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    CanisLucidus

    Reservations

    by , 06-12-2013 at 03:53 PM (826 Views)
    Another swing and a miss at meeting Art at the Alamo. But the good news is that I managed to remember (and execute) Basic Task of the Month!

    Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

    Lucid #104: Reservations

    I have a false awakening at home and stumble out of bed. I'm disappointed and slightly grouchy that I failed to achieve a lucid dream. Feeling unmotivated, I wander aimlessly through the house, contemplating how late for work I probably am. I think that it's Friday, though, and I'm looking forward to ordering pizza with the guys at the office and shooting the breeze for a while. (Nope, today's Wednesday!)

    I wind up in the exercise room but the power rack and dip station are completely missing. It's halfway converted into an office and I see the guts of a half-built computer on the floor. I kneel down to work on it, seeing that the RAM is missing and that the box is full of dust like it's been sitting there for years. I finally grasp how dreamlike this all is and become lucid.

    I rub my hands together and assemble my goals. Two come to me fairly quickly: 1) meet NewArtemis at the Alamo 2) go water-skiing.
    (Oops, Advanced Task of the Month is actually parasailing.) I move into the master bedroom where I see Wife standing nearby as my two young children E and R run around the room. I announce that I'm having a lucid dream, eliciting an "Okay!" from Wife. I phase through the external wall of our house. I'm on the 2nd story, so I drift down to the driveway below, lightly brushing the branches of our oak tree with my fingers as I pass.

    It's a bright morning outside and I'm preparing to fly off for the Alamo when I hear the voice of my son E behind me. "Daddy, wait! Daaaaaaddy!" I think that it's probably smartest to ignore him but I can't help looking back. Somehow he's followed me outside and I see him standing about fifteen feet away, looking so small. He looks at me with enormous, pleading eyes and says, "Daddy, can I go with you?"

    I start feeling all melty-hearted and I know that resistance is futile. It'd probably be amusing to see E and NewArtemis' DCs interact anyway. "Sure, buddy," I say, scooping him up and placing him on my shoulders. I hop up into the air and we fly together over the neighborhood, heading vaguely northwest. The city's different in this direction, and we pass a park and a block of tall buildings. I decide that the Alamo is in the next block and I tell E this to cement it further in my mind. "Uh-huh!" he enthusiastically agrees.

    When we hit the next city block, though, I'm disappointed to find no sign of the Alamo. There's a river running east-west with a simple stone bridge crossing it and a walkway on either side. I shout down to the DCs milling around below: "The Alamo's supposed to be right here! Which way is it?"

    A blonde lady walking with her daughter points westward toward the bridge. "It's that way, just past the bridge!" I thank her, land, and walk under the bridge with E still on my shoulders. We emerge to see the Alamo up ahead but there's some kind of enormous line out front. I feel the urge to get in line and patiently wait but remind myself that this is my dream and it is therefore okay to be a bit of a jerk. I stride to the front of the line where I find a restaurant host holding a clipboard. It's apparent to me that the Alamo has been converted to some sort of amazingly popular restaurant.

    The host asks me whether I have reservations. "Of course," I say. "Check under [CanisLucidus]."

    "Ah yes!" he responds. "Party of fifteen. Your table's almost ready."

    Fifteen people? "[NewArtemis] is in our group, isn't that right?" But the host wanders off, saying that he'll "be right back."

    I decide to give him a moment before prodding the dream plot onward. I remember Task of the Month (speak gibberish to a DC and see how they respond.) A sour-looking girl of about eight with brown hair and freckles is waiting nearby, sitting on a piece of luggage. "Ooooooga booga booga!" I exclaim.

    She looks very annoyed. "Can we please just skip the whole 'Mess with DCs' show?" I hear her fine, but her response shocks me into just saying, "What?" She sighs dramatically and repeats herself: "I said can we skip the whole 'Mess with DCs' show? Have you seen how long this line is? I am not in the mood."

    Amused, I turn away. Good enough for me. I want to keep things rolling, so I announce to the unseen host, "So my table's ready then, right?"

    The host scurries back into view. "Sorry for the wait, sir. Mr. Graham was napping and needed to be woken up. Who schedules a lunch for a nap?" he says with a laugh, even though I haven't the faintest idea what he's talking about or who "Mr. Graham" is. "Right this way," says the host, and I follow, now holding E by the hand. We're moving through a wood-paneled hallway into the restaurant interior
    when the dream ends.

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    Comments

    1. Ctharlhie's Avatar
      While I've had numerous false awakenings in my life (most before getting into LDing, including an 8 nightmare FA chain!) I've never had an FA where I start playing out the whole morning! It can shake you up a bit

      I drift down to the driveway below, lightly brushing the branches of our oak tree with my fingers as I pass.
      ^This is a really nice detail.

      It's a bright morning outside and I'm preparing to fly off for the Alamo when I hear the voice of my son E behind me. "Daddy, wait! Daaaaaaddy!" I think that it's probably smartest to ignore him but I can't help looking back. Somehow he's followed me outside and I see him standing about fifteen feet away, looking so small. He looks at me with enormous, pleading eyes and says, "Daddy, can I go with you?"

      I start feeling all melty-hearted and I know that resistance is futile. It'd probably be amusing to see E and NewArtemis' DCs interact anyway. "Sure, buddy," I say, scooping him up and placing him on my shoulders.
      I felt all 'melty-hearted' reading this and I'm not even a father!
      I decide to give him a moment before prodding the dream plot onward. I remember Task of the Month (speak gibberish to a DC and see how they respond.) A sour-looking girl of about eight with brown hair and freckles is waiting nearby, sitting on a piece of luggage. "Ooooooga booga booga!" I exclaim.
      Snappy execution of the TotM there.

      Your LD rate continues to be killer, I don't know how you do it.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    2. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Ctharlhie
      While I've had numerous false awakenings in my life (most before getting into LDing, including an 8 nightmare FA chain!) I've never had an FA where I start playing out the whole morning! It can shake you up a bit
      Yeah, these are so weird! I've had ones where I play with my kids, wander the halls, check DV or Facebook... crazy. Getting cranked back up on SSILD has got me facing loads more of these now and I'm currently a bit fumble-fingered about catching them. I'm trying though!

      An 8-false awakening chain?? That is absolutely nuts. Your head had to be spinning so bad by the end of all that. When you finally did wake up, you had to just feel paranoid as hell about... well, reality itself. Amazing.

      Quote Originally Posted by Ctharlhie
      ^This is a really nice detail.

      I felt all 'melty-hearted' reading this and I'm not even a father!
      Thanks! I checked this morning and my dreamworld had shuffled the branches a few feet over, but they'd still be reachable in a good phase.

      Oh those children / loved one DCs, man... even though you know that they're just a dream character. Man. They're your model of that person, you know? The part of them that you carry around with you when you're away from them. That kid's DC knows just how to get to me.

      Quote Originally Posted by Ctharlhie
      ^Snappy execution of the TotM there.

      Your LD rate continues to be killer, I don't know how you do it.
      Thanks very much on both counts! I'm very fortunate to be riding a hot streak at the moment. SSILD seems to be clicking for me. Thanks for helping get me fired up about it again. I'm glad that motivated me to take it for another spin!
      NewArtemis and Ctharlhie like this.
      Updated 06-12-2013 at 04:40 PM by CanisLucidus
    3. NyxCC's Avatar
      Oh yeah! Well, you don't seem to be wasting any sleep either! Congrats on the lucid and on TOTM!

      Lol! Your recent lds all seem to start the same way, with those thoughts of failure. Oh come on, Canis, you totally rock!

      It's so cute you decided to take your little boy with you and succeeded in flying together. Also very cool that he didn't change shape and was with you the whole time. I'm not sure how old your boy is (no need to answer that), but have you checked with him after you woke up?

      And the rest of the dream is so funny. Lol!

      Can we please just skip the whole 'Mess with DCs' show.
      NewArtemis and CanisLucidus like this.
    4. Iokheira's Avatar
      I love how you and your son interact Gah, makes me want kids. And the girl's response was hilarious!

      Hey, what do you say for your MILD technique and what exactly do you do for it? I say I'm going to get lucid and know I'm dreaming but it never really works. One of these days.
      NyxCC and CanisLucidus like this.
    5. NyxCC's Avatar
      @ Art

      I know the Q was for CL, but thought I'd share.
      I have recently been trying to incorporate MILD pre bed and during WBTB. I usually do a mantra "I am dreaming" combined with DS review, this is also something like a long mantra "Whenever I see DS1, I realize that this is a dream, whenever I see DS2, I realize this is a dream....and so on". I know using visualization with the DS would be even better. It has become a bit automatic as I don't put enough effort and I still don't very often recognize a DS, but I keep practicing it and maybe my subcon is getting it? It doesn't hurt trying it for 5 min pre bed or after a natural toilet WBTB.
      CanisLucidus and NewArtemis like this.
    6. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by NyxCC
      Oh yeah! Well, you don't seem to be wasting any sleep either! Congrats on the lucid and on TOTM!

      Lol! Your recent lds all seem to start the same way, with those thoughts of failure. Oh come on, Canis, you totally rock!
      Thanks, Nyx, that's a really nice thing to say! You know, you're right that I've had a bunch of these false awakenings where I'm crying in my whiskey because I failed to get lucid. I need to start treating these little pity-parties as a dream sign!

      I finish up WBTB getting myself all psyched up about how lucid I'm going to get and then when I "wake up" in the morning having "failed", I really don't deal with it very well. Dreaming seems to strip away nearly all of my emotional maturity. =) I think that your advice here is great... what I should be doing keeping this confidence rolling through the morning. When I wake up without an LD, I should try to change things around so that my reaction goes from feeling sorry for myself because I failed to thinking No way I missed! Anything to make my skepticism kind of auto-engage, even if it does sound incredibly arrogant.

      Quote Originally Posted by NyxCC
      It's so cute you decided to take your little boy with you and succeeded in flying together. Also very cool that he didn't change shape and was with you the whole time. I'm not sure how old your boy is (no need to answer that), but have you checked with him after you woke up?

      And the rest of the dream is so funny. Lol!
      Thanks! He and I have had a couple of these great moments together and it's truly awesome. Sometimes he's a handful (he tends to run off or sometimes hurt himself, which is hard on my lucidity) but at the same time it feels great having him around. The best one with him was several months back, when I flew him up to the aurora borealis for a Task of the Month: Aurora Borealis - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

      And yes, I checked with him this morning! =) Unfortunately, he had no recollection of this dream but he was fascinated to hear about mine. It wasn't out of the question since he's had some great dreams himself, including a handful of lucids!
      NewArtemis and NyxCC like this.
    7. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by NewArtemis
      I love how you and your son interact Gah, makes me want kids. And the girl's response was hilarious!
      Thanks, Art! You're going to make such an awesome mom. However, if you'd instead like me to help you want to wait on having kids, I can give you plenty of stories to help from that direction too. LOL.

      Yeah, I thought the girl was so funny! She really surprised me. Good for her not taking any of my bullcrap!

      Quote Originally Posted by NewArtemis
      Hey, what do you say for your MILD technique and what exactly do you do for it? I say I'm going to get lucid and know I'm dreaming but it never really works. One of these days.
      For MILD, I do lots of visualization of a dream scene that I want or am interested in and repeatedly imagine the moment where it hits me that it's all a dream. Then I rewind, maybe change it up slightly, then again visualize myself realizing that it's all a dream, saying that it's all a dream, remembering what I wanted to do, etc. I do that over and over and over.

      I have a pretty strong imagination, but yours is even stronger, so I think that you'll find this part of the practice really enjoyable. I make it something that I enjoy all on its own. I don't care how long it goes on or when I'll actually start dreaming. I just enjoy this fantasizing/"practice dreaming" for what it is. This helps take the pressure off and ease the risk of insomnia (which for me often comes from anxiety about insomnia.)

      For mantras, I do a lot of, "It's all a dream." and "I'm dreaming" and "I know that it's all a dream." I just basically try to practice over and over both the dream content that I want and the moment of lucidity. Since I've been doing SSILD, I've lost some of my ability to steer my dream content a bit the way I can with MILD.

      A great guideline for MILD is Naiya's technique. This was the framework that I based mine off of: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...technique.html
      NewArtemis likes this.
    8. NyxCC's Avatar
      I finish up WBTB getting myself all psyched up about how lucid I'm going to get and then when I "wake up" in the morning having "failed", I really don't deal with it very well. Dreaming seems to strip away nearly all of my emotional maturity. =)
      Oh, you are not the only one. After starting to more aggressively Ld I feel like I have opened Pandora’s box of emotions. I’m either ultra excited or having some unhealthy thoughts of regret, etc. I sometimes can’t recognize myself, just when I thought I managed to have a calmer attitude towards most things in life, I am back at emotions’ square one.

      what I should be doing keeping this confidence rolling through the morning. When I wake up without an LD, I should try to change things around so that my reaction goes from feeling sorry for myself because I failed to thinking No way I missed! Anything to make my skepticism kind of auto-engage, even if it does sound incredibly arrogant.
      Not arrogant at all! I agree and like the wording you used to relate to the advice. Go for it!

      It wasn't out of the question since he's had some great dreams himself, including a handful of lucids!
      Hey, that’s great! I think CL Jr. may soon be joining the lucid apprentice club.

      The best one with him was several months back, when I flew him up to the aurora borealis for a Task of the Month
      Thanks for posting this entry - it is absolutely fantastic, and great to have shared it with the little fellow too. Your dream control in that entry is remarkable, you made the sun go down, created an Aurora borealis, flew and added sound to that! If only one could make a short video clip of it to let all the people on the planet know what lucid dreaming is about! Oooops, I think I got too emotional again….

      CanisLucidus likes this.
    9. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by NyxCC
      Oh, you are not the only one. After starting to more aggressively Ld I feel like I have opened Pandora’s box of emotions. I’m either ultra excited or having some unhealthy thoughts of regret, etc. I sometimes can’t recognize myself, just when I thought I managed to have a calmer attitude towards most things in life, I am back at emotions’ square one.
      Have you found this overflowing into waking life as well or is it strictly a dream life thing? On the whole, I find emotions more or less the same in waking life (apart from overpowering joy right after an LD! ) But during any dream, even a lucid dream, emotion can really have its way with me. Paranoia is one of the most ruinous ones for me.

      Quote Originally Posted by NyxCC
      Not arrogant at all! I agree and like the wording you used to relate to the advice. Go for it!

      Hey, that’s great! I think CL Jr. may soon be joining the lucid apprentice club.
      Thanks! And I certainly hope that he keeps and maintains his abilities. He's a very, very young child so it's not something he focuses on, but simply does, even if only occasionally. That's sometihng I'd like to see him hang on to. (His dad, on the other hand, has to wake up in the middle of the night, perform bizarre rituals, and sometimes ingest interesting substances to hit those LDs. )

      Quote Originally Posted by NyxCC
      Thanks for posting this entry - it is absolutely fantastic, and great to have shared it with the little fellow too. Your dream control in that entry is remarkable, you made the sun go down, created an Aurora borealis, flew and added sound to that! If only one could make a short video clip of it to let all the people on the planet know what lucid dreaming is about! Oooops, I think I got too emotional again….
      Thanks for the kind words! That's a really special one to me. Had a nice self-fulfilling spiral of positive emotions that I think allowed all of that dream control. That level of performance was exceedingly rare for me at the time, but I just felt so good that of course anything was possible. That's a great feeling.
      NyxCC likes this.
    10. NyxCC's Avatar
      Have you found this overflowing into waking life as well or is it strictly a dream life thing? On the whole, I find emotions more or less the same in waking life (apart from overpowering joy right after an LD! ) But during any dream, even a lucid dream, emotion can really have its way with me. Paranoia is one of the most ruinous ones for me.
      Well, after Lds I am a bit hyped up, so I guess the extra dopamine raises my emotion levels throughout the day. I think this is hardest for my bf who has to listen to my stories, while I'm trying to convince him how cool all that is. Emotions during dreams can be quite overwhelming and are more intense and frequent than real life, although I am slowly learning to keep my cool. You can say that I have recently been a bit more emotional in real life and a bit less emotional in LDs (you never know with women?). I have also found out that some supps tend to amplify my emotions, B6 being the main culprit.

      Thanks for the kind words! That's a really special one to me. Had a nice self-fulfilling spiral of positive emotions that I think allowed all of that dream control. That level of performance was exceedingly rare for me at the time, but I just felt so good that of course anything was possible. That's a great feeling.
      It feels like a special dream. Thanks for sharing and I wish you lots of fantastic experiences like this one.
      CanisLucidus likes this.