side notes

Awake, Non-lucid, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I’m in a building that is something like a conference center. There is a conference/camp event going on here for students in the $Program program. [Name has been hidden to prevent members of the program from finding this journal.] Most of the people attending the conference are teenagers and young adults. I go from the hallway through a door into one of the conference rooms, where there is a check-in and registration table set up. It’s covered with the papers that belong to that schema: lists of registered attendees, conference schedules and other materials for the conference, and calendars of upcoming events. I check in, then take a look at the calendar and see that there’s an overnight event coming up that includes attending a local high school’s football game. I want to go, but I think it conflicts with something else that I have going on.

At this conference, each $Program group that is attending has a different nickname or theme; my group is the “villains” group. The check-in table for each group is in a different room. After I've checked in, I walk back out into the hallway and encounter a girl, my age or a little younger, looking for her check-in room. Her name tag reads “Eliza.” I encourage her to join one of the “good” groups [by which I mean, any group that isn't villains-themed], because she's new to $Program. I expect that I'll be the only one from my $Program group who participates in the larger group activities offered by the conference, because everyone else in my group is an older adult and most of the other conference attendees are teenagers or young adults. Besides, LN teaches high school for a living; she probably doesn't want to spend her off-hours with teenagers, too.

I start climbing the stairs to the second floor of the building to get to the conference meeting rooms. There are two flights of stairs that cross in an X in midair, joining together at the point where they cross to form a platform. A third, smaller flight of stairs extends down from this platform to the floor I want to get to. There are others climbing the stairs along with me.

[I don’t remember the transition, but] I’m outside the building I was just in. I’m on a beautiful college campus. It has trees, grass, and winding, paved paths between the buildings. The ground is not level, but contoured, rolling up and down. In this scene, I realize that I’m dreaming. [I don’t remember why or how; I just did.] I jump/float down one of the inclines, grabbing a handful of grass at the bottom of the incline as I land on another path, which [I think] has a low wall that stands between the path and the incline I've just jumped/floated over. I'm touching it to keep the dream stable by engaging my senses. It feels like real grass and is very soft and supple. I walk down the path I've just landed on, heading toward a small tree, covering ground much more quickly than I would in reality. [Here, I experienced that phenomenon I've read about here on DV where, in order to get somewhere in a dream, you focus on your intention to arrive there and suddenly, there you are, having skipped over the boring part where you traveled there.] When I reach the small tree, I touch it, wrapping my hand around its narrow trunk. It feels rough, like a real tree. I'm just happily enjoying being in a dream.

A little further along the path, just beyond the small tree, is a large, square, paved area, in front of the entrance to a building. A woman is standing in this area, alone. She’s older and has wispy brown hair, which she wears up in a loose bun. She has lines and wrinkles on her face, and has a patch of shiny, lavender-pink eyeshadow all over the center of her face. She’s wearing a long dress the same color as the eyeshadow.

I suddenly recall the current Task of the Month [which I had just looked up, just before going to bed]. I approach the woman. In the distance, behind me, I can hear all the teenagers and young adults who are attending the conference/camp singing together:

“Day-oh, day-oh. Da-a-ay-oh, da-a-ay-oh. Daylight come and me wanna go home.”

I sing along with the young people as they begin the next repetition of this segment of music: “Day-oh.” As I sing, I look right at the older woman, expecting her to sing along, too.

“Day-oh,” she mumbles softly, looking down shyly at the ground to my left.

“Da-a-ay-oh,” I sing to her, still looking at her and expecting her to sing along.

“Da-a-ay-oh,” she mumbles, still looking down. I figure that she simply lacks confidence in her singing voice and encourage her by saying enthusiastically to her, “Come on, you can do it!”

“Daylight come and me wanna go home,” she sings, now looking up and demonstrating self-confidence. She proves to have a beautiful singing voice.

Pleased, I continue singing along with the young people, who have been singing the song all this time. The older woman continues singing along as well. “Come, Mr. Tally-Man, tally me banana. Daylight come and me wanna go home.”

Somewhere in the midst of those two lines, the dream faded and I woke up, probably because I was so excited about having completed the Task of the Month for the first time since February.

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Side notes:
I just looked up what the current Tasks of the Month were last night. I think this knowledge helped motivate me to want to have a lucid dream. I'm thrilled that I completed the basic task the same night! The euphoria from my achievement lasted for several hours into my waking day.
I'm also excited to have used a new dream control ability for the first time. I'd read that you could control what happened in your dreams, including controlling the actions of DCs, by expecting particular things to happen, but this was the first time I'd ever actually done it.

By chance I happened to have a pretty decent length lucid dream, so I'd like to be sure to document it.

The earliest part in the sequence I can remember was some sort of fake Harry Potter movie (during the dream I seemed to think it was the third in the series, but couldn't remember the name), only it starred the cranky-professor-guy-with-the-eye-whose-name-I-don't-remember (that guy from the Goblet of Fire). Anyways, it seems he was going away and people were giving him various going away presents but he was being extra cranky about them. I recall the second to last one vividly; one person (seemed to be a young adult) held up this large, ornate deep green crystal cross with silver metallic edges, stating that he was offering the professor a chance to examine it and that it was a magical artifact that had belonged to his family for many years (it seemed to imply he was some sort of royalty). However the professor cut the student off from his speech angrily, exclaiming that he knew several good men who died in the name of that worthless, magic-less artifact. After that people started to disperse, and an older professor picked up another going away present that looked like a chest and looked as though he was about to leave but then decided to offer it up (saying that after what had just happened he thought the professor wouldn't be interested but thought he might try offering it anyways). They open it, and the chest is empty except for a small recess near the top left that contained a brass metallic pentagram. The older guy asked him if he knew what it was, and the professor replied dramatically that he did indeed know. The camera seemed to look into the box and zoom in ominously on the pentagram; as it got closer you could see that there was a different place on the other side. As it zoomed through the camera shifted to my vision as I saw a group of people walk by and I followed them into what I seemed to think was a hospital. We were talking about some project I was going to work on (it seemed like a job interview?). Inside, we entered some board room through a set of doors and then went to another set of doors along the same wall to let two other people in (I was already with two other people). One of them was Dr. Werremeyer, whom I was happy to see after so long. At some point it transitioned to me at my car at what seemed to be the gas station on University Drive in Fargo that we used to always get gas at. I seemed to think for a moment that my brother was joining me. We got into the car and were waiting there for a while. We amused ourselves with the two extremely short old ladies in the car next to us. At some point he asked me what we were waiting for, I replied that I wasn't sure, that I'd started with 5 professors and now had 0 and that if this was a dream it was kind of a shitty one, which prompted a reality check. It didn't pass (I remember thinking it was going to and being initially surprised that it didn't). I managed to keep focus but immediately getting to work. As I was doing this I was looking across a street corner and there was a lot of Hispanic people walking across the corner towards me. I decided since I didn't like this dream that I'd clean it up a little bit, so I mentally ordered the wind to blow everything away. It became quite a bit windier (as I could notice in the trees in the background), but it wasn't enough to blow the people away. I tried ordering it again and was able to blow a few people off their feet. I incidentally noticed I had a bottle of lime slushy stuff that I was drinking from. I also recall thinking this dream was going on a while (my temporal perception seemed awry here in retrospect) and I should come write about it. Since my current efforts weren't working I tried to get out of my car but somehow got my head stuck in the door and in trying to get myself out I accidentally woke up.

Observation: as I'd previously noted, during a failed reality test my breathing becomes noticeable as the kind of nasal breathing my waking body would experience. This time I discovered that maintaining this nasal breathing sound helped hold lucid focus. I seemed to think this lucid dream was longer, but I can't seem to remember much going on. Anyways, good stuff.

10-08-11 (This might be a non-REM dream) I am at El Castillo, I am hundreds of dreamers floating around the pyramid. I hear a woman's voice shouting “My daughter, she is lucid take her vision” I think am sort of waking up myself, but I try and see if I can lock onto this girl and find a vision “inside the dream” to stabilise. In the meantime I can feel that some of the dreamers, that are me, have found a way inside the pyramid. Everything is growing darker and darker and I wake up.
…

The HH tests! (the following contains some weird ass HH happenings that deserve attention, especially considering I was lying in bed for almost 6 hours this night without being able to fall asleep)

I am somehow involved with a vampire in need of aid and I am presented with a choice. I can find someone else to help her or I can do it myself. I know she needs blood to survive, though I think I am a vampire myself and I know I am experiencing either HHs or non-REM dreams.

Hence I know I am in no danger and tells the narrator that she can have my blood. So I open a hole in my arm of about an inch in diameter and let her loose.
. - .

I am smelling sulphur, which to my understanding means presence of a demon. I have never experienced olfactory hallucinations before and decide to take precaution. I envision my body filling up with light and address the demon.

“You are not welcome here, you have no power here, this isn't your realm, this isn't your home”.

After having said this in a fairly firm tone the smell is gone and I feel quite relaxed and comfortable.
…
I am lying in my bed and all of a sudden I feel myself being pulled towards the light. I feel somewhat feminine, but I know I am dreaming and I know I am headed for the pyramid. I scream something silly like “Weeeeeeeeeee!” in excitement about actually managing to go there on my first attempt.

Until. I am punched in the stomach on my right hand side it is not a physical punch, in fact it reminds me of of the energy I felt, when I was relaxing my body earlier, except stronger and not under my control.

The energy doesn't stop there it travels in a quick violent wave up my spine and exits just on the left side of my neck, just above the brain stem, cutting my connection to the light and the dream.

Notes: I felt this “punch” for quite some time throughout the night, though this could easily be explained by being in a permanent state of vulnerability to HHs.
…

I am looking at an apartment for my mate, Tim. He can't be there himself so I explain that to the people who lives there. The house looks crooked and unstable a bit like Charlie's from the movie with the chocolate plot.

I walk around inspecting things while the couple living there tries to sell it to me. I am not particularly impressed and I tell them this. They ask if it is because of the mess and I take a quick look around to see if that could have somehow formed my first impression.

But it isn't the mess. In fact as I look around it the second time it looks bigger than what I have previously thought.

I go upstairs to a ledge and ask how one would go outside to the balcony I saw from the garden. The man explains that you can't.

I explain that I will give my description of the house to Tim, but I find it highly unlikely that he would want to live here.

The man tells me that it is nice that I am honest, so they don't have to guess at my reaction. Then they explain that they are actually owning the place and that it was meant to get rented so they had a little extra for when the baby arrived.

Skip

I speak with Tim and explain how the house looked and he confirms that he would have no interest in living there.

Skip

We are trying to go somewhere and we have a plane, the rain is pouring down and we can't see a thing. We are driving downhill trying to take off, but we don't have a strip and we don't really know what is in front of us due to the heavy rain.

I stop the plane as I don't dare keep accelerating as we are driving blindly. We get out and notice that we have stopped just in front of a high way.
…

I am in a shoot em up computer simulation and it would seem like my team can't really get further than what they have done so far. I decide to join in.

The first obstacle is that we have to get to this little bunker on the beach. I have to go into this and do something in order to capture it. I have an old school sniper rifle with me, which I use to shoot a rather large kid looking in the doorway.

I keep shouting to my team that they have to listen out for something, think it may be glass breaking or something, in any case it has to do with the little bunker I am in.

I think we fail the first time, in any case I have to go into the bunker again and the second time we are successful, though the kid doesn't appear from the door this time, but a window which means he has gotten around a team mate of mine who is supposed to watch out for that side.

I miss the first two shots at the kid, but luckily I have an updated semi-automatic sniper rifle now. The kid was ducking down outside the window, dunno if he remembered my previous weapon.

There is a similar station further up the beach and that will have to be our next check point where a similar action will have to take place.

I start out by zooming in to see if I can pick out their shooters. The zoom works different to the first gun, where I got the classical circle vision with a corsair in the middle. However the new gun allows me to see up the hills and my entire field of vision just moves closer. The corsair is a white dot.

I start picking out soldiers who seems dressed like Nazi soldiers. There is a building or a city behind them and this is the final goal we have to reach in order to win. But before that we will have to get to the next station where we have a man under cover or hidden.

I make my way there and make contact with him, but he is pinned down at this moment. He is a werewolf and the only reason the other werewolf or guard dogs haven't picked up his scent yet is that they have been 100% focused on the assault that has been going on thus far.

I devise a plan to get rid of the dogs so he has more room to play. We lure them towards us and drag them down into a black maelstrom that leads them to another world. I jump through and they follow me in. There is water on the other side, which only helps my plan as I am going back through as soon as the dogs are with me and closing up the vortex. I trust this will be done though I have no knowledge on how to actually do it.

Next section is very blurry.

The plan works and we have now taken the next station. Our werewolf goes nuts on the soldiers, but it would seem that they are fairly immune to his bites. I may actually take on the POV of the werewolf as I am biting and tearing.

I get something coming out of my back that I can't quite describe, it may be a pair of extra hands or enhancements or it may even be some form of blades. Though I think in the end it settles for something like steel enchants for my arms.

We are at the leaders base now, there is a metal platform and railing, with stairs leading down to the beach, which is where they were planning to escape to. There are 3 or 4 of them all wearing orange jail suits.

I use my arm enhancements to kick the crap out of all of them. While I do so the perspective briefly switch to 3rd person as I am hovering out over the beach looking down on myself. Focus switch back and I start throwing people over the railing, it is clear that I have won.

I do the same with the leader and jump on him leaning my arms over his throat. At this point the dream has taken on a personal feeling rather than a game oriented and I want to make sure that all the people that have been killed are avenged.

The leader tells me that without my enhancements I can't do him no harm. I keep pushing at his throat knowing that they will be out again soon enough. They come and he gets scared and I push on his throat harder.

My team mates shout to me he isn't worth it but I keep pushing till I hear his Windpipe snap, though I think I wake up at exactly the moment this is supposed to happen.

I just find it weird that I've been doing a mix of MILD (before sleep), WILD (wake up at around 5:30 am and try to get back to sleep), and EILD (alarm intentionally, and sun unintentionally), but I seem I'm getting DILD results instead. (@_@)

July 25, August 4 and August 9. Ten and then five days.

Those are the dates I had LDs. The distance between the days that I LD is getting short I will continue to practice, and I guess I'll just expect an LD every night. This seems to increase the chances of me having an LD. Also, I think my LDs happen when the sun is up, and not when it is still dark.

Granted, my LDs aren't very clear yet, and are very short. Will work on getting consistency, while working on clarity and length.

I was sitting under a bathroom sink with Kelso (Yes, from that 70's show and no not Ashton Kutcher, it was KELSO) and he's on the phone with my grandpa. He has his hand in this hole in the wall under the sink, and my grandpa was apparently telling him where to find an emergency stash of money. He had to reach in and pull out a brick that was blocking another hole on the inside of the hole, it wasn't actually that confusing. Then he pulls out another brick and opens it up and we find three fives and some ones. I remember thinking, why do we need 15 bucks anyway?

There was more to do with my grandpa and come to think of it, he was kind of acting like Red, also from the show.

Dreams are still vivid and I wonder why they've changed back into what they used to be all of a sudden. I also realize I watch too much Netflix.

non-lucid
lucid
TOTM
notes

After waking up to my early alarm, I went to the bathroom, replied to a couple of threads on DreamViews, and decided to attempt to WILD after being up about 30 minutes or so. I laid down on my back, head slightly elevated and tilted back, and I lay one hand on my stomach on top of the comforter, and the other hand underneath it, but also UNDERNEATH the covers, so that my hands weren't touching skin to skin.

My body was pretty relaxed except for a sore spot in my lower back, so I focused my awareness on the tension.. and HI began almost immediately. Mostly swirls and and static, but with faint hazy and fleeting images mixed in. As I watched it (mostly passively, but I admit with a little excitement at the fact that I was getting images but still aware that I was trying to WILD), I knew I was close to SP from the way my body felt (I have gotten this close a great many times), and was going to start a counting anchor, but I noticed that my hands seemed to be touching. Like actually touching skin to skin, even though I knew they were not. I began to focus on my dream hands, trying to move them, rub them together, pull them apart. They felt very heavy, so I didn't think I was quite ready to try opening my eyes, but I WAS making progress.

Then, I heard a voice speaking my name.. it was my mother. She was telling me to get up, more urgently with each repetition. I thought- 'oh man, I'm so close to a WILD right now, leave me alone!' and I continued to focus on my hands, hoping that if I ignored her long enough she would give up trying to wake me. She did not stop.. Her voice wasn't coming from inside my room though, it was coming from outside my door. I thought it was odd that she would be trying to wake me from the other room, but she WOULD NOT STOP. Finally, I breathed a big sigh, opened my eyes, and prepared to say 'Thanks for ruining my WILD attempt!' loud enough for her to hear me..

But her voice had stopped. No one was there. I was about to close my eyes again, but something caused me to try a RC. I attempted to levitate the fan on my desk and.. it worked! I was dreaming!

At this point, let me interject that I completely forgot that I was trying to WILD. I was only aware that I was dreaming and lucid. After I actually woke up and began recall (which was difficult because this LD led to 2 more), I remembered the transition from thinking my WILD was ruined to realizing it was a dream. It actually took me a few min into recall to suddenly exclaim out loud- 'Oh, I did it!' Very excited. anyway..

I got up and just stood there, looking around, stabilizing the dream (one of the threads I replied to right before WILDing was lucidmax telling me in my journal to work more on stabilization.. so this was my #1 priority throughout). I went into the living room, and my mom was there, so I told her I was lucid dreaming. We had a brief conversation that I don't really remember, as I was focusing on the environment. I recently read about dream mapping, and this was my #2 priority after stabilization.

I decided to explore the other rooms and found them to be as I remembered them growing up. I noticed a bag of candy in my sister's room, and I never eat in LDs, so I figured hey, why not, and began eating the candy as I walked around. Cool thing I noticed was that as I took candy from the bag, I could never empty it.. never-ending bag of candy

I went back into the living room, and then I remembered (finally!) the basic TOTM to ask a DC to sing to me. My mom was still there so I asked her to sing, but she seemed to not know what to sing, and in the end started singing something I had never heard. It was gibberish, and I thought 'I'll never be able to remember the tune or any of these words, I don't know if I'll get credit for TOTM'

So I went BACK to the back bedroom (my parents') and my sis was there this time. I asked her to sing to me, so she turned on the stereo and began to sing along with the song that was playing.. it was a song I haven't heard in 10+ years.. 'Waterfalls' by TLC (don't go chasin waterfalls / please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to / I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all / but I think you're moving too fast..) I sang along with her and we danced like nerds for a bit.

At this point I decided to head out back to see what was in the back yard. As I started to open the back door, I remembered something I read in a post on DreamViews and tried to pass through the door without opening it. Of course, it worked, and I was outside.

The view was BEAUTIFUL. I was on one mountaintop among many, with canyons, valleys, hills all laid out in front of me as far as I could see, mostly covered with lush green trees. I hopped into the air, and then took to flight, marveling at the scenery. After flying around for a bit, I saw a soccer complex in a clearing where many DCs were playing (in full uniform, with spectators looking on, so they were games, not just practice). I swooped down to talk to one of the players. However, as I neared the ground.. I woke up. Or so I thought..

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I woke up, disappointed about my LD being cut short. I got up and started to go to the bathroom. On a whim, I tried to levitate my guitar from the floor.. and it worked!

Ha! False awakening. After having a chain of FAs Sunday morning and NEVER becoming lucid in any of them (argh!), I felt some satisfaction in catching this one in time. The thought also occurred to me that I may have gotten up and gone to the bathroom many times before during FAs, never realizing I wasn't awake.

I went into the living room again and started looking around- working on my dream cartography again. The room was mostly the same, but this time there was a Christmas tree and a few presents, and Christmas decorations all around. I checked out the kitchen, then the hall closet, which seemed normal enough, but way too big to actually fit in the hall. There was no one around, so I decided to head out back again. I tried going through the back door without opening it again... and couldn't. I tried, and tried, and still couldn't. I should have stabilized again at this point, but I did not. Suddenly, I woke up. Or did I..

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I woke up and my eyes were crusted with sleep. I was on my side, and still frustrated from failing at walking through the door and waking up from my lucid. Then I noticed a small puppy was in the bed next to me and my head was wet, very odd. After rooting out the false awakening before, I was onto its tricks and levitated the puppy. Sure enough, STILL dreaming!

As I stood up, my eyelids were heavy and still crusted with sleep. I wanted to rub them and open them wider, but I had this nagging feeling that if I tried to hard, I would open my REAL eyes and be awake. I don't know if this is the case, but I believed it at the time. So I closed my eyes, steadied myself, rubbed the sleep out, and gently re-opened them. I levitated a book on my desk.. and it worked.. Still dreaming. Things were still a bit hazy, though, so I grabbed my glasses from the night stand (I take out my contacts to sleep) and put them on. There, all better!

This time, I went into the living room and it was still Christmas. I thought- 'I wonder if I have alot of dreams about Christmastime' My mom was there this time, under the tree wrapping presents. She said to me (jokingly) 'Better be good or I'll take another present away!' LOL I also noticed my mom appeared much younger than she is in real life.. like I was looking at an old photo.

I went back into the other rooms, and noticed some differences. My sister's room was the same, but filled with boxes and what appeared to be the tops of a couple of pine trees, except almost all green 'leaves' and very few branches. I went into the other bedroom and my dad and sister were in there. Sis looked like she does now, except not pregnant (in real life she is 34 weeks preggo). Dad appeared as he does now, but with a long fu-manchu instead of his normal mustache.

The room was filled with sacks, and Dad and sis were pulling fireworks out of them. Dad started telling me about how he was going to beat her in the firework contest, and started rattling off the names of all the fireworks he had bought and how he would win. It was pretty much nonsense, but his point was clear.. he would win!

At this point, I headed back into the other room, intent on doing some more discovery outside the house, but I woke up. For real this time. D'oh!

My recall isn't as good as it normally it because of the FA's, so probably more will come to me about the exploration of my house and conversations with my DCs. I'm still pumped about my first WILD tho, and I hope this will carry over to future attempts.

It was also interesting to note the subtle changes in the house from one LD to the next. They all happened in quick succession in the same house, but there were furniture rearrangements, and even slight differences in room sizes and walls from one LD to the next. I'm just getting started with dream mapping, but I am definitely intrigued.

Lucidity: 6/10
Vividness: 8/10
Length: ~10 Min.

I came out of this door and was greeted by some people. The scene was all dark and scary, with many creepy things along the way. Such as spiders. My dad, my brother, and some other people were there as well. This one guy said that I was in someone else's dream and was having a shared dream about regrets, so I went along with it and asked him "how often do you have these dreams?" He looked at me and said "all the time." I replied "Well, I'm not going into that door very often, then." Then I remember that we were in a flying car and I was waving at some people that I know and then I was at the beach, lying down. We traveled a little more until we came across the door that would get us out, I went through that door so fast, it would make your head spin.

I was sitting around with some friends, the place was strange, reminded me of a huge boardgame but we were all sitting around and talking. I barely remember the conversation, except that at the time it seemed fairly real. It's not very often I can just carry on a conversation in a dream and some of it make sense. Although, I don't remember what was said, I know I said something about how I feel when I listen to music. Then a couple of dream scenes later, I'm standing next to this radio and a new Puscifer song comes on, I assumed it was new, I had never heard it. It sounded pretty crazy, but I got into it and started to dance. That's when Maynard showed up, he saw me dancing and smiled at me. Then he came up to me and started doing this weird grind move on my leg. I joked about it later with him, something about not expecting him to come up and hump my leg.

Gahh, I know I have a slight obsession with Maynard, though, I'd prefer to use the word "fascination." I'm not screaming to fuck him or anything, I just would probably have a heart attack if I could just smoke a joint with this man. Anyway, I don't understand why he's been appearing in my dreams lately, not that I'm complaining, it's just I haven't really been listening to much of anything MJK lately. It's strange how our subconscious brings these images up, if only I had done a mantra last night. Oh well. I'm a happy dreamer lately.

[This is a catch-up post. These dreams are from the night of July 23-24, 2011.]

Awake, Non-lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I'm in [what I believe to be] the real-life hotel lobby where the hotel scenes from Inception were filmed. I'm appreciating how special it is to be here, in one of the filming locations for my favorite movie. [But totally failing to make the associative leap to the fact that I'm actually in a dream, myself. ] I even see Leonardo DiCaprio walk past. [*LOL* I fail at recognizing dreams...] I know that this building is located on the campus of a local private university. I look through a window and see a sign above the entrance to another building. The sign reads “(Some last name) Library.”

I proceed through the interior of the building I'm in to the entrance of somebody’s dorm. The dorm is themed to resemble ancient Barcelona, Spain. In the dining area, I meet up with a group of my friends from real life, including SS and SH [who I know from completely different social groups and who don't even know each other in real life, by the way]. They're all sitting at a table, eating, and I sit down and join them. It's a Mimi's Cafe table. Several of my friends order my favorite chicken and pasta dish, the one I always order when I'm at Mimi's. Sean has to leave the meal early because he has other plans, so I get to eat his chicken. (I've just sat down, so I haven't had a chance to order my own meal.) Our conversation over dinner is being filmed for TV, and we all know it. We all get separate checks at the end of the meal.

I wake up in my current room to light coming from under my sleep mask. I'm still sleepy, and I don't want to get up, but I get up in order to check the time. I check my watch, my cell phone, and my desk phone [from work], which is on my dresser. They all show the same time: it's 10:39 AM, which means I'm late for my pre-church-service choir practice. I think, It can't be that late already!, but I reason that if all three timepieces agree, then it must actually be that late. When I checked my cell phone, I saw the numbers in the hour field counting up from 2 to 10 at a rate of about 1 number per half-second, but now I rationalize this observation: It must only update the display to the current time when you pick it up and look at it.

I go out of my house, still wearing the clothes I was wearing on Friday. [I had this dream on a Saturday night/early Sunday morning, and I was wearing the outfit I actually had been wearing on the Friday immediately before in real life.] I'm going outside to take out the trash. “Outside” turns out to be a narrow parking lot that surrounds a shopping center. A mother calls to her daughter, Johana. I think, That's a pretty name.

I find a trash can at the outer edge , and empty my trash can into it. I catch a cold container of french fries as they fall from my trash can, and eat them, because I'm still running late for choir practice and don't have time for breakfast. I walk back home through one of the stores in the shopping center, past racks of CD and DVD cases.

...And then I woke up for real, and was pretty embarrassed. I realized that, indeed, it couldn't be that late in the morning already. If it had actually been time to get up, I would have heard the alarm on my cell phone go off, and I hadn't heard it yet.

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Side notes:

This was my first false awakening in my new room, at my new house. It was totally convincing, especially given the fact that I really am usually a few minutes late for a lot of things. The way I totally failed to catch it, even though my phone from my desk at work was in my room at home and the numbers on my cell phone were changing, just goes to show how strong our tendency to rationalize things is. However, on a more positive note, I had this highly convincing false awakening in my new room only two weeks after I had moved into it. I think this bodes well for my mental and emotional state. It may well mean that my unconscious mind has accepted the new room as the place where I'm supposed to be when I wake up, which is great.

I've been having incredible dreams lately. Too many details. To sum up last night's dream, which I swear lasted forever, even when I'd wake up. Tried MILD, but the dream was just too interesting. I was traveling a lot, I remember an angry juggalo. I was staying at several hotels with a group of people participating in some sort of contest tour. I spoke with Maynard at the beginning of the dream but I barely remember it. Seem to be having more dreams of him lately. There was a crazy looking snake that had hair on it's head, looked like a snake rockstar. Towards the end of the dream my friend A and I were gathering these pictures for something, they were all the same. Then she kept handing me these tops that had layers underneath. I kept taking out the bottom layers and I planned on keeping them. Then I realized I didn't need them and apologized. I don't know how my dreams have been so vivid lately, I don't know what I've been doing different except using mantras. It's pretty cool though. I love having interesting dreams, great escapes from reality.

Alien

Lately, the only fragments i remember are of impossible proportions. That's why i don't write these dreams down. When i wake up from this shit, i only remember something impossible and unexplainable happens. Somethings that aren't in the dictionairy. No point in writing it down.
It's like the shit is so complex as soon as i wake up i can't remember it because my mind would go overload.
Anyway this morning i remembered some vibes of the dream.

I am an alien in my dream. And i'm finding out things about humans. And i do impossible shit. I remember in this dream that i cut myself in slices. And becoming all those slices of myself or something weird. I feel like i'm doing shit that only salvia can do to you in these dreams.

Paragliding

... I'm walking in a forested area. It's dark and the moon shines dimly. I'm on a field trip or something. 60 or so people are walking in front of me. In pairs or families. Including my girl neighbour and her family. I'm with my parents. Everybody was wearing orange raincoats or something.

The whole area had a magical vibe to it. I think i recall candles are lit everywhere we walk.

We are at the top of a really high tower. Way above the clouds. Everybody jumped out of the tower with their paragliding things. Red . My parents go together before me. And i'm the very last to jump.

"Great! Everybody got instructions on how to use this thing and i'm just left here to handle it myself"
"How does this work?" I look and i find a button. Ah! That must be it. I jump!
As soon as i jumped i already pushed the button. The red paragliding thing comes out.
I'm gliding. So fast, this feels so good. I leaned too much down and i rocketed. I ask my parents how do u steer this thing. And my dad says ; "Just act like ur fucking!"
Oh yeah ofcourse! I lean backwards and steering is easy. I let myself feel the adrenaline and wind in my face. It feels so good. I understood now why you really need to do this first in order to know how it feels. It's just unexplainable if u haven't done it. Mid-air i'm keeping my eyes closed for some reason. Kinda scared i guess. I knew i was about to hit the grass. And i land. Blissfully.
Boy, that was fucking great!
Then my dad says our neighbour-girl said she didn't like it and said it was boring. I'm pissed! Boring?? wtf's wrong with the girl. I can't allow that.
I take my bow and arrow and i shoot towards her. Steady. Aim. Fire! I turn into the projectile arrow and i shoot myself into the sky. Flew a bunch of feet. My pointed head hitting the ground. And i wake up.

non-lucid
lucid
notes

I was leaving a convenience store with a drink, and I got into a truck with a few old friends. I was in the back (extended cab) with another guy, and there were two in the front seats also. As we pulled out of the parking lot, I saw that the 'road' ahead of us was not much of a road at all, but a mountainside with sheer drop-offs into water and extremely rocky terrain. My friend Joe, who was driving, decided to take us straight down into the worst of it.. prompting us all to grab on tightly to the handholds on the ceiling of the truck. What ensued was a crazy ride that had us all yelling and cussing- partly from excitement and partly from fear.

Then, rather suddenly, I was sitting in the truck- alone- out back behind my house. My close friends Luke and Jake (who are brothers) were outside, and a train was coming through my backyard. Now, there are train tracks very close to my house, but this was a separate set that was coming right through where the swimming pool should have been. They both pointed it out to me and asked "Isn't that odd?" At first, I rationalized it in the dream and told them that the railroad had recently added those tracks.. Then I realized that NONE of the old pool stuff was there, the deck, etc, like it was back to the way it was before the pool even went in. The thought occurred to me that "surely they weren't able to make it look like that stuff had never been here.. and so quickly.." That's when it hit me.. lucid!

I didn't even do my normal immediate RC, I just told them all that I was dreaming. I started to summon myself a flying mount (thanks to my cool experience with one in my last lucid). I spent a good bit of time experimenting with different mounts, and practiced resizing them (and resizing myself some too) to make them fit. I summoned a small dog, then made him big enough for me to ride. I also tried summoning a zebra, but it kept having a dog's head. I was having a hard time envisioning a zebra head, then I looked to the ground and saw little zebra-head plants everywhere (lol), which allowed me to shape the head properly.

During this time I also remembered to try eye drops, so I fished some out of my pocket (I always carry eye drops in my pocket anyway, so this was no dream magic or anything) and put them in. I didn't notice any immediate effect, but after a few minutes, the dream world did become much clearer and more vivid. I think this was probably all in my expectation. I have lamented the fact before that it takes eye drops a few minutes to actually clear my eyes in real life, so that's no doubt why it took awhile in the dream (I was acting on KingYoshi's suggestion to try eye drops in his dream control class).

Anyway, I finally crafted myself a gryphon (of sorts) to fly on, and I headed out to find the Dream World Academy (for real this time, not just get close to it like I have done twice before). I reached the canyon in which the Academy lay rather quickly, but as I got close, I felt myself being pulled down- as if I were having trouble maintaining my flight. I have had some issues with flying in my last couple of lucids (which is unusual for me), and I feared I was having trouble again. However, I looked back and noticed that there was actually *something* hanging onto my foot and pulling me down. I couldn't get a good look at it (I was riding a gryphon after all), but I kicked it loose and suddenly was flying smoothly again.

Almost immediately the forest canopy on the canyon floor (which had harbored the academy before) disappeared and the Academy was in full view! The architecture did not appear to be normal human construction. I was directly over the 'castle,' and was unable to see how tall it was or how the sides looked. It had 6 sides, but was not a regular hexagon. Instead, it was shaped like a triangle except that the 3 'points' of the triangle were actually straight lines, as if the 'points' had been flattened out. There were towers at each of these points, and the walls of the Academy were wide enough for several people to walk abreast freely between the towers.

The top of the Academy inside the walls was covered in a giant pool of sparkling blue water. I couldn't tell how deep the water was, but it covered the entire area inside the triangular walls. There were octagonal platforms scattered throughout the water, connected by a network of small footpaths. These platforms were COVERED with people, conversing with each other in some alien tongue (I say alien because it did not sound like any human language that I have ever heard), and generally busying about, conducting their work. The 'people' were also alien-looking.. light-blue skinned with intense and brightly colored eyes. Several seemed alarmed at my descent onto the Castle-top, and began speaking loudly and excitedly at me in that strange language. With their intense eyes and crazy words, they were a bit intimidating.

Finally, I noticed a large floor lift near one of the corner towers (it had a weird, angular shape. sort of octagonal but not exactly). I hopped on it, and it lowered me down into the bowels of the Academy. I walked off the lift, through a short sloping hallway with a semi-arched ceiling into what appeared to be some type of "control room," though I can't really say what the room was for. It was here that I finally saw humans, including a woman who appeared to be 'Mariel,' whom I had encountered on my previous search for the Academy.

At this point, I got so into the dream and what was around me that I began to lose lucidity. I felt woozy and laid down on a bench along the wall. Mariel began to stroke my back and reassure me that everything was OK. I lost all lucidity at this point, then quickly remembered myself and closed my eyes, relaxed, and opened them expecting to find myself in the same room. I did, but all the people there had changed from DCs that I had not recognized into people very familiar to me. Then.. WAAH WAHH WAAHH, my alarm went off and woke me up! d'oh!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After waking, I used the bathroom and went back to bed (the alarm was an early one that I intentionally set a few hours before I actually have to get up). I went back to sleep with the intention/expectation of having another lucid dream..

I found myself riding in a car with some younger kids that I didn't know. I got out my cell phone and one of them warned me about a new law that made it illegal to text in a car, even if you weren't driving. I said that was complete BS, but they insisted it was true. I am an attorney, so I asked them where they heard that and exactly what the law said. They handed me a flier, and I was reading it as I got out of the car and walked with them to a swimming pool where a party was going on.

I was looking around at the people at the party, and I noticed that Miley Cyrus was one of them.. I thought to myself.. "I don't know Miley Cyrus.. this is a dream!"

I was already at the pool, so I decided to try some crazy dives using my dream powers. I lept WAY up in the air and did at least 3 somersaults, planning on squeezing in at least 5 before splashdown.. Problem is.. I closed my eyes during the jump and the spinning motion caused me to lose the dream AND my lucidity. This seems strange now since dream spinning has worked to PROLONG LDs for me in the past, but that is what happened.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Next thing I knew, I was in a new (non-lucid) dream walking down some stairs, but I was holding the same pamphlet about the cell phone law that I was given earlier. I thought 'I was just having a lucid dream a few minutes ago, I wonder if I am dreaming now..' but that didn't stick and I kept walking- remaining in a non-lucid dream.

My phone rang, and the name said Andy Bargo.. I thought 'I don't know an Andy Bargo.. Oh, it must be one of the kids I met earlier in the car." I answered, and it was a different person- an older man that I knew was having some medical issues. He told me a story about insurance companies dicking him around, and asked if we had grounds to sue them. I was thinking that his story seemed pretty ridiculous, and then I remembered (for the second time) that I had been having an LD just a few minutes ago. This time, it DID hit me that I must be in another dream.

I told him he was crazy and I was dreaming, hung up the phone, and starting a convo with the nearest DC about how I was dreaming. He said that was cool, but seemed uninterested. I looked out and saw a pink and purple bicycle laying on it's side on the grass and levitated it. I asked him "Is that bike levitating for you?" He said "No, it's just sitting on the grass..." I started to run some other similar tests to see how he would react to my dream control, but alas, I woke up.

All in all, interesting night. First time I can remember that I had 3 distinct LDs in one night, although the 2nd two were much shorter than the first. I'm glad I finally found the Academy, but I definitely still have some work to do with stabilizing and allowing myself to get into the dream (i.e. play a role and use passive control) without losing lucidity. I can see how people chain LDs from this experience, as my memory of an earlier LD was instrumental in causing me to become lucid again.

05-08-11 I am in holland again, I am outside and I am sleeping, though I am partially awake. There is chatter in the background and I believe they wouldn't actually wake me up, due to me having specified having an interest in dreams and sleep.

I keep waking up and looking out down towards the garage. At one point Ant comes over, I hear him before I see him and he intends on waking me up in a rather funny, but unpleasant matter. He intends to pour a glass of pickled cucumber over my face.

As he approaches I look up and laugh a bit, he doesn't seem to want to stop so I look at him, still smiling and start making some physically impossible move and tell him to lay off or “there will be violence”.

He lays off and we decide to head out. We head towards a supermarket at first and I am quickly left behind. I think about Ida who is standing a bit ahead and I think it is fair enough she doesn't want me anyways, I have little interest in her anyways. However it does spark a hint of emotional discomfort though no way near as much as usual.

As I am climbing over the wall I look down and I see a blue beetle that is best described as a mixture of a lady bug and a LEGO Duplo piece, with legs. I hear Ruth shouting to the others “He is coming I have just seen him jump”.

I notice how gracefully I jump both down the wall and past a couple of people over a pool of water. I notice my dream sign that I am capable of parcour. I become lucid.

I start looking around and fly a bit. I am in a city that seems like a crossover between Århus and Amsterdam. The rest of the crew is in a warehouse on the top floor and when I see them I start flying up towards them.

On the way up there I decide to try out some spider man stuff instead and I procede to crawling up the wall. Close up the wall is mostly redish with a lot of black to gray texture in it. The way I am stuck to the wall is remarkable in the way that I don't seem stuck as such, but it feels like my hands and feet are magnetically attached to the wall.

I start thinking if there is somethng I am supposed to do. I have decided to give the confidence issues a bit of a rest and decide to go playful. What is the TotM. Get a DC to sing and go to the chocolate factory, right.

I let go and drop to street level. I burst out in song in order to get the rest of the many DCs on the street to join me. I think I am going with “Dangerzone” off top gun, but no one seems to join in except a guy from behind me across the street and he just shouts Danger!

That won't hold up and I get a bit annoyed.

I ask to ladies walking by if they want to sing for me, but they refuse.

I think at this point the dream starts to fade and I command it to come back verbally. Things go blank and as the dream comes back it feels like I have one eye open in waking life and one in the dream world. I have felt like this before though and this time I decide to just ignore it.

I command the dream to stabilize and between that and ignoring the open eye syndrome (Coined!). I get the dream back on track. I run into a tanned guy wearing a yellow sports T-shirt with a sports bag over his shoulder.

I ask him to sing for me, but he only looks at me briefly before he turns sround, take on an arrogant attitude and tells me that he won't. Now I am getting angry so I grab hold of him place my hands on both sides of his face and looks him in the eyes. I briefly think of vampire compulsion, glamour or whatever you want to call it and start talking to him.

He stares blankly at me.

“God damn, this is my dream and I am sick and tired of getting refused”
He reples with an astounding empty stare.
“Now you will sing to me!”
He starts singing “Happy birthday to you...”
“Yeah yeah that will do” It is boring and not my birthday, but task accomplished.
“Why do you need me to sing for you?” he asks
“Don't worry about it, you have done your part thank you”
“You keep information tight, don't you”
“As I said, this is a dream, so once you have been integrated with my consciousness again you will understand”

Now to the chocolate factory. I immediately think about doors. I have to find a door and expect the chocolate factory to be on the other side. It is getting darker, but I find a door inside a building and try and will the chocolate factory on the other side.

When I open the door I expect a portal to be there, though I only find a white canvas. I try it out and try and walk through it. It is difficult in particular my head doesn't really seem to be willing to. After a couple of minutes of faffing around inside a door that isn't a door the dream starts fading.

I pull the move I tried out before and when I come back in the dream again things have changed slightly. The scenery is darker and I am not sure what is going on. I am pretty sure I am dreaming, but I am uncertain so I pull a hand RC. Sure enough.

I was trying to open a portal to the chocolate factory, right onwards. I spot something that looks like a hotel up the road. I walk to it and prepare for the door to be a portal.

Now unfortunately the front door is made of glass, so it will be difficult imagining anything but the hotel I can see through the glass door. So I decide to walk through it and find another door I can try with.

As I open it there is no portal behind it, but a small passage way and a mirror at the end.

A mirror, that is interesting. That could be used as a portal, but first I observe my self reflection flicker in the mirror. It isn't like anything is missing, but my reflection is there one moment and gone the next flicking on and off.

I decide to hop through it and having learned from the first experience I go through head first. I manage to get my entire body fully through and then I just hover there. I start falling a bit and I figure that will work, never done portals before I don't know what to expect.

I keep falling and eventually looking up I see a door, I reach up for the handle and try and pull myself through, however I wake up just as I get the door open.
…

I am with some superhero crew. We are gathering some black obsidian bars, that are to be transformed into a single adamantium bar. I proclaim to someone that it is stupid to try and do that since adamantium can't be altered. I wonder if Stark can do it seeing as it is him collecting.

Notes: Third night in a row with a lucid. The technique of awakening from a night of dreaming, trying to recollect them and then go back to sleep seems to work wonders. Though I didn't have many dreams to recollect this morning the Obsidian/adamantium dream was fresher in my mind, but I have spent much time with my niece while writing down the dream, so memories have faded a bit.

Fragments
A van, some guys lasers and brown stuff. Like sand or something.

Kat Slater from EastEnders was arguing with Megan Fox on the Square.

My Mum made me some pie. It looked like cherry pie and it was kinda cartoony which led to this dream. She doesn't usually make pie.

I was in college and my friend was there and one of my least favourite friends was there.

Dream 1

I was somewhere in a forest or something and my mum was there and she had been kdnapped along with the families or friends and it was up to me and my squad to get them back (my squad had family members and friends in that group that they wanted to save) It kinda turned into Call Of Duty as I started shooting bad guys. I eventually found the people and then woke up.

Dream 2
A family was watching as a father and his sons entered the formers car.
I think they were high ranking people so the other family let them take there car. The Dad thought that the other family would damage his car when they got in but they were really careful. The odd thing was this family was white and I hadn't seen any of the before.

Side Notes

I was attempting Sleep Paralysis and I kind of got there. I felt my arms shutdown and my face went numb and it kinda felt weird as if someone's hand was on it. So I opened my eyes and nothing was there. I was ignoring the need to move and roll over into another position but I couldn't keep it up and moved.