memorable

Oneironaut let me borrow this Uma Thurman movie. He had two of them, and I wanted them both, but he told me it was a one or the other type thing due to how different the two movies were. Anyways, I ended up watching/being in the movie itself. Uma and I were on a dusty highway heading west, and the perspective kept changing from first to third person. Either way, the whole thing was about this crazy car chase. I wasn't doing too much except being the guy who's like "oh my god, how do you know all of this stuff?", and she was taking out most of the bad guys. Once we got switch seats, and I took over the driving for a bit, and I remember she went outside of the vehicle and took some people out.

That's about when she left, and I found myself in Vegas on Halloween. There were a lot of kids out on the strip dressed up as different characters, and I was trying my hardest not to run any of them over. I arrived at this hotel where D, J, and O was at. Apparently they got there the day before, and I was meeting up with them. We were in a restaurant on the first floor, and sitting in some private section. O knew a bunch of the staff there because he had worked the before. He was introducing me to a few of them, and they asked me about some dance competition I was in. They all told me I should have won, but they couldn't vote for me because they worked there. I told them not to worry about it, and I thought that was going to be the outcome either way.

I tried to tell O about this dream I had during that same night, but he wasn't paying attention to me. He was sort of buried in his laptop looking at DV chat. D, and J told me that I had to sign in, and we went to the lobby. There were theses booths where you could check in, and instead of giving us a total, they gave us receipts of how much we saved. D and J saved about 300 bucks, and I saved 200. D told me I didn't save as much cause I was here for only one day.

We left the lobby and hopped in this party bus with a dance floor on it. I was wondering how much money I had left, and when I opened my wallet, a five flew out. I went to pick it up, and saw a twenty lying next to a guy. When I headed over there, the guy acted like it was his. I picked it up and gave it to him. There was an old man in the middle of the bus dancing to whatever song that was playing, and when it finished, he got his song to play the SAME song again. There was an mp3 player on the wall that he used. The song wasn't bad, but whatever.

DELETED

Wow, its like being awoken by Morpheus in the Matrix. Like experiencing reality for the first time! Let me begin...

Part 1: The Realization

I was in my own bedroom when my dream consciousness began. I stood there looking out my window next to my best friend. I asked him if he heard the airplane flying over. He didn't respond so I turned around to see where he was. I found myself in front of my mirror, and THATS WHEN IT HIT ME! I was dreaming! But I didn't panic, and I didn't fret. He looked at me and I even said it out loud "we're dreaming". And to prove it to him and myself I ran at my mirror and dove, and I started hovering right then and there like a parachuter.

NEXT is the exciting part!

Part 2: Something Un-earthly

I went back to my window (2 windows side by side actually, about 6 foot tall and 4 foot wide). I opened the shutters and looked at the moon (it was daytime mind you). I said to my friend, "this doesnt look right". Thats when the moon became the earth, and where we were became an alien planet. We stood there still in my room, but overlooking a alien ocean, which was very very blue unlike any earth shade of blue. I was so excited, being that I've absolutely in love with space and its possibilities. I stood there admiring earth when the earth changed to an earth like planet, and our planet its neighboring planet. It was like the universe was showing me an actual place that exists somewhere in the cosmos. It was showing me an earth like planet, and I was the first to see it. I actually ended up bringing in a celebrity singer and fooling around with her next, but I'll leave that out. haha

Part 3: Losing control

I didn't start losing control until my parents came in to the dream and starting yelling at me about the girl I had in my room.

But overall, a very successful first time! Can't wait to go back there..

The dream didn't feel more real, but it felt like more of the truth. Our existence in this reality makes less sense to me than that in a dream world where we have total control. I want back in!

Method: WILD
Recall: average
Lucid Ability:4
Vividness: Average
Dream Length:Average

Nice easy transition, but everything was black in my room. I wasn't sure about the stabilization, and I didn't care at this point because I was able to move pretty good. I headed out of the room, and into the living room and tried to summon my DG. I told myself that she'd be knocking on the door any second, and waited. Nothing happened. I told myself that same thing again....nothing. I used x-ray vision to see through the door and see if she was on the other side, while visualizing her. Nothing.

I headed outside with no other goals in mind. It was still really dark outside, but the dream was put together by now, and it was just night time. I took off into the air, flying at a high rate of speed, looking for anything. I flew off east, but I ended up at my uncles house to the west of me. I landed and started exploring a bit, and I noticed Mickey was there.

He was armed with a kingdom key, didn't speak a word, and had it out for me. I was dodging the little guys attacks for a while, and eventually pulled out a light saber, and continued defending from the assault. He seemed more like an evil version of his original self, but maybe I was just the bad guy. I remember jumping backwards, and he stopped for a breath, which in turn gave me a chance to pull out a kingdom key of my own (an old goal of mine). Nothing was special about it other than the fact I was wielding it on only one hand. The light saber eventually became sort of an off handed light dagger before fading completely

I made short work of Mickey once I got on the offensive, and continued exploring. Out of no where, the entire cast of the view showed up, and started nagging me. One of the ladies kept hitting on me, and everything was just annoying after that.

A

Not enough sleep tonight but a strange dream that felt like 2 dreams in one happening simultaneously.

On the top-level dream I was seeing the, exceptionally brightly lit, inside of a department store. The sales people were moving things around then I saw a group painting square pillars with all kinds of colorful designs. They were all happy and smiling.

Then there felt like an under-dream to this (there was no visual just feelings or knowledge of it going on) where beings (they didn’t feel alien but maybe people I could not see) where taking out parts of my nonphysical self (in the torso region) and adding parts but they all had to go together flawlessly, so that when I woke they would all function harmoniously. This reconstruction in me seemed to be so that I can be a better functioning person and be able to do more of the things I want to do in life.

The whole experience lasted less than 5 minutes.

A beautiful woman lies naked on an ornate bed sprawled amongst numerous tall stacks of ancient books. I stand shirtless a few feet from the bed and place a few choice books on my shelf. Instead of having sex with the woman I turn away and collect the rest of the books on the bed so that I can return them to the library. Once I arrive at the library I see that it resembles the Akashic Records, which I’ve visited before. The entrance to the Records is spectacular, framed by epic pillars.



I head inside and replace the books and knowledge that I have borrowed and assimilated. I browse the aisles for a bit and stumble upon a specific dream character jerk that causes trouble within the library, and starts shit with random visitors like a bully. I walk by him and ignore him, but he steps in my path and scowls at me.

He tells me to never get in his face. Wanting nothing more than to put him in his place I step up to him and jab my finger at him and “get in his face.” This angers the jerk and we proceed to battle, first hand to hand grappling before it escalates into an epic old school sword fight. We slice and duel amongst the many rows of books throughout the library until I finally defeat him.

As I stand to walk away triumphantly, I realize that I have also been mortally wounded from the battle. I stumble over to the dying jerk I defeated in battle and say “See you in another life, yeah?” I shuffle back to the naked woman in bed, lie next to her, and wake up.

So, this one is a really lengthy dream, although I recall very little of the actual length. It is a recurring dream, since I dreamed of the beginning of the story yesterday, and it continued today. And the finale is probably from another dream, or they were altogether a massive giant dream, who knows.

I first remember being in a mall with my friends, we were chatting and laughing, at what I did not know what. The next thing I can remember is some sort of lady, dressed in a business-like way, appearing out of nowhere, and the mall starts to turn into a school. One frickin' huge school.
Something happens, class begins, and me and all my friends are now being taught by a very ill-mannered teacher, hm.
This goes on for days, and I don't remember much of the classes we were taking, I think I just chatted with my friends the whole time. That may or may not be true.
One day, going to school, I get lost. This is the time I realize how huge the building was, as I was running for more than 10 minutes around, trying to find my way back to the classroom. As I opened one door, I stepped inside what appeared to be a train station, much like London's train station. Plus, there was a bus moving in the middle of the crowd.

Again, everything gets fuzzy in my memory, and that's when I think I moved to another dream. Or maybe I took another direction in the one I was in.
I was running down some sort of park, full of trees, trying to find something, at the time I was not sure. After much exploring ( The park, I remember now, was a darker version of my town's central park. Much darker, indeed.)
And when I reached the end of the park, I saw what I was looking for. A Small crypt in the left side of the park. Pleased that I'd finally found it, I start to walk in it's direction, the only thought inside my head being "But I've looked here before, how can it be here now?". Reaching the crypt, I see a flair of steps leading downwards, to the very core of the crypt. Next to me, some sort of priest was waiting, his skin was so pale that he looked like a corpse. His face was not well-cared either. He moves his arm towards the steps, as if to tell me to go down there. And that's what I do. Reaching the end of the stairs, what greets me is not some macabre skeleton show like I was hoping it would be, but, guess what, another classroom. With stone chairs. Don't try to make sense out of it, I didn't. The priest walks to the very end of the room, and starts lecturing us in the ways of Lucid Dreaming. Or that's what he said he'd do, but instead he starts to ask random questions, the last one being about mathematics.
That's all I remember, but I'm sure that it lasted through hours, days. Maybe weeks, even.

These dreams threw me off massively. My boyfriend left me sleeping in his apartment for the first time. He told me he'd lock the doors so I didn't have to worry about anything. So of course I went back to sleep seeming as it was 7 am.

The first dream it did not seem like a dream at all. I heard our bedroom door open, slowly like in one of those horror movies. However I could barely open my eyes, I had to literally force them open to watch the door slide open. Some where in my dreaming mind I couldn't help but wonder if we'd gotten a cat... My eyes went to the floor and nothing was there, then I realized that either way I cat wouldn't be able to open a closed door. The door just kept creeping open slowly till it hit the wall. I can't remember what I was thinking, just that my heart was pounding and I could hear it out loud.

Then I woke up, at least this time I really thought I was awake. The door to the bedroom was still closed, I got up easily thinking I'd go check the doors to make sure they were locked this time. I was walking up the stairs to the main door and I realized that it was still dark outside, but in my head I thought that my boyfriend left when the sun was starting to come up. Then I looked at the door and realized none of the locks were on. I walked up to it taking the ear plugs out of my ear, which in reality I would have done before getting out of bed, I opened the door and my boyfriends car was still there. I remember dropping my ear plug by the door and calling into the house for him. But he didn't answer. So I put my boots on, I was only in a tank top and some boy short panties, and went out to look in his car, but he wasn't there. So I went back inside and left the doors unlocked and got back in bed under the sheets crying.

THEN, I finally woke up to a text from him at 9 am telling me he'd locked the doors and he'd left a spare key for me by the bed. K, I realized after texting him that I had a horrible dream, that my ear plug was missing. I figured it was somewhere in my bed, so I got up to turn on the kettle, and went up to the door to make sure it really was locked like he'd told me it was, it wasn't and my ear plug was by the front door and my boots were wet from snow. So I opened the door and saw my foot prints barely covered by the fact that it was snowing leading to where the car so obviously wasn't. Yep, scary stuff.

Where do I start?
Lucid? Hmmm, it wasn't good. There was something you took to help you adventure and fly around the world. I took it. Mom tried to talk me into it so she could do drugs behind my back. I saw what others had to say about it. Scary witchy stuff. I took it, flew. I saw how late it was on the digital clock. I then watched a movie (apparently it turned real in the dream), about sharks and fish stuff. In the movie, evil was taking over the world. Side note: This movie I watched, because it was apparently a very, very popular one like Forest Gump, etc. Then, a guy with a skull-like mask came out. I knew I had the witchy powers to make me do anything, and this skull guy was evil with blood on him. So, I used my witchy power stuff so I used my powers to make everything good again. I flew over the sea. i went and Mom told me I was screaming and woke me up. FAKE! I woke up in the dream, not real life. I had way more than one sleep paralysis event though. I tried to wake up, once I knew I was dreaming, and I woke up and could not move. My heart made like a weird vibrating thing. I couldn't stop it, I put a bible under my pillow. BIG help! Also, in the dream there was a candle that I put a sticker on it. It ripped as I tore it off. It was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Then, with my witchy powers I flew into the room (my grandma's) and looked for spells. o.O I then woke up. I told myself I'd know I was dreaming if I see the same stuff again. I fell asleep, again. I knew I was dreaming, but I also knew I was in a nightmare. So, I screamed really loudly as I saw this guy with black hair trying to help me with my powers. (How is that even scary??) I entered sleep paralysis again. Of course! I screamed really loud as I knew I was awake and saw myself fly over the sea once more. Mom woke me up, she heard me scream. I told her this. ^
Nightmare II
This was, pretty cool actually. Stephanie, Lulu, and I were in a machine thing at my step-dad's house. Next door is a preacher lady (crazy) named Kathy. She is nuts!! When we were in the robot machine, we saw people fly out of the house, and me and Stephanie laughed. Another one went flying off the top of the house and landed straight to the ground. They were dying, but we didn't care as we continued laughing. I got the window seat, and it was entertaining. "What are they doing, why?" I thought. "Wanna switch?" I questioned Stephanie as she said yes. She switches seats, looked and we switched back. Then, there was like an explosion, killing almost all of mankind. The world was nearly empty. I moved from the spot I already was b/c the explosion moved me, I was unharmed, though. I got up, remembering people I saw lived. I went by Tony's street. 50 Cent was there mowing the lawn. He said I was brave for going to that house. I went through a forest-like thing and saw a few people. Then, I went to explore Mrs. Kathy's house. I wanted to see what killed them. I found a phone and called 911, but it was so screwed up, when I dialed it, it said E 4. It was busted -___- I crawled up the cave in their house, that leaded to the parachute thing that shot people there. I saw skulls. They looked like toys. I picked one up and observed it. I looked for a made in China sign on it, but no luck. (I am TERRIFIED of skulls, and since they represented real ones I'm surprised I did not scream.) When I picked them up, much like this dream they were very, very vivid. Once I made it to the top, I saw where people were falling from. I was about to go through it, but I didn't feel like dying. Note: When I climbed near the cave on the ground, a news reporter in the backround from an unknown source said: "People have been tricking locals into coming in their house for a parachute ride. Many people killed, almost no human life left. If you know ANYONE still out there, you must find them NOW!" I was brave in this.
Side Note: I was wearing a purple Monster High shirt, and I found huge, plastic purple earrings on the floor in the witchy dream. They are purple skulls with bows on them. I put them on and Stephanie said they were cute. Also, I had a dream where I was in a yellow shirt, and a certian thing got bigger. Strange.

I'm at a revival-meeting-type gathering and it's unclear whether they're Christians, Wiccans, or a melange of both. It's about to be my turn to get up onstage to be "read". I get a choice of lotto-game-type cards to choose from and I choose the purple one. The woman holding the meeting looks at it and says, "Forget it. You're lost. You're headed for destruction and there's no way to save you." I assume she's about to heal me from this horrible destiny, so I get up onto the podium, and then she trips and falls. She looks back and blames me as if I've made it happen. She orders me off the stage. There is also someone calling out that I use cards, which they call by some kind of T-word like "trock" (can't remember), and I say, "You mean tarot?" Everybody in the congregation gasps and looks at me as though I were the devil himself. They start to stare at me with hate in their eyes that forces me off the stage.

It's clear that I'm going to get no healing here, so I wander around the audience looking for someone who might help me. I run into an old psychology colleague who used to be a baseball coach and who is a no-nonsense wise man. He tells me this is all b------t and that they're using me to try to sell psychic readings. They know I'll see through their tactics, so they're marginalizing me to their public to try to make an example of me. I run across an acolyte, a heavy and sweet-faced woman in her 30s or 40s, with a braid of long hair down to her waist. She smiles at me and says she'll help me, but then when she walks past, her hair is jerked back as if I'd pulled it, and she falls. She blames me and everybody sees it.

I leave, convinced I'm doomed, and I come across a table full of lotto-type tickets where you pull a paper out of a paper sleeve, like in a children's book where you pull a tab and the horse's tail wags. I pick purple again as my favourite colour, and it says, "You may as well forget it. You're lost. You know how a condemned man's last meal is whatever he wants? Go do whatever you want. Have a blast for your last couple months of life on Earth." It goes on to say that some of the signs of the end days are that fruit will turn to dust. Every fruit I find turns to dust in my hands. Frantically, I start picking other colours. Pink says I may have some hope, but if I've picked purple already I'm hopelessly lost. Green finally says I have some hope - it's a deep forest green. I know bystanders are looking at me as if I'm nuts.

I wake up with a headache. It takes me a few minutes to convince myself it was only a dream.

But was it?

I had asked God and my guardian angel, and any other angels who wanted to help me, to be with me in my dreams. Is this their message to me??

If anyone has a possible alternative answer and cares to comment on this, please do. I will say that I've been going through a Major Depressive Episode (partly related to Cymbalta withdrawal) after a very difficult Christmas with my family, and I posted last night on another forum about how angry I was over past abusive treatment. I've always felt terrified of being angry with my parents or sisters, and last night I wrote out how angry I was and faced the possibility of being cut off from them in my mind. I actually did write in the post that I "might not even go to hell for this". Briefly, I got physically roughed up on Christmas Day by one of my sisters while I was in the middle of a near-catatonic depressive episode, and a lot of past abuse issues have been coming up for me. It's always felt very dangerous to let it make me angry, because I'd lose my family, be cut off, and possibly go to hell for disobeying the honour-thy-parents commandment. I'd certainly be cut off in life, suddenly without a family - even a sometimes abusive family being a safer feeling than none at all. Hate your famliy, and you're alone in an uncaring world.

But it does bother me that I made a specific request (and had made that request repeatedly) to God and the angels to be with me during my dreams, and not only are they still nightmares, but I've now had one essentially saying that I'm a lost cause and they're going to throw me into Hell. What?!?!

Dream - Lucid

I MILDed again!

I just used my mantra of "I will become lucid" and also said "I will reality check" a couple of times. Yay! I'm glad I found a method that works. Thanks, Matte!

I was at my house. Some mini leprechaun guy, I think it was supposed to be a guy I know in waking life named Jonni, killed my friend/coworker Virginia in her sleep at her apartment. He was very smart, so there's no way she or anyone could elude him, even if the attack was known about in advance. I was terrified this would happen to me, and my parents were at a movie. I was home alone, and it was getting late. I tried to call my mom and she said they'd be home soon. I fell asleep and woke up quite a few times, each time with a wave of terror upon waking. I called my mom a few more times. I fell asleep and woke up again, and my mom was home, working in her office. It was midnight. I went over to her and told her how scared I was. She seemed annoyed and told me she could just give me a Xanax and lay there with me until I fell asleep, but she truthfully hated doing that for my dad. She said if I didn't fall asleep, she wouldn't do it. I got excited and told her I promised I'd fall asleep. I thought to myself even if I didn't fall asleep, I could pretend so she wouldn't leave.

~

I had another dream, but I swore I'd remember it and didn't write it down. Guess what? I forgot it. I fell asleep and woke up again, and decided to MILD. I did my mantras until I fell asleep.

~

I was in an episode of Family Guy. The story was about how one of the characters met his wife. It wasn't a very funny episode though. We were on a bus going to basic training for the military. I was sitting with a younger version of Peter. He pulled out a bag of pot mixed with cocaine, and said we could just do the coke off our fingers. I really didn't want to do that. He had just pulled it out, opened it, and stared at it for awhile.

We got to basic training. It was nighttime outside. We walked through the grass to a screened-in shed that had many seats in front of a stage-type thing with a podium on it for a speaker. We were supposed to listen to someone talk, but they weren't there yet. I smoked a cigarette with Peter. We saw the girl that one of the characters was supposed to meet. She was a cartoon with long, brown, wavy hair and she was dressed all in blue. She smiled flirtatiously as she flipped her hair. Peter's voice came on in the background to say something like "And there she was.".

The speaker finally came, a big black woman, and we all sat in the chairs. We listened to her talk, and she told us that we had to get up at 5 A.M. every day because one of the people in charge had to get up that early. I thought that was a little ridiculous, but it was the military, so I didn't argue. We were dismissed. I took Peter's hand and he offered me a cigarette. I took one, and he lit mine off of his. We walked past this little area where there were big rocks surrounding a tree in a semi circle. Morrie from Tuesdays With Morrie was there, all cartoonified. Him and Peter made some sort of joke, and we kept walking. We went into another little screened-in shed. There was a big banner lying on a table to welcome us. A big rainbow appeared on the banner. I thought it was very sarcastic sounding, since it was welcoming us to the military.

Wait what? Rainbows don't just appear on banners. I was dreaming! I knew the dream was almost over, but I examined my hands anyway to induce clarity. Things kept fading, but I finally stabilized them a bit. I did an RC. There was a chalkboard/marker board in the room. It had an orange spiral drawn on it with text inside of it. There were little stick people drawn off to the side. I glanced away and looked back. The text had changed, and the spiral was smaller. I floated up through the ceiling and ended up inside my family's bonus room. I could feel that I was going to wake up any minute, so I quickly thought of something I could do in a short amount of time. I decided to fly through space, if only for a minute. I took off through the ceiling and I was in space! It was beautiful. There were purpleish-blue stars everywhere, and I saw an orange galaxy off in the distance. It was amazing. It only lasted a few seconds though, before it started to fade to black.

"Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing."
Anonymous

I was at my school, and I was carrying my baby cousin. She was having a fit and completely freaking out, so I put her in her stroller.
Time skip.
I was in a hallway at the school, and my mother was there. She told me to go outside to the car to assist my father with carrying some things. I had my sweater on, so I knew I'd be warm enough. I walked over to the doors and was about to go outside to the parking lot, when I realized that I didn't have my shoes. I went back to where my mother was to get them, but she began to scold me for not helping, claiming that everything had been brought inside already. I angrily put on my shoes and went outside. I jumped on the ground and slid on the ice on my belly. It was jolly good fun, but I stopped because I didn't want to dirty my sweater.
I walked over to the car where my father was working on his computer. I began talking to him though the window.
"Can I help carry anything?" I asked. I noticed some gross-looking bugs on the outside of the car.
"Everything has been brought in except a couple things that Ill get."
"I'll carry them."
"Why?"
"Well, because I didn't help out earlier and I desired to make reparations for my lack of assistance, and THAT BUG IS CREEPING ME OUT!"
On the car was an ant and a "tomato spider," as I called it (see image below). They both had a bunch of little white grub-like things attached to them, parasites I expected. The ant was big, but worse was the tomato spider. It had a gross red body and long legs, and a fuzzy tail. It fell off the car and I jumped back. I began to stomp on it, but every time I tried to kill it, it didn't die. I stomped again and again, but it still lived.
I went into panic mode. I was freaking out. I hate bugs, and they are one of my biggest fears. I began to flail, and I almost hit a nice young lady in my panic. My father kept telling me to calm down, but I just couldn't. Now while that damn spider still lived. I stomped again, and again, and again. Finally, I threw a napkin on it and stomped again. Finally, I woke up.
This one scared the feces out of me. I am so afraid of bugs, for no reason. I think this one counted as more of a nightmare than the last one, because while roaches are just gross, big red spiders are frightening.

This thing is awful. Actual size.

13 JAN 2011

Nearing the apparent conclusion of a lengthy and dramatic dream, I find myself running through narrow streets and building sites in an attempt to reach 'safety'. I recognise this as a fear-based situation and gradually become lucid. Scaffolding poles begin to fall around me, and I instinctively cover my head with my arm, even as I am beginning to sense that I cannot actually be harmed.

As I consider my options, I realise that the first thing I should do is simply step out of the narrative; an option available to anyone, at any time, whether dreaming or awake (for only then can other options be clearly considered). And, sure enough, the moment I stop running everything around me becomes totally quiet and serene - eerily so, in fact.

Looking into the distance, I see a huge metallic monolith blocking my way. Then I focus on what's immediately around me (rubble, a digger truck, wasteland) and feel this to be one of the most solid and 'realistic' dream environments I've ever experienced. So much so, in fact, that the prospect of flying or manipulating objects seems as unlikely as it does in waking reality. As an experiment, therefore, I resort to verbal commands (which have worked in the past).... "Take me up there," I demand, looking at the giant monolith. But nothing happens.

Of course, there was no compelling reason to go onwards, since I had stepped outside of the narrative. Indeed, there was nowhere to go at all, nor anything to achieve, in the absence of a linear context of some kind. [In the absence of the ego?] And this realisation filled me with a profound sense of bliss and freedom. As I contemplated the matter further, I felt that I was being given a valuable insight into the subtle nature of the prison (the egoic auto-pilot) which keeps most people enslaved. And it really is 'subtle', at the end of the day... Freedom itself being nothing more than a shift in one's perspective.

Notes

In light of the above dream, I would like to refine my description of OILD. Specifically, I would like to introduce the concept of a get out of jail free card (or 'option') which exists permanently in one's back pocket, so to speak, regardless of whether one is awake or asleep. In other words, it's not merely that one has other options to consider, in any given situation (context based), but that one [always] has the option to 'play the card' and transcend the context altogether. Indeed, this is the first option that one should utilise when 'triggered' to do so by obstacles, conflicts or fear-based situations, etc.

Needless to say, it's not as easy as it sounds, because emotions, fear and ego tend to prevail. This is because we are totally identified with the 'narrative' of own waking lives and the resulting sense of identity. I suppose what I'm ultimately referring to here is detachment, clarity of mind, and the dissolution of the apparent self (if only temporarily)... Which is, of course, the goal of many spiritual traditions, which also happen to see "lucid dreaming" as an indication of one's progress.

"Use your perceived enemy to destroy your real enemy."

OILD - Because there's ALWAYS another option!

a
1/11/11
Nonlucid
I was waking up in a hotel bed. I didn’t know where I was but I was still sleepy and maybe I just needed to wake up a bit. I noticed a woman was in the room with me but was not seen. I looked outside the wide balcony window and saw a large beach. The beach was unusually wide from the shore back to the hotel where I was. It was so wide I could not see the waves for the bump of the beach’s overall shape. I saw a tall tower on the beach that looked like a scaffold covered in black clothe. There was a horn blast from the area like an air horn. I focused on the area more and my vision zoomed to the area much closer. There was another horn blast and a silver fireworks stream shot up into the sky not too high. The firework did a circle in the sky and then fell to the ground, several fireworks circled or spiraled up into the air like this as I watched. I remember hoping no one was hit by the falling still sparkling fireworks but they always fell between people.

Type: Regular dream.
Lucidity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Vividness: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Notes:
There was a whole other dream before this one, but I seem to have forgotten it. Maybe I'll remember over the course of today and write it down, too.

I was in the center of a ground-level vehicle parkade, which had low ceilings and was made almost entirely of gray concrete. The parkade was situated in a vehicle-centric city, because I could hear many cars driving around outside, but the noises were very quiet and hollow-sounding. There were small pot lights in the ceiling, but most of the light came from the sunlight outside, because there was a fair amount of it pouring in from the open sides of the building.

I was standing right beside a silver Toyota Sienna, or at least it looked like one. It's difficult to tell in a dream unless you're lucid, and I wasn't paying much attention to it from the start. At this point, I knew my mother was outside the parkade, paying for a parking ticket. She had started up the van with her remote vehicle starter, and I was keeping an eye out for it in case someone decided to get inside and steal it. Anyone could just walk into the van and drive away because it was all ready to go. That's when I saw a man walking by me. He was wearing a purple hoodie which looked fairly large for him, and blue jeans.

He then stopped and turned to me, saying, "hello, what's up?"

I said, "just waiting for my mother to get back and drive us home."

"In that case," he said, looking at the van and starting to walk around to the driver's side, "I'll take it home myself." The words carried a hint of aloofness, like he didn't care what happened. But clearly he wanted to steal it.

I ran around the side of the van and grabbed one of the white drawstrings of his hoodie, the ones that came from inside the hood. I pulled on it, not thinking I could do anything else, and started to yank him away. I saw the other drawstring and grabbed it too; now I was pulling on both of them. I proceeded to yank him away from the van, despite his protests of "hey! What are you doing?" and other, more nonsensical phrases that I can't remember.

After waking up, I realized the man looked exactly like Kevin Spacey, and he spoke like him too. I also laughed because I realized how stupid I had looked, pulling on the strings of the guy's sweater to get him away from the van.

Additional note:
I had a WILD breakthrough last night. I tried my luck at WILDing to see if I could break my dryspell that's lasted for over a year. I listened to white noise this time, a static-like sound, and within about twenty minutes I was extremely relaxed and felt my thoughts going in strange directions, without me voluntarily thinking about anything. It was a strange feeling, but one I remembered from a while ago. I also started to see small dots of white flashing around, which I observed for a mere few seconds. I accidentally forgot to stay calm and woke myself out of it.