Nightmares
^ w ^ Hi everyone. I was lucid again which is great but ran into some nightmares. First it started off with me messaging someone on dream views. It was funny cause the message said something about blowing someone till you hear them scream I. It made no sense. I than had a false awakening where I went to sleep in the dream. I started thinking about something than got off the bed and walked. I felt a portal open and someone came out of it into my room. The person asked if the guy on my bed was my boyfriend. I don't know who it was but for some reason I just said yes, I wuv him than hugged him. After that I had another false awakening but was sort of dum. There was a white carpet on my pillow and I was saying dum stuff. Than I saw images of a small boy with a big brown dog. Talking to his family about how he couldn't sleep. In my next dream I was...um...at my house with my family.(Semi lucid) Than suddenly the house became filled with water. I was drowning but than a giant appeared and saved me. After that I went to the next room and my dad,uncle and younger brother was there. My uncle said there was a boy laying there who looks like he forgot who he was a bit. My dad disagreed than try to touch me inappropriately. I screamed at him than ate a pumpkin pie and another sweet red thing. But than I saw it had white stuff on it so I left. Just when I was leaving my uncle gave me dishes to wash too. But I just left and appeared in a city. I was pretending to drive a car I think and ended up somewhere where a large machine thing was. I got fully lucid at that point.A boy was with his girlfriend and started to tease me about how they weren't going to fall to their doom . I was like whatever you say... than left. I pretended to drive again and dodged a few cars. A guy in the corner caught my attention but turned so I couldn't see his face. I went into a bus filled with middle school kids wearing white t shirts like they were going to school. They were singing happily and one was kind of too close to me. His dad pulled him away and the bus made a stop.we got out but than the bus driver said he made a wrong turn, the tracks were broken and that we were behind a building somewhere. A lady decided to go her own way and I followed her. It looked like a house mixed with a castle. I saw a hall and a lady standing near the front door. It looked scary so I didn't go there. The other lady showed me a big pipe sewer entrance and said we can escape through the sewers. That was a dum idea to me so I said no! We can just fly out of here. I flew out through a opening in the place and saw it was daytime, there were cars and people celebrating something. I went closer and also saw a commemoration place for a lady who died. The lady who tried to get me into the sewer came after me with a fork. I told her to stop and told her friends (while flying) that the lady was bothering me. Her two friends told her to leave me alone. That maybe they found a extraterrestrial. The lady said she wasn't trying to hurt me. She was trying to show her the secret recipe for the chicken was the fatty skin.Than I woke up. In the third dream I wanted to meet my guide Eye. I appeared in my house with a winter hat and knew I was dreaming. My mom was like I wasn't and than the dream began to fade so I started rubbing my hands. The dream was than stable and I asked my mom where was the phone. I found it in the bathroom and noticed the dream was fading again. I rubbed my hands and than dialed but no one picked up so I ran downstairs.I appeared in a different house and started calling Eye. I heard someone walking closer than the dream paused for a bit. I rubbed my hands just to see who would appear and it was a girl. She ran quickly behind me than she put her finger in my stomach.Like she was stabbing me. I woke up after that I think. My last dream was crazy...I appeared in a school classroom where the teacher was giving a spelling test. I didn't have a pencil though so someone gave me one. I don't recall what the questions were though. The test was than snatched out of my desk without me finishing and the class left into the hall. I followed and became lucid. I was happy so I screamed out to everyone "Guys! This is a dream! And to go on the website dream views if it was a shared dream experience. I shouted it a few times and the people started to snicker and joke about me as we left cause i looked stupid.When i was about to leave a random guy hurt a kid than used their finger to stab me. I felt it on my bellybutton area and i thought it was going to go through me. I stopped the person and ran away but fell. There was something about a knife about to cut me and a huge rock above my head but i used the knife to try and hit the guy than ran. That's when i appeared in a room with a good childhood friend who's older and my brothers. But they looked different. I walked out the room than heard a person crying like they were scared. I walked to the room curiously and saw a boy around my age on a bed shaking in the fetal position cause he was scared of something. i went up to him and said it was going to be okay, that there was nothing to be afraid of cause i knew it was a dream. Oh and that Jehovah and Jesus will protect him him from any scary demons or stuff like that and hugged him but not too close cause he wasn't wearing clothes. But he kept saying no, that he wasn't safe. When i looked at his eyes his eyes were light blue and kind of cute but he disappeared and that's when i felt someone grab me and use their finger to stab me again. I kept using will power to keep their finger from piercing me. But it felt really strong. Than the dream shifted and i lost my lucidity. I was on the mattress with two people and i was like i was happy to wake up from that crazy dream. Than the little boy or girl near me was like "what was that?". Than pointed to something on the mattress and it was a feet mark. Someone invisible was walking on the mattress. I took a step back than i was stabbed with the finger in my belly button again. It didn't break through me but i felt it getting stronger and stronger. I thought it was real life and a a demon was trying to kill us. So i started praying for Jehovah to help me. But it wasn't working. When it wasn't working I knew it was a dream but felt it get so strong i was like Okay...if you don't help me god or Jesus I'm going to die. Than i saw the scenery change and woke up.lol
Updated 06-14-2014 at 06:12 PM by 67570
So this happened on June 13, 2014, Friday. I was at my auntie's house and it was 12 in the afternoon when I fell asleep. It was a strange, creepy dream because I remember that I was dreaming within a dream that I'm on a bed slightly facedown but I can see my left side and there was a girl facing me, she was dressed in black but i can't see her face, it was like just an empty space, just all black. In my dream, within a dream, I feel like I couldn't move my body like I was restrained and she was just there staring blankly at me and I was forcing myself to wake up, when I finally woke up in my dream, I immediately ran outside to my mom(I was still in my "main" dream) I don't know how I woke up from my my main dream though, all I remember is me dreaming about dreaming of me on a bed forcing myself to wake up and a girl staring at me(even though I cant see her face) and my body feeling heavy. Strange thing is the night before that dream within a dream, I was also in the very same house of my aunt. We were watching a movie when I looked at the window beside the tv and saw a white thing passed by. I know it isn't just an imagination because I really saw it passed by and i dont know what it looks like but Im sure its a girl wearing all white(just my instincts) i cant determine it really though, it was just a blur of something white and its not a reflection because if it was it would not look so bold. So I looked at the other window at the left side because I thought it was just a relative or someone we know of but no one passed by. So I told my cousins and aunties who were with me immediately and my other cousin told me he sometimes see it too just passing by and he couldn't determine what is it because it's just a white blurry thing. I was slightly freaked out and shocked because it was my first time seeing something real and not just my mind making it all up. I'm sharing this experience because I think it has a connection with my dream. I think it made me dream like that because of that experience and I'm really sure my mom will be sleeping with me tonight. I hope I didn't confuse you lol. English is just not my first language :) so all in all I dreamt of me dreaming and it has something to do with my experience, somehow.
Updated 06-13-2014 at 05:05 PM by 69631
June 08, 2014 Kebab Gets Sick I was with the backpacking group, drinking in an old house. I think the house belonged to one of my family members, or someone I knew, but I can't remember who it was. The house had a very modern feel to it, even though it was old. We were all on the second floor, and suddenly Kebab said, "I forgot how sick this stuff makes me..." and goes to the upstairs bathroom, but he gets worried that it won't hold all of his vomit (I laughed out loud as I wrote this out) and so he tries to get to the bigger bathroom downstairs, and... well, let's just say he left a trail, and it was disgusting. I must have blotched out the part where I cleaned it all up. I remember being on the stairs at the point where it turns (it was one of those kinds of stairways), hearing him vomiting all the way to the bathroom, and then more in the bathroom. I remember thinking, Oh God, I'm going to have to clean this up... And then I remember being back upstairs with Zukin, Penny, Ivan, and a friend of his, who was in my own grade instead of a year below me, like all three of the others are. I was telling them all about my Dream Journal, and gave them all my DV username so they could find me once they joined the site (Zukin and I were recruiting them all). Suddenly, I was in my high school cafeteria, just as I am saying the last five letters of it; "E-L-K-A-T..." And then someone on the complete other side of the cafeteria yells, "E-L-K-A-T!" And then someone else yells it from another side of the room, and soon the whole room is shouting "KESTRELKAT! KESTRELKAT!! KESSSSSTRELKAAAAATTT!!!" It was so strange. Murder at the Musical A friend and I (at the beginning, I don't remember who she was, but toward the end it was one of my friends from college) were acting in a musical about a crazy King who tries to kill his daughter and her friend. My friend plays the daughter, and I play her friend... Her dad plays the crazy King. Can you see where this is going yet? Anyways, we find out that her father is trying to kill us; He is going to do it right on stage and get away with it because people will think it's just really good acting. Or, it may have actually been that he was going to actually kill us in order to make it the best show ever. I can't remember exactly which it was, or if it was both. In the musical, the crazy King pretends to be the painting in his daughter's room in order to get her and her friend while they are off-guard, and he jumps at them with a knife, killing the friend first, because he knows his daughter wouldn't dare to avenge her friend and he could easily get her right after. Everyone else in the play found out her father's plan, and was trying to help us. We couldn't go straight to the police because they wouldn't believe us if we did. So we all continued with rehearsals as planned, to formulate our plan and also to keep her father from finding out that we knew his plan. We had to all live in the building in which we practiced, and we weren't allowed to leave at all. It was an abandoned warehouse that was for some reason located on my home street. When it was time to do a sort of official advertising for the musical (there was a local musical association, and they held an event where all the main characters of the various plays and musicals being put on would gather and try to sell tickets to people passing by on the street), my friend and I left the building (since we were main characters, and her Father could not keep us hidden away with the rest of the cast). Her father was already there, and we were to meet him. We decided we would expose him today, because there would be many people and policemen to help us, and he wasn't really a good actor anyways so he wouldn't be able to lie his way out of it. The event was being held a couple blocks away, and so my friend and I had to get up the hill on my street. We were having a very hard time doing it, because of our bulky costumes, so we put on roller blades that we apparently had hidden in the bulky dresses we wore. The going got much faster then. When we reached the top of the hill (that's where it meets the street on which the event was held), we saw that there were many, many more people than we had expected. Even better; more witnesses to his horrible lying and more support for ourselves. We found a policewoman and explain what was going on, and we led her to where my friend's dad was, in his ridiculous costume (like this, just he was a painting of a rather creepy looking clown, and the frame was almost as big as he was). We exposed him, and the police took him away. They told my frind and me that we should get the rest of the cast and crew, so that we could all go to testify at the station. We go back to the building, gather the others, and get on a bus to get to the police station. As we walked to the bus stop, we all decided that we would have to find another musical to perform in, and that we would stick together because we had become like family. When we got on a bus, and it started moving, a man that had been sitting on a bench at the stop moved with the bus. He was outside of the bus, but moved as if he were in it, even swaying as the driver used the brakes too heavily. I stared out the window at him, and he stared back, grinning. Every time we stopped at a bus stop, the man would appear to adjust himself in his seat of air, so that he looked like he was just sitting at the bus stop. He was describing something to me, and it was strange, because I could hear his voice in my head again. But, I can't remember what he was describing to me. He wore a patch-filled jacket and had a sing-songy voice, but I didn't realize until I was awake that it was the same person from my Gangster Pimp story, who may have been The Face from another dream I had. The leader of our little troupe suddenly told us all to get off the bus, quickly. In the confusion, the man whom I will call The Face until I learn his real identity vanished. I reach my troupe and find that they have been confronted by a group of white men and women (my whole troupe, except for my friend and me, was black, with only 1 or 2 women). They stood in lines facing each other, with the leaders of the two groups standing opposite each other. It seemed everyone in my own group had a counterpart in the other group, except for my friend and me. I suddenly know that our leader had taken s off the bus because he'd seen the other group waiting to get on it, and wanted to avoid a confrontation; but the leader of the other group had also spotted him getting off, and had stayed, just to pick a fight. "What are you doing with these little white girls, eh? You messin' with them?" Their leader turned to me. "They messin' with you, honey?" "We're their friends," I say. "Oh really?" "We're in a play- a musical- together." The other group collectively mocked me and I saw some of their members push some of my friends, so I tried to make myself a human barrier between the two groups, hoping I could stop a fight from happening. The other group members were saying really nasty, rude, and disrespectful things about my friends, and I could see my group beginning to get angrier, but they didn't make any moves. Then, I saw my group's leader's thoughts for an instant; but it was enough to know that he and his friends had been in a bad situation before joining the musical cast and crew, and they all wanted to live better lives now. "Just ignore them all," I said to my friends, while staring into the eyes of the opposite group leader. That all went on for a few more minutes, and the situation was looking so desperate that I turned around and hugged as many of my group members as I could, crying. I guess the antagonizing gang must have gotten weirded out by my show of affection, and they left with the grumblings of an aggressor who doesn't really want to open that can of worms anymore. We all sat down to wait for the next bus. People sniggered and talked bad about me, as if what I'd done was the stupidest thing they'd ever seen, and I snapped at them all, "Shut the FUCK up! What would you all have done?! Run away? Watch your friends get hurt?" My group leader ruffled my hair and the rest fell silent, just like my group was. It was all very sober until the bus got there. I sat at a window seat, with the leader to my right and my friend to his right. I remembered my leg brushing his, and realizing I needed a shower REALLY bad because my legs were prickly as fuck. Then I woke up.
Updated 06-10-2014 at 07:14 AM by 69491
Been a long while since I've recorded dreams, but doing so most definitely increases my dream recall and lucidity, so it's worth continuining. I'm following after the philisophy of mastermind by saying a mantra/affirmation before sleeping and using the power of intention. And it seems to have worked lol. I usually don't remember this much detail of my dreams but at the same time I haven't really been trying until recently. Was at Newcastle turning right at a set of traffic lights in an attempt to get onto the Pacific HWY a few streets down. However, this set of traffic lights when they went green, traffic in the opposing direction was still moving and very quickly too. Something like 130KM/h which is not even a speed we travel at on highways in Australia let alone regular arterial roads like the one I was on. As I turned right after finding a sufficient gap to turn, two cars appeared out of nowhere in lanes 2 and 3 and I stopped in lane 1 before completing my turn just narrowly avoiding hitting them. This set of traffic lights doesn't even exist as far as I am aware. I turned down a few more streets and ended up at a mcDonalds restaurant and parked in there. I can't remember if I got anything to eat there or not but there is a slight gap between the proceeding events. I am now in another house. A house I'd never been in before. My parents have now arrived here. I don't remember all of the conversation I had with my mum but she said that it is very hard to turn at that intersection as the cars are traveling so quickly. Then the dream got very odd and spooky. There was a presence in the room. I can't remember if I saw anything but I may have seen that presence or at least a shadow in another room. It was starting to get dark outside and I could sense evil around me in this room. In the main living area, we are for some reason using candles instead of lights. When I mention the evil in the room to my mum, she says she has some sort of book about it that might help. She gets out a few books but then grabs a very odd looking book. It has a dark cover and I can't remember what the cover said it was but it did have some odd symbol on it and said something along the lines of book of evil spirits or something. I read a bit of it then went back out to the car and the doors locked when I went inside it and I could still sense the spirit but I got out of there somehow and went back into the house. Eventually it became morning and I could no longer sense the spirit. I went outside via a sliding door and there was a pool there. Suddenly some naked woman was standing next to me and she and I both jumped into the pool together with me for some reason in an old school uniform or something. She wanted me to go wrap her arms around her so I did lol. Then the dream got even more bizarre. Suddenly this pool extended over a great waterfall/drop and I was on a surfboard and me and some other friends I'd never seem before went over the waterfall and luckily landed without killing ourselves. Now we were at some sort of beach and there were some big waves here. Still on our surfboards and now in the ocean, my friends signalled to go this way to where all the big waves are but I see another wave in the opposite direction and so go that way instead. I go a few meters before accidentally going over a massive wave and being flung into the air and landing on some rocks and hurting myself. I believe my friends were coming over to help but the dream ended at this point anyway. Was at one of my old houses. Was downstairs in the shower,towel, stairs...will,fill in extra details later. Ballina, pacific hwy, shopping centre...will fill in extra details later.
On a boat at night, filled with other people, mostly young people. They seems like kids, but could be about 18 or so. We're expecting some enemy force to attack the town we're off the coast of nearby, but waiting for more details on where the attack will be so we can position ourselves to stop it. Looking around, there are a bunch of empty boats anchored near the shore, and some street lights near the docks light up parts of the beach. Then we see it, about a dozen boats quickly pass us, landing on the far side of town. Beast-like monsters with vicious looking weapons, huge muscles, and an overall extremely dangerous looking figure, run off their ships and amass in a large group just on shore. Our captain brings us close, and we disembark not too far from them. I tell everyone not to shoot at them until we're well setup, because if we provoke them now while we're vulnerably half on the ship, half getting off, we'll all surely be killed. The monsters seem to notice us, but for some reason give us the courtesy to prepare ourselves. It becomes very clear that we're hugely out-numbered about 10 to 1, and this is a suicide mission. Our leader has us line up in a double file line facing our attackers. This seems stupid to me, like a sure way to set up the worst defense in history, but I can't change his mind. To my disappointment, I am shuffled to the second row, right in the front. You know, where death is 100% certain against a huge group of beasts like this. I turn to the person on my left and choking back tears tell him, "It's a good day to die" while I think, "I don't really want to die today" It's sad because this seems really pointless. Someone announces to us that there is coffee and donuts inside just behind us. I don't like coffee or donuts, but since I'm just about to be fighting a huge number of beasts, maybe if I'm hopped up on caffeine, I'll be able to shoot them quicker, so I go inside. There is a table set up where two people are serving everyone espresso shots and tiny muffins. I take one of each, eat the muffin in one bite, and sip on the espresso shot because it's too hot to drink. I walk back outside, finish the espresso, and find myself in the back of the line now thinking, "This is a much safer spot to be. Since I am good at shooting, I can help better from back here" But I see they have saved my spot up at the front... I solemnly walk back up to the front, and think about how no one wants to be in the front, so it might as well be me. At least I can spare someone else the terror of being amongst the first to die. Thinking about everyone else, and how fearful they must be, I'm not so sad about our situation. I just accept my position in the front for everyone else's sake, and peacefully wait for the battle to begin. With the sound of gunfire and screams, everything goes dark brown, I see a hideous eye get so close it appears bigger than me, then I feel like I am inside a large mouth with massive fangs, and all other sounds get really muffled, then stops. Now everything is black. That same glittering blackness when you close your eyes in the dark.
Had a dream 2 nights ago that I was in a bus. The roads kept getting thinner and thinner until it finally disappeared, we went crashing into the water and the bus driver had to open the emergency door. We all went out that way and had to swim up... It was taking very long and then I remember when I was out of the water, I was telling my mom what happened and how it was in the bus and how long it took to swim out, I remember I felt like I was out of breath. It was scaryyy. <-- That's how I was swimming up haha.
So, I haven't been keeping very good track of dreams. Helicopter: About a week ago - had a dream I was in a helicopter with someone. I looked down and there was fog rolling across a field, rolling in waves like an ocean. There was a storm in the distance, I could see it across several farm fields, but it was beautiful. On the edge of the fields there was a forest. The helicopter flew down until it was only a few feet above the ground, and we flew through a forest. I had a vague idea I was dreaming, and I wanted to share this with one of my friends, so I tried to turn the helicopter pilot into one of my friends. I looked away and looked back. When I looked back, her face was blurred out, but she hadn't fully changed. When this stuff happens, you'd think it would be super creepy in a Silent Hill sort of way, but when I am dreaming it's just a "this didn't completely work" sort of thing and doesn't bother me. I woke up. I've had a few lucid dreams over the past 2 weeks but I've also been bad about recording those, so I'll just record last night: Lucid: Woke up ~8 am. Got up to use the bathroom. Went back to bed with the idea that it would probably be easy to transition to a lucid dream at this point. Fell asleep, as normal. At some point, I became semi-aware while I was in the grey fog. I am familiar with the fog, by now. I knew that because I didn't "have a body" at the moment, I wouldn't be able to enter a dream (this is something it took a while to figure out, and it's just the way it works for me). I decided to do my technique of "walking" forward until my feet took form I could see my feet. I looked down at where my feet would be and began "walking". After spending a while doing it, suddenly my feet came into being. Once they came into being, I decided to try to bring an environment into being. Suddenly, the world popped into place. It startled me so much that I fell on my butt. I was now sitting in a yard in front of a house. It was very clear. There was a house behind me that I didn't notice very much, and trees all around me. The grass I was sitting on was vibrantly green and soft. I saw some little flowers growing in it (like little daisies) and thought about picking one. Before I did that, though, I decided to look around. Everything was crystal clear, no "dream fuzziness" at all. I heard a car in the distance. It stopped at the curb next to me. Curious, I stood up to take a look. I could see the driver inside, his features were quite clear without the "dream fuzzies" that sometimes happen when I see a dream character. He opened the door and stepped out and suddenly everything became fuzzy and gray again. My body had disappeared again. I began to rub my hands together. After a while of rubbing, they suddenly appeared in front of me. I was pleased and tried to cause the landscape to reappear. Unfortunately, I guess I hadn't stabilized enough because my hands disappeared again and I woke up a little bit. I settled back down and tried to imagine walking while looking at my feet again, and holding the hand of a friend to try to make them appear with me once I "existed" again, as sort of an anchor (I am holding onto them and they are in the environment that we are both in, so they stabilize me and vice versa). It doesn't really work and I feel like I can feel my feet shuffling in my bed (I'm never completely sure if they actually are or it is an illusion that they are). It doesn't really work. I give up and drift into deeper sleep. Kitten: I dream I am robbing banks as an accomplice with a dream character (Caucasian guy with dark shaggy hair, thin and generally unhealthy and unreliable looking). At one point we end up in a production room where people are packing up cocaine for distribution. I have a tiny orange tabby kitten and I am worried about its welfare. I carry it with me at all times. We are going to go rob a bank and crash at a motel and my fellow bank-robber tells me to just leave the kitten outside and it will be fine. I start to leave it there but panic and come back and bring it with me. It's a huge inconvenience, but I cannot bring myself to leave my kitten alone outside where something may happen to it. I see on the news that I am being listed as an accomplice for murders, but I haven't murdered anybody, and I didn't know that my bank-robbing buddy has been killing people. I decide I need to get away now, that even if I'm on the hook for robberies I'm definitely innocent of killing people. I can't leave my kitten behind, though, I am too worried about it. I'm also worried something will happen to it if my bank-robbing accomplice or the police catch up to me. I run through the woods (I don't have the van/car) and come upon a house there. I know that one of my IRL friends, James, lives in it, and that it would be safe to leave the kitten with him because I trust him. He opens the door and is friendly, as if he doesn't know I've been robbing banks (or doesn't care), and happily agrees to take care of my kitten.
June 07, 2014 Yellow Two-Tailed Alpacas I was in a rural area, walking along a country road with my mom. To our left was a field, growing something that looked a lot like corn, but I wasn't sure what it was. To our right was a wooded area with some small cottages along the road. I spotted a deer in the woods and pointed it out to my mom, who then fell behind because she was watching the deer, who were going the same direction as we were, but more slowly. The woods to my right ended, and there was an open pasture with a small house on stilts. Just past that was a steep hill (the base of the hill was along the road), about 15 feet high, with a fence at the top of it. There were sheep mulling about inside the fence. I could only see the ones that were right at the fence, because it was higher up. I noticed a hole in the fence a little further down, and walked toward it. When I reached it, I met a little girl who looked a bit worried. She didn't say anything to me, and when I looked behind her, I saw a large yellow alpaca with two long tails and very long fur. It had gotten out through the hole in the fence, and I helped the girl coax it back in, though we didn't have anything to fix the fence with, and did the best we could to block it with random stuff. I heard a dog-like sound in the distance, and wondered out loud if it was a wolf. It sounded very wolf-y to me. The little girl said it was just a neighbor's pit bull, but when it got closer and barked again, and then howled, we both knew it was wolves, and so we turned to find that little house on stilts in order to warn the woman who lived there that her flock was in danger. She was worried as well, and said she would drive over to get someone to help her fix it before the wolves got to her flock. But it was about to storm, and so she offered for the little girl and I (and my mom, who was just now catching up) to stay in her home while it rained. As we sat in the cottage, after maybe 10 minutes, there was a knock on the door, and the sons of one of my mom's high school classmates, Charlie and Andrew, came in soaking wet. We all wait out the storm inside the little cottage, and the little girl tells me she has a crush on the younger of the two brothers, and I tell her it's a bad idea because he's a pervert (hahaha! He's not IRL). Once the storm had passed, I was sitting on the front porch (more specifically, laying on my stomach), looking at some papers that were on the porch. I hadn't noticed them on my way in, so I wondered if someone might have left them while it rained. I can't remember what the papers said. There are also a lot of little folded paper stars in yellows, whites, and pastel blues. An old man in a straw hat came up to me and said something unnerving, but I can't remember what it was. Honestly, I can't even remember if it was unnerving or not, but whatever he did say made me go back inside. I'm not sure whether the following was part of the same dream or a new dream that blended with the other one by the time I woke up. Nice One, Zukin I was in a small cottage (though I don't know if it was the same cottage or a different one), or rather, I had just walked into one. About 7 women were seating in a circle, holding hands and chanting something I don't remember. They had me join them, and it was a bit weird, because I didn't know the words and it felt very cultish to me. Once that is done, all the women smile and we eat some food. A young man came in and was getting food, and sat down on a couch near me, putting the plate on his left knee. He seemed to know exactly what I was thinking (which was, What the heck was that chant?), and said, "It's something from the bible, from Genesis." I have no idea if it actually was, because: 1. I don't read the bible, and 2. I can't even remember what the chant was anyways. It's at this point in the dream that I remember that Zukin had been kidnapped by an enemy country of the one I was visiting. I didn't dream this, but I knew that I had been there for about a month (Zukin was kidnapped on our first day in the new country) and had been training with the country's military so that we could get Zukin back. Then, I am out of my body, watching scenes of Zukin's past month; she is training with the enemy army, too, and getting very close to the young General of their forces. She soon becomes his trusted right-hand-man, so to speak, and I can see that he is romantically interested in her. I see this all in my dream, but, as in one of my other dreams, my dream-self knows nothing of it. Then, I see the enemy country preparing for battle; they are going to invade the country I'm in. Because both countries are located on the largest islands of an archipelago, they have to get here by boat. Zukin and the General take up the lead. They both have individual boats (they are driving Stocherkahns with a modified pole that has a wide fan at one end, which I saw them using to turn and maneuver better among the rocks and islands), and the rest of the army is organized 10 people to a boat with two people propelling it to make up for the added weight. Suddenly, Zukin makes her boat pull ahead of the General's, and cuts him off, causing him to tip. She zooms ahead, laughing and cheering about how she fooled him and how she could finally get back to her vacation (since we were on the island for vacation). Then I am back in my dream-self's body, and I'm standing at the top of a stairway leading right into the water (it was like this in shape, but of stone, taller, and steeper. There was a metal railing along the top parts, as they were look-out spots). I don't know exactly why I am here, except that I felt I should be here. Suddenly, I see Zukin's boat rush by, and she jumps off of it and onto the stairs, running up and warning me that enemies were coming. I'm so happy to see her alive and well that I barely realize when the enemies have crowded the stairway. This would have been their infiltration point. The General jumps up onto the first step of the stairs and his army stays in the their boats behind him. Zukin hands me one of two spears she had been holding, and the General asks her why she has betrayed him, and that he thought she loved him. In response, Zukin throws her spear at him, which he just barely dodges and catches. Then, for some reason, he puts it between his leg like someone pretending it was their huge dick. "But I love you!" He said. "Come back to me, please?" Zukin walks along the wall to the right of the stairs, all teasing, and says, glancing back at me, "Well, he is kinda cute, isn't he?" And I have to agree, because he is pretty darn good looking from what I can see. But I just grin and don't answer because I know exactly what she's going to do. It was a telepathic moment. The General heard what she said and looked all hopeful, but then Zukin, to whom I had tossed my spear, jumped over the railing over the stairs, aiming her spear at the General. Except she tripped on the railing and fell very ungracefully on top of the General, knocking him into the water. I laughed so hard I think it woke me up. The other dream I remembered was rather distressing but I'll share it anyways, because I want to make sure it gets recorded. My Ex This dream was really weird, and not very fun. I was back at the apartment I had shared with my ex and two other people (long story short, we broke up like two months after moving into that place so it was awkward because neither of us could find a different place at the time of the year), but it was the current me, not the me that lived there. If that makes sense. I was sitting in the living room, watching something on TV (I think) and my Ex (current Ex, ie, knowing we are not together anymore) came into the room, sat down, and after a few moments, asked me if I would help him move something heavy in his room. I said sure, because I was the only other person home who could help him. When we got to his room, he closed the door and locked it, and you can all guess about what happened next. I didn't fight it, because I didn't want to hurt him, but I definitely didn't want it, either. (He would NEVER do this IRL, btw. Even when we were together, he always got verbal consent) I left the apartment after that and went home for the week, since we didn't have any classes. I didn't want to be in that apartment. But my mom had something he'd left at my house a while ago, when we were still together, so she brought it up to the apartment and left it on a table, and then we left. Lastly, there was a fragment about a pile of mail on my bed. Two were for me, but they were junk, and then there was one addressed to my house, but for one of my best friends from high school, let's call her Rebecca. I didn't know why it was for her but also to my house.
Updated 06-07-2014 at 11:45 PM by 69491
This lucid is from the morning of 5/19/2014. (I think so at least. I'm embarrassed to say that my records got spotty right here.) Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #211: The Bag Lady I’m high up on a hotel walkway that encircles an atrium. The room’s huge and bustles with people. I see a group of familiar people from my life seated in plush, comfy-looking chairs and realize that I’m dreaming. I walk up to “Cyclone”, a friend from high school that I occasionally catch up with. I try to explain to him that I’m having a lucid dream. He’s trying to respond but I’m confused and unable to understand what he’s trying to say. As I grow frustrated by this, the dream fades into a false awakening. I get up from what I believe is a hotel room and walk out to the street. I’m someplace that looks like New York City and it’s early morning. I walk out onto a brick-lined path toward another building. Maybe 30 feet away, there’s a bad lady standing near a little planter that looks like it contains a vegetable garden. She seems to notice me and comes staggering over. I hope she won’t approach and try to scurry cowardly away. As I do this, she lets out a blood-curdling scream and starts flying after me. I feel a combination of embarrassment at my wimpy reaction and outright fear that I’m about to get mauled on the street. Her hand grabs my shoulder and I think that come on, this has got to be a dream. What a relief that it is in fact a dream! The bag lady screams in my face and grabs at my chest and shoulders with clawlike fingers. I’m not feeling very calm at this point, but I try to calm her down by saying “Shhhhh…” and raising my hands in as nonconfrontational a gesture as I can manage. She seems to settle down and I notice she looks a fairly normal person now. She’s in her late 30s, wearing a hood and shawl. Kind of cute-ish, even. Her teeth are still bared but now she just looks like she’s upset rather than truly demonic. For some reason I start kissing her, and she seems to calm down completely. I hear another scream from nearby and I see a second dangerous-looking bag lady quickly approaching. Time to go. I make for the building entrance, a simple looking glass door into what looks like a darkened school hallway. As I make my way down the hallway, nobody follow. That’s a relieft. I emerge from the hallway into what looks like ground floor fo the hotel atrium I’d been in before. I wonder if I can make my way back up, but the dream ends before I can find out.
Updated 06-06-2014 at 05:53 AM by 57387
June 05, 2014 Whoa, 6 Dreams (well, some Dreams and some Fragments) remembered! Blue Pool I was with Zukin and some people who claimed to be high-level Dreamers, and we were sitting on a sofa, talking about Lucid Dreaming (funny that we were talking about it but I didn't realize I was dreaming). Then we all moved to a room that was a pool. The whole room was a giant pool with a walkway down the middle. The tiles in the pool were mostly deep blue with some red ones. There were signs being made (like actual signs. Road signs.) somewhere in the room. They were popping out of a conveyor on the other side of the wall. I think I might have realized I was dreaming, but I woke up immediately. If I did realize, it didn't last long. Circus! I was a kid again in this dream. Maybe 10-14 years old. My dad and brothers were going to a circus. We walked into the lobby of the building it was in (it was on some upper floor of a large building). There were three other children there, with their guardian (I wasn't sure if it was their parent or not) in the lobby. We got into the elevator, the walls of which were lined with that yellow foamy insulator you find in crawl spaces and whatnot. We got out of the elevator and then sat down in this little play corner that was actually the seats for the audience. You were supposed to climb up to any seat we wanted. It's a bit hard to describe, but think of side-scrolling video games where there are ledges you have to jump up to and whatnot. So I'm trying to get up to the perfect seat, but I can't reach it. Then there were two fractions of dreams: One about playing my music over speakers, and another about sleeping downstairs in my laundry room. I was only wearing underwear (no bra) because it was really hot, and my dad came in and got all embarrassed. But I was still half asleep and still tired so I threw on a shirt and went to sleep in the car, since we were going somewhere that day. My mom was already sleeping in the back, so I just curled up in the passenger seat. Just Don't Tell my Mom, Okay? I was a student in a classroom, high school, I think. We were in the middle of class, and two punks had barged in; They were pushing my classmates around, badmouthing everyone, and extorting money from them and being general jerks. Eventually I got fed up with it and yelled at them from across the room, "You two need to GET. OUT." One of them got all bashful and apologized, getting ready to leave, but the other (the taller one) just stood in the door way with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring down his nose at me. I planted my feet and glared right back (I am short, so this must have been hilarious to watch), until he averted his gaze and then left, grumbling. About an hour later, another punk came to my classroom, and yelled, "Which Bitch is that told my boys to leave?!" Like an idiot, I stood up and said, "It was me." The guy looked like a Gangster Pimp. He took me out in the hall and I felt like he was gong to beat me, so I started to run away. I felt like a rabbit being chased by a wolf, and it felt hopeless. It felt like no matter where I ran, he would find me, and then beat me, rape me, verbally abuse me, who knows what. I eventually got to a door leading out of the building. It opened to a slope, exactly like the one Zukin and I slid down on our butts in Austria. It was steep and the soil was dry, and there were trees scattered sparsely. I slid down the slope, using the trees as check-points of a sort to control my path downward. I got to the bottom and looked up to see if he was following. He was inside still, I could see him glaring down at me from inside the door. It had started to rain, so I assumed that he wouldn't come out in order to keep his clothes clean (Or rather, his voice was in my head saying "The only reason I'm not going and getting you out there is to keep my clothes dry, bitch."). I started running to my left, and turned when the building made a corner. Around the corner was another door into the building. I figured I would go in and try to get a teacher. As I ran toward the door, to my right I heard a voice say, "You don't have to run. You have the power to manipulate him." I turned to see a man floating in the air. It looked like he was sitting in an invisible throne in the air. He had on clothes that appeared kinda jester-like. But more ragged. Colorful patches everywhere, a funny hat. His hair was long, for a guy, and messy. He has a sing-songy voice. I ignored what he said because the Gangster Pimp was going to kill me if I didn't keep running. I keep running, and I almost reach the door, but the Gangster Pimp comes out of a door a little further down and starts running after me. It's still raining, but we're under an awning now. I'm no longer safe, in the rain. I try to reach the door but he catches me just before I get there and corners me. "I'll teach you to mess with my boys!" He threatened, cracking his knuckles. "I didn't touch them! All I did was make them leave!" He hit me on the left side of my face. "Shut up, bitch! I'm a pimp and I protect my boys!" I didn't know what else to do, so I started begging and apologizing. "I'm sorry, okay? I won't do it again! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just don't hit me again...!" And then out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of my old high school teachers coming outside. "Help! Help, Hafer! Mr. Hafer! This guy...!" But he didn't hear me at all, or else ignored me (which he wouldn't do; he was one of the best teachers I had in high school). He walked back inside, and I felt so alone. The Gangster Pimp raised his hand like he was going to hit me again, and I yelled, "You would hit a girl like that?!" Suddenly he got all sheepish. "D-don't say it like that!" He stammered. Suddenly I was scolding him. "And this is a new piercing. Do you know how much it hurts to get hit over a new piercing?!" "I'm sorry..." "And besides you should be in class!" "Yes Ma'am..." "Before that, go apologize to my classmates for disrupting our learning!" "Don't tell my mom about this, okay...?" We walk back to the tree-slope door for some reason, instead of taking the door right next to us. We wait under the overhang until the rain clears, to keep his clothes clean. Once it was clear, we start walking, and to my left, still where he had been before, was the jester-man, who had much the same feeling as The Face at the end of one of my previous dreams. He smiled (though it was more of a smirk) and said, "Told you." Then he vanished. I noticed then that the rain hadn't been falling on him; there was a circle of dry pavement around where he'd been. After getting back to my class, like right after the Gangster Pimp leaves, I got a text from him asking if I wanted to go to a rap concert with him. I don't know how he got my number. Then I either woke up or faded into the next dream... Rest Stop of Creepy I was on a car trip with my Dad, Erik, Bob, WW (my grandpa) and my uncle Nick. I don't know why my mom wasn't there. We were driving in some place with mountains and open prairie/almost desert. We stopped at a rest stop to get some things and while we were browsing, this weird man enters the store, and asks random people if he can buy them random junk from the store. He asked me if he could buy me some canned peaches and I said no. I kept saying no but he kept asking about other things he could buy me. Eventually I got him to go away, and picked up a chocolate milk, bringing it to my dad to pay for while I went to the bathroom. When I got out, I tried to find my family but they had left without me. I knew where we were going, so I figured I would just walk to catch up with them. I texted them to wait for me somewhere up the road, and turned out to the road. I went left (I get the feeling I was going west... but I'm directionally challenged so I don't know if that is true). I passed a couple buildings on a hill to my left. At some point I met a woman who handed me a box of water bottles and some paper cups, telling me to "keep strong." I was starting to panic because the sun was setting and I could hear some animals off in the distance. I had gotten out of the woodsy hills and was now in an open, relatively flat, prairie area. There were huge, majestic mountains to my right. It looked a little like the Tetons look from the road. I got to another hilly area and checked my phone to see if anyone had responded to my texts. Then I rounded a corner and found the van sitting at a lookout with a door open, waiting for me to jump in. I was pissed at them all and didn't speak to any of them for the rest of the ride. Dog Fights I was at Oma and Grandpa's house (in the living room with big windows), talking to my grandpa about his past. My family and some dogs I didn't know were playing outside in the back yard. Through the windows, I saw a pack of three foxes, larger than any normal fox, circle the group, as if hunting. I tried to warn my family, but they couldn't hear me from inside. Then, one of the foxes jumped at Erik, but he ducked just in time and didn't get hurt. Everyone starts yelling and the foxes run away. They were literally hopping/jumping as high as the trees, like Virginia (John Carter) in the movie. (Um, just sort of ignore that music in that video... There was loud music playing when I found the video. And then it lead to a hilarious moment when Zukin turned off her music and we both heard the music in this video for the first time) But after a few minutes, they come back with two large wolves. Then, all hell broke loose. There were suddenly a bunch of neighborhood dogs of all kinds, and the wolves and foxes were fighting the dogs. The dogs eventually fought off the wolves and foxes, but two of them were badly wounded. Their owners were there, and one of the really badly wounded ones, a newfie, was leaning on its owner and dying. It was really sad... Apparently, my grandpa had completely missed the whole thing. He's a bit deaf, so he hadn't heard any of the mayhem. Then I woke up.
Updated 06-07-2014 at 06:34 AM by 69491
March 20, 2014 I was with the Backpacking group again, plus a few extra people. I know for sure that Bob and Erik were there. There may have been one or two other people, as well, but I forgot who they were or if they were there. We were all going on some trails around a mountain. The thing is, they all had obstacles or puzzles to get past them. The first one I remember had a really steep incline that was hard to climb on your own. There were stairs along the side of it, but the stairs were unstable and slanty, and there was no handrail. We made it past that one, and came up to a monorail type chairlift thing. While getting on, we had to split off so one person from our group (I am pretty sure it was Bob) was left to get on the next tram-thing. We had already decided which stop to get off at, so we weren't too worried about losing each other. What we hadn't accounted for was that the transporter was super fast and getting off was a bit of a chore. The way it worked was that you couldn't really see where you were, but you had to mentally decide when to get off of it and just hope it was the right stop. I shouted for when to exit, and we ended up in a deserted cottage in a glum and misty mountain clearing. I had a REALLY strong sense of deja vú here. I think I may have dreamed of this place before, but I can't be sure. We had gotten off the transport a stop too early, and this place was the one place we hadn't wanted to be. It was dark and creepy and abandoned. Rundown. Dusty. Everything was dim and gray. We all stood there for a moment, and then I went outside to inspect the area, but all these zombies and monsters were coming to life all around me. Every direction I turned, there were things coming to get me. It got cold all of a sudden. Then, Ivan grabbed my shoulder and we went back inside, and the monsters all dissolved back into the ground. We tried to get out of there, but eventually Bob found us. He said he'd gotten off at the right stop, but we weren't there, and he'd assumed we had gotten off a stop too early. We eventually figured out the trick to that "trail," though I can't remember what it was. We found ourselves back on a normal trail, and I pulled out a map of the area to find out where we needed to go to get to where we had planned on going before the mishap wit the transporter. From there on out the dream is blurry. I remember fragments where Jasmine was there, but I don't know whether they were in the beginning or at the end of the dream. I feel like it was before the very steep part, and only for a moment, as she was in a passing group going the other direction. She was with a guy, who I assume was her boyfriend.
January 19, 2014 I started out as a spy/ninja on a mission to steal some rare beads that belongs to a corrupt ruling family. The first part of the mission was like in Pokémon X and Y where you ride a Rhydon to get across rocky terrain, except I was on a horse instead of a Pokémon (teehee). Once I got past that portion of the mission, there was a wide river channel that I had to get across. There was a line of long boats, a little bit like a Stocherkahn (which is driven the way boats in Venice are, with long polls that reach the riverbed, used to pull the boat along), but a little more oriental. Everything in the dream was fairly oriental. I stole one of the boats and a bazooka, and made my way down the river to a large dam. I had to blow it up to drain the lake at the top. The mansion I had to get into was in the middle of a large garden/pond. It was a lot like a garden Zukin and I had visited on an island in Germany. Anyways, I blew up the dam, and ran across the now open ground to the back entrance of the mansion. I masqueraded as a new guardian for the one who wore the beads. I told her that I was her new guard because there had been a threat on her life. It was at this point in the dream that I realized I was a man. Apparently, to be this woman's guard meant I was to marry her, and since it was my mission, I did it. Fast forward years into the future, and I have a ten-year-old daughter. I am frivolous and fiscally irresponsible. I have held too many feasts and there are platypuses on leashes in the garden: they search for treasure. The area that had been covered in water because of the dam is now an overgrown area, untended. Or rather, the person I had been was now this way. My consciousness had switched bodies. I was seeing the story through a different set of eyes is all. I was now a 15-year old young man who worked in the mansion. There is an invasion, and the intruders set fire to the mansion. One of the intruders is a man in a huge black metal suit. All you can see is his eyes which are gold. I was on the second floor, and this suited man starts lurching (yes, lurching is the best word to describe how it moved) toward me; I panic and run but the suit keeps following me. Even though it can't move very fast, it is still terrifying and always there, and I feel like it will get me no matter what. It's a bit like the feeling you get when you play Amnesia and the hear the monster coming, and you know either it will get you or you will go mad in the dark. I went down a narrow winding staircase, but the suit still follows me, and I eventually end up on the overgrown area at the back of the mansion. There, I met the previous Me's 10-yr-old daughter and we sit on a ledge watching the Mansion burn down. There was Tohuwabohu (see the last paragraph) all over the place, and then I spot the metal suit lurching toward us. I grab the girl and am about to run again, but the suit just lurches past us and jumps off the ledge we were sitting on. Before it jumped though, it turned to look me in the eyes and made a noise that I couldn't understand. The girl looked at me and said that the suit was called "The Face." "He said Not this time," is what she said just before I woke up.
Updated 06-04-2014 at 07:59 AM by 69491
December 23, 2013 I was a newbie hair dresser at a salon. All of the employees made fun of me, except for one of them. She was the only one who was nice to me, and we became friends. But as we were working late one evening, something weird started happening and we figured out that the salon was haunted. One-by-one, all the employees were turning into zombie-banshee creatures, except it was a different type of monster for each person. They resembled the various monsters from The Dark Meadow (Some Examples). I was one of the last three people left non-monsterfied, and we were running down the halls. The place had turned into a sort of hospital-like place, with long sterile hallways. They had the feeling they should have been brightly lit like in a hospital, but all the lights were very dim, if on at all. It was very eerie. I'd split up from the other two people left, and I heard them both scream somewhere far away as they both got haunted/possessed as well. So now I was alone, the last one left, and I ran until I was out of breath. The one who was chasing me was one I'd especially despised because she was being super nasty to me. I did something but I can't remember what it was, and she went back to normal. Now, knowing how to cure everyone, I went around finding them all and soon everyone was back to normal, just as dawn was breaking (I know, cliche, right?). Everyone praised me and I got a promotion, and to celebrate we all went to the owner's house, which was in some kind of huge tree, kind of like the house the Berenstain Bears lived in. One by one we all challenged the owner to some sort of battle; everyone had different types of weapons. I didn't yet have a weapon, so I just watched. But then, when nobody could beat the owner, he called in Obama. He and his family came to see us, and suggested we all settles this with a different kind of battle; We all got into our cars (me in my family's Honda Odyssey) and drove out to a large icy field. The goal was to slide around on the ice and try to ram as many people as possible. Don't ask me how this is a good idea. I woke up after starting my car and trying to slide around a bit.
November 26, 2013 I was with my best friend from high school, who I no longer really talk to. Let's call her Jasmine for privacy's sake. With us was one of my at-the-time-classmates, Max. We were at a Theme Park/Mall combination type place, and we were browsing clothing stores. I remember picking up this long silk scarf; it was yellow with orange polka-dots. I tried to get Max to buy it for me, but he didn't have any money. We all decided we were hungry and thirsty, and went to a Frozen Yogurt cafe, where I ordered a shaved ice (though I can't remember what flavour it was). When we got our food and drinks, there was a tiny cat named Maurice. I remember thinking, Oh, they allow cats in here? I picked up Maurice and put him on my shoulder, where he stayed for the rest of the dream. Then, my cousin walked into the cafe and asked us all if we wanted to go on a roller coaster with her. Now that I think about it, it's a roller coaster that has appeared in several of my dreams; It is tall and fast, a bit like the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point in Ohio. But it had a corkscrew portion and the cars actually jumped off the track at some point. I am always terrified and anxious waiting for this dream-coaster. So, we all take a tram to the roller coaster, and I notice that the line has been remodeled. The line itself seems a bit like a ride; It's a Pirate Ship up high in the air (think: swinging ship rides), over a miniature city/lake model. We get in the line, and my little brother had joined us. I feel the ground beneath me start to rumble, and I grab onto the mast of the ship, which I happen to be near. Then the ship starts rotating. The ground starts to slope and I try to get onto the large pole from which the sail extends. I get on it just before I would have lost all grip on the almost-vertical floor of the ship, expecting it to start rotating back toward normality; but it keeps going, and I'm terrified. I try to maneuver the beam so I'm always on top of it, but hand-holds quickly disappear and I yell that who ever is in control of the ship needs to stop it from doing this, since we're so high up and no one in line has a harness. My cousin, who's ahead of me in line, calls me a Big Baby, and then I woke up.
Updated 06-04-2014 at 07:57 AM by 69491
If you think this is ridiculous, please test out these laws in your lucid dream battles to see if they work or not. I challenge you to disprove these laws through your dreams. To understand dream Battling, you must understand the Laws of the Dream Plane. Just as there are physical laws, physics, there are dreamical laws, dreamics. First some laws of the dream plane: 1) The dream plane is made of pure energy. 2) Thoughts are pure energy. 3) There are different types of beings in dreams: DC's, dreamers, interdimensional beings, non-sentient beings, and semi-sentient beings. a) DC's: Dream Characters. Manifestations of a dreamer's mind. They will disappear as soon as the dream stops thinking about them. b) Dreamers: Other dreamers from Earth, the physical plane. c) Inter-dimensional Beings: Sentient beings not from earth. d) non-sentient beings: these creatures are alive, yet have the mind of a simple organism such as a clam. e) semi-sentient: these are creatures that are partially aware of themselves, such as many animals. 4) We all have an Inner World. Our Inner World is an infinite world of our subconscious mind's creation. "My" dream is a dream in my Inner World. 5) The Outer World is the dream plane beyond a meeting of minds. The Outer World is another total plane of existence. First of all, I don’t believe I lost my text. Now I have to start over. Here’s the short version… malovent entity harassing me. Just when I lay down. Terror, can’t move. But that first time I knew I had to move or be at its mercy. Got mad. Moved, broke spell. More attacks over several months. Visualize something that does not understand fear or terror. Hulk smash! Now I can sense it just before it strikes. Finally got where I was merely annoyed by it and finally told it so. “you and I both know you can’t get me” It says “But I can get her” and goes for my girlfriend. I say “you’re not getting anybody” and grab it in a bear hug and start crushing it. It was almost a physical thing. It’s really scared because didn’t think I could do that. Neither did I it just happened. No contact for a few months. Starts poppin in like just to check on me. Jumps me with two buddies (I don’t know how I knew it was two). Tossed em all like a salad. Time passes. Night before last (5/31) It comes back with more than I could count. Toss them too but it was a little harder. How do I end this? Help! Here’s the kicker. This is REAL!