side notes

I am an almost 30 year old man, and am married with a couple kids. I have always been interested in dreams and the possibility of controlling my dreams. In a chat with a friend I mentioned I had a dream last night that I was disappointed I was awoken from. They mentioned "Lucid Dreaming" a term I have heard before but never really understood. I then went to wiki and read up about it. I find it very intriguing.

Throughout my life I have had a few dreams that I remember very vividly. I remember being young having a dream of being in a basement and climbing a pile of clothes to get from one level to another and the snuggle-bear popped out of the clothes.


I remember as a pre-teen dreaming of being in some sort of cave, and started turning into an almost nightmare when the ground started to move and there were spikes under the tile I was on and another tile was coming to squish me, then Indiana Jones appeared above and reached his hand down for me to grab and he pulled me to safety.


I remember another dream as a young adult encountering a girl who was running and I was chasing her. She had long dark brown hair and was very pretty. I remember she was crying and I finally caught her and assured her I would never let go of her. I remember being very emotionally attached or in-love with this girl. It was very pre-teenish puppy love movie feeling, something like "My-Girl" or something. The girl somewhat resembled a girl I knew and I thought it meant I was supposed to be with her... but no, that did not ever happen.

I hate the disappointment you get waking up from a dream where you were deep into a story without a conclusion. As a father I am often woken up abruptly by a child's crying. Dreams seam to be a powerful and a fun thing, and I would love to be able to control them and have some freedom in them.

Another night with little or hazy memories. I had the feeling there was at least one dream with a consistent story buried there somewhere, but couldn't find a way to reach it.

There was something about dreams, trying to find a technique that works with four or five test subjects.

I was into lucid dreaming about a year ago, started a dream journal and everything, but got too busy with certain other things to focus on it.
I've decided it's time for round 2. Every morning I'm quick out of bed and into my day, making my dream recall suck. So here's my start at building back my dream recall.

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The first bit is a fragment- I like watching AMVs on youtube, and I had found one of the Professor Layton series for the DS. And I thought "That is such a weird thing to have an AMV of..."
I recall a small fragment of a dream that had Nintendogs being played to music, an even more random thing to have an AMV of lol.

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The second bit is slightly longer- my grandma is getting pretty old, but doesn't like the idea of "being a burden" to anyone- she'd rather take care of herself. My family and I were in the living room of our old house (the one I spent the first 17-18 years of my life in). Out the front window I look and see our grandma walking away from our house, looking over her shoulder axiously to make sure no one is following her. She is on her way back to her house, which is next door to ours. It's cold outside (snow is on the ground) and everyone always worries that she might slip on ice and fall or something.

My dad also spots her, and rushes outside. She sees him, and starts running. Her lot's elevation is about 3 feet below our's, and she reaches the "edge" where the lots meet, and is forced to jump down. She looks nervous about it- looking down, back at my dad, down again, back at my dad- and then she jumps down. At about this point my dad jumped and grabbed her, held her over his shoulder, and walked back to our house.

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Wow, so much text for something that took literally 10 seconds... Here's hoping I'll remember more next time.

i had a bath and i lie down in my towel. i fall asleep.
i'm in school wwalking down a corridor with three of my friends. some kid i know walks down and gives me my towel.(the one i had on as i am sleeping) i wrap it round my waist and walk out.

Its suddenly really dark. Another two friends are running around randomnly.
One of the original free friends tell me i'm naked. all i have is my towel(reflects my actual physical state) then everyone leaves and it dark.
Scene changes and im outside the school and its bright and its from a different perspective.i see my two friends who were running around randomnly enter the school through a side door just as i come out with my three ffriends through the main door but then they pop infront of me. This time its still bright.
schocked and talking to someone next to me i say
"Wait i wanna see that again"
The world rewinds and i re-watch.

i start to notice the oddness of the world and realize i'm dreaming. I am completely stable. I attempt to fly and soar up but i cannot move ina direction. A strong wind pushes me into the wall of the school. i cant lower myself.
I realize i need to wake up to get ready as i have no idea how much time as passed.
(i read somewhere blinking wakes you up)
I continously blink but do not wake up, instead i try to use my voice(my real voice not in the dream)
after 2-3 attempts i hear my own voice croak "help"and i wake up.

I awake in my towel with complete memory of my dream.

i awake in my room, its a saturday(false awakening it was wednesday) it sunny. i check the time and its 4. odd no one woke me up for my tutor session. i go back to bed and a i hear a female voice tell me what to do?to become lucid, i have forgotten her words at this time.
i start in a cell, i'm alone. The rooms is quite small and nothing but a desk and a bed. I go on my blackberry(my phone in real life) and check the time.
The room enlargs and there are two beds, there is a girl with me but i dont recognize her.I think she had black hair.
For some reason there is a banner with a cross and now i'm a pastor preaching to other cell mates but the girl takes them all away.
Then im on top of a tower and there are zombies and skeletons roaming, they look cartoony.
I think i fall off because the dream changes and i'm at some sort of lunar base.i'm taking pictures of my mate.

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Dont remember, i'm awake
I was not Lucid

In a large treehouse, searching for some Russian girl's file on a computer connected to HQ. Can't find them, so I wonder why someone wouldn't be on HQ's computers. I call them up. They give me the file.

There was also heaps of activity going on around the treehouse, like a big party or going-on in the town.

I was just brushing my teeth when I racalled a dream in which I was using mouthwash. It was listerine which normally burns your mouth quite a bit but it didn't hurt at all.

That's about it

I didn't remember any of my dreams in the morning. During the night I remember waking up and recalling something like a dream state but no story, just thoughts and assosiated images. No dreams

After my meditation I did a short lying meditation and had some floating and flowing sensations.

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

I'm making a serious attempt to LD again, starting with improving my dream recall. But since my recall and lucid count is so poor, I'm going to start slowly instead of pushing myself to remember every single detail of my dreams. Last night I recalled two dreams (along with some others from previous nights), which I'll combine in this single entry.

Dream 1 - Beast's Windshield Fail

I was the cockpit of a small plane that was supposed to be the X-Jet, but this "cockpit" was huge. It was very similar to the final place where Captain America and Red Skull fought in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, except with no junk or clutter everywhere. The flooring was tile and there was the same huge contoured windshield, which let a large amount of light into the jet. I was right at the windshield and I knew that there were seats behind me with Moira and Charles sitting in them, but I didn't turn around to see. I was looking outside, there below I could see trees and plains. In front of me, a bit more upwards, I could see wispy clouds whizzing by. On the jet's left-hand side I knew there was an exact same X-Jet with Beast, Banshee and Magneto in it. They were with us trying to fight off some enemy ships, which were quite a ways in front of us. I was strongly aware of their presence in front, even though I couldn't see them.

All of a sudden, our jet suddenly started moving downwards sharply, but I didn't actually feel a shift in gravity or even fell over - I just saw more of the ground, because we were tilted towards it. We did a few maneuvers and ended up leveling out again without getting that close to the ground, but then, I saw something fly into view from the left and smack into the middle of our jet's windshield. It was Beast. I didn't see his face; I simply saw his body make contact with the glass, making a bit of a crack, and ricochet off. I also heard the "thump" noise that one hears when a bird hits a window. I wasn't concerned, and I simply continued to look out the windshield. I heard the same "thump" again and looked back to the windshield to, somehow, see Beast once again smacking into the glass! This happened two more times and I ended up getting pissed off that "he kept doing that".

Upon waking, I laughed. It was very comical.

Dream 2 - Flying Ant Suit

I was in the front grounds of my school, which basically consists of a parking lot on the right side (coming out from the front of the school) and a much larger grassy area on the left, with a sturdy black metal fence on the two sides where the property is next to the streets. It was daytime; the sky was a light, pale shade of blue. I was in the grassy part of the schoolyard but instead of it being empty like in real life, there was a play structure in the middle of it. I was about ten feet away from the structure, in the shadows it cast from a random light source (I couldn't identify the location of it upon awakening, as there wasn't a sun...).

In front of me was a stuffed animal made of that shiny, plastic-like beanbag fabric; it was supposed to be an ant. The whole thing was relatively dark grey and it consisted of a large head with two big plastic eyes, and a round, slightly pointed body. It was very cute, and the whole thing was a couple feet taller than me; it was a suit of some sort, which I could get into and fly off in. It was sitting upright but I noticed that there weren't any legs, like I somehow knew there were supposed to be, so I walked up to it and lifted the head up; there was a dark mesh hole (like some mascot costumes have where the face is) underneath. I pushed on it with my hand and, even though I didn't actually see them appear, there were now six plush legs hanging from the ant's body. I tried to find a zipper or opening to get into the suit but I couldn't. I was looking for three or four minutes until the dream ended.

~The only thing i can remember from dreaming last night was frantically washing dishes.....as if i was getting ready to have a guest over.....~
I awoke this morning very disappointed...i was hoping for more...i'm finding that the harder i concentrate,the harder it is for me to fall asleep,thus taking time away from my sleep and my dreams. The past two nights my head has hit the pillow, and before i know it , it is morning, like i didn't even sleep at all....

I was upstairs in my house in my parents' room. I was sitting on the bed watching T.V. when I looked over into my sister's room. I notices that she had a friend over, one who I hadn't seen in like 10 years. I got up and walked over and saw that my sister was sitting at her desk and her friend was sitting on the ground, both of them looking at a computer screen. They were looking at some sort of video. I stepped a little closer to my sister and just stood there for a second. Nobody said anything. Then I left and headed into my room.

I sat down on my bed for a quick second and did a random RC. I plugged my nose and nothing happenes, I couldn't breathe. Disappointed with the result I checked my hands, all 10 fingers, none missing and no extras. Then, since I really wanted it to be a dream I plugged my nose again and tried to breathe in. It slightly worked, and I thought I was in some sort of dream but didn't know for sure. I kept plugging my nose, trying to breathe in, and, eventually, it worked great! I was fully lucid

I immediately thought of the TotY and, once again, couldn't decide on which one to do. I summoned yet another dart board with all the dates on it I hadn't done yet. I summon a dart, closed my eyes and threw it. It landed on the '80s. Awesome, Mt. St. Helens, this should be fun! I walked over to my door, closed it, and thought to myself, "Mt. St. Helens is on the other side of this door," and when I opened it, I was a couple miles from the base of the volcano. I walked over to a log cabin I saw and knocked on the door. A rather "woodsy" looking man, with beard and everything, opened the door. "Yes? Who are you and what are you doing at my cabin?" He asked. He seemed a little irritated but not enough to make someone angry. "I was wondering if you could tell me when that volcano erupts," I told him.

"What volcano? You mean ol' St. Helens over there? She ain't no volcano, just another pile of dirt and rocks." He told me. "But there has been some low rumblin' goin' on late at night in case you were wondering." Just then, there was a very loud, low rumbling noise. "Alright, thanks. See ya, gotta go!" I quickly flew up to the peak of the mountain and got ready for the eruption. Wanting to make it fun, I summoned a sled, like you would use on snow. I sat down and said, "Whenever you're ready!" At that moment, the entire ground beneath me started to move. I slowly started to slide down when I saw gysers of rock and dust popping up all over the place in front of me.

I leaned back and forth, left and right avoiding these mini eruptions. I was about halfway down the mountain and suddenly I was pushed up straight into the air, about 50 feet. A hole had opened up right below me! I started falling to the ground when I pulled up on the tip of the sled, trying to make it fly. I leaned back, trying to lift up, and when I was about 10 feet off the ground it finally started to rise. At this point I just made a B-line for the bottom hovering several feet above the ground, still trying to avoid the gysers. It was much easer in the air, slicing through air instead of dirt and rocks. It took me a minute, but I finally made it to the bottom.

I didn't want to miss the show so I dropped the sled and flew up to about 200 feet and just hovered there, watching the eruption. A huge chunk of the side of the mountain was missing and massive amounts of ash and soot were pouring out of the hole. The cloud was enormous, thousands of feet high, maybe even miles. It stretched well into the clouds. I looked down at the ground behind me and saw a pyrocalstic flow blowing through the forest. It was heading right towards the cabin I had stopped at! Not wanting to let the guy die, I headed down there to try and help. I had actually started to like him . I thought as hard as I could and snapped my fingers. In an instant, the cabin was gone. I hoped it had worked and it was someplace where the eruption wasn't.

Well, that task was done, and I figured it would be in my best interest to try and do another one. I decided I would to the brownie camera and take a picture, since that one seemed more simple. I snapped my fingers imagining myself in an old house and a camera on an end table. In the blink of an eye, I was in an old house, but there was no camera. I searched for it a little bit and headed into a room next to the one I was in. I saw somebody holding up a camera and one of those bulbs or whatever they used for a flash. I then saw a family standing in front of a white wall. I ran into the family and photo bombed it . I was an ass, but I didn't really care, it was a dream

The flash happened right as I got into the group, and I was eager to see what the picture looked like. Obviously annoyed, the person whom I assume was the father of the family stepped over to me. "Hey, what the devil do you think you're doing? This is meant to be a nice family photograph. Not many people get these you know!" He seemed really angry. "Hey calm down pops. Would you like me to take another one?" I figured I might as well, since I couldn't remember whether I had to be in one or take one. "Why yes, that would be alright." He replied.

I got behind the camera where the photographer had been. I asked him to move out of my way so I could take a picture and he reluctantly agreed. "Okay, now how do you work this thing?" I asked him. There was no obvious "picture" button, and I had to cause the flash manually, I believe. "Well, first of all you have to hold this contraption here to created enough light for the photo. You pour the powder in here," he said, as he did it for me, "and then press this button to make it go off. Then, right as you create the flash you hold this button here," he pointed to a large button on the side of the camera, "and count to 10. Once you're done, you pull this lever and the photo comes out here," he said, pointing to a large slot on the front of the camera.

"Okay, I think I got it," I told him. "Smile!" I told the family. They didn't make any facial expression, and I pressed the button for the flash while also pressing the large button on the camera. I counted in my head, "1, 2, 3..." and when I got to 10 I let go. "Okay, now I pull this lever?" I asked the man. He nodded and I pushed down on the lever. A small piece of paper came out with a faded image on it. "How do I get the picture to look clearer?" I asked the man. "Oh, you have to soak it in a special solution, here, give it to me." I handed it over to him and he placed it in a small pool of an orange liquid. The family whom I had just taken a picture of leaned over my shoulder as I leaned over the photographers, trying to see what he was doing. After about 12 seconds he took the picture out and placed it in a towel.

He rubbed off all the excess residue and handed me the photo. I looked at it, and could see it clear as day. It looked just like the family, only as clear as a modern digital picture. It was still in black and white, however. "Oh, how lovely," the woman said. I assume she was the mother. "Here," I said, giving it to them. "I hope this makes up for the other one." I told them. "Oh, it certainly does," said the woman. "Hey, if you don't mind could I see the other one?" I asked the photographer. "Sure, let me just wash this one as well," he said, as he took the other piece of paper and placed it in the solution. After a bit he took it out and cleaned it off. "Hmm, that's odd," he said, rather concerned which made me very intrigued. "Can I take a look?" I asked. He handed me the picture and I studied it. I could see the family just fine, and saw that they were surprised, looking at me jumping in front of them, but I wasn't there. I found this extremely strange but, before I could think any more about it, I woke up.

Woo! I got two done in one dream! This is awesome The photo one still makes me think, but hey, I got the task finished and that's all that matters in the end



Second dream: I was having some sort of sexual encounter, though I can't comepletely recall it. All I remember is feeling as if I was achieving orgasm and ejaculation, but at the same time I woke up. It felt almost exactly as if I had a wet dream, only it had actually happened after I woke up. I slowly got up, not wanting to make any more of a mess than was already there, and headed into the bathroom to clean up. Before I left my room I checked the clock. Only 2:00? I had only been asleep for about 2 1/2 hours. Just as a quick RC I looked away then looked back, still 2:00. Alright, not a FA. I walked into the bathroom and checked my underwear, but it was completely dry. No jizz or anything. I did 2 more RCs, checking my hands and plugging my nose, but they both failed, I was still awake.

I didn't want to lose any more sleep since I had school in the morning so I went straight back to bed.

(There were two more fragments but they were just remembering a certain place/a person, no specific information)

Dream 1
I was back at my old highschool. I was looking around and noticing all of the attractive new students. I was then talking to some the girls I used to go to school with and I noticed that they kept eyeing me. Later there was an assembly and I stood up and waved at people behind me in the crowd. I accidentally created a wave in the crowd, then everybody got excited.


Dream 2
I was driving a RV around some back water country area and I was drifting it around a downhill winding dirt road. At the bottom a guy with a rifle was pointing it at me. I tried to grab the barrel but he kept pointing it at me. I eventually broke the barrel off. I went inside to the building and there were two chicks inside chilling on two separate beds. I got some hand action and then I woke up.

||Clarity and recall does seem to increase with the increase of time between food eaten and bed time. I am going to continue to increase the amount of time in between and also decrease food intake and quality||

I'm not sure why, but this one stuck with me very hard. It was an extremely emotional dream compared to most.

Seal Chasing
Non-Lucid
Very Memorable

Non-dream Non-Lucid Lucid

The scene starts off with me and my pet seal walking down the street, looking for somewhere for her to play. We come across a gym/olympic training center for swimmers. We go inside, and see no one, so we make our way down the main hall, past an empty reception desk towards a room with large wooden doors. On our left, there is a large trophy case with glass shelves. We cautiously open the door. NO one is inside, so we make our way in. The room is extremely large, in the center is a pool, which has a layer of ice over it. We decide to hop onto the ice and play around for a while.

After several minutes of playing on the ice, the seal finds a small hole, and jumps on it, widening the hole, and allowing her to slip beneath the surface. I rush over to the hole and peer down inside. The seal is playing in the water, swimming around. I decide that the swimming will be good for her, so I slide around on the ice for a while longer. After a few more minutes, I return to the hole and look for my seal, who is nowhere to be seen.

I search around further for the seal and see, at the bottom of the pool, a hole and a very large tube/pipe leading further down. I head out of the room and search for a way down.

Jump.

I'm downstairs now, searching for the seal. I run down the hall, peeking into the rooms on each side. Each room is very long, several hundred yards. They're all filled with water slides, pools, diving boards. Some of the larger slides stretch to the ceiling and large pipes like the one I saw on the surface end just above them as if to go directly from the pool above down to these slides. I continue running, and see more and more of the extremely large rooms on the left and the right.

Finally, I reach the end of the hall, and turn back to go into some of the rooms.

Jump.

Now I'm being chased by large men wearing suites and sunglasses (Secret Service types) I grab anything I can find to use as a weapon. Unfortunately, for the most part, I can only find pens and pencils. I find a maintenance bay, and grab some screwdrivers. As I leave the bay and continue down the hallway, one of them starts running the opposite way down the hall towards me. I pull out my improvised weapons, and begin to chuck pencils and pens at him like throwing spikes. I throw knives in RL, so I'm not surprised to find frequent allusions to knife throwing in my dreams. I stick a couple of pens in his chest and torso, but nothing deep enough to be more than a nuisance. Then I throw a screwdriver, and stick him deep in the collar/shoulder, and he goes down. I continue running and come to a rolling tool cart. I refill by picking up a screwdriver and another pen.

I'm back upstairs now, and I am entering the room we skated in again. Inside are two guards, and behind them is something shining with bright yellow light. I throw my screw driver at the further guard, and stab the closer with my pen. I run over to the shining light, and it is a dear on a pedestal. There are laurel wreaths to each side of the deer. The whole setup looks like a grand shrine. I shouted 'Chani!' There you Are! And the dream faded.

At some point the seal became a deer. The name I called it is that of a character in the Dune series by Frank Herbert.
I don't know why this was so important. I had a lot of emotion invested into the search for the seal. The whole experience stuck in my mind.

All I remember is finding myself at that point where a dream is fading and, even though you know you're about to wake up, you can't stay in the dream. I stayed in this state for several seconds and figured I would try a DEILD. When I woke up I layed completely still, and imagined a simple dream enviornment. After what felt like 30min I figured it wasn't going to work and just got up. The clock said 10:01, and just to be sure I turned away and looked back at it. Still 10:01. It makes sense that the DEILD didn't work, I had already gotten 10 hours of sleep so I likely wouldn't fall asleep very easily



There was one other dream that I knew I had, but I can't remember it right now. For some reason I didn't write any of these down right away Will edit if it comes to me.

Well, i skipped for a couple days, the first night i didnt dream anything. Last night i got really drunk, and dont remember anything except a couple of fragments. Gotta stay motivated.