false awakening

10.05.2010

Re-run (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Another one where I don't remember becoming lucid, or doing a reality-check.

Strangely, this dream took place in the same school gym as the "Get Psyched" dream. The setting helped me remember it was a dream, since it's a place I haven't been in several years in real life. I started humming, and found myself singing Muse's version of "Feeling Good". I went on for a few minutes, but then realised I was just singing the same part over and over.

The lucidity was very clear. There was a definite feeling of being in complete control of my own body which I always remember from high-quality lucids. I thought about doing the task of the month- "jump off a skyscraper". I decided the best way to get to the top of a skyscraper would be to try and use my version of DEILD from within the dream. I closed my eyes to block out the gym, and visualised the roof of the skyscraper from The Matrix. I bent down and "felt" the concrete, but then the whole thing seemed to dissolve. My surroundings were gone, including the gym, and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It felt like my head was fizzing. I quickly reminded myself to do a reality-check in the event that I woke up.



The next thing I remember, I woke up in a bed in the gym. I didn't bother to do a reality-check. I have no idea why. It was like I had just been reset completely. I sat up to see beds all around me. Beside mine was a cage with a small white mouse in it. I spent a while playing with it.

06.05.2010

Very Lifelike (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I can't remember the start of this one, so I'm just going to assume it was a DILD.

I was standing in a residential street at night. It was raining very heavily. Thinking about it, I might have figured out I was dreaming from being "floaty". As in, gravity wasn't working how it should, and I was gliding a bit with every step. It's always a fun way to catch a dreamsign- "Hey I'm flying a bit! Oh, dream!" Anyway, I thought about doing the task of the year, and I really thought it was within my reach this time. It was a really stable dream, and I reckoned it would last a good while. I wondered about how to time travel. There were no DeLoreans in sight, and I couldn't be bothered asking random people if I could use their time machine again.



I ended up having a false awakening- in the very same street! I caught it, and started talking to a girl who sat down on the pavement beside me. I don't know what she said, but I remember thinking that her reactions and conversationalism were very lifelike -in a way which made me slightly doubt I was dreaming. How could a construct of my own mind seem to have independent thought? I kept trying to predict what she was going to say next, or figure out what part of me her words came from, but I couldn't make any sense of it.

It's a bit strange to me that people talking on their own fascinated me so much when they have always done it in my non-lucids and I've never wondered about it. I suppose being lucid opened my eyes to the curious nature of it.

26.04.2010

"Help me out here" (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I WILDed by accident this morning. Well, once I noticed I was heading into sleep paralysis I went for it, but it wasn't my original intention! I've heard scary reports of hallucinatory/SP/dreams involving a figure standing over the bed menacingly, but have been pretty lucky so far- having never had it happen to me. Today that changed... yaayy...

I was lying on my back (which is easy-street for lucidity if the conditions are right), with my head leaning to the right. When I felt sleep paralysis come along, my eyes did something funny. My attention was focused directly in front of me, but it felt like my eyes were moving from side to side. I could feel them underneath my eyelids- but couldn't feel the muscles working to move my eyes. Might just have been a hallucination. Anyway, I thought I'd failed my attempt when I "woke up". I had a glance round my room and looked at the painting of a cow which is usually opposite my bed. It had become warped and distorted- a bit like a shape was coming out of the picture. I assumed I was dreaming and slid out of bed. I jumped down all the stairs in one go, saying,
"Nice, fully lucid!" I headed straight out the front door and out onto the street. The street was totally different to what I was expecting. There were tall, thick trees on either side of the road, and a big red London bus was passing by. I ran alongside it, planning to cling to the side and hitch a ride, but it fell over out of the blue. It wasn't a massive crash or anything, it just went over onto its side. I was puzzled, and put it back on its wheels just by thinking it. I seemed to have very good direct control here. That could have been the reason why I got a reset-style false awakening.

I turned my head, thinking I'd woken up. Then I glanced up in the direction of the painting. In front of it was a monster. I can't remember whether it even had a body, I was so focused on the head. The head was green and black, made up of the green of the grass and black of the cow from the painting. The colours were mashed together to create a hideous visage and evil expression- and it was glaring right at me. For a second I just froze with fear. It was so incredibly real. It was like it was actually in my room. I shut my eyes and had another FA.


This really doesn't do it justice at all. Add several degrees of scariness and a bit of masculinity to this one.

There it was again. My heart started thumping as soon as I realised it was still there. I tried my absolute hardest to get out of bed, but it was like all my muscles only half worked. My back barely did at all- making it very hard to sit up. I had an idea. I raised my arm to the monster and said,
"Wanna help me out here mate?" Its head moved slightly, seemingly considering my request. Then it took my hand. Its arms looked like they were made of a pale white plastic, but its hand felt human, if a bit clammy. It pulled me out of the bed and I tried to stand. Unsuccessfully. I fell onto the floor. Looking up, I saw my girlfriend had mysteriously appeared. I was about to have semi-paralysed sex with her but I had yet another false awakening.

By now I was getting used to the monster's face, so I looked round ready for it. He had a new trick up his sleeve this time though. The face of a snarling dog now accompanied him, and they were both a lot closer than before. Scared as I was, I asked him for help once more, and he obliged. For some reason, he started to remind me of my friend Hugh. This time I could stand a bit better, which improved even more when I took a few steps whilst rubbing my hands. I looked around my room, which had grown to about three times its normal size. My friend Mark was brushing the floor. I had the idea to try the advanced task of the month- "stand on your head"- literally with your head under your foot.
"All right Mark," I said. "Decapitate me."
"Uh... how?" he asked.
"Ehh... use the brush maybe? Or smash that clock in half and use it as a blade." I pointed at a big glass clock on my wall which I binned in real life years ago. I tried to walk over to Mark, but kept getting pulled back towards my bed by an invisible force. It was really frustrating, and through fighting it too hard, I woke up.

19.04.2010

Trying to Fix The Dreamworld (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

A quick note from last night: I got some pretty powerful HI when I was going to sleep last night, only about 10 minutes after lying down. Somebody blasted a football at me and hit me square in the chest. I completely felt it, and my entire torso took a huge spasm. I was like,
"What the hell?" since I was nowhere even near asleep yet. I guess my mind just went off on its own for a bit.

This morning: I haven't had a proper, straight-up WILD for quite some time, but this morning I had two. I felt sleep paralysis after... I have no idea how long, and was riding it out comfortably. It came on like a light blanket being draped over me, starting at my head and finishing at my feet a split-second later. Then, I heard my brother come into the room. He was looking for something.
"You asshole, don't wake me up," I murmured.
"What's that John?" he said, and shook my shoulder to wake me. I was pretty gutted, but sat up to see what he wanted. Something didn't seem right. Then I remembered that this exact situation had happened earlier this morning, when my brother had come in looking for a sleeping bag. (He was going on a school trip and was only packing that morning) For (I think) the second time ever, I tried the nose-pinch reality-check. I could breathe perfectly. I laughed that I could have thought this was for real. I threw the duvet off me and got out of bed. As I left my bedroom, things went out of focus. The railing beside the stairs was fuzzy, and bizarrely, everything was upside down. As in, the floor was on the ceiling, and vice versa. I rubbed my hands together, which improved the fuzziness a bit, then set to work on trying to walk on the ceiling. I got down on my hands and knees, then put my feet up in the air. As I did so, I realised I had just completed the basic task of the month on Dreamviews, "Stand on your head". From there I tried to float myself upwards, feet first. I imagined that I was hanging onto the ceiling with my hands (it looked that way anyway), and was looking down at the floor. But gravity was being a bitch, and I couldn't make it off the ground at all.

I had a closer look at my surroundings, and noticed a yellow tint to all the walls. It occurred to me that I could be sleeping with my eyes open, and the yellow of my bedroom walls could be influencing my dreamworld. It was definitely the same kind of yellow. The more I tried to look at the yellow parts, the closer I came to awakening. Realising what was happening, I grabbed a door frame and desperately tried to stay in the dream, but it was too late and I woke up. My eyes had been closed.

12.04.2010

Rambling Through Dreams (DEILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I had about 7 DEILDs this morning. Lay on my back the whole time. Even though I wrote down some notes immediately after waking up, I doubt I remembered them all. These were a new kind of DEILD for me- Instead of going for the usual "tactile entry", I focused my vision on an object or scene. I kept looking intently at the same object or scene until it became "real". Sometimes I wasn't sure if I had woken up or it was a false awakening, but I kept the rules in my head, which helped me tell the difference. If my arms were easy to move, it was a dream, simple as that.

The first segment was where I was sure I woke up. I spent a couple of minutes lying on my back trying to bat away a large fly that was zooming about. It's only after waking that I now realise it wasn't real.

For my first DEILD, I visualised the wall opposite my bed. I just stared at it. My eyes could even have been open, I don't know- it sure felt like it. A picture on my wall had changed to a calendar for some reason. I think it might have been a Simpsons one. It started flashing through lots of different faces, and there was something quite menacing about it. I didn't think about the scariness, I only took it as a reassuring sign that a dream had definitely begun. I was still in bed, so I tentatively tried to move my arms. I found I could, and quickly fell out of bed. I ran downstairs and out into the street. My friends Hugh and Darren were there. Hugh was carrying a bottle of Jack Daniel's, which he handed to me. We walked up the street to a petrol station, whereupon I took a giant swig from the bottle and threw it over my shoulder. I heard the smash and walked through the automatic doors. I pondered for a minute about whether I should try to do some of the task of the year, but all my lucids recently have been pretty short, so I thought there would be no point. Also, I was just stealing a few extra minutes sleep and expected to be woken up at any minute. There was a great-looking girl working behind the till, so I wasted no time in going at it with her. The people in the shop were staring at me like I was insane, and I became slightly self-conscious. What if I was merely super-drunk and not dreaming at all? A quick hand-reality-check allayed my fears, and I continued. Then the alarm went off, and shutters closed down on every door and window. I suspected that I might be trapped, so in a way, it was lucky that I woke up.

Still very relaxed (and maybe in sleep paralysis), I went for another DEILD. I looked closely an image which formed in my head as before, and soon found myself standing in some sort of facility. The walls were sliver-grey, and there were lots of people walking about in a hurry. I did a little experiment, and found that it didn't matter whether I had my eyes open or closed in the dream, I could see fine if I wanted to see. I did the experiment whilst looking at an old woman leaning on a railing of a balcony. Satisfied with my discovery, I strolled along the balcony, gazing out over the wooded area outside. It looked like the sun was going down. Along a bit, I found a table with benches around it. Sitting on one was a girl I know, who I plan to ask out soon. She was wearing a strange light-blue swimsuit. I sat down beside her and we began kissing. Soon I woke up again.

This time the DEILD transition was a bit different. I moved a little, then "fell" to my left, and ended up on all fours on a stony surface. I stood up and looked around. I suspected I might be in the wooded area I had seen from the balcony earlier. I started running through the trees and entered an area of ancient ruins which was pretty overgrown with plants. I thought about the strangeness of running in dreams again, and I chuckled as I automatically started taking deep breaths as I do when I run in real life. Was there any point in talking bigger breaths, or noticing breathing at all? The ruins started to look a bit like a multiplayer level in the Aliens vs. Predator game, the name of which escapes me. I jumped about 10 metres onto a stone platform to look around. There was movement all around me. I had no doubt that Aliens and Predators were the culprits, but I couldn't get a clear look at one. With a screech, an Alien dove at me, mouth open and arms outstretched. I caught in in mid-air by its neck, and proceeded to perform one of the more brutal execution moves from the game on it. Then I noticed that I had a predator's blades attached to my forearm. I extended the blades and started admiring them, but I was jumped from the left by another alien. I swung round and delivered a downwards blow with my blades through the alien's skull. It cracked like an eggshell. I woke up again.

I was having so much fun, I decided to try to go back there. I don't think I managed it, but I had a short lucid where I played a sniper in Call of Duty.

08.04.2010

Breaking the Spell (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This is the only fragment I can remember from a night which was absolutely full of dreams.

I had made an enemy of an evil wizard. He put me under some kind of spell which basically put me in a dream state- I think to make me less of a danger to him. I was running up a snowy path to the wizard's castle, when I thought,
"Something just doesn't seem right about this." I did a hand reality check and realised I was dreaming. However, I didn't go to the next level and work out that the world outside this dream was still another dream. When I stopped what I was doing and wondered if this was the wizard's doing, his face appeared in front of me in a spinning, levitating mirror. It looked at me intently, and seemed pleased with me. Then I woke up back into the original dream level.

06.04.2010

Rumble in the Jungle (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This started with me on a bus. Should really have noticed the dreamsign. I was on my way back to a picnic in the grounds of my old school, and it was raining. I was worried because I had been told that bagguettes and other sandwiches had been left out in the open air, and I didn't want them to get soggy from the rain. I was on the bus with two of my brothers, who told me it was time to get off when we were beside the estate near my house. We stepped off and started running. In reality, my school is nowhere near there, but in the dream it was just around a corner. I burst through a gate and skidded down a gravelly hill to the picnic table, which was out the front of the school.

I got into a conversation with a girl from my class who turned up while I made a sandwich, and the next thing I knew, a lesson had started outside. Lots of people from my year appeared from nowhere and sat down at other picnic tables which had appeared around mine. I sat beside the girl I had been talking to. It seemed to be a geography lesson, and although I hadn't been paying attention to the teacher at all, she asked me,
"So John, what else do rivers do that hasn't been mentioned so far?" I improvised,
"Uh... meander, and flow towards the sea?"
"Exactly," She said. What can I say, freakin genius. I put my head down on the desk so I could talk more privately with the girl beside me. When I looked up, we were inside a tent. Something registered,
"This isn't right..." but it wasn't enough to turn me lucid. Everyone was going outside, so I followed them. Now we were in a jungle. It was quite beautiful. There were really tall trees, and vines wrapped around some ancient ruins.



Some friends and I went exploring. We were laughing and talking when we stepped out from behind a tree right into the path of a giant panther. It stopped and stared at us, making a low grumbling noise. The rest immediately ran. I had it in my head not to make any sudden movements, so I just stood there. After a few seconds the panther lay down, and I tried to sneak off. I was trying desperately not to stand on any twigs, and I ended up floating ever so slightly between steps. I noticed the abnormality and became lucid. I levitated over the ground and made my way back to the tent. I floated in, showing off my moves, then plonked down at a table.

My classmates were doing some kind of experiment using a candle, but I had no idea what it was. The candle went out, and I thought I should try and make fire to light it again. I snapped my fingers, expecting a flame to just magically appear, but it didn't. I pondered, then tried a different tactic. Cupping my hands around each other, I tried to force heat into the space between. After a few seconds I had a peek, and saw distinctive waves of heat. It was working. I kept it up, and soon fire was bursting from between my fingers. I used it to light the candle again, then looked at my palms. There were two tiny burns on the heel of each palm. I laughed, then woke up.

The first thing I did was look at my hands. The burns were still there. I was really excited for some reason, so I ran out of the tent and flew around the trees. Some music started playing. It was very fast, and was perfect for running around in a frenzy, as I was doing now. I ran into the giant panther again, but stroked it like I would a cat, and it purred. After that I woke up for real.

30.03.2010

Zombieland (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Hmmm... I didn't realise this one was so long when I was typing it out. I'll put some pics in to break it up a bit.

I was woken up quite early in the morning, and went back to sleep naturally after 10 minutes. If I can't be bothered WILDing, just falling asleep again after waking is much easier and works almost as often. I think the short time of being awake revs up the logic centre of the brain, making it far easier to spot dream signs.

I was in some sort of small holiday complex. I "woke up" in the swimming pool. My head was leaning against the side, and I was still wrapped up in my red duvet- which wasn't actually all that wet. I was extremely groggy, and couldn't really move. I could feel that I was wearing my jeans though, and thought,
"Shit what if my phone gets wet? Aha!" All too easy, point to me. For some reason, the groggy inability to move stuck with me, and I had another false awakening.

I woke up beside the pool this time, it was as if I had fallen asleep on a deck chair. The pool was indoors, with a glass roof. I was in my swimming shorts, so I jumped straight into the pool. There were a few people I knew swimming around too. I hopped in an inflatable yellow dinghy and someone pushed me around for a while. Later, I was informed by one of the reception staff that a letter had arrived for me. (What's this, 1970?) She stuck it to the wall with a tack and went back to the front desk. I got out of the pool, dried myself off and went over to read it. I got the general gist of its content, which went something like, "Sorry we can't make it, but we gave our tickets to our two friends, you'll like them." Apparently it was from someone I knew who wouldn't be coming on holiday. I spent absolutely ages trying to read the names of the people the letter was from, and the names of the people who were coming in their stead. Every time I looked at it, it seemed slightly different, and I would notice new things. It was also pretty high up on the notice board, and I couldn't reach to take it down. A girl I know called Emma came over and asked what was wrong. I told her that I couldn't read what the hell was on this letter, and asked if she wouldn't mind having a go.
"Sure," she said. "Lift me up." I put my arms around the top of her legs and lifted as high as I could. She unbalanced me when when she reached out for the letter, and we fell. She landed on top of me, and I broke her fall. I found it weird that I wasn't even winded, even though her knees had come crashing down on my chest. She laughed, then kissed me before informing me that I should be getting to work. Apparently this was one of those holidays you work during to afford. I put on my roller blades and left through the front door of the complex. I made my way downhill, past what looked remarkably like the sea near my house, and arrived at a restaurant. Apparently I was a waiter. I rolled straight into the kitchen like a ballet dancer, to the cheers of the chefs and other waiters. I stored my roller blades in a locker, and there was much banter about the state of my hair. Before we headed out to wait tables, the head waiter made sure we all smelled great, by squirting a huge cloud of Davidoff: Cool Water aftershave which he made everyone walk through.


This was what the holiday complex looked like, only bigger.

Just then the owner stepped into the kitchen and called for silence. He informed us of the terrible news that there had been, I quote: "An uprising of the undead." The chefs and waiters let out cries of alarm and disbelief, but I smiled and said,
"Awesome." You can never have too many zombie dreams. I folded my arms and waited to hear the specifics from the restaurant owner. He said that the plague had begun several hours ago, but it had only now reached this area. Apparently, all the area's rich residents had been evacuated to safety hours ago, but we had been purposely left behind. He went on, "We are the..."
"Cannon fodder?" I interrupted. He looked furtive for a second, and I knew I was right. There were various moans of "Oh no," etc. from the staff, so I turned to them and said,
"Have you ever seen Shaun of the Dead?" Most of them nodded. "Well it'll be like that, only more fun." With that, I headed outside, ready to get laid in there. I looked up the road to my right, towards the holday complex I had come from, and hovered up to my head-height. I decided I should go back there and try to help my friends, so I started flying in that direction. I was going pretty fast, faster than I usually manage when flying unaided. I passed hundreds of zombies. They were emerging from the sea to my left, and staggering up the beach onto the road. I saw humans getting bitten and immediately turning. It seemed this was a particularly virulent strain of your standard zombification virus. (Think 28 Days Later) People would get bitten, or some infected blood would land on their exposed skin, and right away they would double over, screaming viciously. Their eyes went completely bloodshot, and for some reason, their gums started bleeding. I kept up the pace, but more and more zombies kept chasing me. I wasn't going fast enough to lose them, and was such an easily visible meal (flying at over 6 feet), that I was basically drawing hundreds to me, who joined the mob on my tail. As I flew, I concentrated hard on a sentence, and sent it out to everyone in the area telepathically. It told everyone I knew to meet me at the holiday complex. I heard the sentence booming in my head, and I had a good feeling that it would work. I wanted to fight off some zombies with a bit of company. I zoomed up the hill to the tall front doors of the complex, and found them locked indefinitely. I tried to break them down but they were completely solid. I turned round slowly, to face a semicircle of zombies that had formed around me, cutting off all routes of escape. I took up a fighting stance and they started coming at me. I didn't pay attention to faces or numbers, I stepped from zombie to zombie, breaking necks and punching clean through chests. Neck breaking was by far the easiest move, so I used it the most.



There was a lull in the action. They had stopped attacking, and were now just staring at me, snarling. I heard a voice calling me.
"Help! John!" It was an old friend of mine who I no longer like. He was waving at me from within the crowd. He forced his way to the front and ran over to me. "Thank God!" he gasped. Something wasn't right about him. He looked incredibly tired, and wasn't moving his lips very much when he spoke.
"Hang on," I said. "Let me see your teeth." He shook his head, so I grabbed him and had a look for myself. His gums were unmistakably bleeding (like the rest of the infected) and as soon as I saw them, he growled. He was just pretending to be clean to get close to me! I wasn't having this. Since my hands were already inside his mouth, I tore his head apart by the jaws. It really wasn't pretty. In fact I immediately regretted it- the popping and cracking sounds were bad enough, never mind the sight. I threw down the pieces and glanced behind me. Emma from earlier had appeared in front of the door, along with David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party. Why the hell was he there?? I'd had enough of killing zombies for now, so I took them both by the arm and floated them onto the roof, where I reckoned there would be a skylight of some sort I could use to get inside. I had to imagine they were both nearly weightless to get them to leave the ground at all. From there it was just a matter of floating myself up and dragging them behind.

Sure enough, there was a skylight which I was able to kick open. It was dark inside, and instead of the reception and swimming pool I had left, there was now a winding corridor with hundreds of black doors. They all had labels on them, but I couldn't read any. I was helping Emma and DC down when the front door burst open. It was Voldemort, and he had an army of zombies behind him.
"Leg it!" I shouted. We ran through the maze of corridors with Voldemort firing spells after us, but never quite catching up. I picked a random door and opened it to throw Emma and DC inside. It opened into an entirely different place- maybe an office building. I shut it behind them and turned round to face Voldemort. He didn't engage me personally, preferring instead to send zombie after zombie at me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wand. Not knowing many spells, I made some up on the fly. They were all complicated latinate words, which all seemed to work. Unfortunately I can't remember them at all now. When I had the chance, I jumped through the door I had sent the other two through, and slammed it behind me. I imagined these doors worked in the same way as doors opened by the "Keymaker" in The Matrix- Voldemort would not be able to follow. I glanced around the cubicles, but couldn't see any sign of life. Out of nowhere a woman ran up to me begging for help. I recognised the bloodshot eyes and bleeding gums of a zombie instantly, and pointed the wand at her.
"Avada kedavra," I sighed. (The killing spell) She dropped like a stone. David Cameron and Emma decided to make their presence known, and stood up from behind a desk.
"Just wait till I tell parliament about this!" Cameron said.
"Obliviate," I replied, with the want pointed at him, thus wiping his memory.
"Thanks," he said dozily.

09.03.2010

Forgotten DILDs (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

It really is the case that lucid dreams can get forgetten just as easily as non-lucid ones if I don't get up and write them down after they happen. I had several throughout the night, but I can only remember fragments of what happened in each.

Part 1: I was outside and it was sunny. I was trying to talk to somebody, but my mouth wasn't working properly. I commented that I was like Cletus the slack-jawed yokel, but the way I said it made me sound even more retarded. I tried slapping myself in the face and trying exercises to disassociate myself from my physical body (I reckoned I must have been sleeping with my mouth open again), but nothing worked. I rubbed my hands together and shouted "Clarity!" and "Increase vividness!" and still no luck.

Part 2: I woke up in a room quite similar to my own, except there were things lying around which clearly didn't belong to me. I became lucid after checking my hand. I think I ended up having sex with a girl who walked in.

Part 3: This was the end of a dream. I chased a guy who had been trying to kill my friends through a city at night. Desperate, he jumped over a railing and into a full storm drain. I took a massive running jump and landed on him, crushing his head with my knee. I wish I could remember the rest of that one, I've got a feeling it was awesome.

Part 4: I was running home, and something didn't feel quite right. As I went upstairs in my house, I did a hand reality check. "Ohhhh yes," I said as I remembered still being in bed. I went in to look at my room anyway, and saw a massive drool spill on the pillow.

07.03.2010

Holiday (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Another HILD (Hangover-Induced Lucid Dream).

Recall is shabby. I had unwittingly inserted myself into a holiday scenario. I was walking downhill on a busy street with a bunch of friends. Strangely, it was a group of people who don't really interact in real life. People I was friends with, but who didn't all know each other. Everybody was in holiday gear- shorts, sunglasses, bikini tops, flip-flops etc. and the weather was warm. I walked at the head of the group, and although I didn't know where we were going, they all followed me. On the way down the street, I practiced some superpowers. Last night I had thought about trying to create electricity (and eventually lightning) from my hands, so I tried that. I opened and closed my fingers, and tiny blue-grey sparks flew between them. I could feel a tiny static shock with each spark. I turned round and poked a girl in the arm for a laugh. She yelped, then laughed. I showed off my new ability (babe magnet, this one) and the rest of the girls stopped to look as well. One took my hand and examined my bizarre fingers. There were a couple too many. She pulled one of the extraneous ones and I didn't feel it at first. But the more I concentrated on that finger, it became a working finger, and another became the odd, extra one.

Later on, we were going to a restaurant for dinner, like we did every night before hitting the town last summer. There was one dude with us who looked very much like a younger Paul Rudd. (from Anchorman, Friends, 40 yr old Virgin) The restaurant was a bit of a dump. All the tables and chairs were made of old, dirty wood, and there were too many of them for such a small place. The waitress came over and asked us to move tables. Paul Rudd got into an argument with her, and ended up telling her,
"You're like fourteen, who gives a fuck what you say?" She was very insulted, then a group of police officers threateningly told us to leave.
"Dude," I said to him as we were leaving.
"Whatever," he replied sullenly. He didn't seem to be in a friendly mood! Our gang began walking down the street again. I started talking to a hot girl who walked beside me. She told me she had been mountain climbing earlier, and pointed to the right, where I could see a mountain made of red rock. It looked like a romantic spot, so I took her in my arms and flew to the top. I had to get over some streets and houses to get there, and I had a bit of trouble maintaining any decent height. Flying up the mountain itself wasn't that hard. I kicked upwards off a rocky outcrop every time I lost momentum. Carrying the girl didn't exactly make it any easier though.



I had a strange false awakening. I was staying at a friend's house in real life, and I "woke up" in the same room I had gone to sleep in. But I didn't fully wake up. I saw the blurry outline of my friend Darren come into the room and approach me. He shook my shoulder to try and wake me up, but I couldn't move. I assumed I must still be in sleep paralysis. My entire body was numb. However, I was able to mumble to communicate.
"Dude, you're going to have to smack me in the face to wake me up, I can't move here," I mumble/whispered. I didn't hear his reponse, but I found I could move my hands, which lifted the sleep paralysis. I got up out of bed and stumbled round the room for a minute, before my mind stopped spinning and I stabilised myself.
"Whoa," I said, turning to Darren. "I was having one of those crazy lucid dreams I was telling you about!" Darren is one of the few people who knows about my hobby. I did a hand reality check, and realised I hadn't actually woken up at all! I sat down on the bed and promptly informed Darren that I was still asleep.

01.03.2010

Flashing Light (DEILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I had a false awakening in my living room. I was lying on the floor, sprawled out beside a Monopoly board. The rest of my family were playing. They asked if I wanted to join in, since they weren't long started, but I declined, saying that I wanted to go back to sleep. This was one of those odd FA's, where you're thinking about lucid dreaming, wondering whether or not you're asleep, but are too drowsy and lethargic to check. I fell back to "sleep" there anyway, and tried to WILD. What actually happened was that I woke up.

My mum was playing the piano downstairs- much louder than usual, I noticed. I thought there was no way I would get back to sleep with that racket. I tried anyway, and got some serious dizziness right away. I could feel it in my head but nowhere else. For some reason, my old bedroom popped into my mind, and became very easy to visualise. I imagined myself tapping a rhythm on the desk, and typing something on the computer, which I think included the word "motherfucker", for some reason. :s

There was no moment of nothingness, or "zoom" as my visualisations became "real", it just gradually solidified, and I found I could stand up and look around, rather than try to feel everything I could reach. I paused, and realised I could still hear the piano playing from downstairs. I tried clicking my fingers, clapping my hands and fiddling with the volume on my old stereo to turn it off, but nothing worked. Instead, the lights in my room started flashing on and off. But it wasn't just the lights. I looked out the window. The landscape was going from day to night and back again, as fast as the lights in my room were turning on and off. It sped up, and eventually settled at what looked like dawn, or maybe dusk. I turned away from the window, and saw an awesome-looking girl standing in the middle of the room. She was giving me a seductive look. I really wish I could pass on dream sex a bit more often and do something more worthwhile!

16.02.2010

From A to B, Not Quite (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I got some serious auditory hallucinations this time. I thought about how somebody on the forums had turned this into music, and right out of the blue, I heard the opening notes of Bryan Adams' Summer of '69. I almost laughed and ruined it because I was so surprised at its authenticity! It sounded exactly like the real song, in mp3 quality as if I was wearing earphones listening to it. I focused on all the different parts of the track, the drums, guitar, voice, it was all there. I just let it play out. Near the end of the song, I moved my arms to a more comfortable position, because I felt sure it wouldn't stop the song, which it didn't. Although, thinking about it now, I could have just moved my "dream arms" rather than my actual arms. I suppose if I was getting auditory hallucinations like that I would have had to be in sleep paralysis, so I couldn't have actually moved... I think.

I didn't try to control where I went next, and for some reason I ended up in the Halo 3 multiplayer map, "Sandtrap". I did a quick hand-RC, then wondered what I should do. There wouldn't be much for a lucid dreamer to do in Sandtrap, and I even considered "WILDing" my way out of it- lying down in the sand and thinking about somewhere else. I was afraid this might wake me up, so I thought about other methods. I looked around, and saw a busted-up Banshee. (Flying attack vehicle) It looked like it was still in working order- in the game they fly fine unless completely destroyed, so I got into it. For some reason, I didn't lie prone as one is supposed to do inside a Banshee, but sat as if in a seat, controlling the flight with an xbox controller which happened to be inside, ready for me.


A Banshee on Sandtrap

I took off into the air, and saw the outline of some buildings at the edge of the map. I thought it looked rather like the houses at the side of a main road I knew, near my house. I thought it would be fun to fly a Banshee home, so I went in that direction. It didn't fly very well. I was constantly boosting to keep it in the air, and it couldn't manage to go very high. I just about made it onto the flat roof of one of the houses, then it gave out completely. I jumped out and let it skid off the rooftop onto the road below. I could see Belfast Lough from the roof, and I was afraid to jump down because it was so high. I may have been losing lucidity here. I walked along the roofs of the row of houses, and found a fire escape at the end. By now, I was so preoccupied with getting down I'd forgotten I was dreaming. I headed towards my house on foot, but then remembered I had left my key in a bank beside those houses. I walked all the way back and had to wait for ages to talk to somebody in the bank. However, they did give me a tall glass of beer while I waited.

08.02.2010

Gladiatores Pugnant! (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This one was actually made up of the initial WILD, then countless DEILDs, but for the sake of neatness I'll keep them all in the same entry.

I was sleepy this morning, so I tried to WILD. I lay on my back for, I'd say, 25 minutes before switching to my right side. It was only about 5 more minutes after that before I got into a dream.

I had a FA in my old house. It was a sunny day, and the curtains were open in my bedroom. I went straight to the window, opened it, and climbed out. Standing on the roof, I looked up and down the street, just taking everything in. It really amazes me sometimes. I was still wearing my dressing gown, so I took it off, then floated down to my front garden. I got distracted by taking a detour round the side of the house, finding it strange that the side gate was open. I floated back onto the roof, and sat down with my back against the chimney. I could feel the rough bricks against my back very clearly. After some pondering, I remembered the task of the year. I had been thinking about it before I got to SP. With a gladiator fight in mind, I thought about a way to change scene to Ancient Rome. I jumped off the roof and landed in the back garden. A big red plastic bucket (about 3 feet in diameter) I used to own was sitting in the long grass near the back fence. I approached it, trying to convince myself it was one of the pipes from Super Mario which would drop me out in the sky above the Colloseum. There was water in the bucket. Without hesitation I dunked my head in, and the rest of my body followed. It was (as always) a bit surprising to find I could breathe underwater. On the bottom of the bucket were some stones. I focused on one which was vaugely Colosseum-shaped lol and tried to imagine that it was the Colosseum- I was just far above it. I tried to think of all the other stones as buildings and the spaces between them as roads. I wasn't getting anywhere, so I shut my eyes and did a somersault, hoping that when I opened my eyes, I would be falling towards the Colosseum. As I did this, I shouted,
"Rome!" Unfortunately, I woke myself up.

I wasn't quite awake, but was back in my body seeing nothing but blackness and feeling SP. This has come up a few times before- I like to think of it as the "loading program" for DEILD's, like from The Matrix.

I had a view of a scene for a second, like I was looking through a peephole. I concentrated on the sand on the floor of the Colosseum (think Gladiator), rubbed my hands in it, and soon felt integrated enough to stand up. I was in the Colosseum all right, but it was night time, and the floor area was slightly smaller than I expected. There were people standing all around me, looking up at the crowd. They were all carrying weapons of some kind, but not much armour. The most anyone had was a helmet.



Suddenly, a klaxon sounded. It was a really horrific noise, lasting two seconds, coming from some unearthly instrument. At its sound, the gladiators in the arena drew their weapons and charged at each other. The crowd roared. I reached down by my sides and pulled out two scimitars.
"Haah!" I laughed. I was still in my dressing gown. I ran forward into the nearest bunch of fighters, slashing wildly. I don't even know if I got anybody, but after a minute the survivors ran off.

I paused to indulge in some victorious sword-twirling, but dropped one. I sheepishly threw the other one down beside it, hoping the crowd would think it was deliberate.

I had a FA then, in my bedroom. My TV was switched on, which is unusual becuase it has no aerial input, and the DVD player doesn't work. I sat up in bed, too aware of this oddity to be fooled into non-lucidity. I wanted to examine what was on carefully, to determine whether or not I was hearing the TV from downstairs or something. The first thing was an ad for PKR. The ad's audio claimed that it was PokerStars, but I recognised the sims-like graphics of PKR. It was one of those ads which makes online-poker look really cool. One female player put in a big raise, and the grey-haired dude to her left raised his eyebrow suspiciously before confidently calling her bluff to win the hand. Then Glee came on, a show I've never really been interested in. One of the main characters was sleeping on a pile of bedclothes on the floor. Her friend came in and woke her up. What convinced me that I was not in fact hearing the TV from downstairs, was that she called the main main character "Glee". I knew this to be bullshit, since the name "Glee" comes from "Glee Club"- which I understand to be a nerdy persuit in High Shool. (Thanks to Weird Al)



I half-woke up again, and visualised being back in front of the TV, drumming on the stand. I ended up a few feet back from the TV, with an awesome redhead sitting on my lap. She showed me a good time.

After another DEILD, I found myself lounging on my bed talking to some friends. Well, I tried to talk but couldn't make any noise without (I reckoned) waking myself up. The curtains were closed, giving the room an orangey glow. I skipped forward and wound up in the back seat of a car with three of my friends. I tried to get a certain hot girl I know to appear beside me, but I only managed to spawn an ugly 15 yr old girl. :S I don't think I was 100% lucid here, because I got a "false memory" implanted somehow. Apparently I had just been camping with this group of friends.

I woke up yet again, and my whole body felt seriously heavy, like it was made of stone. I think I'm getting better at holding on to dreams. To get back in again, I "felt" myself typing random words, which just formed up in my subconsious. Some of them were complete jibberish, and they certainly didn't make any sense as a sentence. However I distinctly remember typing the word "Personality".

In another DEILD, I heard a very distinctive, high-pitched whine. It seemed to be coming from my brain itself, and felt like a vibration. Hard to describe. I focused on it until it became almost deafening, and made me extremely dizzy. I found myself in the living room, and decided to go visit my friend Lucy from down the street. I ran and headbutt-dived through the front window as I did once before, and headed out of the driveway. I accidentally knocked my shin against the wall on the way out which actually hurt a bit!

I was eventually woken up by someone knocking the door downstairs. I heard it from within the dream, which made me focus too much on the waking world. When I awoke, I found a massive pool of drool under my face.

02.02.2010

It's a Strange World (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I tried a WILD in the early afternoon because I was knackered from getting up way too early. I ended up just falling asleep normally though, but I got some rolling sensations later on.

I got up from my bed and started having a conversation with my friend Jamie, who was pacing up and down in my room for some reason. I turned towards the window, and got the strange impression that he was going to attack me. I also got very dizzy out of the blue. Something didn't seem quite right, so I thought for a second, then realised this must be a dream! Right away everything started to fade out. I don't know what happened. I wasn't excited enough to wake myself up, but I did anyway.

Later on, I dreamt that I was lying in bed with my eyes closed, trying to DEILD. Little did I know I was actually still properly asleep. I could see a computer screen through my eyelids, but I convinced myself I had just looked at it in real life and now I was just recalling it. At one point I opened my eyes a crack, and saw the screen much clearer. (Although I thought it was real life) If I had just gone with that I would have had a sweet lucid, but no such luck.

EDIT: I've been on a bit of a dry spell lately and my DJ is gathering virtual dust, so I might type up a couple of weird lucid/OBE's I had about a year ago- the ones which caused me to find this site.

25.01.2010

30-Seconder (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I've been going through a mega dry spell lately, so today I decided to kick-start myself and get up way earlier than usual. I went back to bed at about 12:30pm for a WILD.

I lay on my back for a long while, I couldn't tell how long, then switched to my left side which was much more comfortable and conducive to sleep.

I eventually had a hazy FA, as if I had been sleeping with my head in my hands on a stool in my bodroom. My mum called me from downstairs and asked if I would come down. What struck me as weird was her saying,
"Don't worry, send me a message if you're close to getting into a dream!" This would of course be impossible, so I looked at my hand to see about seven fingers. I was ecstatic to have broken my dry spell. The clarity wasn't great, and for some reason my body was stuck in the same fetal position I had fallen asleep in. I tried to stand up straight but fell over to my left onto a TV which isn't usually there. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine being somewhere else. Something I always worry about when closing my eyes in a dream is that it seems too close to having my real eyes closed in bed and it might remind me of my actual body, thus waking me up.

I had a FA where I was half-asleep. I thought it might have been for real, but when I moved my leg, it seemed to be on top of my desk, moving items and loose change around. This would have meant that I had my head at the other end of the bed, so I recognised it as a dream. I woke up soon after from thinking about my real body too much.

EDIT: 50th LD!