J.D.

13.09.2010

Nonsensical WILD (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was really just going for an early-afternoon nap and hoping for a lucid dream, but it turned into a WILD. I felt my arm move, seemingly of its own accord. I took control of it, and used it to prop myself up on the bed. I opened my eyes as I did so. I could see my room. But I could also see my real room, I had opened my real eyes! The dream-room "fizzled" away and was replaced by my real room. I closed my eyes and tried again. This time, I was able to move freely much more quickly. I waited until I had sat up completely before opening my eyes. I could see the dream room fine. I cautiously got out of bed, keeping in mind how important it was not to move my real body. As soon as I had gotten into a standing position (ie, something totally different to the way I was sleeping), I jumped around a bit to anchor myself.

What followed was a disjointed series of false awakenings (all in different beds in my house) and short lucid dreams. In one, I had a jacuzzi bath with a beautiful girl. The jacuzzi kept emptying itself though. I employed various methods of control to keep the water in place, including THE PLUG, then "believing it would stay full", and leaving the taps on. The jets were also far too powerful. All-in-all, not a successful romantic encounter. Thanks dream-bath.



In another, I was convinced I had fallen asleep with headphones in. The sound of music premeated the dream, and I felt sure that it was coming from an external source. When I awoke, I realised I hadn't gone to sleep with headphones in, so I either imagined the music, or it came from elsewhere in my house. I recognised part of "Stacey's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne.

Later, I was in the passenger seat of my dad's car. But it was being driven by my mum, who has never driven the car in real life. I asked her a question I can no longer recall. But her reply was startling. I can't remember it either, but my reply was,
"Whoa, my mind is really getting good at simulating you! That's exactly the kind of thing you would say!" In making that statement, I wondered if my subconscious was taking note of my approval, or if "it" was even able to take messages in such a way. I'm beginning to think of my subconscious less as an entity, and more of a mass of random/chaotic thoughts, which occasionally come together to form convincing situations in my dreams. As we were travelling along the motorway, I pondered how I could actually make use of this lucid time. I remembered the task of the month then. It was a surprise that I recalled it, despite reading it once about half a month ago and deciding it was probably too hard. "Shrink yourself to the atomic level". An idea occured to me. Feeling the gearstick, I found that the top flipped open to reveal a red and a blue button. I assumed, naturally, that the red button was to transform the car into a rocket car, a la "Men in Black". The Blue, I reasoned, would be to shrink the car and its occupants. I pressed it once. The car shot forward and got a little bit smaller. But I stayed the same size. Now I had to bend over to avoid hitting my head off the roof. I pressed it a few more times, but all it did now was give the car a momentary speed boost.

Before I woke up, I heard my brother calling me. The first time, I completely ignored him. The second time, I had to do a small DEILD to keep dreaming. After the third, I realised he was now right outside my room and wasn't going to give up. I forced myself awake. What an asshole.

04.09.2010

Launch (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This was just the end of a long dream I can't remember much about.

I was on an old, rickety bus, travelling through a hot, dry country. All the windows on the bus were down, and I had my head out to cool down. The sun was scorching, and the light reflecting off the light soil was making me feel slightly dizzy. The ride was uncomfortable. I felt every rock the bus drove over. After a while though, it stopped and I got off. I found myself beside a shack. I think it was a public toilet. As I walked into the shade cast by the building, I noticed (with worry) the vast quantity of snakes and huge spiders around. They were everywhere. Enormous snakes coiled on trees and around rocks were looking at me and baring their fangs. I backed away from the trees only to find myself up against a monstrous bird-eating spider. (Only the biggest hairiest fucking spider in the world... yes it does eat birds)



I turned around again, and finding more unsavoury creatures, looked for an escape route. I would up with my back to a lake (infested with eels and crocodiles of course) and paused. If I paused to think a bit more often in dreams I'd be far better off. Why were there so many stereotypically scary animals after me? The situation was ridiculous, I didn't need to reality-check. I stepped onto the air and floated out over the lake. The mood of the dream had changed dramatically. The sun was no longer scorching, just pleasant. The lake was flat and smooth, with tiny ripples appearing below me wherever I floated. There was an island in the middle of the lake with two 50m high trees on it. Seemed nice. I floated around the lake a bit more just taking everything in. Then I spread my arms wide before throwing them downwards. There was a bang, and I was launched skyward at a breakneck speed. The water below me was displaced as if a metor had landed. I shot up to twice the height of the tallest trees, and got the now-familiar stomach-in-mouth feeling that always comes with high-speed flight. I landed in the upper branches of the tree, then woke up.

22.08.2010

Riding Through The City (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Not much sleep last night, so in the afternoon I went for a nap. This initially started off as a WILD, but I got too drowsy and fell asleep naturally. I got one nice little hallucination as I was dropping off though. I was visualising leaning with my back against a brick wall, outside a bar. There was a small light attached to the wall above my head. I was only vaguely aware of its presence until it turned blue and exploded with a crack/pop. I heard the sound so vividly, and the outside of my vision went blue for a split-second. It shocked me back to full wakefullness, but the sound seemed to still be ringing in my ears. Anyway, shortly after that I fell into a few dreams which I now can't remember.

I remembered the one I became lucid in, however. It started off seemingly as a continuation of a dream I'd had many months ago, where I was playing football for the Northern Ireland international team. We were now in the World Cup. The strange thing was, the pitch we were playing on was in the place of my back garden. There was no real stadium to speak of. I became semi-lucid when I noticed how easy it was to run towards the ball. Running took absolutely no effort, and I was really fast. Easy running is becoming a bit of a dreamsign. At half time, I jogged to the petrol station next to my house. I fancied a chocolate ice cream or something. My friend Hugh had given me money to get him a Snickers too. As I wandered round the shop looking for said Snickers, I found I was having real difficulty counting out the money I needed. I kept dropping change, and the handful of change I was holding just seemed to get bigger and bigger. I also couldn't keep any figures in my head for more than a few seconds. After the fifth time I dropped a load of money, I said,

"Fuck it, it's obviously a dream." and threw the handful of change across the shop. Just then, a guy who introduced himself as "Jeff" came in. He was slightly chubby, and wearing a crappy suit. He had the distinct air of a con-man, which I immediately picked up on. He said,
"Hey buddy, it's Jeff, remember me from that other night at the club?" I suspected that he was trying to fool me into trusting him by suggesting a generic situation- one like which a guy my age was likely to be familiar with. (And not remember clearly) I laughed in his face and went outside. I looked back downhill at the football pitch. There was no-one playing on it any more. There was a clinking noise to my right, and Jeff came out of the shop, along with a women and a man. I flew up to the roof of the petrol station and sat there for a bit, contemplating what to do with my free time. After a second, Jeff and the other two floated up to join me.
"So what are you doing here?" the woman asked me.
"I don't know yet." I replied. "Just thinking about what to do with myself here. It's a completely simulated reality inside my own head and I'm out of ideas... Well, lately I've just been working on some dream control."



With that, I stepped off the roof and glided to another as if gravity had been cancelled out. The others followed me. After a few more leaps, I found myself down at ground level again, in a street I knew should've been miles away. There were four motorcycles by the side of the road. Big huge ones, like Harley Davidsons. We each mounted up and roared off down the road. It seemed to be getting to evening time, and the buildings had the same orangey-red glow as the sky. I looked up to see the moon, and another, purple planet farther away. Jeff said something about building up enough dream control to manipulate the planets. I told him I was having enough trouble maipulating a small city, and detailed my previous failed attempts at getting from one place to another through my own city. Just to test myself, I tried to rotate the city around us, using a spire in the distance as a point of reference. Nothing happened. I shrugged and we rode on.

The people we passed in the street seemed terrified of us. Because there were four of us, riding motorcycles, and due to the orange tint to the whole scene, I was reminded of a scene in The Simpsons where the four horsemen of the apocalypse appear. I commented that I felt like one of them. Jeff laughed. We were getting closer to the spire I'd seen in the distance earlier. I could now tell it was cathedral. Quite suddenly, it changed to nighttime, and I felt like I was getting close to waking up. I felt my own body in bed. Tried to hold on, but it was impossible. I don't know what woke me up at all!