Delenn's dream journal

I haven't been paying attention to dreaming much lately. Life has been getting busier. But last night I thought, "I'm going to lucid dream." And I did! It was a little different from other LDs I've had; there was no point at which I consciously thought, "I'm dreaming!" I just gradually became more aware. It was a very long dream.

I was part of a group of people who had to recapture some kind of relic from an underground place. It was being held by enemies of some kind, maybe orcs. I see it--a small glowing thing--on a ledge about 50 feet away. We manage to sneak by the orcs and capture the relic. Suddenly Sarek of Vulcan appears. I say something like, "Sarek, it's an honor to have your here." He replies, "Your name is no less esteemed." (Seems like a very Sarek thing to say.) I get the impression that we are doing a good job on our missions vs. the bad guys.

We casually walk out of the place without anyone stopping us. We might've had disguises; I don't remember. Just as we're going through some large double doors, there's an uproar behind us. One of the group, a white woman, shoots up in the air and starts flying. I think for a second that, "Whoa, she just did that. Maybe I can too." So we leave all our bags behind and just shoot up in the air. It was around this time that I became lucid. I was thinking that my dream-flying was different from any other time I've done it, that I was more "floaty". I was really enjoying myself. I thought about how I was really lying in bed, and I knew I was starting to wake up. I focused on the face of the woman beside me, in an attempt to stabilize the dream. I don't know her face. The stabilization works, and I stay asleep!

Later we are in a shopping area, a cute strip mall or something. I think, "I want my backpack." (The one I left behind.) I hold out my hand and make it appear beneath me! This is another 'first' for me. I felt like Q from Star Trek, making something appear just by willing it to happen! Later we are in a different shopping area. I remember the pumpkin challenge for October. There's one pumpkin right in front of me, but it's already broken open and there is trash inside. I go looking for another pumpkin. There's a nice orange one. I plan on using my hand to cut it open, but then I think, "This isn't my pumpkin.. maybe I should ask if I can cut it open." I smile at this person, a black woman. I ask if I can open the pumpkin and she says yes. But at that time the dream abruptly ends.

I have some funny dream logic. What do I need with bags in a dream, anyway? And do I really need permission to open a pumpkin in my own dream? Silly brain.

I'm walking around my mom's house. I'm naked. I think, "Why am I naked? This isn't right. I'm dreaming!" I think about my body lying in bed. I have the odd sensation of being both horizontal and vertical at the same time. I wake up.

Though it was short, I'm taking this as encouragement! Lucid dream #4.

I took last night "off" from attempting to remember my dreams and lucid dream. I don't think I sleep as well when I do that. I was headache-y and just not feeling good as a result. I did remember one dream from last night anyway--I dreamed I was a member of SG-1 (from the show "Stargate SG-1"). Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill were there. We were talking about getting the team back together. I'm excited about the idea, but say that I would need some training. I've been out of action for a while.

I was happy to get a good night's rest, though this came at the cost of dream progress. I'm not willing to sacrifice the quality of my sleep, at least on a constant basis. I'm also not willing to sleep much more than usual. I have a lot to do in waking life! I do not want to give up on lucid dreaming though, by any means.

I talked with my husband. Turns out he's actually a really talented lucid dreamer. (I'm not sure why we haven't talked about it before.) He suggested I get *really* specific about my dream goals. Instead of saying, "I want to say hello to someone", I should decide who I want to meet, where we're going to be, what clothes we will be wearing, etc. Every detail I can think of. He suggested I say "Hello" to Carl Sagan, and then ask him for his apple pie recipe!!! I love that man so much. (My husband. Oh, and Carl Sagan.)

I have tomorrow off, so I can sleep in. Time for some dreaming!

I had several non-lucid dreams. None particularly memorable, but I did observe something interesting about how I dreamed. I remembered one dream fragment, and one lengthy dream before my WBTB alarm went off. This tells me that lucid dreaming is possible before WBTB because obviously I was already having dreams. I had some other dreams after my actual wake-up alarm, but I don't remember them. I also hit my snooze a few times, and each time I drifted into a short dream. These are more lucid opportunities, supposing I extended my "snooze" to 20 or 30 minutes.

I've been contemplating why I want to lucid dream. "Because it's cool" is not a good enough reason; plenty of things are cool and do not require so much time and effort. I think the answer may lie in just wanting to be more observant and aware at all times, including my dreams. I have always had a fascination with the freedom that lucid dreaming offers, too. Why do you lucid dream?

I read the October dream challenges. I'm hoping to accomplish at least #1: finding a pumpkin and seeing what's inside.

For some reason I want to try to lucid dream again. I thought about it a few days ago. That evening I had a lucid dream! I was pretty excited to have one after months or years of not thinking about lucid dreaming at all. I got to fly, and I kissed someone. Heh!

One interesting point is that the evening of my lucid dream, I was woken up at 5am by an Amber Alert on my phone. It was very loud and I woke up very abruptly. My lucid dream came after I fell back asleep.

I used this information the next night: I set an alarm for 5 hours after I went to bed. It did not work (I had no lucid dreams), but I will keep experimenting with this idea.

I have started my paper dream journal again. My dream recall is improving already. I also read about the All Day Awareness method (ADA)-- basically becoming more aware in my every day life, and thereby becoming more aware when I am dreaming. In this way the entire day becomes one big reality check. As I am a beginner I decided to focus on just one sense at a time--sense of smell, sense of sight, etc. Sense of smell is especially difficult for me because I don't think I have a very good sense of smell.

My goals right now are:
1. Lucid dream again.
2. Say hello to someone in that lucid dream. This is a modest goal, but honestly I can't recall ever purposely speaking to someone in a lucid dream. I am naturally a quiet person so this doesn't surprise me. I think just speaking aloud will be a good first step.
3. Increase awareness in my every day life.

I am going to start keeping track of how many lucid dreams I've had. I know I've had at least 5 in the past, but because I can't recall exactly how many, I'm just going to start the count over at 1.