task of the month

Unfortunately this dream was the night before the night before last night, and I'm just now writing it down, so I'm heavily depending on the little keywords I'd written that morning…

I'm in the woods behind my house and I see a little hole in the ground by a tree trunk. I crouch down and look into the hole and I see many snakes of different species inside, some moving slowly. I get very excited. A hibernation den! Now I can visit snakes even in the cold months and I'll have them all to myself! I don't reach in to hold any, though, because I don't know if that would be harmful for them to come out in such cold weather. ((The day before I was reading a reptiles/amphibians book of Indiana and it talked about snake hibernation dens, and I hoped that I could find one. So that's where that came from.))

So I walk away from the den and I find another, much smaller one, where I can only see one or two thick, rough-scaled green snakes, like emerald tree boas, though I don't remember if they had pits. As I crouch there near it, a wet, tiny one comes out, and I realize that it's actually some sort of hatchery/nursery. A big one comes out right after, and I'm afraid to move, because I'm afraid that the bigger snake will attack me since it would want to protect its young if it saw me as a threat ((for the record, in the waking world, I know that that's not how it works with snakes)). I move a little bit, and the bigger snake freezes and draws his head in a little, while the baby retreats back into the den. Hesitantly, I stand up to walk away, and the bigger one also goes back into the den. I am relieved.

At some other point, I'm in the living room and I jump up and bend my elbows so that my hands are near my shoulders, and I flap my hands quickly. This causes me to hover, or difficultly fly a bit. I fly around the living room a bit, but that's all I remember from that scene. I think my grandmother might have been there at some point.

At some other time, I'm walking down the street to get to "the end of town", which were the directions which we had given to someone else. The end of town was apparently barren except for a few people living in poverty, with lots of dirt/mud smeared on the road and sidewalk. My Mom was ranting about how we had told someone to go to "the end of town" but we didn't tell them which end to go to, and now they had gone to this one, and now they won't want to go to the right "end of town". After this, we're walking back and a news man comes to interview me, holding both the microphone and the camera. He asks something that I don't remember, and I hop along while flapping my hands so the hops are big and drawn-out, like I'm on the moon or something. I say something sarcastic to him and refuse to answer his questions seriously.

At some other point, I'm standing in a room with a model wooden ship and a man. Out of habit, I do a reality check, and realize that I'm actually dreaming. Remembering the task of the month, I look at the man and say, "who's my soul mate?" He hesitates for a moment, and, disappointed, I think that he won't answer. Then he looks at me and says, "you should sell all your plates." I'm amused, and I don't ask him further. I walk past him to examine the model ship, reminding myself that Im' lucid. However, next, something happens which I don't quite remember, which is so interesting and engrossing that I forget to remind myself that I'm lucid, and I fall back into a regular dream.

At some other point, I go downstairs in this house to find three rooms: a bedroom with a desk, a living/game room with a couch and a TV, and another room with more games and another bed. The living room/game room are connected with different carpet, but no walls or doors. The first bedroom is closed off with a door. Inside the bedroom I find a snake, rough-scaled, with dark green and blue stripes. He's hanging from a stand that you'd give a parrot to perch on. I pick him up and say, "aww" and "you're such a baby" and the like. However, next, I have to put the snake back because my mom calls down from the stairs and says that she's about to show some people around the house, and if I don't lock every door and window before they get to the basement, then she will proceed to show them around, even though I am naked. I frantically go to lock and close doors and windows, and there are suddenly more doors and rooms than there used to be. I managed to lock nearly all the doors, but there is one room that I don't get to in time, so I have to go close the door and lock it while my parents and their friends are in the room. They all stare at me awkwardly while I go in, naked, to close the door. Later, I've locked every door, and, I thought, every window, but my mom leans in through the top of a window to say that I hadn't locked the upper third of that window, because apparently that window folds open and closed and requires three locks.

At some other point, I'm flying through a jungle in the treetops, flying the same way as before. I see some cool snakes, and I get scared by some creepy bugs, and I'm trying to get over the tops of the trees, and at the very top of the trees I find some dopey, fat caterpillars with yellow underbellies and green(?) tops, and they cheer when I go past them above the trees, and they rejoice, saying something like, "finally! a person who's as pathetic as us! Friend!"

At some other point, I'm standing on the top of a tall building, with another man in front of me. Out of habit, I do a reality check, and, again, realize that I'm lucid. Since the last time was sort of unsatisfactory, I ask again who my soul mate is. The man, the only one in the vicinity, looks at me and says, "that guy" without pointing or otherwise indicating who "that guy" might be. Giving up, I jump off the building and try to fly just by thinking about it, but it isn't working, so I flap my arms (my whole arm, like a bird, not just the hands, as it had been when I wasn't lucid) and go higher and higher, and I try to shape shift into an eagle or something, but it isn't really working, and either I fall back into a regular, non-lucid dream, or I wake up. I can't remember.

My memory of the dream begins when I was walking to my garage when I realized I was dreaming. I managed to stabilize , which is usually a problem for me, then decided to try out a couple things I've never done in a dream.
I've always wanted to see what my reflection looked like in the mirror, so I walked into my bathroom where there was a large one. As I walked in, I saw a large orange spot on a contorted face in the mirror where my face should be, so I immediately got out and went back in to try again. This time, my face was normal, but it was hard to see so I moved a little closer. As I did, the mirror started pushing me away! I was rather flustered; it really wasn't something I was expecting. It was like I was fighting against an invisible magnetic force, but eventually I got close enough to see my face clearly. It looked absolutely normal. And when I reached out to touch the mirror, I felt nothing but the cool glass under my fingers. So that was anti-climatic.
After that, I decided to try the task of the month. I decided I'd need people around to try either giving my heart to someone or asking who my true love was, so I decided I wanted to go to my school. But I had no idea how to do it. I tried walking to my bedroom, closing the door and willing my school to be behind it, but when I opened it I saw nothing but the room that was already there. The dream went black soon after that and I woke up.
In hindsight, I really should have fought harder to get through the mirror, because that's something I've wanted to do for a while. I also should've continued into the garage after that; I saw an unusual amount of light coming through from behind it, and for all I know my school was behind it as I was planning on becoming lucid and going there the night before. Also, if there was just my neighborhood or the garage behind it, I could have easily just flown to school which is just 5 minutes away.

10:30 pm
Last night I listened to this to try out dream yoga. I knew it would be better if I tried to do it in the middle of the night, but I couldn't sleep and I wanted to try it out. It was super relaxing and I fell asleep probably less than half way into it.

2:15 am
I woke up to find that the video was still up on my ipad because I didn't turn it off. This got me thinking about LDing again and I had a DILD.

The dream began with me and a girl walking down a hallway of a school. She asked me if I was pregnant (this is one of my dream signs because I always have really strange dreams where I am pregnant) so I knew that I was dreaming right away!

I was excited to explore the dream environment so I ran down the hallway with the girl. My vision was clear at first, but it began to become very blurry. I stopped to look at my hands and I asked the girl to wait for me. She turned around and said, "not a chance." Anyways, I looked at my hands and that improved my vision. I went on exploring the school looking for a DC because I wanted to complete a TOTM. I came across a room full of people and I nicely asked a girl who my soul mate was. She was furious. She got in my face and said, "YOU THINK THAT I WOULD KNOW WHO YOU'RE SOUL MATE IS? NO. I DON'T. ALL I KNOW IS THAT YOU SLEPT WITH MY BOYFRIEND." This was not the response I was looking for haha so I walked away. (These DCs really weren't fond of me ) I left the school and outside of it there was a neighborhood. I wanted to change my surroundings so I laying down on the ground, closed my eyes, and expected to wake up on a beach.

Instead, I woke up the lawn of my own house. Sometime after this I lost lucidity because I actually thought that I had woken up on my lawn.

First time I successfully used DEILD! One thing I use sometimes when I'm having a dry spell is to review and old list of lucid dream goals, and one of mine was to visit Venice.

I'm not quite awake after the last dream ends when I decide I want to go for it and return to the dream. Instead of the restaurant I was dreaming of, I'm now walking through very deep snow headed towards a small building with white siding. It looks like a church. Outside the door, there's a man waiting for me. He's wearing a red sweater, his dark hair is cropped and he has a round face. There's something about the way he looks at me that makes me uncomfortable. He asks, "So, how have you been taking care of yourself?" It feels intrusive. I look down at the snow and wonder why I'm even here.

I try spinning and find myself in the upstairs hallway of my house, where the paint colors seem a bit more vibrant than I remember. Unfortunately, Creepy Sweater Man seems to have followed me home. I head downstairs and he follows me -- oooh, wait, those are really cool shoes sitting on the floor by the front door. Are those mine? I pick up one of them. It's a black wedge sneaker with all these metallic accents. I trace one of the metal pieces as I listen to Creepy Sweater Man trying to get my attention. Then I cut him off to ask a question: "Who is my soul mate?"

Without any hesitation, he answers, "Gerard Butler."

"I don't even know who that is! I've never seen any of his movies," I reply. I can't even picture what the guy looks like, and I get a little upset.This is not exactly the answer I was hoping for.

Creepy Sweater shrugs. "I really don't know anything. I just took a guess," he says.

The scene shifts, and now I find myself in a partially lit room full of pottery, and I'm holding a pair of vases. At least Creepy Sweater Man is gone. I'm right near a window, and when I look outside, I see that I am in Venice. I've always wanted to come here! I can see a canal just outside this building, and I race downstairs to get closer to the water. I come out onto a balcony that is about four feet above the canal. It has the feel of being in a video game where you have to navigate three dimensional levels on a 2D screen. I see a gondola waiting on the canal and I worry about how to get there, but then a ladder appears that allows me to climb down.

Once I'm in the gondola, the gondolier sets off and starts to sing "O Sole Mio." It's a song I usually enjoy, but today I'm a little impatient. I cut him off and ask, "Who is my soul mate?"

"The gentleman waiting at the bridge, he is your soul mate. You will see him soon," says the gondolier. I'm thinking that he means the famous Bridge of Sighs. I wonder how I'm going to meet someone there because there's no access to the bridge from the canal. As if the gondolier is reading my mind, he instead takes me to the Rialto Bridge.

I don't even remember getting out of the gondola as I'm in such a hurry to get on the bridge. As I'm climbing up the bridge, I can see Benedict Cumberbatch (an actor that I am very familiar with) waiting at the top. When I get to him, I ask, "Do you know who my soul mate is?"

He looks a little surprised by my question. "Darling, it's me," he answers before leaning over to kiss me. I'm so overwhelmed that I wake up.

Feb 10-11 2014 (Lucid)

The Chronicle Dream
* *I had a dream about the movie chronicle. I was a character with super powers alongside about 2 or 3 other friends and we were in a warehouse hiding from people looking for us.

Space, Summoning, Dragon Dogs, TotM's, and Reviving Zombies (Lucid)
*This lucid was very long, and several times I woke up but went back into the dream through DEILD technique. It was also hard to recall absolutely everything I did just due to the sheer length and detail of the dream*
* *Realized I was lucid. I knew I wanted to get to space, and an elevator was probably my best bet. I scan my surroundings and see some large skyscrapers in the distance, and knew they had to have elevators. I run over to them, crossing streets, sidewalks, and train tracks to get there. I stop at the nearest one, figuring I can figure it out with this one. I go around the side of the building and see 2 elevators in a section of the wall. I went to the elevator, and pressed the "up" button on it to call the elevator. It opened immediately so I stepped inside.
* *It was a fairly deep elevator, but the buttons were to my left just on the wall. I noticed there were only about 10 buttons and thought to myself that wouldn't work, so I waved my hand over the buttons to add more and a few more popped up. I wanted more so I did it again, but this time many disappeared. I do it one last time and a whole bunch appear, and I figured it was enough. I notice the text on the buttons keeps changing and the numbers are not consistent. Either way, I choose a high up button, and the elevator starts moving up.
* *It arrives fairly quickly on a high floor and I step out. I'm reminded of being in the John Hancock tower in Chicago as people were eating and just sitting around there looking out of the big windows. Looking out of the windows myself, I notice it was sunny in the sky with clouds extending forever in every direction. I start to be disappointed, but tell myself I can work with it. I remember techniques from DV to kind of trick your memory and what not so I decide to try it here. I told myself that we really were in space and what the windows were showing were just holograms chosen by the people inside. One of the hostesses kind of agreed with me and soon bright nebulae started to form in the sky. Giant twirling mushroom like things, large wormlike colorful nebula clouds, and other incredible sights starting passing by.

* *I decide to try a few other things while I'm in the building. I thought about doing some task of the month while I was at it, but had trouble remembering them. I get slightly angry since I helped partly come up with some of the tasks, but then remember the soulmate task. I asked who my soulmate was to a girl nearby, but I forgot what she said! I know she didn't specify a name and said something along the lines of I didn't need one, but I can't fully remember.
* *I also decide to try to summon a celebrity. I start thinking of female celebrities that I like, and Taylor Swift comes to mind, then Selena Gomez. I decide to summon Selena Gomez. A technique comes to mind from DV where I stick my hand behind me and then believe they'll grab it and then pull them into view. So I thrust my hand backwards and kind of say "come on up here" trying to beckon her into existence. I feel my hand get grabbed by another, and pull the person forward and, sure enough, Selena Gomez is the one attached to my hand. I'm ecstatic. We head over to a couch to sit down and talk, but I don't think much is actually said.
* *I also remember the task to dig your heart out and give it to someone. I knew there were plenty of DCs around to give my heart to, so I just started trying to dig my fingers through my chest. I'm normally able to phase through walls fine, but my fingers just did not want to penetrate my chest. After trying a little longer, I decide I'll try it later with another way of doing it.
* *At some point later in the same dream I'm just outside the building, back on the ground. I remember I want to ride a dragon, so I start calling out for dragons. I think of Eragon and how he calls out with his mind, so I yell out for Eragon's dragon, Saphira, with my mind as loud as I can. Doing so, I notice far in the distance two dragon are climbing all over a large building, and I call out to it with my mind. It reacts and starts flying over to me. When it lands I notice it's some sort of dragon hybrid with the body of a very large Rottweiler dog, and the wings of a dragon. I think it's perfect and it lets me on it's back. It takes off and we go a bit in the air, and it decides to land after just a little bit. When it lands it actually falls over and I kind of hop off. I notice it's a lot smaller than when I first saw it, especially the wings. It told me it wasn't used to being ridden, but I thought that was off since he's mine, and should be used to being ridden.
* *Later I remembered the task of reviving a zombie. So I start looking around for a zombie, and notice that my DCs seem to have all pretty much disappeared. I reach this small wooden cabin, when I see this figure in ice at the edge of the porch. Realizing this is the zombie I was looking for, I run up to it, and think of ways to thaw it. I decide to just use hot breath to melt the head portion and free it's face first. So I tilt it on the ground and start exhaling all over the face. It's slow at first, but soon it just all sorta melts away.
* *I notice immediately that the zombie trapped inside is my co-worker I, but with a green face. I think that it is weird she was the one my brain picked to be infected, and also weird how it's not a very gory face, just green. She notices me and scowls, and starts trying to break free from her icy prison. I realize I can score bonus points here by reviving with a kiss, so I swoop down and kiss her for a brief second.
* *When I stop I notice the ice has all melted and she is back to normal, although looks offended that I kissed her without her permission, and then she walks away. I think oh well, at least I accomplished the task.
* *Later in the same dream I created a whirlpool. I was in a boat and we were just headed somewhere. I think it'd be cool to just create a whirlpool, so I think about it, and the boat starts turning right, and the waves get more rough. I realize I'm creating it the wrong way and won't get to see it since I'm looking out the left side, so I somehow just flip the direction of the whirlpool and I see the center start forming out in the distance.
* *I wonder what things I'll see when we go down the center, but am interrupted by attacks from whale/narwhal creatures. Our boat is fighting back, but knowing it's a dream, I just kinda fling them back and forth with my mind, but it's not doing much good. It's now stormy and rainy out and I wonder how much control I actually have at that point, then I wake up and can't get back in.

2/10/14 Excited and carefree witnessing the end of the world. Exhilirating non-lucid turned lucid (dild)..."overjoyed!!?" is what I wrote in my bedside journal.- It might have been influenced by day residue of seeing a listing for the movie Melancholia in my on screen guide over the weekend and recalling the movie of which I had seen parts of (featuring a glowingly beautiful and bare Kirsten Dunst in one scene). I guess I need to go back and watch the whole movie. Very unusual awakenings tonight either due to an unusual (for me) and more extensive pre-sleep/in bed/closed eye review of recent dream signs, day recall, and some mantras and visualization of diving off a cliff softly onto a beach and floating back up, repeat. Unusual awakening #1 was after only 1 hour of sleep and directly from a non lucid dream. I don't remember waking up that quickly after going to bed anytime at least in the last year. Unusual awakening #2 was 40 minutes later (perhaps end of normal 90 minute cycle with some interruption time in between making it approximately 100 minutes from going to bed.)

Earliest possible part of dream was in a version of my office where I always seem to be coming back from training sessions and SC (who I haven't seen in a long time) was in a cubicle nearby and I could hear her leaving me a voicemail (could hear by way of the sound travelling from her mouth a short distance across the room). Possible transition or new dream to a group setting perhaps in a conference room with families present and someone hands me a camera asking me to take pictures of everyone. I see two cute babies across on the far side of the room and zoom in on them and snap a shot but the baby on the left's head disappears. I think "what?" but my mind fills in an explanation "ah, the baby tilted her head behind the other baby's head...there it is now" (or very similar thought). Moments later, while looking at the front of the camera it accidentally takes a picture and I look at the screen and it features a woman in the room looking provocatively towards the camera and her dress is purposely revealing in more ways than one. This scene somehow transitions to a large group walking outside at night time. The provocateur is there with her boyfriend and my wife just in front of me. The provocateur walks close to me and then in front of me as if she wants me to check her out and I grab her from behind in a flirty way but then move to my wife and grab her from behind in a loving way. I can hear someone talking about how some planet (or other celestial object) is crashing into Earth and I am looking into the sky. Everyone starts running but my wife and I seem to have no fear more like a joyful running through this field and there are flashes in the sky, beautiful flashes and I realize that I am definitely dreaming. My wife says something like "lets make love one last time" and we are now running in a different direction from the group deep into the field for privacy I assume. I remember the TOTM (true love) but I think I said it wrong or she heard me wrong and she answered "It is to give others what you can not." I remember thinking that perhaps she meant "give what you think you are not able to give." I woke up shortly after and just had to write it down before trying to re-enter that dream or any dreams. The most memorable part for me was running through that field and looking up at the sky lighting up...breath-taking! Afterwards I managed to get various dreamlets of 2 to 10 seconds in length, some of which I found fascinating at the time but eventually had to get up. 105

Got lucid at the very end of a dream 2/8/14 but decided not to count it. It involved my computer acting strange (dild) but my awareness was low as it had been recently until this morning.

Date: 06 Feb

Wbtb: 1/3 latte

I have a number of short lds that I chain through the void. Summary

LD: In my old room, stabilize by touching furniture. Notice that lamps are on. Find a newspaper I try to read with difficulty for a while. The lamps go off, I become blind and then the dream blacks to the void. I stay there for a bit, waiting for the next dream.

LD: In a car, get out of the car, notice my reflection in the windows. Hair is the same, but it gets in my face, I make a ponytail. I want to change the scene, try splitting the space, I feel another place, but nothing visually changes. I get bored, allow myself to fall back. This yields a number of sensations as well as weightlessness. The dream fades to the void. I wait for the next scene.

LD: I find myself in a nice hotel lobby, bright flowers decorate the place. Some guest DCs, a monk at the distance catches my attention, I go to check it out. The monk is gone but a few DCs are paying their respect to a metal statue. I have some mischievous thoughts, but bow down instead. There are two more statues (not in service), metal turtles. The dream fades to black, I stay still for DEILD but it takes a while.

Review in head, feeling tired, I fall asleep.

DILD+: on and off lucidity, FA, in- dream wild and sexy time

DILD: I find myself in this familiar place and start looking at the plants near the windows, try some tk on them, but it doesn't work. I think maybe there's a reason for this. Then I turn to examine the room, everything looks kind of blurry and unstable. My attention is caught by those lamps - three lamps, I try to identify if they come from a memory or just random ones, it's like my vision almost splits in two and there is a fourth lamp, but I try to focus more and they're back to three. I mentally make a note of the bad quality, then go down the stairs. I immediately regret doing so, because I run into the B6 DC and she charges at me. At this moment, I become quite concerned that this might truly be some sort of evil entity just using her form to terrorize me. It's just too active, so lively in the eyes and so aggressive. I have no choice but to face her. I think I say a few words, but her mood remains the same. Then I decide this is a good opportunity to do my breathing and concentrate on that. I do this for a while. In the meantime, she seems to have changed her mind about attacking me and is weeping.

Memory gap, possibly another blackout.

DILD: On the street now and I see this empty space in the horizon and recall I wanted to use something like this to draw a mountain. A bit uncerain if the dream will last long enough, with all the blackouts and instability before. I decide to go ahead with the summoning, yet before I do any motions with my hands I notice that the space isn't quite empty. It looks like in the very distance, as if seeing through the fog is something that looks like a large mountain. As I keep staring at it, it becomes much clearer and closer, till I find myself looking at a solid spot of the mountain covered with grass. The surroundings have changed without me noticing and I am at the foot of this huge mountain. I cover the majority of it with snow until I feel it's enough for the task. Then I examine the slope, which is initially way too steep to enable any upward movements. This worries me but I move to a part of it and feeling very excited summon a pair of ski and ski poles.

I totally can't believe the summon worked as I have nothing to do with this sport. Anyways, I start gliding up the slope, which by then is less steeper. Contrary to my expectations from real life, this is not as hard and actually pretty pleasurable. I glide upwards the slope which goes up and down and it feels as if I am on a roller coaster. Then I reach the top of the mountain and feel adventurous, contemplate on jumping from the top or skiing down. Yet before I can decide what to do, the momentum carries me forward and I continue moving in the air. I notice that I feel no switch in sensations from gliding on the mountain surface to this weird air movement. My mood is great, I gaze to what's ahead and not below me. It is a beautiful view of green plains, with a weird building with one-two statues in the distance and a very large gray palace next to it.

At this time it clicks this could so well be the palace I wanted to summon (while reviewing tasks during wbtb). I'm still skeptic that will be able to make it and complete the entire task but give it a go. Don't remember flying for a long distance, it's like the palace became closer as I started to focus on the steps of the task. I go in what looks like museum palace lobby, there's some thematic furniture, long red carpet or velvet curtains, don't pay too much attention to them. I immediately think dad. That's actually quite easy and there he stands in one of the side corridors. I say a few words to him, to mentally confirm this is going the way it has to be. Then start looking for the beast but there is no one in sight.

The room I'm in is pretty small and there are stairs going down and I go to the lower floor, looking for the beast. I run into an old Chinese man that I try to make look scary but no matter how much effort I put into this, he stays the same. I obviously start making scary faces and roar in an attempt to distort his features into evil ones, but he looks scared as hell and is shivering. I can't believe my DC is afraid of me and where is that beast? A couple of DCs that I don't pay much attention to appear and there it is - a disgusting beast. It looks like one H. Bosch's animals - a mixture of different animals, like a large pink pig and echidna, strange fur and the nose of a mole. It also is spitting something poisonous from its month and hissing. I so much regret not being able to summon my much now friendly looking lion man at this point.

Disgusted, I approach the wild creature, tell him I love him (it) and kiss it near what looks like its mouth. I remain with my eyes closed and wait a bit, but can still feel this thing aggressively making breathing noises and moving around. I know the curse has to be broken but nothing happens, and I can't take the little bugger any more. It's somewhat smaller now - the size of a cat maybe and I throw it away where it gets under some furniture. That thing keeps making the sounds, but looks wounded and in the next moment I see that it gives existence to a DC that comes out from under the furniture. To my amusement, it is a female classmate. Good enough I suppose. The dream soon fades.

I recognized a dream-sign, which had only shown up once before and got luucid again last night!
Compared to two days of doing nothing before - I had done maybe 5 RCs in the day and matraed a bit going to bed, and when I naturally woke up and went back to sleep.

Again I dreamt of digging a bit into the ground for some reason, and finding lots of different finger rings.
I had dreamt exactly that some weeks before, and so remembering that - I got lucid from it.
No need to RC - I was instantly convinced.

And the dream was really vivid and realistic - I didn't want to change something and risk loosing quality.
But I made a small pause to recollect what all I had planned for an LD - checked if I know exactly what is the case and engaged all my senses - which worked very nicely.
Usually it doesn't and I sometimes lost lucidity hunting down dream-senses - not this time.

For taste I licked a tree, since my dream-teeth wouldn't let my take a bite - or the tree was very resilient.
It tasted salty.
What I kept doing throughout was hand-rubbing and touching things.

It was a really beautiful landscape - much better than I usually LD together - a bit fairy-taly - but nothing completely mad.
There were plants, like they don't exist - with interestingly shaped leaves and white and violet flowers.
Beautiful weather and a deep blue sky with some fluffy white clouds - sun shining and giving a fine warmth, like spring.

I walked about and then hovered.
Doing experiments with the hovering - getting up was instantaneous - but for the first time I really played with it - direct the height, fly in hover mode in such and such a height and such and such a speed.

I had to practise a bit but got it down real nicely - except for getting an impression of long distance and high speed, where other forms of flight might fit better - I think, I will be a hover-fan now!

I did remember darts - but was worried to destroy the beauty of this fairy-tale landscape and get something less enticing.
So I thought - lets at least do a basic TOTM, when I cam to a little valley with two houses.
Also fantastic looking - the one I entered had a door which consisted of very intricate webbing of branches into patterns - looked great.

So I went in in the expectation to find a DC for asking the question.
That seemed nicer than summoning dog-food.

A woman in her fifties, very good looking with black hair and a red dress and some strange jewellery was behind the bar - it was a pub or café of some sort inside.
So I sat down on a bar stool and asked her, who my true love would be.
She got a conspirational look on her face, took out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down a sentence - one word per line.
And I couldn't read it - the letters were clear and I could read it as in read it out loud, but didn't understand it. So I asked what it means - and she said, it would be in a language, I was yet to learn.
A mix of Latin and something else. It became apparent then, that there was indeed Latin shining through the words.
She said - once I learn that other language - I would know the answer, too.


Forgot to mention - I looked into a mirror too - and I looked like I am supposed to look - just that I have a new short haircut and not in that reflection. But I didn't notice that.

I'm aware T. is going to rob my home and kill me tonight, as if I'd seen the future. I took some steps in preparation for that, but I believed that what is going to happen can't be averted. However, it turns out I'd misinterpreted something: while T. really was robbing the place, the killer turns out to be someone else, a stranger who broke in with a knife. T. and some other people who live here help fight him off. We get to the scene I knew was coming, when the knife's supposed to cut deeply into my shoulder and stop just above my heart, and I wonder if I'll be able to feel pain in a dream. I decide to have the scene go a different way instead, I close my eyes and imagine that T. and the others hold him back enough that the knife turns aside. When I open my eyes again, the stranger is on the floor, dead.

I decide to perform "Deedlit's healing spell." (It's been years since I watched Lodoss - did Deedlit even have a healing spell? - I think this was mostly some generic mental association between elves and healing.) I say something I no longer remember, a phrase in English something like a prayer, and there's a warm gold glowing light around my hands, which I hold over the dead man until he revives, though he remains quietly on the floor. I then repeat the spell with the others in the room, although they don't seem to have any wounds, and they're surprised but appreciate it. I leave the room and go to heal my IRL sister L., who in the dream lives next door, waking her up in the process. I then go down the hall to find T. again and heal him too.

Me and T. talk for a while, and as he talks his appearance changes. He walks into the kitchen briefly and when he comes back, he's become a different person entirely, and he's joined by another man. They both claim to know me and to have been looking for me for a long time, although they call me by two different names. The one who wasn't T. speaks with a heavy Scottish accent and calls me Jack. As I'm speaking to them, I remember that while I'm lucid, I had some things I wanted to get done, and I try to remember what those were. I decide it was the Task of the Month. (Apparently reading the TOTM thread last night was enough to overrule my personal lucid goals.) I remember that the Task was to ask a DC who your true love or soulmate is, so I ask these guys, who's my true love? They both go silent and look extremely uncomfortable, like that's a question I shouldn't ask. I tell them any answer is fine, it's just a task, and I try phrasing it with 'soulmate' instead, but that doesn't get a better response. I feel like their belief that they knew me a long time ago is affecting this, that it's part of what makes this a question they don't want to answer, so I decide to go outside and find someone else to ask.

Outside my IRL home, I'm appreciating how vivid it is. There's a chill in the air, a nicely realistic touch, and there's no snow on the ground, which is a great change. I walk off the driveway and onto the main road, and for some reason I feel like that's an important dividing line, particularly when lucid. My attention is caught by a squirrel across the road standing on its front legs, craning its neck to look up at the sky; and then by the body of a dead deer at the 3-way crossroads. I believe (incorrectly) that this dead deer is always here at the crossroads when I dream, and I think about going over to talk to it, but on second thought the idea makes me a little uncomfortable - I think it'll follow me home. Better not. There's a rock just beside my driveway with some words carved into it, and I start to go over to read it, but a car drives by. I stop it and walk over to the driver, ask her who my true love is. Again, she goes silent and gives me the impression that this is a question I shouldn't ask. I decide to go for a ride, and I climb into the car through the window.

Inside the car, the woman I spoke to isn't the driver at all, she's a passenger. There's six women in the car, all of them working in the fashion industry or as models, and with the exception of the woman I'd spoken to and the driver, the rest of them resent someone who's not part of the industry hitching a ride. No one except the driver knows where they're going - it's a surprise. The driver's name is Audrey, she's someone big in the fashion industry, wearing large dark sunglasses. I ask Audrey who my true love is, and as an answer, she produces a piece of lined paper with something written on it, crumples it up, and throws it out the window. She's not throwing it away - she means for me to reach out my window and catch it. I'm too slow, I just miss it. But I decide - no, I didn't miss it. I caught it. I announce out loud, "Got it!" I 'remember' the feel of catching it, and then I draw my hand back inside the car. No good, my hand's empty. The women in the car look at me oddly for claiming to have caught the paper when I hadn't. I try the hand-behind-the-back summoning trick, but still nothing.

Since I keep failing to get an answer to this question, I decide I'll switch to a different Task of the Month. For some reason I believe that the other basic task is to kiss a DC. I stop to think about that for a minute, since I'm sure that can't be right, that's too basic, but then I decide it's meant as something simple to stick with a Valentine's Day theme. (Was I mixing it up with the kiss-a-zombie one? I had just raised someone from the dead, shame I didn't follow up on that. ) Although I'm not sure how I got here, I'm now following Audrey into an elevator with one of the other women from the car. I ask Audrey if I can kiss her, and she says sure. I can't remember what happened after that, but next thing I remember we're leaving the elevator and I'm thinking that didn't work. We're now standing in a large room with a mirror and a couch, and I ask the other woman, a slightly chubby, very beautiful blonde, if I can kiss her. She says okay. We're standing in front of the mirror, and I'm surprised to see the mirror's actually reflecting her and the room we're in (though not me, as usual), and her reflection looks exactly like her, although it's watching us instead of mirroring her actions. I lean in to kiss her and close my eyes, but perhaps because I was distracted by the mirror, I find I've wound up kissing her reflection instead, through the glass. I move us away from the mirror, focus on the feeling of her shoulder under my hand, and try again. I'm too focused on comparing this to real life and trying to improve the realism to enjoy it much - the feeling of her lips themselves is accurate, but that's about it. I'm thinking that this sort of thing really doesn't translate to dreams well, and I should focus on doing things that aren't possible IRL. So I remember the 'other' (actual) task of the month: I step back and ask her if she knows who my true love is. Again, she seems uncomfortable with the question and doesn't answer. Then I think that asking someone you've just kissed to tell you about your true love may be a little tactless.

There's a cat by the mirror now, yowling. Two people who work here rush over to it to try to get it to be quiet. On the other side of the room, there's a whole row of mirrors and a hairdresser standing in front of them, talking about originality or lack thereof in fashion shows. I lose lucidity and follow him, listening to him for a few moments before I wake up.

Feb 2-3 2014

Zombie Revival Potion (Lucid)
* *I noticed an inconsistency in my room and became lucid. I stabilized and thought about what to do. I debated on either the task of the month and the year, then remembered the zombie revival task and went about for that task. I thought about ways to revive a zombie and realized I can just make a potion and that should work. I went and filled up a potion in a spray bottle from my sink, and the liquid was pink so I figured I was good without any extra ingredients. I headed outside through the front door to look for one but right when I about hit my street, I woke up. I tried DEILDing back in, but it wasn't happening.

Flesh Eating Zombies
* *I had a scary dream about zombie like creatures. But they weren't totally typical. They didn't care about anything other than eating humans. I was with my sister M and then a friend of hers at the house and when I realize there are a bunch outside. I immediately run inside to hide, and they basically give up looking for me the moment I'm out of sight.
* *At one point my older sister E says she'll distract them so we can either escape or figure out a plan, and she just runs for it and they run after her. I'm really distressed about her doing that so I run to my room (going outside first and then through my window) to look for my machete (which I don't really have) in my closet, but have trouble finding it. I see my airsoft guns, but know they won't do much damage. I eventually wake up while looking.

I was non lucid, shopping around with my mom, and Brian from work. He sold 2 of his lamps that I wanted to a member on DV in the dream, on a side note. Anyway, in the car on the way back from the store, a dream sign that I can't freaking recall, was kinda tickling my mind. I remember looking out the car window thinking about it, wondering if I was lucid. The dream was so boring and uninteresting at this point, that first I convinced myself that it was real life. Then something snapped in my brain and I realized I WAS in fact dreaming. Wish I could remember what it was.

Anyway, I asked mom to slow down the car. It took a while for her to stop, which annoyed me. I even closed my eyes for some reason. I felt the car stop, then I opened my eyes and we were parked in a garage of some house. I got out and went inside, and mom and Brian followed me. All 3 of us were in the livingroom, which only had a large mirror and curtains, and wasn't very well lit. Told you I wanted those lamps BRIAN. I was frantically trying to remember the basic tasks, but I couldn't. I asked mom and Brian, they shrugged. I even pondered for a moment if I would have luck getting on DV on my phone in a lucid lol. But no use, the only task I could remember was the one I didn't really want to do: take out my heart and give it to a DC. I stood in front of the mirror, and I was wearing a red, lowcut shirt. I just stuck my thumb and first 2 fingers into the flesh just above my heart, and pushed. I didn't actually break the skin, just my fingers were phasing through the layers of skin, fat, muscle and bone, just above my left boob. It didn't hurt and there was no blood (which is customary in these types of LDs for me). After a few inches, I felt a medium sized organ, which felt appropriately shaped like a human heart. It was warm, and gooey, and suspended in warm goo. I gently wrapped my thumb and fingers around it, and slowly pulled it out of my chest. There was a long slit in my chest left behind, but again, no blood. I went to hand it to my mom, but only Brian was still there. When I went to hand it to him, he didn't want to have anything to do with it lol. He actually looked panicked. I just said "Hey man, this is just for a task. Just hold it for a second and then give it back if you want." I thought I would just spend the rest of the lucid trying to put it back in my chest. So he held it for one second and gave it right back. I don't think he even looked at it. I looked back to the mirror, and pushed my heart back into the crevice that was left behind. And that was about it. I remember feeling accomplished after that, then I woke up maybe 2 seconds later.

Later on I had a non lucid where I explained to my son what I had done. I went through the whole thing again, but with him instead of Brian. Even took my heart out again, to demonstrate. It didn't occur to me once that this might be a dream. It was a very well made retelling of the story haha.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #184: Be Still My Beating Heart

I’m walking through a parking lot into a mall, recalling an earlier dream where Dad had brawled with some pellet gun-wielding high school kid in a parking lot just like this one. As I enter the mall, I recall my intent to have a lucid dream, and one begins.

I walk past a set of red metallic benches, taking in the detail and comparing it to waking life. I marvel at how completely realistic it looks. As I continue down the walkway, I turn toward a woman walking with her two young daughters and half-shout, “Can you believe this is all a dream?” They smile politely and scurry away.

I take a brief detour through a clothing store, walk past a few more places, and then exit onto some kind of outdoor boardwalk area. There’s a tattoo parlor to my left with a wood-carved sign overhead which depicts two attractive, dark-haired, pale-skinned women with intricate sleeve tattoos. The place is called “Nutjob”. I think how cool it’d be to get tatted up in a dream and start to head inside. It looks a bit more like a boutique when I get closer and I suddenly get this irrational fear that things will turn sexy in this place and that I’d better avoid it.

I head back through a door into the mall and encounter a grinning, friendly-looking British woman in her late 20s. I remember Task of the Month and ask her, “Who is my true love?” She says some stream of hilarious nonsense about waffles, and we both start laughing. I think she is super cool. “I’m not going to be able to remember that. Can you answer again?”

She laughs even harder and then starts singing “Polly Wolly Doodle” in a British Donald Duck voice. (The kids have an Easter toy that does this, but not with a British accent.) I can’t stop laughing and I try not to think about whether you can laugh yourself awake from a lucid dream.

I start thinking about what the other tasks were and she wanders off as I do so. I remember something about your heart, and then spy Wife walking in the mall about twenty feet in front of me. Still in an incredibly good mood, I run up to her, get her attention, and after she says, “Hey!” I make out with her for a little bit. This is fun, but okay, back to tasks! I’m supposed to pull my still-beating heart from my chest and give it to a loved one.

“Here, watch this!” Wife keeps looking at the nearby stores instead of me. “You really need to watch. I’m only going to do this once.” She looks back and I reach my hand inside my body. I feel something about the size of a softball pulsing very softly. The movement is a bit too weak for a heart muscle, but whatever. I pull it from my chest and when I present it to her… my hand is empty!

“What are you trying to do?” asks Wife. I explain the task and she furrows her brow. “You really don't need to do that for me,” she says before wandering away into a nearby store.

I wander through the mall some more, baffled by how long and stable this LD is. I pass through a busy arcade area where I see a mom busily taking care of 10-12 girls shouting demands during a birthday party. There’s cake being passed around which I sort of want to try but I feel like I am at enough kid birthday parties in waking life.

As I’m heading back into the hallway, an attractive Asian woman with waist-length hair passes by. We look at one another and the guy she’s with, some generic dude in his late 40s with thinning hair, seems to jealously take notice. He kind of freaks out, storming around and I say, “You want to go to the parking lot.” He obediently leaves. But when I turn back to the woman, blood’s pouring out of her nose like he just hit her. I’m confused because I didn’t notice him do this. I worry that my confusion means the dream is ending.

I pass my hand in front of her face and she’s healed. When I glance over my shoulder, the guy is back, glaring at us. “You’re not coming back here again,” I say, and again he leaves. I say something to the woman about how this is a dream and she agrees. The dream is definitely fading now but we still manage a bit of sexytime before the dream ends.

Date: 24 Jan

Pre bed: 200mg val, 50mg B6

Wbtb: 1/4 latte

Wasn't very wakeful even though repeated mantras a few times, fell asleep rather fast, had a few non-lds I can't recall

DILD: I am having a tense conversation with this female DC I know. She starts criticizing me. I reply that as a revenge I will then do something to make her feel the same way she makes me feel with all her comments. While this is a rather habitual mental reaction, I notice that contrary to other times I don't feel anything at that very moment. Still, as part of my revenge scheme I take her and turn her upside down in front of all the DCs in the room to publicly humiliate her.

As I stare at her, I notice that she just stays there, like a motionless puppet and become lucid. We're in a very large meeting room with a long table in the middle and lots of DCs participating in some corporate event. I'm in a daring mood and decide it's time to defy social rules by getting on the table in the middle of this meeting. Then I almost lose lucidity being carried away by thoughts of how all of the world's problems may be solved by by issuing unlimited credit cards to the entire population.

I keep thinking about this issue as I leave the place and continue towards an unknown city center. There to help me focus more I shout out loud "I am dreaming". There was a slight instability so this helps me ground as well.

Then I remember the invisibility task and go in the middle of the road pretending to be invisible.There are cars coming from all directions but as soon as I pay attention to them, they hit the breaks and spin a bit. I turn around and the same thing happens again. Then I see this huge truck coming in my direction. I start waving hands, checking if the driver can see me. He doesn't hit the brake or slow down and the truck is quickly coming closer. I step to the side to avoid the impact. There's little space between me and the truck, my uncontrolled expectations cause it to fall sideways on top of me, where I feel this huge weight on me. I try to move and free my head, but this results in a physical feeling, which gives me the impression I have just moved in my bed. I expect to wake up any moment but get an FA instead.

I believe that I have woken up for real and the first thing I notice is this piano music coming from the outside. I'm actually in the neighbors where we used to live some time ago and look to find where the music is coming from. I see this girl that I remember (possibly from another dream but could be false memory) who got that piano there and something about her. As if that isn't enough, the balcony is crowded - many people in their 20s and 30s dressed with business attire as if attending some sort of event. I'm think this is just too much when I am trying to fall asleep and decide this can only be a dream, reminding myself that I was trying to ld. Can't member how, but it seems I lose consciousness after that and have another FA.

I think in the beginning, I'm looking from the window to see what's down but then the scene changes and we move to this wooden porch. I initially see this strange big animal that looks suspiciously like a DS, I can't tell what kind of animal it is. Then there is a smaller one and I'm still trying to identify the large one. I'm starting to have some real doubts about this and begin to count the animals, one now looks like a bear and can't remember the rest but there's four of them. I conclude this is a dream and go to interact with one of the animals. It looks like a very large black boar/tapir and as I place my hand on its snout, it bites me and it even hurts.

I move slightly to the left and examine the rest of the area, where I notice a number of elephant-like creatures. I think they are separated from the porch, but no cage, it looks much like in a zoo. At some point the elephants begin to distort in features, open mounts and start roaring very louldy in a generally unpleasant manner. I try to stop them by thinking I want them to stop, but nothing happens and more join the roaring event. I remain there staring at them as they do so, kind of calm, but there's also this deeper inner response to their roaring, which surely is what is affecting them. I think that the problem is exactly this feedback loop - I am thinking that they are roaring, therefore they continue roaring. Then conveniently, I recall the inivible task and think it can be applied quite nicely here. I think that I am invisible. To my genuine surprise, at this very moment all the roaring stops for good.

I'm curisous to how far I can take this with my supposed invisibility and turn around and try to sneak out, while carefully listening for any reaction. The dream fades.

Notes: I have reduced B6 dosage to 50mg as previously it made me too wakeful. Recent valerian series - characterized by difficult recall, lower lucidity levels and more bizarre occurrences, in particular animals.

My gamecube is glitching, hm... yes! a dream. I want it to be Christmas, to the void. I render myself invisible and backflip through the wall, momentarilly being in the wall (somewhere I shouldn't be *smerk*). This is my time transportation method totm aside. I am outside. My dad parks his car asking me to get in and, as per usual, I get ditched. This happens so much I can psychically detect when I will be ditched or thrown into freefall and use those psycho powers as a way of gaining lucidity.
I get into an argument THE END

Jan 19-20 2014

Lord of the Rings Fragment
I'm having a dream about a new Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. Aragorn and Legolas are both in it.

Psych Sub-Box and the World's Largest Flamin Hot Cheeto

Later, I get a box that's supposed to be like a Loot Crate, but for that's weeks corresponding Psych episode. I tell myself I need to watch the last 2 episodes or so because I don't want to open the box and spoil it. It is supposed to, contain little momentos or items from the episode.
I went grocery shopping with my friend T to like a Safeway, and they must have been almost closed because some lights were off and certain aisles were cut off. All I was really getting was some flamin hot Cheetos and some other food item (I think either salad or yogurt). As I'm looking for flaming hot Cheetos I see a box containing the worlds largest flamin hot Cheeto. It was about 4-6 inches thick diameter and maybe 5-6 feet tall, according to the picture on the box it was in. The price tag is only like $15 so I send a pic of it to T and he heads over. I grab a small bag, then something else and T shows up so I show him the Cheeto. He picks one up and it falls over and we realize there are two sizes. The $15 ones are like 2-3 feet tall, and the 5-6 foot one is actually just under $170, but is a pack of 4.
Soon an old high school friend D shows up and I go to talk to her. She says she's busy and tells me to go wait at the front, and it was rude and I was offended, so I tell her I'm leaving and say goodbye, while heading to the other checkout. After a minute or two of checking out, D shows up and apologizes saying Target made her lose her manners. We catch up a bit on if she's in school, still working at Nordstroms and such. Then I wake up.

Basketball Camp
I'm at a camp or get together with a lot of old friends,and it's at a basketball gymnasium. I show up with my friend T, but a lot of old friends come too, such as B, and also P, my cousin, is there. I remember there is a basketball challenge and my group is out in like 15 seconds. When leaving we have a ton of bags and I notice T left one. I call after him and he says he is coming back. I had a free hand so I figured I'd help. I think it's heavy, because in a little bit I hit some chairs and it throws me off balance. I dramatize it a little bit for attention, but then I actually fall and people rush up to me feeling bad. I was fine, and get up.

Semi-Truck Crash
At one point I'm driving and as I'm driving there is this massive semi-truck wreck. I was like the only one on the highway besides one other car. I see it all in slow motion like on a video and it's flipping long ways and such. Cops come and soon there are tons of cars in the area all stopped. Eventually they get the guy out of the semi, and he's supposedly famous, one of his eyes is stitched shut, and does stunts and tricks in YouTube. Some guy asks him with a microphone how he feels and he says ok. The guy who owned the mic mentions he just came from an injury as well or something and gets shut down by the famous guy.

January 2014 TotM, Random New Years Resolution
I walked in front of a man and thought what if he a duck bill on his face, and sure enough he did, and I instantly realize then I'm dreaming. It woke up me up, but I just visualized going back into the dream. Walking along that little corridor, and I slowly reformed. It started black, but I just kept feeling the walls knowing my sight would come in, and it did. I made a right turn, looking for the next DC I could find, and I came to a pool at a giant waterpark. I found a guy with long blonde hair who just came from the pool and was probably getting ready to leave.
I said "hey what's up" and he kinda just acknowledged me, but didn't give me a response. I wanted to stay positive to get a good response, so I say, "I've got a question for you when you have a moment." I get back "ok, just let me finish and find my shirt." He turns around and I realize if I don't force it, he won't give me an answer, so I just grab him by the shoulders and say "what's your resolution this year?" He looks at me with confusion and says "uhhh captain TV collar" ad walk away. Very odd indeed.

Snowboarding Uphill
I'm in Colorado or someplace snowy and am with my dad and my little sister. My dad has some sort of motorcycle with him, but it's also like a motorized scooter. Somewhere in between, I guess. It's slightly malfunctioning and wanting to go full speed even when not squeezing the throttle, and wants us to try riding it. I try first because I don't want my little sister getting hurt, and when I get on it, it shoots forward.
As it does so, I realize I'm going backwards up a mountain where skiers and snowboarders are coming down. I keep going and get to a point where I'm at a steep hill (it basically angles vertically after a bit), and I go as fast as I can at it, to make it up. I make it just high enough to grab the ledge with one hand. The cycle falls back down, and my sister takes it. I tell her to go really fast to make it up, but she just goes to the right where there isn't as steep a hill. At this point I'm just snowboarding, but it's uphill, which is a really interesting sensation.
After I get to the top of the hill, I want to go back down it because I see some people doing really cool tricks off the jumps here and I want to try them. My dad and sister could care less so they leave. I go to strap into my board, but I realize I don't have my boots with me. I talk to the DCs around me, but I just give up since I can't board without the boots. I go back to the place we were staying.
A couple of my friends are outside where we were staying and I hang out with them outside as well. The weather was extremely nice, just nice and cool, but no wind. I recall eating fruit roll ups at this point (it's weird because I haven't eaten fruit roll ups probably for over 5 years). I'm just taking big bites out of it, and it's extremely chewy, sticks to my teeth and what not. I remember that fruit roll ups usually have shapes in it that you pull out, and I recognize the face of Spongebob on it. My brother shows up later at some point.