memorable

1 Mar Lucid
I don’t really remember what I was doing before I went lucid but I remember being very busy and realizing that I should do an RC. I looked at my fingers and had more than I should. I was in a mall of some place inside and I immediately thought of the task to go into a house and see what was going on. I went out of the place I was in and tried to picture houses near. In an immediate left there was just more mall and then I took another left and saw the houses across the street. I was pretty excited and noticed the wind was blowing and it was very dark outside. I was hurrying across the street. There were news papers in the street and the houses looked like they were new, I thought maybe no one lived there and they were empty, I woke before I got to the houses.

2 Mar Lucid
I took valerian and melatonin along with my regular 5htp and ginko last night and had a couple of lucids about 2 hours before my alarm went off. The first one I really don’t remember too much detail about except for that I was in some houses doing something of importance and did an RC and became lucid. I started looking for a different house but woke up pretty quick. When I woke from this I think I DEILDed and was in a house with some girls and went lucid almost right away, I pulled the pants off of a girl that was in a house I was in and then thought of tasks before I got too off topic. I left the house I was in and looked for another house. It was night and in my mind it was really late like everyone should be sleeping late. I found a little neighborhood with some smaller houses very close to where I was, I was reminding myself to remain calm. I went into the first one I could get to and as I was entering I was trying to think of something weird that the people inside might be doing. Along with that there was a worry that no one would be in the house. I went into the first bedroom to find no one, then the second bedroom to find no one, at this point I was a little erratic and panicky, in the last bedroom I was really focusing on there being someone in bed. I entered the last room and there were people in the bed. I went up to the beds and it was a small figure, a kid and the kids was made of like a grey and black marble. I am not sure if the kids were real or slept through me doing this but I picked them both up and they remained in their sleeping poses, I even made some weird shrill noise when I picked them up to try to startle them awake.

This dream was vivid than others. I had this girlfriend who was really pretty and perfect, and we were a really good couple, like out of a movie or something. This is something unusual for me because I don't have a girlfriend like this. we were really sensible and she was really serious about us dating. She had brown hair and looked like someone i recognized from television. We went into this place where an amazing looking airplane turned into two big flying plastic plane fish which i said to my girlfriend wow look at those in the sky, and they came down and bumped our heads like birds would do if they were coming down to us. I thought that is a sign we had being picked for something special (marriage apparently). After that two very well dressed guys made us hold hands and say do you take this to be your beloved wife and walked us down a carpet out into the city. That was a great moment because I wanted us married. But it soon turned dark when I went with her to the doctor and the doctors first mocked us by calling us names. First he called her something which I cant remember then he said I looked like a 'baboon'. I said 'gee thanks', and he laughed. As the doctor starting looking at my foot it was painful. Something was wrong with my foot and he said he needed to give me pills for a certain vitamin that my body wasn't getting. My girlfriend said she had just being to the doctor here an hour ago to have something removed from her back. I was surprised at this and when I saw her talking to one of the doctors I started to get jealous. After the doctor gave me the pills, I picked up some shopping I had in my hand for some reason. After walking out the doctors I touched her hair a certain way with my finger, that was seen as inappropriate and she stopped and said angrily why did you do that. I explained that I was just trying to get closer and have a good time. She started saying how I was acting weird in the doctors, and that when I picked up the shopping acting like everything was 'my domain'. She was not happy with me. Earlier when we were more happy we had decided to go see a movie and we were on our way to see this movie. I told her how I wouldn't be seeing much of her anymore and that my life was changing and how this date was our last opportunity to see each other for a while. Well after she was complaining I stopped her and said "YOU KNOW WHAT?!. she was taken aback and looked at me shocked because i had said it in an unusually angry voice (worse than I intended). Then I said, 'lets just forget the movie'. We walked our separate ways both of us disappointed agreeing that it wasn't working. Then somehow I ended up in a masonic lodge, and they were doing their rituals and one guy said come join us, with such inspiration. And they were doing sword fighting like pirates and having parties. I said I can't do this, and looked for a way back outside. It was raining outside in the city and I became lost. I was on my way back home. There is other details and other things I dreamt like about living in a park, and seeing my old pet dog that had died years ago. But these other details are dream fragments and it would be difficult to type out and I already said the main parts I remember. It's being a long time since I had a lucid dream but at least despite the good and bad in this dream it was a memorable vivid one that was somewhat interesting that I haven't had for a while now.

I'm at a crowded party in a large sloped room with two girls. Everyone is lying casually on the floor. One girl starts kissing me. I go along with it! Is quite pleasant. The other girl is like 'my turn now!' And takes over This is less pleasant, as she is going a bit mental with her tongue. Was pretty gross actually...

The party ends, and as I am leaving I find myself staring at a girl standing on the exit stairs. She looks a bit unreal and her image seems unstable. I move my hand across my view of her and notice that she's disappearing every so often. 'Cool!' I think. I tell her something like, "wow! do you know you're disappearing?"

I then realise I'm dreaming. I look at my right hand to try and stabalize the dream. This wasn't working so well and I almost blacked out, but I managed to bring it back. I walk outside into what looks like the historical centre of a fancy town, with large open paved spaces and a Cathedral. I pay careful attention to my surroundings until all becomes vivid.

I then remember my dream plan: to summon and embrace my shadow! I recall my planned words, 'I wish to meet my shadow, the part of me in conflict'. I then look at the sky and shout out, "shadow, now!" My voice echoes dramatically, and the sky turns a bit darker. Ominous! I then look around to see if anything has changed, reminding myself that this is a dream and I now have an opportunity to practice fearlessness. I try to fly onto the roof of the Cathedral, but a force pulls me back down to the ground after a brief lift off.

I see an unnaturally tall dark and slightly bent figure down the street. 'Aha!' I think, 'this must be it!'. I walk towards it, preparing myself to face whatever it is with love and acceptance. But to my surprise, it's my dad! "Dad!" I say smiling, and put my hand on his shoulder. We walk and talk. He tells me about what he's doing with Mum at the moment in the waking world, and that all is well. I entertain wondering if any of this is actually true. Unfortunately I can't remember what he said to test it out!

Dad leads me through tight corridors and crawl spaces, like we're in the bowels of a submarine. There's an almighty force pulling me back, making it very difficult to move. I remind myself this is a dream, and that recognition makes my walking a little easier. I then suddenly find myself blacking out.

I feel around to see where I am, and realise I'm back in bed. I do a nose pinch test just in case I'm still dreaming. And I am! I feel chuffed with myself for remembering to RC It's dark and I try to turn the bedside lamp on. Doesn't work, and I remember that that's normal in dreams. I get up and go to the door. 'This is it' I think, 'my shadow is through this door'. I feel both excited and nervous.

I open the door, and a goblin like creature jumps at me! This gives me a shock, but I'm soon smiling and giving the creature a hug. "It's okay" I say, "I love you!". Looking down, the goblin has now turned into what looks like a giant microbe with a big mouth and many tiny razor sharp teeth. He's munching down on my hand, which is completely in his mouth. This feels quite uncomfortable, like intense pins and needles. But I keep smiling, reminding myself this is just a dream and this hand muncher is a part of me. "No fear", I say to it, and hold it close to me as it keeps munching away. The thought 'well I guess it's a part of me now' comes to mind, as it has now become a physical extension of my arm. I wake up wondering what it will be like to have an arm munching microbe for a hand from now on...

Last night was incredibly bizarre. Kind of cool, but kind of weird.
I remember being in my grandmothers house in her back bedroom. She had a full length body mirror. I looked in it and my face was decaying. My skin was greenish, my nose was gone, I just looked like a total mess. Then I remember hearing a voice coming from the front room. You're going to laugh, captain Barbosa from pirates of the Caribbean. I couldn't quite hear what he was saying but I was scared to death he was going to kill me, so I climbed out the bedroom window and ran to my house. For some odd reason I ended up back in my grandmothers back bedroom with a huge suitcase. I got this hair brained idea to dress as a pirate, so I did. I was all decked out in pirate attire, all except for the hat. Right before I could find my hat, Barbosa burst through the door and told me to take him to my treasure lolol. Next thing I know I'm in a cave somewhere lying about this treasure I knew nothing about. I woke up laughing at the ridiculousness of my dream, only to lay back down and have an even goofier one. In my second dream, I was standing in line with my father at the DMV, I all of a sudden hear this man whimpering behind us but I didn't turn around. Then all of a sudden my dad raised his hand and said "Mrs. Thompson, Patricia needs to go to the bathroom" I turned around and the whimpering man started to waddle to the bathroom with a huge shit stain on his pants...I guess he was Patricia...then I was in this huge room where they make you take your written drivers test. There was this young couple there who bragged about failing their test 20 times. I woke up shortly after. I almost didn't want to record these dreams because they're so ridiculous, but a dream is a dream lol.

Had a long non-ld moment where I put together something like a form/report. Making a note of this because at the time of wake I could remember most of it. It was like 1.5 pages long, a coherent text that my dreaming self spent carefully writing down with a pen word by word and not a single thing was illegible or illogical.

NOT A DREAM | NON-LUCID | SEMI-LUCID | LUCID

December 31, 2014 - LUCID #3: Portal to Another Planet
I 'wake up' in my very dimly lit room, and somehow I just know I am dreaming; I'm excited but I keep myself calm. I try a little dream control by turning on the lights using the wall switch. Nothing happens. I try flicking my fingers. Nothing. I throw my arms in the direction of the light bulb while shouting, "Let there be light!" Still nothing; I give up trying to turn on the dream light. I want to go to a peaceful planet, so I expect a portal behind the door. I open the door and the portal appears behind the window across the hall. Close enough . But, from the master's bedroom comes Razor from Dota 2, seemingly on its way to fry my ass with his electric whip! Out of reflex, I immediately jump to the window, flying through it as the glass breaks around me. I zoom through the purple portal; it feels very similar to the respawn transition from Borderlands 2.

I exit the portal into some grass fields on what feels like another planet. I was attacked by some weird monkey-like creature that moves as if held by strings by a puppeteer above. I fend it off by slashing with an energy sword I made by swinging my arm in front of me. It doesn't seem hurt, yet it scurries away. I notice some friendly dwarves roaming around the fields; I approach one of them and he said something about a "pony pair," and then the dream starts destabilizing and I am not able to salvage it.

January 4, 2015 - LUCID #4: Firebat and Zombie Attack!
I 'wake up' in my room, and it is somehow tinted with orange-ish light. I notice that my bed is in the wrong orientation. This must be a dream! I do a palm-push reality check to make sure; and I'm amazed as my index and middle finger pass through my palm! I closely examine my hands; the realism is stunning; I can really see the oiliness and the creases on my palms, even moreso than in waking life. I take an M&M figurine from my desk; the way the light shone on it amazes me.

Suddenly, outside my window I notice some bats on fire, seemingly on my way to enter my room! I kneel on my bed which is next to the window, face the firebats outside, and I blast them with a freezing spell, and one-by-one they fall out of the sky! I keep blasting them until they are no more; there were about 7-10 of them. Then, my door slams open as two Walking Dead zombies march toward me, albeit at an incredibly slow speed (like a centimeter per second). I fire an energy blast at them; nothing. My sister and some dude arrive from outside my room, they try to attack the zombies with their own magical spells, but nothing works. I don't remember how, but they managed to get trapped along with me in the room... *facepalm* I do an epic OmniSlash using an energy blade I will into existence, but the zombies are completely unaffected; one of them even mocks me with an unenthusiastic "Eh." I make a plan to ghostwalk through the walls so the three of us can attack the zombies from opposite directions, but unfortunately those plans never come to fruition as I wake up for real.

This is probably my most memorable dream so far, in large part because of the amount of control I was able to exert over it. I would love to have another action-packed dream like this in the future!

February 10, 2015 - LUCID #8: Shadow Figure and Life Secrets
I 'start to wake up' in my bed but I feel like it's a dream. I try to 'open my eyes' but I could only open them halfway. Through my little vision, I see some shadowy figure across the room; sorta reminds me of Slenderman. I am filled with terror, but I somehow manage to keep myself calm. Through the power of my mind, I blast it with a heap of light energy; nothing. I try unleashing an omnidirectional wave of dark energy. It works; the apparition is gone! I am now able to open my dream eyes completely, and they even give off a feint light similar to a flashlight. I get off my bed and examine my face in the mirror. It looks normal, but the realism still amazes me.

I exit my room, and its position in the house is swapped with the master's bedroom. I push a button on the wall near me (which doesn't exist IWL), expecting it to open the lights, but nothing happens. I just continue my trek through the dream in the dark as I enter my sister's room. My whole family is sleeping there; I look at each of them and they awaken for a few seconds before going back to sleep, looking annoyed by the sudden lighting from my eyes. I look at the shelf across the bed, and I see a really thick blue book (like 3/4 feet thick!). The book is laid upside-down but I am still able to read its title written on the spine: "Life Secrets." I feel like if I throw this book at the floor, a portal will open up, so I pull it out but as I do so my alarm sounds off.

Man, that dream ending abruptly was SUCH a shame! I felt like my subconscious was about to tell me something important, but life has other plans, I suppose. I want to get my dream hands on that Life Secrets book sometime in the future...

I was in a dorm room playing the new Super Smash Bros with some friends. After I lost (which happens a lot for me, unfortunately), I was talking with a friend and showing him some new apps on my phone. One of them was involving 50 Shades of Gray with characters from Legend of Zelda. I tried to keep him from seeing it, but it kept popping up. I told him I was only interested in the plot, and he gave me a disapproving look. I then played another app, which involved a flying bunny stuck in a pinball machine.

(WBTB here)

I was at a real life DreamViews Academy, a school dedicated to teaching the art of lucid dreaming. Thankfully, I was mostly lucid from the start (because missing lucidity in the college of lucidity would've been embarrassing…). My friends J and D were with me, and they had no idea what this place was. I explained to them all about DreamViews and what lucid dreams were, including the fact that we were in one right now. They seemed to have trouble wrapping their heads around it.

The scene changed to some kind of parking garage. To demonstrate that I could do anything in this dream, I held out my two fingers like a gun, pointed them at a random car, and “shot”. There was a loud bang, and then the car exploded. Both of them seemed astonished, but soon the dream kind of faded.

All three of us woke up in the middle of the floor back in the academy. I turn to look at them. “So that was a lucid dream.”
J turns back. “I think we might still be in a dream.”
D chimes in. “No, I think that’s impossible. We just woke up, right?”
Curious, I do a quick nose-plug and find I’m still dreaming. “J’s right, we’re still dreaming.” Unfortunately they don’t seem too interested anymore and start talking about going to see some movie. I have other plans, however. “You guys go, I still have some things I want to do.”

They head out a glass door to the street, while I turn and head down some stairs into this large library area. The entire architecture was gold-colored stone, and the floor tile was a checkerboard style. I walked to a clearing and then started to summon Vi. However, as soon as I said “Vi”, a brown-haired girl sitting at a table with two guys in front of me turned around to see me.

The feeling I felt when I saw her is fairly indescribable. I felt this strong, pleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach, like an instant connection with her. It wasn’t like any kind of sexual desire, but it just felt like when I saw her, I felt happy - too happy, in fact, as I completely forgot everything I wanted to ask or say to her. I kind of froze because of how beautiful she seemed. It felt less like I was meeting a new friend, and more like I was trying to ask a pretty girl out for a first date. I finally mustered up some words.

“Vi? So you’re my dream guide?”
She gave me a confused and somewhat disapproving look. “Yeah.” She seemed like she was not amused.
“Oh, okay cool…” My mind was a total blank. The awkward silence felt like an eternity. “Well, I just wanted to tell you that you’re beautiful.”
Her expression didn't really change at all. Completely embarrassed, I walked away.

I felt like a complete idiot. Maybe she wasn't my dream guide. But then how do you explain the feeling that I had? Then again, why did she seem so uninterested in helping me? Why did she seem to be judging me? Wait, this is my dream, why am I so scared of what one of my DCs thinks of me? I have to go back.

By this time, I had already walked a ways away from Vi, so I decided to fly back to her. I tried to take off, but didn’t get very high, so I stopped, bent down, and shot up fist-forward like Superman. This got me much higher, and after a few more arm flaps, I was able to stay aloft. I turned back towards the tables, but the dream scene changed.

I was now in a game of Halo, wearing one of the suits from the game. My teammates and I were waiting for the fight to begin. I noticed that if I looked right at my teammates, their names would appear floating above their heads, just like in the game. I quickly set out on a search for Vi. After checking all of my other teammates, I finally found her. She was wearing a red suit which seemed much thinner and more feminine, much like Samus’s suit from Metroid.

“Good, you’re still here. I was scared that you didn’t like me or something.”
Before she could say anything though, the alarm sounded, and the match had begun. I started to run forward, and immediately shot two enemies. Another enemy appeared around the corner and shot at me, and there was no way for me to dodge the bullet. Before it hit, however, I heard Vi shout “Wait!” and the scene froze. It then rewinded back to the start of the match. Vi held me back from running this time. “This game isn’t all about brute force. Let me teach you a little about stealth.”

We ran along a wall in the shadows, making sure that no one was coming. We crept along like this for a while, until we heard footsteps coming from down the hallway. I started to pull out my sword, but Vi grabbed me and pulled us both into the wall, literally. We both turned into a kind of drawing on the wall, like from Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (if you haven’t figured it out by now, I play a lot of video games). We were hidden in the shadows well enough that no one noticed when they ran by. We came back out of the wall and kept moving forward.

I came to a small area outside. This now looked less sci-fi and more like current architecture. I was in a small alley-like thing between two buildings. There was a balcony overhead, and small rocks covering the ground like some kind of garden decoration. I realized Vi was no longer near me, so I pulled out my pistol to be safe. One enemy appeared on the balcony, so I shot him. He fell to the ground, and some bystanders that were walking by stopped and yelled at me for killing him. Another enemy appeared behind them, so I shot him too. They continued to yell at me, until the dream eventually destabilized and I woke up.

I realized I was asleep, it feels like almost instantly. I remember thinking "ok, I'm asleep. I gotta keep knowing I'm asleep" then I remember floating from my bed, down the hall, & to my door. I knew exactly where I wanted to be. I wanted to fly to my ex boyfriends house. I couldn't grasp the door-knob to turn it, so I remembered trying the window. I thought "why isn't this working." I looked at my hands to keep myself aware that I was asleep. And then I thought to physically make the window longer and roll out. It worked and I was still aware I was asleep, but I noticed too that my body was kinda hard to control and that things would fade to black, I even tried looking at my hands when things were black but couldn't see anything. After that I remember being in another part of my town in the opposite direction of where I needed to go. I was a the local walmart in the parking lot. I tried to fly but couldn't at first. The only thing that seemed to help me was focusing on a small whisp of cloud in the sky and trying to visualize myself floating up to it. It worked but I still found it hard to control my dream body. I was kinda stiff. I guess after that I slipped out of the lucidity of it. I'm pretty bummed I didn't get to my destination but I'm excited that I was able to remember at least one tip and it seemed like I was able to quickly realize that I was asleep.

Extra info: the colors weren't very vibrant. They were there just felt like a gray haze was over everything. Being outside it was gray and gloomy, like before a thunderstorm, but there wasn't big black clouds

Non lucid dream that happened after lucid dream:
I was at My ex's, sleeping in a separate bed. I kept waiting and waiting for him but he never came there were 3 rooms joined together, with no doors. I thought of a circle for some reason, like the design of the house was round. First It was my room. (It was His bedroom, but there was just a bed in it) the middle room had just a bed but it had a large woman in it I knew her in real life, her name is Tammy, she slept with his roommate once, their relationship never went beyond that. Then my ex was in the room next to hers. The bed was next to the wall, things seemed kinda pink/purplish and his back was turned to me. He woke up and seemed distant toward me. The next thing I remember is her cooking in his kitchen and I freaked out and threw her down the stairs outside of the house. I remember crying to his friend Chelsea, saying "This was my second chance, this was suppose to be my second chance" I felt like I was refurring to my last relationship before him and how this was suppose to be different. Then I woke up. I just remember feeling hurt and rejected by him, even without him speaking to me much during the dream.

( I notice that in a lot of my dreams I'm in a house/trailer, usually broken down and decaying. Not always the same one either. They're different each time. Other times in in my grandmothers house. Others in a school theatre)

I was in a broken down old house that was set on some support beams above water and mud. Maybe a river bank. I remember that my ex had called me. Specifically, he called me to apologize and he wanted me back. I remember wondering out of the door, over a wooden plank on to an open platform, I could see that I was very high, the sky was cloudy, like it was going to start raining. I jumped to another house straight across from the platform and it looked a lot like the other house only it was way more run down. The floor was weak and every time I took a step it creaked and bowed beneath my weight. I was still on the phone with my ex and I eventually stepped on a weak spot and fell through the floor. I remember a dusty Tv on a dusty dresser in the room where I fell. When I fell I landed in the mud, about chest deep, and not long after that, the dresser and tv fell but barley missed me. I must've went into a deeper sleep, because I can't remember much else.

Morning of February 25, 2015. Wednesday.



In my dream, I am at an unknown location (though likely in Australia as some of my wife’s relatives are there). It is an enormous room (with many smaller rooms connected to it, some office-like) that is like some sort of setup for a business seminar - seemingly, at least in part, related to advertising slogans, television commercials, and catchphrases. My wife’s oldest half-sister is there, seemingly annoyed by my presence. Several times, I transform the implications of what is being said in the particular presented slogan (usually using the same number of syllables and phonemes) into my opinion of people in the region. I do not recall all the changes I make, but one contains the word “backwards” which indicates the people are backwards in my view. Later, my wife’s oldest half-sister gets up and makes an announcement about me, most of what she says being nonsense. For some reason, she says (with contempt) that I am a Mormon - and makes other ludicrous comments.

Meanwhile, my wife is in another room, doing some sort of questionable and tiresome work she does not like at all but is totally passive to it for possibly a corrupt business or local government, relative to filling out forms or making detailed lists of other people (recurring dream plot). The oppressive authority of the business people over other people’s lives seems exaggerated in-dream, though in reality, it really is not much different in my experience. I decide that my wife and I will leave even though she is still to do more for at least two businessmen. I decide that I will protect her from this endeavor and the thoughtless intrusive older businessmen who act as if they own her or as if she “owes” them anything.

Over time, though I am not lucid, I take on an essence that supposedly represents Gitchi Manitou and I am in tribal dress at times, with numerous abilities (teleportation, flight, pyrokinesis, infinite physical strength, etc). I even say “I am Manitou” while hovering near crowds in an urban area. During the time when the seminar part of my dream shifts, I focus and cause many of the windows to explode outward and I then fly through one of the large broken windows with my wife.

Eventually, it turns out that I have an enemy. It is a powerful being in the form of an albino male with jagged teeth and solely hostile intentions, though he is somewhat jester-like in appearance and dress at times. The subplot of the two businessmen also becomes dominant at times. I end up threatening them, teleporting them, and holding them over an area near a cliff until they stop trying to get my wife to finish certain forms and lists.

My albino enemy is intent on destroying me, but we are about equally matched in power for the most part. Clusters of knives fly at me but I reverse their path and they cut through him though do not hurt him (solely because they are his - an in-dream folly, of course). We fight in several different scenes near areas in a city and around crowds of people. Over time, I do seem to maintain an advantage. I also sing and chant loudly and rhythmically at some points, as I fly and float around (mostly in standing or partly diagonally forward positions), feeling very strong and aware. Over time, I apparently weaken my enemy more and more.

Later on, my dream seems to shift into indicating a long passage of time had gone by. I am hovering inside a shopping mall, still having flown around a bit with my family. I see my enemy walking in the hall. When I speak to him, he calmly says “I’m a mortal now”. He no longer has any power or threatening presence and works in a carnival. He also has no interest in fighting me even at a human level anymore. Strangely enough (though I am uncertain of my motive), I offer to give him some of his power back. He seems a bit irritated that I would do this (rather than thankful - but then he had always wanted to eliminate me), but soon accepts. We even have a long friendly conversation, sharing information about our ancestry.

Later, there is a carnival set up in an empty parking lot near a large shopping mall where he is going to perform magic tricks. Three random girls are chosen from the large audience. He has them stand in a triangular formation. Shortly, one is struck by several bolts of scattered lightning (the farthest one back at the point or “triangle top”), the one on the left in front is pounded relentlessly by “compressed” rain that only falls in the area she is standing, and the one on the right is fatally sunburned with visible sunbeams in her area only. All of them die almost immediately while screaming in pain. This does not impress me, especially as most of the audience just sits around as if nothing has happened rather than trying to escape this lunatic “magician”. I calmly take my wife to another outside area of the mall closer to the entrance and we sit and share romantic conversation and closeness as I continue to hear people shriek in the background, just around the corner of where we are sitting. It does not seem to bother me at all.

24-min focus on breathing meditation during the evening
bedtime: 20 breaths, followed probably by at least 30 minute intention setting, visualization, dream sign review, and pep-talk before bed. Hard to sleep, I'm so worked up. Take 2mg melatonin

I'm pretty sure I had earlier dreams before the epic, but the epic clobbered them

+ epic futuristic adventure: tram ride, guy takes my seat; real virtual reality system with 2 friends; "the meadows": floating castle in the sky is closing down for security alarm; poison attack, can I drink from this glass?; blasting bed with bazooka; DeForest Kelley acting presentation, he's doing a great job for such an old guy; dinner with the president: 2-foot long juicy BBQ beef sandwiches, large pitcher of fresh fig juice [how long did that take to squeeze!?]; heading towards "The Meadows", travel agency "cream colored cubic building in a fancy mall", attacked by thugs; conflict outside of building: the elders have "saved" aside us young people from the battle in order to rebuild the empire later

(The order of the scenes may be somewhat jumbled, there were so many)

tram: I'm riding a tram/train (to "the Meadows?"), it stops and the doors open, and voice says we must disembark and get back on. I do this, and when I return there's a guy/guys sitting in my seat. I'm confused, I'm looking at the seats relative to the door to see which one was mine. A bit frustrated I plop down in a free seat with an audible, annoyed "Humph!". A guy offers me the seat back, I say it doesn't matter.

real virtual reality: I sit down into a large "captains chair" (like Star trek), in a large room I'm with 2 friends, they're also sitting in identical chairs, both to my right, one a few feet away one about 15 feet away. I see that the system is engaging: VR masks/goggles are closing on my friend's faces. I sit in my chair and wait for my awareness to be sucked in to the system, because this is a "real" system where your mind is projected into a system. I feel my arms on the chair and try to make them comfortable, I think when my awareness is returned to my body I'll feel this chair again. Then I feel that my awareness is launched forwards plunging through a void, I keep waiting to emerge in the VR world but never arrive.

"The Meadows": I'm outdoors, I glance up into the sky, there is a huge floating technological looking castle/mansion there. There are security doors sliding shut all over the castle closing over openings, the building seems to be in a state of high alert/emergency.

I'm in a group of people outdoors. Someone arrives with a spray bottle/thing and begins spraying poison on people who immediately die. I'm far enough away from it (I'm on the poisoning side?) that I'm not affected. I'm standing in a room later, and grab a glass which is upside down from a counter and fill it with water and wonder if this is far enough away form the poison spray to be safe. I see that there is some sort of film/dirt floating on top of the water. Someone in the room says it's better not to drink so I don't.

bazooka bed: There is some (destroyed) small room with no walls outside. There is a bed in that heap of debris that must be destroyed. I'm holding a bazooka/rocket launcher on my shoulder and trying to find a vantage point to get a good shot. I'm moving around a while trying to get a clear shot (never shoot).

DeForest Kelley: in a half-lit room, people are sitting in a semi-circle on chairs. In the middle of them is DeForest Kelley, and old man with white hair. He's a famous old actor. he's laughing and giving a monologue. I think he's doing a great job.

dinner w/president: A group of people are sitting down on two long rows of chairs that face each other (like seating in an airport boarding gate). I'm sitting next to the president. I then get on a chair in-between the long rows and scoot away from and back to near the president. I make room next to the president because the #2 in command has arrived. Besides the rows of chairs is a small table with food and drink. On the table are several really juicy & delicious-looking 2-foot-long subway sandwiches bursting with circular slices of BBQ beef. Several people return their uneaten sandwiches to the tray and take one of the awesome new sandwiches. I'm standing by the table and pick up a large glass pitcher of a drink: I look at it and pour myself a glass, I see "bits" of fruit inside, it's dark, and think it's fig juice, and think wow it probably took a long time for the cooks to squeeze that much juice out of a ton of figs.

I'm on my way to the presidential palace called "The Meadows" (the floating one?), I'm describing the local of the (travel agency?) which will plan the rest of the trip for me. I'm "remembering" the location, and I say "it's in a cubic-shaped, cream colored building, in a fancy mall". I arrive and I'm not well received until they realize I'm a friend of the president then they treat me with great respect. I'm outdoors beyond this building and a truckload of thugs jump out and we fight: I'm blasting them with energy and awesome fight moves, we engage in some banter (which I forgot).

There is a large conflict outside a large building: us young folks were "tricked" by the elders and not allowed to participate, they're saving us in case the battle is lost, so we can rebuild the empire -- (this shouldn't be too hard because we have a floating castle?)

+ searching for my room in a weird club/hotel: hot tub, jump down a level, follow signs, my room is a public porta-potty in a noisy crowded area outside, I'm outraged

I'm in an indoor/outdoor location, like a resort, I hear a young woman laughing and see there's a hot tub nearby, I move to it, I see only a guy there, there's a girl hidden by the wall of the hot tub but I don't go closer to see.

I need to find my room, the number is something like "8901". I'm on an upper level of the club, and I go to the lower level by jumping off of a ledge, holding on to a bar over my head and slowly stretching my feet down and then drop, it's only about a foot left to go so it's not hard to land. I can't find my room, I go back to the upper level and a guide points the way, I go back to the lower level and follow signs "to the garden" outside, outside there's another sign that leads through an employee and guest only entrance (a sign says so), I see some staff there doing stuff, I move on and am back outside, it's in a busy public area and quite noisy. I find my room finally and am outraged, it is a public ports-potty. I have my key in my hand and think "should I open the door?" I'm embarrassed to have such a sucky room. I do open it (the structure is a cylinder) but there's nothing there inside. Someone says "you have to go through the glass door" I don't see it, some guy "activates" it by pulling on a large lever.

+ I want to wash/rinse/brush my hair but my friends ( MK, AK, others) are lying in a tight row blocking the faucet, kid passing in a car grabs my hand holding my brush

Outdoor/daylight scene, I want to wash/rinse/brush my hair, I have a brush in my hand. I see that our friends MK and AK and others are sitting down on the ground with their backs against a fence, the faucet I need to wash my hair is blocked by my friends, I walk up and down the line to try to find a way to the faucet. A car drives by and a kid in the back seat grabs my hand with the brush in it (my left hand) through the open car window. I'm trying to claw his face/shake him by grabbing his hood but I have no strength, all I can do is just stand there. [I wake up and my wife is pulling the covers, my arm is on top of the covers and it's getting pulled along with the covers]

+ I see cousins sitting down indoors (red interiors?), move to hug KR, turns out it's my sister and mom

Indoor, half-lit, red upholstery? I pass some of my cousins who are sitting down on chairs, I don't want to talk to them. I see cousin KR standing and I know we haven't been on the best of relations but go to her, she seems very warm and we move to hug, I realize then that she's my sister and my mother is standing right there with us. Some notion of people arriving in a minivan(?).

+ wife driving, I'm observing weird building after weird building, false memory deceives me, one looks like a giant flat screen TV, one is straddling a depression and is cracking in half, I'll return to inspect it later, one at the top of the hill has a great view, sit on bench with 2 small kids climbing all over me, I explain why I'm going back to school

I'm sitting in the front passenger side of a car/minivan, my wife is driving, we're heading up in to the B hills. I see a large building to the right that I don't recognize, I think that a large area of trees has been removed and that's why it looks different, I turn my head to the right to look at the building as we drive past, it's a company building.

We then pass a strange building which is built over a little gulley, the entire building is sagging in the middle like it's collapsing into the gulley. I ask my wife to slow down as we pass so I can get a better look. I look to the right and see a large flat driveway/parking area, I resolve to return to this place and look at it more closely.

Continuing to wind up into the hills, I see a HUGE building which is REALLY strange, it is very tall (5-6 stories) but extremely thin, I say (to my kid in the back seat?) that "that place looks like a giant flat-screen TV!), I turn my head around and look behind the van at the building as we pass.

We reach an area at the top of the hills and I see a house built into the hill, they have a patio build on an upper level were they can stand and enjoy the view. I look forwards out over the vista to the water but it's hazy/foggy and can't see any details in the distance.

I'm out of the car and sitting on a bench outside. A small boy and girl are sitting with me and climbing on me and playing all around, I'm hugging them, they're related to me and I feel great affection towards them. Someone comes and sits down and I discuss why I'm going back to school, the point is "to get an education, an education helps with….getting a job, and being, … a useful person."

+ my private room is also a utility closet, another guy comes in his room plays loud music, I grab a DC and move to a corner to make out (semi?); a repeating story is told about me, a famous opera singer walking through the crowd

I have my own room in some larger structure (community center). I'm entering the room and I see that the split door (bottom part / top part) top is open, I go out to close it, and back inside my room, I realize that I share this space with the center's utility closet so maids may enter(?). In the room I see a DC (indeterminate sex), take it into my arms, and walk towards a back corner, kissing it several times, and when I arrive in the corner kiss it more deeply for a longer while.

I'm outside the room (with wife?) and a man who works there, he's going outside in just a towel, his privates are visible, he doesn't care. Another man comes in (a Russian?) sort of short and hairy, he heads into his room which is next to mine, and starts blasting some really loud music, I move to see the source it seems to be almost from within my room.

I hear some narration that repeats several times about "the huge guy who's the famous opera singer who was moving through the crowd leaving the theater, and all the people turned to look at him[me], ignoring the scene playing on the stage". The voice also makes (a snarky?) comment about me kissing that DC.

+ (FA, LD #101) lying in bed listening to loud water rush through pipes in the walls, bed ejects me, get lucid, climb out window, look for girl, find one, undress her, count to 5 to calm down, wake up on "..3…"

I wake up in bed looking up at the ceiling in a white walled room and hear a strong flow of water like moving through pipes, I look up and "follow" the progress of the water through the pipes with my eyes, along the corner of the room and then the corner of the wall with the ceiling. I expect the water to burst through the ceiling at any moment. Right then, my bed heaves itself up from the head end and I'm ejected out on to the floor. As the bed lifts up I realize this is a dream, and I'm thankful for having such an easy-to-spot FA. I realize this is a dream again because my "body" has no pains in it whatsoever. I hear something outside, and jump out the window. Outside is very bright daylight and there are lots of colorful things all over the place, I'm on the side of a house. I continue around the corner and pick up a male DC with a sort of moon face and will him to become a hot girl, or for a girl to appear. I then see a bunch of girls seated on a bench a bit farther on in the garden and move towards them, pick one, undress her (take off her top?) and then count to 5 to calm my self before engaging, and I start "1….2….3... … then I wake up! Ah crap!

Decided to take a nap in the living room while Chris was on xbox in the same room. So I'd drift in and out, but I never moved nor opened my eyes. It was weird, it felt like it would have taken effort to open my eyes fully, but I could hear Chris's voice the ENTIRE time.

Anyway, so the 4th or 5th time I felt like I was asleep, but still on the couch, I decided to stand up and walk to the front door. I couldn't get to where I could see very well, but I knew the front door was only a few feet from the couch, so I just kinda felt my way there. Plus I could hear Chris as if from my right hear, hollering at the xbox, so I knew I was going the right direction. I opened the front door, half wondering if Chris would notice. But he didn't, so I was more sure that I was dreaming. I even waved my hands in front of my closed/blind eyes, and could see a little bit.

I walked down the sidewalk, towards the mailbox (which I couldn't see yet and which doesn't exist irl anyway, because we have those stupid group mailboxes on every block like they do now in alot of neighborhoods). I was thinking of the valentine card totm. I got to the end of the sidewalk, fully expecting to feel for a mailbox, blind or not, when I got some vision back. It was super sunny. I looked all directions but saw nothing, then when I turned around, I couldn't see any houses at all lol. Then I turned around again, and saw a little house that could count as mine. So I walked up to the porch and had a hard time seeing again. I felt along the wall by the door, thinking to myself "I know that mailbox is right about HERE" and then I found one of those little mailboxes that you hang on the wall. I reached inside and felt a few things in a stack. The first was a letter and the rest were poofy pink and red heart stickers. On the outside of the letter, it was written in pencil and clearly a child's handwriting. It was alot of letters, but it didn't make up any words. I opened it and inside was a little valentine cartoon comic. The first frame was a purple hippo, pointing to the right. The caption underneath said "The shortest time pointing ever!" The last frame was a pink dog with little red hearts all around his head, like he was in love with the purple hippo or something. Then it said "Happy Valentine's Day," but no signature.

Then I felt myself on the couch, and decided to force my eyes open for real. The second I did that, the dogs that were sleeping on me irl jumped off me and started barking at the door, because FedX had dropped off a letter haha! It's not valentine's though. But the weird thing too was: the door was open O_O And I'm pretty sure I closed it before I took my nap. I asked Chris but he doesn't notice anything when he's on xbox.

And I could hear his voice, the entire time. Really interesting lucid for me. I feel almost like it kept me TOO grounded irl, and maybe that's why I couldn't see well, idk if related.

2/23/15 Cool amusement park attraction where everyone is standing in the room and the room starts falling apart and there's a big elephant like creature that comes crashing down from the ceiling. I'm not afraid but it seems to be more because I feel I'm in an amusement park attraction although I do remember thinking in a dream like way that it would be cool to explore this place. As we exit there's confusing directions about which way to go and we almost get back into the same line but then get the corrected directions exiting properly and we end up at a school where a bunch of kids are getting ready to leave loading into school buses, like elementary age 2nd or 3rd grade probably and almost all of them are wearing white sheet ghost costumes old-fashioned pretty cool but didn't seem to wake me up within the dream.


* after wake back to bed and drifting off, at some point I notice vibrations and I notice they are fairly strong and I'm confident about heading straight into a dream. They fade but I stay calm and patient and find myself sitting up on a big square bed and my son in a younger version just sitting on the bed also but I have no confusion over whether or not this is dream. I jump out of bed and start looking for Girl Friday. During wake back to bed I was thinking about her and how I last saw her provocatively giving a clear view up her skirt. I go around the corner expecting her to be there but nothing. I'm now all alone. I keep saying: well she will be around the next corner or the next corner. It is not working so I decided to just explore. I find this huge set of figurines - small, smaller than Star Wars figures for example and they're all plastic not unlike little green non-articulating army men but each one colored differently with different colored clothes etc and I picked the one that would look most like Girl Friday and try to convert it into her. I think about CanisLucidus or was it NyxCC's focus of keeping the eyes moving and not fixed and I intentionally move them around while I observe the figurines. Perhaps just thinking of a stabilization technique may have done me in or I may have been at the end of an REM cycle. I woke up maybe around 4-something?. #284


* after my wife left I'm tossing and turning a little bit in bed trying to get comfortable and I decide to try the reverse eye blink that someone mentioned using successfully. Basically just opening your eyes for an instant and closing them super quick. It may have helped here, I'm not sure. The thought is that it could work to help to go back in to sleep more quickly with awareness somewhat intact and get back to dreaming more quickly as well. The next thing I remember I am in a non lucid dream and this guy is sitting across from me in a classroom and he says the word "lucid." At first my excitement is just in the idea that maybe I found someone to talk about lucid dreams with. I asked him if he has "heard of lucid dreams? You can do An-y-thing you want!" He starts to look at me like a lot of people do when you talk about dreams but my awareness is rising and I start to notice the fluid nature of the visuals at first saying to myself this could be a dream...but quickly realizing this is a dream! I decide to explore outside of the room into the hall. I seem to be in a school with 20-something year old DC's , it is a college.

There are so many DC's and I am passing so many beautiful women! There are redheads, blondes and brunettes. As they pass I notice the wispy nature of the visuals like a stream of colors behind the ones I focus on at least. I see a beautiful brunette that looks quite a bit like this:

with less makeup but similar complexion. I reach out to embrace her and at first she looks at me like "do I know you?" I look at her passionately and she starts to look back in kind! We start kissing there in the busy hallway up against the wall with DC's passing left and right. Like my last sexual exploration I decide to take it slow and enjoy every moment. She is wearing a creamy pink long sleeve cardigan which I slowly unbutton, one button at a time. I slowly sweep my hands over her shoulders and down her arms removing the cardigan and caressing her back and her beautiful soft skin. I unclasp her bra which has the clasp in the front and sweep it back over her shoulders and down her arms caressing her skin on the way down. This is so incredibly sensual. I softly

Spoiler for sexual content:

kiss her breasts which are perfectly shaped and perky and they feel so wonderful in my hands and on my lips and tongue.

The visuals fade a little in and out at this point but I can still feel the experience especially and I reach down into her pants and I feel her underwear which is silky. It reminds me of my wife's underwear she's wearing this very night and I look up for some visuals of the face and now she looks a little more like my wife. I reach around the front of the underwear to inspect them further and I find that instead of the embroidery on the front it is silky smooth front and back , so it is definitely different and I'm not somehow interacting with my wife in bed right now. The visuals are now fully back but somehow we have ended up outside the school in the parking lot going at it against one of the parked cars. I unbutton her pants and

Spoiler for sexual content:

slide my hands down over her buttocks slipping her pants and underwear down to about her knees

a little more quickly now. We are now getting the attention of two security guards or police officers. I don't want them to mess up this steamy moment and I think perhaps they'll just walk on past but I keep my eyes on them just in case I need to keep them from interfering. I think that I can use my time stopwatch that will be in my hand when needed, to freeze them if I need to. They both lock eyes on me and are heading towards me and getting closer. I try my time freezing stopwatch twice in quick sucession (freeze then unfreeze perhaps?) but it does not stop them and I instead shoot them both with my finger guns and they both collapse to the ground. I turn my attention back towards the beauty and we are

Spoiler for sexual content:

both naked and having intercourse

up against the car on a beautiful day...the visuals are holding up. Suddenly the larger stocky officer, the black officer, pushes himself up on one knee and calls for help and I look over towards the school and there are a line of officers walking towards the front door of the school, probably about 6 or 8 of them. When he calls out to them I decide it's time to take my damsel and fly up into the sky away from all this potential interference. I hold her in my left arm extend my right arm Superman style and float up about 20 yards into the air looking back down towards the officers and taking a few shots for fun since this is all a dream anyway. It doesn't seem like I hit any of them and we swoop past a few trees and higher up into the air and the visuals start fading again. Not long after, I feel myself back in bed exhilarated to have the experience I just had and I start going over the details from beginning to end in my mind while thinking about whether or not I should try to go back in and I decide I'm probably too much awake to go back in quickly at this point and I want to remember as many details as possible. After laying still recalling for a little while, I get up a little earlier than normal for the day just about 15 minutes...but I went to bed early and I feel very rested and smiling broadly at the experience I just had and I decide to start recording my dreams from the latter half of the night. #285


Yesterday I had a stronger than normal sense of "Dang was I asleep just then! (IWL)..and now I am really awake (aware)!" at a random moment when I was just sitting on the couch. Between that and the reverse eye blink and the apple juice, they may have assisted with two lucids tonight including that second wonderful one!

2/21/15 awesome trip to Sweden and returned two more times intentionally in the next two dreams. Non lucid I'd say...but awesome!

2/19/15 No.283 Mustard or intention for vividness!? Image+rc many times at wbtb. 1015? 340(~5hrs25) wbtb then toss and turn. Wake from LD ~605.

Awesome escape from lab dream before wbtb.

*2 women escort me to 12th floor. Why? Even when i worked here i didn't know anyone on 12th. Where are my department remnants now? 1st floor! Pass locked fridge wondering if free sodas there and then come to an open cool box shaped like a square freezer box but no lid and full of bottled drinks but large like wine and champagne. Definitely dreaming! I float a little and think about phasing through the big window out to the beautiful city night scene but the scene fades and I instead shortly after find myself standing in a classroom full of college aged people looking like they're all getting up to leave the classroom or just got there standing not sitting. I am near a cute one and I turn her around to face me still fully aware I'm dreaming and I start to kiss her. She looks vaguely familiar...like a thin sexy version of D from my favorite job so far. She seems reluctant at first but I convince her this is what she wants and she is now going along with it. I physically pull off her clothes one item at a time, no need to rush.

Spoiler for sexual content:

I first take off her top and then her bra and then her pants. I take off my clothes all in one quick dream swoop.

As I am caressing her body I remember one of my priority goals to ask a specific question of my subconscious and I asked the question just using my mind and then think about saying it out loud but while I'm paused doing this and focusing on this I seem to cause the dream to end or possibly I was just at the end of my REM cycle. Wake from ~605 #283

06-25-2014 -- Am in a weird Harry Potter world that I think is based on a fan-fic I rather disagreed with right before I went to bed. Sort of fan-fic by message board, with multiple people posting the story, and each chapter not only advancing the story, but changing things from earlier in the story, rewriting it on the fly. Friends are now enemies, are now friends again. Then Dumbledore sets in motion a ritual which is supposed to cause Harry to be married in x years and y hours, but he messes something up. Harry is immediately plunged underwater, and is now scheduled to be married in x hours and y minutes. Harry will be married tonight at something like 11:20. And instead of a bond between two people, it is a sort of odd loyalty bond between up to 20 people, depending on how many of the 20 are able to reach the location on time, as they are compelled to. Nice job, Dumbles!

So far the gold and red counter floating in the upper corner stands at four, for the four Weasley children that were already here with their parents, but more will likely be arriving shortly. Then suddenly a new writer takes over, and I am Harry Potter, in a different universe, while the author is paraphrasing Jo's text, but subtly (or not so subtly) changing it so that the Dursleys move from being quite mean and slightly physically abusive, to horribly mean and horribly abusive, physically. I have run away from the Dursleys and am hiding in the muggle world. Soon I am a 20-year-old Harry Potter pulling a security shift at a weird cross between a British Heritage site and an Orlando Paving plant. It is the middle of the night on a holiday along the lines of Memorial day, and I am somehow asleep on the floor of the control tower.

I am clad in only a pair of tighty whities, as I wake suddenly and am trying to scramble into clothes as I discover there are people wandering around the grounds. I am soon dressed and interacting with them, explain how there is only security here on holiday weekends, and how we help to preserve and protect the heritage of the Boy-Who-Lived, without ever letting it slip that I AM the Boy-Who-Lived. Strange, fun stuff.

07-18-2014 -- Again, earlier parts are missing, but I drifted off thinking about the first dream (here) of the night, and leads into thinking about and still trying to remember the details of the first dream in the new dream. I find myself sitting in on a kind of a college level class meeting taking place in the Marshall cafeteria / stage area. I am sitting here, trying to write down bits about the odd Buffy dream, my feet propped up on a chair or something, while somebody is lecturing and showing slides on one of the old style overhead projectors.

Problem is, people keep complaining about only seeing parts of the slides, and seem kind of grumpy about it, and once I start really paying attention I realize that I was leaning with either my arm or my propped up legs blocking the light that shines through the acetate sheet to shoot it onto the screen. I didn't even realize. I'm hastily moving out of the way, as people complain about me and wonder why (and how) I'm here. Anyway, there is a discussion of some sort of war going on or something, and these people seem to be involved. And yet, it halfway seems to be not so much a war, as a theatrical performance.

Many of them are wearing large, strong golden or silver armor, mighty warriors, yet as they get into the parts they are playing and the acting they are doing, they can't seem to be able to help but change out the armor for themed dancing outfits. As I look, I notice that a few of them have large white wings on their backs, and I realize that they are all angels, though whether good angels or fallen angels, or some other kind, I can't really tell. Eventually I kind of come to the conclusion that they are a third kind of angel, probably somewhat neutral, and really, really into theater!

These are impressive beings. The men are huge and handsome, the women are of varying sizes and shapes, but they are utterly gorgeous. They are all immensely powerful, and their wings are only present if they wish them to be, so most keep them hidden away unless they need them. The thing is, while singing and dancing and performing in what seems to be the musical they are putting on, the ladies are dressed up in fairly revealing and remarkably sexy costumes, and it is hard to keep my eyes off of them. Especially when one is in a very short and flaring skirt, twirling around on the stage, and I am standing on the ground, right below, looking up a mouthwatering pair of legs to an incredible backside and a pair of sexy panties. I keep having to wrench my eyes away. Especially as the dancing seems to stoke the libido of the angels, and here and there, one of them will pull another just off-stage, and start having sex, out of sight of where the audience will be, but in plain view of the other actors, and the guy who doesn't belong.

Soon somebody walks up to me with a gold pocket watch, and tries to hypnotize me, and is shocked when he fails. The leader starts to explain that is why I have been brought here ... I am a powerful being, with a very strong mind. I am about to contradict him, thinking that I am nothing special, and they may not have had much contact with humans, as only a few people can hypnotize well, and only a small portion of the population are susceptible to it. But then I realize ... these aren't humans, these are angels. They may be able to hypnotize much better, and humans might be much weaker against them. I cannot say with any certainty that my mind is not much stronger than usual against them.

It is about this time that I also realize I am not in my version of the Marshall cafeteria, but I have been moved to a parallel reality version that the angels inhabit. The leader has brought me here because my powerful mind and resistance may be of much benefit to them, and he plans to train me up in some of their numbers, and have me fighting with them and dancing with them, and realizing my mind's strength, all of the female angels are clambering to dance with me. Then I start realizing that means I am going to be having sex with all these absolutely stunning creatures, which just blows my mind. They are all different heights, weights, builds, yet they are all absolutely magnificent!