up." I thought. "Better do an RC just in case." I pinched my nose several times, putting it in between several different sets of knuckles so that I knew I couldn't possibly duplicate the action in real life (if I were dreaming) and thereby ruin the RC. Every time, I was able to breath just fine. "Woah, that's cool! It's a dream!"

Even though I was fully lucid by this point, my mind was strangely unclear; it was like after so many failures at WILDing directly after going to bed, it was surprised to have succeeded and didn't exactly know how to handle it.

I could think of none of my goals. As I thought, I idly moved my hand past my shoulder...and it warped. I remembered my first attempt at shape-shifting in a lucid dream, and how far I'd come with dream control since then. I thought I'd go for it again and see how it went. There was absolutely no problem this time; I never lost the dream from shape-shifting, nor did it seem to fade or cause me to lose lucidity. So I turned myself into various people: video game characters, movie heroes...and I even switched genders a couple times (which was a very weird feeling indeed ). I didn't do it all at once, either. I treated my dream body like a 3D model that I could reshape and recolor at will, which seemed much more enjoyable than just declaring myself to be a different person and finding it to happen exactly as I say.

My success, however, would prove to be the loss of my dream. I got excited thereafter, so I threw open the nearest door and ran through whatever fantasy world was on the other side. My dad was there, and talking to me about stuff I can't remember anymore. I replied back, but with the intention of actually speaking out loud. This is another place where my mind was unclear. In the dream, I thought my dad was actually there next to my bed in real life, talking to me, and I was hearing it in the dream, and responding to him with my real voice even though I was completely asleep. It's an interesting concept and probably possible in the right circumstance, but this was not the right circumstance. I never figured out that it was completely impossible for my dad to be there since the door was locked and he couldn't have gotten in if he wanted to.

After I was done talking to my dad, I realized my excitement had caused the dream to slip a bit, so I rubbed my hands before going on. But the damage had already been done; I was losing lucidity. I tried to summon people and objects and it didn't work. Further attempts began to weaken the dream's clarity. Before long, I was not lucid any more. All I recall of the dream after losing lucidity is discovering that I had a huge range of notes that I could hit with my singing voice.

Kind of a weird lucid dream for me. How I got into it was unusual, my mental state during it was unusual, and what I did was unusual. Oh well. At least I had another WILD! It wasn't nearly as good having it right off the bat, but it was still better than 90% of my DILDs in terms of feeling real. I'd sure rather WILD like this every night than spend all day RCing just to get a couple half-decent LDs a week.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, my version of spring break this year was to take a short vacation, during which I managed to keep myself from getting on the internet and just relax and totally stay away from normal life for a while. And now it's over, and now I'm back!

During my time away from home, I managed to have a couple lucid dreams. They were not very clear or long, but my level of dream control was excellent in both, so it was still an enjoyable ride.

Dream 1: I found myself in a large mansion back in the middle ages, chasing after a villain for reasons unknown to me. I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden it was like something clicked in my mind and I realized I was dreaming! The chase fled my mind and I turned to flying around and using telekinesis and whatever else I could find to do in such an old, interesting place. Eventually, though, the villain found his way to me, so we had a sword fight that I easily won thanks to all the flying and the powers. I never killed the guy, but his sword was out of his hand and mine was at his throat as I woke up.

Dream 2: From the beginning, I knew that I was dreaming, and yet that realization wasn't strong enough from the beginning to allow me to form the dream. What I got was a futuristic world where racing through high-speed, high-danger tracks was the sport to end all sports. I was a racer, and I had a girlfriend who also raced. We were in a worldwide championship; everyone had their eyes on us, and if we did well for them, we'd have it made for life. Once I sat in the seat of one of those cars (which looked a great deal like this) I began paying attention to the controls and really went lucid. Of course, due to the lucidity, I did very well and won the race by a long shot. It was interesting being so famous for a race, so I didn't think of changing the dream.

The next several races saw me win more and more, and my girlfriend do well at first, and then lose once completely. I comforted her as I would a real person, but it didn't work. She was so upset that she stormed off and seemed to disappear outside the room. I had no time to think about it, since someone came into the room immediately afterward to escort me to the next race.

We rode on a hovering tram through the air, coming towards an entire city that was one big race track. it was a circular city with track wound all around in it like a bowl of spaghetti, piling up far above the walls around the base. A spire stuck up even higher than the tracks with a glass circular room at the top for spectators. The end result was a city that was basically shaped like a cone. Everything but the road itself was made of a shiny steel, which glistened brightly in the sunrise as I approached my biggest race yet.

After looking out the window, I turned and opened up a suitcase. A new uniform was in it, designed to match the colors of my redesigned car. "Woah, this looks expensive. I wish I could wear this thing around in real life!" I said. "What did you say?" My dream girlfriend asked as she walked in. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud. How are you doing? I haven't seen you for a while." I replied. "About that..." the dream gf began hesitantly. "You were right about what you said back there. I was just mad about losing the race, but I should have realized that you were right all along. I'm sorry." We made out--I mean, made up, and then I went out to race...only to end up waking up.

So yes indeed, I'm still lucid dreaming, and I fully intend to resume reality checking and attempting WILDs so I can have clearer and better lucid dreams once again very soon!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

IIIIIIIIIIII'M BACK!

Finally managed to lose that nasty cold, so I'm back into lucid dreaming now! And what a good start it was, too! After no RCing, no real attempting to go lucid, no studying lucid dreams for a couple weeks, I managed to go lucid on my first night of returning!

The world was covered in snow and war. I was living with multiple other war-ravaged citizens in a house that was protected by several fences. There were people protecting the place, but they were just barely successful. Enough enemies made it through to make just leaving the house a dangerous act. Going outside the first fence was life-threatening. Going beyond the second fence was suicide. The third and fourth fences had been damaged to the point of being little good. Unreal Tournament 3 vehicles were everywhere, particularly the Necris ones. There was constant noise of gunfire.

Inside the house, all we could do was watch, wait, and try to think up an escape plan. There was a device in our possession that contained important enemy plans and information. We knew it was only a matter of time before the house would be captured, but we didn't plan to be there when it happened. Every time we'd gather around and suggest possible escape plans, someone would discover a fatal problem with the idea and we'd come up empty handed (or empty-minded, as it were).

Well, the house's heater broke that day, and it fell to me to go and fix it. One of the girls that was also taking refuge in the house had become my girlfriend during our time there, so she tagged along to give me some company. We headed down the stairs to the old house's basement and into a room filled with machinery. Most of it was functioning, but sure enough, the furnace was dead. We talked and she handed me whatever tools I needed as I went about my work. I realized how much I valued her right then. Even in the middle of war, we could make a cheerful conversation and truly not be afraid simply because we had each other. Just after this realization hit me, the furnace kicked back into action and began heating the place again. My gf clapped and we headed upstairs.

Then the dream went into 'spectator mode' and I saw a normal guy who was guarding the house outside the fence suddenly transform into a red version of the Green Goblin from Spiderman! And I could feel his intentions change from guarding the house to destroying it.

Back in myself, in the house, my gf and I had just come up the stairs to hear everyone talking about the Red Goblin. We didn't know why, but we knew he was coming, and we had to defend ourselves. No sooner was I told this than Red burst inside. Everyone panicked, and for good reason too. I watched in horror as he tore the throat of anyone who was in his way and then knocked them away with a single blow. I grabbed my gf, pulled her into a nearby closet, and then closed the door. "What are we going to do?" She whispered. I fumbled around in the darkness until I found the flashlight that I knew was there. Once the light was on, I pointed it in the corner. A trap door was visible. "We're going to go outside." I replied. "It's too late to save everyone now, we just have to save ourselves." One more moment of listening to the screaming coming from outside the closet and she knew I was right. We crawled into the trapdoor and through the little passageway until finally we made it to the other end...which led us right outside into the snow.

"Look! There he is!" My gf shouted, pointing. I looked, and sure enough, the Red Goblin was leaving the building. He had something in his hand. Zooming in (with my eyes), I saw it to be the device with all the enemy plans! As soon as I zoomed back out, I saw my gf running over to the body of a fallen soldier. She grabbed his weapons, tossed one to me, and started running. "Wait!" I shouted as I ran after her. "No, don't follow him! You'll be killed!" But she wouldn't stop. A bomb shell flew down right in front of me and threw me backwards, face down into the snow, and by the time I got back up, neither the Red Goblin nor my gf was in sight. I ran until I got to the fence and then peeked over. Still no sign of either one of them. That meant they were beyond the second fence, in the hottest part of the battle.

Something in my heart screamed for my gf then. Suddenly I abandoned all sense of personal safety and decided I was going to bring her back to safety if I had to fight every enemy soldier alone. I was not going to let her die! So I jumped over the first fence, ran past several vehicles and soldiers who were exchanging fire, and then jumped over the second fence. Immediately, someone in a Scavenger vehicle started shooting at me. I dove and rolled out of the way and then came back up just in time to deliver a headshot to the enemy soldier. Before anything else could happen, I pushed him out of the cockpit and took over.

As I started driving off, something weird happened. I didn't RC or anything...I just suddenly realized something. "Hey!" I said. "This is a dream! Well, that means I don't need to go save her, then. I can just turn around, and she'll be there!" I turned around, and she wasn't there. I forgot to RC or rub hands, so my level of dream control wasn't the best. I didn't think to totally change the dream, but honestly I didn't want to anyway; I thought things were pretty cool as they were. "Oh well. At least I know she'll be alive, since I can decide that!" And off I went back to the first fence, taking down enemies left and right. I decided I would find my gf outside the first fence, and she would have the device with her. This time, my decision worked. I found her right where I expected to, and she did have the device. She was very badly wounded, though, and couldn't stand up. She was leaning against the fence, sitting on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She said as I jumped out of the scavenger and ran over to her. "I just wanted to help stop the war...I didn't want this to happen." "You're not going to die." I said gently. "How do you know?" She replied, a tear forming in her eye. "Because..." I reached up and touched a bloody spot on her face, and healed it. "...I won't let you." I then healed all of her wounds, picked her up, and flew off into the air. "Where are we going?" She asked. "Somewhere safe." I replied. And that's exactly where we went; I didn't stop flying until I came to a house far, far away from the war and snow. "Wait here." I told her. "I have one more thing I need to take care of. I just wanted to make sure you were safe." We hugged briefly, and then I flew back into the heat of battle.

As I entered the snowy area again, I watched for the Red Goblin. It wasn't long before I saw him going along on a hoverboard. I yelled to distract him, then dove down and ran right into him, knocking him clean off his hoverboard. We then engaged in an epic duel, mainly using pyrokinesis to fight each other. Of course I couldn't be burned because I knew that the fire didn't exist. Unfortunately, I didn't see how the battle ended, however, because I shortly thereafter woke up.

This lucid dream brought to you by Confidence Induced Lucid Dream. I did not RC during the day or anything like that because I'm not in the habit of it right now due to my recent cold. I simply believed I would have a lucid dream, and I did!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

WOW! Just, wow! I succeeded at WILD again last night, and it was the best one yet!


So I naturally woke up at 5:00am, like I usually do (for reasons I have yet to understand), and lay in bed for about ten minutes before I woke up enough to realize that I was even awake. When that realization finally hit, it woke me up enough that a long WBTB seemed unnecessary. I didn't even get out of bed; instead I just rolled over to a new and comfortable position and then waited for the HI. They came visibly and audibly within a couple minutes. So I started counting.

"1...I'm dreaming...2...I'm dreaming..."

I did it pretty mindlessly, but it was just enough to keep me conscious. Before long I was seeing white everywhere and feeling the energy pulses as I did last time. And I had this urge to do something--anything! But I felt like if I just sat there I'd lose it. So I did the first thing that came to mind; with my eyes still closed, I started doing push-ups in my bed! (Really at this point I was in SP and in my dream body) And then, with a loud wooshing noise, it was like my consciousness was sucked away. I collapsed on the bed and everything went black. So I tried to open my eyes. I was in my bathroom, and I knew the WILD had succeeded. But everything was so real! A quick RC completely affirmed my state, however, and I thought of things to do. "Hmm...I recently said on dreamviews that I wouldn't mind lucid dreaming a level or two of Tomb Raider. When I open this door, I'll be in Croft Manor!" I opened the bathroom door, but I saw my hallway outside. "Dang. Try something else." I thought about teleportation, and the first thing that came to my head was how Hiro Nakamura teleports in the Heroes TV show. Figured it was worth a try. So I thought "Croft Manor", closed my eyes, and worked hard at it until my head shook from concentration. I heard the familiar teleportation sound from Heroes and then opened my eyes again. I was standing right in the doorway to Croft Manor!

The place was incredible; everything was exactly as it appeared in the game, only far more realistic. Even the patterns on the carpets inside were true to Tomb Raider: Anniversary! "Now to find Lara Croft!" As I said this, I turned around, pointing at the place where I wanted her to appear. At that moment she walked through the door that I was pointing at. "There you are!" I said. "Where shall we go? Vilcabamba? Coastal Thailand?" She wasn't nearly so excited. "What are you doing here?" She replied angrily as she walked by, not even looking me in the face. "Well come on, don't you want to go?" I asked. "Not with you!" She retorted. I tried to talk nice to her then and soften her attitude, but it didn't work. So I followed her as she walked outside and made a picnic lunch appear in the middle of the mansion's huge lawn. She didn't go for that, either. I guess being rich actually made Lara a snob after all

Giving up on that idea, I tried teleporting away to somewhere else (although I can't remember where, now). Instead of going there I ended up in my bed, in another false awakening. "What, it's over? Better reality check to make sure." I pinched my nose and breathed in. No air went through. But it didn't feel right, somehow, so I did it again, this time only pinching one side and then slowly pinching the other as I breathed in. This time air went through, and I knew I was in a false awakening. A moment of panic hit me, then. It felt like I had already been in a dream for a couple hours. I wondered if I'd ever truly wake up, or if I'd just keep having false awakenings. That fear left as quickly as it came, though. I figured it had only been a few real minutes, and besides, I wouldn't mind living in a lucid dream for a long time anyway, considering I was in full control right now.

I teleported back to the Croft Manor to figure out where I should go next. Lara was still there, and still unhappy, so I just flew around near the ceiling to stay out of her way. "Flying...flying...wait! I flew that girl around before. I should bring her back and we can fly someplace again!" So that's exactly what I did. I landed on the ground and tried to summon her. A girl appeared, but it was just a silhouette of an old woman. "You're not the right one." So I turned around and pointed, as I had done before, saying: "This is really her!" And sure enough, there she was! Her back was turned to me, though, so I was a bit nervous that her face wouldn't be right. I tapped her shoulder and she turned around. Not a single inch of her face was inaccurate! "Hi!" She smiled, and I could tell she was remembering our last flying adventure. "You ready to go?" I asked as I picked her up just as we had done before.

It was then that Lara got jealous. "Wait a minute, what do you mean, go? You can't go without me!" I shrugged. "Sorry, actually I can. You're not real." And then I flew off with the girl to the middle of the maze behind Croft Manor and landed there. I knew Lara wouldn't find us there in time. We laughed from the joy of flying and escaping that way. "You want to go get something to eat?" I asked. "Sure! That sounds good." "Where do you want to go?" "Anywhere's fine with me." I couldn't help chuckling, considering she had no idea that I could take her literally anywhere. "No," I said, caressing her cheeks with my hands. "You choose. Please." She nodded slowly, getting the idea that I would do anything for her. "Alright. How about..." and she mentioned the name of a restaurant that I can no longer remember. It started with an 'N', but that's all I can recall. "Ah! That's a good place. Here; just put your hands on my shoulders and we can teleport there." She did, and I successfully teleported us to the restaurant the same way I had teleported before.

When I opened my eyes, we were in a very cool building. The lights were dimmed, people were everywhere, and cool mexican-sounding music was being played on a stage a short ways away. It was all 100% real. "This is so much better than real life!" I shouted. I didn't want anyone to hear, though, so no one did. The girl was in front of me. "Come on!" She said, pulling me by the hand. I was almost in a daze; I just couldn't get over how great everything was, so it was good that she was there to pull me along. For some reason we had to go through a ticket booth to get inside, even though no one was taking or giving tickets. When it came to be my turn to go through, the guy standing at the counter said, "Have a good time!" I shook his hand just to see what it felt like. My fingernail caught on his hand as I did so, making him flinch. It felt real, that's for sure. Skin slightly rough, a bit of sweat...even the creases in his palm. "Sorry about that, dude." I nodded towards the place my fingernail had caught. "That's alright man! Go have a good night with your girlfriend!" Well, that was interesting.

I ran and caught up to the girl, who was looking for a table. "Is this ok?" She asked, pulling back a chair to sit in. "Looks good to me!" I took the other seat. "Hey, umm..." I began as I reached across the table and held her hand. "What would you say...we are? Not...not in real life, I mean, but...in here." She didn't get it. "What? What do you mean...'in here'?" I didn't want to say outright that it was a dream, since by now I was pretty sure that I was shared dreaming with this girl. Make her go lucid, and she could figure out that were sharing a dream and that I really do care for her. So I skipped the dream thing entirely and asked plainly: "Would you say you're my girlfriend?" She smiled.

Then I lost the dream and woke up!

I know! Of all times to wake up! I mean, COME ON! Just ten more seconds and I could have had an answer! I tried desperately to WILD again and get back to that spot, but of course it didn't work. It had been a couple hours, and I wasn't at all tired any more. REM was done. I couldn't relax.

Oh well. It was still my best WILD yet! And I'm getting better at doing it right, so hopefully before long I'll be able to use it to go lucid very often indeed!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Had kind of a weird experience last night. I tried a new WILD technique called NSSWILD (Natural Sleep Simulation Wake Induced Lucid Dream) that was going great...and I fell asleep again. But I was exceptionally tired last night, so it's not a big surprise/disappointment. On a less tiring day I'll probably be able to get through no problem!

But the weird thing I mentioned came when I fell asleep and dreamed regularly. I never did an RC or recognize a dream sign...I just suddenly thought "this is a dream, after all" as I went about, and went lucid! Here's the dream:

False memory told me that I had directed and acted in a smash-hit movie on a low budget in the past, so now I was part of a high-budget movie with all the big sets and professional cameras and all that. It was great. And we were about to shoot the climax of the film; when the guy (me) saves the girl, the villain raises his ugly head in apparent victory, and there are lots and lots of explosions. We ended up re-doing the scene several times for one reason or another, but finally, after two or three times, I randomly went lucid and just asked a DC for a quick review of everything I was supposed to do. Of course there were other things I could have done, being lucid, but I had already seen what kind of movie we were filming, and I really wanted to act it out being lucid. So once I got a crash course on my part, I decided to go play it for all I was worth. The scene began with the girl badly ill, in a hospital room several stories up. The hospital wasn't normal, though, being a black and twisty tower. The nurse said she was going to go get medicine, but as it turned out, as soon as she had left the room, we heard several short beeps, like on a keypad, and then the base of the building shot out flames, and a chain reaction was started that continued to the top. The place was collapsing! I punched the nurse and threw her out the window, but she shape-shifted into the evil (male) villain she truly was and grabbed onto the side of building on the way down, landing safely. I picked up the girl and carried her on back, then ran for the elevator down. It broke halfway down the first floor, and flames jetted down out of the ceiling as debris landed on top. I noticed that it melted a part of the steel wall, however, so I kicked with all my might and broke a hole through. Stairs were visible, so I carefully pushed the girl through, and then did a dive through the hole myself, landing in a roll and coming back up on my feet. The girl back on my back I began to run down the stairs, which were one of two spiraling stair cases. On the other staircase was the villain, who had hoped to capture us in the elevator. "Give up!" He shouted across the gap, which was filled with explosions and flames. "Even if you get out of here alive, your father won't. You'll have to choose...him, or her!" "Just watch me!" I replied, taking off in a run. But I couldn't get down any farther, because in the delay, the stairs broke on both ends of the room. The villain actually fell through his stair and landed in the flames, but still managed to escape in time (he was definitely not human...a pitch black creature with long, gnarled fingers and fingernails of a similar description). I managed to step back in time to not fall, but all of the stairs were weakened now, so I turned to the girl, who was barely conscious. "Can you hold on?" "I'll...try..." She held herself on my back, and I jumped, swinging from remaining stair to remaining stair, to pipe sticking out of the wall, to monkey-barring across exposed rebar and running on walls. That, combined with explosions and flames and all that, was quite epic. But then when I got to the bottom of the building, I kept the girl with me, rather than handing her off to someone else as we had done in previous shots. Instead, I ran to my aforementioned father (who looked exactly like my real life father, but acted nothing like him) and made him leave on a subway. I guess he worked around there or something. At first he protested, but I simply said to him: "I can heal; I'll survive the fire and all this. But you've got to get out of here! Take her with you; please, she'll die without some help!" This convinced him, and he left. The building began completely collapsing as the subway departed. I ran with super-speed out of there, but things went into slow-motion. Huge chunks of ceiling dropped down and nearly hit me, but I'd either dodge them, flip over them, or do any other number of cool move. Suffice it to say most of the time I was running on falling debris and not the floor. I made it outside just in time, but there was still the tower falling down, and it was headed right for me and my dream character friends (whom I knew by false memory). Telekinesis presented itself as the first option, so I held up my hands and pushed the tower the other way, so that it fell on top of the enemy army rather than us. I was then in third-person, viewing the scene through the eyes of the camera. I turned around, again in slow motion, with this cool grey and white cloak shading my face, the building collapsing in the background and sending a rush of wind my way, blowing the cloak in the wind. I simply walked, not panicked at all, proving the lengths of my control to everyone around. It was one of those classic, epic shots. Next thing I know, I was back in myself, and a bunch of people from Star Wars were asking me to lead them in battle. I woke up before I could, but I'm sure it would have been epic.

Honestly, it sounds a tad bit dumb when I write it, but it was quite awesome going through it! :bravo:

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I still fell asleep during my multiple WILD attempts, but at least I managed to have decent recall and even go lucid a couple times, although briefly!

Anyway, here is what went on in my head last night:

Dream 1: It was several years in the past. My siblings and I were still together with our parents and we were in Florida on vacation. We had this rental car with a ceiling that stuck downward in the middle and had a panel on the side with a red bar, a timer, and a phone (one of those old, curly-corded ones). We assumed the red bar and timer were to measure how many phone minutes we had left. I tried to think of people I could call just to see if it worked, but I couldn't think of any numbers, and just having the phone off the hook took off of our time. By the time we reached our destination, we only had 50 minutes left, which transferred wirelessly to the parking meter in front of us. "Oh great!" My dad complained. "You used up all but 50 minutes of our time!" "I think that's just for the phone, though." One of my sisters said. "No," my dad explained, "that's for the entire car! We can't use it anymore after that time runs up! That means we won't be able to stay here for more than five minutes if we want to get back to the hotel in time! I can't believe this..."

I woke up and realized I hadn't stayed awake through the WILD. "Ok, from this point on, if I see my family, or...or anyone, I'm dreaming." And then I fell back asleep, hoping that would at least be enough to get me lucid.

Dream 2: I was baby-sitting two of my nieces in the present day. They wanted to go down in the basement to play Xbox. Now even though I didn't go lucid yet, this kind of struck me as odd for multiple reasons: 1) I don't have an Xbox, 2) if I did, my nieces wouldn't be interested in playing it, and 3) it wouldn't be in the basement because there's no TV down there. So I went down to get a game set up for them. There was a pretty big TV there, as well as a couch and lounge chair around it. I went over and found the Xbox and turned it on. Then I look up and find the TV shrunk down to just having a screen a couple inches across! "Are you sure this screen is big enough for you guys?" I asked. "Yeah, it's fine." One of them replied. I turned around then and noticed something really strange: the lightbulb in the ceiling was out, but the room was still lit. I walked over to it and pulled on the string to turn it on. Nothing happened. Pulled again, still nothing changed. "Ok, this is so weird." So I did a reality check. I thought I felt air come through my nose with it pinched. "I must not have pinched very hard...no way this is a dream. But I need to do it again just to make sure." I did, and this time I was beginning to be convinced otherwise. One more time, and I was fully lucid! I dropped all concerns for my nieces now that I knew they weren't really there and I ran up the stairs to get outside so I could fly somewhere interesting. Unfortunately I ran a bit too fast. The dream started to weaken. I rubbed my hands and tried to spin around, but I couldn't hold on to the dream...it had gone on for too long as a non-lucid and now the REM was almost over. As the dream faded I began losing balance, so I grabbed for the door and railing on the stairs, also clinging to the sensation of those objects being there. But nothing could stop it.

I woke up, of course. I'm not sure when I fell back asleep, but I'm pretty sure it was during another WILD attempt

Dream 3: I was lucid from the very beginning this time, but I found myself in a place like the construct from the Matrix. Everything was white, save for a TV and a couple chairs...and three DC's who were standing there. One was a girl, another a tall and strong man, the other a short and stocky kind of guy. I didn't have time to think of going anywhere or doing anything I had set out to do in waking life, because these DC's ran up to me and each one started begging me to make them the star of a movie. "This is your dream, only you can do this for me!" Each one kept repeating. "Ok, ok, guys, if it will get you to leave me alone, I'll make all of you the stars of a movie." That wasn't good enough for them. "No, I want to the be the star instead of the other two of them!" (Man, DC's sure can be selfish!) "I choose the lady, then." I lost lucidity at that point as well as my body and I watched as a short 'video clip' played before my eyes with the girl as the star actress. It was some kind of action adventure film; I can't remember much of it. I do remember hearing a voice telling me the future of the girl because of the film, though, mentioning other movies that she was in and how this one started it all for her. After that ended, however, I was back at the construct place, still not lucid, and the tall guy was there. "Now you have to make me the star." He said. "It's not fair that I don't get a chance to prove my worth. I can act twice as good as her; you'll see." So I made him the star, and the video replayed with him in it. He wasn't a great actor, honestly. He made mistakes left and right. Again the narrator voice talked about the future of the star actor, but I can't remember what it said about him. The video clip over, I was in the construct once more, with just Mr. Shorty left. He was wearing a suit and black sunglasses, and he was a black guy now, too. "Hey man." He said. "Just give me a chance. Don't leave ol' shorty out now, right? I'll show ya. I can act for real." I don't remember actually giving him the part, but the video clip replayed with the short guy in there (now as a bald white man with a long moustache). He stopped the other actors, though, and had them totally rearrange the set. He turned the film into a comedy about twin aviators, both played by him. The narrator once again chimed in, talking about how this guy's skills as a director ended up surpassing his acting skills and making him famous for several movies...or something like that.

This time when the dream was over I didn't have time to go back to sleep, so I just lay in bed and worked on recall of all these. So that's what happened last night.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I give up on my watch alarm. I've tried all sorts of things to try and fix it, all to no avail. It just doesn't go off any more.

Last night I had it set for the middle of the night, and I intended to WILD and WBTB. I know, I've only made one WILD last very long, but I was determined this time.

As it turned out, I still woke up without my watch, but at 5:30am. Not quite as good as an hour earlier, but I still decided to give it a shot. At that point I also thought about dream recall a bit, and remembered one single dream.

Dream 1: It was like watching a slideshow of photoshopped family photos. I saw memories of mine flash by every few seconds with just a bit of reality distorted by a lot of fantasy. They seemed to go in somewhat of a chronological order, too. But things didn't stop when they reached the present day. No, after that, I saw future events that I am planning on happening as if they were memories. About a week out into the future, the dream ended.

So having recalled all that I could, I got out of bed, stretched, went to the bathroom so I wouldn't have any interruptions during the WILD, and then got back into bed. At first I tried it on my back as usual, but also as usual, all I got was a tingly feeling in my arms; not anywhere else, and no paralysis whatsoever. So I tried turning my head to the side to trick myself into thinking I was sleeping sideways as normal. That fared little better, though I did have some very faint HI that way. So I thought, "Why can't I WILD when I'm really on my side, then?" and decided to give it a shot. I rolled over to my side, sandwiched my head between two pillows so I was encapsulated in total darkness and silence, and then went on with the attempt.

For a long time nothing really happened. I thought about trying to count breaths or listen to a lucid MP3, but in the end I figured that all that stuff had already failed for me many times and it was time for me to go all on my own as I had that first night that I WILDed successfully.

What seemed like a few seconds later (but probably was much longer), I heard a faint sound. An echo of someone in the far distance, talking about something that I could not remember the instant the echo stopped. Encouraged by this progress, I continued to wait. In another few seconds, a shelf loaded with fresh vegetables (don't ask me why; I don't know) appeared in full color. I glanced at it momentarily, then ignored it, and it seemed to blur and float away. Next I saw a man in a suit sitting behind a desk float towards me in the darkness. Before long I could tell his face was the face of the G-Man from my horrible 3-month dream. I purposefully eliminated that image. That seemed to be all I needed, anyway. My sensations were suddenly schewed after that. I felt like I was still conscious of my body, and yet I knew that what I was feeling was not my real body, because it started to wave about as if riding on water and conforming to the shape of the wave. That sensation was stopped by the feeling of someone reaching their arms around me and holding me tightly. I probably would have freaked out, but I could hear movement behind me and soon I felt lips brush against my ear. "It's all going to be all right." A gentle, female voice whispered. This feeling of extreme security and peace came over me then, and I let her (whoever 'she' is) hold on as long as she wanted. The bodily distortions continued for several more minutes, and a few times I was even able to move my perceived arm, which made my real arm attempt to move, but unsuccessfully. She let go soon after that and seemed to fade away behind me. Once again, I was alone. But then, all of a sudden, everything went white. A strong buzz was in my ears, and it was like an earthquake couple with an EMP went off. The ground shook, energy seemed to hit me in waves, growing in intensity with time. And then, at the peak of it all...it all just faded away. I found myself high in the sky, and looking down below me, I saw a huge canyon. I could see for hundreds of miles around me, and the canyon went through all of it. The sky was bright and clear, other than a few white clouds. Since I was already in the air, I had no trouble trying to get off the ground and fly. I just flew as usual, and went all over the place. It was incredible how realistic it was; I have never had a dream with such a large and wide-open view before. After I had gone through some of those clouds and enjoyed feeling the cool air and wind on my face, I flew straight down towards the bottom of the canyon at high speed. It was very fun! Of course, I curved upward right before I hit the ground and started speeding through the canyons, every inch of which looked just like real life. Every crack, every shadow, variations in colors...all of it looked perfect. But then something weird happened. I flew past a cowboy with a banjo that was playing and singing in front of a little campfire. I should have only been able to hear him for a brief moment as I flew past, but his voice continued even as I went miles away. That little loss of realism signaled the beginning of the end. I was just about to fly somewhere else (like Pandora), when everything started to go black and I woke up with a start.

I think I finally figured out my problem with WILDing! Up to this point, I was trying to use everyone else's techniques when really all I had to do was what worked for me in the first place!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Finally I went lucid again!

Again my watch alarm did not work for me, but it turned out not to matter. Actually, if it had gone off, I probably would have ended up not going lucid. You'll see why here in a minute.

Dream 1: I found myself in an incredible city. Everything looked very historical, even though it was all clean and kept-up as new. As I walked around, I saw an old-fashioned ice cream parlour and decided to go in and check it out. Now, I had ice cream shortly before going to bed, so I expect that had something to do with it . Inside, I saw one of my friends, a girl I had flown around in a previous dream. Of course, I bought her some ice cream and we sat down outside to eat it and chat. Shortly after our ice cream was gone, a taxi pulled up just a few yards away from us and let a small family in. "Come on!" My friend said, heading for the taxi. "I don't think there will be room for us." I commented, following anyway. As I got closer, I noticed the license plate on the taxi was "I C U", a clear reference to Avatar. As it turned out, there really was no room left for us, but that didn't even phase my friend. She just sat on the back of the car and waited for me to do likewise; it was as if she did this on a regular basis. It turned out to be pretty nice, though, riding around that city on the back of a taxi. We had a clear view unobstructed by a roof and doors, and we could hop off at any place we wanted to. Even though I remember several details about the places we stopped at, it's hard to sort them out in order, since we went so many different places. Suffice it to say that much...'we went many different places.' I bought her a few things and we had a lot of fun. Towards the end of the day, I could keep my mouth shut no longer, and though I don't remember what exactly I said, it was something to the effect of 'I love you'. I was afraid she would leave me then, but she only smiled to one side of her mouth and led me off somewhere. I was glad that she reacted well, but I didn't get to see where she was leading me off to, because soon after I woke up.

As soon as I was awake enough to make any conscious thoughts, I thought back through that dream to make sure I remembered it and then checked my watch. It was shortly after 4:00. My watch alarm was set for 3:50, and it hadn't gone off at all. Good thing...if it had, it would have interrupted that dream!

Well, I decided to try for DEILD then, and it wasn't long before I succeeded.

Dream 2: I was back at that historical city, but on the outer edge of it now, on a beach. The city was shortly to my left, and the ocean to my right. In the distance, I saw my friend was still there. I guess she was going to lead me to the beach. But then it hit me: "Wait a second...this is a dream!" Almost immediately after I realized this, my friend saw me and called out my name as she ran in my direction. When we met, we threw our arms around each other . Remembering the time I had flown her around before, I decided to do so again...only for some strange reason, I just couldn't fly! I kept trying, but of course now I was...well, trying, not expecting, so I wasn't going anywhere. Rather than continue to fight it, then, I considered another option and decided it would work ok. With a thought, I caused the ground beneath us to rise up and push us higher and higher towards the sky, continually building up beneath our feet. Before long we reached the clouds, which it turned out we could scoop up into our hands. They were cold and wet, though. Figuring we were high enough, I stopped the upward advance of the ground. "I've got an idea." I said to my friend. "Hold on to my hand." She did so, and then after a count to three, we jumped off the top of the pillar I had made out of the ground and we dove down into the ocean, falling hundreds of miles until landing comfortably in the water. I noticed I could breath under the water, which was pretty cool, but even so I went back up to the beach because that's where the girl was going. As I made it onto the beach, I looked down and was amazed at how realistic the sand was. Because I was wet it clung to me in millions of little grains just like in real life. But anyway, when I reached her, I pulled a couple towels out of thin air and handed her one. "How'd you do that?" she asked. "Oh, that's my little secret." Now that I think about it, I find it funny that making the ground rise up didn't phase her, but pulling towels out of thin air did . After that we just sat on the sand close together and watched the sun set. The colors were incredible...it was almost better than a real beach sunset, honestly. After a while of doing that, I woke up.

It was still early enough for me to stay in bed a while, so I tried very hard to DEILD again and re-enter the dream, but to no avail. Oh well. At least I finally had a lucid dream again! Life was getting kinda boring without 'em

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Oooh, we've got new smilies!

Oh yeah, and last night was a great LDing night for me, too! Two LD's, both of them accomplishing the lucid task of the month (basic and advanced)!

Dream 1: I was walking around in my backyard at night when I looked up and saw the sun in the sky. "What? The sun at night? That doesn't make any sense...this must be a dream!" I pinched my nose and breathed in just fine, solidifying my assumption. "Cool! Well, let's see, I've got three things I've been wanting to do...oh well, the sun's right there, so I guess I'll go with the basic task of the month first." I looked at the sun and flew up to it. The dark sky looked a bit more fitting once I got into space. Well, I circled around it a couple times until I found a place that looked like a good entry spot, and then flew right inside. Surprisingly, it didn't feel very bright. I mean, it looked like someone had photoshopped the sun to lose half of its saturation, so even though it was bright, it was...not. But whatever, it was the sun, and surprisingly, I did have a shadow this time! Probably just because I was looking for it, though. I didn't get much more time to think about it, though, because I woke up pretty quickly after that.

I was awake for about fifteen minutes then; I had intended to WILD but I was pretty tired so I broke it off soon after SP hit and decided I would DILD again instead.

Dream 2: I can't exactly remember everything that went on at first, but eventually I found myself watching football early in the morning and really enjoying it. Now there were a couple things about that scenario that made me question the reality of it. #1: I don't believe football is ever played early in the morning, and #2: I hate football, so I wouldn't know for sure in the first place, but I also wouldn't watch it and enjoy it . That much being thought through, I decided to reality check, which of course led me to becoming lucid! "Alright! Let's see...I got the basic task of the month down...let's go for the advanced now!" I turned and faced a wall and tried my usual teleportation method. "When I turn around, I'll be at Niagara Falls." I turned around and found the room to be mostly unchanged. I was definitely not at the falls. But something had changed, and that was the wall across from me. It now had a very large picture of Niagara Falls hanging on it, and a little table beneath it. "That'll work." I walked over and moved the table out of the way, then reached into the picture, first with my hand, then with my leg, then with the rest of me, and stepped through the picture into Niagara Falls! I found myself on a wooden walkway that circled around it, but I needed to get out onto the Maiden of the Mist in order to complete the advanced lucid task. Now I can't swim very well IRL, but I didn't let that even factor into it. I jumped into the water and began swimming out to the Maiden of the Mist, which was in the near distance. The water was amazing! It was so clear and clean and the temperature was perfect. Not to mention it, along with everything else, was so realistic I was just marveling at the sight of it all. Well, soon I made it to the ship and climbed up to the top deck. "Ok, so now I have to get married here to complete the lucid task...I wonder who I'm going to be married to?" I looked up ahead of me and got my answer. It wasn't hard to figure out, considering the whole thing was already set up, everybody was there, and she was the only one in a fancy white dress. "Woah, that works for me!" I thought when I saw her. I tried hard to remember her face, but of course that memory faded when I awoke. I do remember her name was Maria, though. I transformed my dripping wet clothes into a dry tux and then took my place in front of everyone, next to Maria. I couldn't believe it when the 'pastor' walked up, though...he was some kind of alien! "Well that's weird..." I thought. But it got weirder. A small, hovering alien that resembled a fish came up out of nowhere and tried to stop the wedding. "Oh buzz off." I said, hurling the thing away with telekinesis. The rest of the ceremony went on without interruption, and I gotta admit, the first alien dude wasn't so bad at his job after all. What was really fun was the reception, though. Everybody went below deck (does the Maiden of the Mist even have a lower deck?) where food and (non-alcoholic) drink and music and all our friends were waiting. Of course the food was amazing, and they only played my favorite songs, but nothing could beat the reactions of the dream characters. They all came up and told us congratulations, and I just smiled at each one and replied, "Pretty cool dream, huh?" Usually they just gave me a funny look and walked away, but there was one guy who didn't take it so well. He thought it was a joke at first. "Yeah, it can feel like a dream at first. It sinks in after the first couple days, though." He said. "No, no, I really mean this is a dream, I can pinch my nose and still breath in. Watch." It didn't convince him. He just stared at me. "Umm...yeah it's really a dream." I repeated. "THIS is NOT a DREAM!" He shouted before stomping off. "Woah...ok...then." After a moment of nobody saying anything to us, Maria slapped me on the arm. "You're making people upset!" She said. "Now c'mon, would this really be a dream?" "Yes." I replied. I took her hand and put it up to her nose, told her to pinch, and then try to breath in. "See." I said. A tear formed in her eye. "You're right, then...this is a dream!" It made her so sad I kind of wished I hadn't said anything, but at least someone else knew the truth. I went to go get us drinks in hopes of cheering her up a bit, but when I came back, she was gone. "That's weird." I thought out loud. Just then, a friend of mine walked by. "Hey, Mike. Mike!" I ran up to him as he headed to the restroom. "Have you seen my wife anywhere?" He motioned for me to follow him into the restroom. "Sorry," he said, "This is just the only place that I think we'll have some privacy." He went into a stall as he talked. I went into one myself just because it was awkward standing out there waiting, and to be honest I was kind of wondering what it would be like to pee in a lucid dream . "You know that little floating alien?" Mike asked. "Well, he's furious that the wedding went through. He kidnapped Maria. I tried to stop him, but...I can't fly." "Dangit, yes you can." I muttered under my breath. Mike was done then, so I decided to be done, too. I mean, in a lucid dream, you could keep going for forever! While we washed our hands, I asked, "So where'd he take her?" Mike didn't have a chance to answer. We heard the alien's voice outside the door. "Quick! Hide!" Mike said. I created a closet door in the wall next to me and climbed inside. The floating alien came in, checked himself in the mirror, and then left. "So do I need to hide because he's trying to kidnap me, too?" "Yep. I don't know where he took your wife, but I don't think you want to find out the hard way." "True. So how do we get out of here without me being caught, or you being caught helping me?" Mike smiled at that question. "Canoes." That made me smile, too. We climbed out the window and stood on the side of the ship. Suddenly we were at the top of Niagara falls. A couple canoes were tied to the boat, and we each took one and got in. "Now this is going to be awesome!" I shouted over the roar of the approaching falls. In another moment, we had completely gone over, and were canoeing down Niagara Falls! The canoes were smashed at the bottom, but of course we made it out ok.

After that we got to formulating a plan. Mike volunteered to get a bunch of his buddies together to help arrange transport to wherever the alien had taken Maria to, and I took Mike's laptop to go find out just where that was. I hacked into some security cameras until I found the alien's location. "Bingo." I said...which got the attention of a nearby security guard. "Hey, you there, what do you think you're doing!?" I sighed. "Sorry doc, I don't have time for this." I held my hands in front of me, concentrated, and made the guard disappear into thin air. So I took the sword left behind from the security guard (yeah...he had one ) and tried to sneak up onto the alien back aboard the ship. Of course since the whole wedding party was there, someone heard and saw me, so stealth failed. I swung at the alien, but missed, and he then pulled out a sword of his own and we had an epic duel. He was hard to hit, but weak, so before long, I had him on the floor, badly wounded, his weapon far out of his reach. "Alright! Alright!" He said, giving up. "Your wife is in the caves. North west. Only way in is by river." For some reason, everyone was shocked to hear the alien confess to a crime like that, but I left them to deal judgment however they wished. I flew around until I found Mike, who had a bunch of midgets with pointy gray beards and mustaches build a water craft. I couldn't fly through the caves because they were too low and treacherous, so I gladly accepted the vehicle from them. As I climbed in and took the strange controls, they wished me luck and cheered for my victory over the floating alien. I started the wooden craft off into the caves, having a little trouble driving at first, but never got a chance to find Maria. Pretty quickly after entering the caves, I woke up.

I didn't think I could have a dream that was more realistic than any previous one, but that one tops them all. The appearance and actions of water are very hard things to duplicate, yet it all looked perfect. Lighting was all totally realistic, too. If I hadn't repeatedly pinched my nose to maintain lucidity, I probably would have started to believe it was real myself.

But anyway, I completed both the basic and advanced lucid task of the month in one night!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, maybe I don't have to get back to heavy reality checking after all! Last night I had a very clear lucid without MILD or WILD or even focusing on RCing throughout the day!

I woke up in the night, disappointed that I had not yet gone lucid in a dream. “Alright,” I said, “Anything other than me in my room with my eyes closed is a dream and I need to realize that and reality check!” I was determined. So I rolled over and instantly went back to sleep.


It seemed only a moment later that I found myself on a dreamy landscape of a farm. “This is something other than me in my bed...which makes it a dream!” I realized pretty quickly that I didn't have control over anything. “No! I am not going to have a weak lucid again!” With that, I forced my hand to move, sending tingles running through my arm as sensations entered, clumsily reached it up to my hose, pinched, and breathed in. That put me in control, but it also made the dream go black.

It reappeared a moment later, and I was in a bed. Not my own, though, and my eyes were open, so I still knew it was a dream. I pinched my nose again to check, this time without any control struggle. I rolled over and prepared to get up, but I still didn't have control exactly right...with every movement, my body shapeshifted. I tried to stop it, but that didn't work out so well either. The dream went black again.

This time it reappeared in a room very similar to one in my real house, yet still different. Mostly it was black, and pulsating into clarity every once in a while. I rubbed my hands to try and clear things up, which succeeded, but then if I kept on rubbing, it would go black again. Eventually I remembered to try spinning, which (as usual) did nothing until the dream faded enough to make me lose my balance and fall on the ground. The sudden collision jerked everything back into crystal clarity. With one last nose pinch, I was fully lucid and it was fully clear. I looked around the room. It seemed I had only been teleporting with each fade, as outside the windows was the farm land, and certain things about the room suggested that it was part of a farm house. The most noticeable thing was that mice were running all over the place, but since I knew it was a dream I just ignored them. I approached a wall, looked straight at it so that I couldn't see anything behind me, and leaned against it, supported by my outstretched arms. Somehow that made me feel like I was able to work harder. “When I turn around,” I said aloud, “a girl will be waiting there, and she'll be really pretty, too.” I turned around, but no one was there. “Hold on a minute...” I thought out-loud as I looked for a mouse. It didn't take long to find one. I reached my hand out toward it and used telekinesis to morph the mouse into a girl. At first she was only a few feet tall, so I got closer and then used my thoughts to fix that. “Taller.” She got taller, but within a few moments she was way too tall. “Shorter.” She began to shrink again. This time, when she got to the right height, I said, “Stop.” And she did. Then I noticed her face wasn't very distinctive...very unclear. So I put my hands on her face and concentrated. By the time I pulled my hands back, her face was as clear as the rest of the dream. I snapped my fingers and she snapped into life.

The girl ended up being different than I had intended, but somehow the difference made her more attractive. She felt more real because of the difference; not like a robot that had no existence in and of itself.

“Where...where am I?” She asked.

“Anywhere you want to be.” I answered.

I then jumped up, and in one motion picked her up and flew through the wall to the world outside. Unfortunately, the world outside wasn't so clear, and in a moment things faded out one last time.


It's kind of funny. During the day I think I'm going to have to try really hard in my dreams to create things that way, but when it comes time for it, I have no trouble with it at all, and the time it takes to create what I want is lessening with each try

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Sorry there was no entry for yesterday. I hit one of those nights where I just don't remember anything whatsoever, and I was busy, so I didn't try too hard to get around to writing anything.

Last night I had a bit of an interesting experience. I haven't been doing my typical reality checking lately so as to experiment with a few other things and also come back later to a point when that same RC will work for me again. Well, never would I have guessed that youtube could be a lucid dream induction technique!

Yes, that's right. Youtube got me my LD last night! It didn't stay lucid for long or look very clear, but still, for something so odd, I'm amazed it worked at all.

So here's what the situation was: I had barely reality checked all day long, and it was getting close to bed time, so I was thinking about lucid dreaming and kind of regretting that I didn't RC very well. And I mean it was right before bed. I was on my computer browsing youtube when I heard this song in a video that I really liked. In the comments, someone said what the song's name and author were, so I looked up the music video. As most music videos are, it was weird as...well, something really weird. That, combined with my tired state and the interesting music, put me in an odd mental condition. Somehow I knew that that music video was going to appear in my dream, and I determined that when it did, I would know I was dreaming. Sure enough, when I got to sleep (after a failed WILD attempt), I was going about my day as normal when I opened a door and I found myself in the middle of that music video. "What was I supposed to remember when I saw this? Oh, that's right! That this is a dream!" I jumped out a nearby window and saw a sidewalk and a street below me. "That's gonna hurt...I guess I could fly. But that would be a bit too expected and boring for this situation, wouldn't it?" So when I hit the concrete, I simply caused it to bend like rubber and cushion all around me before springing back up from impact and launching me into the air . I did a flip and landed on my feet at the top of a building where a friend of mine (who also LD's from time to time) was standing. "You'll never believe this," I told him, "But I just used youtube to get lucid!" "Really? That's crazy! How?" I explained it to him, but unfortunately in the process of doing so I soon lost lucidity, and the dream went on to this weird blur of real people and fictional people and all of them behaving very differently from how they should.

I'm just about ready to return to putting serious effort in my days to lucid dreaming, but I do think it's fascinating how I've been able to continue short LD's with little things like YILD (youtube-induced lucid dream )