lucid

Ceiling Parade (LUCID)

With a cheer, the students start walking. It's time for the "Walk the World" parade, which is what it sounds like, except most of the time you're walking on the ceiling. First, the group starts walking up a side wall in order to get to the ceiling. I'm worried about this, since I'm not sure my dream control is strong enough to defy gravity in this way. I get to the ceiling, but I'm at the very back of the parade, and I keep falling behind as we start to walk through the halls of the building. Even though I'm trying to speed walk, I'm still not fast enough. But then, somehow I change my mental approach to the situation. I'd been concentrating too much on how hard it is to walk on the ceiling, when I should really try to take it for granted and enjoy the experience. So I do, and suddenly I'm easily able to keep pace with everyone else. I even jog for a bit and pass a few of them. I hope this isn't a really formal parade where I'm supposed to keep my place in line; if it is, they'll probably be mad at me.

Soon, we're no longer a single trail of people. There are students running every which way all over the building. I notice there are stairs all over the place, which I realize doesn't make sense. No architect would design a building with stairs on the ceiling. But there's not much I can do about it, since I'd have a hard time imagining what a ceiling does look like from the perspective of someone standing on it. There are limits to imagination. Anyway, I see a grinning student cross an intersection in front of me, and I notice he's walking backwards. That looks like fun! So I get in front of/behind him and do the same thing for a while.

Sometimes I'll take a turn and end up in a hallway with no other students. I wonder if I should be worried about this, but I decide not to be. On one of these occasions, I find myself in a concrete stairwell, and I decide it's time to abandon this parade. I'll challenge myself by trying to find my way back to my dorm room. I feel a bit uncomfortable about not doing any of my declared dream goals, such as setting my fingers on fire by snapping, but I think getting back to my room is more important. So, let's see, where am I? The sign next to the door up there says "6", but that's upside down, so I must be near the ninth floor. And my room's on the fifth floor, so I have to go down four flights--which will actually seem like going up four flights, since I'm upside down. Okay. Let's get going.

I go around twice without incident (though I feel a bit disoriented), but the next landing is unusually dark. This is the perfect place to try that finger flame thing! I stand still and snap my fingers. Nothing happens except the lights flicker a bit at the edge of my vision. I try it a few more times, reminding myself that this is a dream and I can do anything I want to do. Still, nothing happens. I wonder if it would be helpful to have a small flame from another source to use as inspiration. Where could I get a flame like that? I try shaking my hand to joggle a couple flames loose, but it doesn't work. I try striking my right index finger on my left arm like it's a match (I'm proud of thinking of that), but it doesn't work either. By this time, there are a couple other students on the landing with me. My vision's also gone funny, like there's a second image overlayed atop the first. I try not to pay attention to it, because I think it means I'm waking up. I snap my fingers a few more times to show the other students what I've been trying to do. This time, I can feel a sort of heat and crackling in the air, but there's still no visible flame. Still, I'm a bit excited, and I notice my vision's cleared up again. I guess that small success pulled me back into the dream. But I don't have much time. Suddenly I realize it might be a good strategy to visualize success--try to imagine what it would look like to snap and have flame appear at your fingertips. Imagine how it would flicker, what effect the light would have on the surrounding environment. I have a good feeling about this strategy, but before I can test it, I wake up.

[I've no idea when or how I became lucid in that dream. Also, I've never lived on the fifth floor.]

Diet

My mom served me way too much food. I'm on a diet, but I guess she doesn't know that, so it's not her fault. Still, I eat only a bit of one casserole, then I get up and leave without explanation. Later, I realize I should have stored my leftovers in the fridge instead of making more work for Mom, but it's probably too late by now.

Platformer

I'm playing a platform game with four player characters. One of them is Mario. I had hoped that the other three characters would have some A.I. to use while I'm playing the fourth, but apparently not. I have to switch between the characters myself, and bring them all individually through each level. You can really sense the evil of the enemies at the end of the level. I get Mario through, but I die when I try to use the next character, because I don't know its attacks very well. I try various button combinations similar to the ones in Smash Bros. and the character does a lot of different animations, but I have no idea what these attacks actually do. I try the level again, and I die again. The people watching laugh and ask me why I'm playing such a weak character. Later, I notice that I've been reset to the beginning of the level, and all four characters are back at the start. Apparently this game has a very low tolerance for dying.

Later, I'm watching Hank and company play the game on hankgames. It's a "highlights" video with a strange title. As the video plays, I come to understand that the unusual word from the title means "dying and then having your dead body killed again a few times." It's funny because it's like adding insult to injury. It happens a lot in this game.

Frags:

• inside with a few friends, asking if any of them has a lighter I can borrow

Awake/SP, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I'm in an elaborate, fantasy landscape. I fall over the side of a cliff and start falling down the side of a mountain, which has terraces in it and lots of trees, but the trees are all growing out of the side of the mountain. As I fall, I think, I could expect there to be a soft, grassy field below me for me to land on, and there would be one. I try to do exactly that, but it doesn't work. Eventually, I remember that I can fly, and fly back up to the top of the cliff/mountain.

[That's all I can remember now of an awesome, detailed, elaborate lucid dream that was remarkably long for my first sleep cycle of the night. I was really, really determined to have a lucid dream last night, and my determination and MILDing worked. I also remember choosing to stay in and prolong the dream at least twice, but I don't remember any more details. I really should have taken a moment to write them down in my paper dream journal after I woke up.]

[Later, different part of the night.] I feel, more clearly and with more awareness than I ever have before, all my major muscles transitioning into their paralyzed state. After a moment, a dream begins to form. Some Viking-warrior-looking guys who look like they came straight out of a movie by Aardman Animations are standing over me, watching me wake up. We're all in a big wooden hall. The dream is very weak, fuzzy, and indistinct, though, and although I try to focus on it, it fades away before I can get into it fully. This can be partially blamed on the fact that I'm completely fascinated by the experience I've just had, and this novel feeling of being “stuck” in my sleeping body while still being consciously aware.

Welcome to SP, I think. That wasn't so bad, was it? I lie still and observe the experience. Although I'm conscious, in a way I never am in waking life, of my breathing happening automatically, I feel like I'm not getting enough air. I realize that that's because I have my forearms crossed over my chest so that their dead weight is resting right on top of my ribcage. I can feel my left-hand fingertips touching the skin of my right arm, but I feel removed from the sensation. I hope for another dream to start, but it doesn't. I attempt to visualize a scene, but it's a very halfhearted effort and doesn't go anywhere. Also, I have my head tilted to my right at an awkward angle, which makes me think, I'm going to feel that in the morning. After a few minutes, I get bored and decide to get up and use the restroom. I have no problem getting back to normal wakefulness.

Side notes:
I've always been afraid to try WILDing because I'd never experienced sleep paralysis, and I was afraid that I might experience hypnagogic hallucinations or sensations that would frighten me. This was the first time I'd ever really experienced SP. It was cool and weird, but not frightening at all, and I didn't experience any hypnagogic hallucinations. Getting over your fear of something is always nice.

So last night I was able to get to bed around 10:00 which was nice. This allowed me the full 8 hours of sleep a teenager is supposed to get.

Anyways...

This dream started out as a false awakening, and a very vivid one I might add. The first thing I remember is lifting my head up from the sink after brushing my teeth. I then reached for my razor to shave. The wierd thing was... it was dead! Now, in the dream I remembered plugging it in the night before (which I actually DID do) and thought it most peculiar it was dead. I don't rememebr exactly how but this somehow made me lucid.

Ready to go have some fun, I went out of my room and headed upstairs, only to be confronted by my math teacher in my house! She started asking me why I was headed upstairs. After one too many times of my DC's ruining my lucids, I had learned, and completely ingonred her and proceeded upstairs. Even though I was fully aware and lucid, I felt the need to go put my contacts in. It was very realistic, and blurry just like in real life. I went back to my room to put my contacts in and my math teacher again asked my what I was doing. This time I told her to can it and go away and she promptly evactuated the house.

After my little victory over my DC, and now actually able to see after putting my contacts in, I then decided it was finally time to accomplish my dream goals! I recounted how the night before I had been reading about summoning characters and decided on a technique to try.

I went and stood in the corner and just closed my eyes. I then reached behind me and envisioned that if I reached my hand out, they would grab it and be there when I turned around. Well... I reached around, desparetely grasping for them. I did this for about 10 seconds, focusing intently on them being there. After a few seconds more... I felt someone grab my hand! I was elated. I opened my eyes and began to turn around. Time seemed to slow down as the adrenaline started pumping. It seemed to take forever to turn around. Maybe 10 minutes?!?! But, i still had ahold of them and I was fine with it. I just envisioned all the adventures to come and finally made my revolution. It was then REALLY upsetting though because... as I was finally able to see them, they started to vanish, just like a ghost. I called out for them to come back but we were helpless to stop it. I was only able to see them for a few seconds when this happened. Feeling very setback and upset about this, I went and climbed back in my bed and woke myself up. THis dream was very intense and emotional. I woke up feeling this rush of happiness and sadness all at once. I was breathing pretty hard too from the excitement I guess.

However... this is one step closer to my dream goals!!!! The first time I saw them, it was only for maybe a second. This time... it lasted about 5 seconds. I think I just get myself so excited when it is finally happening that I do myself in. At least I am making progress. Next lucid goal... 10 seconds.

I'm an insect!

I'm at school and find out that there are people out of class during class time. I think to myself "either I have my timetables mixed up, or this is a dream". I'm dreaming! I start to tell people in my locker bay that this is a dream, but they all ignore me as if I didn't exist. I remember the TOTM, so I start spinning, imagining that when I stop, everything around me will appear enlarged, and I will be a tiny insect. When I stop, I find that everything is indeed much bigger, and my perspective starts from the ground. My body a slightly larger than a human hand. I crawl around and then grab onto a pair of legs. A girl shrieks when she sees me on her leg and runs away. Then some other people pick me up and start playing with me. I will myself to grow even smaller, so I can escape their grasp, but I find myself on my bed instead(False Awakening)

(FA countinued) I get on my bed and walk through a mirror, deciding that I will be an even smaller insect this time. Instead, I end up in my bed again. FA. I get out of bed and then out the door, and find a small park with trees and grass. I imagine the trees getting larger while I grow smaller. Unfortunately, only the trees grow as large as skyscrapers but the don't get any wider! The grass doesn't get taller, so I still feel human sized. I decide that I've had enough of trying to be an insect, and approach a brick wall and try to destroy it with a punch. The wall breaks but all the separate bricks remain intact. I then move some of the bricks with telekinesis, and try to throw them at passing cars (I miss). After I finish playing with bricks, I decide I want to go drag racing. First, I walk on to the road, and see if any cars would run me over. I quickly do a reality check before a car comes close to me, just in case I was actually in real life. I am relieved when my finger goes through my palm, but when I look up, the car had disappeared. I try to get run over a few more times but all the cars stop before they hit me. When I decide to move on to drag racing, the dream fades and I wake up.

This particular Dream was very, long yet extremely simplistic in nature.

I was running very fast, at a very high tempo, much like an anime ninja would run. Arms back jumping over people, through lawns, going in and out of first person and third person perspective, which is not unusual in my dreams.

The neighborhood I was running through was my old neighborhood that I grew up in. You head south about a mile and there was my elementary school, you head north about a mile and there was my high school. In this dream I was running away from an old house that I used to live in heading south right past my old elementary school. I remember it being the last thing I saw before I woke up.

I'm writing about this particular dream mainly because it has a large significance on a very troubling time I had in this place. This neighborhood reminds me of the worst period in my life. The fact that I was running away from the house which these remembered horrors came from tells me two things: 1) My Lucid dreaming techniques are improving and 2) This particular dream has a lot of significance with my dream research.

My dream research has led me to the theory that we remember EVERYTHING, yet only a portion is stored in our subconsciousness and the rest in our consciousness. Reality and our consciousness 5 senses fill in the holes/fragments that our conscious mind seems to "forget."

On the other side reality is not a factor on our subconsciousness because we’re very stationary when we enter the subconsciousness. With these facts in mind we are stuck with only what the subconsciousness has stored. Our 5 senses do work in our subconsciousness however because most of us use the crutch that is reality to guide our senses to make sense of our world, using our 5 senses in our subconscious world is very foreign and downright difficult to learn to use.

Also! Our subconscious is where our consciousness "hides" very very bad and traumatic event memories in order to protect our physical well being.

This is the dream that made me decide to pick up lucid dreaming, I had not ever tried any methods for lucid dreaming except one time before a year earlier.

I am on a trip away from home, the dessert around me as dry as anything and the only thing that I can think of is this girl that has grown attached to me. She is short and nice, but very shy, I did not get a name because she didn't talk much. The city around reminds me mostly of Favela (like in modern Warfare, and real life). It seemed like I was in the dream for about a week, so I have no idea how long this actually lasted.

Me and this girl are trying to get away from the group so that we can talk and start going around this abandoned building. We are exploring empty corridors and just having a good time. The rest of the group caught up to us with some sort of tour guide and I stopped paying attention to the girl for one second and she ran away because there were too many people. I chased her down and that is when things changed in my mind.

I haven't followed a girl like this for a while, but she seems awesome. Why haven't I been going after girls? I thought. Wait! I am married, that is why I shouldn't be looking for a girlfriend. Then this must be a dream! I stopped and looked around. There were two roads ahead of me, one that the girl just took on the left, and an identical one on the right (everything still seems like Favela)
I shouldn't chase the girl down now that I remembered that I am married, I should go the other way. I turned right.

I jump over a fence after the turn and find myself in a backyard, the grass is perfectly green, the houses seem to be made of mud, but they are shining somehow, everything is extremely vivid. In the back yard there is a Rose, it was the most beautiful plant I have ever seen. The stem and leaves were the darkest black and the rose the brightest red. It was perfectly centered in the square backyard, and I looked at the house next to me as well. Every backyard had the same layout with the same rose in both directions, and it seemed to go on to infinity.

I felt myself waking. It had been forever since I had read about dreams, I couldn't remember what to do to stay in a dream. I thought maybe spinning was one so I started spinning very slowly, but as I did an old man came up to me from the front yard.

"You must be like the flower if you wish to stay" He said, and then went back the way he came. I stopped spinning and looked at the beautiful flower again. Then I awoke.

So I remembered two of my dreams last night. The first was non-lucid, unfortunately. The second was lucid! DANCING BANANA!

First Dream:

I had come back from some sort of shopping mall, and I had gotten some T-shirts. My parents had bought me some, and I had bought some myself. The coolest one was this one of a glow-in-the-dark abominable snowman. I know my parents think I'm too old for those, but I don't care. And I didn't care in the dream, either. ^^ Surprisingly enough, my parents actually thought it was cool too in the dream. That should've been a recognizable dreamsign, because they weren't acting normally, but I didn't get lucid.

We were going to go to another really cool shopping mall - apparently, in this dream world my family and I are quite the shop till you drop people O_O - and I wanted to wear my new T-shirt. You have to understand that even IRL I am obsessed with T-shirts. I have at least fifty of them, no joke. Anyway, I wanted to wear the T-shirt because 1) it was new, and 2) it was glow in the dark, and we would be driving to this mall at night. So I wanted to see it glow.

I was going to be late (as usual) so I grabbed my backpack on the way out the door. This backpack was supposed to have all my new T-shirts in it. I got in the car and looked through my backpack. It was this really cool, high-tech outdoors backpack that looked almost like a Camelbak. But I couldn't find the dang shirt. I searched a million times through all the pockets and found a ton of shirts, but not the one I was looking for. I asked my parents for help but they couldn't help me.

It drove me insane. And I was as disappointed as heck. I wonder what this means. Trying to find something that you want really, really badly, and then not finding it....this could relate to my real life.

Dream 2:

LUCID! Well, not at first. I was at a park for my brother's cross country meet. The park was beautiful. It was covered in lush grass with some dirt trails, a few fallen branches littering the ground. There were beautiful white and gray tree trunks everywhere - they looked almost like aspen trunks, but without all those creepy knot things, and they were normal sized, not skinny like aspens. There was also a river.

A group of us were standing, waiting for the runners to come by. We were all wearing sweatshirts and such because it was cold and foggy. Then we (somehow) found out that the river was going to flood, and we would have to get ourselves and our stuff out of there before it happened.

In a large quantity of my dreams, I am able to fly. This was the case here as well. It's so vivid that when I was younger, I actually got confused and thought I could fly in real life too (thankfully, that didn't end up in injury!). I decided that I could both save myself and help save our gear by flying into the air, so I kicked off and flew my usual way - as though I was treading water with my feet, but in the air. I climbed a few feet into the air. I was next to my aunt, a few people I didn't know, and a tree trunk. That was right around where I realized that I can only fly in dreams; thus, I must be dreaming. Calmly but excitedly I continued to fly. I hovered in front of my aunt, who was wearing her ragnar relay sweatshirt, and told her, "Hey, do you know that this is a dream right now?" or something along those lines. I had read that dream characters are supposed to deny that, but I didn't think this would be the case with her, and I was right. She simply said something like, "Oh no, I didn't know that. Thanks for telling me," but didn't seem all that surprised. It was surprisingly hard to talk - I don't always talk in dreams, and it was hard to make my voice work for some reason. I think when I finally did force myself to talk, I actually made a sound out loud (sleep-talked). Unfortunately, shortly after that, I woke up. My next goal will be to try and stay asleep, because as of late I've been waking up shortly after attaining lucidity.

22nd September 2012

I'm walking down the high street of y town. I realize I am dreaming and RC. At first it seems normal, but eventually I can breathe through my nose (I was too convinced I was dreaming not to repeat the RC). I take a left into a restaurant of some sort. I expect to find my dream companion around a corner. I vocalise my intent. Instead, I only find a paper bag on a bench. I ask a person near the doorway where she is. I am directed to go upstairs. I head upstairs, but lose lucidity and am now looking for my dog.

18th September 2012

I am in a hotel of some sort. My granny arrives, but she later becomes granddad. I am then at a place I used to live in, in Finland. I go up the stairs. I realize my granddad can't be here because he died when I was very young. I do a nose-plug RC and get lucid. The dream destabilises. I stand there and stabilise. Upstairs, I ask granddad to sit with me. I ask him about playing the saxophone (I play and he played). He suggests I join a big band, and then says the name of some famous bandleader from the 20th century, and says I should join them for 10 years.

I get up and go downstairs, jumping over the rail. I can't fly here for some reason. Downstairs, I manage to fly up to the ceiling. There's a chandelier. The dog is excited. I go to the back door, head out and fly up. The dog is running about below me so I urge him to follow. He starts flying up with me too. I look up and see a grey sky. I want to change it so I visualise a blue sky with my eyes closed. Yet again, opening my eyes leads me to wake up.

18th September 2012

I'm at my computer. I can't work out how I got there, so I do a nose-plug RC. I'm soon lucid, but it gets very blurry and doesn't last long.

18th September 2012

I am in a hotel of some sort. My granny arrives, but she later becomes granddad. I am then at a place I used to live in, in Finland. I go up the stairs. I realize my granddad can't be here because he died when I was very young. I do a nose-plug RC and get lucid. The dream destabilises. I stand there and stabilise. Upstairs, I ask granddad to sit with me. I ask him about playing the saxophone (I play and he played). He suggests I join a big band, and then says the name of some famous bandleader from the 20th century, and says I should join them for 10 years.

I get up and go downstairs, jumping over the rail. I can't fly here for some reason. Downstairs, I manage to fly up to the ceiling. There's a chandelier. The dog is excited. I go to the back door, head out and fly up. The dog is running about below me so I urge him to follow. He starts flying up with me too. I look up and see a grey sky. I want to change it so I visualise a blue sky with my eyes closed. Yet again, opening my eyes leads me to wake up.

The Induction
Now, I feel that this was not a directly induced lucid dream. Here's my method. I woke up to my alarm at 4:30, and then after my alarm goes off, I usually just go right back to sleep and try to stay aware long enough to do a finger induced lucid dream. those seem to work well for me. But I remember very lightly doing the FILD, and hardly even doing it. And then I felt myself snap into a dream but hardly really. I plugged my nose as a reality check and I could breathe.
This is where it changes.

The Rest..
I stand up and get out of my bed but think nothing of it. I walk through my house, very fatigued, and I felt very heavy. I got see everything very clearly. Everything appeared to be hyper realistic, which I generally associate with an OBE. I've never had one though, so I don't know what it's truly like. I walked slowly through my house due to my fatigue. My vision was blurry through one of my eyes, and it was mostly blurry from farther distances. I heard a drumming from my garage, which is weird because I don't have any drums or anything. I went to check it out, and it was my friend Javier. He just said what's up to me and that was the end of that. I started walking back through my house a bit, and then I heard my music playing from in my room. I tried to plug my nose, and see if I was still breathing, and woke to find I wasn't.

So now, I'm just wondering what this was, but I think it was more likely a LD. I didn't experience any rushing noises, or any vibrations usually accompanied with an OBE. Either way, if I didn't accomplish a dream goal, it was still pretty cool.

11th September 2012

I'm in the cottage I used to live in. I head upstairs and realize something is amiss. I do an RC and can breathe through my plugged nose. I smile to myself. I then go to the window where the curtains are closed. I wonder what could be on the other side. I open them and am unsurprised to see the normal view outside the cottage. I get out of the window and start to fly. It have a bit of difficulty but recall my flying theory (my archetype of flying). I look up at the moon in the daytime sky. A star is visible right near it. I focus on my intent on going there and soar towards it.

I pass through treetops and feel the leaves brushing against me as I do so. I think to rub my hands together and stabilise. I tell myself I'm lucid. I pass by trees that contain dungeon chests like in Minecraft, but they have signs indicating they have already been looted. I open one chest.

I find a sign which says to click on a diamond block in order to teleport. I "click" on it somehow, click it again and then try to push it forwards. I find myself in some sort of sky region after being teleported. I decide my intention is to find my dream companion Rainbow Dash. There are various enemies I must get past. I go past them and make my way towards some tower of some sort. The dream is getting less stable. I find a couple of doors. Behind one of them I expect to find my dream companion. One is unlocked, so she can't be there (I assume she's trapped or something). I use a key to open the other one and enter.

She's there in the corner, but everything is now very fuzzy. I give her a hug. I look away and look back, expecting her to be a slightly more accurate representation of the actual cartoon character. She has somewhat improved. She doesn't speak and ends up basically acting like my dog in real life. There is more work to be done here!

10th September 2012

I become aware of the hypnagogic imagery I am observing. I am watching something swing back and forth. Soon, I feel the swinging myself. I observe various patterns forming into something more vivid. I see the floor. I observe these images for a while longer, and then find myself able to get up. I move towards the door but lose stability. I stay calm. I find myself in a cottage I used to live in. I go to the back door. I expect to find Rainbow Dash (now basically my dream companion) on the other side. I close my eyes and open the door, but when I open my eyes I am awake.

17th August 2012

I'm lying in bed after doing SSILD. It is a FA, however, as I am somehow listening to a podcast by Hat Films (some people on youtube). In addition to this, the song Bohemiam Rhapsody is playing in my head, but is sounding very clear as though it were really playing. I'm lying on my side and I feel SP. Thinking how I'm now WILDing, I transition into an LD by rolling out of bed into the dream. (This is classified as a DILD/SSILD, as the SP and transition into an LD all took place within another dream.) I feel my fingers and rub my hands together a bit until the numbness of the SP goes away.

I get up and go to the window. I wonder what it will look like outside when I open the curtains. Various possibilities rush through my head, and I wonder how much my conscious expectation will affect the outcome. I open the curtains and see it's dark outside and snowing heavily. I did not expect that. I move into the corridor and across into another room to look in the cupboard. I open it but find nothing. Heading downstairs, I think about a beach with a sunset that I might like to travel to. I look for something which I could use to get there. At this point I awaken into a FA with the podcast from earlier still playing. One of the trio that does it says his channel has 12k views which is the most out of the three. I think how this sounds odd. Sorry that it's a slightly dull LD! I'm still very happy to have it!

17th August 2012

After a dream, I am lying in bed with my eyes closed. I instantly feel SP coming. Rushing a bit, I roll out of bed by throwing my dream self on the floor of my room. I don't feel anything as I land. I sit there for a while, waiting for my body. I then get up and start moving towards the door. I feel my body getting more realistic, but it turns out this was because I have woken up.

7th August 2012

I’m in bed, and there’s a really annoying insect like a wasp that’s bothering me. It flies near me once and I wave it away, and then it does it again. When it does it for a 3rd time I find it a bit strange and decide to do an RC. Finding I can breathe through my nose despite plugging it, I jump out of bed excitedly and run towards the door. As the dream feels a little unstable I stop to calm down and take in my surroundings. Everything seems very vivid, even though it’s not quite the bedroom I’m actually sleeping in.

I notice a mirror on one of the walls. I approach it, wondering whether I should expect to see anything strange because it’s a dream. I peer into it. Nope – I see a perfect, detailed image of myself. The only difference is I’m wearing some sort of hat. I take a closer look to examine the details of my face. I then go out the door, but the dog nearly follows me out. I tell him to stay. He flops down on the ground and I shut the door behind me as I head out, finding it rather difficult to get it closed. As I’m locking it, I wonder how well I will remember all this.

I head down the corridor. I then decide to go in one of the rooms. I do so, and it seems empty at first as I poke around. Soon, the thought occurs to me that occurs to all young men when faced with a world in which they can do absolutely whatever they want. I get an excited feeling in my chest as I head into the bathroom. I spot a girl I used to know and find quite attractive in the corner. Various (perfectly consensual) shenanigans ensue. I stop this after a little while for some reason, noticing there are quite a few other people in the same room who are seemingly unfazed. I look around for a private spot, and call for the girl. She doesn’t show up so I give up. At one point, I feel the dream sort of slipping away, so I refocus on my senses and surroundings. I also remind myself I’m lucid, although I don’t really need to. It works very well and I’m right back in the dream. I go to a window and run my fingers down the glass pane. I feel the cold smoothness and am amazed by how realistic it is. I think how the brain is basing all this on my experience in real life. I then grab a telephone off the wall and listen for the beep in the receiver. There is none. I make a beeping noise to see if that sets it off. It doesn’t; too bad!

I go back out into the corridor and walk towards the front entrance of the hotel I seem to be in. Someone expresses their displeasure at the stuff that goes on in the room I just visited. The street outside is busy. I walk along, seeing loads of people I know. I’m trying to find people I don’t recognize to disprove the idea that faces in dreams have to be ones I’ve seen in real life. It doesn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t necessarily consciously remember all the faces I’ve seen in real life. People seem to be running past me, and I walk past someone I met a while back, briefly saying hello. I begin to cross the road when it’s indicated as safe. A car tries to pass in front nonetheless. I decide that this is unacceptable and do an awesome jump thing to land on the bonnet (hood) of the vehicle. I look around for the reactions of others, but no one is really that bothered. I spot someone in another car who I identify as a teacher I used to have at school. They tell me I need to take some “schizophrenia pills”, although I do not suffer from the condition. I assume all the DCs think I’m mentally ill. I tell the teacher I’ll pick up some on the way up a hill.

Walking up this hill, I spot some spheres on the ground which I associate with the aforementioned pills. I kick them and they start moving away fast as though attracted by something (think XP orbs in Minecraft, but going away from me). On the way up the hill, I’m talking with someone about the spheres. There seem to be two types: large orange and small (possibly blue) ones, which are the ones I kicked earlier. On the way up this hill, I wake up. I stay perfectly still and try to DEILD. I notice my heart is beating very fast. Unfortunately it doesn’t work.