IndigoRose

comment dream lucid

I woke up half an hour before my usual wake-up time and assumed I wouldn't fall back asleep, but after a while, I did and had a long, very shifting dream.

Fragments (not sure about the order and transitions between them):
- I'm packing my things for some big trip with my mom and my brother, packing a big suitcase. I'm almost ready, but they're not, and I'm rushing them because we have no chance to catch the plane. But they ignore me for the most part and I'm nervous and stressed.
- There's a magician, a dangerous man, but he trusts me, probably because I'm willing to work with him and not ask questions. I go out of the building to dump something in the trash for him, probably magical waste. It looks like a pear in a plastic bag, plus some kind of box, but I know better than to check what's in it.
- I'm out with my brother, we're going somewhere. Then we sit on a bench and I empty the mess out of my shoe and show the shoe to him. He says he doesn't want running shoes. I show him how it has a soft sole and offer him the shoe to try on.
Then the magician is there instead, and there's a railing behind us and stairs deep down. Somehow my shoe falls down - either he throws it there or somehow accidentally causes it to fall. I look him in the eye and tell him he should bring it back. He looks at me, surprised that I have the audacity to say that to him, but without a word he gets up and walks down the stairs. I follow a few steps behind him.

Leading to the lucid part
I am traveling in a group on horseback, including family members, the plan is to travel on horseback through several countries and then by train, this is a replacement for the original plan.
Then we walk through pastures and someone tells us there is a dangerous cow, but now there is just an older, very playful, calf and sheep playing together.
We walk along a field track, there are fenced pastures all around, and there is a rhino in one. It's very dangerous. I wonder if they have something like a mini zoo and why they have a rhino if it's so dangerous.
I get to the garden where there are some roses, new varieties that I've been talking to someone about online, and also a small-flowered clematis.
There are more beds and I want to see more, but I'm disappointed, there's not much else, just weird vertical structures for vertical growing and some shade-loving plants. There's a woman I know from a gardening forum and she says it's not finished yet.
Then I'm with some people, half in, half out, as if the garden has turned into a spacious interior. People are supposed to go through some doors, but they don't really want to, probably afraid of the rhino that's still out there somewhere. I walk through the door and someone asks me if I'm the last one through, and I say no.
I get a yellow and black frilly dress and am told it comes with trousers. There is a group of girls around, each in different dresses, but all in black and yellow. I put the dress on and someone helps me pull it over my head, and someone else hands me the black trousers.
Something weird is being done in the group, maybe magical.
The woman near me - I recognize her as my former classmate, H. - is having a nervous breakdown.
She asks, "How can this be happening?" She's hysterical and clutching her head. "Am I dreaming?"
I chuckle and say, "I am, and so are you." I kiss her passionately on the mouth and tell her, "Go and enjoy it."
Like I'm sending her out to enjoy her lucid dream. I say this semi-lucidly, not having the slightest intention of detaching myself from the dream. But as she disappears outside, I feel some responsibility for her and I follow her.
I walk out the door and I'm in a large square. Directly in front of me are steps down to the main area of the square, and then to the right are more gradual steps up, probably along the town walls. H. is already a little ahead of me, he is now with someone, they have started to levitate and have flown across the gap between the steps and are now flying faster, up over the steps, and disappearing in the distance. I call out, "H., wait!" and I envy her such skill in the first LD and I know I won't catch up to her.
I put my hand forward and begin to concentrate on catching her and her companion in an imaginary loop, then pull them back by the force of will.
She stands in front of me, a little confused, but she understands that my abilities are greater than hers. I think to myself that I made a point, but that maybe it wasn't necessary, and let her go.
I tell myself that since I'm so good at telekinesis, I might as well do what she did - try using telekinesis to fly - use it on myself.
I'll give it a try and try to levitate down the stairs.I float a little, but at the same time, I am inevitably falling until I'm back on the ground, a few steps down.
I try again and this time I try to focus on myself/catch myself into the imaginary loop and add the impello spell word, but it doesn't help, the same result as before. Like I can't use telekinesis on myself.

I wake up after this.

Notes:
- Another semi-lucid into lucid type of dream. Sometimes I think I am sort of natural in semi-lucid dreaming, my dream me almost always knows it is a dream to some extent but it's hard to tell unless the dream plot makes it obvious. The breakthrough from semi-lucidity to full lucidity is still hard for me, though. And sometimes, it isn't a breakthrough at all, like it is all a spectrum.

comment lucid dream

The postman woke me up.
Back in bed, I remembered that I wanted to try lucid dreaming subliminal music. After a while, I was quite uncomfortable being on my back, so I found a position on my side that was compatible with headphones. But it still didn't suit me - I'd probably fall asleep, but it bothered me how my entire headspace was taken up by the music, even though I had it on minimum volume.
I checked the time - half an hour had passed.
I tried to fall asleep normally - changed position a few times. There were some visualizations - I imagined moving along a path and subconscious added the scenery around. It was quite nice, the landscapes were detailed, but it wasn't immersive and it wasn't going anywhere.

I was on my left side and very close to falling asleep and felt very light vibrations. I remembered that I wanted to be more aggressive during WILD and get up right after the vibrations. So, without a single thought of my real body, I tried to get up and sit on the edge of the bed.

And it worked. It had a real feel, but it was surprisingly easy, no duvet putting up resistance or anything like that. I did a nose-plug RC and could breathe. But at the same time it was unstable and I couldn't see anything. As I continued to get up, my head got dizzy, and when I tried to open my eyes, I saw my bedroom for a moment, the "dream filter" was on but it was confusing, and it felt like I was opening my real eyes out of the corner of my eye (probably an illusion), so I closed them again. And everything was shaky. I grabbed the curtain and used it for support and to stabilize - it was very fine, almost silky, not like IRL.
I'm standing upright now, but still with my eyes closed. I walk carefully around the bed - I don't want to kill myself on the pile of clothes lying there. But in the dream, there's hardly anything there.
Things are more stable, so I want to open my eyes, but I realize I'm starting to see, and instead of opening my eyes I blink and everything starts to become clearer. It's still confusing though and doesn't feel much like a dream. I leave the bedroom, hoping it will give me more stability and mental clarity.
I go to the cat room. The furniture there is similar to real life, but it's tidier, and my cat is sleeping on the couch at the end of the room. She looks normal. When she sees me, she starts to stretch. I decide not to go any closer because I'm worried I might step on the real cat IRL (forgetting that my real body is in bed).
As I leave, I hear a grunting sound, like something is bothering her, but it's a dream and I decide to ignore it and close the door.
I'm going to the living room. It looks like it should - I guess - I don't look around too much and stay by the door.
I still find it hard to believe that it's a dream, everything is so realistic as if I'm really there and I think how it doesn't compare at all with the visualizations. I do a nose-plug RC and take three breaths just to be sure, and I can breathe without a problem. I feel really weird because I haven't needed in-dream RC in months, but the dream feeling is so subtle that I can't wrap my head around that.
I decide to try Tiktaalik's "focusing on the spine" RC.

Spoiler for Result - don't read if you want to try it too:

Nothing happens. I don't know what to expect, but everything seems normal (within the limits of my dream body - but with my level of lucidity I probably wouldn't notice any subtle dream body - real body difference).

For some reason, I realize I'm naked, but I don't think it's RC related.
I decide to go outside.
I'm still aware that I'm naked, but it's a dream, so what. When I go outside, it's a strange feeling, being naked outside, but I don't see any neighbours. The street looks roughly like my street, but I don't examine the details.
I want to try flying like an airplane (as I've imagined and incubated).
I run down the street and call out in turn "Airspeed alive", "V1", "and rotate" and jump into the air with my arms spread wide.
It doesn't work, I don't climb, I fall flat on the pavement, but I don't feel anything.
I decide to try again, but this time I swap the lines, start with V1, but then correct myself and say them in the correct order and jump into the air again.
I'm on a street corner somewhere and there are 3 guys, they look British and have Peaky Blinders haircuts. As I'm trying to take off, I jump on one of their backs (still naked). He doesn't look unhappy. I say "hey, handsome".
He gets me off his back and takes me in his arms. He opens a door that apparently leads to a pub and puts me on a table. I'm not sure if he wants to hand me over to their care/get rid of me, or if he wants to share me.
I start to feel myself waking up.


Notes:
- I am fairly confident this was a WILD, even though I was just barely aware when I felt the vibrations. I don't think I dreamt that, although it's hard to be 100% sure. Anyway, the continuity of going from being in the bed, trying to sleep, and then standing in my bedroom, lucid dreaming, was a total mindfuck.
- I want to give that "flying like a plane" another try someday, maybe really focusing on the sensation of taking off and imagining it, rather than just saying the words. I have enough real-life flying experience to make it work.
- I don't know why I steered it towards possibly sexual content, even though it wakes me up.

comment dream semi-lucid lucid

The dream before the lucid parts wasn’t much coherent, my settings and my companions were very changeable, so I simplified it slightly, I am using the word companions instead of being specific and I am starting from a point from which I remember the dream reasonably well but it was actually longer.

We were inside a building and we wanted to go outside to look for Karin, who was some kind of magical creature, maybe a fairy. She went out and didn't come back for a long time.
I went outside and my companions came with me. There were gardens around us and it was dark, and we walked through the gardens and there were flowers, but Karin was nowhere to be found.
Then we walked on the lawn around the building and there were soldiers walking towards us. They had the division number written on them - 100something. I knew their general and I remembered that I was in the 80th Division. But I didn't want to approach them because they would certainly want to know the details and I didn't remember the details. They walked past us and ignored us.
Then I explained to my companions that it is our presence - that with our presence and attention this world grows stronger and becomes more detailed and real, that it is like the shadows in Amber and we travel through them like the princes of Amber... but I stopped because I understood that they didn't know Amber and my comparison or explanation didn't mean anything to them.
Anyway, we should find Karin quickly and get out of here because more and more things are going to be happening around here. I also told them that it was fascinating how I remembered being in the 80th division, but that I was a little sad that it was actually a false memory.
Then we were at some greenhouse or walled garden and I think we found Karin there and she came with us, or it stopped mattering.
We were back in the building, now there were soldiers and infrastructure. We arranged at the window of a female clerk to hear us in a closed room. I also wanted her to arrange for me to talk to the general in private, as I was still feeling emotional about my membership in the division.
We were in the room with her, me and two companions, there was someone there with her too, sitting across the table from us. I turned off the light and it was morning twilight and I said, "How about we make our own light" to my companions. "Or would that get everyone in this building on their feet?" In the sense that I wanted to make it clear that we were magicians, but again, not to stir up the whole building.
I cast the Lux spell and so did my companions. I remembered that it didn't work in my recent LD (9 May) and now it didn't work either, my palm was empty. But there was something there, or was it just my imagination? I looked closely and there was a small light, the size of a pinhead. I tried to focus on it to make it bigger, but it seemed to be trying to escape my focused gaze. It glowed brighter for a moment, then I lost it for a second, and then it reappeared and was a cluster of little balls. It was still trying to move and escape. I physically grabbed it in my hand, it had a feel like plasticine, and tried to combine all the little balls into one bigger ball.
At that moment I realized "I am lucid" and said it out loud.
I was also immediately intrigued by the transition from semi-lucidity to lucidity. I debated whether to continue the dream story, but I figured I'd had enough of it (it was a good dream!) and it was time to do something else.
So I was deciding where to go and what to do and I was tempted by something to do with water and remembered that my plan for Prague involved water, so Prague it was. Standing in front of the door, I quickly visualized the towers of the city and opened the door.
Behind the door was still the corridor, but it looked different and the building was set up for an event related to my hobby activity (and related to Prague).
I walked down the corridor further, to the left was the exit to the outside, straight ahead the corridor continued. I wanted to go outside, but on the corner between the turn and the continuation of the corridor was a lobby separated from the stairs leading outside by a glass wall, and I saw a table and a couple on it.

Spoiler for sexual:

I thought it was my friend L and he was having sex with some girl, so I went over to join them in a threesome. When I got closer I saw it was two girls, which was ok too, they were very petite, skinny and pretty.
I started touching them, one wasn't happy about it, the other didn't protest, but continued to just lie on the table, without any activity, but still it felt nice to touch.
I stroked her thigh, pulled her closer to me and started kissing her. It felt nice and she almost kissed me back, so I got my tongue more involved, which I don't really like IRL, but it was much better in the dream. Then I put my hand between her legs, she didn't want to spread them all the way, but she didn't resist.
As I started touching her between her legs, I woke up.

Notes
- I really liked the Amber analogy. I've been recently reading a lot about dream control and dreams formation and this is how my brain connected things together. BTW I recently met Corwin of Amber in a non-lucid dream, I would love to meet him lucid one day.
- Going lucid in this dream - the "I am lucid" as "I've always known this is a dream but now I noticed that I know and can do something with it". Like when you do something and then stop and ask yourselves "what am I doing" and remember that you wanted to do something else. Like being there the whole time but stopping being distracted. Very smooth transition into lucidity.
- Regarding the lucid dream sex: I always wake up quickly. I know some people say it is about expectations but it is not - I used to wake up from dream sex before I even knew what lucid dreams are and before reading anything about them online. I wake up simply from physical arousal, sometimes even into an orgasm (not this time). In both lucid and non-lucid dreams, I wake up after a similar time, which isn't realistic to the progress of the sexual intercourse in the dream (20-30 seconds of foreplay, usually). I don't mind, I still like it.