lucid

Old one!

1. (Fragment)

Lucid - although I barely remember. I stand at my kitchen counter in blue darkness, my mum on the other side, and pinch my nose for a reality check. It fails, and I know that I am dreaming - I wonder faintly how to keep my mum from finding out.

2.

I dream a song - it is a rap or more accurately, spoken. I recall hearing it in full, with distinct rhythm and what felt to be profoundly meaningful words, though I can't remember much now.

When I think of Amy Wine/
_.._.._/
_.._..and/
Laid the foundations/
Of beauty...

The song resounds in my mind as I fly over the city and the rooftops, feeling like a shooting star. The sky fades between several hazy, painted landscapes - sunsets, mornings - beaming light and colour. They are by her - she was an artist, surely.

3.

I am walking through the streets around my home - touring someone around, perhaps - perhaps I am experiencing a TV show about my area. It feels like that - like I'm not really here. Someone else's voice in my head explains to me what I'm seeing. I pass down a cobbled street, introducing the viewer to the pastry factory on the other side of the street - although it looks like a warehouse it makes the best cakes, and they're cheap! (IRL in its supposed location there is in fact a small film studio - it does look like a warehouse.) It's evening and the sky is indigo with a blurry slice of cold yellow at the bottom. I am heading home with a spring in my step - it should be almost dinnertime.

Once I'm back in my room, I reach for something on my desk and it's not there - strange - only a gap. This makes me feel odd so I move a few other objects to fill the space and placate my suspicions. When I look over to my bedside table, too, things I thought would be there are missing. My confusion grows and I rearrange some trinkets and ornaments so it looks normal, to take my mind off the weirdness.

I check my phone; I have an email notification. My parents were discussing my always being late and what they should do about it (??). It seems I was late to dinner tonight and my dad's response was to confiscate loads of my belongings. I can't believe he'd do this without even telling me, and the next thing I find missing, I storm out to confront him about it. I can't remember his response.

4. (Fragment)

An attic dimly lit with blue light. Open cardboard boxes are about, books stacked inside. There is a bookshelf against the back wall opposite the door and a small window in the slant of the roof.

Notes:

- More technology.
- Dream music! Who else has this happened to?
- Seems like a trend (with my last lucid dream) that despite being lucid I don't want DCs to know I'm dreaming or see me do anything abnormal. I really wonder why...

I was ordering takeout with my fiance. His mom was there who I quite do not like irl and so I simply told her "I haven't seen you in a while". Eventually morning came and we were still waiting on the sushi. Someone else we were with opted to order pizza, and so we were waiting for pizza as well. The place we were in was unfamiliar but it looked nice, albeit somewhat like a display in a store with how large the front window looking out onto the alley we were in was.

Next, I was in the bay area trying to locate the nearest practice space so my band could start doing stuff. Everyone else was there already and at first I was doing okay but eventually I found myself lost on the peninsula and was turned around quite a bit. I got help from the owner of a chinese restaurant that I promised I'd come back to afterwards and I was able to use their wifi. While trying to locate the studio in google maps which showed quite an odd version of the bay area and adjacent landmasses, I overheard a chinese woman talking to the owner, saying she was surprised she still remembered english. Afterwards I thanked them and was on my way towards geary street, which in the dream extended quite far down past san francisco. However, I found myself instead inside someone's incredibly poorly lit house. I found pieces of writing on the ground/on furniture and walls and pieces of paper that suggested that the person whose house I was in was an actor and eventually I found myself in the middle of my childhood kitchen. I hugged my grandma, who resembled more closely a stereotypical russian grandma and had an emotional moment with her where I said I felt bad that she probably always saw me as my mom's kid, which she seemed somewhat offended by in a "I would never see you like that" way before disappearing and leaving me in the kitchen. I gained lucidity when I realized that there's no way I could actually even be in this house anymore and I grabbed a small axe to defend myself before waking myself up and placing the hatchet on my computer desk. That being said I can tell you safely that I have never had an axe or hatchet of any kind so I don't know what that was about because it's certainly not there right now. It felt as if there was no clean transition between dreaming and wakefulness.

(At some point in a vaguely remembered separate fragment, I was discussing working with Set with someone I think)

I was ordering takeout with my fiance. His mom was there who I quite do not like irl and so I simply told her "I haven't seen you in a while". Eventually morning came and we were still waiting on the sushi. Someone else we were with opted to order pizza, and so we were waiting for pizza a well. The place we were in was unfamiliar but it looked nice, albeit somewhat like a display in a store with how large the front window looking out onto the alley we were in was.

Next, I was in the bay area trying to locate the nearest practice space so my band could start doing stuff. Everyone else was there already and at first I was doing okay but eventually I found myself lost on the peninsula and was turned around quite a bit. I got help from the owner of a chinese restaurant that I promised I'd come back to afterwards and I was able to use their wifi. While trying to locate the studio in google maps which showed quite an odd version of the bay area and adjacent landmasses, I overheard a chinese woman talking to the owner, saying she was surprised she still remembered english. Afterwards I thanked them and was on my way towards geary street, which in the dream extended quite far down past san francisco. However, I found myself instead inside someone's incredibly poorly lit house. I found pieces of writing on the ground/on furniture and walls and pieces of paper that suggested that the person whose house I was in was an actor and eventually I found myself in the middle of my childhood kitchen. I hugged my grandma, who resembled more closely a stereotypical russian grandma and had an emotional moment with her where I said I felt bad that she probably always saw me as my mom's kid, which she seemed somewhat offended by in a "I would never see you like that" way before disappearing and leaving me in the kitchen. I gained lucidity when I realized that there's no way I could actually even be in this house anymore and I grabbed a hatchet with my left hand to defend myself before waking myself up and placing the hatchet on my computer desk. That being said I can tell you safely that I have never had an axe or hatchet of any kind so I don't know what that was about because it's certainly not there right now. It felt as if there was no clean transition between dreaming and wakefulness.

(At some point in a vaguely remembered separate fragment, I was discussing working with Set with someone I think)

14/9/24 Estoy con alguien, veo que llega un bus, llega otro cerca de alguien, voy al baño en mi casa y me doy cuenta de que estoy soñando, veo el lavatorio y el baño, veo como es cada uno intento modificar la materia me quedo pensando en como es lo que quiero modificar y visualizo el resultado final

8/9/24 Estoy en un carro con mi primo, hay un carro adelante, para y chocamos un poco, nos bajamos y vemos una computadora, empezamos a ver qué hace cuando le tocan teclas, hay una tecla roja y la presiono, buscamos información de esa computadora que nos pueda servir, bajamos por unas gradas y mi primo se va para un lugar, yo voy afuera y está soleado y se ve el cielo azul, me doy cuenta de que estoy soñando y empiezo a volar, veo el edificio por donde estábamos

I am in a large room where many people are gathered, where the wall I’m facing is almost entirely windows, and a forested area is visible beyond. A woman sits in a chair in the middle of the room. She is in bad health, and seems to be the center of attention. I have the impression that everyone here is family.

Through the glass of the windows, I see a shadowy figure appear. I shout at it and make gestures, trying to “catch” it. I can’t allow it to come any closer to her - although I’m quite aware that nobody else here can see it, and this probably looks pretty weird right now. Not that it’s there, in any kind of objective sense. But I can only perceive using the senses I have, and so it’s got to “be” somewhere. But whatever. I’ve just got to make it go away - that’s what’s important. I finally manage it, at which point the thing splits into two and vanishes.

It isn’t over yet, though. I see a disembodied arm very close to the glass, grabbing for a necklace. I run over and grab the arm, which is extremely hairy, and pull. I tell the others that they need to pull too, holding onto me, for it to work. I’m not sure if they’ll believe me and do it, but they do. One woman reaches out to try to feel the arm. She can touch it, as I thought she'd probably be able to, although it still isn’t visible to her. It actually seems to be working.

7.7.24


I’m in a museum with my aunt and uncle. It seems to be a museum of techno. Various displays are set up in a large, open space, but the different music playing at each one seems to be the focus rather than anything visual. The default language here seems to be German. I want to go off to explore on my own, but if my uncle also decides to go off alone, I’m not sure how my aunt will do by herself.

Later, I’m on a train. I didn’t manage to find a free seat, but I really don’t mind too much. In another part, Nina approaches me, holding a bottle of hand soap she found in the bathroom, showing me that it has some kind of punny train-related name.

—

In another dream later in the night, I seem to be a university student. A group of students approaches me, having discovered that I’ve taken classes in “the French room”. They have apparently heard stories about this place and want to see it for themselves. I say I’ll take them there, although it isn’t clear to me what’s supposed to be so special about it.

I ask one young woman why everyone is so intent on going there. She gives a couple reasons, one about it being where somebody’s finger was pricked. I don’t outright realize I’m dreaming, but the fairy tale reference still makes me take notice. I realize that I need to understand what she’s saying in a symbolic way. She seems upset - so much that I ask her if she really wants to go there, when just talking about it is that bad.

28.7.24


I’m lying on a couch, reading a book. From where I am, I can hear my aunt and uncle talking downstairs. My aunt says that she’s going to drive herself to an appointment she’s made with a doctor. I don’t think she’ll follow through or get far enough to put herself in danger, but my uncle should probably hide the keys anyway. (I’m probably thinking of my grandmother and her car crash on some level.) Sure enough, I can hear him going over to the cabinet by the door and getting them out. The keys fly up over the half-wall and land somewhere soft. I get up and go find them.

In the next part I remember, I’m somewhere else - a landing, apparently in the same house. I set the keys by the top step of the stairs, where my uncle can get them again if he needs them. He’s just downstairs, and I tell him as much, then go to get changed. I’m still wearing the shirt I’ve been sleeping in. I take it off as I head back. It seems to be the only thing I’m wearing.

The setting is once again different - it seems to be a school gym. The gym leads into an enormous cavern. I recognize the cavern as mine somehow - it belongs to me, it’s my home - and just being there makes me feel more clear-headed and spacious. I can recall previous times I’ve been to this place, and I’m already acting as if I’m aware I’m dreaming, although the realization hasn’t explicitly dawned yet.

The entrance is very wide and tall, and the area inside is vast - like an entire city with a nocturnal atmosphere. In the entry area, I see a group of people, two women with a group of teenagers. They all look a little lost. I figure I should offer to help them out - although maybe I should put on some clothes first? Then again, this is a dream - I realize - and does that really matter? I decide that I’ll offer to help, and also say I’ll put on clothes if they’d prefer - and proceed to do so.

They react as if I’ve just confirmed something they suspected, and one tells me that they can get out on their own, so I go further into the cave, going over the dream-familiar areas as I pass, now flying. There are six or seven in the front area I have memories of, which I revisit mentally, one by one. But I’ve only explored a small part of what’s here.

At some point, my parents seem to be there as well, also flying. I don’t have a strong visual impression of them. There is a fire burning here - I can see more fiery areas as we go upward, through what now seems to be an unrealistically large space for an underground area. It doesn’t spread, but it’s still not safe to get too close. They now take the lead, flying ahead, further in. More memories arise of a location supposedly from an early dream of the night, also with fire - but we’re going to put that out, and that will also make one of the larger ones in the area we passed go out. This is how it has to be, I recall - they need to be the ones to do it. By the time I land, they’ve already put it out. The air is smoky now, and I’m concerned for one of the cats, T, who is now there as well.

20.8.24


I’m walking along the streets of a city at night. My long-haired Manx cat, C, is with me, keeping pace but exploring on her own as well. There are other cats around, and even a dog, so I’m keeping a close eye on her as we go.

Inside the building that’s my destination, I start to realize I’m dreaming, and I can do whatever I want (continuing from a dream even earlier in the night where I became aware but awoke soon after.) I head back out, going through a hallway. At a doorway, I pass a large Black man in a suit - he registers to me as some kind of security guard. We non-verbally acknowledge each other as I pass. Another guard stands by the door leading outside - but I decide to go up instead. It occurs to me - not fully consciously, probably at least partly because this is still a dream from early in the night - that I’m in a state of natural creativity, and so I start to hum/sing, letting the music spontaneously take shape. It’s partway between imagining it and hearing it performed - although it’s mostly instrumental, and I’m aware of the filter automation and gating that are expressed symbolically in my inflections.

Outside, it’s dark, as before, but well-lit. I’m in a plaza with a fountain in the center, and nobody else seems to be around. Where to go? Maybe to the top of the clock tower some distance away. I fly upwards, but gaining height feels too slow. I experiment with pushing off with one leg at a time as if there was something solid under me to “jump” upwards. It seems to work well.

As I rise, I notice a tall, narrow cliff ahead of me, going up even higher. Where is it leading? It seems to be narrowing out to a point towards the direction I came from. I change my mind - I’ll go there instead. I’m curious to see what might be at the very top. I turn around and rise still further until I’m hovering a little above it, almost climbing it, and then I’m at the summit. There’s nothing there, actually. How anticlimactic. The dream seems to be unstable now, and I know I have to keep moving, so I fly away, towards other spaces, but it still turns into another nonlucid dream not long afterwards.

1.9.24

29/8/24 Estoy en una fiesta y veo a varias personas Le pregunto a alguien por WhatsApp algo porque quería que me hiciera un trabajo y la persona me dice que no puede voy a salir de ese lugar y veo a alguien con el uniforme de porrista de las PoMPoMs , me doy cuenta de que estoy soñando y aparezco en la casa de alguien veo a 2 personas y veo mi WhatsApp, veo el chat con la persona que hablé antes y le pregunto que si puede hacer uno de 1 x 11 meses, hago que se detengan 2 personas que están cerca mío, las veo lentamente y les cambio la apariencia, veo a 2 perros por el cuarto de pilas y saco a uno, me veo las manos y pienso en cómo hacer que el sueño dure más y me acuerdo que "moviendo las manos" el sueño dura más, las muevo circularmente

31/8/24 Estoy en mi casa en mi cuarto, veo que una persona llega, me pide un abrigo de coopebampo que alguien le había prestado a mi mamá y vino para que se lo devuelvan, yo se lo doy, me doy cuenta de que estoy soñando y estoy en un lugar oscuro estoy en una fiesta y hay varias personas al otro lado de donde estoy porque estoy por una puerta, empiezo a flotar y veo mis manos, me acuerdo de un consejo que es para que el sueño dure más que es tocar cosas, veo a mi alrededor vasos toco esos vasos y me molestan los de la fiesta empiezo a pelear esas personas, tiro vasos a personas hasta que se enojan y se revelan le tiro un vaso a alguien y se enoja, está al frente mío, desaparezco a esa persona y peleo contra los demás, veo a Fernanfloo

yet another lucid dream! i find it quite interesting that its only after stopping actively trying to lucid dream ive been able to. i was slow to journal, and thus didnt manage to record many details, but i realised i was dreaming after meeting a LD youtuber, & realising he did not prompt me to perform a reality check.
once again, this dream was quite a blurry one. ive heard that "your dreams are never blurry, its just your memory is poor", but i ca attest against that. it was blurry, and in the dream itself that frustrated me.
another interesting pattern ive realised in my dreams, is that 'my' love interests are always women, despite the majority of my partners & crushes being men. perhaps i should learn some more of the lore surrounding this dream identity?

No dreams remembered on the morning of the 25th.
This morning, the 26th

LUCID: Winter Wander

Sunbathers scattered across summery sands. Lake, shimmering cliffs and vales of ice. Sprays of mist spew upward from the sheen. Refracted sunlight shifts into ghosts of geometric shapes. No phone. No camera. It is uncaptured.

Scale rugged ways. Up here the world is chill. Run the ridge of a deep plowed trail. Far below, specks of children play away the day. Thin ice sheet reaches opposite ridge. Run back and forth. Each step a crackle. Scolded. Retreat to ridge. Run with the wild ire of a foal set free.

Waterfall roars right. To behold it, people stream down iced cliffs. Friend follows their current. I refuse. Run my ridge and reach an uncle's home. His house overflows with children. Help him herd them until the sky grows bruised.

Where is my cliff crossing friend? Lost? Fallen? Fractured? Dead? Fear. Cousin accompanies into snow and shadow. Dunes stand deep. Slog and seek. Fear spirals. Spirals. Spirals. Peaks. Not even dancing moonbow magic shifts the sorrow. "It's okay. The aliens got him. He's alive out there, somewhere," Cousin reassures. Aliens? Fear? Sorrow?

A stealthy finger through palm. "OH! We're dreaming." Declaration unacknowledged. Cousin is gone. All are gone. Wander on. Search for other dream-swept souls.

Man do I miss Dreamviews... warmest greetings to everyone here, old and new! I recently had this high-level LD which featured my good friend, dreaming partner, and virtuoso LDer Dreamer and I was inspired by her recent DJ entry to post one myself!

This dream took place on August 3rd, 2024.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #3??: Johann (August 3rd, 2024)

I’m walking through a tunnel underground, and it reminds me of a dream I had earlier where I bumped into a guy, a black man, late 40s dressed in a suit. I see him up ahead and wonder whether my other dream was a premonition! I feel a rush of excitement.

But then as I’m walking toward him, someone else bumps into him, some other guy in a suit. The man apologizes and they begin conversing. I wander away, feeling a little confused. Was I supposed to be a part of that? I walk up a ramp toward a rickety old elevator, and a young guy signals me from inside. “Hey,” he says, “I think I can help you!”

I join him in the elevator. He’s a fair skinned guy of about 20 with chin length blond hair. He says his name is Johann, that he’s friends with Dreamer, and can help me figure out what’s going on. He tells me he knows that I’m confused and can help me get it sorted out.

The elevator takes us into a vast, circular stone chamber, elegantly decorated but dusty and abandoned. A spiral staircase wraps all the way around the sides of this chamber, twisting up to a shaft of light above.

I start slowly making my way up this staircase but Johann races ahead, sprinting on the wall itself at incredible speeds! I shout something like Good Lord! in disbelief. He pauses about halfway up and looks down at me. I tell him that I’d want to do that in a lucid dream and explain that I’ll be working on a lucid later on when I go to sleep. The thought of lucid dreaming prompts me to reality check, so I nose pinch and breathe right through! This seems crazy so I do it again, and now I am LUCID!

I take off after Johann, trying to wall run, and I am just ok at it, more bouncing along the side like a balloon than moving like parkour, but even amateurish lucid wall running is still lucid wall running! I then start cheating and just run straight up the wall. Johann still beats me by a mile though.

I emerge in a supermarket, and Dreamer is here! (Johann is gone.) We greet one another with a long, full hug, and afterward I tell her that this dream feels different, really stable, and that I think we have tons of time. So let’s explore the supermarket and try to figure out where we are!

At first we talk about whether it’s the supermarket from when she and AnotherDreamer visited but we quickly spot lots of differences, so no, this one’s just ours. It’s very long, almost seems too long to walk, and it’s divided into an area with aisles and another area with hand-placed shelves featuring non-grocery goods like antiques. As we’re walking past one display, some part of my dream body catches on a shelf and pulls it down, smashing pottery and making a huge racket. I feel quite lucid and unconcerned about this causing any real harm but do feel a little clumsy.

We keep wandering aisles and so much of it is canned goods like meaty dog food, things that will be extremely unappealing as a treat or to offer as a snack! Ah good, now we’re in the chocolate aisle! I grab a pack of Reese’s peanut butter cups for myself when I see it, wonder whether Dreamer likes these. Are they vegan? I can’t remember! Can’t seem to read the label very well. Ah, here is Hershey’s special dark. I’ll bet these are vegan and I know they’re great! I offer her a pack and she says thanks but she doesn’t like dark chocolate. I am skeptical that this matches waking life but no worries, doesn’t matter!

Dreamer says that we should go outside to our ride. Out the automatic doors onto a seaside street, the morning misty and cool. There’s a streetcar waiting here and we hop aboard. I talk with Dreamer about the dream so far and about Johann, ask her whether she remembers anyone like that. She says there’s one guy with a fuzzy beard who is maybe a little like that but that he is not very adventurous and quite unfit.

We talk about the dream itself, about REM, about how long this could go on. I speculate that there might be a 2 hour maximum for a period of REM. Talk about how locked in I feel. The dream is extremely realistic -- I even feel the nervousness of making sure that I'm being interesting and not obsessing about boring subjects to Dreamer! There’s even just a tiny bit of detectable anxiousness in her as well, just the slightest amount, like a waking life interaction, something usually absent from dreams.

She says that the next part up ahead is going to feel dangerous but that we’re perfectly safe. That there’s something that has to be done. A young Corbin Bernsen climbs a short ladder and mounts up on some sort of ballista behind a shield. The streetcar trundles past a hulking old wooden factory labeled The Dog Factory. Corbin Bernsen fires the ballista, spraying the Dog Factory with a scattershot of bolts that collapses the roof! How does this weapon even work?

I assume that this place was doing something terrible like making dogs into food, and don’t worry about it too much. I also assume it was empty. I can sense a dream plot building up, and as the street car pulls into a dusty, abandoned building with a small group of likable paramilitary rebels out of central casting, I see it continuing here. Everyone looks cool and relatable, clean, relatively young, more like a Hollywood version of scrappy rebels.

Dreamer has vanished now. As I converse with these rebels I learn that they all consider her to be not the leader but an important senior figure. I talk about how this is all part of a lucid dream that I’m having and that I can teach them lucid powers to help with their cause. I try to teach them parkour and get caught up gushing about how much better Johann is than I am! I show them how to float upward, claiming to be really good at this, but then can’t stop, and float high into some kind of bell tower!

Jon Lovitz is here and I tell him about lucid dreaming as well. I prepare a little demonstration where I will ask him what he had for breakfast and then make him say “waffles”. But instead, even though I will him to say waffles, instead he says “lunch!” I laugh, tell him this is a great Jon Lovitz reply and that he’s a funny guy. He tells me that he is always happy to help the cause. I move to float away and explore more as the dream ends.

i had another lucid dream, finally! this time was very brief, ive fallen behind on my Retaining Lucidity practices. there was no real trigger for it, interestingly. i broke into a house and poked around, accepting the odd furniture and the fact that i wasnt sure what i was doing there. but the moment i sat down at the computer, everything just clicked. i thought 'huh, thats pretty cool!' and figured id try to get the computer working as it would while waking, but while messing around on there my lucidity faded fast.

Dream post 4:30 am after cat zoomies woke me.

Eyes refuse to see. Limbs refuse to stretch. Familiar gritty feeling prompts a pointer though palm. Dreaming? We are particles woke too soon. We will not solidify. Behold sketchy, backward hands. Universal snore rips us further into pieces.

Wake.

Chant dreamy charms. Misted curtains shift. I am in bed. Thoughts outside my head. Snap back. Roll. Feet slap floor. "I'm dreaming already?" Finger through palm and... yes. "I'm seeming to be dreaming." Step. Particles again. Wobble in and out of this specter frame of flesh. Pull it together. Dreaming. Dreaming. I am one.

Slink through sterile, soul-less rooms. Lean on a wall. Fall through to something new, a mall. Introductions to one and all. Ignored. Only acknowledgement by a twig of guy spewing carnal propositions. "I'm Sweven. Lucid. There are better things to do than sex." "Like what?" I shrug.

Move along. Goals. Where are my goals. None. Mind swims with base desires. Seek some soul to know. None. "I'm Sweven. Dreaming," I remind this world. Cast for a curvy girl with hints of gothic grace. She blooms from rabble. Her eyes find mine. We greet with lips. No. She is far to fair to bring so low. Farwell. She falls away. Create my own satisfaction. Breath takes me there. Softly so as not to slip awake. Sigh. Shut out the world.

Alone with storms and whipping weeds. From irate sky ropes rip down and dance as double helixes. They come. Raging. Roaring. Ragged souls. Fear finds me. Quick finger through the palm is calming. "Come. Do it. I'm Sweven. Dreaming," I sing to the storms. The ropes surround, cocoon around. Collapse in from the sky. Rain of tangled snakes. Swift shadow.

Lucidity lost. What farthing is this? Wade through gold, rolling green, sweet serene. An offering of bread. I am welcomed. Wander free to find my place amidst holey hills.

Estoy en la casa de mi abuela y veo a una señora embarazada con un señor y cuidan a la señora, ella nos dice que era como una superheroína y la veo como era antes con su traje rojo y una cosa que era como una u con una linea recta como una Y pero redonda, me doy cuenta de que estoy soñando y aparezco en mi casa, muevo los objetos con la mente y hago que se ralentice el tiempo, salgo y empiezo a volar cerca del planché y veo el cielo y las plantas, bajo y voy a la casa de mi abuela

I usually dream every day; I don't always remember exactly what I dreamed, but it always happens. Today, I dreamed I was on a very busy avenue with someone who seemed like a family member or a close friend, but then that person disappeared, and I found myself a few blocks ahead, still heading towards my house, which is about 4 blocks away. At the corner, I bumped into a girl I personally don't like. After talking about some random stuff with her, I realized my round glasses were missing. At that moment, I asked myself if I was in a dream, but everything felt real. I could see, hear, even think—everything seemed normal. So, I turned around and found a guy across the street selling cheap stuff, like phone accessories, in a cart that looked like a tiny dollar store. But it was attached to a motorbike. My friend (who just spawned out of nowhere) and I walked over, and the guy made me try on some glasses, which were square-shaped, and I could see perfectly. That was surprising because without them, my vision is so blurry that everything looks like a Jackson Pollock painting.

When I took them off, I handed them back to the guy. I didn’t have money at the time to buy new glasses, and I guess money doesn’t really make sense in a dream anyway. So, when I tried to find the girl again, she was gone. I turned right, and there was a house with stairs leading up to it. Through a window, I could see rooms painted blue, pretty run-down, and there was an old man inside. For some reason, he had my glasses. My friend and I went in, and we started looking around. In one of the rooms, the old man was sleeping with the light on. He was old, that’s all I remember.

Then there was some kind of glitch in reality, and now we were standing and talking to the old man, who kindly offered to help us find my glasses. He could’ve easily been a pedophile, but we followed him anyway.

My friend was following him really closely while I was lagging behind, checking out each room, which got darker and emptier the further we went. The walls were still blue. Then, for some weird reason, they started jogging and turned left. I saw this pattern of blue lights on a wall; it kinda looked like some sort of artwork with white and light blue rectangles mixed with dark ones, getting more surreal as it went on. (And no, I don’t take LSD.)

When I turned the corner, the light started to dim, and I saw them enter a room through a wooden door that just pushed open. So, I started counting from the moment I pushed the first door. When I stepped in, I went completely blind. Everything was pitch black. I lost all track of my friend and the old man—I was screwed. I counted 1, 2, 3, and when I got to 4, my brain betrayed me and started counting fast—4, 5, 6, 7, 8. But I tried to focus and kept going straight. When I got to 8, a thought hit me: Why didn’t I think of this before? I should call him on my phone. Oh, wait, I don’t have a phone, and I’m blind. Nah, that didn’t happen. I realized I was in a dream and tried to wake up but couldn’t. I wanted to move to the next room, but the door wouldn’t budge. I just stayed calm and noticed I was awake, both in the real world and the dream world, but I couldn’t feel my body or my breathing. I couldn’t see anything, but I could still hear. Except I wasn’t hearing anyone or anything. I wanted to hear some music, someone talking, or even that damn dog that barks at midnight just to annoy people, but there was nothing. My mind was in my bed, and my mind was at door 8. So, when I pushed with all my strength on door 9, I kneed my left leg, and I woke up, but nothing felt real—not because I thought I was still dreaming, but because I don’t feel like any of this is real.