Become a dv.com member, Click here to register!
    • Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




    View RSS Feed

    CanisLucidus

    Under Construction

    14 Comments
    by
    CanisLucidus
    , 04-25-2013 at 03:47 PM (879 Views)
    The good news for this LD is that the light switches worked great! The bad news is that my prospective memory wasn't the best and my DC summons didn't work like they should, but I had fun trying. Some more focused mental prep and reminding myself of my goals would have helped, I think, so I'll just blame the short WBTB.

    Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

    Lucid #89: Under Construction

    I'm walking down a hall in my office with my friend "Leroy" and one other guy. The hallway is dimly lit and even though we're far from any windows, somehow I know that it's night outside. We're looking for some room that we can use to host a remote meeting that's scheduled to start in a few minutes.

    The door at the end of the hall has been replaced with a thick sheet of plastic and the entire area looks like it's under construction. I think, "How do I know that this isn't a dream?" and     I become lucid. I run my fingers over the wall, and it feels just like the walls at the office. "[Leroy], I'm having a lucid dream." Leroy doesn't respond and just stares robotically ahead. I continue to mutter about how I'm dreaming, but the target audience is really just me -- Leroy seems to have checked out.

    We reach the end of the hall and I phase through the plastic into the next room, which should be a large, windowed room of cubicles, adjoining offices and meeting rooms. The windows are there but all of the furniture is missing and the room is incredibly dark. I reach for a switch on the wall without looking, knowing that it will be there, and flip it. The lights come on and I watch as the room quickly populates itself with gym equipment! I see a treadmill, a couple of stationary bikes, and a weight tree with 45-pound plates appear. I stare at the weight tree for a moment, and the image wavers self-consciously, forming odd little rectangles and finally disappearing entirely.

    I decide to "give the room a moment", and look over my right shoulder at the wall for a few seconds and then look back. The room is still mostly the same but now there are five or six arcade-style redemption games arranged back to back in a circle in the middle. (The sort of ticket-winning games that you might find at Chuck E. Cheese's.) I take a quick lap around the games to size them up. During the lap I notice that Leroy is still standing by the room entrance and still seems unresponsive, so I don't worry too much about him.

    I have the nagging sense that I'm supposed to be doing something but I can't remember what it is. I try to think of the tasks that I had planned but nothing comes to mind, not Task of the Year or Task of the Month. I remember talking with NewArtemis about trying to see whether her DC could shapeshift the way that she can in dreams, so I attempt a handshake summon, averting my eyes and extending my right hand. I do it incorrectly, though, more asking for her to show up rather than expecting that she will. Nothing happens for a while and at the end I rather pathetically say, "[NewArtemis], don't leave me hanging!"

    Now I've become fixated on summoning so I decide to try getting Xanous to join the scene. Again I do the handshake summon, but the result's the same. I think of shapeshifting again and realize that Xanous can do this too. For some reason I remember that he uses the term "blutbad" in conjunction with shapeshifting so I randomly blurt out "Blutbad!" like that's going to help somehow. No idea what that was all about, but it doesn't work!

    Edit: I remembered one more part of the dream. I give up on the summoning for a moment and try speaking directly to the dream. "Show me something important!" Nothing happens, though, and I try this twice more before giving up.

    Amazingly, the thought of simply phasing through the walls and flying off into the night doesn't occur to me. I turn my attention to the redemption games, hoping that this could be fun and might even reanimate Leroy. I stand in front of one machine that's about 6 feet high and has a joystick on the front and a tall, tapering tower of lights inside its case. The lights are illuminated in a wave that moves repeatedly from top to bottom. I place my hand on the joystick, noting the little red button on top, and the dream starts to fade. I feel it coming and ready myself for DEILD, but     when I emerge from the dream I'm too awake to go back in.
    NyxCC, PennyRoyal, Xanous and 1 others like this.

    Submit "Under Construction" to Digg Submit "Under Construction" to del.icio.us Submit "Under Construction" to StumbleUpon Submit "Under Construction" to Google

    Updated 04-25-2013 at 09:56 PM by 57387 (added one small section I had forgotten)

    Categories
    lucid

    Comments

    1. PennyRoyal's Avatar
      Nice, more lucids! Congrats CL

      I can't help but chuckle that your boy Leroy just sat there haha.

      Some more focused mental prep and reminding myself of my goals would have helped, I think, so I'll just blame the short WBTB.
      Out of curiosity how long are your WBTBs? Do you do WBTB every night?
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    2. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Nice, more lucids! Congrats CL

      I can't help but chuckle that your boy Leroy just sat there haha.
      Thanks, PennyRoyal! Yeah, Leroy didn't do jack this time. LOL. I checked my tags and this is the fourth dream where he's popped up and for some reason he's always way less interesting in-dream than in real life. I guess that he was being used primarily as scenery in the earlier dream scene and I didn't bother to interact with him much and force him to "grow" as a DC. Sometimes I wind up with DCs of friends that are very passive and unresponsive but in other dreams those same people are far more interesting and highly interactive.

      Out of curiosity how long are your WBTBs? Do you do WBTB every night?
      I definitely WBTB on any night where I plan to have a lucid dream. It's very, very rare for me to have an LD without a WBTB. I tend to wake naturally at some point in the night. If this natural awakening doesn't happen, happens too late, or I wake up feeling super tired, I figure it's my body telling me that it's in no mood to stay up so that I can have a lucid dream.

      I typically shoot for a 30 minute WBTB. I throw on these tinted safety glasses that block blue wavelengths of light and usually read, surf, or watch something on my Kindle during this time. (I look cool, let me tell you!) I also go over 1-2 lucid goals in my mind, question reality, read DJ entries, that sort of thing. Last night I'd gotten up relatively late for a WBTB and felt a bit wired. I didn't want to just waste the morning on insomnia so I only stayed up for about 8-10 minutes before getting back in bed.
    3. PennyRoyal's Avatar
      I guess that he was being used primarily as scenery in the earlier dream scene and I didn't bother to interact with him much and force him to "grow" as a DC.
      He could have made a very useful place to hang your coat had you been wearing one

      I typically shoot for a 30 minute WBTB. I throw on these tinted safety glasses that block blue wavelengths of light and usually read, surf, or watch something on my Kindle during this time. (I look cool, let me tell you!) I also go over 1-2 lucid goals in my mind, question reality, read DJ entries, that sort of thing. Last night I'd gotten up relatively late for a WBTB and felt a bit wired. I didn't want to just waste the morning on insomnia so I only stayed up for about 8-10 minutes before getting back in bed.
      Thanks CL, I've been considering extending my WBTBs a bit since I'm starting to fall asleep much easier these days now that the newness is waning

      Ah, I use a program called Flux on my computer for the same purpose. I have a pair of Gunnar "gaming" glasses I won as a lovely parting gift after getting my butt handed to me in a SC2 tournament by a 13 year old korean boy lol.. but I don't think I even took them out of the packaging.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    4. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Thanks CL, I've been considering extending my WBTBs a bit since I'm starting to fall asleep much easier these days now that the newness is waning

      Ah, I use a program called Flux on my computer for the same purpose. I have a pair of Gunnar "gaming" glasses I won as a lovely parting gift after getting my butt handed to me in a SC2 tournament by a 13 year old korean boy lol.. but I don't think I even took them out of the packaging.
      Cool, see how the longer WBTB works for you. LaBerge did a study on this that OpheliaBlue pointed me toward a long time ago. This is what made me adopt a 30-minute WBTB: Wakefulness Makes Lucidity More Likely It actually says that longer than 30 minutes is better but for me that is way less practical.

      LOL @ your 13-year-old Korean opponent. Yeah, I run f.lux on my PC as well! It's very nice. I don't know of a comparable app on the Kindle, and the glasses are also good so I can fire the lights up when I use the bathroom, deal with the dogs if they're acting crazy, etc. and still minimize my blue light exposure.
    5. PennyRoyal's Avatar
      LOL @ your 13-year-old Korean opponent.
      Hahaha, it was an embarrassing moment. I don't usually subscribe to racial stereotypes... but man..Koreans can really play Starcraft
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    6. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Indeed they can! If we had dedicated Starcraft cable channels in the United States the way they do in Korea, we'd be pretty good too.

      And I've found 13-year-olds incredibly effective at real-time strategy, however much I like to pretend that my supposed "maturity" and "strategizing" ought to be helping me.
      PennyRoyal likes this.
    7. NyxCC's Avatar
      Good job, CL! Looks like April is a good month after all!

      I'm so much the opposite in term of WBTB timing, I need 5-10 mins max, wake myself just a bit, otherwise my mind turns fully on and all hell breaks loose. That's also the reason why napping is hard for me to implement, although I had 2 lucids out of 3 spontaneous naps a while ago.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    8. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Thanks!! It feels good to have my confidence back... I was having a tough time hitting my rhythm earlier this month, so this little streak has been nice.

      Yeah, I've really had to play with intervals as well! I went through a patch where I dealt with a lot of insomnia but gradually it's become more natural for me to go to sleep passively and with less worry. A big thing for me was learning to not allow my worries about insomnia to cause... more insomnia. One thing that helped was learning to enjoy laying there quietly and visualizing without worrying about whether I slept. This actually made it easier to fall asleep because I felt happier and more relaxed than before. Still, insomnia can get me every once in a while, especially if I overdo WBTB caffeine!

      It sounds like you're way ahead of me on lucid napping! I have had one nap LD that I can definitely remember... there may have been one more, but that would be it. So the fact that you've had 2 in your last 3 naps sounds pretty awesome to me!
      NyxCC likes this.
    9. NyxCC's Avatar
      A big thing for me was learning to not allow my worries about insomnia to cause... more insomnia.
      Yeah, I know what you mean, there have been numerous times when I am thinking "Ok, now I have to fall asleep" and then begin to panic "I can't fall asleep, noooo!"

      It sounds like you're way ahead of me on lucid napping! I have had one nap LD that I can definitely remember... there may have been one more, but that would be it. So the fact that you've had 2 in your last 3 naps sounds pretty awesome to me!
      Yes and no actually. Those were just unplanned naps, I do that like once every two months or whenever I feel like shutting down. So on those rare occasions, I was just feeling sleepy so went to bed and the side effect was having a lucid dream. When I try to nap to induce lucid, I find it hard to fall asleep, so I usually give up. That's why I think napping is not for me. Anyways, there are still plenty of other techniques to try besides napping.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    10. Xanous's Avatar
      Dude! I love it. Sorry I let you down by not showing up. I'll try harder next time I may summon you up tonight if I get the chance and teach you to be a blutbad!

      BTW I just posted mine.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    11. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Dude! I love it. Sorry I let you down by not showing up. I'll try harder next time I may summon you up tonight if I get the chance and teach you to be a blutbad!
      That's right, my brother! Where were you? Left me hanging on a handshake? That's cold man. Ice cold.

      That would be so cool if you manage to call me up and get me to transform! I will be the baddest blutbad you've ever seen.

      BTW I just posted mine.
      Excellent, looking forward to this one!
      Xanous likes this.
    12. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Okay, noticed something cool today about this dream!

      I'd been working from home the past couple of days so I haven't been to the office since having this dream. Today when I went into work... the hallway that I dreamed about is under construction! The wallpaper is being changed and the little pseudo-baseboards are ripped up. There's no plastic sheeting over the room where the arcade games were and everything looked normal in there. (And yeah, no gym equipment either.) But the initial hallway is being renovated, something I didn't know until this morning.

      Now I'm not a big "Beyond Dreaming" kind of guy, but I still find this kind of thing very cool.

      Edit: The carpet's also changed. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the carpet looked like in the LD!
      Xanous and NewArtemis like this.
      Updated 04-27-2013 at 01:20 AM by CanisLucidus
    13. Xanous's Avatar
      I've pulled info from a dream before. It's hard to say if it was a coincidence or real. I'd like to believe it can happen but, for me, the jury is still out on a lot of those things. It's pretty cool reguardless.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    14. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      I know what you mean. I'm quite skeptical of things like this in general but I can't help but get that little thrill when it happens to me.

      Part of me thinks it's just because I finished up the Waggoner book recently and he got to me. I found the book equal parts intriguing and hippy-dippy so it was a nice, mind-expanding thing to read. I think even without reading that book, though, this would have surprised me.
      Xanous likes this.