lucid

28-Jan-2017 - ND: E-mail picture + fragments +WILD

Bad sleep this night due to my daughter sleeping in our bed

ND:
I am in my office, on the monitor I open the picture of a F colleague ducking to talk to a child, but exposing her underwear
I prepare a mail attaching the picture, sending it to her, but also to many more people, message body contains some advise about taking more care in the future when greeting children
Two M colleagues, L and N, come in, look out of the window. N tells me, you sending also to L? Why ? I provide some kind of explanation to both
View shifts to another office (!), A is close to me, we discuss about something, then I review e-mail distribution list, who is incredibly long, I remove some French people with long names, then I send
Something about me being kinda too close with A, with my feet touching hers

Fragment: The screen covering glass of my phone is cracked, and looking better also the screen is broken in a point, I am upset

WILD: (~7 AM)
I see a white paper with many strange black characters, few are red. I observe them for a bit.
Another longer section I forgot

26-Jan-2017 - ND: Training room

5AM WBTB, attempt WILD, fall asleep

ND#1: I am in a meeting room, together with many collague, some I know
R asks me to take this chance to give these people some short training on a subject I know well
I tell yes, get up, introduce myself, start talking, stop due to noise in the room
I continue, move to drawing board, sponge some writings away, use chalk
Missed dreamsigns here (!!) : chalkboard isn't really used anymore, sponge doesn't perfectly clear some parts, chalk is quite clunky
I write very small and not readable stuff
After some talk, more noise, people open an internal window to an adjacent room with a tattoo shop (!!)
Someone asks me a question on our products, I get angry at him (!!) because I cannot answer it properly, I even tell some bad words
Later, it's dark, we decide it's time to break and perhaps continue another time

__________________________


27-Jan-2017 - WILD: Boat, dolphin ride, underwater city + 2ND Fragments

ND#1: Playing Skyrim (fragm)
I erupt flames from my hands
I decapitate someone, I turn my monitor so my son cannot see, his bed is close to my PC (!!)
A long scripted ending move, with my character moving through a long corridor before delivering a final hit

ND#2:
I am dressing up, someone opens a window in front of me,I think I may be visible from outside but not care much

WILD#1: (5:45 AM)
After much HI and some stabilization, I want to attempt dolphin TotY
I am on a beach. I get on a small wooden boat (Minecraft-style)
I use a paddle and sail to get in open sea
I look at my body, I am wearing pull and jeans, think it's not appropriate for swimming, take some swimming boxers, remove my clothes, find I've the swimming boxers on
I drop in the water and descend until I touch ground
I find a giant stone statue's face, partially sunk in the sand, then another one, even bigger, with its mouth open
I enter it, it's black inside, then it opens to a nice city with spires and towers
At some point I think I am doing well for the task
I shortly explore the city, walking on paved roads

6:30 work alarm rings, I think about the LD and notice I was wrong, I missed the dolphin ride part. I stay in bed, fall asleep again, WILDing

WILD#2: (6:30 AM)
I start in the boat again
A dolphin approaches the boat, I observe its nose
I mount on its back, in front of the dorsal fin. It swims above the water for a bit, then descends
It finds the same underwater city. I get off its back, and after a short walk I meet a couple of mer-folks
Their skin is green and they have fish-like bottom half, green-ish as well
The guy has is chest naked, the girl has two shells covering her breast
First thing I do is removing the shells, so I can look at her mermaid breast, which is green but nicely shaped
Then I ask the guy how they have fun down here. He answers their sport is catching dolphins with a net

View shifts a bit, the scenery behind him reminds me somehow of roman circus, although it's fading in the deep blue water
The merman is in front of me, he gives a signal and from my left, a dolphin sprints towards my right
I launch the fishnet I have in my hands, but it moves slower than I expect, and I miss the dolphin
Another dolphin sprints, he launches his net and catches it at first try
When it's my turn again, I time my launch better and this time catch the dolphin

Wife calls, it's 6:45, I get up

In a large split office room, workers are crammed in chatting loudly. A voice comes over speaking telling us to shut the noise down. I am agitated as I didn't hear anything saying we couldnt speak.
Apparently our company has been taken over by a big corporation and we are all being interviewed.
Pretty well everybody files off into the next room, except me and two others one I recognise as an old lady mate and one as Anthony from work. Eventually we have to go to.
I head off from the white office through some big darkened glass doors. I see loads of people being lined up to have a test.
I see that people are being injected in their necks and operated on. They have four big chunks taken out of their necks at the front.
I think hell no! and start to back off but hear that even if you don't want a job the operation is compulsory.
The door I came through is now locked.
With part adrenalin part powers I break the door open and get out of there.
Finding myself outside in a street. I try to fly but can't for some reason, and so set off on foot.
It is sunny day, with a clear blue sky and a townscape that feels American
.
I know people are coming after me and I head down one street but find all streets are shut off.
Going through someone's house I find a back window and try and squeeze through.
At this point officials bust through the door and an old lady their starts to blab on me, so I use a pressure point hold on her to knock her out.

By now I am lucid,
Getting out the front window just in time to see a long car pull up. I cross the road just as he is getting out.
He pulls a long rifle or shotgun up and out as I try to fly, I crash into him and smash him into the car which crumples. I am flying at last and head up and over the town scape.
Panic and teleport to my apartment. I hunt around for things to take with me. Soon enough I feel the people are closing in again.

I am talking to a guy in a bar who says he'll bump up my commissions to 65% if he ever becomes boss of my company. I pull out my iPad and show him the sweet deal I just closed. As he looks down at the contract, I look up and see my dead friend Don Wilson leaning against a far wall in the bar. Don died last September in an automobile accident. I forget the guy I am talking to and slowly walk over to my dead friend. As I do so, I realize that I am dreaming. This is a dream!

Don was a funeral director and fellow embalmer I worked with for about 3 years. His death shocked everyone. He was only 45 years old. We were pretty close and got along very well. Seeing him, now, in this LD, was a very beautiful experience. This was by far the most vivid LD I had ever had. As I approached him, I focused intently on his skin, his hair -- and, in particular, on the individual salt-and-pepper strains. Everything was perfect; he was as crystal-clear and identical body-wise as he was IWL. I could even smell his aftershave. I saw him and he looked at me and smiled, then he looked back down. I said, "Don, this is a dream. We are dreaming." He continued to look down, smiling. I touched his arm. He was solid, warm, real. I said, "I am so sorry about what happened to you. We all really miss you. Your mom loves you so much...and so do I." I touched his arm again and he continued to look down and smile. I was in awe of how detailed he was. He looked fantastic. I was tempted to say, "Death becomes you, my friend" but did not. I just stared at his hair. The more I focused on it, the more vivid and brilliant the LD became. I rubbed my hands to ground myself in lucidity even more.

I noticed the lights in the bar were starting to dim. I looked over my shoulder to see what was going on. Don did the same. When I looked back at Don, he was wearing a dark blue pullover sweater with a black zipper that went a quarter of the way down in the front. He wasn't wearing it before. Don was still looking inquisitively up as to why the lights were dimming, and he said with amusement, "Now I know what you mean about this being a dream..." As he said these words, I began to float. I didn't want to float away, but I couldn't stop it. I say to Don, "Look what we can do!" But he just stood there and watched me go up, slowly, like a helium balloon that was let go. My vision went dark as my head went through the ceiling, and I went into the attic. I looked down at my rising feet to see if Don was following me, but he wasn't. I was still looking down for Don when I suddenly heard my son in the TV room yell at his sister. His scream jolted me from the LD and I regained consciousness in my bed. I lay for about five minutes, processing it all. The realness of Don in the LD was so great that I found myself weeping as I poured my coffee. I earnestly thanked my subconscious for the experience, and found myself wishing that Don's mother and sister could have experienced the same. It was truly a miraculous experience.

Having fallen asleep on my front I suddenly hear nosies from the corner of the room. Then a great weight crushes me into the bed. My head is on one side and all I can see is blackness behind me but the rest of the room is visible. The weight eases off and I do a pinch nose RC. Things are still blurry. The darkness behind me has turned into AB, who is lying on my back, but not that heavy. I stand up and she clings on around my shoulders.

Staggering around the room I find a half-filled bathtub of water with severed hands and feet floating in it. Urgh. The bathtub is in front of the window, so I have to climb over it to phase outside. Once outside I start flying. With AB on my back this is slower than normal, so I land and drop her off before starting to run through the street.

I start thinking about LC tasks while running through alleyways of a city. Recalling the dragon TOTY I start to search for a castle and around the next corner is a great castle reaching up into the sky. I fly up over the castle for a better view, and summon a dragon, imagining it breaking free from the dungeons below the castle.

Instead, an enormous winged shadow passes over the ground. People inside the castle look up in fear. The dragon circles around, unleashing flamethrower like breath to incinerate the castle's defenders. I fly down and sit on the dragon's back. It's head is covered in golden scales and the rest of it's body is read. Two large backwards facing horns are on it's head. We circle and unleash more fire before flying across the city.

The motion of flying with wings is jerky and uneven. We head across the city, searching for another castle to destroy. Among the skyscrapers is a small keep with a large stone outer wall - in the middle of the tall modern buildings it looks out of place. The dragon is so large that it simply lands on the castle and the weight smashes it. We fly up and the castle has been reduced to rubble.

I try to fly the dragon over a river that winds through the centre of the city, but the dream loses momentum and stalls.
.

I was adjusting my sleep and got lucid during a nap. Another personal goal attempt. I should keep count. Would be interesting to know how many times I had to try before I succeeded.


I'm with old friends on a trip to some far corners of Finland. We stop at some gas station that's selling all sort of stuff. There's a circular, wooden hot tub on sale. The thing is 10 cm deep and 50 cm across. I can hold it in my hand. I think my whole party of 6-8 people can fit in it easily, so it's size is a bit paradoxical. The tub has vihtas and a sauna stove. I buy the tub.

I go back to my friends. They are in sauna, so I join them. It's not too hot. I tell them of my purchase. They like it. The sauna has rows of bunk beds with blue covers and my friends are resting on them while enjoying the heat.

After sauna, people get dressed and get ready to sleep. I chat with some of the girls, when a small hand movement turns back time. "It was 1am and now it's 9pm!" I exclaim loudly as I look at the nearest person. It's Hanna. We are outside the gas station again. I go to her and say "I turned back time!" I look at the nearest clock and slightly move my hand. Time moves forward and back without effort. I stop at 9 pm and become lucid. The first thought on my mind is sex, unfortunately. I get close with Hanna, but I manage to drag myself away from her. It might be too late, I feel being excited in waking life. It might pull me away from the dream. Sure enough, visuals are instantly gone as I focused on waking life. I stay calm. Even without visuals, I know the dream is around me. I have to focus on seeing something in the dream. I choose Hanna's pants. Old blue shorts with a thin white stripe. Nice, I'm back. Time to go.

I want to try my personal goal again. I fall into my old plan and search for a doorway there. I want to believe the dream can show me the way, so I just walk away from the station. The road turns into a field of flowers. Visuals become a little weird. The ground is tilted 20 degrees, but I feel like I'm walking on a flat surface. I find a white wall with flowers painted on it. There's a small square shaped wooden door with a flower shape carved on it. I would have to crawl through it in waking life, but here I just open it and step through. First there's nothing but white on the other side. I keep hoping to find the way to the frozen planet, but this doesn't appear to be white snow. Details appear. Odd looking, wonky, white corridors in every direction. I'm in a maze. "No worries, this is the alien spaceship. I'm closer to the frozen planet. This will work." I think optimistically.

I look for a path going up, trying to find the bridge, but I fail. The white corridors have crudely drawn symbols at crossing paths: heart, club, spade and diamond symbols. Looks like someone used colored pencils to draw this world. But it gets weirder. Twitch emotes live here. They bounce around in small clouds and some of them merge together. For some reason the army of emotes scares me. I remember another dreamer suggesting laughing when scared, so I do that. Laughing appears to do nothing. I end up on a dance floor full of these emotes and I'm attacked by hundreds of vampiric Kappa faces that have merged together. I wake up.

Night before last - 25th, went to bed at 4pm. Slept till 11 pm.

11:16 pm - 2x300 alpha gpc
12:18am - 2x4 GM

Woke up at 1 am from 2 short LDs.

LD 1

I'm in a room with many others. I tell them I'm about to WILD so leave me alone. I sit on an office chair, lean back to invoke falling back sensation. Someone is talking to me. I open my eyes and try to tell him to shut it, but I can't talk. Then I try to smack him but I can't move. So I just steam there.

I girl comes to me and starts frenching. I'm like wait a minute, you are a chick! She says something like "so what?" So I figured I'll wait to see how it goes.

When I'm able, I get off the chair and walk around the room. While looking at some flowers I realize I'm able to move so I must be in a dream already.

I exit through large, old looking door. Now I'm in an old fashioned looking restaurant. There is a fat Italian with golden chain and a pendant with some saint who looks like a maitre d'. I flat out ask him if he wants to have sex, while I'm thinking it's not a good idea and I should do something else first. But I will him to say yes and we start walking away. I'm thinking he should hurry the heck up before I wake up. I lose it here.

LD2 - Elephant ride - Fail

I realize I'm still dreaming and I walk through the door into large department store. Get up to the second floor. While noticing all the porcelain knick-knacks, I remember I wanted to do the "ride the elephant" TOTM. Which I did, but not tonight, when I wanted to do the "find the present, get a massage and Pandora".

As I get up, I start looking around the isles if I see an elephant. I know he is suppose to be there because I want him there. I start calling him, but I don't hear him being summoned on the PA system. I focus on it and I start hearing "elephant to isle A 1, elephant to isle A 1".

I look at the escalator coming from first floor and there he is. Big and grey. But he has no trunk and I will it to appear. But it's not growing. I figure this is getting too complicated and I'm not even in the jungle so I walk off to do something else and I lose lucidity.

Oh yeah, I ended up having some "me time". Twice.

Non lucid before 11pm
I'm wandering around without a job or place to sleep. I come to a place with some people and work activity. I speak to a woman and I'm all humble and polite, kinda defeated. She offers me a job. She gives me a jar and I'm suppose to collect lizards. I'm not really liking it because I think they will use them for some experiments. I walk to a job place and there is another guy already doing it. I pick a flower bed with some mulch to search. I see a small black gecko with spots and the other guy goes after it. I see another, bigger lizard running around a tree trunk. As I come closer, looking at the ground for more, there is a rattlesnake rattle sticking out straight up. I tell the guy to watch out and that's when he starts to uncover himself and the guy kills him.

I had just entered into a very large and ambient room, fully lucid. About 75% of the floor in this room was a pool area, and at a first glance it seemed fairly deep as the water was darker the deeper I looked. I looked around the entire room, this time noting my surroundings completely. To my right, near the other corner of the room, was a woman that appeared to be in her early 20's. She had long black curly hair and a nice outfit on as well. Looking to explore to the fullest extent, I jump into the water without hesitation. As I do so, a thin pool noodle manifests around my body and I find myself landing in the water and floating without effort. I look back at the woman and notice that she is now watching me. "You need to stay in that until you're ready to advance to the next stage" she tells me as her voice echoes across the room.
"Well shit, whats the next stage" I thought to myself. I look back at the water and really observe it. After a few seconds of doing this I force myself under, along with the noodle, and look around with my eyes wide open. I can feel the water encompassing my body, but it doesn't hurt my eyes or irritate them in the least; it's effortless. While I'm under, I see what I can only describe to be a pool, under the pool I'm currently floating in. It looks very trippy in the sense that it doesn't make sense, but I highly admire it's design. It reminds me of how underwater caves look when an area of freshwater is above an area of saltwater. Seconds later, I resurface. I swim over to the other side of the room and climb out of the pool. Before me there is a set of small stairs that lead to an open doorway that I can see leads to another large room.
I walk up the steps and into the next room. The room is empty for the most part, and there is no pool. I see a dude on the opposite side, pacing back and forth with his head down as though he is extremely mad. On the wall behind him there are two doorways. My curiosity leads me to go into both rooms. I walk into the room on the left first, and upon doing so, see that it is a very large and empty spaced restroom. The floor is covered in white tile that looks to be a tad bit dirty, and the walls are white. In the farthest corner of the room sits the toilet. In the complete opposite corner is the sink accompanied by a mirror. I walk over to the toilet and see my phone wrapped in brown toilet paper, on top of it. I pick it up and immediately notice that the brown toilet paper is wet. "Wow, that's a little nasty" I say aloud. I unwrap the toilet paper off of it and proceed to wipe off my phone screen which is wet and smells weird.
After doing this I begin to make my way out of the restroom. Just before leaving I remember how my tattoo is always messed up or completely absent in my dreams. I look at my forearm and see that it is indeed messed up and roughly half of it is gone. The font of my tattoo is also extremely sloppy, as though a kid drew it on. It no longer read "Are you dreaming?" but now rather "Ar eaming?" with most of the remaining letters extremely faded. I look next, at my hand, which has several drawings on it, all of which are drawn in a thick dark green ink of some sort. I distinctively remember one of these drawings being a butt with a visible pink butt-crack. "Wow, what the hell is this doing on my hand" I said to myself.
Outside of the restroom I can still hear the mad dude, walking around, now saying stuff to himself. I am not amused. The idea suddenly comes to me that I can create portals. I proceed to walk around the restroom with my hand open, touching the walls with the intention of creating a portal like the ones from the games "Portal" and "Portal 2". I attempt many times, but alas, my doubt brings about my failure. I walk out of the restroom now, and walk right past the mad dude. I get the intuition that he has ADHD or something, but I'm not sure why. The other door is now only steps away, and as I walk into it I find myself going through a short but really dark hallway. As the hallway ends, it opens up into a staircase. As I go up the staircase I see that on the left of it, there is the interior of a giant public plane built into the wall/building. There are many rows of closely placed seats and it perfectly resembles the inside of a public passenger jumbo jet.
When I get to the top of the stairs, I am confronted by an obstacle. This obstacle seems to be a collapsed pillar. I stop for a moment and think, "Holy crap, this all feels as real, if not more real than waking life". I then remember, I don't have my time dilation watch on me and that I need to meet and talk to the "Dream Council". I reinforce a strong awareness and climb over the fallen pillar. It takes me a few tries, but within a matter of seconds I get it. As I climb up and over, and land back on the ground, I find myself now on the second floor of this building. I seem to be inside of some sort of indoor playground-gym, and it's packed with people. This room is slightly bigger than the previous one and it has two floors. The indoor playground area is on the first floor, and the gym is on the second floor. I look around and appreciate the nice diverse color scheme of everything.
It then occurs to me, "I should ask the dream a question" and so I do. "Dream, tell me something that I need to know" I yell out whilst thinking out of curiosity what everyone around will do. I didn't expect an answer as I felt a doubt inside of me, but contrary to my expectation, I got an answer. A lean muscular man emerged from the elliptical section of the gym and approached me. "What do you want to know?" He asked me in a heavy french accent. I think to myself, "What do I want to know?" The few seconds of silence and deep thought were interrupted as he said, "How to achieve the vibration stage?". While I did want to learn that, and was extremely surprised by him even mentioning that, I replied "No, I want to get my time dilation watch". Without hesitation the man said "Easy" as he handed me a harness, "Climb this wall first, and it's yours". I turn around and see a rock wall about 6 feet in height, and I know what I have to do. I give him the harness so that he can properly place it on me, and get ready to scale this wall.
Just then, my alarm goes off and wakes me up into complete disorientation.

Note: entire LD, as usual, felt as real, if not more real than waking life.

This was close to containing 2 DEILDs(figured out how to do that again!), but there was a lapse in consciousness both times.
-1-There was a guy demonstrating the function of the hiding compartment next to an item contaminated with radiation. It protected the user completely…in theory. However, it didn’t work, so the guy died. This was all inside a dark room of an abandoned, messy lab/facility. After he died, I became lucid. I did part of my routine, but forgot the second half of it, which was the stabilization portion.
Time: 30-40 seconds
-2-I was in an unknown house. My older sister was in an adjacent room, watching something on a TV. I noticed a package on a container. I opened it up, and it was a drill. Then, I tried turning on a light, but it didn’t work. My first thought was ‘power failure?’ and flipped a second broken switch. Then, I became lucid from an RC. I did the first half of the procedure then woke up again.
Time: 20-30 seconds
-3-Another light switch failure and a certain memory caused me to RC and become lucid once more. Here, a truck arrived at this version of the B.h. Also, I rose the sun back up when it set in the south. At the same time, the very large/close moon rose in the south with an incorrect light source direction. This time, I woke up right in the middle of my routine.
Time: 30-50 seconds
Total Lucid Time: 1min20sec – 2min

btw, the routine I keep referring to is a lengthy one, increasing lucidity during the first half, and completely stabilizing in the second half. This has worked consistently for conventional DILDs. However, for WILDs/unstable dreams, I'll have to add in some stabilization time just prior to the routine.

25 Jan

Wbtb

I am falling asleep in a sort of FA. I am now sure that if nothing else works to induce a lucid, it will help me become lucid if I write it down on a piece of paper. light sleep.

I am now deeper in the dream and ascertain that my paper writing induction albeit done in-dream is indeed effective. I'm fully aware staring at the sheet of paper with the words LUCID written. My grandma comes in the room and starts cleaning the table, asking me a million questions. I know it's a dream and there's no point answering, so I tell her to let me concentrate. She refuses to acknowledge it being a dream and keeps on asking me stuff, so I have to move to the side to avoid being distracted.

I tk a number of small household objects, then tk the door handle and finally the door to the balcony open. I go outside, thinking that I have no idea what to do for points and regretting not making a more comprehensive list of things. The sky is mostly sunny, so I decide to darken it, although it pains me a bit to ruin a beautiful sunny day. The result is a greyer sky but not completely overcast. I also make a thunder sound in the distance.

Not sure what to do next, I opt for using some weird machine part help me get down from the balcony to the ground (as opposed to jump/flight due stability). There are couple of DCs being rather loud near the corner so I go check what's happening. Nothing too unusual, just a family walking and laughing.

I recall now I wanted to do the headstand challenge and look towards the street. At the moment the street's empty, but the cars are about to soon reach my target section, coming from the nearby street. Nevertheless, doing the headstand in the middle of the street seems tremendously appealing. I briefly wonder what's gonna happen once the cars start coming, but decide that I can handle it. Actually, the way I start doing the headstand is with my back to the cars - that in a way solves the problem (no seeing, no thinking, therefore they don't exist). Two DCs come distract me as I do the headstand. I scold one of them and tell him to assist me instead and help get my legs straight pointing towards the sky. I had reservations about being upside down in this posture and the dream collapsing but it doesn't. I stay a bit more, then get up.

We continue to walk down the street with one of the DCs. At this stage I already feel "memory flood" and inability to save/recall some of the details of the dream. At any rate, quite happy this dream already lasted longer than expected and keeps on going. I look over one of the buildings and see the sun shining again, now it seems closer to sunset. I really like how the sun moved like that during the dream, giving quite of a realistic feel of time. The sunset may in addition mean that the dream is coming to an end, I think.

I recall the basic totm of finding a present under the Christmas tree. A while ago we passed by a nice Asian food shop and lots of other items on a long street I can't recall. I decide to go back in that direction, since I feel it will be much easier to find a tree there. Indeed, in front of one cafe is a large decorated Christmas tree. To summon the present, I say to the DC, I clearly recall they were exchanging gifts in the cafeteria and and am sure they forgot one. I stretch my hand and without looking feel a package right underneath the tree. It contains what looks like empty jewellery carton box and a card. I become very curious and want to read the card although I feel the concentration may have a negative effect on the dream. I try to read the handwriting, which changes from well wishes, to random fortunes, to advertising. Finally, there is a small sheet of stickers for a board game.

The nearby Asian shop looked quite attractive, so I decide to go back and try some foods. In a small fridge they had really cool drinks made from fruits that don't quite exist and also are processed in extraordinary ways. Me and this DC whose apperances keep changing grab a small chocolate bar each. It melts easily and tastes really sweet. As we get out of the shop, I begin to lose lucidity. The DC now turns to boyfriend and we get into a discussion. The desire to get more of the cool drinks overcomes me and my awareness increases again, although not as high as before. To summon drinks, I call one of the girls who was working in the store, going a bit back to where we were before. Sure enough, the store appears, now at a completely different place and a different store, but that doesn't matter, it still looks pretty fancy and serves drinks. The girl that works there comes with a bottle full of freshly made exotic drink and a small glass of red juice. She spills the glass, but I am still able to have a try from what's left. It tastes quite nice. I wake up.

WBTB
I become lucid spontaneously. I use a remote controller to change the house to candy. YUM! The dream is quite blurry so I yell "Clarity now!" a few times. I phase through several walls and I then find a window. I punch it, and it is... gladwrap! I fly around randomly pranking DC's by saying 'Devestimente'

Ritual: I went to bed at 1am last night, early enough that I hoped to get some dreaming in. I'd had good luck with the "Dream Leaf" supplement last time, so took the blue tablet before bed, together with two tabs of bacopa and a vitamin D supplement (the latter unrelated to any dreaming intentions). I slept deeply and I don't even think I woke up for a few hours. I still have no clock in the bedroom since I've been charging my phone downstairs, but I estimated it was around 4 or 5am when I first woke. At that point I took the red pill and went back to sleep. I woke a couple more times but was disappointed that I didn't recall any dreams. Finally it must have been around 8 or 8:30am and I felt almost awake enough to get up, but I thought I would give it one more shot. I mixed about half a teaspoon of Piracetam in some water and swallowed that before going back to bed. That's when the magic happened. It was about 9:30 when I woke up again after a linked series of lucid dreams.

1. ???
I feel certain there were one or more fully developed scenes initially, but so much else happened afterward that I lost all memory of these earlier episodes when I woke. One thing I like about tasks is that they act as a focus for memory as well as intention.

2. Gifts under the Tree
I was in my bedroom and already aware of dreaming, and it felt like some scene had just concluded. The thought occurred: Didn't I mean to finish the gift task properly? I'd better get that done before I wake up or I'll be annoyed. I remembered that my error last time had been forgetting to look under a tree for the gift. However, I looked around and saw that there was no tree in this room. Rather than waste time trying to find a tree elsewhere in the house, I decided to brute force it and manifest one right in the room. My ambivalence about this inelegant solution nearly destabilized the dream, but I was determined to finish the task so I managed to hold it together, even though I had to do this by getting down on all fours and crawling across the room toward the corner where I decided the tree would be.

Everything had gone dark but I figured as long as I could still feel the floor, it was not too late to restabilize. The texture of the floor was distinct, hardwood, and I could feel the smooth boards with small grooves between them, so I focused on that until the visuals kicked in again. My sight slowly returned, and although the lighting remained dim, I could see an illuminated Christmas tree in the corner I was heading for. Is it lit with real candles? I thought, noting the especially warm quality of the illumination, and remembering the nineteenth-century images that had always captured my imagination. But then I remembered why we don't do this anymore: Isn't that a fire hazard? I felt a flicker, not of the candles, but of the dream nearly destabilizing again at my irrational concerns, so I forced my attention away from the lights and onto the area underneath the boughs. I was still on my hands and knees so it was easy to peek underneath.

There were three objects. Two were wrapped, one rather messily, but the last caught my eye because it was unwrapped. It was a single glove, and from the position of the thumb I could see that it was for the left hand. No sooner had I observed this than two more manifested, in different colors, also for the left hand. As I wondered about the possible significance (nothing occurred to me) the pile got larger... maybe a dozen left-handed gloves were now strewn under the tree. This was getting out of hand (no pun intended) and anyway I preferred to choose a wrapped gift, so I withdrew my attention from the gloves and looked at the other objects. The first two hadn't appealed to me, but now I saw a flat, rectangular, neatly wrapped item that seemed perfect, so I picked it up for a closer look.

As I tore through the several layers of wrapping and tissue paper, I came across small textual clues that made me think this must be a gift from my spouse. It turned out to be a book, a beautiful old volume bound in leather that looked like it couldn't have been published later than the nineteenth century. The title was printed in small stamped gilt letters on the front cover. It was something like Personalities of Note, and subtitled Pple of Our Time, where I understood "pple" to be an abbreviation for "people." The author was identified as Lord Lytton, a name that I knew I recognized from WL history but couldn't immediately place.

Turning the book over in my hands and admiring the beautiful cover, I discovered a library sticker on the lower part of the spine. I wondered what library had held such a fine book and looked on the sides of the closed pages where the name is sometimes stamped. The top side of the pages had been coated with gleaming silver pigment, further attesting to the book's quality, but there were no stamps on the outside. I found it inside the back cover: "Library of _______" (I can't clearly remember the name but it was a one-syllable word ending with "nsk," similar to Svensk or Minsk, but something else I think). I continued to look for a "discard" stamp or some other clue that it had been deliberately divested from the library's holdings. I couldn't find one but reasoned that it must have been; surely it wouldn't have been given to me as a gift if it was still a part of a library's collection, and anyway, ex-library books are very common these days.

I opened the book hoping to read some passages, but despite the English title and author, the text was unmistakably in Cyrillic. This was disappointing since I don't read Cyrillic, and I concluded that it must be a translation.

3. Vampire Interlude
I don't recall the transition, but found myself lying next to a blonde boy. I realized that I was a vampire and that also reminded me that I was dreaming. I fed on his blood and gave him advice on his sexual difficulties.

4. False Awakening
I found myself lying under my down comforter in a very plausible facsimile of my WL bed, and even though I was lying sideways across the foot of the bed, I didn't think it odd because sometimes I'll lie in odd positions when I want to relax a bit more but avoid falling back to sleep. I felt aroused and began touching myself, but then I noticed an odd feeling of displacement and realized that even though I could distinctly feel the pressure of my fingers when I flexed them, my hand was resting at my side and not actually in contact with any other part of my body. I correctly deduced that this was because I was not fully awake. Eventually I was able to persuade myself that if I was lucky enough to still be in the dream state, I should make better use of it, and forced myself back out of bed.

5. Explaining Massage to the Snow Lizard
I flew out the window and landed in heavy snow. Now that I was on my feet, I found that the snow was so deep I could barely push my way through it. I was actually enjoying this, because I've been disappointed with the quality of the snow in the WL winter so far. It was night, and I was walking around a vague dream version of my house, but the thick snow made me feel like I was in some deep kingdom of winter. Wondering what to do next, I tried to remember any of the other current tasks of the month or year, but I was having trouble coming up with them. I thought hard until one came to me: the massage TOTM. This wintry realm seemed like an odd place to look for a massage, but part of the fun of dream is improvising, right?

Movement in the air made me look up, and I saw thick-bodied, pale blue lizards flapping slowly through the air. Maybe I could convince them to do it! I beckoned them down, and two of the snow lizards landed and gazed at me curiously.

"I'd like you to give me a massage." I instructed. They looked back blankly. Either they didn't understand the concept, or didn't understand why they should comply. I worked on the latter angle: "I need you to help me! It's for a Task." I tried to make the word "task" sound very important. "Please just rub my back a little." I sat down and turned my back to the nearest lizard.

What the lizard replied was so peculiar that I repeated it to myself many times afterward, making sure I would remember the phrasing: "Mr. Cooper, could you please salute the Constitution? I mean, lift your shirt." I found it very amusing that "salute the Constitution" was apparently a local euphemism for "lift your shirt," though I had no idea why he addressed me as "Mr. Cooper," a name that inspires no particular resonance. I complied with his instruction and looked foward to the prospect of a massage, since my back muscles have actually been sore lately in WL and I've been needing one.

I should note that by this point I had already been dreaming for so long that I was starting to worry how well I would be able to remember the details, so I was actually carrying around my dream journal and taking notes. I recognized sadly that they would be unlikely to persist into waking (though I always, irrationally, hope that somehow they will), but I figured that the concentration of writing down details might help me better fix them in memory. I jotted down what the lizard had just said while I was waiting for the massage to start. I think the second lizard was looking on quietly the whole time.

The lizard wasn't doing anything, so I tried to instruct him in how to give a massage. "Stroke my back," I suggested. He limply touched it. We wrangled a bit but weren't getting anywhere, so I decided to try a different tack. I lay face-down on the ground and insisted, my exasperation rising, "Just walk on my back! Walk directly on it!" I remembered when I was little my dad would have me walk on his back this way, so it was a valid form of massge. I was afraid the lizard might be too heavy, but reminded myself that since it was a dream I couldn't come to permanent harm. But the lizard still balked.

I sat up again, trying to come up with a solution. I remembered shiatsu, how it uses chopping motions. I thought that might be easier for the lizard to master, so I attempted to explain it. Finally I felt something vaguely massage-like as the lizard patted me several times on the shoulders with the flat part of its front feet. (For the first time I contemplated the anatomical differences that might make this challenging for the lizard.)

"Great!" I exclaimed, pleased that we were finally getting somewhere. "Okay, now keep doing that."

But the lizard sounded like someone awkwardly trying to escape an embarrassing social encounter as he replied: "Ummm... it was nice to know you..." and disappeared into the night.

6. The Lonely Beauty of Dream
Somehow after all this I still wasn't awake. I could hardly believe it myself. I knew I should force myself awake at this point, I was juggling so much in memory, and had so much to write down—and the dream notebook I was still carrying was not likely to be much help, though I continued to jot down details.

But I didn't want to wake up. I was enjoying this too much, and wanted to see where else it would go. I was still next to the house, but the sense of winter was fading as I walked around the corner, feeling fully in my element and murmuring: "This is my domain." I walked into the house, which still felt like mine even though it had no resemblance to WL, noting how detailed it all was, even a bit cluttered, boxes of cereal on the counter. What should I do next? I didn't feel like attempting another task as I already had so much to remember. As I approached the front door, which was open on a beautiful bright day—it was no longer dark outside, and the trees were green now—I was inspired to try to see the dream world at its best.

"Show me the beauty of dream," I commanded as I walked through the doorway back outside. I was addressing the dream state directly now. I repeated this a few times, and indeed, the natural landscape around me was incredibly lovely. I walked to the edge of the trees and pulled down a fir bough to admire it. The needles were an unusual shade of purple.

I continued admiring the landscape until I was struck with sudden note of melancholy. Everything was so beautiful, but what good is all this beauty if you have no one to share it with? That was always the problem, wasn't it? Could this explain something about the kind of beings we are, why we choose to cohabit a shared dream despite all the inevitable conflict? I felt a hint of that distinctive sensation you get when you're stoned and think you've stumbled on some revelation of cosmic importance, but at the same time you realize that it will sound bland and foolish when you look back on it later. The sense of loneliness persisted, so I attempted to break through the solipsism, to summon something to me, to reach out and find some other cognition.

A spacecraft flew low across the sky, seeking a place to land. It was not an alien ship but clearly of human make, chunkily built. I don't think it resembled anything in WL but was probably inspired by films or games: the first thing I thought to google was 'mass effect shuttle' and the image results are actually about right. I was surprised to see, as it came closer, that the word "AMERICAN" was written in block letters across the side.

The shuttle settled to the ground and I walked toward the landing site. The hatch opened and a few people came out, walking in single file. The guy in the lead was wearing his suit, but no helmet. He was a dark-haired, middle aged man with a rugged face. I thought he resembled the character Group Captain Peter Townsend from The Crown, which made sense because we've been watching that show lately, and the character was a military pilot.

I wanted to signal my benign intentions so I held my hands out and up. The captain also held his hands up, although I noted that he did not let go of the rifle in his right hand, he just wasn't pointing it at me. I guess he felt wary and uncertain of my intentions. "I come in peace," I announced to reassure him, though it occurred to me that he should be the one saying that—I lived here. As we came closer I slowly (so as not to startle him) brought forward my right hand, inviting a handshake. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and did the same. I brought down my left hand to clasp his in both of my own, feeling warm and benevolent. "Be well," I said sincerely.

At that moment I felt the irresistable pull of waking draw me out of the dream. I hadn't intended it, but it was perfectly timed.

Nights 5 and 6 earned me zero points. No dream recall; no anything.

On one of these days (can't remember which), I experienced a very short WILD during a nap. It lasted about 3 minutes. During the dream, I tried to achieve my second competition goal of figure drawing (practicing a real life skill). While I was able to make a sketchbook appear, it was harder to make a model show up, and I tried to start sketching but I think I woke myself up. At any rate. I'm not going to count it this time, because I know that I can do better than that. I don't think it quite counts since I didn't really finish practicing the skill, like I didn't even finish a gesture drawing or anything.

Night 7:
Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 1: This was from my hypnagogic imagery. It's always hard for me to wake up during those and write them down, because my body is in the process of falling asleep and doesn't want to stop! However, in this one, I was walking to a castle, with Tess.

Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 2: I was visiting an aquarium at a college. I believe it was either a) one I had previously visited IRL, or b) one that I thought I had visited IRL in the dream, but hadn't actually done so. There was a whale, and I can't read the rest of my notes. -_-

Non-Lucid Fragment 3: I was at a different version of my grandma's house, and a former uncle of mine was there. He either farted or fainted -- it's hard to read my handwriting dang it xD I think it was actually farted. And he was putting away some stuff in storage. The dream faded to a store/shop of some sort.

Night 8:
Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 4: There was a Pokemon, a spider and something else that I wanted but that also creeped me out. Someone or something got lured into a corner.

Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 5: Theme park, roller coaster, talking with others at the stheme park.

Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 6: I was making love to an older (middle-aged?) woman. She was very pretty, and it was all in all a very pleasant experience, but I remember wishing that she could somehow be Tess, my tulpa, so I wouldn't feel so guilty about what I was doing.

Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 7: This one may gross you out. Just a fair warning haha. I fell in love with a lizard that was sticky and slimy. I need to stop spending so much time on DeviantART. It is dirtying up my subconscious mind. xD

Non-Lucid Dream Fragment 8: A group of shiny people were running away from something. Metallic shiny, I think? But I was "pinned down and safe." Nope, no idea what that meant. It made sense to me at the time of writing, obviously. Again, too much time on DeviantART. \o/

Night 8:

Non-Lucid Full Dream: I was still a missionary (did it a few years back). It was our day off, and I was on the computer...watching a live dog??? Ah, I still can't read that line! Another missionary was online chatting (face to face!) with Adam Young from Owl City, and I started chatting too! Adam looked a lot younger, though, and he had a security guard with him. For whatever reason, he was in a rush, so he couldn't chat for long. But he was also very kind, as I'd expect him to be.

Night 9: Got nothing. I could've at least written down some hypnagogic stuff, but I was too exhausted. It's been a difficult start to the new semester, and I haven't been sleeping enough.

Total: 1 WILD, 8 non-lucid fragments, 1 full non-lucid.

WBTB
I become lucid. Don suddenly appears and says "I have a challenge for you." He takes me to a room and says, "This is the tiraninon. You must accomplish three difficult tasks to succeed. Good luck."

The scene warped until I was standing at a spaceship port. I have to steal some plans off the malevolent looking spacecraft. After a lot of tense sprinting and blaster shooting, I succeed.

The scene warps again. The task is to buy a bar of soap! I am in a shop selling bars of soap.
After around twenty distractions, and not listening to them, I buy it with the characteristic cuboid money of my dreamworld.

The scene warps again. The task is to survive! I am in a green park and it is peaceful. However bombs suddenly start exploding around me. I think "A rational person would fly out of here to safety, but the children!" I decide that dreaming is not all for pleasure, and save the children, but die in the process.

I complete the triathlon.

I await my score.

Don congratulates me, and says "9, for using a wand."
I somehow know I have been reprimanded about this millions of times myself, but I am satisfied. However, I am confused. I say "But I failed the last task..." Don now says "No, you were the only one to complete it successfully. It has taken you officially out of the spectrum of just control. You have learnt that dreams themselves have worth, not just the control wrought on them."

24-Jan-2017 - WILD: The giant worm

1AM WBTB, no ND recall, fall asleep after

6AM wake up, attempt WILD, success

WILD: I materialize a canteen tray in my hands. I turn it around, observe its small details, little stains and cracks, until I feel confident the dream is stable enough. I look around, I am at the company canteen. I go take a red apple, I bite it few times.
<JUMP>
I am inside my car, in queue on the road I usually drive each morning. Around me, many more cars. Everything looks normal.

Three rows ahead, the ground cracks and a giant black worm gets up.
It's got scaled body, elongated head, bulging eyes, two short arms up in the body.
I see people getting off their cars and running towards my back.

The worm is trying to attack the people and I summon a transparent glass between the people and the monster.
Then I attack the monster with long bursts of flames from my hands

I summon a tornado close to the beast, cars start rotating in the air.
I "push" cars from the tornado to its body, hurting it.
<JUMP>
I am at the office, V is with me. We talk a bit, then I ask her to pass me her phone, I point it towards her, and I see her in underwear on the screen. Nice.
<JUMP>
A short view of a light blue dodo (it was from a TV program)