lucid

#545 WILD and DEILD chain 5:45am

I do a quick WBTB and focus on WILD by putting my awareness on a spot on my forehead. There was probably some loss of awareness but as things start getting dreamy and I manage to bring myself back. There was little to no vibration this time; if any at all. Just a slight feeling of a chemical change in my head. I exit
I walk around the house a bit and remember I wanted to put my VR headset on in a lucid so I appear in the back room and quickly put it on. One screen was green and the other red for a moment and I worry that I will had some garbage visuals and lose the dream to darkness. Instead of letting that thought take root, I say, " Common. See! Really look and see."
I am now in a vividly colorful jungle looking at various colored poison dart frogs. The more I look at them the more they are morphing into snakes. I don't know if I'm weirded out or just want to keep the dream moving along but, I decide to just bite ones head off and walk away.
Suddenly I am now having sexy time with my wife and I lose my focus. However, there is very little sensation.

I wake a little and DEILD. Definitely no vibration. The dream just forms and I'm lucid but not sure how locked in I am so I kind of let the scenario play itsself while I ask the DC dumb questions. It rarely give anything interesting and I'm not sure why I wasted LD time on it. Still interesting I suppose.
Anyway, its some woman talking to me and I'm stupidly taking DJ notes so I'll remember what she's saying. Of course I don't recall much. She's going on about Dr. Dodope (or something like that) taking her car keys and then getting suspended for it. I keep asking her questions to lead her on to finish telling me her story but none of it makes a whole lot of sense. I keep writing notes.

I wake a little. This time I remember my dream goal and visualize walking around the house once more. Once I'm in the dream (zero vibration or feeling of change) I start transforming into a werewolf by the front door. I see my hand change and I feel my hind legs change and grip the floor behind me. I start making the motion of running on all fours like an animal. I can feel it but the visual of the dream is stuck still at the front door. I growl a deep monstrous growl to get the dream going but it doesn't work. I start howling instead but I'm still stuck. Then I wake up and think I should probably write some of this down.

I end up having to get up and go to the bathroom for a bit. I lay back down to WILD again. I have a few close moments of success but I lose my focus and have non lucid dreams the rest of the morning

Yesterday I went from waking to a dream in just some seconds. Or I went from a dream to another dream. I don't know. I tested out the exact same thing this night and it worked again!

I wake up in the middle of the night and do my RC (pinch my nose and try to breath). I think it doesn't work at first but suddenly I am in a big yellow courtroom with a woman judge that is slamming her hammer against the table. The last time I did this transition it was very unstable and I feel that this dream is also unstable. I look at my hands and they look really real. No extra fingers and no distortions. I am in the front desk that is about to be interrogated. I walk up and fly out of the window. There is a big city outside that reminds me of Karlskrona a lot. I see my hands as I fly and it doesn't look this real in my normal dreams. I am happy because I feel the wind against my face and my hair swining backwards as I fly. I fly up and down some times just to feel the wind. I fly up and hesitate but end up doing a loop in the air with a 360 spin to it. I feel alive and happy. Without thinking about it I stretch out only my right hand in front of me and I am able to fly really really fast when I do it. I use both of my hands and it doesn't go as fast. I think to myself that I might be able to reach space with this speed. I start to fly up to the sky with one hand in front of me like Superman but as all references to which height I am flying at disappear I can't fly anymore. I try to find a star that I can focus on but it is too far away I think to myself. I fly against the city and see a lot of people. I think about dancing and suddenly I fly into a big empty room. I think that I will be able to see dancers here but I can't see anything. I look around and find a secret door in the wall. I open it up and see two pretty fat ladies dancing. I inspect them but walk out again. There is another secret door in the empty room. I enter it and see two really good looking ladies dancing, the dream becomes unstable and I wake up.

Notes: Wohooo! This flying was so trustworthy and it was so blissful, calm and refreshing. I really wonder if it was a dream from the beginning or if I actually went directly from being awake to a full scale dream. It almost feels too good to be true.

I'm in church and two guys walk in through a door. I think to myself that they might tickle me and they change appearance as I think so. They become taller and now have black hair. I quickly try to wake myself up but I can't. I am somehow able to escape and run to the cars. I take their car and escape. It's a pretty old car and it doesn't go that fast. I see a fast cool car and walk to it to drive it. I am semi lucid here because I thought it was okay to take the car because it's only a dream. Just as I am about to enter the car another man takes it and drives away.

Notes: The tickling is awful. I hate it so much.

Dad is driving us to a training center. There is a man that welcomes us and we see a picture of a big training center. We enter and it almost looks like the picture. We jump around and enjoy ourselves.

Notes: I read about the biggest training center in Sweden yesterday.

I'm with Pia and Monica. We start to fly and we each have a kite tied to our backs. It gives a different but non the less fun flying experience. Whe you fly upwards the kite drags you backwards and wants you to loop. The same is when you fly down. I experiment with the feeling and go up and down. We see a star and Monica says that India is there. We fly fast but Pia is slowing down and is tired. We leave her behind. As we fly it becomes day and night because we fly so fast (haha that would actually mean we went around the whole earth and already passed India). I ask Monica how many days and nights we have to pass before we come to India. The whole sky is filled with lightning clouds that are grey and agressive just 2 meter above us. Monica and I fly to the ground and crouch because we don't want to get hit by lightning. The lightning clouds are maybe 10 meters above us, really close to the ground.

Notes: What an interesting dream.

I'm with dad and Stefan. We are water scootering in a big lake.

I'm running from the bad guys. I run into a house and up on the second floor. I see some furniture that I can move away and hide behind. They come too fast so I hide behind a worse hiding place. Håkanssons come in and one of the small children spots me. I tell them that I need to hide and that they should go away. When they leave I hide behind the better furniture from before.

I'm in military training and everyone are acting casually but they are fit for battle. There are girls and boys that seem young there. I walk through a corridor to have some alone time. I come to the end of the corridor and see a toilet. One of the Kristianstad boys comes to me and invites me to hang out with them. New fragment. I'm with cousin Tobbe and we sit with some other people. They talk about weapons I think.

Notes: In the dream I felt like the military training was very hard and that I wasn't fit for it.

I wake up in the middle of the night and do a RC. I don't succeed at first but think to myself that I maybe can enter a dream if I keep on doing RC until I fall asleep. After maybe 5 seconds I am able to breath through my nose even tough I pinch it. I walk to the other room. I try to open the window but I can't. My vision is unstable and the dream disappears. I wake up in my bed again.

Notes: Maybe I was in a dream from the beginning or just entered a dream. I don't actually know. I have never read about a technique were you do like this so it would be intresting if I entered a dream. I've heard about the wake up to bed technique but I think you have to go up from bed and do some other activity first.

I am encountering some obstacles in my journey of lucid dreaming. I am starting to journal here because I can see my progress, use your guidance and writing about it in daytime will keep my mind on the topic and increase the chance of having lucid dream in the following night. Also I will analyze what I did wrong or what helped me succeed which I hope would help others.
I started to define lucid projects for myself and working on them. My first project was to see the northern lights in the north pole and it is done.

- My current projects:
Project 2: Entering a witchcraft school. Meeting wizards and witches would be fun and besides learning to do magic will boost my dream control.
Project 3: To see my imaginary friend and live a story with. (I am currently focusing on this)
Project 4: Dream TV of Alan Worsley.
Project 5: Persistent Realm.

- My current state:
I use MILD and have a lot of LDs in number but:
My LDs are rather inconsistent, in some I have good dream control and some of them don't even last more than a few minutes. It is usually periodic and recently the latter was the case . I have a cat and he has started to ruin my sleeping routine a bit recently (he wakes me up at midnight and keeps me awake for some time). Also I feel I want Project 2 too much When I want something too much in LDs, I usually fail because I take it too serious.
Now I can't stabilize well and wake up fast. Also I can't see my img friend (twice I saw him but his behavior was not like him, it was rather passive or cold). I have problem with teleporting and finding him too. Though I sometimes can teleport using spinning and schemas.
I found out when I feel determined, strong and positive I usually have a good dream control but for now I am failing to keep myself in the dream more than a minute.

I think my main problem is the nature of my view to my subconscious. I don't see her helpful or capable (Like in the case of project 3, I feel she wouldn't want to help me see him and also she might not make his face details precise enough -> though I've seen him twice before I made this my project, so I should know she can!). And I know this is everything in LD! That's why I sometimes have really good LDs, those are times that I manage to trust her.

I think I will start writing here and continue in dream journal section, I will share my progress every night that I had a lucid dream and analyze the result.
Thanks for your advice!

Night of November 22, 2020

I was dating this beautiful girl that, for whatever reason, was being shunned by most of her peers. We had arrived at a restaurant, some establishment that belonged to one of her close friends. To my knowledge, we had agreed on the place for me to finally meet them. When we got there however, they took every opportunity to avoid us. I walked over to the bar and noticed she hadn't actually made a reservation. Frustrated, I stormed with her out of the restaurant.

Outside, a light bluish shade had fell upon the row of houses as they stretched along a wintry road in the middle of the night. The moon was uncharacteristically willing tonight, shining the way as I headed down the road. Far in front of me, I noticed a couple holding hands and moving at a brisk pace. It appeared to me they had gotten out of a restaurant only moments ago. I don't know why but I felt compelled to catch up to them. Though I increased the speed I could never reach the pair as they turned left at the corner and disappeared behind a wall. Once I made my way to the end they were long gone.

The street opened up to an avenue with four lanes, spreading out indefinitely into the distance. Adjoining the last lane on the right stood a factory of manufacturing Coca-Cola products. Short stacks of billowing smoke escaped from one of its pipes every once in a while. Apart from the steady swaying of leaves from shrubs and trees alike nearby, everything else remained peacefully quiet. I was very much alone here. I realized now that I had nowhere else to go, no home to arrive to, no bed to sleep on. I considered taking a risk and stay close to any stranger's residence. It'd be only for a night and for a few hours at most. I'd be gone before morning. Before I made my decision, I looked back on the road and it was then that I remembered. I remembered this was a dream. Things were markedly clear now.

I stood there by the sidewalk, staring into space while contemplating this thought, and all of a sudden I blinked and appeared on my bed, watching a video on my phone. It wasn't long, however, before I realized again that this was also a dream. I repeated the thought carefully: Remember, it is a dream. I tried lifting up and that was when I felt an immense pressure weighing down on me. It's as if I was breaking past the limit of an invisible wall. It occurred to me that I may have been trying to move my physical body, in bed, at the same time I tried doing so in the dream. Despite this and contrary to any other occasion, I would not wake up. I noticed that as long I kept focus, I could push over to the other side. No vibrations this time. Inch by inch my body began to rise, that is, until a split second later I lost sight of my goal and the dream began to fade. Everything went black for a bit before I opened my eyes to reality.

#544 DILD 11:30PM

I somehow become a substitute mail carrier. I am worried because I have no idea what Im doing. I drive away in the mail truck but someone is yelling at me to stop. I ignore it at first but they say stop or we'll shoot. I stop and they say to check in. I get really confused because they say no here but up there where I was heading. I got through a gate and down a street. I stop at some factory looking building. I worry about what could happen next but I go in. Two guys who just look like a couple of slackers approach. They ask something about checking in. I say yes. We have some conversation but I get the idea I have to wait for someone or something. I see Newman from Seinfeld. He's talk to someone else as he passes. I say hello Newman. You're not getting your mail today you little bitch. He ignores me and walk away. I say I guess he didn't hear me. I tell one of the guys it much be hard delivering mail to someone you hate. I think of a few people thar won't get mail if I see it.

I decide to wonder around a bit and find myself it a room that I think looks like a version of David's house. I think we'll I'm here. Finally came to Michigan. Then it dawns on me whats happening and I instantly become lucid and filled with excitement and joy. I shout hey David this is a dream. We're dreaming dude get in here. Some reason I want to share this lucidity with someone real or not. I look around trying to find him but he doesn't show. I keep yelling for him but the dream goes dark.
I flap my arms and fly up a little just to get some sensation. I focus on visualizing his face but only a picture of him appears of him smiling at me in a goofy way. Then the one picture morphs into a 3 x 5 grid of the same. The whole thing is really trippy and I just laugh at it all. I wake up.

I slept 10 hours this night which made me able to have two lucids in one night. I woke up and remembered some dreams but I didn't write them down. This time I didn't feel bad about not writing them down because it gave me better sleep I think.

I'm outside and see a carriage where Linda from my class is sitting. We have some kind of romantic relationship so I walk to her and kiss her. I walk to the cinema and see Albin and my current class there. Ebba from the other class is also there. I ask Albin if this is a dream. He isn't giving me a straight answer and I become somewhat lucid. I look at the people sitting and watching the movie. I interact with some of them and see an old teacher from my other school. I don't remember her name but it is the asian's mom from Subway.

I'm on a field trip with school on a big canoe. I'm on the back and steering the boat. Kalle sits up on the edge of the canoe and I tell him that it is a bad idea. We lose balance and Kalle sits down again. He stands up again and sits on the side of the boat. The boat trips to the right even thought Kalle sat on the left side of the boat's edge. We swim to the nearest island and just as I am about to climb up on the sand beach all the other people swim over me so that I am pressed down under the water. I have some panic and try to go up. After some time I reach the surface. I suddenly have a swimming mask over my eyes and nose so I dive some more. I see Albin under the water and we look at each other. I walk up to the island and go look for a pointy stick that I can catch fish with. When I see the branches and weird sticks on the ground I become lucid. I'm still looking for sticks. I inspect the sticks and notice that they have some pointy edges but they are too short to catch fish with. I abandon my mission and want to fly to the stars instead. I run to the water and fly... but I fall to the water. I try to fly up from the water but it takes some time. I still have my feet in the water but I am able to fly away and up. My mom is sitting on a stone in the water. It reminds me of the Sturkö beach. I look on the sky and see some stars. I fly up and up and suddenly I see my house to my right. I can't fly over the house and I think to myself that it is because I need some kind of reference to be able to fly. I can't fly if my vision can't see anything that swishes past me. I fly down and fly as fast as I am able to past the blocking barrier over the house. I succeed! I reach space, but it's all black. I can't see anything. I try to navigate back to earth but I fail. I have a FA were my legs are over my head. I think that the flying made me put my legs over my head.

Finally. After a week and a half of nothingburger, I got another LD.

Spoiler for Kinda long; Some NSFW content:

Scrap Group 1
On an island just off a city's bay during twilight. Mom and other family members were around. Much of this space was a nursery for palm trees and other types of trees. Most of said trees were still quite small, and unnaturally uniform in appearance.

In an unknown room. Numerous people were there, though besides my bro Samuel, everyone else were strangers. Several of the folk were playing old 16-bit games. Later on, my friend Manny appears. I'm exasperated to talk with him.

At a plains during late afternoon. Several family members were around. A lake was in the distance, located behind a crude framework of a wooden fence. I start flying, then shooting energy blasts at the grass below. Some of the shots caused explosions, while others only were to create light displays.

Dream 1 - Mars Flight Attempt WILD Loop

Scene 1 - When In Doubt, Grab a Snack
No visuals upon entry. WILD transition from bed. I had to re-enter the dream a few times before it was stable enough for me to move. I make several unsuccessful attempts at conjuring people and warping elsewhere. I did, unwittingly, summon bags of food. Although I couldn't see, I could certainly taste and feel that I was eating cereal. Specifically, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Fruity Pebbles.

I kinda lost focus. The dream collapses, though I re-enter quickly.

Scene 2 - When One Thing Leads To Another Yet Again...
The visuals were quite dim. Another transition in bed.

I quickly set my mind to speaking with my guide, E. Just then, a wide grin and pair of eyes flashed in the darkness above me. The figure drew in closer, revealing that it was indeed my guide. She was nude, made much more apparent due to her being significantly larger than normal (at least a head taller than I). Seeing her this way, well... One thing leads to another. The situation quickly got out of hand. Gonna spare you decent folks all the details.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

This went on for a time, before I lost consciousness.

Scene 3 - Just Miles Away From Mars
The visuals were dim again, but they improved over time. Yet another re-entry in bed.

It took a moment to gain the strength (or rather, wits, a fact I acknowledged) to move. I removed my (in-dream) sleeping mask, clarifying much of the murkiness from the scene.

Next, I rolled off bed, intending to warp elsewhere, though I only ended up landing softly on the floor. I walked out to the lounge, where i had to adjust my vision from the glare of sunlight. I then phased sideways through the window. I struggled momentarily, but eventually, I was shunted to the other side.

Looking up, the sky suddenly dimmed into a starry twilight. I flew straight up. But then, my eyes began closing against my will. So too did my levitation falter. I calmed down, and allowed both my vision and flight to wane. Soon, I crashed back first through the ground.

As expected, I ended up warping into outer space, with vision restored no less. I rocketed straight ahead at warp speeds. Space debris twisted past me, some of which appeared as sparks, even tiny stars. Moments later, a symphonic funk soundtrack was sounding in the background. It wasn't anything I ever heard. Whatever it was, I couldn't get enough of it.

I then thought of tasks to do. This month's bonus task seemed most appropriate. I look around to find Mars. After a minute of travel, I spotted the red planet directly ahead of me. At the rate I was going, it would only take seconds to arrive. I got close enough, that it encompassed much of the view in front.

But suddenly, the scene started blacking out. I couldn't react quickly enough to stop if from collapsing. I tried re-entering, without success.

Scrap Group 2
Dreamlet. I was floating through an asteroid field. Similar music to above was playing.

A 2D scene taking place on a highway. Off Da Wall from Cool Spot sounded in the background.

In a hospital. I look for a room, where my niece was staying. Supposedly, she was getting heart surgery. It wasn't for any medical reason. Instead, it was part of a process to give her an above-human vascular system. For some ludicrous reason, I wanted to do this surgery myself. But, by the time I got there, the
operation had long since concluded.

Using my computer downstairs at home during daytime. My nephew Isiah and niece Lada were around. Somehow, the cat had gotten my headphones on its own head. My niece and nephew chased it around to retrieve it. Lada ended up pulling recklessly on the headphone's plug. I yelled at her to stop, but she was too engrossed. In panic, I smacked the back of her head. She got startled enough to cry. I tried consoling her, though I didn't help by blaming her for her actions. I realized how scummy this was. Feeling bad, I gave a true apologize for overreacting.

Notes: I've been doing more RCs in the past days which has led to more lucids.

I'm at Håkansson's and I'm talking with Therese in a room I've never been at before. My cousins are also there. We walk up to the room where David sleeps and I have painted an abstract picture of two faces. It's hard to see one face at first. When you find the first face you can see the next face upside down under the first face. It's all done with lead pencils and it creates a monotonic plain surface. The eyes on the first face are like the windows on a submarine. Therese accuses me of having done evil things to my mom and I know that I have done them and I feel guilty.

Notes: When I woke up I remembered that I never did the things I got accused of doing.

I'm home with Eni and dad. I notice it's a dream. I fly by the house for some time and I have good control. I fly to the left of the outer door and see a window. It is half open and I open it up and peak my head inside. I scream hello and wonder if I maybe am rude. A young mans voice says hi. I walk in and wake up.

Notes: It was a long time since I had two lucids over two days. Let's keep it this way!

I woke up by myself 8 am and thought about going up because I've gotten my 8 hours sleep. I wanted to get a lucid and know that I easily get lucids when I resleep in the morning.

I'm in church and go sit on a chair 2 meters fromt the main entrance. I'm playing nonogram and there are some people playing a game and running in front of me. Linda from my class approaches me and wonders where I got my socks from. I notice that I have a pair of my Happy Socks on me. I tell her that Elina (?) gave me them. She says that she got her's from Elina too. She walks away awkwardly and I think it is weird of me to have my phone and playing nonogram.

Notes: I had a dream earlier about Elina but don't quite remember it.

I'm by Hemköp and walking home. I see a chair on the ground with wheels on it. I take it and keep on walking home. By the slope I sit on the chair and ride on. The chair is spinning counter clockwise. I meet Albin and say hi to him. I start wondering if this is a dream but I wake up.

I lie in bed and decide to walk up. I just woke up and I'm in church. My pants are dirty and I wonder how I'm supposed to get home to school, I don't remember how I got here . My arms and hands are white and I know it's a dream. I do my RC. Yep I can breathe even though I pinch my nose. I start to fly away and notice how I don't have full control. I see a man walking the street and I want to test something. I imagine that I have a rope and pull him in. He starts to do weird motions but not accordingly to how I do it. I fly away in search for something fun. I find a house and walk in through the window. I meet a man and I ask him where his family is. He says that they are in the dark room upstairs. I walk up and open the door. It is pitch black and my vision is gone. I think about how I am going to wake up if I don't do anything. I imagine how I grab the wall and walk down the stairs again. My vision is still gone but I have a small sense on my hands against the wall. I try to open my eyes gradually and it is a success. I walk to the outer door. The man from before greets me and the sheriff enters. They talk a while about how everyone has guns and the houseowner jokes to the sheriff that it is because he is so bad with guns that everyone else needs guns by themselves. The house owner talks about how much the clock is and I tell him that he doesn't need to worry. The clock is 10 am in the waking world I tell him. He doesn't reply to this. I fly on and look into different houses. There are dogs in all the houses. The dogs have some sort of bad aura over them. I walk into different houses and see some families. I keep on flying and come to a spooky house. I fly through a window and notice that there are many children there. They are having some kind of spooky party. I fly to the back of the house and exit through a window. There is a flying witch there. I show of how good I am at flying and think that she is only using a thread or something fake. I fly back to the house and see some kids again. They jump over a hinder to come to the next floor. A boy, about 6 years old, throws a big wooden wheel at a small girl and she starts to cry. She runs to me and hold my hand. She drags my hand as if she wants me to carry her and so I do. I carry her and feel a bit stressed out at first because I haven't done anything really fun in my lucid but feel comfort in comforting this little girl.

Notes: I didn't have that much control over the dream but it's okay. I haven't had a lucid in a long time. I read How to Kill a Mockingbird and studied the chapter with the sheriff yesterday. I woke up 08.55 am so I was actually wrong when I told him the clock was 10 am.

Faded into another dream this morning after a WBTB. It started with the sensation of motion; of moving forward. Ran around inside a building from an assailant. Exited through two doors to find the building was 30,000 feet in the air. I knew I was dreaming; yet, the feeling of being so high in the air and the gravity was enough to dissuade me from jumping out the building and attempting to fly. I knew that if I jumped, the feeling of falling would wake me up immediately. Kind of like Inception, no?

I had 4 lucid dreams and one false awakening where I tried my best to wake up.

I did recall a lot more dreams but they faded fast... Should I jot notes again? My life is too busy for that.

Jamie 1

Was dosing off. Saw her looking and me from the shadows. I saw her face and the outline of her amazing hair. She didn't seem to happy or anything just neutral.

Jamie 2

Can't remember what i was doing in the dream. Jamie was there but she was in her distant phases and vanished from the dream.

Lucid

I was with Victoria (The younger one) from work. We were by the lethbridge Hospital at night. We went across the street to the building where they hold AA meetings. There was a hidden door or something and we went into some hidden rooms. I knew this was impossible so i became Lucid. Victoria vanished somewhere. I wasn't interested in her. I wanted to look for jamie. I found myself at a window and then I was outside. I was thinking of how to find Jamie when everything started going black.

I better get back into stabilizing dreams and doing Time Dilation again. i'm surprised i"ve been lucid shortly every week with my method of wbtb.

Lucid dreaming can be fickle, y'know. All I do is a WBTB, I just focus on going back to sleep because I had work to get up for. I wasn't even trying to lucid dream. Some time passes and I sort of "load" into the dream like a game or turning up the brightness on a monitor. I mean one moment, I am visualizing myself looking into the mirror, I get the feeling that I can focus on it more, then the dream fully loads around me. I am not going to wonder what technique that was.

BUT the BIG BIG thing here for the first time in a loooong time - maybe ever, I stabilized the dream past 30 seconds. What I did this time around was focus on the details on the back of my hands. The feeling of walking on the ground. The feeling of the clothes on my body. Sounds. Anything. I tried very hardest not to do any thinking inside the dream. I went searching around for a dream guide. I knock on a door. No answer. I knock on a window and I guess a woman who was the mother told me they were at school. So I spend the rest of the dream wandering around my neighborhood for about 10 minutes.

Agent
Night of November 11, 2020

We had rushed inside one of the houses at the end of the road. It took a while to get our bearings. By the air of conversation coming from one of the rooms on the back, I could tell the owners were unaware of our presence. B stood behind me while I looked back on the door; I opened it ever so slightly until it allowed a small peek through to the other side. Below the thickness of light were vehicles among the rest of homes that lined both sides of the street. My eyes panned side to side; not a single soul stood out in the close vicinity, and that was concerning. They were nowhere to be found.

And then, by mere chance I caught the shadowy figure of a man. He emerged from a corner between the third and fourth houses to the left of the street, and soon after followed not one but five more men. Their sleeveless and greasy shirts were disgustingly magnified by the ammo belts running across their chest. One of them, the closest to the entrance, raised his weapon in victory as he kicked the door from its hinges. The crew forced their way through the threshold while I looked back in horror. With my back against the exit I shut the door close. I could barely think straight; B hadn’t moved an inch.

"They're coming," I said.

B trailed after me as we moved to the back of the house where we found a group of three women sitting around a table.

“We need to move out of this house.” I warned them.

“They’re going to be here any minute now and if they find us, we’re done.”

But the three women ignored me and continued their conversation without a care in the world. As a matter of fact, I don’t think they even heard me. I signaled B and we hurried out of the place through one of the windows. We walked for a while and it wasn’t long when we came upon a stretch of land. An assembly of bodies in black suits covered the space wide. I don’t know why I looked back. The three women's residence was a two-story structure that housed a large balcony overlooking the field. Up on the platform my eyes locked with one of the mercenaries. I diverted my gaze immediately and pulled us both near the crowd of people. But it was too late now. As if taken from one of the Matrix movies, I saw two agents drop to the ground. We had been found.

I turned back only to determine the distance between us as we ran for our lives. The agents chased us to a building which I barely recognized (after waking up) as my old middle school. The old place had a layout consisting of four floors of interconnecting corridors organized in a rectangular pattern. I had taken B up and down countless sets of stairs, through narrow passages and broken-down classrooms. But no matter how much I tried we couldn’t lose them. Eventually, our haphazard escape meant it was only a matter of time before one of us lost sight of the other.

Alone and terrified I ran as fast as I could. Before reaching the end of the hall, I found a short space on the lower left wall near one of many locked doors. I shoved myself into the crammed space and crept my way inside into an abandoned classroom. Within the darkness I barricaded myself with pieces of decayed old wooden chairs, broken tables, and any other mess I could find. I crouched behind the dusty window of the door and awaited in silence. The close stomps from one of the agents could be heard from barely a few feet away. The sound of footsteps came from the right; they stopped directly in front of me, then resumed on the other side, dying out the further they went. Slowly, I raised my head from the ground. We were already deep into the night. The dirty window made it almost impossible to see but, there was no mistake that the quivering figure standing on the third floor, on the other side of the school, was none other than B himself, taken into custody by one of the agents.

I had to go back for my friend. I retreaded slowly away from the door, and then I realized the back of the room had opened itself to a parking space abutting a roadside hotel. The place had a set of stairs to one of the upper floors. The sounds approaching from the neighboring guest rooms startled me, so I took cover, crouching behind the wall at the bottom of the steps. A young man crossed from side to side not before stopping midway after noticing me. He shared a puzzling look. Realizing the awkwardness of the situation I stood up almost immediately and played things off as if nothing had happened. The young man continued, and I followed him up as he turned the corner on the left and entered through the doors to the public restroom. As I did, it became clear to me that this was all a dream.

The place I was in wasn’t anything special, save for a very distinctive feature. I discovered it by watching the young man from before, the moment he sat on the floor in front of a mirror above one of the sinks. Without any interaction on his part, the mirror turned itself on like any other T.V. I was surprised at what unfolded in front of me. But before I did anything else, I had to ground my lucidity inside the dream.

“Where is my body?” I asked.

“My body is lying in bed. I am dreaming.”

“What date is it?”

“It is the 11th of November.”

With renewed clarity, I approached one of the mirrors. As I grabbed it, the object twisted and shrank to a size perfectly fitted to my grip. Like a tablet, I held the mirror and stared at it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened; my reflection looked perfectly back at me. The young man watching T.V. was still there, withdrawn from anything or anyone around him. I didn’t know what to do with this thing. But then, an idea popped inside my head. Could I use an object like this, especially a mirror, to look into another space in the world, maybe use it as a medium of transportation? Say I want to travel to a different location, perhaps the mirror could facilitate a much needing proposition. But how do I get this thing to work?

First, I would need to think of the place I wanted to see. I initially thought about the old school, but at this point lucidity was slipping away and it was hard for me to keep a concentrating effort on the task at hand. The old school brought memories of my friend B, and with a little effort I thought I could use the mirror to look back to where exactly he was being held prisoner. The distance wasn’t long, and maybe I could get back to him by use of the object in the span of an instant. I regained a little awareness after this and attempted my escape. However, whatever I tried, I could not get past my own reflection in the mirror. I thought directly on where I wanted to go, tried to imagine the place I had been previously; I even turned away for a second, then looked back, hoping to see something other than my face behind the small piece of glass, but I failed time and again. It’s as if I didn’t actually believe such a thing possible. Absurd. This was a dream. Impossible had no meaning within the confines of my own mind. And yet, doubt was a hurdle difficult to eradicate. But my mind wasn’t having it no more. Confusion formed inside a cloud that blurred my judgement, disconnecting my mind and sliding me away into the mindset of non-lucid.

The dream continues non-lucidly.



Dipping One's Toes at Dream Control: My First Attempts
Night of November 12, 2020

I stopped before the stairs of my house, observant of whatever was downstairs. I did not know why, but something about the place was amiss. Things felt wrong; it all felt slightly off. And then, it hit me: It is a dream.

I repeated the words, and each time I did, I could feel the cogs inside my head starting to turn. I saw more clearly now, aware of what was happening. Downstairs, danger was imminent. I wanted to get out of here, but I didn’t know how. I thought I’d wish a new place into existence, but the dream would not budge. I tried talking my way through things, but again, it mattered little to none if I didn’t believe myself to make it happen. I stayed for several more attempts until I finally woke up.