cedwards105

WBTB about 3:30am

Grandparents’ House Dream

At my grandparents’ old house. My mother and brother are there. We have to clean up some things, apparently. My Mom makes me go into the living room to pick up some things, but she and my brother disappear. Meanwhile, a big truck comes along and lowers a small crane thing into the living room through the ceiling somehow. This is to attach large items to so that they can hoist them out. It seems as though we are moving. I get kind of annoyed that I have to do all this work while my Mother and Brother are not helping. I go looking for them, but can’t find them (I think, anyway. There was another piece of this or another dream involving my grandfather. We had heard a loud crashing sound from the garage while my grandmother and grandfather were returning from somewhere. My grandmother came into the house, but my grandfather had not yet come in. After a little bit, I get kind of worried and go out to the garage to look for him. I look around, but can’t find him. This incident and the part where I’m looking for my mother and brother seem to be a little mixed up in my memory – they might even have been the same thing). My mother and brother come back after a while, and won’t say where they have been. They seem a little smug, in my opinion. Then I hear them talking about “putting a sign up” or something like that, inviting people to come and take things. I get the idea that it was a storage unit, and think that it was probably my grandmother’s storage unit that they went to. They must be clearing it out, without even seeing if I wanted anything first!

(At this point, things are a bit muddled. I might have run out trying to get to the storage unit before it was cleared out. But there is another dream episode that I remember that feels like it started to pick up here. And some of this might even have been more than one other dream. For the sake of the competition though, I’ll count the following part as the same dream.)

There is a box on a shelf nearby, which contains a copy of the Myst computer game (or maybe even Myst itself). It makes sounds, and I think someone might want to take it. I might grab it or something to take it away and hide it. Then (?) I go out into the garage. There is some medieval/Middle Earth like thing going on. A villainous ruler, or something, wants to poison (?) a hero. There is supposed to be someone working to prevent this, but in the end the vial of liquid (which was vital to preventing the poisoning) is broken...

Running and Hiding

My brother and I are walking down a road. We pass a mentally ill woman who is dragging two soft drink cans behind her on strings. She gives these to me, and I start dragging them. My brother and I talk about this, and he doesn’t think I should be dragging these things for her. I decide to leave the strings on a road sign nearby (although my attempt to wrap the strings around the post fails and they just fall off). I still have one or two of the cans, which I end up just tossing into the ditch. Then the dream becomes a situation in which my brother and I are trying to hide from this woman, who is following us. We go off into the countryside, and I’m concerned that the woman will be able to track us. My brother doesn’t think that’s likely, but I’m still a bit concerned. I duck down behind some shrubbery to hide, and then get back up and keep going. Now it seems that I’m alone, pulling two wagons through the woods. I pull them over a fallen tree, but then come across a tree that is laying across the path and is too high to pull the wagons over. I look around, and find a path to the right where I think I can get the wagons through one at a time. I pull the first one through and park it near a road on the other side of the obstruction. Then I go back for the other one, but as I do so I notice that there are people around. I feel the need to hide from them, and the woods are sparse where I am now. I try to duck behind a tree, and end up jumping down on the ground to try to hide myself. Two kids come along, and eventually spot me. It turns out that I’m just playing some kind of game, or at least that’s what I tell them. Now they have blown my cover though.

Fragments:

(1) Something about Sherlock Holmes (I think this was a longer dream, but I don’t remember much of it now)

(2) A Bible school activity, or something, involving mud and shaving cream. I want to participate, but end up just having to watch remotely through some kind of screen.

(3) Fighting (?) in some woods. Also a game-like map. There are sticks (we fight with the sticks?) Kind of LOTR fantasy-like in a way. I don’t really see the map, but as I move from place to place there are descriptions of what it is like at each place. One spot is a swamp, I think. Another spot is an elevator.

(4) Swinging on a rope, or a vine, or something. I swing out over a hillside and recognize the place below me. I feel kind of triumphant that I recognize the place, almost like I know it’s a dream on some level and am glad that I identified the location. I then walk along the ground a bit, trying to make my way to the top of the hill without getting too close to people or their houses. Apparently this is earlier on in the pandemic, and people might be afraid that if I even walk near their house I might spread Covid to them. I try to stay near the river at the bottom of the hill, but it seems to be difficult to avoid getting close to houses.

(5) At my grandparents’ old house. I’m on a laptop checking out Dreamviews. Meanwhile, someone on the other side of the room starts a live stream of himself through Dreamviews. I start to say something in response to the live stream, and my voice comes through the speaker of my laptop and I think there might be a bit of feedback. I realize that they guy on the other side of the room is one of the other Dreamviews members. That’s kind of exciting. I go and introduce myself as cedwards105. He introduces himself too, but his username was something difficult to remember with a bunch of numbers and/or letters in it. He seems to be a heavier built man, with a kind of purplish scarf/beard thing around his neck.

I think I had a near WILD experience at one point. The hypnogogia was quite vivid, and I still seemed to be pretty lucid. I was looking at some words and trying to see if I could read them, but the letters kept changing on me. It might have even been a dream by this point, but I just don't know for sure.

12.5.2022

Apartment, Sick Girl, and Keys

At the apartment. Mom and some other people are here. This might also be my grandmother’s house. There is a little girl there, who is sick. My mother and at least one other person are going to take her to a hospital. I plan to go along, but while I’m getting ready to go they leave without me. There are two cars going at this point. This makes me so frustrated that I throw my keys out into the road in exasperation. After they have gone I go to look for my keys. There is traffic on the road, and it is raining too. This makes the search for the keys harder. I start a monolog that seems to be part prayer, part talking to myself, and part talking to the keys. I become a little crazed with my search for the keys and realize that I’m starting to talk like Gollum talking to the ring. The cars are going to be coming back soon. A woman says something to that effect (it’s going to be her last trip, or something – which means that the cars are about done with their trip).

The dream seems to shift a little bit, and now I’m rummaging through some clutter on a desk looking for the keys. There is at least one other person with me, and they are talking about how the place we are at seems like some kind of illegal strip joint. It’s as though they employ men to dress as women but pass them off as actual women to customers. Somehow the police get involved. In the meantime, I find my keys and start kissing them in celebration. There is something about closely examining the keys, which are also old coins at this point, looking at the things that are printed on them. Meanwhile, we go back across the street, and someone mentions the sausages laying on the ground (there are a few of these scattered on the ground).

I don’t quite remember where the following scenes belong. They seem to be related to the above dream, so I guess I’ll have to count them all as part of the same dream for the competition.

...I get into the car this time as we drive to the hospital. It was either that or wait around for a long while with nothing to do. There appears to be a seat open for me in the car. As we leave, I mention that I’m not really familiar with driving in the area...

In my “room” (wherever that is). I’m doing something – maybe taking a nap. I go outside, and people are doing things. I feel a bit disappointed that I have slept through what might have been fun. I don’t think I was in my room too long, but then it starts to look like I was in there for a couple of days. I don’t think I was sleeping the whole time though. I appear to have been writing poetry. This involved displaying words on the wall somehow...

...Throwing snowballs. I and a couple of other people seem to be having a snowball fight...(Yay!! Winter Theme!!)

...Someone tosses something (a snowball?) in front of a parked car, which triggers an explosive. This was part of their plan. Someone else does something similar...

...Talking to someone about a phrase like “being all alone on a hot June day”. It’s supposed to be a poetic description of something going on currently, I think. But there is snow outside...

...My neighbors are in a room playing a game. I kind of want to play too, but I don’t know if I would be invited. Also, I have to go to the bathroom. I use one bathroom, but after leaving I feel like I still have to go. I start wandering around a bit looking for another bathroom that I saw, but now I can’t seem to find it.

Fragments

(1) I’m in a space ship. Something makes me think that I should do a reality check, so I look at my left hand and count my fingers. There are six of them. I might do this check at least once more. I don’t recall what happened after that

(2) At my Grandparents’ house. Martin Luther King Jr. calls. Apparently, he is a friend of the family. Someone is having a discussion about how they didn’t like to go see MLK because of the crowds. Somebody brings up something about overly aggressive police, or something.

(3) Someone is working on a project, and needs to go to the town of Neffs to use a piece of equipment. I get excited, because I used to work in Neffs. After one failed attempt, I finally ask the person where they went, and it turns out that they went to my former workplace to use the equipment (a “joiner”, I think it was). There is some discussion about whether it is “Neff” or “Neffs”. I have the idea that there were two places, something like “North Neff” and “South Neff”. At some point they kind of merged, and are now called “Neffs”. Anyway, I reflect on how it would have been funny, but a little nerve-wracking, if I had had to go there to use the equipment. In such a case, I would end up working with my old boss and my current supervisor on the same project, and have two bosses at once.

(4) I fell asleep in the midst of a large pile of assorted objects. It’s like the junk one would have stored in their garage, but also includes “religious tracts”. Sleeping here causes me to dream about the objects around me. There is something about my brother coming along to sleep nearby, and I seem to want to hide from him, I think. When I wake up (in the dream), I am reminded of the dreams that I had been having when I look at the things around me....

In a boat, fishing with Dad. I get a fish on the hook, and can tell that it’s a big one as we pull it in. It’s so large that the fishing line almost cuts into my fingers as we hoist it up on board. I think we might take a picture of it, then Dad takes it off the hook for me and sets it down by the side of the boat (inside the boat) to set it free. The fish hops up and over the rail like a little dog and re-enters the water...

...Some people cross a stretch of water that is dangerous in some way. It seems that they are escaping somewhere or trying to enter somewhere that they aren’t supposed to be. An alarm goes off, either to alert people about this swimming, or to alert the swimmers that they are in danger, or both. The swimmers cross and go up the bank on the other side...

Note: water, boats, and fish are becoming common dream signs. Especially water. I don't know why I'm not catching these. Maybe my dream mind was doing something there by "catching" the fish.

12.3.2022

- WBTB about 3:15-3:35 -

Awake again at 5:35am. Had had the following dreams:

Some Fragmentary Memories:

(1) They have decided to play movies on the moon. Somehow, they found a way to project them onto the surface of the moon, such that they are visible from Earth through a telescope. My brother has been trying to set up a telescope, but I think he is missing a lens. I find the lens, and finish setting up the telescope so that we can see the movie...Something about working with a setup of electronic parts. Resistors, I think. We have to keep them in order.

(2) At a store. I have a jar or bottle of some kind of green tea, which I’m supposed to put back on a shelf. I don’t know exactly where it is supposed to go, but eventually find the right spot.

(3) At my apartment. I go outside. It is night. There is someone (a lady, I think) kind of slinking around out back. I put together some kind of wall, associated with the word “prohibition”. I go looking for firewood, I think. Then I go to a shed, but am a bit worried that there might be vagrants hanging out in there.

(4) My notes from the night say “sabotage, black powder rifle”. I remember being in a room, and having a black powder rifle. I was going to do something with it, and there was at least one other person involved. Pouring black powder down the barrel and trying to ram it in place with something...

(5) We have a cart with a big package on it. The package is full of body parts from a murder. We are opening it, and I can see the bones of the carcass against the plastic that is wrapping it. Once the package is opened, the body parts appear to be in cakes of some kind of gel. This is a famous collection, apparently. I remark on how we are looking at the same things that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once looked at.

Awake again by 10:00am

Looking for a Book

At the church that I went to when I was little. I have a book, but apparently left it in the sanctuary. It was up front somewhere, in a place that I had been sitting (like a choir section). I go there to look for it before we leave (my Mom is there, I think). My former Sunday school teacher from another church is there. Now it is kind of like I’m in his house. I don’t see the book, but he has a lot of other books on shelves. I look on the shelves. For a moment I think I see a textbook written by someone I know, but on closer inspection it appears that I was wrong. I look on another shelf, but still don’t find the book that I’m looking for. Meanwhile, I fall asleep. I’m woken up later by my Mom knocking on the door. She was waiting for me and has come looking for me.

...A fragment about walking up a hill on a college campus (kind of a blend of campuses that I have been on, I think). I think to myself that this is the kind of place that I often dream about, and I think I do a reality check. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what happened after that. Note: this might have been a part of the dream above, so I won't count it as a separate fragment for the competition.

Boat and Secret Bases

We are on a boat. I think we might start out in a car, actually, but our road takes us to a lake. As we start out on the water there is a sign that says “road closed”. We discuss what this might mean, since we aren’t on a road but on a lake. It seems like the lake is narrowing. There is an airplane flying overhead. The airplane dives down and then into the lake ahead of us. It goes under water and then out again, like a diving bird. It does this a couple of times. As we keep boating, we come across a fence and a gate that is blocking our way. It appears to be some kind of military base. As we approach the gate, some soldier-type guys open it for us, and then demand that we pull over to the side. They seem to not be happy with us for trespassing at this base. A man lectures us about how they have guns planted on the bridge overpass that we came through, and how they could have shot us. They are going to make us leave, or confiscate our boat, or something. I point out that the road shouldn’t be too far from where we are, so maybe we could walk to the road and call an Uber to come and pick us up. It seems to take one or two tries for this idea to get across. I don’t know if we end up taking the advice or if I just start thinking about it and the dream scene changes to us moving to land and going up a road. But we find ourselves inside a building. We walk down a hall and go downstairs. Here we come across a secret hideout for some kind of organized crime racket or corporation, or something. It is like a fancy nightclub atmosphere, but quiet and “respectable”, such as you might see the really rich and powerful villain in a movie hanging out in. I comment on how they have a secret hideout underneath a secret military base. This is amusing to me.

More Fragments

(6) Something about the American Revolution. We might be re-enacting it? Or somehow communicating with revolutionaries? This dream seems a bit difficult to follow. I’m talking with someone from Scotland. Meanwhile I’m trying to cook something on the stove. I have a tarp that keeps getting close to the burner and I’m concerned that it might catch on fire. It has started melting already.

(7) I have some bags of trash/junk. I’m planning to get rid of them to clear some space (this might be part of the stove dream above). Mom is there. I think she asks me what I’m doing with a couple of the bags. I plan to take them somewhere (to my room? My truck?).

(8) Something about aliens in a car. We might be chased by aliens. They end up getting under our seats, but then someone does this thing where they push the seats forward and pin them against the front of the car.

(9) Building something with dowel rods. There are holes in the sides of a box, but when I go to put dowel rods in it appears that some are bigger than the rods that I have. Then I see that there are tubes of a wider diameter. As the dream progresses, it seems that I’m making tubes. It seems like there are some tough guys that I need to prove myself to. I have a device that should make tubes of the diameter that we need. It involves a rotating thing mounted on a wheel (or wheels) that goes on a kind of track.

Mom’s new house

Mom buys a new house. I go to check it out. I think it’s sad that she is moving, but the house is fairly nice on the inside. It is also “finished”, which apparently the other house wasn’t. This includes cabinets and trim. We go upstairs, and it appears that they are still working on the floors. The floors are almost finished though (actually, they are finished in a couple of the rooms, I think). We find that the previous owners left a bunch of things behind. At first I think I see a cider press and get kind of excited. On closer inspection though, it appears to be some other gadget, like a potato planter. Then I think I see a cider press for real. On closer inspection, this seems to not be a cider press either. Instead, it’s something where you rotate a ball and it screws up inside of a glass globe for some reason. I think maybe it could be used to press grapes or something. I think as I look at it I see birdseed inside. I keep looking at the things that the previous owner has left, and now it seems that most of it has to do with feeding birds. There are bags of birdseed around. As we keep looking though, it turns out that the guy has kept a lot of things, like what you might find at a hardware store. There are chemicals, paintbrushes, and clothes. They are in aisles and on racks, like in a store. I wonder why he has all this stuff, and someone (my Mom, perhaps) says that he might have been a prepper and was hoarding things in case something happened. I think this is odd, because the things that he was hoarding didn’t seem like they would be particularly helpful in such a case.

Killer Whales

Walking along a beach. There are lots of people around, apparently getting ready for a festival. It is like a regatta, with lots of boats, but apparently there are killer whales involved. I think the boats are going out to fish for the whales, or something. There is a ring of buoys marking off an area near the shore, beyond which are the boats, I think. I wonder if the buoys are marking off a safe place for people to swim. People are out in the water, some of them swimming after the boats. I think to myself that I wouldn’t want to be out there among the killer whales...

I feel like the following was a separate dream from "Killer Whales", but since I'm not sure and the setting is similar I will only count this as one dream for the competition.

Walking along a beach with my brother. We are in Florida, or some place. We are also naked. There might be more than the two of us. There is something about the sand – I might be noticing how nice the sand feels on my feet or something. We come across a rock outcropping that we start to climb. Some other people are walking along the beach, and I hope to climb far enough up that they won’t notice that I’m naked. I get up to a high spot, but then get kind of nervous about being up so high and climb down a little. The dream transitions into a third person account of people on a climbing trip. They are climbing back down, but in order to do so properly they are supposed to trust their guide to lift them part of the way down. The rock outcropping seems more like a house at this point.

Aunt J’s

At Aunt J’s. My family is there. This might have been related to an earlier part in which I’m with the family in a hotel (for the sake of this account I’ll assume that it was). We are in this hotel place, at breakfast. The family is sitting around the table, and I go to get some food. There is also some coffee available, in carafes in a separate nook...At some point I decide to walk over to my cousin’s house. At about the same time as I walk in, she comes in another door. I think she might be a little disturbed to find me prowling around the house while she was gone, so I explain that I just walked in. After a bit of talking, I learn that her three dogs (which she doesn’t have in waking life) have gone missing. We aren’t too worried, it just seems like they went outside and haven’t come back yet. We go out and I think I call for the dogs. At this point, either her dogs come back or someone else’s dog comes running in. There is something about the dog seeming vicious, but me trying to get along with it. Then the dream changes into a couple of people including myself carrying heavy doors into a garage. Two of them carry a set of two doors, and I carry one by myself, playfully bragging about being able to do it on my own. I think one of the other two people is my brother, who makes some kind of retort.

At Aunt J’s, I think. I go upstairs to use the bathroom. For some reason I’m there for longer than I want to be – I think people have come back from somewhere and I’m concerned about seeming to be in the bathroom so long (or something). Anyway, I go to get dressed and go downstairs. There is a bit of trouble standing up somehow, involving pulling myself up by a railing and getting urine on a towel or something. Then when I pull my pants up and start going downstairs I find that I had a large bag of loose-leaf tea in my pants that has ripped open. The tea leaves are spilling out and making a mess, further delaying me from going downstairs to see the people who have come along.

At some point a girl I know is talking about coming back to the other place with us to spend the night.

Not sure if this was the same dream or a different dream:

At Aunt J’s? There is a device that someone (my grandfather?) is using to siphon water into a jar for me to take with me when I go somewhere. They fill the jar with water, and another jar (at least, another jar comes from somewhere). We put these into a plastic bag along with some other items, and now I have the challenge of carrying the bag without spilling the water.

Restroom privacy issues

Going to a public restroom. I’m in one stall, but people keep coming into the restroom and for some reason that bothers me so I decide to find a different stall. There is one a couple of stalls down. I walk into this one. It is fairly large. At first I notice a mannequin set up inside the door, which is positioned so that it’s staring at the toilet. I guess that’s OK. But then I notice that there is a security guard sitting next to the toilet, along with a kid (his son, I think). I don’t really want these people watching me while I use the toilet, so I give up.

Fragment

A chipmunk or a small squirrel in my kitchen.

I have been in a bit of a dry spell lately. I took a bit of a break for a couple of days, hoping that I can start with fresh energy (probably tomorrow). Last night I was close to lucidity. I did a nose pinch RC and could still breathe. Didn't really trust it, so I tried pushing my finger through my hand. It didn't go all the way through, but it looked like it was trying to. Also, a scab appeared on the back of my hand as though I were slightly wounded. But I was getting ready to do something, and decided I didn't have time for reality checks and so I stopped.

At one point, I was falling asleep with the mantra "this is a dream". But at some point it changed, and I found myself repeating something like "this is not a dream, is it?" over and over.

This isn't so much an account of a specific dream, but more a reflection on a theme in my dreams at times. Or a feeling that I get.

Sometimes my dreams seem so monotonous and mundane that they can be a little unsettling to think about going back to. I don't know as much about the internet world as younger people probably do, but yesterday I came across the "creepypasta" thing and the "backrooms" idea specifically. Not sure I understand it entirely, but it seems to match the feeling I have with some of these dream ruts. Something so boring and monotonous that it is unsettling.

Anyway, it's interesting to me because I usually try to find the artistic or poetic side of things. I like the thought of monotony itself being intriguing.

Walking in the backyard of my old house. I come across a garden, which I apparently planted. It has been covered to protect it from frost. I look at the garden, and it reminds me of a dream sign. I do a nose pinch RC, and find that I can still breathe. I think I do another one to be sure, and then realize that I'm dreaming. I decide to go look for Synthos, I think. I try to fly, and might even succeed in getting off the ground, but then I seem to lose the dream.

Bedtime by about 10:45. 3mg melatonin, and 4 capsules of valerian - the suggested dose on the bottle is 5 capsules. This is besides the usual prescribed 60mg of fluoxetine I take each night. Had 4 cups of tea during the day and a cup of hot chocolate in the evening.

Woke up a little after 4:00. I need to work in the morning, so the following notes are brief for the non-lucid parts. I seem to recall having three lucids, but the one just seems to be fragments. As for the fragments at the end, I don’t remember exactly where they belonged in all of this.

7:50 am – trying to add to my notes, but we’ll see how the recall goes this morning.

Steampunk Book, leading to lucidity

With a girl, talking about a book. I’m interested in her, although for some reason I express this by showing my interest in the book. I even caress it. The book has steampunk themes, and it is open to a page with some machine-like diagrams. In the book, a man has gone to some place to do something. Somehow the location of the book becomes a lakeside community that I am familiar with in waking life.

People have been tinkering with cars, in a way related to the character in the book and the Steampunk-ish thing that was taking place. It’s difficult for people to control their vehicles now. Mine seems to be fine though. I start driving up a street, although I seem to find myself walking now. This is starting to seem like a dream, so I do a nose pinch RC and find that it is! I start trying to find the Dream Base, I think (I have also been focusing on looking for a persistent realm I have been trying to build, and it might have been that I was looking for). I try to imagine the place behind me, I think, and turn around. I don’t see it though. Then I think I might fly and look for it that way – the way I got to Synthos – and look for a good place to take off (I seem to be lacking confidence in just taking off from where I am). I think about flying out over the lake...

I think I found it!

A dream episode involving an aquatic creature that turned into a beautiful woman and is trying to entice me to join her...I do some kind of dance and sing while on a narrow ledge... Dreaming about “Waking up”, I think? Something odd here, like I had been dreaming that I was writing in a dream journal but it was a dream, but the journal entry was still there. Not even sure if this part was in the same dream or was in another dream.

...Walking back into the building, I see a few displays that are reminiscent of the dream that I had been having about the aquatic creature. I do a nose pinch RC, and find that I’m dreaming! I try to go looking for the dream base, by imagining it behind me (a portal?), but when I turn around I don’t notice anything different. There is a room full of people. I call out for the Dream Base library, and as I do I see words printed in the dream world that say the words that I’m calling for. One I remember specifically is the word “library”. Where is the Dream Base? Then I remember reading about asking a DC for help. I see a girl sitting at a table near me and ask her where the Dream Base is.

“It’s over there behind Tony,” she says, possibly pointing in the direction she means.

That’s nice to know, but who’s Tony? I start calling out “Tony!” and see a man that looks vaguely Hispanic/Latino sitting at another table. That’s probably Tony. I go look behind him, and see a door leading outside. By this time, I have the idea that what I’m looking for is called a “resort”, and I see a couple of people out the window in bathing suits. I go outside to find myself in a seaside area. I think I correct myself on the “resort” thing and call out for the Dream Base (or Dream Base library). Much of this time I think I’ve been somewhat frantically calling out for the Dream Base, or the Dream Base library. I decide it would be easier to focus on just saying “Dream Base”.

I’m in a small open area, a stone street surrounded by buildings. Looking up, I see a helicopter hovering nearby, as though it’s watching me. I start to look around for the Beacon Tower. I see a large round building. Looking upwards, it appears to be a short tower, ending in a squarish pillar at the top. Then I remember the light that’s supposed to be coming from the column, and a moment later I notice a streak of white across the sky above the tower I was looking at. Upon closer inspection, it seems to be a jet trail, but I’m skeptical that it wasn’t the Beacon light considering how my dreams seem to lag a bit in responding to my suggestions. [“Jet lag”? Could be a dream play on words thing]

Lucid Fragments

...Finding that I’m dreaming, I briefly stabilize the dream by feeling the brickwork beneath my feet (I’m standing on something like a road or a sidewalk). Remembering previous dreams and my hypothesis that I’ve been spending too much time on stabilizing and not enough on engaging with the dream, I move on. I rush towards some trees...
...Another lucid confirmed by a nose pinch RC...

...Looking for the Dream Base beacon tower, I look out a window. I think I see a tall sign, of the gas station sort....

...Looking for the Dream Base, I see some trees...

Another one of those nights where I woke up a little after 4:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep for a while. This tends to be good for lucid dreaming, because I often feel too tired to get up and do a WBTB otherwise. I updated the dream journal, read some journals on Dreamviews, and read the Lord of the Rings. I also had some valerian, and a little bit of melatonin (about a quarter of a 3mg tablet, I think. I had taken a half of one before bed. It usually doesn't take a lot for me.) I eventually went back to sleep around 7:00.

The dream was kind of rambling, involving school/research related stuff, a parade, and a courthouse. At some point, I became lucid:

...At another point in time, I realize that I’m either experiencing a hypnogogic hallucination or a dream. I reach out and hold onto a cable that is running next to me, pulling myself up and also more into the dream. I’m at the top of a building, perhaps on some kind of a walkway? I make my way toward the end, where the roof of the building ends, and out onto a pole. The pole seems to be covered in a thick black grease-like substance. I lick the pole to try to stabilize/anchor myself more. I can see the ground below me, but I start to lose the dream...

This might have been a false awakening, I remember trying to get back into a dream. Something about a tube of lotion/shampoo/conditioner - something like that. I was also looking at what I thought was HI, but it seemed pretty realistic.

Notes: Frequency of lucidity is still decent. My dreams keep ending sooner than I would like though. I still have some concerns about my experimenting with silene capensis earlier in the year. It probably doesn't have much to do with it, but there is an idea in the back of my mind that it has caused my lucid dreams to be shorter. This idea itself might be causing me to lose the dreams sooner, especially if I'm just having false awakenings instead of actually waking up.

Pretzel Experiment (Lucid)

I "wake up" on the couch where I was sleeping. The neighbors are being a little noisy - at least I think I can hear them talking and/or playing music on a piano. This makes me kind of unreasonably annoyed, and I think that I will turn off the fan by my bed to be sure. If they really are making noise, I'm thinking of playing the trumpet for revenge. I go to turn off the fan, and then realize that I should do a reality check. I do a nose pinch, and find that I can still breathe. I seem to be getting more used to lucidity, because I don't doubt that I'm dreaming as much as I have before. I'm pretty convinced after that test, and I stabilize a bit by feeling the couch and then get up. I walk over to a box on my desk where I have a bag of mini pretzel sticks (I put them there for this reason). My plan is to see if I can keep myself anchored and stabilized by snacking on or just holding a pretzel stick in my mouth as I go. Somehow the process of getting out a pretzel stick is more complicated than I expected, and it obstructs my vision a little bit. This causes the dream to destabilize a bit, but I put a pretzel in my mouth and it seems to help, at least maybe a little bit. I now make my way to the door. I open the door to go outside, thinking as I do that I should have tried to expect the Dream Base to be there when I open it. When I do open the door, I think I remember seeing a bush outside or something. But the dream seems to fade after this.

Looks like I'm starting to get some of my old frequency back. I often stop practicing somewhere at this point, either getting bored or lazy or burnt out, or something. My goal this time is to keep practicing past the point where I'm starting to have decent success, and see how far I can go.

Stabilize (Lucid)

Lying in bed, I do a nose pinch and can still breathe. I decide that I’m dreaming but it feels as though I’m not quite asleep. I want to get up, but I don’t want to wake myself up in the process. I think about the “opening your dream eyes” technique, and I think I try to apply it. Anyway, I slowly try moving, and it seems like I’m still dreaming. I slowly move my arm to pull myself up out of bed. My arm feels odd and kind of tingly, as though I were sleeping on it funny. I figure that I can work with that, though. I make my way out of bed, and stand up. Things seem real-ish. It is kind of dimly light in the room, like early morning. I push my hair out of my eyes. Then I sit down on the floor and concentrate on stabilizing the dream as I had planned to do before. I repeat “stabilize” over and over a few times. Eventually, however, the dream fades out slowly. I can see a little bit of something still, but think at this point that I’m waking up and what I see is from my eyes opening just a little bit. I open my eyes all the way, but that wakes me up.

Tried to turn on the light above my bed, but it wouldn’t turn on. Neither would the lamp on the stand next to my bed (which isn’t there any longer in waking life). This is a dreamsign, so I did a nose pinch RC, I think. Then I became lucid. I remembered to stabilize, as I had planned. I felt the back of the couch that I was laying on. The dream might have faded at this point, but I think I held on to awareness and things came back. I tried the light above my bed again, but it wouldn’t turn on. I might have lost lucidity but regained it at this point. I think I felt the couch again to stabilize, but I also licked the chest by the couch that acts as another night stand. I realize that sounds weird, but licking things seems to help stabilize dreams for me. I got up off of the couch. It was dark in my room, and the lamp wouldn’t turn on. I directed the dream to give me more light, using verbal commands. I was holding the lamp as I did this, and at first I got a flash of light from the lamp. I might have continued my demands a time or two, but at any rate the room lightened up.

I decided to go outside, and wondered if I should phase through a wall. I decided to try for the door, a little worried that I might lose the dream before I got there. I made it though, and opened it after saying something about the Dream Base being on the other side (hoping it would be there when I opened the door). However, when I opened the door I didn’t see the Dream Base, as far as I could tell. It wasn’t exactly my usual surroundings though – more trees, and more parklike than the urban area I live in. I then said something like “Dream Base on the right”, and turned to look. There was a large building there, looking kind of like it was made of light colored brick. It might have just been part of the college campus or the parking garage that is there in waking life though.

I then tried to fly, possibly to search for the Dream Base or to help stabilize the dream. I picked up some gravel so that I could feel it and help to anchor/stabilize the dream. I tried flying, but was having some difficulty getting off the ground. Jumping didn’t seem to help...I think I lost the dream somewhere around here.

It's been a while since I last made a DJ post in here. Mostly because I didn't think many people would be interested in my usual dreams. I got out of the habit of lucid dream efforts, but in the past month have gotten back into it. Here are some highlights from the past month (not everything, just a couple of things I thought were more interesting):

Sunset 9/3/22

This one was interesting partly because I think it was based on someone else's dream.

There are people who mostly live inside (a place by the sea, I think). This is because an enemy has come along and is fighting against them. As long as they are inside they are safe. However, they do seem to go out in the evenings, about the time that the sun is setting. Someone asks why they do this at all, since if they stayed inside the whole time there would be no reason to fight at all. The reply is something to the effect of having to live like people, and not give up. Or, that’s what life is about. This enemy seems to have left them alone for quite some time, but after 100 years had returned. A bit like Attack on Titan. I was thinking this to myself. There is some anime-type guy fighting, and at some point he decides he is going to try to fight against death itself. Or at least that’s what I think. The place where these people are located is under a big force-field type dome, and there seems to only be the one little section with an atmosphere, which is where they live...

...Maybe the same dream, maybe earlier or later. We are in a Church, I think. There is a prize being offered to the person that names the sunset. People are chipping in a lot of money, and the prize is up over a hundred thousand dollars. When the person came around for my entry though, I think I just called it something generic like “sunset”. Also, I was supposed to give my telephone number or something, and I didn’t do that. Later, someone asks if we gave answers that were likely to win, which she thought involved several parts of a code-like response. I “wake up” later, thinking that I should have named the sunset something like “rose pink and cherry blossoms” or something like that. That reminds me of a song, and I hear people a floor below me singing it.

Movie and interesting time stuff 9/7/22

Watching a movie about war, or something. It has to do with communists. Somebody is a hero, but I don’t quite understand what’s going on because I haven’t really been watching the movie from the beginning...

...There are three guys that kind of look the same. Actually, they are the same person, I think, from three different times. There is a fourth guy that is watching them from a vehicle. Eventually they meet up, and this is also the same guy. They have a friend with them, and I think the new guy finds it quite amusing to see his old friend again, but the latest addition to the group (I think) decides that they should leave him behind. They stop somewhere, and the friend goes inside to check on something, and the four identical people leave him behind.

Time Travel Cabinet 9/9/22

Walking somewhere, trying to get away from a woman that can control minds. As we walk, one guy realizes how pretty the woman was, and kind of misses her. This seems to be related to the flowers on some plant. The woman catches up to us, but we jump into our time traveling cabinet/space ship before she can get us. We have escaped her by allowing our minds to be controlled by some other people, apparently. The woman warns us that these other people are violent. We reply that these specific people aren’t. Our ship takes off, and I try to hold the door closed without running the risk of falling out myself, I think.

Lucid in an opium den 9/12/22

I took more detailed notes this night, which may be helpful for others so I'll include them. Another note: I don't encourage drug use!! Especially not opium, or its derivatives.

4:10am – Woke up a few minutes ago. I had a lot of coffee yesterday, and I wonder if the melatonin I took is wearing off. Anyway, I’m having some heartburn and having some trouble sleeping at the moment, so I will hopefully make this into a WBTB. Drinking some baking soda water now. I don’t recall too much of dreaming prior to this, except that I dreamed someone was coughing as I lay on my left side experiencing indigestion.

5:05am – I’m going to try to go back to sleep. Hopefully it won’t be another night of difficult sleep. I might start cutting back on caffeine. I might also take some valerian, since it seems to help with the waking-sleep transition. Maybe I can WILD. Remember to stabilize, then go look for the Dream Base. Maybe I can make a portal to get there. Flying might work too.

11:15am – I did not get back to sleep until about 8:00. Woke up again just a few minutes ago.

Opium Den (lucid)

Running around a town. I think my friends want to go to a strip club, but I don’t want to go. I’m lucid! There are tunnels in the city that go down, possibly underground. There are opium dens down there, as well as at least one normal store (like a cell phone business or something). I run down one of the tunnels, and go into one of the dens. There are people sitting around the den on benches, and a man to my left that seems to be managing the place. I decide that it might be fun to take some opium and see what happens, since I’m dreaming and it wouldn’t hurt.

I go to the manager, who (if I remember correctly) gives me some challenge that I have to pass before he will give me opium. Then he shows me a box with a bunch of little containers in it, and I select one that looks kind of like a decorated egg. I walk over to a bench, opening the container as I do so. There are a bunch of grains of “opium” inside, along with little tweezers that you are supposed to use to take out the grains.

Sitting down, I try getting out a grain or two with the tweezers. This proves to be more difficult than I expected, but eventually I get some into my mouth. Pretty soon, I find myself overcome with a pleasurable, relaxing sensation. I relax into a sort of stupor, reminiscent of the feeling I had a couple of days ago while listening to a lucid dreaming hypnosis script...

I don’t quite remember what happened immediately after this. At some point I had an experience where I took a small laptop or ipad home from somewhere (the University perhaps?) and decide that I should return it. I was apparently lucid on some level - not enough to realize that there wasn’t much point in taking back the laptop, but enough to realize that I could fly there riding my guitar. I go flying up into the air, finding myself above campus near the library.

Trailer Trouble 9/14/22

In a camper trailer. There is another trailer being built nearby, which I think is too close. I notice something wrong with a little hole on the outside, apparently it is on fire. I go out to look at it, and see that it is sparking even when it is not actively burning. I unplug some things from it, which then involves me running around to at least three different generators and unplugging things...

...(not sure if this is the same dream) some villains are trying to attack. I try to drop rocks down on them from above...

...(still not sure if this is the same dream) villains are trying to get into the trailer. I think they succeed, and take someone hostage(?) They take them somewhere under water. It turns out that they can breathe while they are there...

...Meanwhile, back at the trailer (I think) we’re getting thirsty. There doesn’t seem to be any water. But then Dad goes up on a hill, and after following him I find that he is still there with at least one other guy (I think) next to a deep hole that they dug. At the bottom of the hole is some muddy water. I wonder why they don’t dig the well deeper, but apparently the water level doesn’t change, or doesn’t get any cleaner, or something. There is a shallower hole nearby that also has water in it. Yay! I think there might be a dog there too. They offer me a cup of filthy water. If you let it set a bit, the mud goes to the bottom and the water is sort of clean...

...But look out! The worms are coming! Big worms. Apparently, man-eating worms. We go back to trailer (unless this happened earlier and this is afterwards, but I’ll go with the hypothesis that this is in order of events). The worms attack. We fend them off somehow, although I think at least one person is dragged away. Or maybe that was the second time. The worms attack again, bigger this time...

...Inside the worm, it turns out that these aren’t actually worms but machines that look like worms. There are people inside, tramping down some long industrial-looking corridor. Some people have drowned in there too (I forget what the deal was, but I think a bunch of water got in there earlier somehow)...

...Somewhere there was a bit about Mom (I think) trying to convince me that I should study underwater worms. There are two options, worms on land, and worms underwater. You get to scuba dive to see the underwater worms, but they look kind of scary to me...

Sick Cat and Donald Trump 9/19/22

Someone has a dead, or dying cat. It’s on a flat plate, like a large microscope slide (the animal is flat too, and almost microscopically thin). They are trying to get some help. Someone comes along and gets involved. It seems that the cat can be helped, but they need a place where they can put it for a while. This person decides that Donald Trump might be willing to lend his condo. They go up to a posted sign that has a number you can call if you need to reach the president, and call him. I go outside, reflecting that Donald Trump would probably be willing to help out...

Had a brief lucid dream 9/20. Then took a little break from journaling. Started again today, and had this dream last night:

Lucid at the apartment 9/28/22

Walking towards the back of the property where I currently live. There is another house to the left, and the Front House to the right. It seems to be set up a bit like the house at C- used to be. The back house isn’t in its normal place. There seems to be another large building back there, but it isn’t the back house. I think to myself that this might be a dream. I say something to myself like: “This is probably a dream, sir.” I do a nose pinch RC, and find that I’m dreaming. I think for a moment about my goals, and remember that I was going to try to find the Dream Base. I think to myself that I had at least one other goal, but the only one that came to mind was the Dream Base. I recognize this as being an artifact of dreaming – it seems a little difficult at times to remember things from waking life clearly. Anyway, I look around for the Dream Base beacon, and I think I see a light or two in the distance. They look like regular lights though, like a building or cell tower. But then I apparently lose the dream. Unless it's an FA or the Void.

01/19/22

I woke up around 5:00 with some indigestion. I had hoped to go back to sleep, but the indigestion kept me awake for around 45 minutes to an hour. During this time I looked at some memes and read the Bible.

Looking for the Dream Base Library

I think I might be getting better at WILDing, because I don't know if I ever lost my awareness from being awake. I think, maybe (vague memory) what I have been doing is imagining myself doing a nose pinch RC, and at some point find myself doing one. Anyway, at some point I find myself aware, and possibly do a nose pinch RC. I'm dreaming, or close to it anyway. I sit up in my "dream body", continuing to do a nose pinch RC now and then. I make my way to the front door so I can get outside and do something. I find that I don't have to worry about unlocking the door, I can just open it. I walk outside. At first I think to myself that I should try to go to Synthos again, but then I remember that I had a different plan. It seems to be a bit difficult to remember at first, but then I recall the Task of the Year, to build the Dream Base!

I had decided to work on the library. But how am I going to find it? I'm in a city. I think I just start walking with the idea in my mind of the Dream Base library. I might repeat "Dream Base library" to myself as I do so. At some point I begin to lose the dream (things go black anyway). I wait it out for a few moments, and the dream returns with me standing with my face against some obstruction hanging down from above. Someone is talking to me about how we aren't allowed to stand there staring at historic buildings (which is what I look like I'm doing, I guess). I continue my search.

I think I go into a building looking for the Dream Base library. It is some kind of a store. There are a lot of interesting things there, but it isn't the library. There is a small staircase to my left. I walk up this thinking maybe it will take me there. It seems to me it just ends after a couple of steps. I find a mirror, and think maybe I can use that as a portal. But I just keep seeing my reflection in it. Then I try to envision a portal below me and try to jump through it. Nope. I think about spinning, but I'm a bit worried I'll lose the dream if I do that. I find a blank space on the wall next to me, and try to imagine the Dream Base. Then I imagine that there is a door to my left that will lead me there.

I look to my left, and there is indeed a door. It's not quite like I imagined, but it's a door anyway. Behind it is a closet. Still not the library! Oh well, the door was supposedly going to take me to the Dream Base, so I look in the closet. There are two people with me now, possibly my nieces. We start rummaging around in all the things in the closet. Someone mentions that maybe we shouldn't mess with someone else's things, but I (or someone else) point out that it's my dream so it's all my stuff (it seems like I or they mentioned me in the third person - "All Sam's stuff").

I push some things aside, and just find a wall. There are some protrusions on the wall, like something was nailed there. I find a squarish one, and pretend that it is a button that will activate something (maybe an elevator?) to take us to the Dream Base library. It gives a little, acting like a button, and then the shelves that I have been searching start to detach from the wall. The shelves and floor that we have been standing on detach from their surroundings, and become part of a hidden elevator suspended in a somewhat darkened shaft.

The elevator can be controlled by cords that are hanging down next to us. We start descending, and somehow are aware that we are going deep into the Earth (I think), on the scale of miles (or possibly "years"). Somehow I increase the speed, and now it's possibly on the scale of hundreds of miles. Also, I lose the cord, and for a moment we don't have control of the elevator. But I think I will it to come back, or somehow get ahold of it (or a new one). I stop the elevator and wrap the cord around some sculpture-like thing next to us...

Here the dream recall is a little fuzzy, or else the dream itself skipped or something. We're on the elevator platform, and someone who has joined us is trying to get back on. There is a gap between where he is standing and where we are, and it seems that in order for him to cross this gap successfully there is a specific sequence of actions that we have to do. This involves him doing something, and me pushing on a protrusion in the sculpture next to me. It takes a couple of tries to get it right. But finally he's back on board, and we are reascending the elevator.

Here is the somewhat frustrating part - I seem to think at this point that I found the library. I thought I had in the dream, but now that I'm awake I don't remember it! But in the dream, I think to myself that I could just wake up now having succeeded in my mission. Instead though, I think it would be nice to go back to where I started, because there are people waiting for us there (or something like that) and it would be fun to return and tell them what happened. We ride the elevator upwards, and the kids turn around to see the scenery below us as we go up. There seem to be animals (monkeys?) off to the sides that are throwing things at us. We reach the top of the shaft, or at least the level of the closet. I think it would be interesting to see if the elevator would keep going up, but I get off at the closet.

I'm trying to get back to my starting point. I have an idea of which direction it is, and find that I can just force my way through doors and walls to head there. I don't quite recall what happened at this point...


Grocery Store Lucid

This might be part of the Dream Base dream, but I don't exactly remember.I'm in a grocery store now, lucid I guess. Someone is making an announcement about the lucid store, I don't remember exactly what it was. One difference between the dream store and waking stores is that the food is all in plastic bags instead of other packaging. Some other things happened, which may or may not have been lucid. At some point my mother was pointing out that it was "fish season", and I could get some catfish if I wanted. I had eaten too much fish earlier though, and fish didn't sound that good to me...Some time after this, I'm discussing this dream store with someone else. One thing I like about it is that I can eat all I want and never get filled up, since it's all dream food!