lucid

I like to believe (and I believe that beliefs precede ideas) that I am the kind of person that thinks that cyclical time has a lot more advantages than linear time. And it is also much more fun, so maybe that is why this kind of things happen to me once in a while:

I woke up one morning and there was a very strange, big and I think blue or blue-ish creature sitting on the right side of my bed, the kind you would expect to meet in a mitote, looking at me. I don’t know what I was dreaming before waking but I told him: “Darn, I was having such a nice dream and now I have woken up.” He told me: “You haven’t woken up yet.” I told him: “Yes, look”. So I got up and went to the bathroom. The door is right beside my bed to the left. I got undressed, took a shower, shaved, and got dressed. Doing all of this thinking that I was awake; it felt exactly like it, because I was in a lucid dream, but I hadn’t realized it.

Then, the split second when I crossed the door leaving the bathroom, I shifted from my body to the (my other) body lying in bed; and for that split second I felt/understood that I was indeed dreaming. But the shock of seeing myself (from the bed) leaving the bathroom when just a moment ago I was getting dressed in it, woke me up. And so I woke up, again, and told the creature: “You were right, I was dreaming”. “You are still dreaming” he said. I said: “No, look”. It really felt that I had waken up, with the previous experience fresh in my memory, and somehow not finding anything strange about the big monster sitting there chatting with me.

So I got up and went to the bathroom again. Undressed, showered, shaved and got dressed again. Then, just like the first time, the second I got through that door I shifted perspective and felt that I was dreaming about shifting perspective from the body walking out the door to myself lying in bed seeing myself walk through the door. No need to mention the jolt all that excitement provoked that I woke up again.

This time there was no creature, but everything happened just as before. To make the long story short, it took me 5 loops to realize something eerie was going on and got out of there.

-R

This dream begun with me arriving at the studio/loft/gallery apartment of an artist I met in one of my trips. Life had given him a couple of low blows and he was a very angry man, much in contrast with his sensibility and his desire for inner peace. He was always almost getting into a fistfight. Watching this guy’s smile one moment and then explode and be ready rip someone’s heart out the next taught me a thing or 2 about polar opposites. Anyway, it had been a long time since we last met and it saddened me to see that he was still suffering, even with his very apparent success.

The place was alive. You approached it through a hilly road, and at one point one could see the 3 floors of the glass building bustling with activity. I went directly to the roof. While I was climbing the last flight of stairs I saw to my left some people dressed like buddhist monks jumping up and down the large steps of a small pyramid. They jumped and from one step to the next they flipped 180º, landing on their feet first, then on their heads, back on their feet, heads, etc. They seemed very happy doing that.

When I got to the roof I just catched a glimpse of him. He was running off and just said “hi” on his way out. I didn’t know anyone else so I just went and sat on a bench. There was a little girl sitting on the other side. I asked her what she was doing there and suddenly all the mood of All the place changed. It became literally uncanny. She changed. Got very pale, but blushed. She became embarassed when she answered that she was there to “bother” people. To annoy and nag them. Then she left.

I turned around and saw a fat man that had all the same “vampire-esque” condition. I said to him, because this was one of my first lucid dreams, and the more I was having, the closer together they were arriving. I said: “Wow, these (lucid dreams) are happening faster and faster.” To that he answered, with a very resigned (for a vampire) and gloomy face, that for him already all had arrived (also faster and faster), and so he had reached the End. Just as he said that, I heard the scariest roar I could have ever imagined happening. Something that could only have come out of a very high hierarchy demon. I’m not even going to search Google for a name. Imagine the Betelgeuse of demons. And it sounded like he was right there just behind me. From the scare I instantly opened my eyes and found myself in my bed looking at the ceiling.

The roar was an old bus driving outside on the street. If that’s the way things work out in dreams then I’m all for it. But one time I was dreaming that some very bad monsters were chasing me and as I was running away from them I entered a nave of a building full of strange, sharp and pointy machines while all the while the sun was setting so it was getting darker and darker and I could see less and less until everything went black and I just kept trying to move forward for a bit until the dream ended just like those where you die in them. Which are the ones I like the most by the way.

-R

Alright, so, this morning, I had a couple dreams. I will list the 2 dreams that I remember. I don't remember much of the first one.

1. After I fell asleep, I remember dreaming about looking up and watching youtube videos. However, after I clicked one, I noticed that the video was like 20 seconds long. And it turned out to be a screamer (A sudden picture thats usually horrifying, with a scream sound). I tried clicking off the page because I knew it would be one somehow. However, it did NOT scare me at all, so I was still asleep. Usually if I am scared in a dream, I wake up immediately. However, this was not the case.

2. A few minutes later, I thought "I'm dreaming!" This is when I believe I had a semi lucid dream. It was semi lucid because I still couldn't see everything very clearly. I just got an overhead view of what looked like an RPG game. My character was walking in the forest. However, I was losing lucidity. It was getting darker and darker. I kept thinking "Rub your hands! Rub your hands! Keep lucidity!" And it apparantly worked. After a little while, I was brought into the first person perspective of the forest. This was my first lucid dream. The first thing I did was do a reality check by trying to Push 2 fingers through the palm of my other hand. However, that didnt work, and I forgot about my reality check that I did more often: Counting my fingers. I did not do this, and this was a mistake. I accidentally thought of Jeff the Killer (The Creepypasta), and my character began taking damage. However, nobody was there. I was wondering what was going on. A few minutes later, I woke up.

I was at a martial arts class, not the martial arts class that I usually go to, and then I walked outside it was like Pittsburgh, and I saw Han Mi Martial arts (my martial arts school) doing a demo, and I told them I would have come, but they said it was just for advanced students not beginners so they didn't tell me. Then I crawled in through a net and tried to pull my way through, and Han Mi Martial arts said it was bad and I shouldnt and they would tell me later. I ended up in a large cafeteria and I realized I was dreaming. I ate a bar (dream food) and walked around looking for lemonade. I closed my eyes and opened them to test if I was dreaming or awake. Nothing happened and I decided I would probably stay asleep, so I walked around didn't find the lemonade, and then I woke up.

Earlier in the night, I had a false wake up, and I was in a large bedroom with a window and a door to outside. It wasn't my bedroom and I thought Im dreaming, I might be, but I doubted myself and was too afraid to go outside, and then I slipped into a different dream that I forget now.

Another dream I had last night was I walked to a high school to apply to be a creative writing teacher. The principal in the office told me that he had a spot for a teachers' aid but then the devil posessed me and I did something crazy and blacked out and then the principal told me what happened and told me to leave. I said but I want to be a creative writing teacher but they told me to leave.

9/17/14

7:15 am DILD

I was having a dream about fighting space creatures like in Gantz when I woke up from it into a false awakening. I tried turning on the light and it didn't work. That's when I realized I was dreaming and became lucid. My window shade was gon and I could see outdoors into the wilderness. I walked through the window. Everything was so crisp and vivid. Then I saw big foot. I was scared so I said こんにちは, "hello" in Japanese, to assure myself and it said こんにちは back. It was walking away from me and I followed it. Then it faced me. I was so scared that it wold turn me into a werewolf or eat me, so I shoved it on the ground. I felt guilty, but was still scared, so I woke up.

Dream
Lucidity

I was playing a combination of Dishonored and counter strike when some girl told me it was time to leave. Me and her and another guy started walking out and I subconsciously remembered about fortune cookies. I told a man to open me one and read it. He said it said "This bitch". I knew it was referring to the girl since she was being bossy. We went through an elevator and landed on the basement, which was also an airport. I talked to a girl knowing she was part of my dreams. Eventually, I got teleported to my old apartment in Venezuela. I decided to do a reality check but kept it a secret from the person I was with, who was watching tv. I checked my watch but it was normal but I knew I was in a dream.
I left the loud room and entered what was my grandma's old room and flew out the glass window. I saw a man talking to a demon and when I landed on the other side of the fence, they both looked at me and ran towards me. I ran backwards and yelled at the demon, asking what it represented, as it turned into a demonic dog. It wouldn't reply to me and it kept trying to hurt me. I knew he couldn't hurt me and I said "I give you the ability to talk!" Still, no response from the dog. Slowly, it started turning into Lucy. Its ember filled eyes turned into black eyes and Lucy was sitting there. I petted her and she played with my hand. I kept asking her what she represented but no reply came. I worried that something might have happened to her. I heard sounds coming from Victoria Avenue and grabbed a chain Lucy had on, which was attached to the gate. I went to investigate the sound and zombies were coming towards us. I yelled "Firewall!" as I moved my arm towards the zombies. I started running away but was woken up by my alarm.

Lucidity

I said "This is a dream!" and flew upwards, scaring a person in front of me. I stabilized and increased clarity while standing outside a Walgreens in the middle of the night in a place with a lot of tall walls. I entered the Walgreens and, for training, started an active shooter scenario. 3 men entered the Walgreens with assault rifles. I pulled out K83 and shot at one of the men. The bullets just went through them without doing damage so I just cancelled the scenario. I started having sex with a girl and lost lucidity, but eventually gained it back after noticing she had a weird looking vagina. I was going to test my water magic and I said "When I use water magic, it looks like water, tastes like water, and even sounds like water, purified water. There was a blind where Nikki tried to jump on but missed, causing it to get broken. Wind was coming through the window and I woke up trying to fix it.

Dream
Lucidity
False Awakening

I woke up on a bed because I could hear the sound of a heavy breeze coming through an open window. The breeze sent printed pictures under the closed door to the outside of the room. I knew the breeze was telling me to go out of the room. I wondered why but all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. A powerful man's voice kept telling me I was dreaming, and that I had to go look at one of the rooms. I replied "I can't go back to the dream, it's already too late, I'm already awake." The voice replied, "You are in a dream; look at your watch," upon doing so, I realized that my watch looked normal except for the area where the date is shown was blank. I realized I was dreaming!
I calmed myself and stabilized the dream. The voice told me "Someone is waiting for you at the open door" I went out the room and down the hallway to the left. As I passed the open doors, they shut by themselves. In the third or fourth door, I saw some sort of cat run out the room. I tried talking to it but couldn't speak. I reached the end of the hallway, which opened up into a small room with an open window and very big vans outside. I turned around and saw an open door. The place was dark and I said "Light!", which made a flash of light appear. The area lit up for a few seconds. I entered a room with an open door. The room itself was a little dirty and dark. I noticed two beds and said "Light!", making the flash of light appear again. I saw a woman on one of the beds, which startled me. I walked towards what I saw was an older woman, around 50, wrinkles, but attractive, skinny and a darkish skin tone. We made introductions and she told me her name was Lisa, but that I could call her whatever I wanted. She was very vibrant and outgoing and she told me she was what I refer to as a 'Dream Guide'.
We chatted for a while and I eventually asked what the water in most of my dreams represented. She went on a long explanation about her being in prison and her being a native, and about a bear or something. I don't remember. I then asked her if the way I was woken up, with the wind, had any meaning. She smiled and said no. She started looking a lot older and my dream got blurry. I lost awareness and as I was waking up, Lisa told me I looked good at the grocery store.

Dream
Lucidity

I was on an interstate road in the middle of nowhere in NM. I was working at some sort of refinery and got freaked out when I got behind some tanks full of gas. I asked how I got there and looked at my watch. Since it was dark, I tried lighting up the watch but it didn't work. I eventually realized I was dreaming!
I counted my fingers and there were 8 in one hand. I increased clarity and stabilized the dream before thinking of exploding one of the tanks full of gas. I remembered I don't use fire magic so I looked around and saw a door leading underground. Upon trying the door, I found out it was locked so I reached into my pocket for a key. As I was doing that, the door opened on its own. I went down the stairs and opened more doors, some of them looking like the doors in the game fallout. The area was dark, so I said "Increase brightness!", which only helped a little. I rose my right hand and said "Light", which made a small orb of light appear, lighting the area as if I were holding a torch. I moved the light in front of my eyes, which hurt them because the light was so bright. I cancelled the light and reached for the flashlight on my belt. I lit up a few spots around the room, wondering if there would be monsters around. I decided to hover and passed through floors, purposely getting stuck in some of them.
Once I reached the top, I decided to let go and I fell and fell and fell until I hit the floor, which didn't hurt. I walked through the building and saw 2 Mario characters. I came up on a cave-like room with grass and water. I decided to ask one of the Mario characters what the water represented, which lead to a stupid response that I knew was fake. I said "Yeah, whatever" and walked away. I looked at my watch, which was showing time normally. Upon looking at it closer, I notice that the day was moving long with the seconds. I decided to do something to upgrade my max lucidity so I tried summoning a water orb between my hands but it didn't work and slowly started to wake up.

Ritual: WTB 1am, woke 4:20am, got up and read, drank spice lassi (yogurt, water, turmeric, cumin, salt), did 12 minutes seated meditation incorporation SSILD technique before returning to bed at 5:50am. Before going to bed I affirmed several times, "I vow to lucid dream," reflecting on how a vow is much more serious than an intention, a little nervous that I might inadvertantly break my vow, but reminding myself that I didn't dare, failing to go through on an intention is one thing, but you're never supposed to break your vows. I wanted to avoid supplements for the most part as that hasn't helped much lately, but I did use a few drops of Calea Zacatechichi tincture, because although I can't say for sure if it actually works, I thought the distinctive taste might contribute a useful placebo effect. I lay on my back in bed and did a series of tension-relaxation exercises, then cycled in random order through several affirmations ("I am aware / I do / I dream"). Drifted off, woke up a little, realized it was getting too bright out and my mind felt sufficiently wakeful that this might be an obstacle to sleep, so I put on my sleep mask (a device of last resort as I don't like wearing it), turned on my left side, and continued the affirmations until I fell asleep. I got a lot of distinct hypnagogic imagery and sounds every time I started to drift off, but I did not feel the physical signs of transition.

WILD, Part 1: I woke up again, thinking I might have transitioned successfully, and got out of bed. I could still distinctly feel myself wearing the sleep mask so I wondered if I was really dreaming, but realized that since it wasn't obstructing my vision, then I must be. I was tempted to rip off the mask but decided to just ignore it, and soon the sensations disappeared for the duration of the dream. Now that I was sure I was dreaming, I wanted to get started right away on my tasks. I reached behind me for my wand, a gesture familiar from a few years ago when I had been playing a lot with Harry Potter style magic. I got used the idea that my wand was sheathed just behind my right hip, so I could just reach back there at any time to draw it. However, this time I came up empty-handed. I realized that this was probably because, having just gotten out of bed, I wasn't wearing any clothes. Nevermind, I can work on that task later. By this time I'm in the kitchen, so it should be an easy matter to procure some fortune cookies!

I walk toward the kitchen counter, expecting to find a bag of fortune cookies ready to hand. Sure enough, there is a clear plastic bag right where I expect, but as I reach for it I see that it contains... what are those, pierogies? I laugh because they look almost like fortune cookies and are anything but, and it is just like dream to bait and switch this way. I pick up the bag and reach into it anyway, focusing my expectations around pulling out a proper fortune cookie, and by the time my hand closes around something, I can tell that it is falling into line: it has the dry smooth surface, distinctive shape and ridges of a fortune cookie. I pull it out and break it in half to get the fortune. I remember that I'm supposed to eat the cookie too, so I start nibbling at it while extracting the fortune, which was wedged inside the cookie in a crumpled up wad. As I smooth it, I see that the little strip of paper is covered with what looks like dabs of herb butter mixed with little shreds of nori seaweed, a kind of east-west fusion of ingredients. I'm disappointed to see that there is no writing on the paper at all, just the seasonings.

No problem, the bag contains several cookies. I'll just get another. I try again, and fortunately the next cookie contains a larger slip of paper, one that comes out properly this time and contains actual text—quite a lot of text actually, four or five lines of it. I start to read it, murmuring aloud to help fix it in memory. It starts something like: "And earth her allies rift..." It goes on from there, not making much sense, and worse, by the time I get to the second line the first one is already changing, now "her allies" looks like it has been replaced by something in German, "die Beile."

(Weird, according to my German dictionary app "die Beile" means "axes, hatchets." I've studied a bit of German, which is why I have the app, but I'm not aware that I've ever learned that word and didn't even know if it was a real one until I looked it up.)

I continue reading the fortune, and by the time I get to the end the first line has changed again even more, and I'm pretty sure so has everything else. I realize this is somewhat hopeless, the fortune was so long that it would have been hard enough to remember even if it were static, much less track all the changes, so I just determine to remember the part that I read initially, since I think I can keep at least this much in working memory: "And earth her allies rift."

By this point the fortune has transformed into a large plastic wrapper like the sort that might have wrapped a whole box of cookies, and as I continue to look at it, I'm surprised by how much additional text is written on the side in small print: mundane details like the address of the manufacturer, etc. I see a date, "1945," and note that the place of manufacture is San Francisco, which makes sense (wasn't the fortune cookie invented there?) but by now the date has already changed to "1929."

FA: Around this time I wake up and grab the notebook I keep next to the bed to start writing things down. Something's wrong, though: even though I normally open it to a blank page before sleeping, it is now open to a page wholly printed with graphics resembling some type of manga. I don't remember the notebook having graphics! I flip through to find a blank page quickly while my memories are fresh, but all the white pages are already filled with previous notes, and they are interspersed with the manga pages, like a cross between a notebook and a graphic novel. I find a space of blank color on one of the manga images, just enough room to scribble, "and earth her allies rift," but then I feel guilty about spoiling the drawing. I don't even remember what the story is, but if I write all over it I might end up regretting it.

While I'm still trying to figure out where to put down the rest of my notes, my husband comes into the room carrying two boxes wrapped in paper, like presents. Apparently this is some new game that has just arrived that he wants to play together, a console game. I remember him telling me about it earlier: the plot has something to do with cartoonish kids and their gorilla allies. It seems that the game can only be played in two-person mode, so he has come in to try to wake me up. I'm still lying in bed, so he sets the two boxes down right on top of me and starts to rip off the paper wrapping. The boxes are cubes measuring about a foot on each side, and at first I wonder why they are so large, but as he tears off the paper I can see from the box art that they contain individual devices like Playstation controllers.

Although I do want to play the game at some point, I'm annoyed at this disruption because I was in the middle of a lucid dream attempt! After jotting down my notes I had been planning to try to re-enter the dream state. However, I already vaguely suspect that this might not be a real awakening because everything seems so exaggerated, from the problems with my notebook to my husband's rude attempt to wake me. He may not share my hobby, but he's aware of it, and would be unlikely to disturb me while I'm still sleeping, much less set boxes on me! This remains only a suspicion, and I don't become fully aware of the fact that I'm still dreaming. Rather, I conclude only that I'm still on the verge of it, since I can still feel the heaviness and tingling in my limbs that lets me know that I can probably re-enter the dreamstate once this distraction has diminished. So I quietly grumble at my husband until he leaves, careful to keep calm and not lose my temper since that could wake me up too much and make it impossible to to return to the dream. After he goes out of the room, I get myself settled in the bed again and prepare to re-transition. This is amusing in retrospect because evidently I was fully dreaming the whole time—I had the impression that I was DEILDing back into the dream, but obviously if this had been a real awakening DEILD would have been impossible after such a chaotic interlude! When I felt confident I was dreaming again, I got back out of bed.

WILD, Part 2: Having done fortune cookies, I thought I should put all my focus now into completing the Patronus TOTM. Once more I reach for my wand and once again come up empty-handed. No matter, I've used a chopstick as a wand before with great success, and I keep a jar of those right on the kitchen counter, so I walk up to it and pluck a nice sturdy one. Although the jar is mostly full of delicately-pointed Japanese chopsticks, I choose a sturdier one of the Chinese type, cut half-square and half-round. It looks just like one of my real chopsticks, from a simple and practical set I acquired many years ago in Nonthaburi because I didn't know I was supposed to give them back to the door-to-door noodle vendor, and it feels comfortable and familiar in my hand.

I figure that it would be most appropriate to summon a Patronus if there were a real threat, but I don't want to over-complicate things by going to look for one. I reason that since my husband was annoying me just now with the boxes and almost woke me up, this could serve as a sufficient stand-in. So I find him in the living room, point the wand toward him and say firmly, "Expecto Patronum!" I hear an audible "pop" like something bursting but see no change in the visual field. I try again and nothing happens at all. I strengthen my resolve, try a third time, and... what is that?... I look closer... it's... moths! The air between us where I was aiming the wand is now occupied with a cloud of small shimmering moths!

I'm delighted with these results because they were so unexpected. I figured my Patronus would turn out to be something predictable like a type of animal I like, maybe a cat or an owl or a raven or even a horse, but moths had never crossed my mind! However, I had intentionally left the form of the Patronus unspecified, because I was hoping the dream would collaborate with me creatively and come up with something interesting and unanticipated, and in this respect it fulfilled its role splendidly.

Moths! I would never have consciously arrived at this solution, but now it makes perfect sense: I am very much a night person, after all, and these are definitely night moths. I watch them for a few moments, entranced by the glitter and sparkle of their silver bodies in flight. They are relatively small, with wingspans of roughly three-quarters of an inch, but there is a whole cloud of them, many dozens filling an area several feet on either side. Although we are indoors, they appear to be illuminated by moonlight. It is incredibly beautiful. And they've fulfilled the function of a Patronus, it seems, in that they have averted the "threat" (such as it was) and completely defused the tension in the room. My husband is watching them too, and appears just as enchanted with them as I am.

After admiring the moths for a while, I notice a rabbit on the living room floor. It is wonderfully well-articulated, closely resembling Dürer's famous drawing of a hare. (Probably WLR because I briefly saw that drawing yesterday.) Since I'm still holding the wand, I figure I might as well try out another HP spell. I recall that there's one that ends with "leviosa," and although I can't remember the first word, I figure it is unimportant because clearly "leviosa" is the operative term. So I point the wand at the hare and say, "Leviosa!" Sure enough, it rises right off the ground into the air. I set it back down and pet it fondly.

I now feel satisfied that I have accomplished both the tasks I had intended, and I know I should wake up now and write promptly before I forget any details. But the dream is going so well, so clear and stable and responsive... it would be a shame to leave it so soon... I give in to the temptation to take a quick look outside, just for a minute, before coming back in to wake up and begin my report.

Walking back through the kitchen, I open the screen door to the back patio. Sometimes my WILDs become more unstable after I leave the house, probably in large part because I've developed the expectation that this can happen, but in this case I plan to wake up soon anyway, so I walk outside without hesitation.

It only takes a step or two before the environment no longer resembles my backyard. I encounter a group of four DCs, a mix of men and women who appear to be in their twenties. They begin to approach or accost me in a vaguely threatening manner. I try the Patronus charm again, but it is not as effective this time: the cloud of moths is much smaller and the DCs appear unimpressed. I'm not sure if I actually see them holding wands, or only rationalize that they might be, but I figure this would be the perfect opportunity to try another HP spell. "Expelliamus!" I shout, aiming at the guy on the far left. Sure enough, his wand jumps right out of his hand toward me, and I catch it neatly. You'd think this would give the others enough warning to prepare their defenses, and indeed they seem to be scrambling to try, but I promptly disarm them all using the same technique.

I walk on a little further, and encounter a few more DCs sitting on a low brick wall and chatting. The initial four have followed me, and I get the impression that the new ones are their friends. I wonder if they are going to retaliate at me for having taken all their wands, so try the Patronus charm yet again: "Expecto Patronum!" This time only a scattering of moths appear, a half dozen or less. I feel a bit embarrassed at this poor showing. "It must be out," I muse, wondering if the wand can only conjure a limited number of moths in a given interval.

Nevermind, I've got more tricks in my arsenal, and I want to intimidate these DCs so they'll back off. I wonder if I can levitate the whole group of people? "Leviosa!" I command, trying to make them all rise in the air at once. It doesn't work, and I speculate that maybe this is like game mechanics, where it is easier to perform such effects on simple creatures like animals, but harder on a more intelligent creature like a person, since they get a free roll to resist. I think it over and decide, well, maybe so, but... I have all the wands! Their combined power should be enough to counter any resistance. Is it possible to use more than one wand simultaneously to cast a spell? Only one way to find out!

Standing in the center of the DCs, who form a ring around me, I levitate myself initially—partly to cement the idea of levitation more firmly in mind, and partly because some of them look like they might want to make a grab at me at any minute. Hovering in the air just above them, I arrange all the wands together in my right hand so that I am gripping them evenly, and try again: "Leviosa!" This time I am pleased to see the whole circle of people around me—about six or seven now I think, the initial group plus their friends—rise simultaneously several feet into the air until they are almost even with my own level. They all look discomfited and alarmed by this change of circumstances, so to reassure them that I mean no real harm I let them sink gently back down to the ground and come down as well myself, satisfied with the results of my experiment.

I decide to stop fooling around now and go back into the house to write my report. It seems dream logic has made me forget that I can just wake up whenever I want to, I don't actually have to go back bodily into the house and manually start writing. But as I turn to go, one of the girls who has returned to her seat on the brick wall yells something hostile and sarcastic after me. I figure she's upset over my levitation stunt, so I decide to use friendliness to try to transform her attitude. I walk right up to her and, maybe taking "friendliness" a little too far, kiss her on the lips. Although she just looks startled and confused now, I smile warmly and say with genuine affection, "See you later!"

Returning to what I think must be the spot where I came out of the building, I go back inside. Just in case the DCs are still feeling miffed and try to follow me in, I lock and bolt the heavy door behind me. This is no longer the sliding screen door to my kitchen, but a large and solidly made wooden door with numerous locking mechanisms. I'm not sure if I came in the right door at all, because when I turn around I see that I'm in what looks like a nineteenth-century boiler room: it is full of heavy, old-fashioned machinery. Nevermind, I'm sure I can find the entrance to my kitchen just a little further on, so I'll go through and look for it.

As I pass by some of the machines, I marvel at their intricacy and the clarity with which I can perceive how they are constructed. I pass one machine that has a cylindrical body like an old stove. Although it is made out of solid black cast iron, there is a primitive electric cord incongruously coming out of it, so I figure it must be from a period of technological transition in the late nineteenth century. The electricity is driving some kind of rotating grinder that is hidden in the upper part of the cast iron body under a round upper plate, and with a flash of insight I think I know what this is: it must be a mill of some kind! But what is it grinding? I look at it a little longer and see a lower basin, also cast iron, positioned below the cylindrical body to catch drippings of some kind: the drippings resemble hot slag, semi-melted metal. Whatever this thing is milling, it is definitely not flour!

I continue to make my way through the room, dodging complex pieces of shaped metal and machinery that crowd around closely on all sides, but when I get to the far wall I'm disconcerted to find that there's no door. How am I going to get back into my house? Although there seems to be no exit in the walls other than the door I came in, the ceiling is so far overhead as to be out of sight, and I observe that this is less a room than a vertical shaft filled with industrial machinery all the way up, so I begin to levitate and rise through the lattice of metal bars. When I get about three storeys up I see in the wall what looks like the worn wooden cover of a hatch, arched on the top and with a flat base. There is no handle and it looks like it would be too small to crawl through comfortably, but I figure I can make a portal in the wall here to pass through.

Aiming my wand at the wall, I intend for a portal to form in the location of the hatch. Although nothing appears that I would recognize as a portal, the wall changes, the area in front of me becoming transparent, and just a few feet beyond I see a vertical transparent sheet of glass, apparently the wall of a neighboring building, a modern glass-walled high-rise. Directly across from me through the glass, I see what looks like the interior of a cafe, the sort of place the people who work in this building might stop for coffee or a snack on their lunch hour. It is dark inside and empty of customers, as it is nighttime, but I notice with mild alarm that several cops are running through the cafe and aiming guns at me! They seem very deliberate, as though this was a sting operation directed at stopping me. If they shoot, they'll surely break the glass and then I'll be exposed.

I consider making the first move and breaking the glass myself to engage them, but I don't feel like getting into combat. I point my wand toward the cops with the intention of creating some kind of protective barrier between us, but I don't see any change and can't tell if this is successful. I decide to just get out of here. Making another portal directly in front of me seems like a bad idea, because the cops might shoot at any moment, so I get a bit creative and make the portal directly under my feet—all this time I have been hovering in the air, after all—and then I take what feels like a leap of faith and simply let myself fall directly into it. Would any pursuers be able to follow? As I fall, I decide that probably the best course at this point is to let the portal lead me to waking, and so I transition from feeling as though I'm falling through a round tunnel of undefined space to waking up in my bed and scrambling to start taking notes before the memories fade.

It's interesting how clear and stable my dream memory remains—even of such a complex series of episodes—for as long as I am still dreaming, and it is only on waking that the whole fabric begins to thin and fray unless it is captured immediately. Fortunately there were no problems with my notebook this time so I jotted down the key details quickly by hand and then spent the next hour and a half typing up my full draft of the report while the memories were still fresh in mind. I don't mind devoting the time (and sacrificing the sleep) for it when the dreaming is so good!

September 16, 2014

---

I was in some sort of large aircraft. there may have been something about an air battle at some point with smaller craft. I was fighting some bad guy. I don't remember the battle much, but I do know that it was an epic one.

After I defeated the bad guy, he turned into The Face, and we floated on this massive ship/mansion thing. He was changing the world by making is so we were floating on just water, and there were hovering land masses in the shapes of animals, covered in grass and trees. Beyond them, in the far distance, were some mountains. I couldn't tell if they were on the ground or also floating, because they were far enough away that the curvature of the world made it so I couldn't see the bottom of them.

For some reason, the floating animal-land-masses were giving me a weird vibe. I didn't like it there, I could feel something just a little off about the whole place, and so I took off flying from the balcony The Face and I were standing on. We may have been talking, but mostly he was just showing me how he could change the world.

I flew over the water and to the mountains. Once I got closer, I saw that they were indeed just on the water, not floating. I flew over the mountains (which, as it turned out, were more just large hills) and saw a large plane behind them. Beyond the plane I saw a large city (the Big City on my map). From here I could see that I was on the side that is along a river.

I flew into the city, and something made me look down at my hands. I had a weird sort of there-but-not-there second thumb, and so I knew that I was dreaming! I was already flying, and so I just sort of went up further, to the roof of the building next to me. It looked like there was some sort of fancy dinner party on the roof, and I flew up to a table. I had the Patronus task on my mind already, and didn't want a repeat of the last attempt, so instead of trying to find a wand, I just picked up a butter knife and called it good.

I turned away from the dinner party with my butter knife in hand, and looked into my own wavey, slightly distorted reflection in the mirror-like window-covered wall of the building next to this one. I yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" and there was a blue-ish purple-ish and somehow also orange-ish glow from the end of the knife. I made myself focus on a happy memory, which happened to be a time in Austria with Zukin, when we were hiking. I yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" again, and this time there was more light, and a shadow of something large on the windows of the other building. I focused on the blurry shape and realized it was Mewtwo.

Fuck Yeah.

I watched my badass patronus fly around, then dismissed it with a smile. I was pretty happy with this lucid dream so far! I thought of what other task I could try, and remembered the fortune cookie one. That was the other one I was pretty excited to try.

I fly back to the dinner party, and found the bar tender lady at the edge of the roof. I first asked for something to drink, and got some bubbly in a dainty glass with gold flecks around the rim. I landed on the roof and milled amongst the people, sipping my drink, and then I went back to the bartender lady. I asked for a fortune cookie this time. She grudgingly said, "Alright, fine," and reached under the bar, handing me a fortune cookie. I grinned and stuck it in my pocket. I had the feeling that I should wait to open it. That I should first fly down to the ground level of the building. I hovered around the front entrance, hoping to meet Zukin. Lowe and behold, I opened the door to find her waiting for me in the lobby.

"Hey Zukin! I'm lucid right now! We're in a dream!" She just kinda stared at me. "Can you remember any of the lucid tasks this month?" I asked, hoping that my subconscious mind could give me a hint on the other tasks, all of which I keep forgetting, even IWL.

She stared at me again, shrugged, and then said, "Let's go to the bathroom. I gotta pee."

I put my drink down against a wall and followed her to the bathroom (STILL not remembering the flushing task. And what a hint I'd given myself, too! I actually had to check the forum and then laughed at myself for not getting it). I watched her go into one of the stalls, and sat on the sink while she used the toilet. I took out my fortune cookie, and took it out of the wrapping. I inhaled as I cracked it open, and was surprised to see a rather large, folded piece of paper inside. I unfolded it, and there was a lot of text. First, a whole bunch of rather large numbers (large for a fortune cookie, that is) and then some random words, and more numbers. I realized the numbers and words kept changing when I looked away, so I tried not to take my eyes off the numbers and words as I got out my phone, hoping to write them down. Silly me. Lucky thing is, writing things helps me remember them, so I remember many of the numbers and words I saw. It was something like this:

87 69 899 99 99 99 56 72 12

Money
Moshy

88 54 23

Honey
Honey

And then more words and numbers. Lots of them. It was weird.

I laughed, and Zukin came out of the stall. "What's so funny?" She asked, washing her hands.

"This fortune. You know we're in a dream, right?" I recently read a book that described a method for inducing shared dreams, and this is what I was trying with her. I just found out she likely wasn't even asleep when I had this dream, which may be why it never worked... "This fortune is on crack, look at it. It keeps changing." Even as I passed her the paper, I could see that the numbers and words were changing, though the format was always the same. always the same amount of words and numbers, always in the same place and with the same number of digits or letters.

She looked at it, shrugged, and said, "huh. That's kinda weird."

We left the bathroom, and I found my drink again. I liked having the pretty glass in my hand, since it made me feel posh. I tried telling Zukin again that this was a lucid dream. She stared at me again and then smiled. "Hey, how about let's go to that place I took you before, that garden thing?"

I didn't remember the place she was talking about, or having been taken someplace by her even, but I shugged and said, "Sure, why not?" I had already done two tasks and it could be fun! And if I was going to continue trying to share the dream with the real Zukin, I had to stick with the DC Zukin.

We went out of the building, and met one of her friends. It was a man, but I don't remember much more about him, I was mostly focusing on Zukin at this point. Which I'm glad I did, because she started being a fucking ninja. She was doing back-flips over walls and climbing lamp-posts like it was nothing. I jumped to follow her, flying, but couldn't fly for a moment. I looked down at my hands again to reaffirm that I was dreaming, and this time I had a there-but-not-there second middle finger. So weird! Anyways, once again assured that I was still dreaming, I jumped again and started flying to follow Zukin. Her friend was also flying, slightly behind me. I knew this was still not the real Zukin, because she wasn't flying. Flying's her thang in a lucid dream, so I figured if it was her, she still didn't know we were dreaming.

So I am flying after Zukin as she ninjas her way to this big half-indoor, half-outdoor garden. In this garden, there is a pool-sized hot tub surrounded by tropical plants and trees, with a huge rock at one end of it. There are about ten people in the tub right now, all toward the end without the rock on it. I land on the rock, and look back just as Zukin does a flip over the edge of it to land next to me, and her friend lands behind her, and then run past us both, jumping into the water. I think he had stripped buck-naked as he ran.

I looked back at Zukin, and said, "I don't have my swimsuit on, hope you don't mind!" and winked, but then realized that, if I took off my clothes, my swimsuit was probably going to be on underneath, and if not, I'm dreaming so what the hell?

She said, "Ohhhh, skinny dipping?" and made a move toward me all seductively.

"Oh yeah," I said. I took off my shirt, and found that I did indeed have a swimsuit on. Except it was one from my childhood, which just magically seemed to still fit me. It was light blue with colorful plastic beads on it. I took off my pants, and noted a faded salmony colored bikini bottom. My body was a lot more fit than it is IWL, to my joy AND consternation.

I jumped into the warm water, and we both swam to the other end, taking a seat amidst the other people. I told her again that this was a lucid dream, but it started to fade. I let it fade, knowing that it had been a great dream. I swirled the water around my fingers a bit and dunked my head until the dream faded completely and I woke up 15 minutes before my alarm!

Date: 25 Aug

Pre bed: 200 val, l arg & lysine

Cannot quite recall the exact beginning but remember willing the scene to appear as I was falling alseep. There were a number of coming into shape items and I told myself that my subcon is at this point trying to make something out of them so concentrate. There were a number of scenes.

I don't recall what happened when I finally entered the dream but there was some active dream scenario going on.

After looking around expectedly and not seeing a pyramid to enter, I notice people getting on a bus and wonder whether to give it a try. It doesn't strike me as possible to manipulate the dream as much as to be inside the bus while actually going somewhere and really get there but I give it a try. It's getting rather full, but I find a free seat and sit there. To be certain this tour bus is going in the right direction, I shout and make them all repeat "We are going to the Pyramid of Giza". Here I have thoughts about whether my throat is moving (DV thread) as I feel physical pressure while shouting.

Don't recall getting off the bus and in the next scene I'm already inside this place with an atmosphere of an excavation dig. It looks as if I've made it past the pyramid's entrance and am now in how I in the dream more or less imagine its interior. It has the feel and look of a number of previous dreams about sightseeing in Egypt. Excited, I decide to explore the ancient Egyptian structure. There are two directions to go and after some maneuvering I orient myself towards what feels like the center.

It is now quite lively, full of crowds of people getting in and coming out. While this should be the interior of the pyramid and be very spacey in my dreaming mind, it still feels to me as if I'm taking forever to walk towards the official "lobby". It's like a tourist attraction where you first have to go to the lobby/cashier and then enter a separate part with the things to see. On my way to the center, I pass by a girl with a pink feather on her head and my hand by mistake gets into her hair. As a result the feather falls from her head and then I take it. How weird, I think to myself, what my hand did. The feather is beautiful and as realistic as it gets, I'm very fascinated by the looks of it and the feel of the dream in general.

As I continue on my way, the little girl catches up with me and starts whining about her feather. I tell her that I didn't mean to take it on purpose rather it just happened as an accident and give it back. She calms down continues towards the exit, while I continue my walk toward the center in this carpet covered corridor. I finally reach the center and what lies beyond. There is a large number of exhibition items on each side of the walls. At this point they are all Egyptian, way too many to be able to recall, but I remember a statue of Anubis in dark stone with decorations in green and gold, maybe a round necklace with green stone. I start thinking about how this place now almost completely resembles a museum and continue my walk, looking at the fancy items.

The dream ends at some point. I stay still but it does take a bit longer.

DEILD: As I fall asleep, I unconsciously grab onto the scene and make it so that the same place comes back. The ancient stuff is still around. There were also large columns at some point but I vaguely recall these. Just found it a bit weird to be back, as I wasn't too focused consciously on that. I continue my tour in this pyramid museum, going from room to room and looking at lots of exhibition items. This time they are more from classic and medieval ages and I see a room full of different sizes and styles of angel statues. They all look really cute and I wonder why do they have so many angel statues here.

I continue down the corridors looking at items but soon hear angry shouts as if some sort of riot is taking place. I think about inception. They surely won't catch up with me, but despite my weak efforts to ignore them, the trouble makers are coming closer. Now I have a typical dream problem, I really want to leave this place but am trapped in an endless labyrinth of corridors and doors. There is a really weird looking one having a blurred net in front but I as I approach the net kind of disappears. I remind myself to think about outside, windows and things like that. I go through the door and finally in a room with a glass door leading to the outside. It looks locked but I open it just like that.

A DC comes and starts talking about something, kind of trying to hijack the dream with their own scenario while I find myself staring at a pot full of poached eggs. For a moment I become distracted but then come to my senses again. There is a cool looking tower nearby and I head in its direction.

Worried that it's time to wake up, I end up having an FA where I press the snooze button and wild in dream. A brief ld moment in a grandma's place before I wake up for real.

Date: 22 Aug

Behind with journalling as usual. These are for CL's dare about the Great Pyramid.

Pre bed: 200 val, l arg & lysine

Back to the old place dream. It seems even though I left the place, I have the dream memory that I come back and stay here every time for a while [yes, every couple of dreams!]. I feel guilty about not informing the landlord and think about packing my stuff.

At some point when lying in that room's bed, I get in touch with both realities (i.e. start to feel my physical body) maybe just waking up as everything looks very blurry now. Semi consciously, I exert efforts to bring back the dream. The room forms again, everything is perfect even the table although it is not quite an exact match.

I open the window, it's very dark and I look in direction of the neighbors to see a young woman holding or throwing some object. I look at the mostly cloudless sky and then remember an on-going goal [enjoy the night sky], expecting to see cool constellations but the stars look rather normal even too dim. I feel the urge to fly up and so go ahead and lift off.

This flying style is more like that of a bird (hands spread like wings), at any rate it feels like a bird sliding on currents of air. An unpleasant feel as I quickly fly down - it's a physical sensation rather than a mental one. I wonder about it and try to control it, fly gliding down a bit. At some point I land on the top of a nearby building. There is a DC below trying to interact with me. I remember the pyramid task but there is snow all around it doesn't quite feel right. Nevertheless, I try to summon a pyramid by spontaneously getting my hands to form a triangle and I impose it on the background, staring inside to see the pyramid. This results in a good but distant version of the pyramid where I feel like it will take too much time to reach so try again.

The outcome is a smaller pyramid, made of much lighter white greyish stone and something that looks like an entrance. As I come closer I disappointedly ascertain that this pyramid is way too small and the entrance is more like a diagonally shaped part of the design. I wonder whether this would count but dismiss the idea.

Somehow, possibly after turning around and looking for a place to do another summon, I end up inside a store. I continue with my summons here (facing the windows) and make a triangle with my hands, looking inside with squinting eyes causing blurred vision which helps manipulate the color and material of the pyramid. Alas, all resulting pyramids are a shifty mirrage and their place is taken by something like a large mosque from a nicely matching material. I leave the store to explore and see if anything can be made with the structure but the alarm wakes me up.


Date: 24 Aug

I'm in some sort cafe with couple of Asians and Emm. We are about to drink tea but I have to leave without paying as everybody evacuates due to disease alarm. On my way out I contemplate that in this dream Emm didn't quite play a positive role.

After getting out, I end up in this yard and look ahead. At this point am already lucid after the contemplations about classmate Emm. The grass and eveything else has a red tint and it looks very interesting. I remember that this was a task [add photoshop effect] but think that since it's already done it may not count. Once again I have an urge to take off and just fly ahead. I do so and end up flying between trees and bushes and towards a darker area of the woods. It doesn't look very inviting and also there is the reduction of visual stimuli that adds to the feel. Before I can do anything else the dream falls apart.

PS: Stay tuned for the next part!

Black is Non Lucid.
Blue is Lucid.

Lucidity: 3/5
Vividness: 4/5
Length: Short

I was in a mansion, trying to eat a gigantic pumpkin that I found. It started to develop spikes all over it, like the inside of an artichoke. I saw a bug on it, but it didn't bother me too much. Then a spider that was black and spotted white, was jumping randomly, like it was drunk. I left because the spider was scaring me.

After leaving, I gained lucidity. I flew to the upstairs, glad that I finally fell asleep after trying to for about three hours. When I reached the top, I was in this menu where I was choosing what I looked like. There was no option to get out of the menu, so I kept looking up, down, and around, willing a window to appear so I could get out. One did, eventually, and I flew through it. I was back where I was before I was sucked into the menu, the upstairs of the mansion. I came to a room that had the spider in it, somehow, but there was no spider. Instead, two frogs were trying to murder each other. I had two options, according to a dream character: Let the frogs kill each other, or kill them using a bird. I chose the second one, and a bird came down and scooped up one of the frogs. It came back after a second and was disappointed that the other frog wasn't there. I killed the other one, then got angry when I thought of how I tried so hard to fall asleep tonight, and punched the frog in the back of the head, it being as large a human being now. I then was in a restroom, looking at my reflection. I was very skinny and had scars on my back. My face looked the same as it usually does, though.

After losing lucidity, I was in a DOTA game where I was Crystal Maiden with Tidehunter's E, dodging everything and hitting all of the other team with it. This took place in a field that was not textured at all.

The dream starts off rather strange. I am one of the last humans alive, living alone in a wooden shack at the bottom of a canyon. It feels a little bit like Minecraft but also looks to be rendered very realistically at times.
I can recall taking some time to explore the canyon and try to figure out how to get up to the surface. When I do get up, I see that there are birch trees everywhere. I think that I could probably cut some down at some point in order to craft more items. But no time for that right now, I'm just exploring. I also come across a couple cave entrances that look like they could hold some valuable minerals.
I head back to the shelter only to find a witch there. I take out my sword (Iron nonetheless) and begin combat. The witch begins evading my attacks and throwing vials of poison. I think by accident she threw a couple of resist fire potions at me as well. My health drop low and I try to eat a golden apple (HP powerup in Minecraft), but die before I can finish.
Dang it.
I respawn. I feel like I am not too far from my shelter. I am in a grassland. I begin heading in the general direction that I believe my shelter is in. Minecraft begins to look more and more like WL. I see that the blocks have begun meshing and becoming smooth rolling hills.
"Man, this grassland goes on forever!" I said to myself.
I then came to a hill with a drop off on the opposite side. Ran of the top and jumped. I just floated there.
Then I became lucid. I was flying. The minecraft world shifted away and it became my subdivision.
I was hovering above the intersection with my street and the next one over. I wanted to start heading towards my house. I actually landed and then came back up once more. Flying felt very strange. I felt as though gravity was extremely low. The only time I found myself falling was when I stopped and hovered without pushing up, and even then, only found myself floating down a few inches. It was almost as if I were flying in 0-G.
I actually decided to see what my hand looked like when I was pushing with it. I held my hands up in front of me and pushed my energy through my arms. There were little bluish-white jets of flame, no more than six inches. I think to myself what it might be like to generate really big jets and rocket through the air very quickly.
I then recalled the last time I had flown in my neighborhood and the funny thing the dream had done. I wanted to see if that would happen once more. So I had to get above the roofs of the houses.
I went upwards at an angle, and spotted some trees ahead of me that were not there IWL. I stopped by thrusting backwards as to not hit them. I then went straight up, but the trees seemed to be moving, almost blocking me from going up. But the trees were moving rather slowly. It became a game of reflexes to try and ascend past the trees.
Eventually one of them grabbed me and wrapped a branch around me. I lost lucidity and had an FA.
I was with my roommate and his friends. Our room was now on the first floor and led out into a swimming pool. This made us special because we had a private swimming pool in our dorm and could invite other people over for parties.
I can recall at one point somebody brought a big bag of snow to put in the freezer. It was for making snow cones and it tasted really good; I was eating it out of the bag, and had to stop myself.
My roommate and his friends were talking about when they would have parties and who would come. Then [DREAM LOGIC] The witch from Minecraft appeared. But outside of Minecraft, she was very beautiful. She stated that she was never evil and only wanted to help prevent the water from freezing over in the winter. We apologized for fighting with one another and I woke up.[/DREAM LOGIC]