dream fragment

Old one!

1. (Fragment)

Lucid - although I barely remember. I stand at my kitchen counter in blue darkness, my mum on the other side, and pinch my nose for a reality check. It fails, and I know that I am dreaming - I wonder faintly how to keep my mum from finding out.

2.

I dream a song - it is a rap or more accurately, spoken. I recall hearing it in full, with distinct rhythm and what felt to be profoundly meaningful words, though I can't remember much now.

When I think of Amy Wine/
_.._.._/
_.._..and/
Laid the foundations/
Of beauty...

The song resounds in my mind as I fly over the city and the rooftops, feeling like a shooting star. The sky fades between several hazy, painted landscapes - sunsets, mornings - beaming light and colour. They are by her - she was an artist, surely.

3.

I am walking through the streets around my home - touring someone around, perhaps - perhaps I am experiencing a TV show about my area. It feels like that - like I'm not really here. Someone else's voice in my head explains to me what I'm seeing. I pass down a cobbled street, introducing the viewer to the pastry factory on the other side of the street - although it looks like a warehouse it makes the best cakes, and they're cheap! (IRL in its supposed location there is in fact a small film studio - it does look like a warehouse.) It's evening and the sky is indigo with a blurry slice of cold yellow at the bottom. I am heading home with a spring in my step - it should be almost dinnertime.

Once I'm back in my room, I reach for something on my desk and it's not there - strange - only a gap. This makes me feel odd so I move a few other objects to fill the space and placate my suspicions. When I look over to my bedside table, too, things I thought would be there are missing. My confusion grows and I rearrange some trinkets and ornaments so it looks normal, to take my mind off the weirdness.

I check my phone; I have an email notification. My parents were discussing my always being late and what they should do about it (??). It seems I was late to dinner tonight and my dad's response was to confiscate loads of my belongings. I can't believe he'd do this without even telling me, and the next thing I find missing, I storm out to confront him about it. I can't remember his response.

4. (Fragment)

An attic dimly lit with blue light. Open cardboard boxes are about, books stacked inside. There is a bookshelf against the back wall opposite the door and a small window in the slant of the roof.

Notes:

- More technology.
- Dream music! Who else has this happened to?
- Seems like a trend (with my last lucid dream) that despite being lucid I don't want DCs to know I'm dreaming or see me do anything abnormal. I really wonder why...

I'm travelling through the Underground with my boyfriend (?). We cross a metallic grey, wide passage, leading from a tunnel to the escalators. White lights beam down from the ceiling and reflect off the walls. I walk behind him as we step onto the escalator. His broad back in front of me makes me feel safe.

Later, I am with some friends, still in the same Underground station. We step off and escalator and walk through a short tunnel towards the platform entrance. I get a shock as we enter - almost the whole platform has crumbled away, leaving narrow irregular ledges that cling to the wall, bricks sticking out here and there below. We hold close to the wall as we inch along the platform, finding our footing with difficulty. I'm terrified of falling onto the tracks.

Then I am in class, but not in a classroom. There's another, similarly dilapidated platform that we are inching along, murky water lapping almost up to the edge. I reach an unstable part with nowhere to place my feet - the next ledge is too far of a leap, and I know that the nearest foothold won't hold me. It's too small. I can't bear the thought of touching that water, so I crouch down against the wall in despair and refuse to move.

A fruitful night.

1.

I'm at school, wandering around, up and down stairs, through empty corridors. No-one is around. All the stairways and passages seem much longer than usual.

I stop on a huge landing at the bottom of the stairs, at ground floor level. The wall to outside is a large expanse of glass, shimmering panes from floor to ceiling. Outside is a raised platform paved with gravel, walled in to the left by another glassy extension to the building while the other two sides face into the open air.

A girl comes up the stairs from the basement and pauses when she sees me on the landing. She is in uniform - a younger girl - and has a ponytail of bushy, light brown hair. We talk although I can't remember what about. Then she turns to the windows and says, boldly, "I'm going to go out on to the balcony!". I gasp. The balcony is off-limits to students because it gives a clear view into the staff room (the other room on the left) and we are not supposed to see in there. She pushes open a door in the glass and purposefully walks out. I feel terrified that she'll be caught. Suddenly, my perspective shifts: I'm on the other side of the staff room, where there is no balcony, standing slightly below the ground floor level and looking in. I see, through blue glass, rows of desks with computers and chairs. I am shocked to see that the room is completely empty.

Later, I am in a brightly lit hallway on the top floor. Although there are no windows I feel very high up. I walk with another girl, who says she wants to find a bathroom - I know her, she is somewhat tall and has long blonde hair. The bathrooms are along this hallway. She says she doesn't like those tiny narrow cubicles, and prefers the wide ones, so I direct her towards one bathroom which has a few larger cubicles. She ignores me and enters the one next door, only to find every cubicle occupied. Annoyed, she returns, and we go in. It is a very bright and spacious room with white tile up the walls. We pass the sinks and turn the corner to see a row of five large cubicles, and several smaller ones opposite. A few are occupied - I see curly hair over the top of a door - but some are open, and she enters one. I hang about outside, waiting, leaning against the wall.

2.

The sun beams down on us as I cycle, with a group of others, around a gorgeous flower field. Just as I become aware of myself, I see I am crossing a broad flat wooden bridge - though no water in sight - and I look up. We are cycling over a 'path' of slightly flattened and crushed grass, which runs all round at the edge of the huge oval-shaped field. Long grasses are waving and among them crowd pink, purple, blue, red and yellow wildflowers, small, tall, pretty. The air has a sweet grassy smell and the sun shines down warmly, making the whole field glimmer. I think how it's been so long since I last cycled, but it's true that you really don't forget - it feels so free and easy, flying over the grass on my bike. Another girl passes me, lightning-fast and scarily close, causing me to lose my balance and veer over to the fence around the wide edge of the path.

I stop right by the fence and put one foot on the ground. Here is dark green, cool and shady, with climbing and overhanging foliage winding around and above the fence and the trees outside it. The fence is white and curvy, two running rails with periodic posts sticking into the ground. Ivy clambers over it and obscures much of the metalwork from view. I lean over and see a deep, muddy ditch on the other side. I'm taking a moment to rest when another cyclist - a boy this time - comes barreling up the path and almost crashes into me. He stops himself at the last minute and proceeds to angrily yell at me: "Stop by the fence, idiot!" I cry back indignantly, "This is the fence! Can't you see?". He flushes red and rapidly takes off again.

I resume cycling, though stop regularly by the fence. At one point, I look over it and see rushing water. Its calming sound washes over me as I pan my gaze across the field.

3.

School again. I am in French class, in our little room at the top of the main building. We are all chatting and gossiping with the French teacher as we often do. I start telling her about when I saw into the staff room and it was empty - and I see her expression growing almost murderous...

4.

Leaving my house, on a rather grey day, I turn to see one of the neighborhood cats sitting in the street a little further up. He's a friendly black cat (and very fluffy) so I head over to say hello. I crouch down to stroke him, and he stands, turning his head towards me while raising his fluffy tail in the air - exactly like a picture of him my dad sent me last week.

Really happy with these dreams - it's rare that I remember so many. And cat! I love dreaming about cats.

It's starting to get really quiet around here so I hope all the people who haven't been online recently will be back soon. I'm missing having everyone's DJs to read

Lucid! at last...

I'm wandering around the school, I phase through some doors and walls and do some reality checks. Seems like it's lunch break.

I am trying to follow someone, maybe he is a teacher? He has short brown hair and a stubbly beard. He's gone outside and I, in an empty classroom, decide to follow. I jump up onto the sill of the round window and hesitate, then remind myself I'm dreaming. I do a reality check (which fails) and then purposefully leap through the window glass and float down to the street.

There's a building in front of me, an abandoned-looking office building made of beige stone/concrete with dark brown windows. I wonder how to get in - I know I want to explore the right side of the building which I am standing in front of now. I try to fly up, but it takes me a minute to get the hang of flying. I take a jump and at first flutter my fingers by my sides, imagining where I want to go. It doesn't really work so I flap my arms instead, slowly, powerfully wheeling them down on the wind like a bird's wings. I propel myself upwards - too far upwards. I don't want to be above the roof of the building so I stop moving my arms. Then I fall rapidly. I start to flap once more but I can't control my direction - I am careening towards the ground and the wall. I collapse to the ground and quickly get up.

I look for another entry point to the building. There are no doors but a big window above me - from the right distance, I could take a big leap and get right through the window onto the first floor. But now, somehow, I'm worried about people in the school seeing me do that. I walk around a ways and stop in a sheltered area (maybe for parking cars?) under the building, there is a stretch of rough stone wall to the side. I could just walk through it. But, I think, this a bit far from where I want to enter, and once I'm inside I might not be able to find the right room. I pace around the building pondering my dilemma when I turn to see the man I was after returning up the road towards the school. I know it's time for class to start again so I follow him up the exterior stairs (these are new) into the school building. Alas, next time.

Fragment: some kind of superman action, leaping between office buildings in the city and stopping on a windowsill to talk to people inside.

Maybe this was just semi-lucid? I was lucid enough to know I was dreaming, I knew I could do some superhuman things and did a few RCs, but was also dragged into the plot of the dream. I never asked myself why I had to explore that building. I wish I had gone in though! Also, 4th LD, yay!

What do you think? I know lots of you have many more lucid experiences than me. What's your usual level of awareness and self-control?

I'm so annoyed with myself! I remembered this whole dream when I woke up (at 4:20) but I didn't write it down immediately because I was tired. It was really interesting, too. Now I only remember this fragment. This reminds me strongly of another dream which I never wrote down, I can't remember when it was but it was at least a couple months ago.

I'm travelling on the underground trains, but my train is stopped for some reason so I exit. I remember standing in a wide square above ground. The ground is covered with yellow gravel and the sky above is clear and bright. I stand in front of a blocky stone monument, a large slab with words carved into them. I don't think I bothered to read them.

I read about some artwork in two train stations and I want to go and see it. An artist carved messages into the platform walls, criticising two different British prime ministers. After waking up I felt like they were Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher - but surely not... That would be funny. I take the train once again and get off at the station where the first one is. The platform is wide and its wall is rough-textured, as though there is a thick layer of cement on the outside.

However upon arriving I am shocked to see the artwork almost completely gone. At the near end of the platform the beginning of one line of text is carved into the wall. At the far end finish two or three lines. Between is a smooth blank expanse of dark grey cement. I know that text once covered the lower part of this wall, but it seems to have been erased - smoothed over without leaving a trace.

I suppose that because Tony Blair (why not) became Prime Minister after all, he had the work removed to avoid damage to his reputation. This thought weighs on me. The idea of political censorship leaves a bad taste in my mouth. On the platform, the next station is Victoria.

I had a lucid dream!! Didn't last long though.

I'm in my house's small bathroom, taking a shower. The water doesn't feel very warm and the room is dark, no lights are on. I can see dimly around me - the grey tile walls, the silver shower tray (do those actually have a name??), the small window and white Venetian blind. A thin shaft of white light comes through the blind. I fall down on the floor and wonder why I can't wash my hair. Then I realise, maybe it's because I'm dreaming.

I try testing gravity by jiggling my leg and it moves in slow motion. Then I know. I feel a rush of excitement. But I know I have to stabilise the dream. I hold up my hands to examine them, but I can't see any details of them in the dark. I held them outward under the only glow of light in the room to see a bit better. The light is golden now and in a sort of dim hovering ball. I still can't see much, so I try willing the room to light up, knowing the light switches are outside.

I woke up then. Was it a false awakening, though? I immediately tested gravity again by moving my leg, and it seemed to move very slowly. But I felt so tired that I didn't really register this, just rolled over and went to sleep. I'm wondering if I actually missed a false awakening since I don't usually wake up in the middle of the night. And if I do, I'm rarely so tired that I just go back to sleep.

Still, my first DILD! Better go update my profile's LD count!

Fragment: I am on the BFI (British Film Institute) website, although it has a different name - three letters beginning with C. The homepage has a background of a wooden house surrounded by grassy fields where the wind is blowing softly. Somewhere on the site I am looking at a listing for a set of second-hand books (this is not something they would sell). The books are about the 'Crown Collection' and the series of 5 costs $8. I think this sounds pretty exciting and show my mum, but she scoffs that that is a stupid purchase. Surely I don't really want those books? I am awed by her scornful attitude.

Notes:

- Now that's the second time I've visited a website in a dream. Perhaps I should reality check when visiting websites. Just ask myself if what I'm looking at should really be on this site and why.
- The books really were priced in dollars, not pounds...
- I think a dream sign might actually be my mum being rude to me.

I'm clicking through the pages on a shopping site, which lists 'sellers' - of what, I don't know. I see a picture of each seller's head and shoulders. The only one I remember, on the last page, is a Japanese woman in a high-necked shirt with a ruffled collar, with dark brown hair in a chignon on top of her head but also twisting over her right shoulder. She seems to be middle-aged with a warm smile.

On the second-last page, under the list of sellers, is a large image of a clock and a sign saying 'Radio Tokyo' on a bustling street in the evening. A caption below says 'Write to Radio Tokyo'. I click onto the last page. Three sellers pop up (including the one described above) but after a moment they disappear. This is a problem with the site that I was already aware of, so I refresh, but am not much impressed by the sellers. I scroll past. Below, under a picture of a red light flashing in the night sky, the caption says: 'Message Joe at the Observatory'.

Then I'm sitting at a sort of bar. This place is hard to describe. It's a narrow, polished wooden table, piled on one end with books and papers, facing into an empty ordering window in the wall of a bar. There are people in there and a man is sitting next to me in a rumpled brown suit. I realise I am on the street in the 'Radio Tokyo' picture. It's late at night and all the street lamps and shop lights are on, glowing golden. There is a radio on the table in front of me with several wires and jacks coming out of it, and a pair of headphones. The man sitting next to me has one earbud in and is listening. I realise that this radio is for free listening and pick up the other earbud, holding it to my ear. I think I hear something, although I don't remember what. On the radio's narrow screen is the date: 'Today is Friday, 28th January'.

Then I am at home, at the dinner table. We have some guests here. I join in the conversation with everyone and it feels like we have had this conversation before. I get up and walk around the table to pick up a large pillow and a small thin bag from under two of the chairs, and I remember it all happening in reverse. Some other time I put all of those things there.

Our discussion makes me think of that website I was looking at. I say that now there is a cost-of-living crisis, people can't afford to be choosy even when sellers are unreliable - they have to pick the cheapest option, even knowing they won't do a good job.

It's too short for a new post, so I will also include Day 29: Night of Sunday 21.01.2024

Fragment: Half-asleep, I see my mother standing over me, asking if I feel sick. She tells me not to take a sick day from school but to think of our family's pride. She says she knows I just want to skip school because I'm too lazy to work, and I'll have a bad reputation if I always blow such trivial matters out of proportion and expect sympathy. Talk about harsh!


Notes:
- First time I've used the internet in a dream? As well as other technology - laptop, headphones, radio.
- Entered the location of a photo!
- An incorrect date, if only I'd been more aware...
- Finally, I almost completely remembered a face.
- Don't take my dream advice if you are poor and looking to hire workers.
- I haven't been practicing any techniques since I got sick, so this is all I've got since the competition. I'm better now so will get back to work and hopefully recall will go up!

I'll include Day 28 (Friday 19th) in this entry as well.

Night 13:

Fragment: I stand outside one of my school's buildings and look in through the window. It's a bow window, which differs from IRL. There's a new room next to the secretary's office, a long and narrow room, warmly lit. The floor was polished wood and inside is a TV on a stand against the near wall, facing a row of austere black school chairs. I saw one of my teachers standing in there. However, when I entered the building, I couldn't find a door into this room.

Good RCs: 1pt
WBTB (failed): 2pt
Fragment: 0.5pt
Night 13 total: 3.5pt

Night 14:

Fragment: I'm on my bed, feeling groggy. There are faceless men all around me, wrestling and fighting me. I roll around and writhe trying to kick them off. Nothing I can do seems to have an effect. I feel helpless and ill. The dream feels endless - it seems to last for hours. My head is spinning and I can barely see, my vision keeps fading and blacking out.

I woke up tossing and turning, trying to kick away my blanket, feeling horrible. Looks like I'm sick. This isn't the first time I've had this kind of dream when sick or sleeping badly. It feels like there are people all over my room, walking in and out, not letting me sleep.

Excellent RCs: 2pt
Brief meditation: 0.5pt
Fragment: 0.5pt
Night 14 total: 3pt
Competition final total: 44.5pt

Winter Competition Night 12

Most cliché dream I ever remember having. I read a lot of transmigration manga.

I've definitely had this dream before. A girl is transported into a fantasy world - I remember that she had bobbed black hair and wore a hoodie and jeans. After some back-and-forth (which I don't remember) among the society's elders, she is assigned to live with two guys who don't like her. They disapprove of the food she puts in the cupboard, her tastes, where she goes. But she has strong magic powers so they let her stay as per orders.

Another day they are watching a scene projected onto a big screen in a large, grand, wood-panelled hall (it looks a lot like an IRL place I know) when the boys cause images of a girl screaming while being electrocuted to play on the screen, intending to upset her. Enraged, her whole body crackles with electric light and she levitates out of her seat. She destroys the screen and everyone gasps out loud. She then faints and is caught by a female elder. After this incident she is given a room in the boys' house.


Fragment: Someone stole my phone! I'm floating in the blue sky at about roof-level when I see my phone fly out of my hand and rapidly away. I am shocked and about to give chase to get it back, but my dad says it's fine since I need a new phone anyway.

I hadn't actually had that dream before. But throughout the dream I felt a strong sense of déjà-vu. I was sure that this was a dream I had dreamt before. How didn't I become lucid despite thinking that...

Excellent RCs: 2pt
Brief meditation: 0.5pt
NLD: 1pt
Night 12 total: 3.5pt
Competition total: 38pt

Winter Competition Night 6

Another strange one...

Fragment: I'm with my friends in the hallway, but for some reason we're not allowed to go downstairs. Or rather, I'm not. My parents are watching TV in the lounge. We whisper to one another figuring out a way to sneak down there without them hearing. Our plan is that I walk down the stairs (they creak) between two of my friends stepping in time to them, so our footsteps can't be told apart.. Then I've got a different idea. I hug the banister and slide down it, touching my feet to the steps very lightly here and there to make no noise. I make it to the bottom quickly and my friends are impressed at my idea.

Morning fragment: Am downstairs. Some vague thoughts about the three layers of languages on the fridge (??) and the power of advanced French.

Excellent RCs: 2pt
2×fragment: 1pt

Night 6 total: 3pt
Competition total: 20.5pt

Winter Competition Night 5

Ugh nothing but weird fragments these past couple days. At least it's something, I suppose.

Fragment: At home (in an unfamiliar flat) I read a letter from my boss at work. Or is it an email? She says they were told by the internet company that I watched too much pornography at work this month. She writes this is inappropriate behaviour which does not fit with the image of the company's ideal employee and I am fired. I suppose anyone would be fired for that. I feel a horrible sinking feeling reading the letter.

My flat seems to be just a single room - since there is a letterbox on the door. I have a narrow desk with a computer and office chair, a single bed with red or blue covers, and hardwood floor. The window has cheap metal Venetian blinds and seems to be frosted glass. It's dark outside.

I have never watched porn and found this a bit unsettling.

Went to bed at 10PM - attempt START 11:24 PM. FAILED.

Excellent reality checks: 2pt
Non-lucid fragment: 0.5pt
Night 5 total: 2.5pt
Competition total: 17.5pt

Winter Competition 2024 Night 1

Fragment: In a clothes shop, I am talking to someone - either a shop assistant or a fried - about ready-to-wear and designer clothes. I say I prefer RTW over high-end labels. Meanwhile I'm looking for a gift for my mum - I want to choose some nice clothes for her. Curiously the clothing racks are all empty and I can only see two in the whole (large) shop - though I'm not conscious of this at all in my dream. The shop is gently lit with pinkish-gold light from side lamps for a comfortable atmosphere. The floor is of smooth, square, cream-white tiles polished to a shine, and the walls are a pinkish/rose gold colour.

Went to bed at 10:58 PM. Lucid attempt FAILED since I fell asleep.
Awoke at 5:30 AM.

Fragment: I am inside a certain (named) church with some family, looking at some old coloured maps of it. The interior reminds me of a regency building from a period drama, the walls are freshly painted white and I can see in the corner of my eye an antique-style sofa with green upholstery. The exterior is like a Greek temple with columns (the front at least) - which actually looks a lot like said church in real life. Which is surprising since I have never been there. I look back at my sister and it seems we are both wearing regency dresses. Looking out from the entrance at the side of the porch, the church is surrounded by green fields as far as the eye can see. They look like they've never been weeded or mown, the grass is growing up tall and I see many clovers popping up amid the grass. The field is dewy and a light mist obscures the view further out. The weather is fresh and chill, and we are leaving.
Maybe this is because I watched Sense and Sensibility recently?

Dream (this is also quite vague and fragmented):
I am inside the school common room. The space feels much more enclosed and cosy than it is in real life. It feels warm and welcoming. I am sitting working on something when I get up and go outside. Outside the school is a wide grassy field, much like the one described above - except there are trees here, too.

There is a high wooden table standing on the grass where two of my friends sit on tall chairs. One is a real friend of mine but the other I don't know - a dark-skinned boy with dark straight hair. They are talking over (I think) her current sewing project, and I mention that I do some sewing, too. We show each other some photos of our work and talk for a while longer.

After some time I begin to feel like I'm being called - there's somewhere else I need to be. Then I remember - I've got to go now. I take my phone and rush away from my friends but leave my bag behind on my seat.

Next thing I remember, I'm boarding a plane, though I only remember seeing it from the inside. The plane is very long. The low light level compounded with the grey-black carpet, upholstery and even walls make the interior extremely dim. I hurry past rows of seats (all facing to the front of the plane) until I reach in the middle of the plane two rows of fold-up seats facing one another. All the rows behind are also facing the front of the plane - only these two are strange.

A music teacher is standing in the aisle telling some other students where to sit. She mentions my stranger friend (who is not with me) and says there is room for him, too, pointing to where I am standing in the backwards row. Then she tells me to sit down. I hurriedly fold down the seat nearest the aisle and sit, clutching the edges of the seat for balance - since there are neither armrests nor seatbelt. I feel uneasy. My friend hasn't arrived yet and the plane is about to take off. Then a real-life memory comes through: I remember that my phone has only 30%, it won't last long and I've forgotten my bag and portable charger. Frantically I tell the teacher about my bag, but she turns away and ignores me. I jump up and am about to turn and run out of the plane to get my things. But...

I glance to the side and am shocked to see trees rushing past the window, blurred. The plane is already racing through the field and I didn't feel a thing. It tilts up, about to take off.

Went to bed at 11:14 PM; began lucid attempt at 11:37 PM. Lucid FAILED and woke at 6:20 AM.

It's a blue, sunny morning and I am following my school librarian through the city. I don't think she knows I'm behind her. She's wearing low heels and a flared below-the-knee dress with a book pattern on it, a bag on one shoulder and no jacket to cover her wavy brown hair. Cars are driving past while the sun glints on the glass exteriors of office buildings, cafés and small shops are opening up.

We turn away from the main road and down a smaller street. I recognise it; I took a photograph of it once. The street is perhaps poured concrete and is uneven, with imperfections here and there as though it's been pierced with a fork or blown up by a big bubble. Looking down it the buildings shine and seem to merge with the sky beyond, reflecting the blue and the white clouds. At the top is a stop sign: EXCEPT CYCLES.

Some ways down the street she turns and enters through the double doors of a green-blue glass building. Inside the lobby there's a glass reception office, empty, containing a shiny black desk and a window to allow visitors to speak to the receptionist. The floor is that kind of carpet with metal ridges in it. She enters the office and sits at the desk - looks like she works here. But I realise this isn't where I'm meant to be. A crowd of girls in a dark-coloured uniform different to mine spill into the lobby from within to greet her.

I feel confused and register that she should be working at my school. I ask her about this and receive some explanation in return. The thought vaguely enters my mind that I am late to school.

Lately I haven't remembered many dreams because I've lost control of my sleep schedule a bit. Tonight's New Years but I do intend to start going to sleep at the right time again. I've begun studying some lucid techniques and will update my workbook very soon!