lucid

WBTB @ 3:30AM 30min looking at Angel Falls picture.
MILD - Imagained a OBE like dream since I was well aware of myself in bed
Son yelled out and disturbed me briefly but he went back to sleep.
I rolled from back to right side and switched to WILD
WILD - Visualized a simple repetitive hand motion. This time it was arm flapping.

Angel Falls TOTY 4:56AM

I can't remember the first part of this but I don't think I missed much. Or maybe this is simply how the dream started.I am standing in my front yard just off the poarch. The dream feels dark and unstable. I have a hard time seeing. I get the weird eye opening thing again and I think I see the bedroom. I calmly close them and focus on seeing on the back of my eyelids. This seems to help. I can see the yard but it is really dark and unstable still. I hear a noise and I begin to listen. It is the fan in my room. This is no good. I remember a funny post of DarkMatters where he is basically telling someone to make out with the dream to stabilize. I laugh a little and throw myself face first on the ground.

I start licking the sidewalk that leads from the street. I can feel the rough texture on my tongue. I am a little grossed out at how real it feels but I take this as a good thing. I go for more and I reach both hands out to feel the grass on both sides of the concrete. I grope and rub and feel and really make love to the dream. All of this helps a lot and I didn't even have to buy diner first.

I get on my hands and knees and crawl around some. I see a small tree that is about 4 to 5 inches thick. For some reason I think "beaver" and I bite into the tree. It is soft but crisp like a peach. I note the taste but it is bland. I break the tree off and carry a chunk with me while I walk around the neighborhood. I continue to bite and chew as I do so. The sensation really helps stabilize the dream. I notice how I never seem to have to swallow. The tree just melts away in my mouth to nothing.

I walk north a ways but feel bored. I think trying to travel at this point would really risk destabilizing the dream. Angle Falls will have to wait. I head back toward my house. I think maybe I will break into my neighbors house and see what I find. I begin to look for it but all the houses start morphing and changing into larger newer homes until I am not in my neighborhood anymore. I stop and stop a house that looks interesting to burglarize. I stare at the rooftop and I am about to make a leap but the dream gets wavy so I wait for it. Then, for some reason, I feel compelled to turn around. It was like could sense someone was starting at me.

I see an old 70's model Ford truck parked in the street and a familiar looking young man in the driver seat. He is just looking at me expectantly. When I approach the vehicle he wordless moves over to the passenger side. I am surprised, "Oh you're going to let me drive?" I hop in.

like this but tan color


I tightly grip the steering wheel with both hands and floor it. I hear the tires break loose. I smile with excitement. The man next to me protests and says something about slowing down but I ignore him. I punch the gas harder. We make several turns and end up on a highway. I begin talking to him. I say, "You know what man? This is a dream. Do you know that? You're not even real to me right now."

He looks really nervous and mutters, "Yeah, I guess so."

I look him over again and realize that he looks just like LinkZelda. "Hey you're LinkZelda aren't you?" (I think, say yes)

He's holding on to the o'shit handle. "Um I don't know."

I am insistent that he remembers, "Yeah man. You get on dream views. We've talked a few times. Hey you know what? What if we are having a shared dream and you just aren't lucid yet? How cool would that be? Here's what I want you to do. When you wake up try to remember as much as you can about this ok? I mean you never know, right?" I start laughing like a lunatic and slap him on the knee. He seems totally put off. I just can't help myself I feel so energetic and happy.

I look away at the road. I continue to stabilize visually. I don't look at him this time when I talk. I feel like I can't contain myself. I yell, "HOLY SHIT! I EFFING LOVE THIS. WE ARE TOTALLY DREAMING RIGHT NOW! WHOOOOOHOOOOOO! I am a little afraid that my loud yelling will somehow wake me up so I stop myself.

I look back at him to see his reaction. The passenger side is totally empty. "Dammit he's gone!" I laugh and shrug it off. I begin to think about getting to Angel Falls now. I look around and it has turned bright outside. I am on some road and I see that I am at the base of what looks like Angel Falls. I look up to see the top but there is a thick mist hiding it from view. I feel like its time to get risky now. I know from past experience that I will have a hard time getting through that fog. I really don't want to end up someplace else; or worse, waking up. "Ah screw it." I phase out of the cab of the truck and fly up.

When I reach the fog I stop. It looks like a thick and opaque object. I push my head in but I am engulfed in white with nothing to visually ground myself to. I fear the dream will dissolve so I back out. Instead I throw myself to the rock face and begin to climb up. I focus visually and tactilely on the rocks. The climb is easy. I imagine comfortable hand holds as I go along and the dream obliges. After a while I decide I am nearly there. Just then, I see the top. I climb over the edge but when I stand up. It is dark again.

I look around and I see a small flat screen TV floating just above eye level and a soda machine to the right of it. I hear some random woman giving a newscast but pay no attention to the words. Its just muffled muttering. The soda machine is an Orange Sunkist machine. It is brightly lit in the darkness. I have a feeling of being in a building. I felt like I had gone to "The Bridge" (A place in my town with fake rock climbing). No this wont do. I push the enclosed feeling away from my mind.



I realize I am on a small platform. I lay down and peek over the side. All I can see is darkness at first but I focus and everything clears up. It still looks like night time but I can see that I am indeed on top of Angel Falls. I see the small white line of the river far below reflecting moonlight and water is gushing out the side of the cliff.



I push forward and fall head first. I flip around so that I am on my back. I feel weightless and light. I look around and see the water falling with me to my right. It looks like it is frozen in time but I assume we are just falling at the same rate. I reach out to feel it but I only get a mild sensation on my hand. The I hear the sound of diving into water and as I suddenly slash into it. I look around. There is light but all I see is just slightly brown river water with nothing around me. I reflexively close my eyes.

When I open then I am laying on my stomach. I can see river rocks and realize I am lying in a shallow side stream. I feel completely wet. I stand up and walk forward. I am now in some small building. Again I see the TV and the Sunkist machine to the right of it. This time there is wall behind them. I hear the same woman say, "...Here in Venezuela..." I listen closer now. "T is for Turkey." I laugh and move on.

I look around and notice the building is mostly huge glass windows, like some sort of zoo or nature center. I can see lush jungle outside. There is water from the water fall creating rain outside. I can even hear it hitting the roof of the building. I see an enclosed glass area with what looks like some sort of tiger/panther hybrid cubs. I open the glass door and reach in to pet one. They all look content and sleepy. Suddenly one of then grows large and snaps at my hand. It lets out a feline growl. I laugh and say, "Ok. I'll leave."

I feel pretty content that I completed a TOTY and am not sure what to do now. I begin to think how long this dream has lasted and how much happened. I begin to worry that I will forget. I think I should make myself wake up soon but I really don't want it to end. I wait a little longer.

I step outside and see that I am in some sort of gravel parking area. There are a few cars but no people. I can see a thick wall of jungle surrounding the area. I feel triumphant and powerful and I get the sudden urge to become a werewolf. I stretch my skin and feel myself change. I can see my shadow on the ground in front of me and watch as I transform. I look at my hands and notice that I have hairy werewolf claws and fur. I let out a howl. It sounds a little weak and unconvincing. I try again. This time it is a long and clear WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! A part of me thinks I am making a noise in my sleep. Then I remember. I really should wake up. And this seems like a good way go out of the dream.

With some great effort I manage to open my physical eyes and fully wake from the dream.

02/23/13

Note: Someone named Lara has been visiting us for the past few days with the goal of helping break some psychological blocks I am having problems with. After she was here it was discovered she had been working for some Templars in her home world, but she has agreed to help with the blocks in exchange for a cure for her son, Anthony, who has an inoperable cancer. Of course it's not inoperable for someone like Q or Washu… The area she works in looks for time fluctuations which can be used to see through time, know the outcome of certain operations before doing them… know what Assassins are going to do before the Assassins even know… She said they found a timeline where an Altaïr was about to die in the natural course of the timeline. They managed to grab him, Lara said the point was to use energy healing so Altaïr could learn how to feel love… but the truth no doubt has more to do with mind control. Lara truly believes people like Altaïr (Assassins) don't have the capacity to care about anyone due to how they grew up so they need to have their hearts healed… the final point being my goal, to go into the facility where they are holding Altaïr and get him out of there… In order to make sure as few people as possible get hurt Lara says she can get me in by telling them I am a soul healer (not a lie) and I can have the effect they are looking for on Altaïr.

Moon Assassin
I am on a beach taking a walk on a very peaceful day. I remember my goal, and first I have to go meet up with Lara so she can sneak Sailor Moon into the Templar facility. Before I can even open a portal, however, Q appears with a woman I don't recognize, who turns out to be Lara. I have never actually met Lara face to face… Q says he will take us to the correct world, then snaps his fingers to transport us. When we appear, we are in a house. In a bedroom. Lara leaves the room and heads downstairs. An older woman eyes Q and me suspiciously as we follow Lara. Q says he will take care of Anthony's treatment, it is almost done, then it is not only guaranteed that Anthony's current cancer will be gone, but he will be immune to any cancer in the future. I notice that Q looks like a doctor. The older woman looks similar to an older version of Lara, and I realize she is primarily looking at me. She says she doesn't want any of "them" around Anthony… then asks what I am doing here. She says she knows the doctor has to see Anthony, and has even accepted the demons Lara has to deal with in order to get Anthony cured, but no one else is to have access to Anthony. Lara starts to tell the woman my name… then hesitates… I say my name is Serena… Serena Usagi, using the name off of Sailor Moon… and I am a healer, so who is this "them" she thinks I am? She scoffs and says I already know… and if I am a healer she is the queen of England… then tells Lara to get me out of her house. I am about to question why the woman doubts my being a healer, Lara points at a mirror… I am dressed like an Assassin from Assassin's Creed… oops… that's not how Serena dresses… so I use the crescent moon wand to transform into Sailor Moon.

The older woman, who I determine is Lara's mother and Anthony's grandmother, does a double take. Lara hurries me from the room and outside. She eyes my Sailor Moon form for a bit. She says she has no idea who Sailor Moon is, but that means the others probably don't, either. I ride in a normal car with Lara for a while into the mountains, then up to a gate that is mostly hidden. It reminds me of the entrance to some secret military installation that's not supposed to exist. The guarded entrance leads to a tunnel that leads deep within the mountain.

Lara pulls up beside a guard gate and says she has to speak to the captain… whoever that might be. The guard asks who I am. She just says the captain will want to talk to me, she was looking through a time flux and might have found the answer. He wants to know what answer she has found. She says she might have the cure, and the captain will know what that means. He asks again who I am. She gives him the name Serena Usagi, known in my home world as Sailor Moon, the moon healer. He talks on the communicator inside the guard station for a bit and then finally comes back. He opens the gate and tells Lara to follow the vehicle in front of us, and do not leave the path at all, he says we have only limited access here. With a relieved sigh she agrees and drives on after what looks like a jeep of some kind. Lara drives through what seems like a maze of passages. There are numerous large doors along the passages. Now and then one of them will open and the jeep will lead us through it, then it will close behind us. After getting completely disoriented we finally come to a stop. There are several guards around us when they lead us into an office room. There is a man there, and he looks me over closely. He asks who I am. I tell him I am Serena Usagi, Sailor Moon, a soul healer. Lara says she has seen me heal the hearts of those who have never learned to love. He turns on a monitor. He indicates I should look at it. There is a white room with only a bed and bathroom facilities. There is a man in the room. It looks like Altaïr, though he isn't dressed as an Assassin, he is just in plain white clothes. He is sitting on the bed doing nothing. The captain tells me to do what I have to do. I ask if he really thinks I can heal someone over a television link. I have to be in there with him. He looks at me suspiciously. He says if I am in there he can't guarantee my safety. I tell him I have healed people as powerful as Vegeta when he is attacking me… He says he has no idea who Vegeta is. I tell him I have to be in there with Alt… the person he wants me to heal. Did I just screw up? Maybe not… he says I will be taken to the holding cell, but I will be on my own, even if the prisoner attacks me. I say that's ok. I am led through some halls and to an airlock. What do they think Altaïr is, an alien? Maybe just to make sure he doesn't get out? I remember Lara saying he got out once and killed a bunch of Templars, almost getting out of the facility before getting trapped again. I guess they don't want a repeat occurrence. I go into the middle area of the airlock, the door behind me closes, the one in front of me opens. I go into the small room. Altaïr is looking at me now… hatefully glaring at me, though I notice a slightly puzzled look when he gets a better look at my Sailor Moon form. The door immediately closes and locks behind me. No matter. I'll open a portal. I focus on opening a portal. Nothing happens. A dampening field? A voice from nowhere asks if I really thought they would let a stranger walk right into a secure facility and then walk out with their most valuable prisoner. I decide to stay with the Sailor Moon theme. Open the door or in the name of the moon they'll be punished. The voice says he knows perfectly well I am not Sailor Moon, she is a dumb cartoon, I am an Assassin, so now they have two. I do a Cosmic Moon Power blast on the airlock door, it looks like a Final Flash from Vegeta…

and it blasts the door off of its hinges, practically melting through it. Altaïr is doing a serious double take… another Cosmic Moon Power blast takes out the outer door. Alarms start going off everywhere. I tell Altaïr it's time to blow this pop stand… up… I wonder how far I have to go to pass the dampening field. There are guards outside the second melted door, it looks like they're not sure what to do. Some of them shoot at Altaïr and me, others turn and run. The ones who are firing change their minds after "Cosmic… Moon…" before the blast goes off. They run down the hall and around the corner. I try a portal… nothing. Altaïr and I head farther down the hall. Someone tries to ambush us from around a corner. I hear the popping noise when Altaïr breaks his neck. I try a portal. It opens! I tell Altaïr that is our exit, I figure the dampening field was probably just around the holding cell. I lead Altaïr through the portal and into the control room on the moon before I wake.
 
Secret Escape
Note: This is a case where I think I was having two variant dreams at the same time. In one of them I went to meet with Lara so she could sneak me into the compound where Templars are keeping Altaïr, but in the other one I used Avalon to get in on my own. The previous one is journaled above, this is the second version.

I am on the beach as in the first dream. But this time Q doesn't show up. I wander down the beach for a while longer before deciding I need to go find the Altaïr who is being held by a bunch of Templars. I focus on opening a portal to find him. I focus on finding the one that Lara has told me about. After a brief hesitation, during which I wonder if it is going to work, a portal finally opens. I go through the portal into a long hallway that is large enough to handle vehicles.

It looks like some kind of underground military facility. I wonder if this is where Altaïr is being held. I wonder how I can find him. I need to get access to their computers. I can locate him through that. I go through a door and into an office. The people in the room seem to know who I am, and a man asks why I'm not dressed. He throws some lab clothes at me, so I put them on. He then hands me a syringe. He says that's the drug, the strongest version yet. He says Altaïr will either be very receptive to the programming, he will be dead, or go stark raving mad. I look at the syringe... there's no way I'm giving that shit to Altaïr… The man, apparently sensing I am hesitant, says this is my project… he's not going in there. I look and see I have a keycard. I use it to open the door the man is looking at. It leads to what looks like an airlock, and then into a white room. I see Altaïr is in the room, he is chained to the far wall. I am being watched. So I try to act like they expect. I go over to Altaïr… who looks like he is unconscious. A voice comes from the speakers, telling me to administer the drug. I have to get Altaïr loose… then open a portal. The needle on the syringe… I can pick the lock with that! So I reach for one of the chains and I realize it isn't really attached to anything. It looks like the locks have already been picked? The next thing I know the syringe has been taken from me and is stuck in my neck, Altaïr is loose, he says we are leaving here now unless I want a dose of my own medicine… An alarm is going off, I tell Altaïr to cut it out, we're on the same fucking side. He takes my key card and injects the drug into me, pushing me aside and going for the door. Great… I'm wasted on drugs… I toss the syringe aside and try to clear my head. Everything sounds echoed and far away. I hear a commotion outside, someone has come into the room with me and is saying something about an antidote. I focus my energy on clearing out the drug and my head clears. I push the two men away from me and head in the direction I think Altaïr went. People behind me are asking me what I'm doing… I need a doctor if I hope to survive that drug… I ignore them. In the next room there are two dead people. One of them has his head at a really awkward angle, the other has an unidentified object sticking out of his neck… ok… on the right path. I follow the commotion down the hall.

A couple guards shoot at me before realizing who I am. I send a wall of telekinetic energy down the corridor that stops the bullets and pushes the guards back against the wall. I see Altaïr around a corner, he is looking right at me now. I'm not sure how to convince him I am actually there to get him out… Altaïr disappears down the hallway. I follow him. When I come around the corner someone shoots at me. Altaïr is shooting at me? Apparently he grabbed one of the guards' guns. I see someone behind Altaïr, aiming at him. I use telekinetic energy to knock that person back against the wall. Altaïr disappears down a side passage. Shit… this is ridiculous. Maybe my disguise is too good… so I switch to my usual Assassin robes before following Altaïr again. I hear more gunshots. I am on the right path when I find a dead guard. Altaïr aims a gun at me, but then stops when he sees I now look like an Assassin. He points the gun at someone behind me and fires… but gets only a click, he's out of ammo. I look behind me and see a couple guards there aiming guns. More guards on the other side of Altaïr. I get over closer to Altaïr and tell him it's time to get out of here before opening a portal. Someone is yelling to shoot them both, so I just shove Altaïr through the portal before following him through and waking up.

I woke up trying to remember anything at all. It hit me that I had lucids, but I wasn't really sure about them. I became lucid by performing RCs. I tried to make p.w. appear by waving my arm in front of me starting from left to right. She did appear, and I kissed her. This lucid was much more stable and lasted a bit longer than previous ones. I slipped back in to the dream, then lucid, then slip back, for at least 3 times. I remember trying to fly once, but I ended up just floating after jumping. After remembering the lucids, I wasn't really sure if I dreamed of being lucid or if I was actually lucid cause I was really surprised of what I did. I didn't think I would "want" to see her after not dreaming of her for so long and that's why I think I was dreaming of being lucid...

February 23, 2013 - 6 hours in - 3 minutes - WBTB, SSILD, MILD, FA, RC

Woke via alarm after 3.5 hours and did about 6 SSILD cycles of gradually increasing length, doing the cycles the same every 1.5 hours after that. Afterward I fell asleep to a mantra of "1, I'm dreaming, 2, I'm dreaming, 3..." while trying to visualize each digit. The mantra only was done on other natural awakenings.

I wake up in bed. I plug my nose to see if I can breathe, but at first I can't tell. I try a little more and it seems like some air is getting through, so I try harder and I can definitely breathe. This is in fact a dream, only problem, there is no vision. I don't open my eyes right away so I don't open my real eyes and wake up. Somehow I eventually see, perhaps by opening my eyes slowly, and it is rather light in my bedroom. (This time, in reality, it is actually pretty dark.) I can feel the sheet on my body. I reach for my cellphone, to do some experiments which I had been hoping to try. The phone is pushed up against the headboard by a pillow, and grab it carefully so it doesn't fall down behind the bed. I pinch its (hard in reality) plastic skin somehow and hold the phone in my hand while I periodically rub my left hand on my wrist to stabilize.

I turn it on and the background looks normal, but the two rows of apps are made of random colorful icons and names I have never seen. I look for one called "Gallery" and tap it. Like reality, there are three categories of pictures, but they have the names "MILK," "GREEN ONIONS," and something else along those lines. One of them shows a picture of a cartoon milk carton. I think I tap on one but forget what is in it.

Then I go back to the home screen and look for an app called "Maps." I tap it, but it displays something like a game intro screen with a cartoon guy in a green shirt in a cartoon city. There is a message that pops up that I think had to do with setting it up. I give up on this and go back to the home screen, and I want to activate the Siri-like voice assistant, but before I can do that, the phone displays an error message with technical jargon and turns off.

I think at this point lucidity also disappeared. Then I think outside the window some people I know are wanting me to come outside, so I tell them I'll be out soon. I wake up shortly after this.

February 22, 2013 - 8.5 hours in - 30 seconds - WBTB, SSILD, MILD

Woke via alarm after 3.5 hours and did about 6 SSILD cycles of gradually increasing length, doing the cycles the same every 1.5 hours after that. Afterward I fell asleep to a mantra of "1, I'm dreaming, 2, I'm dreaming, 3..." while trying to visualize each digit. The mantra only was done on other natural awakenings.

Me and a friend are driving at night down a street with a traffic light ahead and I see a kid in a white jacket with hood who looks like he is running away from home. I suggest letting someone know about this, but then I notice 3 or 4 duplicates of this kid walking at regular intervals down the road away from us. I get out and see the kid is actually looking backward somehow, with a blank, lifeless expression.

I find this creepy, but also then realize that this is all a dream. I plug my nose and breathe, then I run up to the next kid, who has the same expression. This creeps me out again, ending this dream scene and putting me in my dark bedroom in a false awakening.

I plug my nose and know it is still a dream. I can see the low light from the window. I don't like how it is still dark, so I shout "Light!" but it does nothing. I try to reach over for my phone to try stuff on it, but the dream ends and I feel my right hand making a plugging motion, not on my nose, but on a pillow. I open my eyes and see that it is dark only because my head is under the blanket. I have woken up for real.

February 22, 2013 - 5.5 hours in - 30 seconds - WBTB, SSILD, MILD

Woke via alarm after 3.5 hours and did about 6 SSILD cycles of gradually increasing length, doing the cycles the same every 1.5 hours after that. Afterward I fell asleep to a mantra of "1, I'm dreaming, 2, I'm dreaming, 3..." while trying to visualize each digit. The mantra only was done on other natural awakenings.

I am standing there with someone in a hotel when a thought about lucid dreaming runs across my mind. I suddenly realize that I am in fact in a lucid dream and I rub my hands together and plug my nose and breathe. The decor is very red - the carpet is red, but not a solid red, but based around that color. The walls are paneled with a red wood.

The impulse comes over me to run and explore and I do so. I want to run down a hallway ahead and to the left, but before that is a row of pillars parallel to the wall, and each pillar is made of the same wood as the wall, in a similar shape to a two-by-four. I think I will have to run straight through this and then left, but then I see there is nothing in between the pillars and I cut the corner.

Running down this hallway, I run right into a large room. There is a large green leafy potted bush that is too big to jump over in reality, and I decide to try it in the dream. I do it, so then I jump with the expectation of flying through the air (like a long jump, but unrealistically long). I fly past a chandelier but then the sensation of motion ends and it blacks out. I spin around which I feel but then the sensation of laying in bed returns to my body, but from the legs up, not all at once.

I did not record the dream until later however, so this was either a false awakening or I went back to sleep to wait until the next WBTB alarm.

February 13, 2013 - 5.5 hours in - 2 minutes - WBTB, SSILD

5 hours in I wake up and do 6 SSILD cycles of gradually increasing length.

I am riding in a car at night with houses being passed. I could tell the dream was ending, evidently spontaneously realizing it is in fact a dream. I felt I could tell from the feeling in my stomach, and I complained about this out loud to the others, but I don't know what if anything was their reaction. (It's also possible the feeling was just the hunger I felt before going back to bed.) I try to increase lucidity by performing simple addition. Despite rubbing my hands together, the visuals fade to black from the outside in.

I spin around, which I feel (despite the fact I was sitting down moments earlier) and the scene comes back. I look at my hands, but through my left eye some fingers on the left hand are invisible, and through my right eye the right hand is totally invisible. The car comes out of a tunnel into daylight, and this seems to correspond with the car and tactile senses disappearing. What remains is the visuals of following a narrow ledge curving right - too narrow for a car - on a sandstone cliff with the sound of a car driving over a bumpy road. I look right and my view is flying through the air (with no feeling of flying) while curving left. I see irregular sandstone cliffs, much like you would see in the Southwest. They are all the same color, but the cracks and irregularities are detailed and I marvel at the scenery. I do however note a street sign on a post standing at the top of the cliff. As the view is flying along, it blacks out and I feel myself laying in bed.

February 11, 2013 - 9 hours in - 5 minutes - WBTB, SSILD, FA

I wake up after 5 hours via alarm and do the full set of SSILD cycles, then I wake up earlier than the alarm, every 20 to 90 minutes, doing a few cycles each time as I fall asleep.

I am in a preexisting dream that I find extremely undesirable, although I don't remember being scared per se.

I realize on some level that it is not real, possibly because of the emotional reaction involved. I blink rapidly and shout, "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

I am laying in bed in my dark bedroom. (In reality at this time it should be rather bright.) I plug my nose and amazingly, I can breathe. Somehow this false awakening ends into another, with the same action performed by me. I get up out of bed quickly and try to feel the wall, and I feel my closet door and then the wall, and then I feel the light switch. It is already up, and I flip it down and there is still no light. I open the door and run down to another part of the house.

J. is here and in front of her I plug my nose and breathe deeply. I say that is physically impossible and ask her how I did that. She says something like, "It only sounds like you did that." Then I look at my hand and start counting fingers out loud - "one, two, three" - but then I realize my hand actually looks normal. So I give up on showing her my hand and leave.

Now it is light everywhere, sort of blue-ish. I explore the house at this point. Unlike the last lucid dream, this time I realize a lot of it looks different from reality, but I don't recall most specifics. I am able to run from place to place, which I do a lot since it is tireless and fast. I go in the basement and am surprised the door is open. Downstairs the walls and ceiling are finished, with them and the floor all having paint like the upstairs walls. The ceiling is mostly flat but slopes downward slightly near the long sides. The overall shape of the basement looks like reality. On the floor I see a black dead centipede broken in a few pieces that is about twice the size of reality. This make me apprehensive of what I might find down there, like spiders, but it looks clear and I proceed with the stairway to my left. On the right wall, some dirty insulation is strewn on the floor, with dirty water on the floor there. I look at my hands (this time there are extra fingers) and shout "Clarity now!" but this only seems to make everything blur temporarily, each time I tried it.

Back upstairs, I see a white bookshelf with some of my books on it. I take one and start reading randomly. It talks about vaccines (which this particular book very well may have), in detailed technical jargon that I try to comprehend without focusing too much, but cannot. I glance at the rest of the pages open and various medical treatments are mentioned, with each one named in small caps. The book, font, and paper are very realistic.

Next, my idea is to get my car keys and drive away.

It seems at this point my bedroom and the dining room are arranged in the manner of the old house, but I don't notice this in the dream. In the dining room, I see the loop the keys are on hanging on a horizontal door handle. They look fake to me, but I figure they'll work anyway, so I try to take them. However, the door handle is attached on both ends, so it is impossible to get the keys off. I give up on these and head towards my closet in the other room (which is like the closet of the new house but in the position in the room of the old). I evidently feel the dream fading, as I plug my nose and breathe to try to keep it going, as I head towards the right door. Before I can, however, I wake up.

January 31, 2013 - 8.5 hours in - 5 minutes - WBTB, SSILD

Every 90 minutes or less I awoke, and did a couple SSILD cycles as I fell back asleep.

I am playing around with a cellphone, but it isn't working quite right.

I then suspect that I am dreaming. I look outside. I can see the leaves on the trees clearly, although my focus fluctuates, even though I know somehow that I have no contacts in or glasses on. (Although I never remember that it is really winter anyway!) I know for sure that this is a dream.

I forget this part somewhat, I believe I just walked around the house, happy to finally be lucid for a decent period of time, and not doing anything to upset it, just rubbing my hands together a lot. I don't remember thinking anything in the house looked odd, but it probably did look different, I just didn't notice.

I look at the details in some objects. In the bathroom, the brown tissue holder looks real, I can even see the dust on it, which was a lot. I sit and close my eyes for some reason. I realize my mistake and visualize the bathroom being there when I open them, which it is, but the counter is a totally different shape and color.

I look at a book on the bookshelf. The text is in a similar pattern, but the chapter titles don't make coherent sense. In another book, the pages are stuck together a lot, and I turn first to the index, then back to the main text. Some numbers in a list are out of order or repeated.

After this I think to myself I have run out of ideas, probably due to poor memory and imagination even in a lucid state, and because it has lasted several minutes already, longer than any since the 1st lucid dream. I take an object from a shelf above the desk. Some little pieces break off and I try to put it back together for some reason (even though it doesn't exist). This distraction causes the dream to go black and I feel myself laying in bed.

January 29, 2013 - 8.5 hours in - 30 seconds - WBTB, SSILD

Every 90 minutes starting 2 hours in I set an alarm and did a few SSILD cycles as I fell back asleep.

Pre-lucidity, I am at a nice tropical beach supposedly in Costa Rica. I think how much nicer the weather is here and try to remember what it was like when I left, but I can't remember.

I converse with my friend A. and he asks me if I got a permit for the clams I was gathering pre-lucidity. This memory prompt triggers lucidity - I say, "Oh no, this is a dream!" (I had wished it to be reality!) I look at my hand and it is distorted - this time, some fingers are short but alternate between being short and their normal length. I show A. and say, 'See? This is a dream.' He says, "Wow," in a realistic manner, as though he believed me.

The scene turns blurry and I rub my hands together, and it restabilizes. I see the surface of a trash can and it is a pattern of little white pebbles, like a real trash can you might see in a park. I look up and see the sunlight coming through the tall trees. I feel it fade and shout "Clarity! Clarity! Stability!" but the scene fades into my bedroom.

This later turned out to be a false awakening however.

January 23, 2013 - 5.5 hours in - 2 minutes - WBTB, MILD, RC

Did about an hour long WBTB and then used the mantra, "Look at your hands, you're dreaming."

I am laying on a brown-patterned carpeted floor near a wall, when I think to look at my hand. It actually looks quite normal. Then I plug my nose and can breathe - this is a dream.

I turn around and I am in a hotel room laid out like a corridor, with spaces set off to the left and the right midway down. The walls are painted dark brown. The ceiling is black. I go into one of these spaces and feel a wall corner (one not on the corridor) - it feels realistic, even with both hands and the side of my arm. The room is dark towards the door, so I turn a couple lights, which work realistically.

I go out the door and go right in the hallway. The color scheme is much the same and ahead the hallway goes diagonally left while another goes straight right, then goes straight again while another goes straight left. Straight ahead are high windows looking in to the indoor waterpark. On the wall corner is a sign in red letters directing towards a restaurant to the right. I forget the first word, but the second word was Sadler's, which changed to 5tadler's when looking away and back, which then changed to Bailey's (and all in black letters) when looking away and back again.

At several points throughout I look at my hands again; each time they look real, except for one finger being shorter than normal.

Inside the waterpark the water starts shallow, and nearby is a short construction with two green bodyslides, one which curves towards me. I think I may have to climb the slide but then I see stairs going up. On top two friends are there; I consider telling them this is a dream, but it is too loud from the water up here so I decide not to. I then go down the other slide and close my eyes at the bottom by habit - oops! I realize I may open my real eyes if I do this wrong. I open slowly and still see the waterpark. I then try to breathe underwater and it works. I again close my eyes accidentally, again being able to open them similarly. I look at my hand again, but this seems to trigger motion in reality and the dream vanishes.

January 15, 2013 - Less than 6.5 hours in - 20 seconds - WBTB, MILD, FA, RC

Used MILD mantra, "Look at your hands, you are dreaming" every alarm awakening every 90 minutes or so.

I 'wake up' in my dark bedroom in my bed and decide to look at my hands. In fact, they are distorted and I realize I am in a dream. I plug my nose and I can still breathe. However, I feel extremely sleepy and struggle to keep my 'eyes' open. Since I feel it may fade out soon, I decide to cut right to the goal of summoning B. I look into the darkness (which is sort of purple - like the patterns seen when you close your eyes) and try to visualize them there. It is difficult to remember them and I give up. I look again at my hand in front of the meager window light and it is still distorted. Despite feeling extremely lethargic, I try to get out of bed and head towards the light switch, since I don't like it being dark, although I know the switch may not work. With this effort, I wake up for real.

It should be noted that throughout my efforts at lucid dreaming, I keep a private dream journal with all of my dreams to increase recall. I also do reality checks every 90 minutes through the day as reminded by my cellphone. It took 16 days of trying before this first lucid dream.

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Format:

Date - How much of the night's sleep had passed when I woke up - Length of time lucid - Methods involved (CAT includes when I became lucid at a time when I would have woken up for the day, the day before; WBTB is when I woke up after some sleep but before the lucid dream for even a very short time; FA is any dream in which I became lucid from a false awakening; RC is any dream in which a reality check directly caused lucidity; DS is when a dream sign motivated me to question if I was dreaming; other abbreviations are lucid dreaming induction techniques)

Description of what I did beforehand that may have helped in attaining lucidity

Details of dream

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January 3, 2013 - About 5 hours in - 5 minutes - CAT, WBTB, MILD, RC

The day before, I got up for the day at the time I became lucid today. 1 hour before bed, I take 3,000 mg of omega-3 fish oil and a multivitamin which has, among other things, 100 mg niacin, 25 mg B6, 15 mg zinc, and 7.2 mg magnesium. At about 3.5 hours in, I get up, drink water, and use the bathroom. Going back to sleep, I use MILD.

This dream is set in my house, but it combined elements of the house I live in now and the previous one, and I didn't notice this until waking up.

At some point, for an unknown reason, I engage in reality checks. Either my hands or my nose was the first one done. My hands don't look noticeably different at first, but I think something is 'off' and it seems to take slightly longer to count my fingers. For the nose check, I can still breathe through the left side. I reach my left hand up to see how that is, and I can feel the air rushing around where my finger is blocking it (in real life the finger is of course more than enough to block all of it). I realize that this in fact a dream! I can hardly believe it. I look at my hand again and the little finger is expanding for some reason. I look at the clocks nearby, and they all read differently. Some say impossible times, something like 8:68. I make a clock's digit change by focusing on it and visualizing it as the other digit, which it fades into.

After this I am in the kitchen of the old house. While here I get the idea to try to summon a person, so I decide to make C. appear. I think of them and think, 'When I turn around, they will be there.' I turn around and nobody is there. I note the front door and closet door and think of opening them to see if they will be there, but I decide to move on. While in the kitchen I note it getting a little blurry and I look at my hand. It has about 6 fingers. (Another time it has about two sets of the 4 plus ones in between. Even though these hand distortions may sound creepy, they aren't at all. The hands work normally, they just don't show up right.) When I do this things get clearer and my mind feels 'freer'. I also test blinking to see what it does. It does the same thing as real life.

On the way out I go back in my bedroom, where I was pre-lucidity, which looks like the new bedroom but is in the location in the house of the old, and there I retrieve my phone to see if it has begun working again (it broke with sparks pre-lucidity). It turns on with the lock screen background, and the words 'Darth Maul' on it. I assume this is some sort of 'cool' sounding new operating system. I take the phone and leave.

I go out the back door of the old house. It is night and snowy. I think that it will be cold but then I remember that since it is a dream it won't be bad. I do feel it a little but it goes away. I jump on top of the fence of the old backyard, and I see the streetlights and the neighborhood, but then I see that the dream has decided that I have no pants on. I consider continuing on to explore, but I decide that even though it is only a dream I would feel more comfortable with pants on, so I go back in to put pants on.

While inside I realize that I can drive my car instead to explore. I go to the garage through the house somehow and am in the garage of the new house. I see a car in the middle of the garage, which I don't recognize as my car, but it looks similar. I look at the license plate, which says, "717-CIC" (which is nothing like it is in reality). Unfortunately I am stopped from starting the car, and the tension causes the dream to disappear.

At this point, I wake up.

I doubled up the menthol at WBTB and I think it definitely had a strong effect on the early dream content. Also, it was cool to finally bring a DV member into a lucid dream! Reading DV during WBTB was a huge help, I think.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #68: Losing My Grip

I'm in a long bedroom, and immediately I realize that this is a dream. Wife is reclining on the bed in her winter pajamas, reading her Kindle. On the opposite side of the room is a large window with its curtains open. Sunlight pours into the room.

"Hey," I tell Wife, "I'm having a lucid dream!"

She looks up. "Good! Have fun." She returns to her reading. I know that I'd planned to go to Angel Falls for Task of the Year, but my head is buzzing with sexy thoughts. I look out the window for a moment. The sun's too bright to see outside and the window is consumed by a warm, yellow glow.

When I turn my gaze back to Wife she has changed. The Kindle has vanished and she's gone from lounging in flannel pajama pants to laying over the bed in a negligee and booty shorts. My urges are going crazy. I decide that I'm not getting any of my goals done this dream. "What did you just do?" she says, looking amused.

"It's the menthol," I tell her. "I had 6 bags of peppermint tea. I think it's making me frisky." She raises her eyebrows and tilts her head forward, looking skeptical. "It sounds like an excuse," I admit. "I make too much out of these drugs. Kind of like how I think galantamine gives me magical powers." For some reason, I turn and force-push a clock off of a nearby dresser and shout "Galantamine!!" (So embarrassing. What a dream-dork. )

I join Wife on the bed and start to kiss her. The sensation is incredibly vivid and I start getting caught up in these really strong fantasies about what's going to happen. (These were crazy, cosmic fantasies that involved space, time, and dreams-within-dreams. Sadly, most of the details got scrambled up.) The fantasizing quickly runs away with me, and I'm close to losing lucidity. Before we can start doing anything, I hear the sound of little feet on the floor near our bed and a little voice say, "I see Mommy!" I freak when I realize that our two boys are here and lose lucidity. The sexytime mood leaves the room as quickly as it arrived. Wife is now back in her flannel pajamas and it looks like nothing was ever happening. I'm relieved that she's so good at acting normal.

We go downstairs with the kids and start going through a semi-normal morning routine. After a very long time spent doing mundane morning stuff, the boys are helping me bake bread in the bread machine. As I'm taking the bread out out, R (my 1.5 year old) climbs up on the counter. Before I can stop him, he burns himself on the bread, bonks his head on the bread machine, and tumbles all the way to the kitchen floor. This scares me but the accident is so comically absurd that I regain lucidity.

The boys run off and I see that Wife's looking at me. I tell her, "Don't worry, that whole thing with the fall was just part of this dream." She says okay and joins the boys in the den.

I notice that the living room is filled with a strange darkness. I catch figures moving in the darkness but I can't make out who or what they are. They don't seem hostile, and I somehow decide that they're DV members and that I want to pull one of them into the scene. NewArtemis, Alyzarin, Xanous, and OpheliaBlue are in there. I catch little flashes where I sort of "see" their faces without seeing them. (It's a little hard to explain.) I choose to bring Xanous in. (Even though the sexytime mood from earlier is long gone, I feel like it's a really bad idea to bring a female DV buddy into a menthol dream.)

I turn my head away from the darkness and extend my hand for a handshake. I expect Xanous to walk into the kitchen and shake my hand. After only a second or two, I'm gripped by a firm handshake... I turn to look, and hell yeah it's Xanous! He's in a gray t-shirt with some logo and he's laughing about something. Before I can say anything, he rapidly shrinks down until he's about a foot tall, but somehow I'm still shaking his hand.

My vision goes black but I still have a hold on the handshake. I ask Xanous what he thinks I should do but he just says something unintelligible in a weird robot voice. The handshake slips away and I fall back to the gladius trick. This doesn't do anything, and I alternate between swinging a sword and slapping myself in the face. It doesn't seem to get me anywhere.

After a bit, I wake up, staring straight at a wall. Wait, Wife should be where the wall is. Still dreaming. I try to move but I'm totally frozen. I start contemplating an OBE exit before I wake up for real.

I was looking at myself in the mirror, and the mirror was fogging up as though ice was forming on it. This all seemed very strange, so I decided to do a nose plug RC. It worked, and I could breathe.
The mirrior began to defog, and for some reason my upper lip stretched out in a freakish manner. I yelled stop and it returned to normal. Then, for some strange reason, i ordered my hair to grow really long.
I remembered that I wanted to build a "dream base" or some kind of building or place that I would always go to in lucid dreams. (This was my goal before I took my break) I looked outside from the window in my room and saw an empty dirt lot.
Perfect, I thought. I began making my way downstairs. I told myself that I was dreaming over and over. When I got outside, the lot had converted to grass, and the setting had changed quiet alot, but there was still a considerable amount of room to do my construction.
I started by gesturing my hands and creating a foundation. Orgiginally, it was just a blue holographic outline on the ground, but slowly, it materialized. The foundation I happened to create was a concrete slab with some cobblestones around the side.
I gestured my hands up for a tower. Bricks appeared out of thin air, and would slide into their correct place and fuse together. I stepped back and had created a large brick tower, perhaps about eight stories tall. But the tower was skewed and crooked.
I gestured back down, and the tower deconstructed and faded away. I decided to try again.
I began creating concrete and glass pieces and moving them, ensuring that they were connected at the proper angle. But I didn't really know what I wanted to create.
Some dream characters came along and began annoying me and yelling taunts. I punched one of them, and sent him rocketing into the air. But the others continued to annoy me. I couldn't seem to punch them the same
I could tell that the dream was losing stability, and I came up with a clever solution.
I drew a box around my unfinished base, and flew up into the air.
"Okay, lets cut it and move it somewhere else"
I saw a holographic menu come up that said "copy" but the dream had destabilized, I woke up.

Well, I should probably draw my dream base and know what I want to make before I try to build it again. Nice attempt though, it's good to know that I have construction powers in dreams.