The Labrynth of the Mind

Adventure

I am on a flying object with my brother. Apparently, I have won a trip for two on this flying object, whatever it is. I decided to take my brother along. It seems to be a huge structure, thousands of feet high, with a flat platform at the top and two legs stretching to the ground below. As it glides, the legs pass through wooded hillsides. I wonder about the possibility of the legs breaking the trees, or something.

I seem to know that I am dreaming without becoming lucid. I am able to change the arrangement of the structure's platform by thinking about it, and try to arrange things so that we have a good view of the landscape below us. We walk towards the middle of the platform, where there is a large opening. I try to widen the opening so we have a nice view, but seem to have difficulty doing so. I move half of the floor up at an angle, but we still don't get a great view.

At some point, we end up on the ground in the woods. It seems that this is our destination. Now there are a few of us travelling, and it is getting dark. We can hear things in the trees around us, and a large creature moves above. The creature swoops down a few yards off to the left from us, and I see that it is a prehistoric "Terror Bird". In reality, Terror Birds were flightless, while in my dream this one had huge wings and flew rather well. It was a pretty bird, although somewhat menacing. It also appeared to have human characteristics, and possibly a face. I theorize that this creature is the origin of the Moth Man sightings, although my scientific explanation for the apparition doesn't lessen our danger any. The bird is a predator, and doesn't look very friendly at the moment.

We decide to seek shelter. I duck behind a tree, thinking that perhaps this will make it more difficult for the bird to swoop down at me. Someone decides to light a fire to frighten the bird away. I seem to recall this working, at any rate the bird leaves us alone...

...I have a fuzzy recollection of a train that I need to get on. There is disaster coming, and the train is like Noah's Ark. People are flooding to get on it, but some people who look religious/important are deciding who gets on and who doesn't. The people who can't get on run away very fast, and I have a feeling that despite the urgency of the important looking people they may still be able to save themselves. As things progress, it turns out that the important Pharisees are actually some sort of scam, and the train won't save anyone. In fact, it may be the opposite...

...It seemed like this dream went on for hours. After much travelling, we end up "home" in something like an office building of my old college (which I dream about sometimes) and the hospital I now work in. I am making rounds of some sort, seeing people who were part of the big adventure. We are all exhausted, perhaps some of us are injured, and we have lost everything. It seems like a not so good ending to such an experience, although we are happy to be alive. I and my wife (? I'm not married in RL) have lost our money, and our farm (?). We had hoped to have some kind of a return on our investment through this trip, but now we have nothing. But a letter comes through the mail. It turns out that back in the woods I had a theory that there was lots of gold. It turns out that there was, just where I said. Someone has stumbled across it in the very spot where we were dealing with the Terror Bird. That somehow makes our journey a success.

Happily, the man is friend or family, and is going to share his white gold (which looks like cottage cheese) with us. We will have all the money we need now.

Phlebotomy Phragment

I am in the hospital. I am apparently supposed to either give someone a vaccination or draw blood from them. Heading towards the patient's room, I realize that I have never done this before. The phlebotomist that I am with assures me that it is easy to do, and that people are tougher than I think. Even though my hands are shaky, they won't care if I shake the needle around during the procedure.

After having been waking up at 3:45am for about a week, I am back on the afternoon shift at work and am sleeping in. As a consequence, I am having a lot of dreams. Now I have to try and recall them, but they are kind of weird.

Mirror (Lucid)

I am in a restroom. Finally, my habit of doing a RC every time I enter a restroom in waking life carries over to my dreams, and I do a nose pinch. I can still breathe. I double check by looking at my reflection in the mirror, which looks odd (a bit like a charachter I created for myself on Wii). I'm dreaming.

I climb onto the sink, repeating to myself "am I dreaming?" or "is this a dream?" to keep the question in my mind. The dream doesn't seem as unstable as others in the past, but it isn't very vivid. I think about flying, but a strange thing happens. I have been reading advice to lucid dreamers about how to fly in lucid dreams. It seems that others have a problem with this. Until now, I never thought about it but just did it when I wanted to. But now a doubt was created in my mind about whether or not it was easy to fly. Overanalysis seemed to interfere with me, and I had difficulty in flying.

Part of the problem was likely due to the ceiling though, because I had a hard time getting through. Anyway, I wake up somewhere along the way.

Caves, chasing, anxiety stuff

I am driving somewhere down a dark winding road. At one point, someone jumped out in front of me and I killed him. But I kept on going because since I wasn't responsible never having seen him coming. Later I go back to the area for some reason. It may have been to buy a Christmas tree, but I am kind of fuzzy on what was going on here. There was a whole part of this dream that had significance that I can't remember.

Anyway, we end up going into a huge building/cave thing. In this building there is a killer or monster or something, and much shooting and running. My brother (?) and I are trying to escape. I wish I could remember more, because this journal is not doing the dream justice. These things are just vague impressions that might not be the actual dream plot.

Superman (fragment)

I am in front of a mirror again. I put on some glasses that I find, and I like how I look with them on. I look again and I seem to look a lot like Christopher Reeves as Superman (or rather as Clark Kent). My face is stretched though, and I find that I can distort it with my fingers.

Mars

I am getting out of a car, going towards a school. I am talking with someone about Christmas stocking candy. I think there is significance in what we are saying, and there may possibly have been a big voice in the sky saying "stocking candy". I have the impression of something like that although I can't quite remember.

We go into the school, which turns out to be my old high school. We are getting ready to go on a field trip to the planet Mars. I decide to go to the library and find a book about Mars, preferably a science fiction story by Edgar Rice Burroughs (who wrote several series of science fiction stories that partially inspired Star Wars). The librarian shows me a small cart of books, which seems to be the only books that one can check out. There are lots of books on the other book shelves, but we don't seem to be able to check out those.

I walk down the aisles, which turn into the aisles of some store. There is shiny tinsle on some of the shelves, and other Christmas like things. As I continue walking, I find myself outside, following a small creek. I am in a kayak on the creek. As I paddle, the creek widens out. It looks familiar in a way, and I realize it is the upper end of a small river that runs into a nearby lake. I have a feeling that there may be a waterfall up ahead, so I decide to beach my kayak and get out. I get out of the current, and look back the way I was headed. Sure enough, there is a large waterfall ahead. It is rather scary to look at, considering how close I was to it. I quickly pull myself to shore by a kind of plastic lining to the creek. I start to walk back to where I started, knowing that it will likely be a long walk. But it's better than getting killed.

Missed Class

I go into a college office for some reason or other. I come across a professor that was teaching a class that I was going to take this past semester, but ended up not needing. In the end, I forgot to drop the class. It didn't count against me, but I feel bad because I think it caused my professor more work. I tell her I am sorry, and offer to make it up to her by doing some work.

She (in real life one of my new coworkers) thinks a bit, obviously hurt by me not telling her I was quitting the class. "I could pay you for the work..." she mumbles. Clearly she wants me to do something but also feels bad about making me do too much. She goes behind some structure to think about it. I wait for a while, but start to get annoyed because she is taking so long. And besides, I start to think that I didn't do anything really bad. Maybe I was too hasty in offering to work. I decide that if she doesn't say something in a few minutes I will just leave.

Caramel Man

I am talking to a vending machine, or watching cartoon logo people for candy, or something of the sort. It's a bit hard to explain. There is a caramel candy, which is also a guy, or maybe it's the logo of the caramel candy brand. Anyway, the caramel guy is eating a chocolate bar that has caramel in it. The other candies think that this is disgusting, and is a lot like cannibalsim. Anyway, caramel guy eventually falls into a huge flow of caramel, which the other candies think is dangerous to him. But, someone points out, to Caramel Man caramel is like kryptonite. Instead of being completely lost in the caramel, just the tips of his hands are burned and the caramel dissolves around him.

I wake up from this dream laying on my stomach with my arms outstretched partly thinking I am flying like the superhero Caramel Man. In a half conscious state, I try to do a DEILD, with the following result:

As I lay there watching the dream form around me, I find myself in my workplace (a hospital). But I'm not very lucid. However, for some reason I am dreaming that I know I am not lucid without actually being lucid. I call out to some nurses standing around to help me get lucid. But things get out of control completely. An older female doctor comes along. She is apparently attracted to me. She says something kind of obscene, which is some kind of a really stupid pick up line. Then she does something disgusting which I would rather not write here, and I wake up.

New Comics

This dream is interesting, because it involves a dreamsign that I never think about until I have it. It is not one of my more common dreamsigns, but sometimes it pops up and occurs multiple times in a series of nights. We'll see what happens with this in the nights to come.

I am reading a Calvin and Hobbes comic book. It is also Peanuts and Garfield, I think. Or else it is a comic that is niether of these but similar in some way. As in all of these kinds of dreams, I flip through the book and find comics I have never read before. They are darkly shaded, as always, and at least in past dreams often have some kind of dark depressing subject matter. But I believe that last night the subject matter wasn't quite as dreary looking. Either way, I am still delighted to find Calvin and Hobbes comics that I have never read.

Training Camp

I have started my new job. In my dream, it is either a new job or school. Perhaps it is training for a job. Whatever it is, it involves combat and war. We learn about tanks, and military operations. We are also camped out somewhere, I think.

My grandfather is telling someone about my new job, and how I have made a friend that "I like more than family". I can't think of who that is. The closest person I have to a friend is some guy that I don't even like too much, but is always hanging around me.

The next day (in my dream) I go to training again. I realize that this isn't at all what I thought my job would be, and I don't particularly want to join the military right now. Apparently this has become training for the military, and I may have to sign up for 4 years if I don't leave soon. I think about how much like a dream this is, and what I would do if I were lucid. I think to myself that I'm probably not dreaming, but wonder if perhaps I should just act like I am since it's all so weird anyway.

All this time I am munching on a stick of salami. My "friend" comes over and joins me. I think to myself that he isn't such a bad guy, although I still don't like him more than family.

I realize I have to go to the bathroom. I am now with some girl, and we are talking together. I think for some reason that it will make me look bad if I let her know I have to use the bathroom, so I walk right past one and pretend I don't need to go. We walk to a place where there are some shelves, and things being sold on the shelves. There are a lot of clocks, and one or two little wind up toys. Kind of neat things, really. There are also chocolate covered coffee beans, which show up in the dream and we start munching on.

The girl goes somewhere, and I take the opportunity to stop in the nearest bathroom. The bathroom, like all dream bathrooms, is stupidly designed. It has a screen door, for one thing. There is a bunch of clutter laying around inside, so I find some to prop against the door in an attempt to get some privacy. Then I realize that most of the walls are screen, and I look around at the woods behind me thinking I should have just taken a walk out there where there was more privacy.

When I get out of the bathroom/outhouse thing, the girl comes back with some more candy. I am looking for a place to wash my hands, but for some reason I reach into a bag of candy first. I then think that was probably an unhygenic thing to do, but I figure if I was my hands now it will be OK.

Farm report

I am sleeping in bed (in my dream). I know that I have to get up at 4:00am to write the "Farm Report", and I keep watching the clock. At 4:00am, I apparently write the report and email it to people (something like that anyway) and then go back to sleep without remembering having done so. I wake up in the morning and see that I have completed the entire report while I was only half awake. I am now outside with my mother telling her about this. We are planting pine trees. I keep saying how I can't believe I wrote the whole Farm Report while only half awake. Eventually my mother gets annoyed, and says something sarcastic about me being "Mr. Humble".

Former professor's brother

I am on a field trip with some classmates. While on the trip, my professor talks on the telephone with his brother. Eventually he puts me on the line. My professor's brother is talking about chinese food that we ordered when we were on a trip a long time ago. He thinks that we ordered a lot of expensive food. "But that's OK," he says, "I just don't think you knew how expensive it was."

I can breathe. Interesting.

All I remember of this is a false awakening (I think). I walk out to the living room, and do a nose pinch RC. I can still breathe. Or at least it still seems like I'm breathing. Unlike other missed RC's, I don't justify why it seems like I can still breathe. I just think "huh, that's interesting, but I know I'm awake."

I can't remember anything from last night. I am undergoing a rather large change in my life right now, which also messes with my sleep patterns. Starting tomorrow morning I will be getting up at 4:00am for work at my new job. Interestingly, I will begin working in a hospital, which has prior to now been a dreamsign. So, I will find myself awake and aware at a time when I am usually asleep, in a hospital, riding in elevators (another dreamsign). If I remember to do reality checks, this ought to help my lucidity.

Also, it appears that they will be alternating my work schedule, so that I will have this early morning schedule at times, and an afternoon schedule at others. This will be a perfect opportunity to try the Cycle Adjustment Technique (CAT).

So, I am hoping that this dream journal will become more interesting in the near future, with a good deal more blue.

Me vs. the Nazis

I am at my grandparents' house. I find out that my grandmother works for the Nazis, and is part of a top secret plan. She lets me in on it, because she thinks that I am going to be a part of it. But I have no intention of being a Nazi. I decide to escape, so I make an excuse to leave the room. My granparents have a refrigerator in the garage, so I think perhaps if I go out that way my grandmother won't know I'm leaving. But they have a burglar alarm system that makes a noise to let people in the house know if someone is opening a door. So when I open the door to go outside, I know that she will know where I am going.

I quickly open the door, running to my car before she can catch up to me. I pull out my keys, and start the car as fast as I can. I know that if she didn't catch on before, she will now that she hears tha car start. As I back my car out of its parking place, I can see my grandmothers car being backed out of the garage. She blocks my way as I try to back into another area to turn around, so I push the car into drive and try speeding away. She quickly pulls her car in front of me, and my heart races as I try to find a way out. The excitement wakes me up.

Up a little late last night, and the night before. My sleep patterns are out of whack again, so my dream recall is suffering. Here are some bits and pieces that I can remember.

Various fragments

I am outside with a group of people. We seem to be explorers or adventurers. Our quest involves crossing mountains and/or big buildings in a city. It takes forever to get to the other side, and I am exhausted by the end. We go into a hospital, and I decide I want to take the elevator to the top floor and look back at the distance we just covered. I get into the elevator (hospitals and elevators are both dreamsigns, but I don't remember to do a RC). As I am riding up, I seem to lose my clothes. By the time I reach the top I am completely naked, but I don't seem to think much about it. I crawl out of the elevator, which has shrunk to the size of a small box. I end up in the sink of another hospital room. Or the elevator may have turned into the sink...

... I am at a wedding. There is some tension here that I can't quite remember. I do remember that I had to use the bathroom, and there are two bathroom doors side by side. They both say "men", but I know that one of them is actually the women's restroom that has lost the "w" and "o". Someone comes out of the door on my right, but he/she is so ugly I can't tell if it is a man or a woman. Somehow I decide that this is the men's restroom, and I go in. Immediately inside the door I see that the two restrooms are connected and I peek around the corner of the division between the two sections to make sure I am in the right place. I assume that I am, because there is only a stall in the other half, and there are urinals in the half I am in. I set about finding a more private section of the restroom with a toilet that can't be seen by passers by (I am always having to do this in my dreams. Another obvious and yet failed dreamsign.) I find a nice one that not only is in a stall (more rare than one would think in my dreams), but is also blocked from view by an even larger toilet. There are several toilets to each stall here.