non-lucid

10/8/10

Dream was real brief or I just couldn't remember much of it.. but I kept changing my clothes .. they would fit me but next thing I know they became baggy and I ended up changing them again. Cute outfits too but they kept appearing big on me.


That's all for now.

Awake, Non-lucid, Lucid, [Commentary and notes written while awake]

Last night, while going to sleep and attempting to MILD, I stopped to pray. I had stopped to pray the previous night, too, and had had no dreams that I could remember, so I almost didn't want to do it again, but I told myself, Post hoc, ergo propter hoc much? You know that doesn't make sense. Just go ahead and do it. So I did. [I'm only writing this part down because it relates to the first dream I had last night.]

[Dream #1] On the corner of the street my house is on [a corner that doesn't exist in real life – the real corner is just a 90-degree turn in the road, but in the dream, it's a four-way intersection], in the front yard of the corner house, there is a big, tall tree with bright yellow leaves like the leaves on a maidenhair tree. There are also some gourds with faces hand-carved on them hanging from the tree. The house belongs to an old woman, who did the carving. I am reading a newspaper article about this house, in a newspaper called The Syntax. According to the article, a few days ago, a strong wind picked up and blew all the leaves off the tree. Immediately thereafter, people in the neighborhood started having various strokes of both good and bad fortune, and they all claimed that it was because of the wind blowing the leaves off the tree. This sparked a neighborhood-wide controversy: were the good things really caused by the tree, or the bad things, or none of them? Someone who was interviewed for the newspaper article argued for the “none of them” position by quoting the Bible verse about how no one can tell where the wind comes from or where it is going. [John 3:8, for the record.]

[Dream #2] I'm walking through an indoor hallway to get to some kind of high school sporting event that is being held in a high school gymnasium. One of the teams is called the Blue Meanies; they have two mascot outfits, a male and female Norse warrior. The other team has someone in a mascot outfit, too. [I don't remember now what it looked like, or what their team name was.] Each team has also brought just a handful of cheerleaders to the game.

[Dream #3] I'm playing PackRat. [Again.] There are two different limited-release collections pretty much right at the same time, and they've re-released a whole bunch of retired cards for the recipes in the retired collections. The images on one of the limited-release sets are of pipes or cables, and they extend across multiple different cards. They're making it even easier than they did with the jigsaw-puzzle set, I think. [The jigsaw-puzzle set exists in reality; this limited-release set does not.] I find that my pack has been erased and refilled with 5 cards from the other limited-release set, the one with normal art [in Doug J.'s signature style], one of which is the top card.

[Dream #4 – seemed to segue directly from the above, but how, I couldn't say] I'm outside somewhere, apparently in the yard or garden of some manor house or something, and it's nighttime. I see a fireworks show starting up a short distance away; the horizon is low and flat, so I can see it with no obstructions at all. My mom is there, and I tell her that if she turns around, she can see the fireworks show.

Woke up at 2:32 A.M. Took some notes on my dreams so far on a notepad, then went back to sleep, attempting to MILD again. It worked!

[Dream #5] I'm in the house I grew up in again. [Although this is a known dream sign for me, I don't remember specifically thinking, “hey, if I'm here, then I must be dreaming.” Nonetheless,] I'm lucid enough to decide to walk around from room to room of my own volition. When I get to the bathroom, I try to walk through the back wall of the white tile shower, which would take me out into the patio. [Yes, the real house is laid out that way.] It doesn't work; I only get part way into it, not through it. I don't feel anything. I continue walking through the house, and one of my parents sees me. [That's all I remember, unfortunately.]

[Dream #6] My family and I are on vacation in Key Largo. [Apart from having tropical beaches, it's absolutely nothing at all like the real Key Largo, which I've been to once.] It consists of a couple of islands connected by a bridge. On the first one, there is a high, tower-like hill. We climb the stairs to the top and look out at the ocean and the other island, which is where the town and the boat launch area are. I exclaim, “Guess what I forgot! Sunblock!” Then we go down the hill and over into town.

The town, or at least the downtown, consists of one big continuous building with corridors lined with shops and restaurants running through it. The entrances to the corridors are numbered and are rounded, making them look more like tunnels. We go down corridor #8 and pass a lot of shops. It's obvious how small and rivalry-filled, yet close-knit, the community here is by what's written on the signs people have in front of their shops: one of them says that their food is better than the food at another shop (even specifically naming the other one!), and another contains a proposal of marriage. Eventually, the tunnel ends in a rounded food court, like in a mall. My parents and I go over to a coffee shop/bakery toward the far side of the chamber and a little to the right. There are breads and pastries displayed all over the back wall and in long glass cases.

[Very abruptly, the scene changes and] My mom and I are driving in her car back toward the main highway that runs through the Florida Keys. (The two islands mentioned above that make up Key Largo stick out from it at a right angle.) I see the high-rise buildings of Key West [the what now?!] in the distance. The sun is either rising or setting, and the way its light is hitting them is making them glow with amazingly brilliant neon colors. [Some of which would be impossible in real life. It's surreal, but really beautiful.] I tell my mom to look at the light on the high-rises, and she does. In order to get a better view of it from further back, she turns the car so the front windshield is facing the high-rises, then starts backing it up, across the sandy beach and into the ocean. Somewhere around here, I shift to viewing the scene from a third-person perspective, up above the car. The car keeps going across the water for a pretty good distance before it sinks into the ocean and we die. Then I think to myself, “Only not really, because this is a dream.” Then the scene rewinds [on its own, not because of anything I did, thought, or willed]. The car drives forward, back over the surface of the water, with me still watching from my third-person perspective.

On our way back toward the town (I'm back to first-person perspective now), I look back and can see where the main highway is by the telephone poles and elevated bridges on the horizon. When we reach the town, I can see that there's a small railroad that goes all the way around the outside of the building, and every shop has a back door that opens onto the railroad track. This is how they load and unload things. Of course, I think; there's no room for cars or trucks on the island. [Then what are we doing driving our car there?] We re-enter the coffee shop/bakery from before, through the back door, and now we order food: cinnamon rolls out of one of those canisters you get from the refrigerated section at the grocery store. The shop attendant opens the canister behind the counter, and the vertical stack of cinnamon rolls expands, the frosting running down the sides. I say aloud, “Do want!” We proceed along the outside of the glass cases to where the coffee machines are. The signs on the coffee machines show that they contain a milder and a bolder version of Dunkin' Donuts coffee. I start getting myself some coffee, and then the dream ends.

-------------

Some meta-commentary on the lucid dreaming journey:

One of the things I'm really liking about this experiment with dream journaling and lucid dreaming is that it's finally broken me of the bad habit of staying up past 11:00 every night that I developed when I started college. I was still doing it up until a week or two ago. I always used to want to stay in bed until well after sunrise, but the sunlight always woke me up, so I got a sleep mask and got into the habit of reaching over and putting it on as soon as the sunlight started to wake me up, then continuing to sleep, or trying to. I've been in this habit for at least a year, and I'm finding that it's so deeply ingrained that I'm still doing it, even though I'm now going to bed earlier and getting up at or before sunrise. I would be annoyed by this if I hadn't realized that it's useful – I have a natural, biological WBTB alarm set.

Last night, I read this thread and decided to adopt the mantra “I lucid dream” for MILD purposes. I decided to put that sentence in the same mental categories with such sentences as “I play the clarinet,” “I speak Spanish,” and “I write novels:” the categories of “ongoing, recurring action” and “learned skill.”

My previous lucid experience back on the night of October 1 left me euphoric for the entirety of the next day, but this one just left me disappointed. While I was recalling my dreams after waking up, I thought: What did I just say about lucid dreaming being a learned skill? That was only my third time. What was it like the third time I played the clarinet? I know the answer to that one: I only played one, two, or three different notes, because that was all I knew how to play. It took lots of practice and learning before I could play all the notes. I hope, and intend, to master lucid dreaming skills via the same process.

While hiking in nature, I saw a turtle and he was doing this really cute thing where he put his foot up in the air. I wanted to get a picture of him. And I whipped out my camera. I got a snapshot, but it was very tight, too close in. Then he noticed me and started to expand. He was about to do something stinky to make me leave. So I did!

There was a large group of us that were in a bus. Almost convientely, the bus decided to break down and we crashed - right outside of Silent Hill. A group of sixteen of us wandered into the town, but I felt very wary. It was almost snowing outside - it was ash - but the buildings looked to be about half-destoyed and there was not a single person in sight. I wanted to leave the town, but the group convinced me to keep moving on. Eventually we entered a building, and the group got into a small arguement.

Go find residents of this own,

Or.

Leave.

I was in full support of the latter option, and did not hesitate to say it. But the group ignored me, and soon they left, leaving me with only five people. A girl clung to my leg and buried her head into the fabric of my pants. A teen, roughly my age, looked at me.

"I don't like this place. It gives me the creeps."

I nodded my head at her, "Good. Hold that close. That'll get us the hell out of here."

"No it won't," Came a new voice. A girl's voice. I turned around and found a very grungy, dirty girl standing behind us. She reeked of power, and I cringed away from it subconsciously.

"The Red God senses sin, and he's moving to deliver just punishment. . . He wants something. Silent Hill is his home."

The town's name. I shivered at the thought of the "Red God." Anything with the name God in the title was not a good sign. As I suspected, this town was filled with creepy people.

"I'll take you to safe haven." I believed the girl - knew I could, on some level - and after a short trek further into the building, she admitted us into a room that just had some tables and chairs. As soon as she closed the door, the building began to shake and everything warped to the Dark Time.

I closed my eyes, because somehow, I'd felt like I'd been here before. Alessa was standing in front of me when I opened them again.

"I can help you leave." She suggested, voice echoing in the caged room we were now in. I nodded my head, and soon the three of us (me, Alessa, and the other teen girl), were talking about the best ways out of Silent Hill. Eventually, however, I felt a shiver crawl down my spine.

Alessa walked over to the door, peeked out into the hallway, and softly muttered something beneath her breath.

"The Red God approaches. We must go. My power and his are evenly matched, and with you, I would not be able to win."

I nodded my head, shuffled the rest of the group through the other door, and as soon as I was about to close it, I got my first glimpse of the Red God. Pyramid Head. I shut the door and ran down the hallway like the rest of my group, and we soon found ourselves climbing up a staircase.

"What's he after? We haven't sinned." I said as I picked up a girl and threw her over my back. She was light, so I was able to run just as quickly. She'd been falling behind.

"He wants something. Craves it. It would tip the balance in his favor. . . I do not want that."

She stopped, and I realized why she had. There was a room, filled with. . . Medical garbage. But everywhere else was blocked off. She gestured for us to get in, and we did. It was digusting, it had used needles, but we did. I hid the girls before I crawled into the garbage, and suddenly Alessa was laughing, frolicking about and singing, "where are they? Where have they gone?"

I heard the screech of a sword as it was drawn close, and my back began to itch. It hurt. I bit my lip and watched as Alessa looked up at Pyramid Head and grinned.

"I just don't know." She said cheekily. He groaned angrily in response before turning away. The fierce pain in my backside relieved itself almost immediately. I groaned in relief.

We were safe - for now.

1. I'm in the car with V, and she tells me "I know you really really really, love me, and I like you a whole lot". I looked at her puzzled, paused, and just went with it. We were her car and another couple was supposed to meet up with us at some restaurant.


2. I'm walking around this house, and I'm supposed to kill someone. All I have is a small blade. When I enter another room, I hear someone coming into the house, and I crouch low near the door. Some DC enters, and looks down directly at me, and it appears to be my cousin C. He says, "I'm sorry man, but I have to do this". He tries stabbing me, and I parry it, and make a slash across the length of his throat. It doesn't kill him, but theres a red line on his throat. He asks what I'm doing after that, and I say not much, and wake up.

Length: 60 min

Dream Non-dream

Lots of shit happened. It started off with me and 2 other people in an abandoned house of some sort. We walked around and found 4 other people. The mood was dark and dreadful around us, but our moods were happy and curious. Of the people we found one that had rollerblades and one that had a skateboard.

We left the house, it was the middle of a city, right by a four way four lane intersection. There was a big building next to us (the white house?). The roads were full of cars. We crossed the road, and there didn't seem to be any cars moving anymore. We saw T and Tr riding over to us with the skates and a skateboard. I tell Trevor I want to try to skate (inline). And skate I did. I teleported to the other side of the road, the cars weren't there. I was going maybe 15 mph, and I had to turn to the other side, I took a giant U-ey, and went from right, to top, to the left side of the street where everyone else was.

This is where we gather to talk about the machines. There were 7 of them, enough for all of us. They were like matrix machines, they brought us into a different world. These machines were made for us, in that house, even though we'd never been there before. Our business today was a bet. The world was in extreme danger from a giant machina, who would save it? Everyone put in $150 for themselves, whoever saved the world, got it all. I knew it was going to be me. I put in $110, and told them I'd pay back the $40... not like I'd need to pay myself an extra $40. For some reason Trevor, who was collecting all the money, asked if $20 of it was for him, since $90 was in 2 checks, and there was a $20 bill.

We went to the machines in the house. I laid back and closed my eyes.

I was in the other world. The same world we were just at I realized, or maybe a parallel to the street. There was indeed a giant machina, and we were all in mechs. "I gotta win that money" I thought. Then I thought I had to save the people even more. I attacked the giant machina, hitting his foot with an energy sword.

I woke up. There were so many other things in there, and I only have the faintest memory of it all. I went back to sleep afterward, but don't remember a portion.

I rarely have dreams with so many main characters, generally it's me and 2 other people, and I might have made it sound like that, but when I was exploring the house, and when we left the house, I was conversing with the 7 people the whole time. They did important things too, like set up the machines.

I remember having several dreams about being in school, and my principal. I failed to recall them, though.

I was sitting in my seat in my 4th period class. A few things were different: For one, I think our teacher was different. And two, the left corner of the room looked like a "kitchen". (It was a little room with walls but no door)

Anyways, I was sitting in my desk when S (a friend) raised her hand and asked, "Mrs. so and so, can I go to the bathroom?" After this, she ran from her seat. But she stopped abruptly, coughed, and threw up in the "kitchen". (It was everywhere)

Of course my head was turned so I did not see it. I heard it though. Then I raised my hand halfway and said, "Yea, I need to go too." But, instead of walking I was crawling (lol) away. I guess I really wanted to get away from there.

Well I made it out into the hall and I'm not sure if I got up or kept going from there, but I saw my principal. He was walking down the hall towards our room. I followed him in there, holding my nose. Then he started to mop up the sick. Gross!

Note: The rest of the night was filled with fragmented non-lucid dreams which I will post here, partially to get me back in the habit of posting in my journal regularly. After missing so long it would be easy to get lazy…

I was with Tigress at a couple of desktop computers, I was working on one of the computers and Tigress was working on the other. I was designing a video game, it was a 3D space game that looked like it had similarities to both Star Wars and Star Trek. The graphics looked awesome. The part I was testing involved the ship coming around a planet into range of a target, the targeting system on the screen looked really cool and high tech, and I was doing this over and over again as I tried to time a certain feature just right. Tigress was saying that feature wasn't really that important when I finally got it right…

I was inside an arcade in a casino, the casino was so huge that there was a small city actually inside it. I was playing the game I had been developing in the previous dream, but I was running out of quarters, so I needed more. I kept a few quarters out and figured that with my programming knowledge it would be no problem for me to hack into one of the electronic slot machines and make it give me a big payout without anyone noticing…

My mom and I were putting a new screen on my window. The old screen had been damaged quite a while ago, this is also true IWL. So I went and got the screen and brought it back. After fighting with it for a while, my mom and I finally got it placed back in the frame… only to see it was the wrong one. We had just put the busted screen back in the window, which did absolutely no good. My mom was annoyed that I had brought the wrong screen, I kept asking her why she had even bothered to keep the old screen…

I have apparently been playing too much Farmville, as now I was sorting a bunch of miniature animals in my own house. I was putting a bunch of cows and calves in my mom's room, a bunch of goats in the living room, foals and horses in the kitchen, and all the felines in my own room. There were just a couple of problems. My mom was complaining about the manure all over the place, the wild cat cubs in my bedroom were chasing the kitty cats, and I was trying to figure out where to put the fish… even though there are no fish in Farmville…

I was in my car driving down a street near my house, it is a long two lane street through a desert area with a few gentle hills and no houses around. It was mostly the same in the dream as IWL, but there were more trees in the dream version. I was driving very fast, and I had classical music blasting out of the speakers, I don't know what composer since I am not too knowledgeable about classical composers. But I liked it. MoSh was sitting in the passenger seat, he was clutching the sides of his seat and seemed to think I was insane for driving so fast. I had the idea I was taking MoSh back to my house, and that it was urgent for me to get him there quickly…

I was in my living room with Tigress, I was on the couch with my laptop and Tigress was behind the couch looking over my shoulder as I worked on the computer. She was telling me about an idea she had for the game I was currently working on, it was a platformer, and it looked pretty cool. It was a futuristic looking setting in the game and Tigress was describing how she thought the next level should go…

I was in my bedroom, but it was quite a bit bigger than it is IWL. There were quite a few musical instruments in there as well, all hooked up to some pretty cool looking speakers. MoSh was there with me, he was playing a guitar. I wanted to learn to play the guitar, I really wanted to try playing it for a bit and see if I could get any decent sound out of it. I told MoSh I wanted to try it, he said sure, but he wanted to try something on it first. He played it for a bit longer, playing something I didn't recognize but I definitely liked. I wasn't sure if I wanted to play after that, but it didn't matter, since that's where the memories end.

The dream begins with me on the side of SR-312. My mom comes to pick me up, and asks me if I have a ride to the convention I want to go to. I tell her I'll get a ride from Jason (My brother). She tells me that he's gone. I knw what she means by it, but it's very hard for me to accept at first. Then she tells me he committed suicide and I try fighting the sadness from hearing this. I almost break down, but she looks so stoic and I don't want to lose control in front of her when it must be even harder for her. My friend Joey is in Gainsville with Nick. I am a bit annoyed at this, because Nick pisses me off. She drives me to Steak & Shake where I am going to apply. They're doing open interviews and there is a dog nearby who's shadow is acting strange. Next, I am in a house watching a clip of a movie with Edward James Almos in it, getting stabbed and falling over a railing. This reminds me of Battlestar Galactica and then I see Admiral Adama boxing Starbuck and letting her win, so he can resign. He feels he failed his crew, and I think of my brother and wish I had seen a sign. I start crying and then wake up, still crying a while until realizing that it was a dream. I was so certain it actually happened, and upon figuring out that I had just woken from a dream, a large rush of relief acme over me.

Upon falling back to sleep, I am in a dream where I am with a girl I want to be with (In the dream, I've never met her in waking life) and another friend, Jack. We stop at this little souvenir shop where I see a row of kids embroidering some of the dreamcatcher like hanging charms. The girl and I are walking together, debating which ones we'd like in our house (I guess we had a thing, but weren't actually together). She said she wants one of the hanging charms, and I tell her I think their terrible looking, except for the ones that didn't look like child pictures. There were some that looked like Native American designs that I quite fancied, which she then told me were the ones that she meant. We picked one out and she took it to the counter. Then I'm messing around with Jack, and as a practical joke, he rubs a small amount of dog shit on me. I tell him that's fucked up and he laughs. I go to teh bathroom to clean it off and then I wake.

Fragments: Broadsword Class

I'm in my high school gym class, and we're having broadsword battles. The one battle I'm currently watching has been going on for over 40 minutes when it finally comes to an end. I'm up next, but there is only 20 minutes of class left, not enough time for an epic sword fight. The teacher asks us to complete our match on our own time after school. I think that would get me arrested.


Fragments: Sloan Concert
I'm at a Sloan concert, but I can only see one member of the band onstage, and 2 fat chicks running the show. I go closer to the stage and see the other members backstage, playing instruments behind the curtains. I walk back to my seat and see Steele sitting there. We leave the concert and I try to tell him I saw Dave there, but can't remember his name.

Gems of Power
Clarity: 7/10
Importance:5/10
Sleep: Good
Sleep Position: Unknown

I'm working in a warehouse with some other guys, all of us new to the job. We're cleaning out the leftover crap from the company that just left this building. There are other guys there walking out with dollies full of files. We go out back and find the parking garage full of more files. The boss tells us to move them out front, but I want to leave them for the other crew. He makes us do it anyways.

Out front, I find the files we've brought there have all tipped over and spilled all over the place. I have an "I told you so" moment, but the boss makes us clean it up. As we clean, two guys in black show up and begin attacking us. I defeat them, and they drop a little flat house shaped ornament full of tiny gems. I begin picking out the gems, notice some larger ones, and then a very large one help by a little figure on the roof. The largest gem has a ribbon attached to it.

Two more guys attack me with super powers, but the ribbon gem renders me invulnerable to their attack. I fight the two guys, imbued with other super powers from the other smaller gems. I have super speed that marks my movement with cool vector graphics, and all kinds of other powers from my gem collection. My opponents have powers as well, but I defeat them easily.

The enemy dealt with, I begin to pick up more tiny gems off the pavement. I explain to my co workers that the real reason they are here is so we can form a team with the special powers these gems grant us. Next thing I know, we're in a monastery where we will be trained by monks.

The monk lays out several of the gems on the ground along with some mundane items like paper and string, and tells us we must figure out how to activate the gems. I find this odd since I was just using them and all I needed to do was have them in my possession. But I start to fumble with the paper trying to figure out this puzzle. And that's when a bunch of guys attack us. Those tricky monks set up that attack so we would be forced to figure out to use the gems!

I have a fascination with gemstones in my dreams, not for the monetary value, but for the geometry.

After the previous dream about my mum being crazy, I was now waiting for a bus to go to Maths class two days before school starts for the term. It was bus 711. I was being told by my mum when it comes, and I got on it. I remember feeling so bored because I would be on it for hours. I looked around and I saw one of my friends thank goodness.

I went over to Simon and he showed me his new iPod. He showed me his conversation with his girlfriend. Then he showed me a music video that one of our friend's friend made to the song Tik Tok by Ke$ha. It was very vivid and clear.

The end.

I was in a room in some sort of house with my mum, dad and some random guy. My mum was talking but she wasn't making any sense and she was being all irrational. The random guy took my ipod for a second, unlocked it with the password, and tried to take a photo of my mum for some reason.

The end

I want to say this non-lucid dream was an hour long. It just kept going and going. And in cycle 2? Vividness was only average or below. It was memorable, but kinda boring at the same time. I'm just going to skim over it here yet it's still a wall of text.

B-Complex vitamin one hour before bed, drank natural apple juice

Longest Dream Ever
0637: B.
Paradoxical Architecture and Drug Party
I'm in a strange building with several floors and many staircases. It's hard to get to the room you want because each staircase takes you to a different place than you expect. I'm living here while going to college but I'm moving out soon, I'm trying to find someone to take my apartment. Then there's a family that moves in and I befriend their young 10-year-old son. Lots of deja vu feeling here.

Then I'm hosting a few friends in this strange apartment and we are doing drugs. Then it turns into a formal party for a community of strictly kosher Jews. Everyone is doing drugs and talking about being kosher. Then the landlord shows up and I'm supposed to give him the keys. But I remember the drugs in the bedroom so I sneak back in and put them in a briefcase. I run away from the building with my friends.

Mugged and Suspected
Now I'm alone, walking on the main street of a small town. Reminds me of Monterrey. Instead of a briefcase of drugs, I'm now holding a bottle of whiskey, open and half empty. I sense there are cops around and also a criminal. I let the criminal steal the bottle out of my hand as he runs by. The cops stop me. They think that I gave the criminal the bottle, like a planned exchange. They think it's hard drugs dissolved in water. But I'm so scared and clueless that they realize I'm no criminal and they let me go.

Bear-Lion Mating Season
Now I'm walking with the friends again and we still have the drugs. We're in the middle of nowhere on a dirt path through some grassy hills. We stop and one girl snorts it all. She turns into a bear-lion kind of thing. Looks like the head of those big Chinese lion parade costumes with the big floppy mouth. She has thick black fur like a bear. The rest of us stand back, not sure what to do. A male bear-lion appears nearby and stares at the female, as if to mate. I try to make eye contact with my friend to see what she's thinking. She can't speak. I think perhaps she is afraid of the male and wants my help. She gestures with her eyes, which I interpret to mean "you guys leave, I'll stay". So I leave and the male pounces on her.

Now I'm walking alone toward the nearest town. I see my bear-lion friend running down a hill toward the same town. I chase after her. She seems upset and I figure out that she didn't want me to leave. She wanted my help. Her eye gesture actually meant "let's all run that way." Now she won't forgive me. As we arrive in the town, she turns back into a woman. I plead with her but she'll never forgive me.

Dalai Lama in a Diner
Then, I'm sitting in a diner with Lance. He is reciting a quote from the Dalai Lama with a perfect voice impression. The quote (which seemed real, but I looked it up and couldn't find it IWL) is about idea of spiritual salvation contrasted with the distractions of modern culture. At the very end, Lance is just staring at me intently and I let the quote and the whole dream just sink in for a moment.

I had a fantastic sleep last night. I managed to get to sleep at about 10-11pm. I don't know what it was. I didn't go on my laptop last night, but then again I added an extra pillow and covered up my alarm clock... Whatever it was, I woke up feeling great For some reason, instead of skipping forward in time, they skipped backwards last night. A little wierd... But fun too I also experienced pain for the first time, though it was more like the memory than the actual thing, easy enough to handle. The feeling of hopelessness was what woke me up...

Fire Ring Of Satan

Awake Non-Lucid

I'm in my school's music composition room. The walls are lined with computers, with a large space in the middle. I'm sitting on a computer chair, chatting, when my piano teacher comes in. She sees me and breaks into a smile.

"I know it's lunchtime but I thought you wouldn't mind coming for a lesson."

Ummm... This isn't my lesson day, and to be honest, I haven't done any practice. I quickly pull some green business management sheets from my bag. "I'm sorry, I've got so much homework to do! I'm really busy." I gush. She comes closer and inspects the sheets, as if they're fake... Pffft.... She looks grim and disappointed. Well, I'm saving my own ass. And is it just me, or is she [I]tiny[I]?

As she leaves, I sigh in relief and to grin to my friends surrounding me. I tell them I need to go get something and then head out. I take the lift down to F floor using the lift key I "forgot" to give back to the medical. I open up the door to a classroom to find them watching a movie. Inside is dark, but the TV is flashing, with a man smiling on the front. He doesn't move. I ask for Sam and she quickly comes out. We talk a giggle for a minute about useless crap and then she goes back inside. I turn to find my piano teacher standing, arms crossed behind me.

"...I... Needed help with my homework..."

She leaves again, scowling, obviously knowing I lied. Oops... Oh well, lift or stairs? Oh, the possibilities... -_-

I take the stairs this time. I stroll into the compostion room to find large white boxes being stacked in the middle of the room by my friend Max. They're full of crisps. I grab a packet and lounge back on a wheeled chair. There are fresh posters around the room. I start thinking of the composition room as a common room. Hockey team meeting posters telling me where and when, healthy food ones on the other side, blah blah blah... Then I see one announcing that a "Shadow" will be inspecting the common room. Shit.

I quickly gather up food cartons and other shit that was left lying around by my messy buddies. Max catches on and helps me, but we're too late. The Shadow floats in. It's black, shadows cast everywhere. (I realised when I woke up it pretty much looks like a Dementor (or whatever) out of Harry Potter!). It searches the place and then looks at me.

I seem to disconnect from my body, it's as if my soul has left it. I watch myself, unafraid. The Shadow casts a circle of fire around my body. I watch my body scream, I see it trying to protect itself, get throught the hot flames somehow. I watch it burn through my skin and watch the pain spread across my face. I'm hopeless, there's no way my body can survive. Even if it did, it would never be the same. Damaged, forever.

Then I'm back in it, but there is no fire. I've gone back in time by a few minutes. I know exactly what's going to happen... Then it does. Fire, everywhere. Someone, Max? Shouts. Something about a Fire of Satan. Heat and dull, almost non-existent agony washes over me. It's more like a memory of what the pain should be like than the real thing. No one helps me as I burn.

Through His Eyes

Awake Non-Lucid Semi-Lucid

I'm in rollerskates, smooth, fast ones. I glide over pavement, totally at ease, remembering happy races as a kid in the summer sunshine. I'm outside Asda Wal-Mart with Rochelle. I want to buy a new PS3 game. As we near the tall, white and green building, I spot my friend Callum. Perfect! He can help me choose.

I skate up to him and prod him gently in the back. I tell him that he has to help me choose a PS3 game after he gets what he needs. I notice he has two friends with him, the guys smile and the blond one skates off to the gaming aisle. I grin and speed off after him, leaving Callum, his friend, and Rochelle behind at blinding speed. I almost crash into a line of pizza. Instead of games, we find chocolate brownies. Just as good!

He tells me he put them there. They're in size order, from mini ones to huge, leg sized ones. He slowly takes a few mini ones. He tells me because he's from the "other" side of town, he has to take small ones or people will think he's stealing. I grab a medium sized one and head to the self-service machine. Once I've paid, I go to grab my change. A girl takes it first. I glare at her and ask her, as calmly as possible, to give me my money back. She smiles slyly and calls her dad.

Two small, middle-aged business men attack me. What?! Is it too much to ask to peacefully buy some chocolate brownies?! I throw the dark haired one off me and throw the other one out the glass window. I skate out the window, but decide to head to the other side, where he won't look, I think...

[Dream skip - A few minutes] I burst into a house after I hear a scream of agony. Time slows. Skylar (I realise this is who Callum's blond friend is) is hunched over, blood pouring from a wound to his stomach. Two people grip his arms, I recognise them as police officers. But they're not helping him, they're keeping him still. I yell and can't force time to get back to its usual state, I'm stuck in this slow motion.

Things fly backwards so fast, it sparks my lucidity, though I fail to remember I have control. I'm viewing the world from Skylar's eyes, unable to do anything. He's frightened, running as fast as he can down a flight of stairs. When he gets to the bottom, he finds police officers, they grab his arms and pull him into a white, dull room. A door bursts open, the grey-haired business man holding a shot gun shoots him in the stomach. The man leaves. Then, me, rushing in slow motion through the door, dark hair messy around my face, sea-blue eyes wide in shock. He feels calmer at the sight of me, like he stands a chance. I cry out, but he falls to his knees. My image stops and fades to darkness, he is content.

I am in front of a McDonald's. Behind me is our car and with me are my brother and mom. We go into the restaurant. At the other side of the room there are WC doors. I ask someone which of them is for men. When I am about to enter one room, he says it's not that one. Soon I find the right door, a few steps down to stairs. When I at the business, three girls enter the room. One of them works at the restaurant. She reluctantly gives them some coordinates. someone is after us and those were the coordinates of our car. I rush to the car. My mom and brother are there. I tell them we have to leave. Soon we arrive to my grandparents'. Some evil robot things emerge from their doorway. The view changes into 3rd person and my brother shoots them with a laser turret. More come. I say we have to leave but he says he can handle them. I tell that more and more will come until we're trapped. The car turns into a ball and rolls of.
I get off the car and meet a group of people, some of my friends among them. They are an order that (as I later concluded) adores logic, science and God as their source. I join them. We go into an underground tunnel. We go into a house. There is an about 17 years old girl in the house. I don't remember much what happened next, but I think the girl got killed. We go back into the tunnel. This time it's narrower and foggy. One from the order asks if I think the tunnel has got narrower, with a tone that he knew all along it's going to happen. I say yes. We enter a cavern about the size and the shape of a church. There is an altar in the middle. In there ceiling there are paintings of God, also the Creation of Adam. I go to one of the walls. There are some stick figure drawings in it with descriptions. Somehow i get the message they are not blasphemy, but made with respect. We go into another tunnel and soon emerge into a yard. I think we did something there but I can't remember what. There is a building nearby. I walk alongside it and as I look inside from the window I notice its a church or a school building (there are children inside, the ones near me have instruments). I go down, following a path near the building. There is a fence. I jump over it. Now I am in front of the building. Nearby me is an altar of the order. It is fairly simple, a cushion on which one can kneel, and some plaques. They have names on them. I only remember one, Tchaikovsky. A friend of mine kneels on the cushion and utters a short prayer: "Let me be like them". There is a pipe of some kind in the ground. Another of the order's hideouts. I enter a room trough it. Soon I leave the room, but see the car of the bad guy who is after me. I go back up, where we first emerged from the underground tunnels. I don't remember what happened next, apparently I woke up soon.