lucid

+ (f) longer dream poorly recalled, culminating in walking in a large open field in the country (with wife?) what was our property, at the finale: standing and observing a creek and the beginnings of a big bridge (we were building?), a huge chunk of concrete on the far bank and some temporary wooden frame

+ ski slope, no snow, met some skier, I work there? climbing up hills, streams of (chopped wood?) flowing down the hills trying to make progress against these, eventually make it to the top of the hill and file a report on my experience.

+ epic: return to former adult home

At the beginning: long sequence in the back yard of my old home, the new owners are away. I need to finish some yard work? I see my old [deceased] dog? At some point: wandering through the house itself, observing things, [inaccurate], interacting with new owners, putting up some sort of infrastructure.

I'm walking towards the house and catch a glimpse of a nail sticking up out of the ground. I return and look closely and there's an entire irregular patch of 1" - 2" nails sticking (point-side up) up out of the ground, and say "you have to be careful here!"

I notice that there are large piles of our former things that we left here. Lots of little knick-knacks and many other items. I look for a box to pile all the stuff in to. It may just be a mess at our new place but the new owners will probably just toss all this stuff out so I should just take it with me. In a shed in the back yard all of our stuff is piled high. I take something from the pile in the middle of the shed and it is my sons old camping sleeping bag. I unpack it from its stuff sack and look at it: it is a dark-colored, mummy-style down sleeping bag. I think about writing an ad for it "almost new, very clean, only used once or twice." I wonder if it is too small for him now.

I'm facing the house yard to my back in the backyard and I take a few steps towards the house and [semi]get the urge to fly. I wonder if I'll be able to fly, and I try to take off and I do fly. I get a big smile on my face as I soar up over the roof of the house and observe the neighborhood from about 30 feet up in the air. As I'm taking off into the sky I think I see the former owners inside the house, along with former colleague GT [company "3"] who catches a glimpse of me as I take off.

From up in the air I see across the street is a middle-aged woman working in her front yard on concrete. I think about swooping down to her and engaging but decide quickly against it (she's not attractive). I fly around for a bit and return to my "current home" which is right next door to our former home [false].

I return then to the former home in order to continue retrieving our personal belongings from the shed in the back yard. I enter the property on the right side yard of the property. The new owner wife and husband are there. I meet the wife first, she's not very friendly, she approaches and says s.l. "after all this time, you're finally coming to meet us?" I ignore the jab and keep greeting them. Meet the husband. I get this idea and say to him, "when it gets hot in summer, we'll sit out on the veranda and drink tall mugs of beer." The wife says s.l. "you can do that on *your* property."

Workmen are hauling our former belongings out of the hut and piling them on the concrete in the side yard. I see some green and a purple yoga mats. I pull those aside since they are expensive. They're going to take all this stuff away.

I'm walking with the husband in the back yard towards the left side yard. I ask him "do you play racquet sports? Like tennis, racquetball?" He says "racquetball." I say "I haven't played racquetball in a long time. Do you play squash?" [No reply?].

My attention is grabbed by the structure that (I?) had begun constructing in the back yard. At some point there was a workman earlier who had come to work on it, and I see that he has completely finished it. Formerly open, he had closed the entire structure with dark square panels that go all the way up to "the roof" [in the back yard!?] closing it off. I say "whoa, he really finished that thing." I was very surprised since I didn't remember it looking that way the last time I looked at it. Other portions are still open. The new owners gets up and tried to look closely at it. I'm trying to point out a particular feature which is right there in front of his face: "to the right….to the left…it's RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYE!"

I turn and look back all over the back yard in the left far corner, seeing the entire back yard and the house. The hard is filled with this rough 2-level structure. I wonder what it's for, you could store things in there but it's not a strong structure, being built of what appear to be bamboo poles and filled in with straw. I say "You could store grass clippings here from mowing the lawn?"

Wake up and get concerned about the time. Indeed it's around 5pm now and I still need to get in a full work day, argh!

Oobe style Dild LD this morning at around 7am🌞 - as I don't need to be anywhere early this week I have enjoyed the extra morning time to Practice.

Suddenly I was aware that I am trying to read some text on a piece of paper in front of me. I am trying again and again to read it with no avail - "'I must be dreaming" I think and look around me - I am in my bed room and see my bed and what looks like a lump under the covers which I assume is me. I immediately try to levitate up and out of the roof but I just keep going forever so I decide to abort this plan...I see the hatch is open ( attic room )with light streaming in I dive down there and make my way into the living room where my bf is sitting watching the TV. I sit down in front of him and wave - he doesn't see me - I watch him for a while, he is laughing to himself and looks content but then his face starts to turn really sad and tears come down his cheeks ... then he starts to laugh again within all the tears. I am touched at his humanity 🐚 and throw a cushion at him to make him aware I am there - at this moment I awake inbed 🌸

When my dream body is back in bed I stay still for a while and ponder on the differnet feeling of how it felt tobe LDing and the starkness of WL - It seems to me during LD ones focus is very much in the front of ones head... hard to explain that feeling🌌

This is going to be a long entry!

First dream: Can't teach a fish how to swim

I'm swimming in a river contained in a cemented canal, on the insistance of my cousin. It's sunny and a little windy, but the water is really murky and the few reeds growing in the cement crack are gnarly and sickly. Luckily for me, the water around me is a litle lest disrty and I can see a little through it; my cousin wears a dark blue one piece bathing suit and is coated with grim, save fore her hair and face. She looks like she used to a few years back, when she wore her hairs shoulder lenght and parted in the middle, with blonde highlights. We reach a platform with metallic stairs, there is a group of men here, calling us and reaching out. I grab the railing of the stairs and pull myself out of the water, with a little help. The air is hot and dry; even the strong wind is hot and I can feel my skin dry in seconds. I walk up the stairs to get out of the canal, we're in the middle of a large, dirt and sand plain with nothing in sight but the canal. My cousin doesn't want to get out, and she find the current in the middle of the river and swims with is away from us.

I woke up and did a WBTB, reading stuff and nagging Eli for around twenty minutes

secon dream: Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers/Starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters

I'm walking around town with my family, it's even late dusk or early evening, the street lamps are lit but still there is some sunlight, that grey light that stay around after the sun itself has desappear. It's a pretty town, with old stones houses in terraces and stone paved road; it's clean and pretty touristic, even with the aerial electric line crisscrossing the sky overhead. I lag a little behind and tell myself Eli should be here. He walks up to my side and I realise I'm dreaming.
I smile to him and he wraps his arm around my waist with a smile of his own. We walk a little and he asks me if I want to do anything in particular. I snuggle against him, drawning a blank, until suddently I remember one of my objective: finding my animal totem. I grab Eli hand and excitedly tell him that I want my animal totem. He let me drag him around town and we find a small place with a little gathering of animals under a street lamps. I walk to them and ask which one is my totem animal. A giant, soft gray wolf wearing another wolf skin of the same color like a coat, with the other wolf head half covering her own, comes to sit in front of me. She have light gold eyes and dark gray nose, and a very pink tongue. She's a little on the gangly side, and her paws look almost oversized.* Her head is larger that a average wolf, with more slanted eyes. She makes me thing of a fox in disguise, but I still think of her as a wolf. I ask her her name, and she remains silent, staring intendly at me. I pet her head and scratch gently her neck, asking her name again. She shakes her head, making the wolf fur on her back slips a little, and give me a gentle headbutt. I ask her a third time, and I hear inside my head a feminine voice, ringing like a silver bell, telling me "Name me!" I'm startled and let go of the dream.

*Eli think it looked like a puppy. A puppy the size of a small pony.

Third dream: Seven days to live

I'm controling a man in a zombie apocalypse. The air is gray and yellow, he is in a urban environement with broken up road and falled buildings. I feel the controller in my hand, and it's like I'm overing over his shoulder. I know through story exposition that this apocalypse come from an airborn virus, and that some people like the man I'm controling are unaffected by it. I use the bumpers to have him jump through windows and fight of the infected. They aren't very resistant, and their skin tear like paper under the blow, letting their muscles fall out with lymph rather that blood. In fact, there's very little blood, maybe a couple of small scratchs on my character, as a way to let the payer know that their life is slightly depleted. I make him jump inside a dirty white bus and I fuse with him, and I'm the charater as myself.
This bus is going to a safe place with people immune to the virus, but we're aren't sure that all of us are really immune, and the atmosphere is tense. We keep the doors and windows as closed as possible; only people that proved that they were immune are allowed to get out. The bus have being gutted and the chairs remplaced by diner chairs painted white, with a backrest shaped like a giant echec piece, a knight. At first it's full, but after a couple of stop some chairs are empty. I walk trought the bus and see my cousin again, pouting, and a very old friend being pissy about having to stay inside the bus. I get out and go to speak with the driver, who show me that the bus is being fitted on rails to be able to travel through a very steep fall and up, like a roller coaster. I get vertigo looking at the fall and go back inside the bus, wondering if sitting in front will make is worse or better. I decide to sit in the back and my pissy friend is less pissy, and let me sit next to him.

I don't remember exactly when this one was, but it was around early October 2015.

It's one of the lucid fragments I didn't bother to write down at the time.

I don't recall what I dreamed about before, unfortunately... I didn't write it down. Stupid, on my part.

However, right before I woke up, I gained awareness while standing on a cliff. I was surveying a landscape covered with sweeping grass, with the ocean in the distance. I could see the waves breaking on a pebbly shore as the grass rippled in the wind. The sun was rising over the ocean. I decided not to "do" anything but watch the sunrise and be satisfied by such a vivid, solid dream after a night full of dreaming, I mostly just remember very being pleased about it all, as if I had enjoyed my night. I still wish I had written those dreams down, but I know there was some flying involved.

I spent a while peacefully enjoying the ocean breeze while the sun slowly rose over the waves. The sunlight sparkled on the waves and tinged the grasses with a rosy golden glow. The sea wind was cool and salty, with a hint of fresh grass.

Eventually, my alarm clock went off and I had to get up for work.

This happened a while ago but i wanted to post it anyways. I was sleeping in my room when a thunderstorm broke out. For safety reasons I was moved to sleep in the living room a floor lower. I laid on a mattress and fell asleep fast. I was dreaming about me being in a forest at night with some friends walking around on the ground and climbing some trees, idk . The dream was very vivid and i still remember the feeling i had when i walked face first into a spider web.
I had just heard about lucid dreaming at this point and I knew the "hold your nose and breath"-method but also the one about looking at your hands. Suddenly in the dream my friends were nowhere and I was walking down a road still during nighttime. I felt an urge to look at my hand and I did so, only to realize that my hand had like 7 fingers all being kinda blurry and very long. It looked extremely weird and made me panic since it was my first LD. I started running kinda to escape the fear idk. After running for some seconds I woke up. Lying on the mattress in the living room. I was looking around to make sure I was safe and everything looked safe and sound. I was a bit out of breath and wanted to wake my girlfriend lying next to me for some reason. When laying my hand on her shoulder it was STILL looking just as weird as during the lucid dream. I paniced yet again feeling my heart pounding faster and harder. I woke up just after this and looked at my hand first thing, just to find it being normal again.
My first LD experience kinda scared me, but it still drew me in since the experience was so unique from anything i had ever experienced before. I am excited to learn more about this mystical universe

I tried some FILD before falling asleep.
A little after falling asleep I go lucid, surrounded by darkness. I'm unable to keep it up and "fall" into an awake state. I immediately begin falling asleep again but I'm still a bit aware, I feel myself becoming paralyzed. At first this is exciting, I haven't experienced this since childhood. As I lose more and more control I begin to fear a pang of fear, not sure I want to go into SP after all. I begin to try as hard as I can to turn on my stomach and as I do I feel my body lumber toward the left. As I turn I see my body flump over and I'm looking down at it in the dark room, slowly floating up. Thinking this is also a sort of bad idea, I push myself back into my body and fall into the darkness of sleep.

I'm in the shoe department of a department store with some skater dudes. As I follow them I get bored and try to do a handstand but accidentally hit someone in the head with my feet, a father passing by. I feel embarrassed that I did that. The skater kick me on the ground as punishment, I accept it. As they kick me in the face, I feel that it is becoming a bit excessive.

I'm in a large, fancy house. One side of it has large windows that show the street, it's in the city. It's night time and I go up to the second floor where a hall circles the first floor. There is a show on with William Shatner about UFO's. I decide to draw aliens with ink in a notebook, perhaps they will come to life? (??) I draw one from behind, his large black eyes visible from the sides of his head despite it.

Back on the first floor of the house, it's now late afternoon, golden sunlight. There are a bunch of my friends down there. (The house must be one of theirs?) A friend bring chocolate mousse cheesecake, it's really good. I ask a friend of mine I see there if we are going to reschedule our meeting up that we missed last week. She says Tuesday would be good. We can meet in the local McDonald's.

Out back there is a large, fenced backyard with lots of bird cages. I see one on the patio, it has a small delicate bird in it and I feed it. I begin to fly around the backyard, I guess I have a jetpack? I zoom around feeding the various birds in their cages, they are on multiple levels, suspended and resting on large trees. The last of the birds are a bunch of chickens in a coop up on a tree. I try to feed them, but not too much.

I go back to my friends, it's dark outside and they are now out in the yard. My friend complains he ran out of candy, I laugh nervously saying that happens sometimes. His girlfriend seems upset about it and my friend yells out at me for eating so much. I feel a sting of shame.

Out back I see two robots that look like they came from the Warhammer 40K universe. A few criminals, badass skater guys, take me hostage as they drive off in a convertible to escape the law. We drive down the sepia colored evening road, it's like LA. There are two demons with us that look like a few monsters from the Nickelodeon show "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters". They try to drive the guys insane, rubbing up against them as they whisper vile things. "I will be inside you soon...."

So the only thing I remembered last night was I was walking through a forest, and suddenly became lucid out of nowhere. Being thankful of this fact, I got on the ground and started to stabilize the dream by feeling the grass and dirt, and sifting through the individual grains between my fingers. I also began talking to some dream characters. After I settled down, I thought what would be cool to try, so I attempted to create a tiny hill by visualizing the ground slowly moving up. After failing the attempt I sort of felt defeated and tried to do something else and tried to move a tiny stick on the ground using telekinesis, but I also failed at this as well. Getting frustrated with not being able to do anything I tried to start flying because I remembered as a kid being able to do so, but I was completely surprised when I discovered I could not fly anymore either. I started to feel ashamed at myself and that's when I noticed that the forest started to become darker and the trees started disappearing until I was in a dark void.

I immediately began to fall through the void at a fast speed and I hit some kind of invisible ground in the void. I heard a voice that sounded like mine and it told me to stop trying to control the dream because I don't deserve to and I've made him angry by doing so. He said I was pathetic at trying and I'll never be given control. I then suddenly felt extreme panic and chaos and I heard screaming and I started to crouch down in a fetal position and started to cry as I felt more and more in desperation for whatever reason.

I then woke up and felt like crap for the entire day.

For some reason I can't remember any dreams from last night besides this lucid, not even a fragment.

I didn't feel right, so I knew I was dreaming. I was in the living room and was losing it, so I stared at something until it became clearer. The dream was very vivid. It was either early morning or evening, as it was almost dark outside. I looked out the window and it was a winter wonderland, with snow piled like 5 feet high. I tried to summon someone, first by yelling her name 3-4 times. Nothing. Then I remembered the hand behind back technique, so I reached my hand behind me and said, "___, take my hand!" and brought my hand around, but there was no one there. Frustrated, I gave up and went outside. It was quite beautiful out with all the snow. I was going to try my lucid task of going to a roller boogie but woke up in a false awakening and tried to write down my dream.

After quite a while of not remembering dreams I remembered this morning. I remember being in a room and thinking that something was due. I remember coming down a mountain. And I remember kinda hearing music with visuals of arrows going up. The atmosphere of the dream was kinda depressing or gloomy. I think I was fairly lucid this morning and stayed with the dream for quite a while. I got to sleep in. Yay...

*I had great increase in dream recall because I abstained from drinking or smoking just before bed. I've also been watching a lot of LOST and Heroes on Netflix so there are some parallels* Dream #1 Dream #2

I was in this apartment complex with Dr. Mohinder Sharesh (heroes). We were running from these men in black who wanted to capture me and study me for my abilities of teleportation, telekinesis and time travel. My brother, who also can time travel, was already a couple years into the future, and he and I were communicating with this magical paper that I could write on and my brother years in the future could read it, and vice versa. He had told me that there had been a terrible virus spread throughout the world and many people were dead. Dr. Sharesh and I began working on an antidote immediately to prepare for this disaster. I began collecting samples and test tubes from this fridge like container for chemicals. I had told him that we need to work fast to prepare. Just then I looked outside to three floors below, men in black were at that moment getting out of their cars. I closed both doors leading to the room we were in from the hallway outside so that we had a bit more time before the men in black had apprehended us. The next few moments played out like a movie...the men in black busted through the door leading to our floor, guns drawn and ready to shoot at any moment. I close my eyes tight just as the break down the doors to our room. The men found only Dr. Sheresh alone in the room as I had time traveled. *Camera pans to the magical paper with my writing saying "I'm coming to you" and my brother's response, "What?"*

The next thing I know I am in the same building, same floor, and I am in the hallway. The carpet was pulled up from the floor, and the walls beginning to crumble apart. I look around and realize that I had traveled years into the future. Just then, my brother comes running around the hall, with a big smile on his face, happy to see me. He takes my hands and says how happy he is to see me. He had a katana strapped to his back. He takes me into the same room I was in from the past, he sits on a couch, his back to the window. I look at him as we talk, and then I look past him to see the destruction of the city skyline. Towers and buildings were destroyed, reduced to nothing but shells of a once great society. I asked my brother if our parents had survived, his eyes welled up as he shook his head and began to cry. My brother then asked me what time I had come from, I looked him in the eye and said, "I think I came from the time when this all started, I think I came from where it began."

I remember being in some sort of school that was holding a big conference or event. There were a lot of people. I remember being somewhat lucid as I mocked certain situations while still adhering to the dream plot. I was in this large girls' bathroom, remembering that I could do pretty much anything, I challenged every other girl in there to fight me. They kind of looked at me weird and didn't do anything at first. I had said something to the effect of "What, you bitches afraid you all can't take me? Come on! I'll let you all at me at once." That peaked their interest as they all started to attack me. Fighting all of them at once was easy. I blocked every kick and punch with ease, landing blows to them as I did. They quickly surrendered and I left the bathroom. I saw floods of people rushing in every hallway.

The dream shifts and I am now looking out onto Lake Michigan witnessing one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. There are people playing in the lake as the golden orb of our star slowly lowered itself upon the water, a perfect reflection on the surface. I sat watching with school friends, old and new, in these bleacher style seats, almost like an amphitheater. I sat with a friend of mine to my left, a cute girl that I have come to sort of develop a crush on. Next to her on her left sits one of my old friends from high school. I was peaceful, taking in the beautiful scene before me. Then, the cute girl next to me rests her head on my shoulder, and I instinctively put my arm around her waist. The cute girl was also holding the hand of the girl next to her which was my high school friend, but being polyamorous, I wasn't hurt or angry at that situation. Then I had realized something, I had been in another dream just before that, a different dimension with a dire fate. I hopped up and began putting some pieces together. I said to the cute girl "Are you my constant? Are you here to simply comfort me and distract me from my task, so that I may stay in this world and forget the world before?" The girl just hung her head and looked at her feet. I sat right in front of her, put my face next to hers so I could whisper in her ear, "Are you my constant?" to which she said "I can't say". I just nodded my head thinking 'I knew it'. Then I asked, "do you like me, do you love me?" She didn't respond. I just got up, said I was getting lunch and left the scene.

I was back at the music building of my school, practicing my saxophone, and actually playing a scale I had been working on IRL. It was then that I remembered I was getting food.

I woke up

Morning of October 25, 2015. Sunday.



I am looking down into the throat of an extinct volcano. This will be fun to jump into in my lucid awareness. I cannot see that far down, but do not expect to be harmed in any way. (It is fairly common for me to deliberately jump from a higher place to then soar about in my dreams. It is often very exhilarating, especially when there is such realistic momentum.)

I jump, falling stomach down, arms out, though now see a giant spiderweb across the whole cylindrical area below. My dream goes into an odd state where I am somehow vaguely aware of my real physical body. I am not interested in any giant spider shenanigans.

After a short time, the giant spiderweb I land on, on my stomach, turns out to be a thin sheet of glass that is somehow stopping my fall. It is full of spider-web-like cracks. There is a jagged hole where my legs are dangling down just a bit. I then consider that it may actually be ice, not glass. Eventually, I get a subtle impression that it is cellophane, but that would seem unlikely regarding the fact I remain suspended on whatever I am on for a time.

The scene shifts to where I am crawling through a horizontal cylindrical tunnel that is getting smaller and smaller. Some sort of “living rock salt” feature (as perhaps of an actual surreal “throat” of a larger creature) around the whole tunnel may digest me at one point. Obviously I do not want this. I emerge near the top of a high hill but am “stuck” inside the outer area of the tunnel to just below my chest. Perhaps I will just remain here staring out over a small isolated town for however many years or centuries. I do not feel in danger, just mildly annoyed that I cannot move. I will not call for help; just wait until I am fully “back” in my real body. I rest my chin in my hand, trying to hold back my aggravation and very minor embarrassment (though no other person had been around at any point).

It was a short lucid event...as mine tend to be...but encouraging nevertheless (and anticipated). Yesterday, for the first time during the day, I managed to jerk out of my daytime “dream” on about 10 occasions (the “dream” that isn't “awareness”) I usually get so caught up in daytime living that I only manage a few.

I only practiced the awareness for a few minutes each time...looking around, thinking “this is a dream,” noting body sensations (particularly the feet) but the real breakthrough was the fact that the “trigger” occurred much more frequently. Maybe reading about the brain is helping...”use it or lose it” as the book says and I'm much more aware how neurons, axons and dendrites work and how critical it is to stimulate the brain by repetition.

I think I really pushed my brain sections when I first learned the dream routines. I remember how tired I often felt, how sometimes I awoke feeling really ill and (what I called) the “flashing” in my eyes. I now know that neurons were being frantically sequestered from other tasks to cope with my new demands. The basics are now firmly implanted so hopefully, when health problems etc are resolved I'll be even more back on track.

I was dreaming about a town and I had somehow entered a place where I sensed I shouldn't be and I was poking about in some equipment and I broke a piece off. I retreated apparently still clutching a bar of metal and decided to return to the (hall?) and replace it but I couldn't find the place again. That's a major DS for me and might have started the LD process. The dream was more vivid than usual and I remember tossing the metal into a nearby bush then thinking “I'm dreaming!”

By now, I can keep the excitement at a reasonable level and I resolved to look around and not dash off (another first really). Then I thought “RC” (good) and decided to levitate. I had resolved to try 2 or 3 RC's and maybe suddenly change the order (further validating the lucidity) but I'm happy that I full-filled most of my training.

I rose cautiously but started to go out of control a bit so I abandoned that and focussed on a nearby pub. It was beautifully clad in small bright green tiles and all there was a small war memorial alongside it. Then I felt the dream ending. Damn!

I have same old 2 problems...the shortness of my LD's and the fact that they are generally at the top of the night (usually after at least 7 hours sleep + a WBTB). I assumed it was lack of melatonin but I now have 1.9mg tablets which I've occasionally taken at various times throughout the night with no effect so far. I'm going to try 2 tabs one night (although the Spanish chemist was apparently shocked when asked for 4mg tabs and, knowing how even Spanish painkillers are at higher strengths than allowed in the UK, I'm understandably cautious)

Hopefully, the “awareness” trigger is here to stay and I can further extend the periods of awareness. So...a good result for me and maybe a sign of more to come

P.S. I had a “romantic” dream 2 nights ago...not sex...but hey! that's over-rated (I can afford to say that at my age) But, I'd rather have a romance with a good plot than a quick “wham bam thank you DC” but can I have it lucid next time?

Was trying to OBE/AP

suddenly i wake up in other bed (like a soldier lol) where everyone has to get up and go for their duties...
i wake up slowly... look abit around and go somewhere...
i was like what the H is this drean? couldnt see everything nicely but i was on a Boat or something..
then i went around to see whats up and found nothing interesting, looked for any female and woke up..
tried to LD then, i had another LD but i forgot it totally..
then i had some vivid weird dreams .

Another lucid last night. Went in and out of full and semi lucidity, but maintained a thread of awareness throughout.

I became lucid while looking in a mirror in a hallway. That is a common thing for me. Mirrors always induce lucidity. They're one of the absolutely fool-proof things for me. The mirror turned out to be in the hallway of one of my home bases, so I started off with the advantage that I was already at least partially anchored. I don't really remember, I think the mirror was near the door to the outside, because I believe that's the door that I opened later on. I should have paid more attention.

Anyway, I immediately tested my suspicion that I was dreaming by attempting to push my arm through the surface of the mirror. There was slight resistance on the surface, and then my arm sank in. The mirror looked like quicksilver as I pushed my arm through it.

Satisfied with the knowledge that I was dreaming, I spent a while playing with my appearance and examining myself in the mirror. I eventually managed to turn myself into more of a caricature of myself than my actual appearance, which I found very entertaining. While I was playing around with my eyes - moving them around, changing the size and shape, etc - I could hear my brother's voice narrating in the background that he at least liked this current character design better than the last (implying that he really didn't like either). I waved it off and kept playing around.

I was really satisfied by my handiwork because I had trouble with this before. I then spent a little bit more time dressing myself up as a sort of elven-looking sorcerer. Just as fun as cosplay, and several hundred dollars cheaper!

After spending some time tweaking my heroic cloak/cape thing (I settled on something asymmetrical and held up on one side by a nice brooch that I own in real life), I decided to meet up with some friends at a tavern.

I opened the door to go outside, and The Blackness happened. Some people call it The Void. Instead of the outdoors or the tavern that I wanted, everything beyond the door was pitch black. I stepped through the door into The Blackness, hoping it would dissipate. Instead, it enveloped me, and everything went dark. I tried vividly imagining my hands and moving them around in front of me. I briefly saw them appear before they faded back into the darkness. Waving them around some more didn't make them reappear.

I decided to try something I have never tried before. Instead of trying to make it go away, I would condense The Darkness into a form where it could no longer impede me.

I held out my hands and tried drawing it into a form in my hands. It didn't work, possibly because I was unable to see my hands.

I then put my hands behind my back and focused on trying to summon it that way. I felt fur and a small warm body. The Darkness disappeared as it was channeled into the form of a cat.

I brought the cat around to the front. It was skinny, with soft shiny black fur and gold eyes. I petted it and set it on the ground, and it ran off.

Now I could see, through the open door, not blackness but the brightly lit inside of the tavern. It had polished wooden floors and brightly burning candles and torches.

I rushed to the booth everybody was sitting in and scooted in. The booths were tall, made of dark stained wood, and seats were made of leather. While we were waiting for our server, I lost the thread of lucidity and the dream faded.

I don't really remember the rest of what I dreamed about that night.

____

I'm pleased that I finally solved a long-standing problem and completed a successful completely-controlled scene change. I've felt so stupid about struggling with these basic things after even several years and the ability to WILD with regular success. I'm looking forward to honing my skills further, as this has been a serious road-block for me.

One thing I can say is that my ability to maintain dream stability and my thread of awareness has gotten SIGNIFICANTLY better.

Notes:
- Is it normal to feel skeptical of a lucid dream after you’ve had it? The past couple of times I’ve wondered.
- Is it normal to feel less “awake” once you’ve stabilized a dream? I certainly felt that way this time.

[Fragments, fragnments]

[Change setting; plot 1 begins]:
I’m in this rather huge house (40+ rooms I’d say) and there’s this gala/party going on in the main living space. I’m just wandering around as the dreaming mind does, lookin through all the foodstuffs. I find myself in a supply closet nearby, with microwaves and stuff. Then, I remember that I wanted to try and have a lucid dream.

At this moment, I became aware. I was thinking “OH CRAP HOLY CRAP I’M LUCID IM LUCID YAYYYY” but then I realized that I needed to stabilize, so I just tried focusing on the microwave in front of me, taking in every detail. That really helped a lot.

It came to my mind to use dream control, and I tried spawning someone but I couldn’t do it without starting to wake up. Instead, I decided I’d try to explore the dream world a bit, focusing on everything on the way, since I’m still a newb.

And so I walked into the living/kitchen area. I looked at everything closely: the countertop, the donuts, the snack stand, everything. The donut was especially vivid; I could see all the little bubbles in it and everything. For some reason, there was a bite out of it, and someone had put it back… eww… it was still on the stand (a metal, rotating stand) for anyone to take. I noticed after I woke up that there weren’t any visible DC’s in the dream.

I wander over to this hallway and realize I’m losing lucidity, and immediately start focusing on things to retain it. There’s an elevator, and I decide to take it (I didn't actually touch it or physically go in it though).

[Change setting]:
I’m in my high school chemistry teacher’s room (or at least a permutation of it). I’m in there at my own lab bench, and behind me are two other kids, one of whom I know. Obviously, they’re in detention or something and aren’t taking it seriously. I, on the other hand, was trying to figure a way out of there to continue my lucid adventure, but here I would be trapped for the rest of the dream.
So these kids are just kinda messing around with some water in a dish, and I’m getting impatient. From here on, i think I lost lucidity. My teacher was talking about his lifetime goals, one of which was to get $9000 in a day. <- (I think he mentioned it as his “task of the month” )
The kids were messing around, and I wanted them to pay attention, so I figured I’d shut them up by knocking over their stupid dish into the sink. I do so, then my teacher yells at me, saying "What? You think that's ok? Really? In front of me? What do you think you're doing?" and it was rather laughable really.

[The dream fragments... ]